[Dangerous Doug]

ohekk,
I read the article you had posted about you and the wife moving from the country to the loft/shop. Pretty interesting read, and it provides an intereting perspective on living arrangements outside of my home turf. Good idea on getting closer to restaurants and such.
My wife and I moved from Silicon Valley proper (actually, Menlo Park, which really is quite nice) to a more country environment. Between our two incomes, our $500k house purchase price wouldn't net us anything that we wanted to live in on the Penninsula (upper Silicon Valley, on the SF side of the Bay) so we went to a sleepy little town just SW of Silicon Valley called Scotts Valley. Bought a reasonably large house on a hill with nice views and 1.5 acres, and have watched it skyrocket in value over the last four years. Restaurants are limited, but getting better, so I certainly understand the desire to have good food nearby, not to mention the hardware store, the auto parts store, the grocery store...

My shop is a two car, but it's really deep, allowing me to actually have shop space even with two cars parked (but not enough space to work on a third car).

Be sure to post some pictures of your project, finished or otherwise.

Dangerous Doug