Gox i want that dealership.
I look at the old mills, dealerships, and service stations in my area with lust and longing. Especially rocket age and art deco. But mostly any industrial or commercial. And dream.
Live the berkeleying dream, man.
Gox i want that dealership.
I look at the old mills, dealerships, and service stations in my area with lust and longing. Especially rocket age and art deco. But mostly any industrial or commercial. And dream.
Live the berkeleying dream, man.
250k Is that what I saw written down for the house, shop and other outbuilding. You my friend are one lucky S.O.B. Just as said earlier come to the west coast Seattle area and just try to find a 1900 sqft anything for 250k. Nada,zip, ain't happening let alone a 1900 sqft house with a old motorcycle dealership on it.
Im jealous of the garage and had alot of the same fears before i purchased my house. The good news is housings dirt cheap here. My house was built in 1910 and a relocation company owned it for 3 years before i purchased it. Carpet over all the hardwood, white paint slapped over everything and some terrible repairs underneath. My floors are all Plank style underneath, along with the original roof. its weird seeing so much stuff not being sheets of osb.
You basically bought everyone's dream house, and we are all jealous. Congrats!!!
I am so jealous, especially here in the DC Metro area where $250k gets you a condo in the slum.
Wow! Super cool pad and full of character!
Gox i want that dealership.
I look at the old mills, dealerships, and service stations in my area with lust and longing. Especially rocket age and art deco. But mostly any industrial or commercial. And dream.
Live the berkeleying dream, man."
I tried to get the wife convinced on 20 acres that was an old WWII bomb factory. She was not amused...
Awesome score! Love those old commercial buildings. Looking forward to any updates.
Time was, I was searching commercial property like old service stations, repair shops, small warehouses etc to build living quarters in/ on. Hell, back then I woulda slept in a cot in a corner as long as I had my shop. When I was in process of closing on my house I ran across an old time two story fire station w/ living quarters in a cool location... so much win, that woulda been awesome but I was already committed.
"SWMBO" finally caved and registered on GRM...Seth was correct in the puppy room identification. Since we are lacking in the yard department (even though in rural PA it doesn't really matter - lots of space all over), I needed to make a puppy training room somewhere.
This was the view a few nights ago. Also, it is a dirt bike track.
The whole place looks great. Houses like this are what I miss about PA. Not going to find a 1860's home in the west let alone one this cool.
Congrats on the purchase!
Are any of you guys semi-local to Quakertown and knowledgeable about HVAC stuff? The furnace in the shop lights off and seems to work well, but the last service date was over 15 years ago so it could probably use a once-over. I can of course just have a pro come look at it, but I'd prefer to go through it with somebody so that I can learn about what to do if I need to diagnose or fix it. I'll pay for your time if you want to come and show me what's what!
I've had an oil fired, forced-air furnace for 25 years. I have a service contract for scheduled oil and emergencies which also includes a yearly cleaning/service. It runs about $350/year plus oil.
There is definitely a difference between service techs. My system had been acting up for the past few years and I thought it was nearing replacement time. Then last year it stopped working. The company (Meenan) sent out the tech to look at it. Well... this guy actually knew what he was doing, had some specialized tools and knew how to use them. Basically - the injectors were out of alignment and he spent a good 20 min with some alignment gauge to get them as perfect as possible. Net result - my heater hasn't worked this good in years (if ever). Uses less oil too. The diesel smell I've had for the last few years when it was running is gone. I still want to switch to gas at some point, but the need is less so.
Moral of this story: there are some things I am willing to learn to do myself and there are some things where I will concede there is enough skill, training and practice involved and just watching it done one time won't give me enough knowledge. Granted, there's a difference between the heater in my house - which is kinda important, and one in a shop, which is less important, although you do have water in there, so letting the shop freeze would be bad.
In reply to Ian F :
As it turns out, it's less expensive than I thought, so we've got an appointment scheduled- thanks for a push in the "be a normal person and just pay somebody" direction 
Wow that is an awesome home and shop! Congrats!
Yeah... sometimes you have to pick your battles.
Trans_Maro said:¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to SVreX: About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life. Thanks for all the kind words, guys!Come to West coast of B.C. Where a standard lot with a house that needs to be torn down costs $1 mil.
You'll feel much better.
This is why I love where I live in the Detroit area. My garage (960 sqft) is almost as big as my house (1080 sqft) and it cost under 100k, it was like buying the land and a garage that came with a free house. I can't fathom the job I would need to live in a house that costs 400k+
Nice looking shop. Congrats on the purchase and becoming a grown up 
The stonework on the house is kinda amazing. Can you imaging fitting all those irregular stones together? Some real craftsmanship there.
I have no pictures, but we borrowed a metal detector and found the pieces of rebar marking the property line in preparation for building a fence so that the dogs can run around in the yard, and I ordered a bunch of wire to run for a lift and more lights and outlets in the shop, so we're gearing up for some fall improvements to the place.
The furnace guy came and checked over both the house and shop systems and has given them a clean bill of health, which was a relief.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:In reply to SVreX:
About $250k- I have only just recently stopped panicking about being in debt for the rest of my life.
Thanks for all the kind words, guys!
holy crap that's cheap. That's about 1/6th of what that would cost here. Agree with others, that place is the dream.
In reply to grover :
The Lehigh Valley and southern Poconos are still relatively affordable on the US median household income if you choose the area correctly. School taxes vary wildly from one area to another which is where you can get bitten. I paid about $1600 a year in California in property tax. Surrounding area that I'm in has a bit less of a millage rate than most areas, so the property tax is about the same for a house worth roughly 75% more than I paid in CA, but the school taxes jump the taxes paid up another $4600. Yea I got more house and land for my money here but it comes with the downside of taxes which won't ever go down or away.
The home prices will likely become less affordable next 5 to 10 years as industry is coming back at a pretty rapid rate here and housing prices have been rising at a steady rate over the last year as the last of the recession inventory clears out. LVB Journal was just talking about how home inventory between 150k and 300k is basically sold within days of the listing as there simply isn't enough supply.
I love the stonework on your home ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. We were looking for something like that when I moved here but couldn't find something in the area I wanted to be in for sale during the time frame I was looking.
I wish I had not seen this thread. Now I want nothing to do with my garage.
Related story: I showed it to my wife with my 4 year old sitting there. The 4-year old had only one comment: "Wow, he has a big toilet!"
Oldtin sent us a garagewarming present! Can you spot it?
Let's get a little closer:
Thanks! We're going to get a frame for it, but I had to put it up immediately so some double sided tape is holding it on right now.
GRM rules, I'm beginning to lose count of how many people have given me free stuff just because we all write silly things in the same part of the internet 
irish44j said:The 4-year old had only one comment: "Wow, he has a big toilet!"
Well, clearly you're teaching her to pay attention to the important things in life
There was a Kay-Bee toy store in the mall when I was a kid. Fast forward 25 years and I took over the old Kay-Bee space with one of my stores! Man, was I hoping to find some old Micro Machines that someone had forgotten in the ceiling or in the storage loft. Nothing. It seems like they clean out these old shops pretty well when it's over.
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