Is The Shop Good Enough?

I'm in a very similar situation, I have a very complete machine shop in my walk out basement, a 2 1/2 car garage with a lift to work on our British and race cars, but would love to have a shop building. I have plenty of land to build it, but always ask myself "What's the up side?". More room, yes but I have enough room now. Wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs and through the kitchen going back and forth between the garage and basement shop, but it's good exercise. Oh yeah, one other thing, I don't have to go outside to get to the shop, you know like when it's -10 Deg. out or when it's raining or snowing.

I'm settled in and like it just fine thank you.

Richard
 
Mini Cooper S said:
I'm in a very similar situation, I have a very complete machine shop in my walk out basement, a 2 1/2 car garage with a lift to work on our British and race cars, but would love to have a shop building. I have plenty of land to build it, but always ask myself "What's the up side?". More room, yes but I have enough room now. Wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs and through the kitchen going back and forth between the garage and basement shop, but it's good exercise. Oh yeah, one other thing, I don't have to go outside to get to the shop, you know like when it's -10 Deg. out or when it's raining or snowing.

I'm settled in and like it just fine thank you.

Richard
Click to expand...
I think it's human nature to improve your situation. It all comes down to money also. It is a limited supply. We make these decisions with our eyes open hopefully.
Sounds like you are set as well.
Cheers
 
Last edited:
When I got home from work last night, I shared my thread and your comments with my wife.
When I got home tonight, my wife, Glenda is out with the girls.
I was surprised to see samples of stone and tile for the kitchen remodel on the counter.
I guess she was waiting for my/your approval.
Bravo.
 

Attachments

  • 2AF6E4E3-D769-47A3-96E4-9121A0AA4A08.jpeg
    2AF6E4E3-D769-47A3-96E4-9121A0AA4A08.jpeg
    722.5 KB · Views: 7
When I saw the title of you thread I wanted to just reply

Yes

But I was on my way out the door for work and figured I'd catch up with it later. This is really timely for me now as we find ourselves in an odd if not fortunate position. Years ago I shared with my wife that I couldn't take living in rural northern Michigan for the rest of my life for a whole bunch of reasons. I'm a California boy and she wanted me to earn a good living after being freelance and self employed for the past 15 years so I set my sights on getting back out here where the weather is nice and good paying tech jobs are plentiful.

We were able to make that happen, but Covid came along and messed up our plans of going back and forth between Michigan and California. We have one large house back there and a small one here, both a short walk to the beach :grin:
Now we need to figure out what to do, she wants to stay there but my job is here and so is my 90-year-old mom.

We are on track to retire pretty much debt free, I do have some I'm working on paying down but both houses have way more equity than mortgage and they're both in great locations. One thing that threw us for a loop is after she got laid off from her job we had to start paying out of pocket for health insurance at $1800/mo. I now have insurance through my employer for a lot less but we know that could always change so we keep the other policy going at a minimum just in case. She's closer to Medicare age than I am and I've got 10 years to go if things don't change.

I do like my work and have gotten back to a regular office type position that I should be able to do for 20 more years as long as my mind holds out. Right now we're talking about fixing this place up a little (already did a ton of work on the Michigan house). But, if the healthcare thing was ever worked out in this country we could sell both places and semi-retire somewhere that was only a little farther from the beach.

The pandemic has certainly helped a lot of people to think about what's really important to them, I know it has for me.

John
 
I have to admit, now that I have voiced my opinions, concerns, uncertainty and confusion over our living conditions, my wife and I have found a sense of freedom.
The joint decision to stay a while has come with a sense of direction and freedom.
I didn’t think I was ready to make this decision. Once I voiced my desire to stay a while, my wife Glenda embraced the decision.
Thank you for your heart felt comments and opinions.
Jeff and Glenda
 
Uncertainty can be very unsettling. My wife and I both are going through that now as we don't know exactly where we will end up in retirement. Since we are living on the boat (I know I say that all too much), we have no roots so we feel like we are transients.
I will be happy when we find a piece of property. Even if it is just land, we know where we will be. That, especially for the wife, will help the situation a lot.
Glad that you guys made your decision, it didn't sound like you really wanted to leave your current home. You have the shop, pool, friends and family all there. Moving would disrupt all of that and disconnect you from many of those you hold close.
 
Charlie,
I can relate, at one time my wife wanted to sell our Paradise home when I retired. Buy a motor home and travel around the country.
I said, let's compromise. let's buy a travel trailer and take trips then come HOME.
How do you sell and travel? I have to have a place for my stuff. Besides, traveling gets old.
 
Janderso said:
Charlie,
I can relate, at one time my wife wanted to sell our Paradise home when I retired. Buy a motor home and travel around the country.
I said, let's compromise. let's buy a travel trailer and take trips then come HOME.
How do you sell and travel? I have to have a place for my stuff. Besides, traveling gets old.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Have had several friends that did that exact thing. From what they told me, it got very old but as they had sold everything, they had no place to go. Some were going to use the travel to find new homes somewhere in the country. Only one I know of did, the rest ended up missing friends and family (not necessarily in that order) and ended up back in the same place they started from, but had to settle for less as prices had gone up.
 
Exactly, besides, she could never leave her grand kids for very long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top