Post by Mansons2005 on Nov 2, 2013 20:53:16 GMT
To reiterate - everyone's reasons for living in a converted commercial space is different - and I'm sure that my reasons are as unique as anyone's! And it helps to be VERY clear on what your needs and desires are when looking for a space.........OR you need the imagination to make the space you can afford work to meet those needs and desires...............
WHAT I NEEDED FROM THE SPACE
A) A place for truck loads of furniture and "stuff" (including at the time, 24 sets of dinnerware), with the intention of selling most of it
B) A place to do refinishing. re-purposing, and refurbishing of furniture and other "stuff"
C) A place for an office to run internet sales and a shipping area
D) A place for entertaining and throwing "commercial" parties on a large scale
E) A place to store all of the necessary stuff for large scale entertaining
F) A place to live in that was financially PRACTICAL as well as COMFORTABLE!
NOTE: I have some formal training in residential design which helped in re-design, AND I have moderate to severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so that complicated some things.......
WHAT I HAD TO WORK WITH
A) A large quantity of white pegboard salvaged from my retail store
B) A number of utility shelving modules salvaged from my retail store
C) Much of the "stuff" and furniture I had was "expendable" and could be re-purposed or bartered
D) Piles of lumber and "trash" left behind by previous tenants
E) Two-Thousand Five-Hundred dollars in cash
F) Some talents and goods that I could use in barter transactions
The cash went immediately for a quantity of lumber, plywood and wallboard, as well as some (very necessary!!!) electrical work. Almost EVERYTHING else used in construction and design has been "salvaged" (read that as from dumpsters, skips, and building demolitions), or from barter arrangements.
You will notice that one of the items I have had little luck with obtaining is PAINT............very little of the place has been painted within the last 25 years, with the exception of the gray (with graffiti) the the previous tenants applied. So bare wall board, un-taped seams, un-spackled holes and patches, abound!
I am going to post the floor plans, both the original and the current, renovated plans with a sort of key or legend. The drawings are almost to scale, but using MS PAINT as an auto-cad is not very precise........so forgive any anomalies. I am also going to create a different thread for each space - and I am going to create them ALL AT ONCE, even though some will remain empty until I get around to photos and descriptions of that space. For a time some threads may only have photos that I have in my "archives", but I will update them as I go along. And because this forum format is so USER FRIENDLY! I will edit each original post within a thread to update it instead of creating a new post. That will keep everything easy to locate and allow some sort of organization with questions, replies, etc.
WHAT I NEEDED FROM THE SPACE
A) A place for truck loads of furniture and "stuff" (including at the time, 24 sets of dinnerware), with the intention of selling most of it
B) A place to do refinishing. re-purposing, and refurbishing of furniture and other "stuff"
C) A place for an office to run internet sales and a shipping area
D) A place for entertaining and throwing "commercial" parties on a large scale
E) A place to store all of the necessary stuff for large scale entertaining
F) A place to live in that was financially PRACTICAL as well as COMFORTABLE!
NOTE: I have some formal training in residential design which helped in re-design, AND I have moderate to severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so that complicated some things.......
WHAT I HAD TO WORK WITH
A) A large quantity of white pegboard salvaged from my retail store
B) A number of utility shelving modules salvaged from my retail store
C) Much of the "stuff" and furniture I had was "expendable" and could be re-purposed or bartered
D) Piles of lumber and "trash" left behind by previous tenants
E) Two-Thousand Five-Hundred dollars in cash
F) Some talents and goods that I could use in barter transactions
The cash went immediately for a quantity of lumber, plywood and wallboard, as well as some (very necessary!!!) electrical work. Almost EVERYTHING else used in construction and design has been "salvaged" (read that as from dumpsters, skips, and building demolitions), or from barter arrangements.
You will notice that one of the items I have had little luck with obtaining is PAINT............very little of the place has been painted within the last 25 years, with the exception of the gray (with graffiti) the the previous tenants applied. So bare wall board, un-taped seams, un-spackled holes and patches, abound!
I am going to post the floor plans, both the original and the current, renovated plans with a sort of key or legend. The drawings are almost to scale, but using MS PAINT as an auto-cad is not very precise........so forgive any anomalies. I am also going to create a different thread for each space - and I am going to create them ALL AT ONCE, even though some will remain empty until I get around to photos and descriptions of that space. For a time some threads may only have photos that I have in my "archives", but I will update them as I go along. And because this forum format is so USER FRIENDLY! I will edit each original post within a thread to update it instead of creating a new post. That will keep everything easy to locate and allow some sort of organization with questions, replies, etc.
