I just purchased river-front property for a cabin project

[Barry Broome]

I just acquired a quarter acre on a river here in south Mississippi. It's a nice lot and in the flood zone. Has a lot of big timber and a nice view of the river. My lot is in the bend of the river with a sand bar just on the other side. The neighbors are mostly weekend cabineers. Everyone has their houses on stilts/concrete tubes about 10-12 feet in the air to protect from flooding.

I first have to see if there's a previous 911 address. My long term plan is to build a small cabin there on the river. It's my first piece of property to ever purchase so it's a nice feeling... though it's in a flood zone... it's a gorgeous lot. Just gotta clear the brush.

[MountainDon]

   Congrats!

Maybe a houseboat with a few deep pilings to anchor it to.  Seriously.

[glocksrus]

HEy Weasel, good looking place. Where's it at? Looks like Moselle, or are you south of Hattiesburg?

[Barry Broome]

This is in Pearl River County.

[rick91351]

Great looking place!  Post the progress you make please.  I would be interested in seeing construction of a stilt cabin.  How do they keep the trees and float-sum from gathering on the stilts and taking all down?  Or does the water sort of just rise and go down with out a lot of movement of stuff.  Here in the mountains when they get high water trees and stuff seem to take out everything from bridges to docks to      

[Barry Broome]

Hey Rick, yeah I plan on posting as I go. Once I start on the cabin I'll start a new thread with the appropriate title or maybe just change this one if I can. I'm already looking into the best plans for a foundation. So far I'm liking the idea of a concrete slab with either wooden poles or concrete filled cinder blocks/rebar supporting the cabin above. There's also the fact that there is no county water supply and I don't plan on drilling a well. So maybe I'll do a cistern. I think the septic system this close to the river, and in the flood plain, requires certain attributes to work correctly. The last thing I want to do is spoil the river. The headwaters of the river are only about ten miles upstream.

If there is no previous 911 address I'll have to get one and I don't know what all will be involved. There are a lot of new rules in this county since Hurricane Katrina. I plan on avoiding the government where possible.

[rick91351]

Here anything that close to a river and a flood plan would be very hard - no scratch that.  Make that impossible for a permitted in ground septic system.  However there are several on this forum that are pros a composting toilets.     

[glenn kangiser]

Nice looking place and you know what you are dealing with going in it it so that is cool.

As I recall you can edit your first posting with a new title and it will show, then the balance of the old postings will retain the heading they had but the new ones will take on the new heading.

[Barry Broome]

Hey Glenn, that will be perfect... two url's for one post? I like that. My wife talked me out of cement posts. I was looking at possibly using sonotubes and they are high. As she said, "We ain't spendin 1000 dollars for stuff that's gonna end up in the burn pile!"

Well who can argue with that.

We're gonna keep it cheap and sink some treated posts in the ground and go from there. Since I inspect and repair treated wood for a living I feel comfortable with this approach. Once I make some progress I'll get some more pics on here.

[glenn kangiser]

Cool - looking forward to it.

Note that I changed the heading here but the next post should go back to the original topic from the first topic subject  posted.

Each message posted actually has it's own link back URL  that you can get from the little diamond to the left of the subject line in each posting - if you want to send a link to a particular posting.

Example --- this link will direct you back to this particular posting in your subject....

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=10161.msg129830#msg129830

[Sassy]

  Congrats!

Maybe a houseboat with a few deep pilings to anchor it to.  Seriously.

Hey, that sounds like a great idea!

[speedfunk]

The houseboat would not be taxed lol.  I guess living in NYstate this is what I think about lol.

[Barry Broome]

I spent some time this weekend cleaning the property a little. This was my first chance to spend some time there. The wife and I plan on cleaning it next chance we get using a 'billy goat' brush cutter. We'll see how it goes. Here's some pics from the Sunday at the river property.










It's a thick mess of saplings and briars in there...

[rwanders]

    Love running water---only needs a few boulders to give it a nice burbling sound

[mogie01]

Your property looks fantastic, congratulations!!

[Barry Broome]

Boulders would be a nice touch. The river rocks actually bruised the bottom of my feet as I walked around in the river bed. There's a lot of white perch and some brim in the river. I've heard there may be some nice catfish as well. After spending that weekend there I'm really pumped up about getting the property cleaned. I won't get back into town for a few weeks and my goal is to clear the property then. I'll shoot some video of me running the 'billy goat' to show folks how good it works (or doesn't).

[Barry Broome]

Well... just for forwarding on some information.... this property I bought from the State as it was tax forfeited. Turns out... though I have a 'tax forfeited deed'... I now have to hire a lawyer to commence a 'tax confirmation suit'... so as to insure there are no legal strings still attached to the property... after that we can 'close' on the property and get an official deed (yet hiring another lawyer). So what started out as a bargain for the property will end up costing two or three times the value.... that is if the previous owners/family don't have any standing claim to the property... Anyway I'll keep everyone posted.

[keyjoy]

That's just not right! 
Good Luck!!
They say everything happens for a reason? something to think about.

[Squirl]

Tax sales are different in every states.  Some have rights of redemption, some don't.

[Barry Broome]

I spoke with a local attorney this past week who specializes in land titles/deeds. He said that since I bought the property from the State I should be fine as long as I didn't want to sell it or borrow money against it. He said the 'tax forfeit' deed I received from the state was fine and that was all I needed for now. So we plan on clearing the property and starting on the foundation as soon as it cools off here (next couple months or so).

Being in a flood plain my only concern is how to build the foundation, the cabin itself will be small and shouldn't be much of an issue. I just worry about debris hitting the piers in the event of a flood. In fact the river came out of the banks once already this year.

[NM_Shooter]

Piers would work to support poles, and cover the ground well with heavy rock to protect against erosion. 

Protection against floating debris is problematic.  Here along the rio grande they used to use these things called jeddy jacks.  They sort of look like anti-tank devices. 

I guess an alternative might be to build on something that is shaped similar to the bow of a boat, pointing upstream.  Or maybe something that is in front of your structure but diverts debris around your cabin. 

Or stick with a nice 5th wheel that you can tote out of there if necessary 

Interesting problem.

[Tickhill]

Congrats on the land! I agree with Shooter, the upstream stilts should have a cow catcher attached to divert and guide the debris away from the remaining stilts, even go with more reinforcment on the leading stilts??
I am up in NE MS am waiting on cooler weather also. This coming Saturday morning is supposed to be 60, just waiting on the yellow butterflies and I know fall is on the way.
Good luck with the cabin and looking forward to the pictures.

[Barry Broome]

I've reviewed some of Fema's publications about building in a coastal/flood zone. I've decided to go with large wooden posts and pour a concrete foot around the base of the pole below ground. Will likely run rebar through the bottom of the posts for the concrete to grip. I plan to build a foundation similar to the photo below, but I won't be driving pilings, nor will they go as deep (probably only 6 foot deep). I plan on the large concrete 'foot', and above grade cross bracing to prevent the structure of moving. If I have the money I'll pour a concrete slab on the bottom, encasing the poles at grade.



With tropical storm Isaac approaching south Mississippi, I'm now concerned about how well my roof will fair. I built a gable roof on my 10X10 shed. I didn't build it correctly - it is underbuilt. So we'll see how it survives.

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=9948.msg127970#msg127970

[Barry Broome]

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac has produced flooding unlike anything folks at home have seen, with some areas receiving 20 inches. Wolf River (where my property is located) is expected to crest tomorrow during the morning. My wife just called me from there and said the entire area is flooded. People who built their river homes above the BFE 100 year mark are under water. My wife's Aunt's home has about 3 feet inside it right now.

However, I'm not sure how accurate their statements are. I think they had an engineer tell them what the BFE at their home site was before they built, but I'm not positive about that. I'll try and get some pics on here later this evening as the Wife took some.

A couple of good things will come from this. It will give us an idea how trustworthy the 100 year flood mark can be. And it's a great thing my wife got to see the Wolf River at peak flood stage. It will help us have a better understanding of how to build a retreat cabin there... if we still plan to build at all. Will keep everyone updated.

http://www.sunherald.com/2012/08/30/4155076/across-the-coast-a-look-at-aug.html

[Tickhill]

Hope all is well, we are waiting on the rain right now, ours has been hit or miss today. We are on Bay Springs Lake but we are 50-75 feet above normal pool.