Has anyone built their own house?

[smithx9]

Thank you all so much for your input.

Yes we do have a place to live....its just that I'm bout sick of it! It's a 14 x70, 2 BR 2 Bath mobile home, that has more than served its purpose. I bought the home with my sister when we moved out of mom and dad's. The agreement was whoever got married first got the trailer. I got married, she did not. It's been paid for for about 17 years...the lot came up for sale, bought that. A tiny house next door came up for sale. Bought that. (RE the tiny house...it is smaller than the mobile home we are in ...one bath, no closets...at least where we are there are TWO bathrooms.) All paid for. The hay field next to us (20 acres) came up for sale. Bought that. Only owe the bank about $3500 on that....owe a "private lender" a bit more, but that is not recorded anywhere, so does not affect our credit rating. (We make annual payments with tax return $$...works out well so far.)

Did I mention that we have 7 kids. Thats 9 people in about 900 square feet. Approximately 100 sq feet per person (theoretically)...of course nobody can live in the fridge/pantry/washer/dryer space....oh....wait a minute....that IS kind of where I live...

Anyway....I am soooo tired of this trailer and it's problems.(Any body familiar with what 7 kids can do to carpet?). But I don't want to rush into anything....been her for 20 + years. I guess I can stand it a little longer.:/

Thanks for the input on having moved a house. and those headaches...does give one pause for thought..

We stopped by the home for sale today, and then went to a manufactured home dealer. For about the same $$ as buying and moving and all the other setting up. we can get one of those with upgrades and quite a few less headaches...I just don't want to ever live in something that LOOKs like a trailer again.

Gee...with all this maybe I should just start a blog....I'm getting kind of wordy here.

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, you deserve to be wordy. Feel free to vent on us at any time. You deserve it. Let us know what happens and hang tough. gina

 

[Beekissed]

I would love to see someone on here build a straw bale/cob house! Cheap building materials and leaves itself open to much self design features....not to mention very, very green! Cool in the summer, warm in the winter.......

 

[Tallman]

I would love to see someone on here build a straw bale/cob house! Cheap building materials and leaves itself open to much self design features....not to mention very, very green! Cool in the summer, warm in the winter.......

I looked on the net a little bit about this type of construction, and it seems to be something that works in dry climates. Here in SE Kansas we have high humidity. Will it work here?

 

[sylvie]

Have you looked into pole buildings?
They go up fast, poured slab floor, less wood needed and 2/3 or less than the cost of a conventional stick frame. The posts are sunk in concrete below the frost line and very sturdy. Even our suburban building dept's office has free plans, guidelines and requirements for an assortment of pole styles for homes.
Your zoning would tell you if legal in your area.
BTW, straw bale construction is illegal in ours, yet pole buildings are legal.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

smithhx9, I feel your pain! We live in a 14x70, too, that's 30+ years old, have five kids, but no payments on property or mortgage of any kind!

We originally planed to build a new home outback, while we are still living in this one, but decided that we just want to add on.

Honestly, the kids are so hard on this old trailer, that I'm not sure I want my "house" until the kids are grown and out. Have you had your kids pick the paneling off yet and make a "campfire" in their bedroom? (you betcha, spankings all around! they even had a box of matches in their room!!!)

We've replaced almost all the floors in this old trailer, laid new carpet, and are talking of adding an extension onto the livingroom and maybe another bedroom. We plan to live in the new add-on and gut the old half, and re-model all of it as well. Hopefully when we are done, one would never know this was originally a trailer.

Course, I dunno with DH's back problems if we'll ever get around to that now, but we'll see.

 

[Tallman]

Have you looked into pole buildings?
They go up fast, poured slab floor, less wood needed and 2/3 or less than the cost of a conventional stick frame. The posts are sunk in concrete below the frost line and very sturdy. Even our suburban building dept's office has free plans, guidelines and requirements for an assortment of pole styles for homes.
Your zoning would tell you if legal in your area.
BTW, straw bale construction is illegal in ours, yet pole buildings are legal.

In our area, there are a few metal buildings that have been made into homes. They are very nice.

Here on the farm I have considered putting up a metal building, depreciating it for a few years on my taxes, and then completing it for a home. I think this can be done if you have farm income or can show that you operate a business out of the building.

 

[Big Daddy]

Your best bet would be to go with the modular. Don't know where you live but if you can have a basement make it into a walkout. You have to get the garage built so attach it but make it deeper than the house so it breaks up the boxy look. Add a nice covered porch. Sounds like you will have to put in a new septic system. It sounds like your living in a trailer designed for max 4 people so the septic is probably designed for 4 people.

We have 7 kids too. Our house is a 5 bedroom with a full basement. If I lived in a 14 x 70 my kids would be dead. If you want to go cheap you could get a couple old semi trailers 8x40, Attach them at a 90 degree angle to your existing trailer and you have an extra 640 sq ft.
Cut some widows and doors. I actually saw that down in El Paso county. Unincorporated area.

 

[smithx9]

Well, we went shoppipng today...visited a couple of manufactured home (read mobile home) sales locations...and actually were pleasantly surprised by what we found with one particular manufacturer...Deer Valley Homebuilders, inc. Apparently things have progressed since the earlier days of the manufactured home.

When we went into the home, it looked "Housey" not like a mobile home. It was build with 1/2 in sheetrock, 2x4 interior walls, 2x6 exterior walls, and 2x8's in fhe flooring system...(which my husband said was good with the I beams under the house).

The floorplan was better than the Jim Walters....it has a split bedroom design, as opposed to all the bedrooms being on the same end. The walls were trimmed, the windows were nice....The kitchen! OH for a lovely kitchen! I am so ready for a kitchen that ventures into the final frontier...you know SPACE! Space to manuver, space to cook, space to store, space to....BAKE bread, MAKE Soap, ( Really, I AM trying to contain myself)

I think we will probably go the manufactured home route. And then when the kids are all grown build a small cabin for ourselves on the other side of the property....the kids can keep the manufactured home..(at least one of them can...)

 

[smithx9]

Quail....I have not had campfires in the bedroom, but do you have hardwood floors.....? I do...the process of many feet coming in the front door a million times....well, that takes a toll on the carpet.
The walls have also seen better days...those stupid strips that cover the joints in the sheetrock...numbers of those have been knocked off, we have patched places, too, where exhuberant kids have gotten out of control and cracked the thin sheetrock.

Thank you for your post....now I don't fee so alone...in my asylum.