Tools & Fabrication - Who's got a lift at home? Thoughts?

I'm looking for a house out in the Pearland, TX area, and I'm not sure whether I'm going to do the standard suburban route with a 3 car garage or buy some property out in Brookside Village and build a metal building (shop) to work on the cars. I definitely want a lift (prefer 2 post, but I could make do with a 4 post). So, who's got a lift?

- Anyone got one in a standard height residential garage?
- Feel free to post pics and ceiling height so I can get a feel for how tight it gets.
- What do you like/dislike about your setup?

I know they make some low clearance 4-posts for residential garages, but they tend to be expensive so if you don't mind approx. how much did you spend and was that new or used? Is it anchored or free standing? Movable or stationary?

Thanks

Here's a link to my lift post. My buddy just opened up the loft above the lift so I can get full height. Right now I've got my '71 Camaro on the lift with my
'68 Barracuda (taken in trade for my '01 Z-28) under it. This is in a residential detached 2 car garage. I can't tell you who makes the lift, because I don't know. I can't find any indication on it and the shop I bought it from didn't know. I got it from a shop that was downsizing for $400. I know that doesn't help you much, but a short 2 post (my posts are 8 1/2 feet tall) can go into a residential garage.

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/tools-fabrication/1138345-my-lift-up.html

i have a rotary 2 post in my garage, anchored to the floor but i have 12 foot ceilings so that helped a ton.the lift sits about half inch or so from top of the ceiling.
it ran some were around $5k or $5.5K brand spanking new after install, changing the door track so it didnt hit the lift and adding a subpanel for the garage for the lift (plus welder, compressor, etc).
i would look for a used setup from a shop thats closing up, some really good deals out there. i think the lift was like $3.5K or so but it didnt come out of pocket for me so brand new was a no-brainer.
you wont know what you did with out it. and you can easily make up with what you would of paid in labor if you need a reason to justify it :angel:

i paid $7500 for my 25'x30' w/18ft ceiling metal builing. i went with an aframe looking metel builing. my lift needs about 13' of headroom. if you do everything yourself then you will save a ton of money! keep a look out in the local trader. thats where you will find the deal you are looking for on a lift.

I have a 4-post in my 2 car garage. Originally, I had 9.5' ceilings, and even with that, I was able to get my car a good 4-5 feet in the air. Enough to sit on a stool and remove the transmission. The issue was needing to change out the garage door opener, becase as you can see in the pictures, it hangs down lower.
So I got that swapped out to a torsion spring setup, with a Direct lift opener, and then I could use the full 9.5' height. But ultimately, my goal was to store the t/a in the air during the winter and put my daily driver under it, so I vaulted the ceiling on that side of the garage and met my goal as you can see in the third pic.
The lift is portable, as it has caster wheels to move it. During the winter when I have my car on it, I put 1" diameter, 10" long pins into the floor to keep it from moving at all. I paid just under $2000 for the lift which included me renting a trailor and picking it up, and then spent another $400-$600 modifying my garage door opener and ceiling.
In the end it was well worth it to me. Only downside to a 4-post is that you have to work around the runways, which isn't a big deal. My only regret is getting the standard height lift rather than the foot taller version. Not for working on the car, but more so I could have parked the wife's suv under it. Plus having that extra foot would have meant that I wouldn't have to duck a little walking under it. I got my lift from www.gregsmithequipment.com

my dad just built a big garage behind i house with a 4 post.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j301/slmdls1/kooks/IMG_0272.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j301/slmdls1/kooks/IMG_0256.jpg

i have a two post left from greg smith equipment. it was 2200 installed wheni bought. will be buying another soon. i have 14 foot ceilings. i could have done it with 12ft but shop was already at 14,

also if two post make sure and get one with out a floor plate you will be cursing if you have to change transmissions dealing with plate.

Thanks for the input! We'll see if my Camaro sells so I can fund the house/shop project.