Day Dream with Me

Sometimes you see something so perfect and so beautiful that it makes your knees weak. Working in the antiques field, I get this feeling fairly often. I can think of three items so far this year that have done that to me, an unbelievable folk portrait, an early weathervane of the angel Gabriel, and now this building. It's an early 20th century summer house that Skinner's will be auctioning off next week. I really REALLY thought about taking out a loan and bidding on it. Wouldn't it be the MOST amazing workshop? We have just the spot for it on our property. All those windows....droool. But when I found out how much it would cost to move it over 100 miles to our yard, I realized this was a pipe dream. So it's a dream deferred for now. But I think I finally have the right idea and focus for my workshop. I want to build something (or possibly move something) very similar into our yard and use that as my shop. I've been daydreaming today about all the possible looks and styles for this imaginary workshop, as well as making a concrete list of must haves for it.
Here's my list of must haves:
Lots of windows (preferably antique salvaged ones)
Good lighting (it's impossible to paint in bad lighting)
A ramp and a barn door on rollers (to make furniture moving nice and easy)
A wood stove (for the style and warmth)
A show room space and a work shop space, separated by a heavy canvas curtain
Lots of shelving
A Bathroom (oops the price of this project just tripled!)

The first picture below is the summer house coming up at Skinner's Auction. The others are other buildings that would work.
Every piece of furniture I sell will get me one step closer to this dream. I'm feeling motivated today, definitely going to go home and start some new projects!

Here's the Summer House. They've estimated it at $8000-10,000, and I found out it would be another $15,000 or so to move it...so no, that's not gonna happen. 

I love this classic white barn. The barn door would make it super easy to haul furniture in and out.

I'm such a sucker for brick. I think it I have my way, my workshop will be either brick or stone. I'm not sure how much more that would cost than traditional building materials, but I love brick so so much.

A gorgeous little Souther Cottage. Those dormer windows would let in so much light and really help the space to feel open and airy.

Sweet and simple. A larger version of this little cottage would work very well, though it would definitely need more windows. 

Another sweet little cottage, I like the light fixture on the outside. That's getting added to the must have list, I want it to have a nice outdoor light...and a patio....with a bistro set. 

I adore stone buildings so much. We don't seem to have a lot of them here in Connecticut. It seems to be mostly a Mid Atlantic thing. I imagine it would be prohibitively expensive to have one built, but hey, a girl can dream!

Another gorgeous stone structure, love the barn doors on both sides, needs more windows, and I could do with one less creepy guy with his shirt unbuttoned.

This would really work well with more windows. It kind of looks like an old gas station. I think the style would suit the period of our house.