Shop House, Forever Home?

While we were designing the lean on the shop as our temporary home until we built a house at our new place, I was worried I might like living in the shop.

Where We Started

When Kyle started building his first yard, our last yard, he began with a house and attached two stall garage. Then worked on his semis outside, on the gravel, through the summer heat and frigid -30 F degree nights pounding his breaks loose, thawing the gelled semi, and changing oil. He said when we moved, he absolutely needed a shop before a house.

Fair point.

We’ll build a shop. But also we’re moving to be closer to the farm and cut down our daily driving time, so where will we live until we build a house?

The shop. We’ll need a breakroom eventually. For now, we’ll live in the lean and when we build a house, this will become our breakroom.

Designing the House in the Shop

With our end goal in mind, we went lean on building the lean. It’s setup to function as a breakroom and office on the main level with the added bonus of bedrooms upstairs. There are no extra closets, no walk-in pantry, only one shower, the kitchen is smaller, no mudroom, steps between levels, and other small details that we chose knowing this was a temporary living situation.

We wanted this to be comfortable enough to function as a family while we lived here, but not invest so many dollars here that it didn’t make sense for no one to live here.

// shop baskets here //

What if I like it?

Next came the thought, “what if I like it here?

I’ve read a few stories from people that really enjoy the lifestyle that living in a shophouse brings. It made me wonder if I would be one of those people and wish we had designed this to stay long-term. Would we be able to adapt what we had here to make it work?

Taking the stairs up and down is what I thought would be the deciding factor to go. We were used to living in a ranch with a basement, but we only went to the basement to play.

It Wasn’t the Steps

Turns out, it wasn’t the steps that helped me find clarity that we will for sure be building a house someday, hopefully sooner than later! This lifestyle is not one for me.

1. The day the combine came in the shop to be worked on, you know, like the shop was built to work on equipment. A little family of mice came with it… Yep, too much for me. We had sticky traps all over the shop, caught the whole family, but it was too close for comfort.
2. It’s dirty. The kids go in and out to the shop constantly and I can’t keep the floor clean. Even when they wear shoes in the shop, which they are required, it still seems like we track so much more dirt in than before. I’m having a really hard time with how dirty it is and not being able to keep up with it.
3. There’s no separation. If I come home filthy and need to take my muddy clothes off at the door, it’s a mad dash to get upstairs. It’s not like people are in and out constantly, but it doesn’t feel like we have any privacy or room to breathe.
4. It’s harder to keep the kids safe. It’s so close and now our only safe zone is upstairs. When we are downstairs it’s only one door and a quiet, quick dash before they are right in the thick of everything: welding, heavy equipment, moving equipment, etc.
5. I miss having windows on all sides of the house. Right now, we can only look out in two directions, and it feels like we’re in a corner.

There are Parts I Like

I had to sit and think on this hard.

It’s nice that the kids can be with their dad more than they have been.

That’s it.

Shop living is not for us. I’m beyond grateful our commute is shorter, so thankful Kyle has a place to work now, and excited to be here, buttt I’m doing everything I can to get a house. As soon as we can.

Have questions about shop house living? Or suggestions to make this easier — let’s talk in the comments!