John,
The shop is situated between the house proper and the garage, all attached. The shop is 2 steps up from the garage and has a concrete floor, its own heater and air conditioner to keep shop fumes out of the house. It is then 1 step up to the house. I wish that I could have worked out the design to avoid the steps, but that was not possible. If my situation deteriorates, I may have to engineer a power lift or two - there is space to add them.
The house has 3' doors throughout and wide halls in case I need a wheelchair in the future. Some of my woodworking machinery, a 4x6 bandsaw, buzzbox welder and O/A torch, and "valuable junk". occupy one stall of the garage.
To finance the new place, we took a home equity line of credit on the old home and used it to build the new one. When we sold the old place we paid off the loan and now own the new place free and clear. That was 5 years ago, when such things were still possible. Don't know if there are any cooperative bankers left now.
I am beginning to size my projects to be done on my Sherline lathe and mill, though I have an Atlas 6" lathe and a small ancient horizontal production (rack & pinion feed) mill equipped with an add-on Bridgeport M-head. These last two may be sold off in the future, as they see little use.
You are in a good position to plan ahead for your next shop.