New Home for Aloft Hobbies

[Wayne]

Thought I'd share some of the build up for the new shop spaces for Aloft Hobbies.

Long story short, I have been looking for a couple of years to combine my house and my business. Really didn't look like it was going to happen, but had a few close calls with properties. Then suddenly a good property popped up and my wife agreed and it has been a crazy ride since. The property is not perfect, and needs a fair amount of work, but that is the only way I could afford to make this happen in the area. (We had considered moving to Oregon where our money would have gone much further, but would have gutted the business of employees.)

So what did we buy?
We bought a property about 15 miles north from our current Novato location. For the business we have a large metal building:

And next to it is what we are calling the Red Barn:

And we have a small pasture in the back:

 

[Wayne]

We have been working everyday since we got the keys. Huge shout out to Rafael for his endless energy in converting these buildings into something workable. Here are a few photos of the progress.
As purchased:

If you got'em, you got to race 'em! (Tricycle for the win!)


We had some help when the neighbor volunteered to mow some of the lawns! Awesome neighbors!

Rafael and I ripped the steel building down to the basics and started cleaning and degreasing.

Even cleaned out some of the electrical boxes...




Cleaning out 30 years of dirt and grime. Luckily found the steel building to be in very good condition.

 

[Wayne]

Turns out rider mowers are a lot of fun. The property came with one, but needed some love and care.

And then it was up for some cutting.

And a first pass at a crude runway was cut in. You knew that was coming!

Then it was time to take a look at the Red Barn, it had lived several lives and none of them were very good lives. Super sketchy electrical and horrible buildouts, but the core building is not too bad.
Ripping out the dumbest wall ever and everything else:


The Red Barn is still very much a work in progress. Have some big ideas for this space, but for now we are just cleaning out the junk.

Back to the main building for insulation, dropping in 2" R13 sheets:


And playing with the local visitors: (king snake)


The Red Barn didn't have a ground, so pulled the bushes and drove in some ground rods:

 

[Chris]

"And playing with the local visitors: (king snake)" You really shouldn't talk about your electrician that way!!

 

[Wayne]

More clean up around the Red Barn.

Someone had a nail gun when they built one of the benches.

These bench had more nails than wood in many places! This area was full of old junk! You can see some of the trash pile at the far end.




And Insulation continues:


Home Depot tried to rip me off on about $1000 worth of foam. And Northern Tool failed to ship all of my scaffolding. Uggh!

All electrical is being looked at closely. As my customer/friend/electrician says, "I have never seen so many issues at one job site." You name it, and this site has had some of it including history of wire fire. All gone now. Still some electrical to remove from the older 1940's buildings on the property. Just don't need power in them.. It is a hot mix of extension cords wired into other bad wires and and knob and tube. Good times.

Not shown is the 10,000 gallon water tank that is leaking. Woohoo!

OK - Gotta run.. More work to do!

 

[Red]

Congrats Wayne! Looks like a fantastic set up!

 

[thenated0g]

That place looks awesome. Cant wait to see it in person one day. Be cool to come fly some small light stuff too, that looks like a pretty good size flying area. Definitely some rc truck territory if nothing else.

 

[Doc J]

Dayum...when its done you are going to be in like Flynn...bugger there is loads of potential there...DLG comp in the pasture? Pet Mower goats or geese?

When you get all the rubbish turned out and its all bare - if not clinically clean - you'll really be able to make something of the Red barn too. Maybe a Model building studio...Aloft build night with all the power tools available? Wow...

Love the "Machine Gun Kelly" nail infestation. Goes to show what some people think is a fix.

But...I am sitting here in admiration. WELL DONE!

Doc.

 

[Wayne]

Some more photos from today.. Dang I'm tired today.
Here is a look inside the 10,000 gallon water tank. Neighbor noticed it stopped leaking. Opps, we had turned off the well. But a good chance to check out the tank while the water level was down. Actually looks pretty good.

Water quality is very good, no filtering needed. The well feeds 6 houses.

Today we continued working one the Red Barn area.

Here is a closer look at some of the quality work. yeah, that looks safe. (This is tame compared to some.)

And more cleaning.

Waiting for tools and foam to arrive. Was nice to work in the shade most of the day as it was warmer.

I didn't get any photos, but we finished the demo on the back of the Red Barn. We now have 3 rather massive junk piles to haul away.

This Red Barn is by far the toughest nut we will need to crack on this property. It needs a lot of work. It is currently 1000 sq ft with about 600 ft of awning. I think we can make it about 2200 sq ft or pretty nice space, but will take a ton of work to get there. This will take some time before the Red Barn is being used.

 

[Hawaii Sloper]

Some more photos from today.. Dang I'm tired today.
Here is a look inside the 10,000 gallon water tank. Neighbor noticed it stopped leaking. Opps, we had turned off the well. But a good chance to check out the tank while the water level was down. Actually looks pretty good.
View attachment 20086
Water quality is very good, no filtering needed. The well feeds 6 houses.

Today we continued working one the Red Barn area.
View attachment 20091
Here is a closer look at some of the quality work. yeah, that looks safe. (This is tame compared to some.)
View attachment 20090
And more cleaning.
View attachment 20088View attachment 20087
Waiting for tools and foam to arrive. Was nice to work in the shade most of the day as it was warmer.

I didn't get any photos, but we finished the demo on the back of the Red Barn. We now have 3 rather massive junk piles to haul away.

Wow!!! You guys are doing a great job. That is a ton of work. Property value gone up already....Check.
save yourself some headache and get a roll-off delivered to get rid of your debris pile. It's worth the cost.

 

[Doc J]

Some more photos from today.. Dang I'm tired today.
Here is a look inside the 10,000 gallon water tank. Neighbor noticed it stopped leaking. Opps, we had turned off the well. But a good chance to check out the tank while the water level was down. Actually looks pretty good.
View attachment 20086
Water quality is very good, no filtering needed. The well feeds 6 houses.

Today we continued working one the Red Barn area.
View attachment 20091
Here is a closer look at some of the quality work. yeah, that looks safe. (This is tame compared to some.)
View attachment 20090
And more cleaning.
View attachment 20088View attachment 20087
Waiting for tools and foam to arrive. Was nice to work in the shade most of the day as it was warmer.

I didn't get any photos, but we finished the demo on the back of the Red Barn. We now have 3 rather massive junk piles to haul away.

This Red Barn is by far the toughest nut we will need to crack on this property. It needs a lot of work. It is currently 1000 sq ft with about 600 ft of awning. I think we can make it about 2200 sq ft or pretty nice space, but will take a ton of work to get there. This will take some time before the Red Barn is being used.

Now you need me to make you some lovely large work benches and storage, plus power tool areas...

I'm fast and cheap!

Haha.

Cheers and great job !

Doc.

 

[Hawaii Sloper]

@RafaelAvila Give us a google maps shot of the property from above so we can get a better perspective on how it is laid out and how big it is.

 

[bubbasks]

Will in "store" pick up and visits still be available?

 

[Wayne]

Will in "store" pick up and visits still be available?

Sorry, they will not be as we have no public restroom at this time. Perhaps in the future.

We may offer some sort of "curbside pickup"

 

[Wayne]

@RafaelAvila Give us a google maps shot of the property from above so we can get a better perspective on how it is laid out and how big it is.

Google maps does not have any current imagery for the property. Their images are over 10 years old.

A bit of history of the property -
Originally built by a real estate investor as his personal home. He had to move property lines etc to get the place made, and he built a very solid house in the correct orientation, etc. Sadly his business partner scammed him and he ended up losing the house. Next owner picked it up for a fraction of the value from the county. He started doing some poor electrical and just sort of did everything on the cheap. Not sure how well he maintained the property, but he collected a bunch of junk on the property. A LOT! He lived there a long time and eventually sold to the next owners. The paid a fair price, but they seem to have been some sort of odd ball hippies that drove around in a $140,000 car, but did almost nothing with the property. Maintenance was not in the their vocabulary. He did a bunch more sketchy electrical and grew pot in the Red Barn, etc. To fix the kitchen stove he placed wood next to the burners! I kid you not, they were all burnt up. Then we came along and we have plenty of deferred maintenance to perform.

Getting the electrical is always at the top of my list with any new property. That is nearly done.
Major clean up is nearing completion.
Replaced some rather sad toilets, the range is next on the list, got the laundry machines working. Slowly chipping away at the house issues.

There is a ton of work to do here. We still have not moved in.

We have not yet sold our old house, tons of interest. We had 2 good offers over asking price and they both walked away. First person said it was too close to her abusive mother, and the second said insurance was too high (I pay about $100/month via USAA). Seems to me you would figure these things out before offering to buy! So back to open house this weekend. Yuk.

I love the new place, but like any new home, there is a lot of stress and work in the mix.

 

[G-man]

I'm glad to hear all the good news about the new location.
Tons of work, as you mention, but that will eventually be in the rear view mirror.
How about that short commute to work? That's a huge plus, huh?
Best of luck on the remaining work going forward.

 

[rcsoar4fun]

The electrician that wired that place had an incredible amount of optimism.

Good luck with the new place!

 

[Doc J]

The electrician that wired that place had an incredible amount of optimism.

Good luck with the new place!

Dont let the insurance company see it.

Doc.

 

[RafaelAvila]

More and more insulation

 

[Doc J]

More and more insulation
View attachment 20123

Better get up on the roof and give those roof lights a cleanup when you get time lads - that will make a hell of a difference to the light inside.

Funny how we watchers who dont need to do the work always give advice that you have already thought of, innit?

Doc.