My new shop away from home

[Aaron_W]

I noticed on craigslist that you can buy really large lathes (e.g. 16” swing and a long bed) for pretty cheap. I imagine that’s because people usually want more manageable lathes. I would not be able to afford a new lathe for this application, so it will be a large, used one.

Sometimes they want a (relatively) large amount for a relatively new lathe, but I've seen many large older lathes basically asking mini-lathe prices. I know of a 20x96" Monarch in decent condition that was sold for $1000 because the school didn't want to deal with tire kickers and they had an interested local who had the ability to safely move a 4 ton lathe. Added benefit to a big lathe, is it would be a lot harder to steal.

The city & county require a primary structure to be built before any secondary structure, so the idea of building a detached garage with no home there is out the window.

Furthermore, the city and county require the primary structure to be at least 51% living area (i.e. max 49% garage). I made this floor plan which gets me a one car garage (my shop!) and just about the smallest living area that you have ever seen.

I will have to work a whopping 1400 overtime hours to pay for it.

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One thought, have you considered building a small rental house, and then build your shop building next door? That could help offset the costs and if you got a reliable renter you would have a set of eyes to watch over your shop when you aren't there. A college student or a retired person might be interested in a small place with rent that factors in their having a neighbor 2 months of the year. As a rental you get some tax breaks you wouldn't get as a second home and might even get some special treatment if it was considered low income housing, although that can also come with some issues.

 

[matthewsx]

Does the county/city allow manufactured homes on your lot, sometimes repo deals can be had for cheap. If not I'm liking the idea of building something kinda normal and using the rooms in an abnormal (machine shop) kinda way. Another thought is perhaps moving an existing house onto a new foundation.

I understand the desire to go all cash with this project, and the desire to NOT be a landlord but if you can build something that will cashflow as a rental it might make sense to finance it. We're not talking about a sunk cost asset like a van here, real estate purchased and developed correctly is still a good investment. Building something that only makes sense for your current situation may make it harder to sell later too.

Cheers,

John

 

[erikmannie]

I decided today to throw in the towel on this project. The quote that I got for the dwelling in the drawing above was $57,000. By the time I had that money saved up and the house got built, I would be 30% of the way through school.

I had hoped that I could have just built a two car garage, but the county requires a primary structure to be built first.

The good news is that the real estate agent says that I will be able to get back what I spent on the bare lot, and then some.

The final nail in the coffin was that I would not be able to recover a large enough percentage of my investment when I sold the used house. I don’t want to put myself into a position where I’m going to lose $20,000-$30,000.

I decided that I will live in my minivan when I’m out there, and then use the money that I would have spent on hotels to buy a 16X60 lathe.

 

[erikmannie]

Well, COVID-19 sure blew up this plan. The Takeaway that I got from the pandemic is “Don’t go anywhere unless you absolutely need to”.

This bare lot is in escrow (now I’m the Seller), I am going to go to school locally, and I did buy the 16X60 lathe.

Were it not for the pandemic, things would have turned out very differently.