The Gear Head House plan

[Ash]

Three car garage, Highbay garage, Extra workshop, and a two bedroom living space on the second floor...I'm speechless (http://www.cadsmith.com/garage_photos/arv_garage_1/arv43254.htm).

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2nd story living space.


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Feel free to throw up some others. Would be cool to keep it in the lower six figure range, away from the unobtanium.

[killer69]

you need 2 dishwashers!! one for dirty and one for clean then you never have to put them away. out of the clean use ti and into the dirty. think of all the extra cabinate space you will have for Kraft Dinner

[Poopy]

you need 2 dishwashers!! one for dirty and one for clean then you never have to put them away. out of the clean use ti and into the dirty. think of all the extra cabinate space you will have for Kraft Dinner

That is bloody brilliant.

Too bad that shop/house above didn't spend the extra $$ on some decent trusses instead of having all those steel posts everywhere.

[ChevelleNV]

Nice, I live in a industrial building with living quarters upstairs. but nowhere near as nice as this. I have a two bay shop and paint-booth. and my living space is only about 900 sq ft with a tiny kitchen. but i suffer through it... :) I would love to upgrade to something like this...

[dropit69]

thats all i would ever need..maybe a extra oven for powder coating..

[moreHP]

Droooooooool! That looks like a perfect house for me!

[shortrack]

OMG with all the smells of exhaust, paint fumes, smoke, thinners , grinding discs and about a half dozen other things I couldnt imagine living above my shop.

[Bryce]

That is freaking awesome!

[nine lives johnny]

OMG with all the smells of exhaust, paint fumes, smoke, thinners , grinding discs and about a half dozen other things I couldnt imagine living above my shop.

you'll need a detached paint booth lol

[JEFFTATE]

I'd do it ..
Use some good exhaust fans ..

[andrewb70]

Anyone in the building trades want to give an approximation as to what something like that might cost to build given moderate choices in material, etc...Ballpark...?

Andrew

[nine lives johnny]

i used to work for a general contractor, but I'm a fairly decent land developer. not that that's a valuable skill any more.

at a quick glance that place would be seriously cheap to build. i say under 200k. the expensive part would be filling it full of tools, lifts, air ect... the other hard part would be having the wife say OK, or (for the single guy) getting a girl to move in. also resale would be a pain. you have a nich market of gear heads that would buy it and that's about it.


http://www.thehousedesigners.com/plan/kipling-8306/ here are some floor plans of a similar garage house. this would cost roughly $207k to build

[mc84_zz4]

What a sweet setup. All I could do would be wrap/pad those poles, and be happy as a clam.
Many houses we have seen have 'mother in-law' suites, this would be a garage-condo... lol
It looks like 2 bdrm, 1 bath, 4+1 car garage

[andrewb70]

I think the trick for resale would be to find a desirable piece of land that could sustain a large home with one of these garages, as a carriage house, on the side. Personally, I don't need a big house and one of these will do, but when I am ready to sell, the property can be positioned to sell with the intent of a bigger home being built next to the garage.

Andrew

[Ash]

Good angle Andrew. Depending on the area, and strength of it's car culture. It could be a selling point.

[RS_Customs]

Very cool.
When I was a designer in an engineering dept of a lumber supply company I saw several designs for similar setups. Came up with some cool ones for my self in my spare time too. I was looking at a killer cheap price to build, especially with designing it with me construction it in mind. Basically a clear span floor truss and a truss roof and more of a full wall second floor. That way the weight on the floor is minimal(no roof loads) and the garage can be post free and deeper, just have to be aware of torsion wall requirements depending on your area codes, but a central stair could take car of that. You can also find kits a little smaller than that.

Robert

[novaderrik]

i know a guy that built something similar, but he started by building a large pole shed with 20 foot sidewalls. the living area had 5 bedrooms and 3 baths and only took up about a third of the total floor space..
he was a concrete contractor at the time, and he did a lot of labor trading and built everything for just over $100k out of pocket, with most of that being ate up by the septic and well and geothermal hot water heat/AC setup.. it only took him a couple of years to do, and he even had the living area set up with polished stainless stair rails and a "fireman's pole" that just happened to come down from the upper level into the middle of the living room, with a disco ball right next to it..

[toxik iroc]

i want one...

[LeighP]

That place would be perfect for me....if I wasn't married.....

[mattdirocz]

Well i think i will be pitching that idea to my wife very soon, looks perfect to me.

[workbenchracer]

That's a neat setup. I'm in the early stages of relocating to Chicago and having a hard time finding a house thats in the right location, price, etc. with a garage big enough. Maybe I need to refine my search for something like this.

[shortrack]

That's a neat setup. I'm in the early stages of relocating to Chicago and having a hard time finding a house thats in the right location, price, etc. with a garage big enough. Maybe I need to refine my search for something like this.

Find a modest home on a nice flat piece of property without a garage at all (so you wont have to PAY to knock it down AND DISPOSE of the old one) and build your own to suit. One with a nice 12 ft ceiling for a lift (something you'll never find just looking around), you'll be much happier in the end ....you can start off with a shell, a cement floor and some garage doors to secure your cars & car junk (this is job#1!).....you'll be surprised how economiclly a bare bones building can be put up.....then wire, install lighting, insulate, heat, install a lift, buy shop tools etc as you can afford it.....hey, my whole shop ran off an extension cord from the house for over a year!

*Edit - Im amazed how many guys stop by to check out my shop and comment about how much more $$ my shop must have been to build with a 12 ft ceiling than a standard 8ft.....answer - the price difference between an 8ft 2x6 and a 12ft 2x6 and a little more plywood, so next to nothing in the grand scheme of things....

[LT1Nova]

It wouldn't work with my wife's sensitive nose but I would love it. Had that idea since I was a teenager.