How to waste $28,000 on a new "house"

[poppy]

I just reviewed the March/April issue of Natural Home magazine.

One feature article is about a single woman who asked an architect to design a house with a $28,000 budget.

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/wooden-homes/in-quietude-a-simple-healing-mountain-cottage.aspx

In 1999 she leased a half acre lot in the Okanagan mountains in Oliver, British Columbia and a builder constructed her "mandala" shortly thereafter.

Here's what she got 10 years ago for 28k:

280 sf of living space (including a 20 sf sleeping loft) plus a 100 sf root cellar and small porch.

Local materials were used including lodgepole pine for much of he construction.

She's on the electric gird, uses a propane fireplace for heat, and has no A/C.  There's no mention of what well and septic cost.

She calls it her mandala, but I'm not exactly sure what she means by that, because a basic search suggests a square shape and her tiny house has a foot print that looks more like a Red Cross logo; i.e. a basic square with 4 bump outs.
http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/multimedia/image-gallery.aspx?id=2147485295&seq=12
Exact dimensions weren't given, but roughly speaking a square foot print without bump outs may have yielded up to another 100 sf with the same amount of walls.

The point of this rant is that she spent $100 per sf 10 years ago for a "budget" permanent dwelling. 

I'm not sure what I learned from this article except maybe that folks like us who actually build budget houses and cabins won't get a feature article in a magazine. 

[RainDog]

"Architect Henry Yorke Mann is something of a wizard. The grandson of a master builder, Mann has been designing and building houses in British Columbia since 1962. His homes are built to enhance the human soul; he deems any house that doesn't a failure. Mann describes the architect, at his best, as a shaman producing sacred works."

Bwahaha!

It is a pretty cute place, though.

[ScottA]

Looks like she got what she paid for to me. I've got almost 20k in mine and I did all the work myself.

[MushCreek]

To me, a 20 sq ft loft is a......shelf!

[Squirl]

Sounds about right.  The roof is not a simple design and it probably took a lot more labor $ than a simpler roof would have.  Also there are certain fixed costs for a house that would be the same no matter what square footage so the cost per foot would go up the smaller the house.  A $5,000-$10,000 septic would be the same for a 1200 sq. ft 2 bedroom as for a 200 sq. ft studio.  Same with a $5,000 well or a $1,000 electric hookup.

[diyfrank]

It really don't sound that bad considering all the work and planing was done by others. It can be lived in and does have some style to it.
I can't believe a small sleeping loft with no railing is legal tho.

[Squirl]

  That is why she calls it her "shelf."

[speedfunk]

Thanks for posting Poppy but more b/c I think it's a really cool building.  I don't think that price is really that bad at all.  She has a full home for 28G how many people can say that?  It's small yes, but not low on quality.  Substance over Quantity. 

Its a lifestyle thing.  Some people don't want the burdens of more "stuff" so by building a small humble home.  they are free.  If I was single i'd be in such a building..allthough i'd build it myself of course

[davidj]

One big variable in housing costs is location, both of the structure being built and the job of the person paying for it.  My 2007 National Construction Cost Estimator has San Francisco at +57% of standard labor costs and some places in Texas at -42%.  I.e. labor costs are 2.7X more expensive in some places than others.  Clearly that makes the house more expensive to build, but if folks are earning a lot more it also means they also have more money to spend on the house.

Let's say you want to build a 600 sq ft cabin, you have an average job in rural Alabama and you save every penny for 5 years to build it.  Maybe it costs you $60/sq ft doing a lot of the work yourself.  If you live in NY and do exactly the same thing, you can afford to pay maybe $120/sq ft working just as hard and saving just as hard to build something the same size.  Clearly the finish on the cabin will be quite different and some stuff will seem extravagant to folks from many parts of the US, but isn't the spirit behind the project pretty much the same even though it cost twice as much?  If the guy from NY builds a 1200 sq ft building at $60/sq ft he's been just as economical as the folks from Alabama, but is that more or less like the other project?

PS Given we're building a 20x30 and the well and septic cost almost $40K, our place cost something like $65/sq ft before we even marked out the foundation!

[Whitlock]

Not a waste at all she got her monies worth. Around here it would have been a lot more.

Neat place,W

[pagan]

Doesn't sound too high to me, but it looks like the architect made sure he used all of her money. I like the little house and it's perfect for a single person, although I'd skip the tiny loft/shelf.

[miman]

i am sure if i posted my cabin on other web forums they would say i wasted my money also. not may people in this country want a 800 sq foot home built on piers. i think it looks like a nice place.  the best part is, she had a dream and followed it.   $40 grand for a septic and well?   here where the water is blue and the land perks (northern michigan)  a 60 foot well and septic system was $4,300 dollars.

[davidj]

$40 grand for a septic and well?   here where the water is blue and the land perks (northern michigan)  a 60 foot well and septic system was $4,300 dollars.

Unfortunately around our way it's the basalt that's blue, and there's a lot of it between the cabin and the water!

[poppy]

I could have been jumping to conclusions about the high costs, but the article did not provide all of the info.

There is no info. given on the bathroom, but the kitchen sink looks like conventional plumbing (not RV type).

All of us are assuming that she has a well and septic, but maybe there is city water and sewer?  Or maybe her leased lot was already improved?

All we know is that the builder spent $28k and reported that the house cost $93.30 per sf based on 300 sf.  No mention is made of costs other than the house itself.

Any major costs for well and/or septic changes most everything I assumed.

So maybe she got a great deal, but part of my point was that the design is not all that cost effective is some regards, e.g. the amount of walls for the sf and the complicated roof.

To me, see made some massive compromises, but then again she is satisfied with the guru who provided her quiettude.