Office/Brewery, Phase One

Office/Brewery, Phase One

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When my family and I relocated to a horse-farm, we gained a lot of land to play around on, but we lost a fair amount of living space in our house. We renovated the farm house, so, in many ways, we upgraded our living area, but in pure square footage, we're crammed into about two-thirds of the space we occupied in our neighborhood house.

For us, the transition was somewhat painful in that we've still--now nearly two years later--got stacks of boxes that we've not gone through since the move and we really haven't gotten the house to the point of feeling truly "moved-in."

With that said, it wasn't altogether terrible. We used to have a separate living room and den and now it's the same space. Meh, not so bad. I lost a nice game room with a pool table, but it really didn't get used all that often, so it's not a pain I often feel...especially since I have a bunch of land to go shooting or riding on.

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But there are two things that we lost in the move that are sorely and genuinely felt. I used to have a dedicated office in a quiet downstairs room that was isolated from the rest of the house and we had gotten used to having a room where educational books, craft materials, and a couple of hand-me-down computers were made available to our kids in a room with a stout table and carpet and a paint job that we didn't care about.

Both I and the kids acutely feel the loss of our "creative" spaces.

To address this problem, I have undertaken a restoration project wherein I am transforming an old chicken coop into a new office. In the process, I'll be freeing up a space in the house that the kids will be able to use for a craft area.

I'm keeping the roof and the basic shape of the building, but it was large a rebuild from the ground-up.

I've carved out a niche in the back of the structure for my workstation and for my new 3d printer. I've even made space for a drafting table for when I just need to go a bit analog for a while.

The front of the building will be outfitted to make small batches of beer. I've found a triple stainless steel sink and a deep freezer that's been converted into a kegerator. I've wired two circuits for commercial magnetic induction burners. @mediafile.description