Project building designs

[realist]

You obviously are north of me. We have not had any rain so I am putting it to good use. My son came home from college over the holidays and we worked on getting a road in. He will be back next week and we are going to make another run up there. We are looking at 24 X16 building for our initial place. This will be lower than our more permanent place. In the future it will make a nice guest house. The nice thing about this one is it is easy to get to and I should not have a problem with water. The other will take much more time, since I have to put in a road that will take a bunch of time and money. For floor plans I have been looking on line at small cabin designs just to get ideas, there are a lot out there. I would like to make the future cabin to be about 1,000 sq feet but it needs to be built without any loans so it will take time.

[bacpacker]

You folks are killing me with this land and building everything out. The wife and I are wanting to do the same thing. Big issue is I need to work for another 15-18 years. Most everywhere I'm interested in moving to is further away from where I work, anywhere from 1 to 2 hours further. We'll probably start looking for land and build slowly in about 3-5 years and have it ready by the time we're ready to move.
I am so happy for each of you because I know how important it is in your all's life. CONGRATS. I'm looking forward to hearing about everything.

[Sniper-T]

Hey BP... I travel an hour plus every day to work, and the same home. I put 30-40,000 miles on my vehicle every year. And that is just for work... add another 15-20,000 for play.

You do NOT want to know my fuel bills!!!

prior to moving here, it was a 15 minute commute.

Given what I have now... I would not trade back for anything in the world!!!!!

I contemplate house issues and prep myself for my workday on the way in; I close out my work day, and prep for my home time on the way home.

Or I just zone and listen to some good tunes.

either way.... my country retreat is worth every minute, and worth every ounce of fuel I spend going to and from.

to quote Nike dude... JUST DO IT!!!!

[bacpacker]

We have considered that, but right now our focus is to get out of debt and find the land we want. Don't want to overload right now. In the meantime we're making this place as good as we can now, should be easier to move it when we are ready. I figure the last 5-8 years I work will be a long commute. Actually I hope to get into a different position where I can telecommute at least part time. We shall see.

BTW, From the pic you put up a while back, I would love to find something like that. Beautiful place.

[ladyhk13]

Hey BP why don't ya look for another job over our way? There is Columbia, Nashville, Murfreesboro....look on the map? Ya never know.

[Sniper-T]

It took me 4 years, and prob 30,000 miles of exploring to find exactly what I wanted. In the end, it was knowing the area, and being in the right place at the right time.

be prepared at any time... you never know when opportunity will arise!

[ravensgrove]

The only upside to upstate NY was the land was practically being given away at 2k an acre. Our plan has a floorplan of 35 x 35, with a give or take 36 x 36 D log cabin stack construction. Big J has had his hand in construction most of his life, so we forewent a kit all together. The sq ft is roughly 1225 sq ft. It ended up 2 bedroom, 2 bath, a large pantry and one big grand rm of kitchen/living rm. ...all one floor, just a big 35 x 35 box with interior rms. Big J has it priced out rough at right about 25k, not including all your finishing materials. We also are not taking a loan, we're building with cash so we may be living in one big 35 x 35 box with a bathroom and a makeshift kitchen and woodstove as we head into the winter and then finish the interior rms, 1 each month. The entire end state this whole round is no loan...slow adn steady wins the race. We figure we'll be "done" in 2-3 years and living in some semblance of progress during the duration.

[ladyhk13]

On our property we are going to have to build a bridge to get across the creek and then we get to start building some sort of road system. We need to buy an old 4x4 (but of course I want a 4 door so we can put the dogs in with us and not in the bed) that's from the 70-80's. Put the Volvo up on Craigslist today.....ball in motion.

[izzyscout21]

Hey BP why don't ya look for another job over our way? There is Columbia, Nashville, Murfreesboro....look on the map? Ya never know.

yeah, we could have the across town duo again!

[realist]

I do not know how big your creek is but you might look at a culvert rather than a bridge it is cheaper if you can do it.

BP I have been very blesses. My commute it a total of four miles when I work, I'm semi-retired so it is not a problem. One thing that my wife and I decided, when we were much younger, is to find a place and stay put. We did that and have been able to pay down the mortgage so we only have a few more years on it. We stayed away from the refi, after refi after refi that everyone was doing. We also limit toys and since we had our kids later in life most of our stuff was paid off. The big thing is our kids schooling it is costing me a fortune but I am not taking out any loans.

The most important thing is to set realist goals and stick with them. Taxes are what are killing me, if I were to move out of California to say Oregon, my cash income would increase 18%, Washington it would be at least 30%. So we are talking about some serious cash. We have talked about it but we have so much here it looks like we are going to stay for the time being.