Wish me luck please!

scottickes

scottickes

Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
2,527
The wife and I have been talking about moving to a nicer house for about 4 years, just because we wanted something nicer. The other day the neighbor kids accidently shot our living room window with his BB gun. They're just being kids, but the parents are arguing over who should have to pay for it. What ever happened to quality parenting. A 9 year old with a gun, unsupervised is very frustrating for us. This isn't the first time either. We've had are fence broken down by them, a window shot out of our SUV, and other stuff.

The good part is that it has given us the incentive to begin actually looking at houses, instead of talking about it. My shop here is small and is not laid out to be able to forge well. I'll never have a little giant here, so we are looking for property with either room for a "real" shop with room to grow or with an oversized 3 car garage or 4 car garage. The prices for housing here are ridiculous, so it won't be easy to find what we're looking for. Luckily, my wife is a real estate agent. It looks like I'm going to eventually (hopefully by summer) get the shop I'd like to have.

Wish us luck in our search please, and ohhhhhhhh....say a few prayers for us. It couldn't hurt!
 
Sometimes fate places things in our path just when all hope is gone. That was how it went for my wife and I (took over a year to find what we wanted).

Good luck to you, just remember to get WHAT YOU WANT!!!!!!!!! Better to suffer a while longer and wait than to compromise and be in similar circumstances to what you left!
 
I've been pushing my boss to transfer me back to NE Ohio. That would solve all of the problem, because we'd be able to afford much more house, much more land, etc. I live in an area now where the home prices have doubled in the last 4 years. It's been ridiculous. The problem is, that when we sell our house, and move, the house here will have gone up the same amount and we don't gain a lot. If I get moved back to Ohio, we'll be able to get 3 times the home for the same amount of money. Moving back to Ohio is wishful thinking, but....ya never know!
 
Good luck to ya Scott and when you get back to NE Ohio look me up. We can have some beers and lie about all the pointy knife shaped objects we've made.
matt
 
Scott
My Pa-in-law used to get the local "hotsheet" from a realtor. He would pick out one or two places he liked and made rediculously low offers. He got laughed at occisionally but six months after he started someone took he up on his offer. He ended up getting twice the house size, location and quality
for almost the same price he sold his old home for. If you have any friends in the realty business give it a shot who knows?!?
Oh here is the product discription of that giant Timken bearing
http://web.govliquidation.com/auction/haystack?nsn=3110010420553&eventId=2724&lotNumber=3351
Good Luck
 
Scott....I used to live in Seattle WA....so i know what you mean when you say that looking for a bigger house is going bring you into prices that are ridiculous.

However, you talked about going to an area of the country where you could get more bang for your buck....I did this too.

I moved to North Dakota...I was able to get a house 3 times the size of my Seattle house, and the "land" (yes I got land here) has on it a huge shop for my knife making toys.

However, the bad part of this is that my wife did some internet checking and my old house in Seattle just sold again for twice as much as i got for it 14 years ago....

You have to be able to walk away from your area of the country with no regrets.

If you are able to find , via your wife's job, a new house thats big enough, that wouyld be the best....But it's hard to do...

Right now in my old little town near Seattle where I lived, a "Starter Home' that a young newly married family would start out with,,,goes for about $300,000.00...

How are the new kids going to ever hope to own a house?
 
Still going to be in Washington or are you going to be looking a little further south. Oregon's prices are also out of sight. Good luck!

An unattached garage is the ticket or a 1000' shop would be ideal.
 
Best of luck to Scott. Marilyn and I have been seaching for a couple years for that special meeting of preparation and oportunity. It came this week. Now if I could only figure out a good use for this silly little pole shed attached to my new shop.

P1160020.jpg


:cool:

and these ugly bumps everywhere

P1160018.jpg


Sometimes things happen for a reason. Your time will come when the universe is ready for you. :thumbup:

Rob!
 
Of course! Prayers and crossed fingers for you...

My wife is a real estate agent, also, and quite a good one. With patience, yours will find what you seek.
 
It's funny how things work out sometimes.

I lived in a So Cal. condo for a few years (yes, I ran a powerhammer, press and forge, etc in the non-attached 2-car garage and never got a complaint---lucky I guess). Then, some insane person moved into a unit adjoining ours and thought it a good thing to move furniture or something ALL NIGHT LONG, EVERY NIGHT.
So we bought an 'overpriced' 2 BR in the area that has since just about tripled in value in 5 years. More room for the shop and I can make permanent changes anywhere I please.
Sometimes it's all for the best, though it's usually hard to see that at the time.
 
mdoyle---I used to live in the Canton area, and did some deer hunting in Columbiana county. Nice area, and some real big deer! I might be coming back in a week or two, as a matter of fact. I think I'll be attending meetings on January 29 and 30 in Canton.

Ray---We'll definitely be staying in Washington for two reasons. First is the 9.6% state income tax in Oregon. Since Washington doesn't have state income tax, we would have a 10% pay cut if we moved over to Oregon. Second is that my wife isn't licensed for real estate in Oregon. If we buy in Washington she gets the buyers portion of the commission, which will help reduce are down payment some!

To all---Thanks for the well wishes and prayers. We've now looked at a bunch of houses, but none had shops or places to build shops. We're looking at the properties with oversized 3 car garages or 4 car garages at this time. We will be looking at a home with a 4 car garage on Thursday. We'd like to look at it earlier, but I'm booked on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I have to go to an amusement park and teach some mechanics how to perfrom maintenance on their roller coaster wheels.

I'm posting some pictures of my current shop. Please note the solid hickory custom cabinets and work benches with 1-1/2" thick maple plywood tops. They are definitely moving with me! My favorite is the sectioned off one. It has 70 cubby holes that are 5" wide x 5" tall X 12" deep. I had it made to store my handle materials, short pieces of knife steel, mokume, etc. I love the cabinet. My neighbor is a cabinet maker and made all of the cabinets for $2600. Too bad it was his kid that shot out my window!!!

Enjoy the shop views...I built the shop addition myself, except for the cabinets and the electrical.
 
An update. Later next week we're going to go look at a 5 acre lot. We're thinking of building. The lost has a shop on it already. The shop is 40' x 75'!!! It's already heated and wired for 110 and 220. I'm pushing the wife to seriously consider this one. The lot is a little pricey though.

by the way.......I'd love to have the burled, ugly knob in your home Rob! I'll bet it's real nice inside of the bump!!
 
My Goodness, Scott,
When you gonna get that beautiful shop dirty?????
Actually, you have the right way to go.....By the way, keep your day job, a fulltime maker can make a good living but not necessarily retain the wonderment and fun a part-timer has making knives.....BUT, Fulltime is a good thing also....
Neat and really handsome wood in your shop....a family room should look so good!
By the way, if you are sure the neighbor kid shot the window, file a complaint with the police.....his parents should make him own up to it, but if not, maybe the police can.....you are planing on moving anyhow....just be glad the son-of a-gun didn't have a darn 12 guage shotgun!
 
I hope the price is right!

A 5 acre lot sounds like just the thing for a Maker. And that shop offers a lot more room than your old one.

Fingers crossed!!
 
Actually, the window is already replaced. There turned out to be three different neighbor kids involved and each parent paid a third of the replacement cost. I'm still on good terms with all of them. I'm still going to move too. Too many kids here. Mine are raised, gone and on their own. I did my duty already, and now I just send the grandkids home when their done playing at my house.
 
scott, I will be interested in hearing how you end up.....

I would like to know what you looked at, and the price of things that have tempted you....
 
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