My house is not like your house.
 

No doubt y'all have been consumed by thoughts of "Where's Pinky?" for the past two weeks or so of my absence.. Well, I have a good reason for going to Radio Silence; I moved.

Now this was not your ordinary move by any stretch of the imagination, for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that I moved to a firehouse. Well, it's not really a firehouse anymore, hasn't been since the 1980's when it was shuttered by the city as a result of modern firetrucks being too big to fit through the doors. In the 90's a local businessman bought it and renovated it into a pretty epic house, only to have to relocate to North Carolina to take over a family business shorty after his dad passed away. I originally came to look at the property for a commercial venture I'm involved in, but as soon as I saw it I fell in love with it as a residence.

Anyway, the logistics of moving from a loft in the heart of the city to a firehouse in the heart of the city are, as you can imagine, sort of difficult. Add to this the Metric Shit Ton of Useless Crap that I've accumulated over the years, and the normal density of an average day for me, and the result has been a several-week thrash of packing and unpacking from which I'm finally emerging.

Anyway, I figure you folks are the type who can appreciate living in a firehouse, especially given that the first floor is a 6000 square foot garage that still looks pretty much like a firehouse. The upper level definitely does not look like a firehouse anymore..

A few pics for your enjoyment:

(Shit - the pics are on my phone. OK, pics to follow in a second...

Wow. This is awesome.
If I was a cat and my choices were: 1. warm milk and tuna followed by sleeping on/next to something emitting heat. 2. living in this fire house.
I would choose the latter.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1392186542


Fire pole gone, fire pole hole still here..

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1392186657

That's a 25' drop to terrazzo...

Ive been in your house before it was your house.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1392186948

The Great Room is pretty huge, and has an Inglenook. (I thought it was a stage until I saw the plans which label this thing as an "Inglenook"... I didn't even know Inglenooks existed, and now I have one.

Art Walk, or do you know Ben?

Art Walk.

I want your house.

Swag casa. Mucho like! Congrats!

Very nice indeed! So, I assume you plan to find a new pole for the hole? If you don't, you should be evicted asap, and replaced with someone capable of fun. :giggle:

Yeah, it's the end of the Art Walk Era at the firehouse.. I called DVI and let them know but still had a bunch of artists knocking on my door last week.

Lol- I prefer to be Someone Capable Of Obtaining Homeowners Insurance, so no pole...

(They made no such stipulation regarding bungee jumping through the hole however.... Hmmmmm.)

Whaaat!? You can't get insurance with a pole? You can bet your ass if I lived in an old fire station with a hole in the floor, I'd find some creative way to get from the 2nd to 1st floor, aside from falling.

I always dreamed of living in a firehouse, though my idea was to leave the garage portion of the firehouse capable of storing and servicing/restoring cars...

Bad ass Pinky. Jealous!

I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members, the wiring is substandard, it's completely inadequate for our power needs, and the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone.

I would have said that to the realtor verbatim for kicks lol. Love the kitchen though, the only complaint I have about mine is that it is a little cramped. It would be awesome to be as open as yours.

Well, there *are* stairs....

Built like a bunker, three phase power, absolute heart of the city in a vibrant neighborhood. I worked the "11,000 square foot house with effectively two bedrooms and a 6,000 square foot garage with no curb cut aside from the handicap ramp on the corner" angle, with an emphasis on the regulatory restrictions (parking and it's existing historic building status) that have prevented it's use commercially. It's a sweet house, but only for a very specific buyer, I got a very fair deal on it.

oh you SOB

Its wonderful.

I love it

:bowrofl:


HAHAHAHAHA. This is *EXACTLY* what I was thinking when I started reading this post, and I literally just burst out laughing when I saw you'd posted it.


Pinky, in case you didn't get it, this is a quote from Ghostbusters, spoken by Egon, when the three were in the process of purchasing an old Firehouse to convert into their HQ.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392215711




You seriously have the coolest house of anyone I know. And a friend of mine used to live in this house:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392215711

Yours is better.

Wait... So is the garage useable as a garage? you just have to hop a curb to get in there?

Very, very, very jealous.

You bastard.


I wanted to buy this, but it was zoned as comercial and a bit out of my price range.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392215996

I am jelly.

Pinky doesn't seem the type to let a curb cut stop him from successfully getting vehicles in and out of that edifice.

Also, you should paint this on your front walk:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392216132

(went to visit)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392216132

you have 3 phase power? what voltage service is it?

Yeah, it's usable, just a pain in the ass. By straddling the low sides of the handicap crosswalk cut it's only a 2" "curb". I scored a monthly spot in a deck across the street for parking my daily, but have all the "cool cars" (read that "occasionally used") downstairs.

This is basicaly my dream house. I hate living in Cities but if I did, this is what I would live in.

Honestly you can build yourself some ramps that you can use to not curb hop some of your lowered cars.

So very very jelly right now.

What's the A/C cost going to be in the heat of summer?

Seems like there's an awful lot of cubic feet to keep cool...

Looks amazing

this is awesome!!!!!! I tried to convince my wife to let me build an 80X100 steel building with 30Ft ceilings to have a huge garage down stairs and 8000sqft living space upstairs. she liked it until she thought about the fact that she would hear and smell the cars all the time. :( So now I will just have to build a big garage for myself.

So it looks like three garages converted to a single door and an entrance?

You have my dream home. Giant garage with tiny living space above. Except you have a giant living space above. Start moving in the tools! I'd have to buy more tools to fill that downstairs.

Thanks, I didn't get the Ghostbusters reference; my Popular Culture Kung Fu is no good. Appreciate the guidance, and the kudos on the shack.

Probably because you are too busy winning at life?

The downstairs has three bay doors on the front, and two more on the side that open into an elevated portion of the rear of the downstairs space. The louvered door on the far left of the front facade opens into a "hose drying bay" with a huge sloped ramp that ultimately ends up in the room at the top of the wall mounted ladder; back in the days of canvas hoses they would lay the hoses out there to drain and air dry following their use. There are two entry doors on the side as well, one at the front corner and one that opens into the stairs leading upstairs.

Here's an annoying panorama of the front bay downstairs.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1392226567

The "rear bay"..

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1392226707

Holy fucking shit. Please adopt my wife and I.

Thanks.

Looks like an awesome place to host some Budweiser Black Crown parties.

Very, very nice!

Congratulations! This must be every car enthusiast's dream house!

Damn, I looked up the listing and surprised that its not too expensive.

Massive jelly. Its so awesome.

now you need a firetruck!

^^ I feel like that discussion came up. "Why would anyone own a vintage fire truck?"

I vote for a white 1959 Cadillac hearse.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392242555

(Or, really, any large white station wagon of 50s / 60s vintage.)

We briefly owned a rather modern fire truck; ladder, gianormous turbo diesel powered water pump, water cannons, the whole nine yards. Not one fucking picture was taken of the damn thing.


Lovin the house Pinky. So bad ass.

Freaking wicked. Awesome. Great find, and congrats!

Awesome house. Even more awesome that it's in Jax.

By "vibrant" neighborhood, do you mean somewhere near five points/riverside?

Damn bachelors...

It's smack dab in the middle of downtown. There is, interestingly, another former firehouse over on Riverside Ave just north of 5 Points, which could be had for a song. Only one catch; you gotta move it.

Holy shit you bought the firehouse downtown? You lucky motherfucker! I checked it out when they had it on display at Art Walk. Way beyond what I could afford in my wildest dreams, but man what a place!

Thanks, I'm a really lucky guy. Now I just have to maintain this behemoth.

I hate to see the heating and cooling bill. I lived in a one bedroom off Herschel a bit down from the library and I thought my $300-400 cooling bills in the summer were a beast. I love Jacksonville and hate that I moved to be closer to family. Damn life.

Awesome place. Congrats.

Indeed, close to the price of the house we just put an offer on over here but it does not compare in any way. sigh

Dude the pictures on Zillow are even more awesome then then ones you posted.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392390096

WOOOW...the schools in that area are not what I would call awesome :)