Gettig ready for the first step

[Tinpan]

The good news is I have a free piece of land in Northern Virginia. My father has always said I can have an acre or two if I ever want to build a house here. I was always thinking of 3 or 4 acres but I guess beggars can't be choosers. HA. If we can split off 1 acre I think that's what I'll do.

My next step is picking a plan. I figure I can raise $ 5,000 by selling some of my toy trains. That should be enough to get me started and maybe enough to zing along pretty far depending on what options i pick as i go along.

My goal is to build a small house for myself and my 10 year old son to live in AND pay cash for the materials as I go along. I figure if I can spend between 5K to 10 K for the house part ( plus well and septic ) , I can end up with a home that is paid for to go along with my truck which is paid for. Man what a concept.

So, since I have zip for experience in building anything I need to set my sights to a realistic level. I will probably be building this by myself. I was thinking that I could actually probably pull off building the Big Enchilada by myself, but I'm not sure it will leave us with enough living space. I would be able to make do but my son would end up with a 10 x 14  bed room, which after all he has been through, this probably wouldn't be fair to him. ( his mother and I went through a 5 year bitter divorce before she passed away last mother's day). As you can see he hasn't had his own bedroom for half of his life plus all of the other issues, so it's important to me that I can provide him with a nice bedroom or a nice bedroom and playroom.

The other option would be to build the 1 1/2 story 20 x 30 which would give us plenty of room, but I'm not sure I could build that by myself, plus I think I'll blow my budget trying to build that. I think i would be tempted to try to add a basement which would mean adding a bathroom down there plus I'll need one upstairs etc. All of this would add complexity and cost, which would probably be better off in the long run, but takes me away from my goal. I really like the idea of giving my son the whole upstairs for a bedroom and playroom.

I am really stuck here, I would really like to building something on a post and pier foundation, which would be ideal for the Big Enchilada. I keep thinking the 20 x 30 really would be better served by a different foundation.

Looking at all of this should I look at maybe the Victoria's cottage? That would be like building 2 small cabins instead of 3 with the BE.

Or, would a 20 x 30 work out ok on a P&P foundation?

Or, should I bite the bullet and borrow some money and pour a slab or basement and try the 20 x 30?

I hate throwing this out here but I'd like to see what some of you that have built these think.

Thanks

Robin

[glenn kangiser]

I think if you are tight on the budget the you would not want to go with the basement.  Nice thing about the enchilada is that you can extend the main section as long as you want easily and still add on to the sides.  The longer it is the more you could add later.  It wouldn't all have to be done at once.  I'll bet your son would enjoy working on it too.