Pan-Abode/Kit Home Thoughts?

[Kristen]

I beg for mercy...I must research and consider kit homes for minimal supply/contruction options...though I'm still busy planning my own self-design/build-from-scratch...all help most welcomed.

What are your thoughts about www.panabode.com?  I didn't even know they still made them but sure enough they still make small little cabins/cottages - and if I'm understanding correctly, the option for designing/assembling ones own.

[CREATIVE1]

Where are you located?  There are other similar companies in the east that don't use cedar, and one in Canada, too.  Have looked at Pan Abodes--pricey.

[Kristen]

I'm located in the NW and would love any links you'd like to share.  I just happened to come across them and wondered what people thought about them.

[CREATIVE1]

Two other companies to compare, www.bavariancottages.com and www.conestogalogcabins.com Bavarian Cottages only builds really small cabins.  Conestoga does double wall cabins--compare prices.

Look at this link for construction details:
http://www.conestogaloghome.com/

I have literaaly checked out every kit home in the country, so ask any questions you like.

[Kristen]

Oh wow.  Thanks a bunch.  So out of all of the kit homes you've checked out - log not needing to be the theme - which are are absolute favorites and why?

[CREATIVE1]

I finally decided to build the Victoria Cottage with skilled friend labor, but had looked at some really nice timberframe homes out of Canada, www.postbeam.com.  Looked at panelized too--great pricing, again out of Canada.  Try www.double-s-homes.com --some of the other companies aren't so great.

Also, a custom log home maker from B.C. who uses massive douglas fir logs--liked him, but couldn't transport the logs down my narrow road.  Pricing was amazing for this quality.



So, what is your dream home?  That info would help.

[Kristen]

I want to build a very simple one room studio strong on early Scandinavian/Pacific NW character - but by no means does it need to be a log structure.

[CREATIVE1]

Just have to tell this story.  Originally heard about Pan Abodes because of an ebay auction for a Pan Abode home that had to be torn down near Seattle.  It had the old 3 inch walls, which apparently don't meet code anymore.  So I called Pan Abode to see if there was any way to double wall this cabin, which was 100% cedar, even the floors.  I had to let it go--it went for $10,000--but I've attached a picture.
My "labor" thought it would be too much of a challenge, and they MIGHT have been right.

[CREATIVE1]

I want to build a very simple one room studio strong on early Scandinavian/Pacific NW character - but by no means does it need to be a log structure.

Something like this? http://www.bavariancottages.com/PrimaVera.htm

[Sassy]

Creative, let me get this straight, the picture you posted was the Pan Abode that had to be torn down?  :-? I'm having a hard time assimilating that - the home looks beautfiful... how sad  :'( .

[Kristen]

I love your Pan-Abode story.  It's always nice to try and reuse but not always feasible.  Oh well...

[Kristen]

Something like this http://www.bavariancottages.com/cottages-savary.htm is a look I love.  It sounds like they adjust things a bit so this might be a great consideration to work with.  Thanks for these links - feel free to keep sharing!!

[CREATIVE1]

Creative, let me get this straight, the picture you posted was the Pan Abode that had to be torn down?  :-? I'm having a hard time assimilating that - the home looks beautfiful... how sad  :'( .

Yeah, it was torn down--but all re-used.  More pictures (I really really REALLY wanted this house, but the worker bees were not willing)

This neighborhood got pricey--time for the McMansion.

[CREATIVE1]

Something like this http://www.bavariancottages.com/cottages-savary.htm is a look I love.  It sounds like they adjust things a bit so this might be a great consideration to work with.  Thanks for these links - feel free to keep sharing!!

Thanks for the input.  That is a stylish selection, by the way. But please look at what John and this community have to offer. I'll post a few more ideas later, now that I see what you have in mind.

[Kristen]

Oh I love what this forum provides - it's helped me as I've been designing my ideal place.  I just need to look at all options since it's likely I'll end up on a smaller island than where I'm at, with little room for supply transportation and construction help.  It's so unfair when one does not have a man to help with these things!!

[CREATIVE1]

This one is supercute and costs about $32,000 (plus shipping)
http://www.conestogalogcabins.com/pages/products/17x31/17x31.html

also look at www.kitguy.com for lots of links.

[Sassy]

Hey Creative, I'm not in the market for one (a man, that is), but for $32,000 do ya think Kristen could get her money's worth - you said cute, didn't you?    Maybe the "kitguy" might do...  

[Kristen]

Too funny.  My friends keep telling me to move to AK.  If I build something economical enough, I could afford to find my guy in AK and visit my little retreat as desired...I see the link...this is not off topic after all.  

Hey Creative, I'm not in the market for one (a man, that is), but for $32,000 do ya think Kristen could get her money's worth - you said cute, didn't you?    Maybe the "kitguy" might do...  

[CREATIVE1]

Ho, ho, ho

[Amanda_931]

I rather like the Stiles' books--one was on the amazon ad on the kitguy's site.  And that may be the closest this post gets to on-topic.  

Except that their ideas are so simple--no codes required for what they're doing is part of it.  They make it sound like anyone can build.  (the treehouse was based rather loosely on one of their designs, I'm fairly sure it was in Rustic Retreats, although something similar was also in the treehouse book.)

But I nearly cried when I read something about how really really easy it was for him to dig eight or nine or was it twelve post holes by hand.  The iron digging sticks, auger attachment on the tractor (not, with all our rocks down in the ground, the hand-held ones--too easy for the auger to stop, the handles start going, breaking bones--I did horrible things to my thumb with an air-powered rachet that way, no desire to repeat that on a bigger scale) do it.  And my tractor is not quite big enough to use the auger.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-4565289-9806560?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=David+Stiles&Go.x=5&Go.y=12

[John Raabe]

My dad built a Lindal Cedar cabin in Leavenworth, WA (up to 6' of snow) in the 1970's. In the 1980's we insulated the walls (1.5" of foam on the interior side of the 2x6 T&G cedar walls). In the 1990's we tore off the roof and the 1" foam on the top of the 2x6 cedar roof deck and installed 5" of foam, plywood and a metal roof.

The little cabin does not quite meet current energy code but is very comfortable with $25/mo of electricity. My 89 year old dad is still living there. It's about 525 sf and makes a good bachelor pad.

[Kristen]

John, that's terrific.  What does he use to heat?  With a one room cabin ~700sf or less, I want to keep heating options simple but have not looked into anything except www.Tulikivi.com yet.  I was thinking I'd include the coils for the electrical option as well but it might be overkill so I better look at everything before I decide.

[Amanda_931]

The Tulakivis are so pretty, and sooooooo expensive--the high end ones are probably more than you were planning to pay for your building, total, although maybe not with land.

I think some friends are pretty happy with the not all that expensive soapstone wood stoves.  Insurance companies like the built-ins better, at least that's what the agent here said.

Radiant is considered relatively green, not to mention wonderful.

Ken Kern didn't much care for radiant heat, according to one of the books.  Maybe unless you are a meticulous housekeeper, he believed that heat in the floor just sent dust into the air.  From what I hear on various lists, he was in a minority.

He did, I gather love Rumford fireplaces--designed about the time of our Revolutionary War to send heat out into the room, not up the chimney.  John once worked with Kern, probably knows more about these prejudices.

And there are oddities like a heated cob bench with a rocket stove.  I'd love one.  But I don't think I'm designing something that will allow me to have it.

There's a retreat center in Oregon--Corvallis, I think--that has both.  Cob bench for keeping the place nice and warm without too much fuss, the Rumford for quick heat.

But then, if you think that propane will remain affordable, one of several forms of that would probably be a good choice--ventless, vented up the chimney, or both incoming air and outgoing smoke are coming from the outside.  

Ventless may give you air quality problems--worst case--carbon monoxide poisoning.  Also, my elderly neighbors ended up with wet floors because the water that was a product of combustion wasn't vented.  Elderly may mean poor body heat management, which meant that their system put more water into the air because they kept the thermostat higher than the system was designed for.  And or no air changes in the winter time.