Bidding on a City-Owned building

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 1:29 pm

Not trying to do AA, too expensive for what we want. Plymouth is our destination, price is cool for what we want. Our area has to be a reasonable distance from our studio/office.

Never Pontiac Lake. Not my area. Not interested in anything Oakland County. Hate the place/area

So that leaves Wayne County. Pretty Much.

Bryan

frederic · Post by **frederic** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 12:19 pm

Tanlith wrote:Wow... Must be where you live... My brother has lived in Monroe Michigan for like 14yrs. We make about the same amount of money gross, he pays about the same on his mortgage as I do in rent, yet he's out of debt (other than his mortgage and 1 car payment), has a boat, 2 dirt bikes, 2 ski-doos, and 3 cars... And believe me, his regular spending habbits are about the same as mine... the mortgage rates in Michigan are "fixed" which means if you're paying $500.00 / month, it STAYS at $500.00/mo

Its definately where I live. I live near NYC (30 min by train, tops) so I'm very close to NYC. I'm in the estate section of the particular town I'm in, so thats a big hit right there. I also have a decent income. So, that all translates into the government wanting to put a water, er, money tap right on my ass, so they can follow me around collecting 20's.

In Canada, your mortgage goes up for review about every 5 yrs... and they require an income statement so they can adjust your new payments to include any increase in income you might have. It blows!

Here, you can get a variable rate mortgage, meaning that your rate is 1% (or so) above the "prime" rate as decided by the federal government. Mr. Alan Greenspan currently controls this stuff. Right now, variable rates are almost free, though in 10 years, they will be through the roof.

My wife and I have a fixed 30 year mortgage at 5%, which we got 2 years ago, which was the cheapest rate in town. I've noticed a few local banks are starting to raise rates slightly, not that it matters.

I was hoping fixed mortgages would hit 3%. I'd refinance for that

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 1:50 pm

OK Rick gave me an updated design! I converted her rough blueprint into SmartDraw as best I could... cool program, I just need to play with it more to get the hang of it. isn't anything like I had in mind, but I like it WAY better than what I was thinking!

The print shows the general layout we're aiming for, and includes the 20' addition to the back of the building. The cielings are actually 14' (I thought they were 12 at first, but after measuring they turned out to be 14')

The only part of this drawing that is to scale is the main walls that came with the building and the outer walls of the addition. I just wanted to show a (close to accurate) idea of what we have in mind.

More to follow.... Oh yeah! The building's definitely going to be mine. The yard is environmentally sound. Turns out the guy who owned it before had a brother who owns a garage... he kept the money in the family by having his bro do all the service on his trucks. And that left him a nice write-off at the years end.

And as a result kept the yard clean... very little spillage, mainly from the odd oil leak etc... I'm going to have it ploughed up. I got a friend who does landscaping... and he also plays drums in a band -- we're negotiating a deal so I can get all my yard work done free

hehehe

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 3:16 pm

hey - that can be quite a studio - fucking huge

:)

don't like the idea of the boss looking into the studio - tends to put clients off

cheers
JOhn

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:28 am

John Sayers wrote:hey - that can be quite a studio - fucking huge :)

No kidding... After my first tour of the inside I needed a towel if ya catch my drift.

Don't like the idea of the boss looking into the studio - tends to put clients off

cheers
JOhn

Really? Bummer... I kinda liked the idea of being able to watch from the office... oh well... I can always go with video servalence

I see Rick still hasn't registered here yet has she? I'ma hafta get on her about that.

Hey... I was thinking about the overall size... what do you think of this? If I move the control room to the far right, and build a second one on the left... I can put a loading/unloading bay between the two and maybe have 2 fully functional studios? I was also thinking of moving the "observation lounge" over to where the office is and putting the main office next to the washrooms... that would give me enough room to maybe add a small design studio... I got a friend who's an awsome graphic artist... if things go well, I can hire him to do CD Covers etc....

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 8:22 am

Hey... I was thinking about the overall size... what do you think of this?

well the lasttime I designed a room that was 60 x 40 it was a fully functional television studio!!! and you've got two of them in this design.
I'd definitely try to make two studio out of it.

120 x 60 is 7200 sqft. At a very reasonable estimate of $50/sqft you are looking at over $360K

BTW my eldest daughter is also called Ricki.

cheers
john

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 5:26 am

That's not a bad price at all...

I'ma have to do some talking to the bank and see where I stand right now. Heh... I was all caught up in that power outage! Fun stuff... broke out the acoustic guitars and sat around on the front porch most of the night having a sing along. Most of the neighbors came by with food, booze and munchies... turned into a 12hr party

I haven't done something like that in years.... was cool!

I used to date Rick years ago... you should have seen the look on my dad's face the first time (on the phone) I said "I love you too Rick... see you tonight." hehehehehehe

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 9:40 am

turned into a 12hr party

I gather the whole of NY was a party - mind you it's nothing party about - private enterprise and essential services don't mix IMHO.

cheers
john

barefoot · Post by **barefoot** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:32 am

Tanlith wrote:Hey John! My contractor's been looking at some of the floor plans you've been comming up with here... now he's trying to talk me into hiring you outright so he can work with you.

Yeah. Definitely a good idea.

Layout is just fraction of your problem. You also have to worry about all the gritty details of materials, construction methods, interconnects, etc., etc. For such a big job you're well advised to hire an experinced professional like John. A $360,000 space isn't really the place for a beginner to roll his dice.

Thomas

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 3:45 pm

[quote="barefoot]
...
A $360,000 space isn't really the place for a beginner to roll his dice.

Thomas[/quote]

I agree! And I'm not at all ashamed to admit I'm a noobie. I'm used to being on the other side of the console. Been recording in studios most of my life on and off...

More than likely I'll be hiring a couple good techies etc...

... but of course in the off hours it'll be all mine to play with

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:29 pm

... but of course in the off hours it'll be all mine to play with

unless you are super rich I doubt there'll be much downtime. If you are trying to pay off 360K++ (that's only the building , gear not included.)

To gear two studios you might as well double the 360K.

You'll probably end up like most others in that situ who end up building a home studio so they can get access when they want it.

cheers
John

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 6:57 pm

Actually I got around 850k to play with. (I figure the other 150k will pay to build my house at the rear of the lot.) If the expenses go beyond a mill, then I'll probably have to borrow some money...

I work primarily as an IT specialist at the executive level. Ford Motor Company in all their downsizing fit decided to teminate my employmet prematurely and as a result were forced to abide by my contract's severence agreement... BIG waste of money on their part... I only had 2yrs left on the books... would have been much cheaper to keep me on, but lately they've been making some REAL weird business decisions. For instance, two years ago, they terminated one of their controllers (basicly a high priced accountant) and had to pay 2mill severence... then the idiots realized they made a mistake and wanted to hire him back... he insisted on a 3mill signing bonus which they paid... last I heard they're thinking of terminatating him again.

I tell you, once you get past a certain level of the executive food chain, the level of incompetence seems to grow exponentially... most of the major decision makers have 2-3 "consultants" on their personal staff to guide them along... it's the consultants that do all the actual work...

My former position was more or less the adviser to the assistant to the CIO... they never actually gave me a job title. I showed up in the books as a high priced consultant... But now I think I'm going to take a change in direction as far as careers go... and if I do need some money, I know of a few places in need of a new CIO's consultant ...

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 1:47 am

OK - let's party

Tanlith · Post by **Tanlith** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 10:56 am

John Sayers wrote:OK - let's party

just so I know... what kinda alcohol do you like?

- Tanlith -

Post by **John Sayers** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 4:32 pm

just so I know... what kinda alcohol do you like?

mate I'm a wino - love a good aussie red - or white - nevert got into the beer drinking thing like everyone else.

cheers
john