oh lord...

[tesa]

ok, look here, i can't decide which plans to buy! 

let me give it to ya in a nutshell, and maby i can gleen some wisdom

first of all, i fell in love with my friends pole barn and have purchased a few books on the subject, BUT
from the word "go", i have wished to find stock plans that would meet our needs, and save myself the
agony of trying to design our home from scratch, they did, its beautiful, and easily built, so they said, but they
had the money to hire an engineer to size all their lumber/poles, etc.

that being said, i still love the idea of a pole structure for ease of building, and foundation, i don't want to disturb any
of our land, well, not to the extend a slab would destroy and we'd have to spend funds on landscaping

so

i really like the 20' 1 1/2 story cottage, in fact, i've sort of fallen in love with this one too, but my delima is this

i'd like to sit it facing south, and have the entry way on the east side of the building, i'd be using sliders on the south side 'cause
thats where the view is

i must have usable loft area for the girls, which is what i like about that plan

we also want to put our PV panels on the roof, since we have a small lot, hence my second reason for facing the roofline south

i also like the fact that i can play with the floor plan

is this possible/easy? i mean, i've read that i can go to the sister site, and download things that will help me, which i'm more than
willing to do, i guess i just need a pep talk, a bit of "you can do it!!"

can two intelligent, hard working, able bodied people really build this house?

and lastly, what would be the benifits of building the cottage vs my original idea of a pole structure?

a few i can think of are, 1, ready made plans. 2, available forum to help me with my details/problems, and 3, from what i can
gather, a great support group of folks who are doing what i dream of doing

tesa

[Jens]

Sounds like you've already made up your mind Tesa.  I like the sound of the 1 1/2 for my family, and we have 4 kids.  Whether you go pole or not, depends upon personal choices, I guess.  I like the sound of pole building, as the foundation is part of the main structure.  I dislike the idea, because the foundation is part of the main structure!  In other words, you have to make sure that the poles are set just right, so that they are in the right place, and plumb in both directions.  With the style of house here, you make things level and plumb at many stages, and have to maintain that, but they are smaller stages. 

I may miss something to pole building, but this style seems easier to me.  Two able bodied people can definitely build one of these houses.  You have to have your wits about you, and not be afraid to ask questions, but you seem to have that licked already.

[glenn kangiser]

I'd just use the pole building for the RV as it takes a lot of work and equipment  to get a pole structure square.

Stick built would be better for inexperienced builders without heavy equipment.

Stinkerbell hired it done as a shell building to get a straight pole structure. 

[tesa]

with our budget, which aint much, and the desire to build out of pocket, i'm really leaning towards NOT building a pole
structure

husband and i talked for along time last night, and depending on cost to have someone set our poles, we might have to
save a year or more, i don't even know where to begin, not sure who to call about setting them, so i'm guessing
a few grand for that service, maby more

and since we are building out of pocket, daniel liked the idea of getting the roof up fairly quickly (pole structure) to protect
our floors, and then build the remainder of the structure without worrying the texas rain would harm the exposed wood

but i gotta tell ya, next to a frineds house in new caney, they have been framing that darn house for like a year, for
gosh sake, everytime we go to her place, we think, well, i wonder if they are finished with that thing yet, and even on
new years eve, still no roof, but they did get the stairs in, we noticed that


you guys have been so great, to welcome me, silly woman that i am

i just can't thank you all enough for your sage words of wisdom i was afraid to join, but noticed how kind you were to others with
their endless questions, so i felt comfortable joining too

tesa

[NM_Shooter]

Keep in mind that you can cheat the pole barn look too.  I used stick framing for the actual structural, but wanted a pole barn / exposed wood look.  This did cost a little more, but doing the work myself saved a bunch.  Here is a ceiling I did in the gameroom:



And this is what the room looks like afterwards.  The cable lights provide a really nice way to light the room.



Here's a link to some pix of it going together.  It was three years of my life I probably would not repeat if asked to do so again.

http://home.comcast.net/~a.wirtz12/housebuild/Wirtz_Addition.html

Good luck.  This is the hard part... trying to figure out what you think you want 

[glenn kangiser]

That's a beauty, Frank.

[NM_Shooter]

Thanks. 

One nail at a time.

-f-

[MountainDon]

Thanks. 

One nail at a time.

-f-

Ah, but they were power driven.       ...weren't they. 

[NM_Shooter]

Probably 99.9%  I love my Paslode framer!

I look at the pyramids now and I think "big deal".  They had thousands of slaves to help.  I had two teenage boys, and two kids, 12 and 9. 

Of course those pyramids are going to be around a lot longer than my house 

[Jens]

NM...I am so jealous!   I will, one day, have a billiard room!   HAHAHA (maniacal laugh)!

[tesa]

that is beautiful, for sure

we've almost given up on the pole house thing

we didn't realize the uber cost of those huge poles, plus having them set, as there is no way we can do that ourselves,
set 25' poles and have them plumb, i'm not kidding myself in the least over that one

i think with our budget, we'd be better off going with something here, maby the 1 1/2 story

i really like that one, but husband is still wanting a shed roof, maby not so much for rainwater, i do understand that
we can get water off just about any roof, its just we keep going back to the fact that a single slope is easier for
rank beginners like ourselves

tesa

[MountainDon]

There's nothing wrong with hiring out parts that you can't do or prefer not to do.

I hired out the installation part of the metal roofing because I preferred not to work on sloped metal.

[FrankInWI]

NM Shooter... so much of you place in the pictures just looks fantastic. I don't seem to have the "good taste" to make something so functional and beautiful.  You or your spouse must have great imaginations on how it would all look before you take the next step.  I'm just too basic and have to get excited about small achievements... you're place looks wonderful.  Art like.....

[tesa]

yea, i'm leaning towards letting someone else do the roof

it seems to be the thing we're most concerned about

tesa

[considerations]

"yea, i'm leaning towards letting someone else do the roof"

That's what I did.  No guilt, no injuries, and I'm here to crow about it being finished! 

If there were no other people around who already knew how to crawl around on a steep roof.
If I had no financial slack at all.
If winter was coming and I had no other shelter.

I would have done it myself...but the roof would not have been built as a 12/12.

Those guys used rappelling harnesses    and were a lot younger.