My DH is suppose to be looking into whether we need a permit or not. So far we've only needed one for the Addition to the house. They didn't care about anything else, and we've basically rebuilt the rest of it - but we do live out near the middle of nowhere . . .

Each time we talk about it, the plan morphes a bit. Now DH is talking about using the lower "garage" level for his wood shop. My car is in the garage, so I don't worry about that, and if he'd rather have a nice wood shop than a place to park his car, that is fine with me.

Then we'll put it across the driveway from the house, with the upper level facing south and the garage facing north (driveway and house). It will have a gable on the garage side of the roof so I can see the house if needed, and lots of windows on the south.

And one of the best parts - since there is nothing to the south of this but a wide open hay field, it will be perfect to add a small lean-to type greenhouse on the back side. I've got a small greenhouse on the corner of one of the other buildings, but it's only good for starting plants in the winter, and this would be something of a more "year round" greenhouse.

So I'd have my office in a small room upstairs, the rest would be for my quilting frame and machine collection. The sewing room in the upper level of the house would stay, but it would have more room with the extra machines moved out. I'd get my dressing room back too LOL!!

DH is starting to get excited about the idea - since we agreed the lower level would be his to do what he wanted. If it was next to the house, I'd want to put my car there, but it won't be much closer than the shop is now, so my car can stay where it is.

For reference, it would go to the left of the shop, but along the driveway. we'd have to cut three small trees, but they are just some scruff redcedar we planted there. Was planning on doing that now as they are the only redcedar in that area and we also have apple trees not too far away. We use to have a lot of redcedar across the road, but they are all gone so once these are gone, hopefully we'll have an end to the apple rust problem.

This was taken several years ago, before we had the barn burned and buried.


http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...s/20080818.jpg

Wow...nice aerial shot...pretty place! I think I see where you mean. It looks like it would be left of the shop and right (sort of) to the water tanks. Good luck with that venture.

Mine is still in the planning stages too. I don't even have much of a floor plan yet. We probably won't break ground until at least next fall. I figure that if I keep bringing home sewing machines, we'll get the barn done a little sooner...lol. I'd better get shopping!

~ Cindy

We have an upstairs “attic” in our shop (actually, the storage area has 2 levels within the 14’ tall building with a ladder between the two), and no upstairs at our home. We will keep our upstairs space at the shop, but we won’t ever consider building a new building with an upstairs. I even built a ramp up the only 2 steps that we have into our home, so basically, most of our space is at ground level or at least wheelchair accessible, and the older we get, the better that will be.

When you talk about building for retirement, I’d avoid second levels.....

CD in Oklahoma

hehehe - those are grain bins!

our shop has an upper storage area too, sounds about the same as yours. We built an interior insulated area at the back with a 9' ceiling so there is room above to store, not really good for walking around since the roof supports are up there too.

I agree very much about the "all one level" deal, however this is not our "retirement" home, so we'll worry about that with the next one. But it does bring up a point, it's not going to be fun hauling the machines up there. though if you have the machine removed, the machine and cabinet separated aren't that big of a deal. I've carried much larger and heavier furniture up and down stairs in our house LOL!!

We know we won't stay in the cold when we retire, so the decision was if it was worth spending the money now when we'll only be here for 10-15 years. DH talked about getting a large used RV for me, so we could take it with us when we left LOL!!

If I get to the point I can't get up and down the stairs, then I probably won't be able to stand at a quilting machine for long either.

On side note, I already built my "forever/retirement" home, and it had everything on the main level, with a walk out lower level, and we built everything handicap accessible, and we could convert the lower level to a separate full apartment if needed. . . and the whole nine yards.

And then life took a big turn and we moved 500 miles away four years later. So I won't worry too much about building for the future, I worry more about making something for how I live now.

isn't there a fable like that - Want to make the gods laugh? make long term plans.

Oh yeah...we said that too about the stairs. My DH and I are now approaching retirement. We were in our 1st home for over 30 years, then we went and bought a large piece of land with not a level square foot to its name and started all over. Our friends thought we were nuts and I guess they're right.

We promised ourselves that we would build a slightly bigger house and it WOULD NOT have any stairs. Well, we're almost finished with a SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER HOUSE WITH STAIRS. All I can say is that it's kept us young. I've dropped a few pounds climbing those hills and stair treads and have legs like iron! We are building extra wide doors though, just in case a wheelchair is in our future. (God forbid!)
~ Cindy

Ack! Grain bins? You can see that I'm not from SD. :D (Although, my Gramma was from ND...close.)

~ Cindy