Building...opinions please!

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I have spent the nigh in a outhouse. We live fairly close to yellowstone park and they have those cement outhouses scattered around the park. When I go on my annual midnight at old faithful motorcycle ride sometimes I get really sleepy at some out of the way spot . And with the grizzly population increasing it is not advisable to sleep just anywhere.
The storage shed aspect is a great way to have a cabin. Around here in montana a smaller sized unfinished one starts at about $8K and that is just a shell.
I just bought some of the cheapest 7/16 wafer board 4'X8' which cost me $63.00. A 40 ft cones is $6500.00 here. All this sure makes my $1500 motorhome with onan generator sounds good for the summer.
 
@hashbrown I've thought about the 3 bdrm vs 2 bdrm as well. I am having difficulty locating plans with larger size bedrooms though (we really don't want a 10x10 bdrm). I've thought about designing my own, and it may come to that. As of now, we aren't planning on moving again, I've got a great job with a lot of growth potential and we will be set up for DH to retire.

@Weedygarden I've seen shed home plans, I think they are pretty cool. Definitely an option - with the slant roof, snow can fall off easier.

@Frodo we have thought about that too, but with DH pushing late 60s I don't want to worry about stairs. We wanted to build something all one level.

@Caribou neighbors like that are the worst! I think I have DH talked into it. We just won't finish the basement. Problem is when the septic guy was doing the perc test, there were areas he had to stop as it was too rocky. So that may pose an issue.

@theheathen13 we are still trying to get a well and septic in. Our property is surrounded by wetlands and the county is being real sticklers about building the access. Once it dries up a bit we will be able to get everything back there. We have a RV already, I stay in it while I'm on call as my work is 3 hours away from home right now.

@LadyLocust I think that is what we are going to do. Summer kitchen and greenhouse and outbuildings first. DH just got a quonset hut for a bunch of storage so that should be interesting! Just want to try and keep things from freezing or heating up too much too!

@montanabill Good idea on the sprinklers - that is something we should probably do. There have already been fires in the area. We are working on getting the area cleared as much as we can to try and mitigate this.

@viking that is a good size. I'm trying to find plans that will be pretty straightforward to build and not too complicated!
 
Weedygarden said:
I started a thread about shed homes. The reaction of some people was as though I was suggesting people live in an outhouse or something worse. I guess it taught me about some people here, but I know families who have shed homes. The Black Hills in South Dakota is a place where many people have vacation homes, and I have seen that there are many shed homes there. One family that I have watched on YouTube has a 16 x 40 shed home. They have bunk beds set up foot to toe for some of their children.
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I am with you. Nothing wrong with a shed home. What is an efficiency appt? same thing
 
DrJenner

Take your pick, add your own measurements

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Frodo said:
I saw a youtube where a guy built a tiny home using pallets as the walls and roof framing. pretty cool actually
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I have too. I always thought that looking at different ways that people build basic structures was so interesting. None of us may ever have to build something like that during a real downward spiral of the life we live now, but we might.
 
I've been reading the posts and your (@DrJenner ) comments and 2 things hit me.

You said wetlands in one of your posts, how deep is the water table, I like basements, but they don't play well below the water table.

Looking at the plans you posted, you would have 4 exterior doors, that is a lot of crack length to lose heat to the outside, plus I'm not overly keen on having an exterior door to the master bathroom.

I like the idea of having a covered porch around the exterior of the house, a screened in porch can be a nice cool place to sleep in the summer. If it had windows it could provide a lot of solar heating in the winter. But that not a suggestion, just thinking.
 
Weedygarden said:
I have too. I always thought that looking at different ways that people build basic structures was so interesting. None of us may ever have to build something like that during a real downward spiral of the life we live now, but we might.
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@DrJenner have you given any thought to Conex boxes? There are some really interesting Conex homes on the internet. Probably the best one I saw was stacked, but the top one was at an angle, about 45° and hung much further off one side than the other. It was supported on that hanging end by beams. This gave the residents a shady spot under it, and then they put a door in the top one and used the roof of the bottom one as a walk out deck. Even with two Conexes it wasn't very big in terms of square feet, but I think they built and insulated it for less than 30k.
 
Spikedriver said:
@DrJenner have you given any thought to Conex boxes? There are some really interesting Conex homes on the internet. Probably the best one I saw was stacked, but the top one was at an angle, about 45° and hung much further off one side than the other. It was supported on that hanging end by beams. This gave the residents a shady spot under it, and then they put a door in the top one and used the roof of the bottom one as a walk out deck. Even with two Conexes it wasn't very big in terms of square feet, but I think they built and insulated it for less than 30k.
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Skip to 1:48 to see the end results of the castle built from Conexes.



Maybe not good for @DrJenner but others maybe.

Ben
 
Neb said:
Skip to 1:48 to see the end results of the castle built from Conexes.



Maybe not good for @DrJenner but others maybe.

Ben
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I like that, the only thing that i will not try is an underground home. they are death traps in my opinion.
 
These are all really cool ideas. I hadn't thought about the Conex homes, hadn't ever seen them.
@UrbanHunter I know that in the area around us, wells are dug to about 300-350 feet. I don't know about where the water table is, but a lot of people around have basements.
I've seen those earthbag homes. I am curious as to the durability, we've thought about doing that for a root cellar.
 
Earth bags will hold up as long as they don't get cut and the sun is kept off them. I've seen retaining walls with bags. The bags can be seen in each layer as the surface is eaten away by the sun. The part of the bag out of the sun lasts indefinitely.
 
Jim,
My house plans are not too far from yours except mine is only 1 story and the roof is a single hip roof that extends out from the house 12 feet because my wife wants a wrap around covered "porch". The columns are 12" steel and concrete and the foundation extends so it is all supporting the entire house and roof.
I have fewer windows and different framework to cover earthquakes, wind and fire but those are my hot buttons
 
My design has 4 bedrooms and 5 baths. Each bedroom has its own bath and there is one guest bath.
 
Something for ideas! I see this barn/tractor shed on the way to town. It's designed around a conex box. A retired guy who always has a big garden built it for some of his equipment and tools. Sheds on the sides for tractors.

I'm sure of the reason for it... through the strip of woods behind it is a gravel road. I won't call the folks who live back there trailer trash, meth addicts with lots of trash is a better description (one guy has a full sized deer archery target in his front yard. In place of its head is the upper half of a lady manikin. I heard he went through a bad divorce).

So the conex box is so this guy can lock up his gear... and meth addicts can't steal it.

Barn 11apr22 2a .JPG
 
My beautiful wife n me are building our retirement home this year. Single story 28x40. In AK so it gets cold. Doing a heated slab floor.
Insulation is always important. We're doing 4" r21.6 blueboard under the concrete floor. 2x6 wall with closed cell spray foam insulation so near r45 and r62 in the lid.
Heating n cooling are expensive and for us we can amoratize our extra up front costs fairly quickly. I brought the insulating idea up as it hadn't been done yet. And feel it is important when designing a new home
 
I think I finally narrowed it down to what we are going to build.
880 sq feet, 2 bedrooms, one will be used as an office and also house my treadmill. Should be simple enough we can do it ourselves. Easy to heat and cool, the solar + batteries we have already should be enough. We should get our sawmill here in the next few weeks, and will begin logging some of the property to clear space plus use it as wood for building!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1134801465/modern-cabin-house-20-x-44-880-sq-ft?ref=cart
 
DrJenner said:
I think I finally narrowed it down to what we are going to build.
880 sq feet, 2 bedrooms, one will be used as an office and also house my treadmill. Should be simple enough we can do it ourselves. Easy to heat and cool, the solar + batteries we have already should be enough. We should get our sawmill here in the next few weeks, and will begin logging some of the property to clear space plus use it as wood for building!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1134801465/modern-cabin-house-20-x-44-880-sq-ft?ref=cart
Click to expand...
That porch begs for a roof over it.

Nice

Ben
 
Just me but, a full concrete basement 6' to 8' down with a partition wall under the LR. Water collected off the roof and stored under LR. An access hatch in the Master BR closet and access to all plumbing and stores for preps.
 
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