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Comment by AlexMuir | Hacker News Reader

I just bought a warehouse. Similar - I always wanted one. I'm going to turn it into a house and put a roof garden on it and put a sweet garage in to fiddle with cars and set up some office space and generally cause havoc in there.

I could drop dead tomorrow. It's nice to tick these ambitions off, although my ambitions always seem to make it more likely that I will drop dead tomorrow.

(It's in Manchester, UK if anyone wants to come and lug bricks around.)

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Hey Alex, before Christmas you offered me to spend Christmas day at your place, while I turned it down for an offer from a friend I would love to repay your kind offer with some free labor :)

I get paid on Thursday (relevant for bus costs), I live in Darwen and I'm free next Sunday, so if you still want some help I would love to come down!

Hi Shane, thanks, dropped you an email.

How does that work zoning wise?

Have to apply for a change of use. The location is bordered by houses anyway so it hopefully won't be a major issue.

man, I want a warehouse, too. A buddy just bought one and is renting some space in it to me for ventures and my workshop, and we're doing a joint business venture in another part of it, but it's not the same as owning the place. (That, and he'd not like it if I started sleeping here.)

It's a cool dream. Just be sure you know what you're getting into. This guy ended up having a harder time of it than he expected: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/shop-management-owner-i...

Yeah. That's one of the things I hope to learn a bit about by partnering with my buddy on one of the ventures inside the warehouse.

It's complex, but it's a negotiation, like anything else, and eh, that's something I'm not good at now, but I'm getting better.

What's the bureacracy like with that? Are you just keeping a low profile and doing it on the "beg forgiveness" principle or are you doing all the proper paperwork? Or is it actually less of a hassle in that respect than I imagine? I'd assumed that converting a business space into a residence within the UK would be like one of the more byzantine scenes from Brazil.

I'd be very interested to hear more about it generally.

People make a big deal out of permits and the like, but as a one man show the local departments are usually very helpful and straight forward. There are also large swaths of the US where there isn't even any zoning or permits required.

Have you been to Britain?

If it's big enough, I've always wondered if you could basically drive some form of caravan/motor home into something like that and live there while you renovate the place.

That is exactly my plan. I'm planning on driving a motorhome into the workshop area and kind of decompressing out a house from that.

A warehouse is my dream, too. A huge warehouse that's kind of run-down (but still safe to be in). That Simpsons episode is what did this for me.

Haha, I vaguely remember that one - will rewatch it at some point.

I live about 20 minutes away from Manchester, would love to come down and lend a hand if beer is involved somehow?

Absolutely. I'd love to have you down, and will certainly keep you refreshed. Later down the line perhaps we can get a microbrewery going in a corner of the workshop!

My absolute dream would be to have a bit of an open workshop for people who like doing stuff.

Drop me an email - me@alexmuir.com

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