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Old 12-21-2014, 01:56 PM   #1
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Where to park the space shuttle...

I didn't know where to post this one. There's a thread somewhere about how your airstream sometimes determines where you live (due to needing parking), but I can't find that thread.

We finally found a new home for the space shuttle (the Interstate otherwise known as Fiona).

We're tired of keeping her in storage. It's just very inconvenient. So, we found a piece of property, and we're going to build her a proper home.

It'll probably be a whole year before we complete the project, but, it'll be worth it. Will be spending 2015 turning this (photo on top), into this (photo on bottom). The parking is in the back. Room for Fiona, our car, and our scooter.

We've been looking at lots of properties, and it took a while to find one that could accommodate Fiona.
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Old 12-21-2014, 03:05 PM   #2
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I had forgotten how tough life in the city can be. Good luck with your project, although I would bet you have it all planned out, leaving very little to chance.
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Old 12-21-2014, 04:59 PM   #3
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I didn't know where to post this one. There's a thread somewhere about how your airstream sometimes determines where you live (due to needing parking), but I can't find that thread.
For me it was the other way around. Where I live determined buying an Airstream Interstate. Before Hurricane Katrina, I lived in a Garden District apartment in New Orleans. Twenty-five apartments, but only twelve parking spaces, and one of those was taken up by the Dumpster. If I still lived there, I'd never have even considered buying any kind of RV.

After Katrina, I found myself moving to Metairie to a much larger apartment complex with a vastly larger parking area. And best of all, even before I bought my Interstate, I showed the landlord a brochure for the Interstate and asked if I could park one at the complex if I bought it, and she agreed.
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Old 12-21-2014, 06:15 PM   #4
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Looks cool. Is that just storage or is that your new home? Where is it?
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Old 12-21-2014, 08:18 PM   #5
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It's a little empty lot we purchased. It's in North Park, right next to Thorn Street Brewery. Gonna build that there house on that lot!
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Old 12-21-2014, 08:31 PM   #6
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It's a little empty lot we purchased. It's in North Park, right next to Thorn Street Brewery. Gonna build that there house on that lot!

JUST read your blog from beginning to end before I saw your post! Thanks so much for that BTW.

We're about 50 minutes from our AS and looking to buy a piece of property and build closer to home. We're not urban but there is no room at the top of our hill for our trailer. The current plan is to downsize into a cool garage with a center RV door and a well outfitted apartment to serve as the base for our travels. I love your contemporary design! Please keep us posted on your progress.


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Old 12-21-2014, 09:32 PM   #7
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It's a little empty lot we purchased. It's in North Park, right next to Thorn Street Brewery. Gonna build that there house on that lot!
Sorta makes it convenient for drinking doesn't it That's what I call walking distance.

Did Mark draw that up? Looks good. How many sq ft living space?
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Old 12-22-2014, 08:26 AM   #8
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Ron....haha!! Very convenient for drinking!! It's in a little pocket of commercial zone. There's the brewery, a coffee shop, a produce market, a pizza shop, an art center, and a CPA. We'll never have to leave our little 'hood.

Yes, Mark designed it. He's my favorite architect. :-)

Since it's in a commercial zone, we are required to have commercial space. So, first floor is about 600 sf of commercial space. That will either be his architectural office, or, we'll rent it out. The other two floors then have about 1400 sf.

TCwheels...I love your plan! Ya gotta do what you gotta do to keep the AS happy! Hey, if you need an architect....husband is registered in CA and IL...not Michigan...but it'd be easy to get an architect in MI to stamp drawings (shameless plug for work)! My blog...I'm so far behind...must catch up and at least complete the story about our big summer trip! Thanks for checking it out.
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Old 12-22-2014, 09:20 AM   #9
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The design of the house is AMAZING! Keep us in the loop with photos!
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Old 12-22-2014, 09:34 AM   #10
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That appears to be a CA analog to what we in TX refer to as a "barnominium" (or "barndominium" depending on the defining authority).

A barnominium is any structure that combines a living area with a "barn" to be used for a variety of other purposes (sales stock, livestock, heavy farm equipment, RV storage, etc.). Unlike a traditional house-and-attached-garage arrangement, the barnominium is defined by its paradigm reversal - functional optimization of the barn portion rather than the living quarters portion.

That's the magic word that my husband sometimes uses to entice me into considering purchase of a piece of property outside the Houston metro area. "We could build a barnominium for the Interstate," he says. I have to admit, it's an interesting possibility.
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:22 AM   #11
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I guess everyone doesn't live behind a funeral home where the funeral home owner allows them to park their RV in the funeral home parking lot. He also lets a guy store a a blue '64 Lincoln 4-door convertible in the shed beside my trailer and my neighbor sometimes parks his Airstream trailer on the other side of the shed. I wonder if the funeral home owner likes vintage cars and Airstreams-
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:43 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by weirdstuff View Post
I didn't know where to post this one. There's a thread somewhere about how your airstream sometimes determines where you live (due to needing parking), but I can't find that thread.

We finally found a new home for the space shuttle (the Interstate otherwise known as Fiona).

We're tired of keeping her in storage. It's just very inconvenient. So, we found a piece of property, and we're going to build her a proper home.

It'll probably be a whole year before we complete the project, but, it'll be worth it. Will be spending 2015 turning this (photo on top), into this (photo on bottom). The parking is in the back. Room for Fiona, our car, and our scooter.

We've been looking at lots of properties, and it took a while to find one that could accommodate Fiona.
Very cool! Is there another site or post in the forum where it shows/gives more detail about this project?

Thanks, G
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:44 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InterBlog View Post
That appears to be a CA analog to what we in TX refer to as a "barnominium" (or "barndominium" depending on the defining authority).

A barnominium is any structure that combines a living area with a "barn" to be used for a variety of other purposes (sales stock, livestock, heavy farm equipment, RV storage, etc.). Unlike a traditional house-and-attached-garage arrangement, the barnominium is defined by its paradigm reversal - functional optimization of the barn portion rather than the living quarters portion.

That's the magic word that my husband sometimes uses to entice me into considering purchase of a piece of property outside the Houston metro area. "We could build a barnominium for the Interstate," he says. I have to admit, it's an interesting possibility.
I've never heard the term barnominium before but I like it. I guess that is basically what I built several years ago.

Thanks, G
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Old 12-22-2014, 10:50 AM   #14
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Weirdstuff, Keep us posted on your progress! Best of luck on the project.
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Old 12-22-2014, 11:11 AM   #15
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Nancy, Hubby has skills. Can't wait to see it done.
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Old 12-22-2014, 01:23 PM   #16
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I've never heard the term barnominium before but I like it. I guess that is basically what I built several years ago.

Thanks, G
A lesser-known variant still in its infancy is "garage-ominium", where the garage is optimized at the expense of the house.

We were pushing in this direction when we custom-built our home 5 years ago. Given that we are located in the suburbs, we were limited by deed restrictions in what we were able to achieve, but we did manage to eke out a house that combines 2,000 SF of living space with 500 SF of dedicated offices plus 840 SF of attached garage, with another 150 SF of un-enclosed paved work area outdoors.

In other words, about 40% of what we constructed on slab is not actually "house". The average Houston tract home still abides by the out-dated single-use paradigm and boasts only about 12% of on-slab improvements as consisting of "other than house".

If we ever do it over again, we will put at least 1,250 SF into the garage because the one we have now is waaay too small (unfortunately, we were not thinking "future Class B RV" when we built it).

And our house is actually bigger than it needs to be. We are either working on DIY projects, traveling, or sitting our butts in front of the TV to rest and recuperate from the first two activities. One does not require much house square footage for butt-sitting.
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Old 12-22-2014, 03:08 PM   #17
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Thanks everyone, for your humorous and nice comments! I'll keep y'all posted. We just closed escrow on the lot this week. I'm guessing it'll be a few months before we start construction.
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Old 12-22-2014, 07:24 PM   #18
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Originally Posted by InterBlog View Post
That appears to be a CA analog to what we in TX refer to as a "barnominium" (or "barndominium" depending on the defining authority).

A barnominium is any structure that combines a living area with a "barn" to be used for a variety of other purposes (sales stock, livestock, heavy farm equipment, RV storage, etc.). Unlike a traditional house-and-attached-garage arrangement, the barnominium is defined by its paradigm reversal - functional optimization of the barn portion rather than the living quarters portion.

That's the magic word that my husband sometimes uses to entice me into considering purchase of a piece of property outside the Houston metro area. "We could build a barnominium for the Interstate," he says. I have to admit, it's an interesting possibility.
Brilliant! I'm taking that Texas term - I've borrowed other from my Texas cousins over the years - up to Michigan!

A good piece of property for our "Barndominium" is exactly what I'll point out to my wife...over and over!
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Old 12-23-2014, 12:41 AM   #19
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San Diego is my favorite city in the entire world. Please continue to keep us updated on this project. I get to that area frequently to see my son who has a business in Carlsbad. So I will be keeping track of your project. Maybe I will be there sometime to see how it is going.

Ken
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Old 12-23-2014, 06:29 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InterBlog View Post
A lesser-known variant still in its infancy is "garage-ominium", where the garage is optimized at the expense of the house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InterBlog View Post

We were pushing in this direction when we custom-built our home 5 years ago. Given that we are located in the suburbs, we were limited by deed restrictions in what we were able to achieve, but we did manage to eke out a house that combines 2,000 SF of living space with 500 SF of dedicated offices plus 840 SF of attached garage, with another 150 SF of un-enclosed paved work area outdoors.

In other words, about 40% of what we constructed on slab is not actually "house". The average Houston tract home still abides by the out-dated single-use paradigm and boasts only about 12% of on-slab improvements as consisting of "other than house".

If we ever do it over again, we will put at least 1,250 SF into the garage because the one we have now is way too small (unfortunately, we were not thinking "future Class B RV" when we built it).

And our house is actually bigger than it needs to be. We are either working on DIY projects, traveling, or sitting our butts in front of the TV to rest and recuperate from the first two activities. One does not require much house square footage for butt-sitting.


"I like the way you talk"...I've made my share of bad decisions in my life but back in 2002, I took an existing house plan, modified it, added on another section. We custom-built a house that met most of my somewhat odd list of criteria. At the time, prior to economy issues, I was in better financial shape and had numerous old cars. We ended up with the following:
-1773 sf living space (we only use about 1000 of it)
-572 sf completely self-contained in-law-suite
-2345 total sf
-seven car basement garage (5 car section is climate controlled, sheet rocked)
-the other separated two car section has 10 foot tall doors for storing camper in, it doesn't have to be winterized. (underground, insulated, sheet rocked, no HVAC, no colder than 58 in winter)
-person currently using the in-law-suite has independent access to parking in one side garage, going up stairs without going outside. The five car and two car garages are connected but steel door between.
-built a separate barn in 2006 out of custom rough cut knotty white pine, 32x40, 26 foot tall, 12 foot ceilings (first floor), 14 ft ceiling second floor, 2x6 walls, R19 insulation, house wrap, built a bar, sitting area, restored mom's woodstove, A/C. We can return from camping, hit door opener, pull T/V and Airstream inside, close door, hook up camper, no need to unload fridge, winterize, etc. Our crazy dream is to finish out the upstairs of barn in some antiques and move up there. It has great sun exposure to go full solar powered. The only thing I haven't figured out is how to rent out our house to someone that won't tear it up. One idea is to rent to someone who is semi full time RVing. They would have garage storage to store their vehicles etc. I would be maintaining the yard and property, it would be secure...and room could be made for additional camper parking on site.
All in all, the garages park 7 cars in the house garages, an additional 5 inside the barn, and there are another 1728 sf of overhangs around the barn that you can park another 7 cars around....12 cars inside, 19 total cars under cover. We could easily live in the barn and have sufficient living and garage space. In fact, we originally bought a 2nd piece of property next door and tried to construct the barn there but it is zoned lake residential and we could get it approved. I had to smooze the zoning guy & neighbors just to build it in our back yard.

I say all of this in simply endorsing the "smaller home, bigger garage theory". It can be done to suit both husband and wife. I've had numerous plans I've come up with over the years for a structure that would house the Airstream and basically use the outside of the Airstream but inside the enclosed structure as your living room etc...having a small kitchenette in there, a mandatory separate bath/shower. You could live in the basement of a structure like this until you finished the upstairs. Finished space is where a large part of the expense is on building a house. At one point, we were going to build this barn (looks like a house) on a sloping lake lot, 12 foot ceilings in basements, large floor to ceiling glass panes looking out from basement to lake. Eventually finish out the upstairs.

Sorry for the long rant. Bottom line, big garages, small houses rock!Thanks, g
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