Building a House-Kits or stickbuilt?

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We are in the process of buying land in North Central PA. We are interested in putting a house on in the future, for recreational use first and then a retirement destination for my husband and I in 15 years. I have been researching low cost homes that we can build ourselves etc. After buying the land we will have to wait to find something affordable to put on it. I like the look of the Shelter-Kit, Inc. Barn Houses, but need info on what else is out there. Would want a small house 900-1200 square feet, one floor or loft style etc. Only necessities is 2 bedrooms and a full bath. Thanks for any tips or areas to research that anyone can help with. We have time to research and we are 43 & 47 if that makes a difference. We know several people that built up in the area we are considering and they all built from scratch by themselves when they were in their mid to late 50's. Cindy

-- Cindy Noll (CBirder@aol.com), July 04, 2000

Answers

Straw bale homes are one idea. I've been told they insulate so well, that the utility bills are really low.

http://seattle.unl.edu/doc2/students/husker/matt/straw.htm

Here's some more pages on the subject:

http://search.metacrawler.com/crawler?method=0&redirect=web®ion=0&rpp=20&timeout=0&hpe=10&sort=0&power=0&refer=mc-results1&general=straw+houses+

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 04, 2000.


For cheapest on sqare footage, don't think or say house anymore! Say garage. Go to your local hardware stores or metal marts and look at the metal buildings. Minus the garage door, and with the addition of more windows you have as much or as little square footage to add interior walls to. No replacing roofs, no rot, no painting, no termites! And the colors are beautiful, get the old tin building out of your mind and look at the channel drain galvalum etc. metal. When pouring the slab for the garage make sure and know where you want your kitchen and bathroom plumbing, you don't even have to think that far ahead if you go with a wooden foundation. Up off the ground even just a couple of feet lets you plumb under the house and up through the floor, no more leaking pipes ruining your ceilings. Who ever even thought of putting water pipes in ceilings should be shot! Building your own home is not one big project. Think of it as lots of little projects. Also instead of sheet rock and taping and floating and painting and wallpaper or paneling look into T1-11 siding, as interior walls, put up tight on ceilings and walls and sprayed with a clear coat it is beautiful. We have a freind who has a Better Homes and Garden house done like this, we copied it for the guest house we built for the kids in college. Just some thoughts. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

My 2 cents. We recently put a used double wide up on a full walk-out basement. We would have had to pay almost as much to put a roof on the basement as we did for the used double wide. Its almost 1500 sq ft with 2 baths and 3br. There are smaller ones out there of course.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), July 05, 2000.

Cindy, Vicki's idea is a sound one. We are in the process of doing a very similar project that you are doing with the same time frame and goals. I've been told many times by those who have done it before us to start with a barn/garage and go from there. Even if you don't want to use it as temporary living quarters, it is a needed place to store tools, materials, etc for your home building project while offering shelter and water, electricity....Nice pole barns/garages can be had for under $6000. plus all the extras for water, plumbing, etc...Plus, it'll add immediate equity to your land.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), July 05, 2000.

Thanks to everybody for your help. We have alot of time, except of course I would like to have the house and land now!!!!!!!!!!! Know that will not happen. Just hope I will be able to build the darn house when we can afford it. Of course in a few years my now 11 & 13 yo sons will hopefully be of some help. Thanks again. Cindy

-- Cindy Noll (CBirder@aol.com), July 05, 2000.


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