Family finds out how to make a warehouse a home 

When Sonny Jones is working on an oil painting and wants to let more light into his home, he slips on work gloves and hoists a heavy chain to lower the industrial roll-up door mounted over the window.

The "studio" where he does his painting used to be a garage bay. It's just one of the unique things about living in a 4,000-square-foot warehouse that has been converted into a residence. Since January, Jones, his wife Roberta Jones and their son Colin Jones have been living in the concrete block building that used to house Star Vending Inc. on Anderson Avenue in the Old North Knoxville area.

"We lived in apartments and townhouses and when we were talking about retirement, I said one of the things I dearly want is the space to get my craft things out and not have to worry about clearing off the dinner table," Roberta Jones said.

Sonny Jones also wanted space to work on his paintings. Both he and his wife were tired of the skimpy living quarters they always had to endure as they moved about during their careers. Sonny Jones served 15 years in the Army, doing two tours of duty in Vietnam, then worked another 16 years for the Army as a civilian. Roberta Jones also worked as a civilian for the Army and the Department of Defense.

But the variety of living arrangements also showed them some possibilities. They spent 15 years in Germany, living in concrete apartment buildings, and came to appreciate the solidity of concrete floors and walls.

Roberta Jones said the idea to live in a commercial building crystallized after the couple watched episodes of the "World's Most Extreme Homes" program on HGTV.

This was three or four years ago, and about the same time the couple was trying to decide where to live. After researching the livability of different cities, they settled on Knoxville, which they had visited because Sonny Jones is from Kentucky and the couple had made road trips to East Tennessee.

"We came down here, spent a couple of vacations up at Norris Dam and in '04 started talking to a real estate agent," Sonny Jones said.

"We ended up talking to a residential real state agent and we had about three visits with her before she finally was convinced we were serious about wanting commercial property, then she put us onto Dick Bales," his wife said.

Bales is a commercial broker with Coldwell-Banker Commercial Wallace & Wallace Realtors. 

"We told him we wanted a square box with 3-5,000 square feet of space and it would be fine if had a room or two built into it, and that's exactly what we got," Roberta Jones said.

Star Vending had moved in order to expand at the same time the Joneses were seeking more space as well.

The huge open space they acquired allowed the family to do a custom dwelling. They built few actual rooms, just using curtains and partitions to section off spaces. Tired of tiny bathrooms, they built one big enough that a person could do an aerobics workout in it without bumping into anything.

Same thing with the kitchen; the couple and their son love to cook, so it's really the centerpiece of the dwelling, with a commercial refrigerator, galvanized metal backsplash, laminated countertop and plenty of space. 

"All three of us cook, and so all three of us can be in that kitchen, busy as one-armed paperhangers and nobody gets in anybody's way," Sonny Jones said.

To furnish the building, the family became regular customers of Knox Rail Salvage, Burnett Salvage, Stover's Wholesale & Retail Sales and other salvage and discount stores. They got deals on cabinets, tile, lighting, bathroom fixtures and other items. All the cabinets are without doors for easy access.

Sonny Jones said a lot of things had to be done before his family could move into their new home, all the way from making sure their plans would meet code requirements, to going through the Metropolitan Planning Commission to get use-on-review approval to use a commercial property for a residence. It took time, but it all went surprisingly smoothly, thanks to helpful people, he said.

Besides Bales, Jones said some others who were especially helpful were Ken Bronson and Vance Carter of Bronson Construction Co.; Denise Moseley, Karen Phillips and Diane Jones of SunTrust Bank and Gordon Turnage, cqowner of Star Vending.

Then, there is the Old North Knoxville Inc. neighborhood group. Jones said his family wanted to make sure the group was aware of its upcoming MPC proposal.

"I called up the president, who at that time was Tomica Miller, and Tomica said 'Yeah, we already know about it and we're behind you. When you have your hearing, we'll send somebody there to support you,' and I said 'Wow, this is terrific.' But that's the sort of neighborhood Old North Knoxville is," Jones said.

He and his wife said they have already agreed to put their home on the Old North Knoxville Victorian Holiday Home Tour this year. That is usually held in early December, Roberta Jones said the family will have to get busy to get their large home in shape for the tour.

"We've got a lot of ideas. We just haven't gotten there yet," she said.