20x32 1.5 story hillsville, Va

[devildog]

Hello everyone, ive been looking on here for over a year  and just now felt like I have something to say. I love looking at all your projects and dream of one day building my own. and ive gotta say youll are a very smart and helpful bunch.
Anyway I reside in jacksonville, fl. and have dreamed of moving my family to  a more rural mountanous area (I was born and lived in WV for 17 years) we looked  at land in NC for along time and just couldnt find what we were looking for in our price range( we saved for over 2yrs), Then started looking in western VA and there it was in hillsville, va. exactly what I was looking for ,more than an acre with a nice view for $18,000 or less , our property is  2.25 acres with a nole and a creek and it perked before  but it expired sept 2007. Id like to build a house on it ,but that would take alot of money . so we decided to try and start building a small getaway cabin in the spring 2009. I like the 14x24 and im going to purchase the plans soon. I like that its  a basic rectangle and looks like something  I could actually do. I may look into widening the foundation to 16' wide, I like the post and beam. anyway enough about me Im going to have my wife help me put pics on.
                         Darrell

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=242066705/a=10226827_10226827/t_=10226827

[deedonke2]

   hi,and welcome to the forum. i to am new and browse this forum many times,got a chance to obtain alot  of ideas and have been helped many times.hope the same for you.living in south louisana,had to run away from hurricane gustove lateley,hurricane alley always a threat made me buy 1 1/2 acre property in northern louisana, piney wood country . i plan on building a 20/30 cabin next spring.hope you can succeed on your adventure and i on mine good luck.and post many pictures i am trying to post mine.name darrell also

[glenn kangiser]

Plans are better made longer than widened so I would recommend looking at one of the plans that has a 16 wide section in it to modify.  The foundation will work out better.

[devildog]

Thanks for the welcome deedonke. Ifeel sorry for you guys, they threaten us in jax, fl then hit you'll. stay safe!                             
Glenn I was looking at span charts and was thinking if I increased beam size and floor joist size(ie. go from 2x6 to 2x8) ,and widen beams maybe another foot , that it would work. But you would know better than I.                   

[MountainDon]

If you're going to be having a loft like most of the small cabins do you would have a better starting point by using wide plans to begin with.

[glenn kangiser]

Also -- things start to being all guesswork and pretty soon your workng from a bunch of scratched out changed notes that bear no resemblance to the plan.

Better to go from a proven plan than something that might work.  You don't want to be like me do you? hmm

[devildog]

 O.K. I agree with you ,after much thinking i'm going to stick with the 14x24. but before I order , afew questions.
1. does the plan give options on 8 ,10, or 12 ft walls. or does that matter?  can I do what I want?
2.For the loft  floor joist, It looks like some builder run floor joist the entire width, others run a beam the entire width and then run joist lengthwise from end to beam. are both these methods in the plan?( i hope that makes sense)
3. has anyone used a spiral staircase in the 14x24?

Anyway, I think Im ready to start on this, but before I can even get abuilding permit.  I need a 911 address and a current well and septic approval.  they said I need to bring $560.00 and a drawing of property layout,(location of driveway and house) to get septic approval, and for 911 address I need to mark d/w entrance and mark 4 corners of house. so we're going to stop in hillsville on tuesday,11/25/08, to do these things on the way to WV to have thanksgiving w/ family. once approved ill have to drive all the way back to  apply for building permit, about 8 hrs.I cant believe you have to actually step in their office, you cant do anything over the net or by phone.

I cant remember the last time I was this excited about working on something. I have no framing experience,but I had a master electricians liscense in kentucky. I let it laps. and ive been a landscaper for about 10 years, I do the lot grading w/ 247b catepillar front end loader. so im hoping to get my dad and my brothers to help me come spring . Ill keep you posted

[karnf]

I welcome you also devildog but must warn you of the addition to the site after you jump on the house building ship. I just wanted to tell you that we are building a 12x20 cabin (permit not needed for garrett county md at this size) with a 12x10 loft pole barn building and it is looking real nice. We used the post and pier foundation but starting out with 6x6 pressure beams dug into 3ft of ground using a cement ring at the
base. The post were placed 10ft apart to messure 20t on length and 6ft apart for the 12ft width. It does have a 12:12 roof with a 2ft kneewall for the loft. We orginally had 16ft hight beams but the HOA screamed. Seems like they don't want you to stay on property while you are building a house. Didn't find
out about their rules till six years later (rules changed). Had to cut them down to 12ft with the middle beam to support the middle of the tin roof is 20ft. We started out building the post structure and then the roof. Then we put girts every two feet vertically from beam to beam to hold the walls. We decided to notched the 2x6 so that the structure will be very strong. It does have the appearance of a timber frame but we used pressure treated so if we want to have them exposed inside we will have to place a laminated wood piece to cover the chemical of the wood beams. We plan on drywalling the wall to reduce fire hazard since we will have a woodstove.
This may seem confusing but we had to put up a structure and close and secure before the rush of winter.
We just added the walls which are avantech tongue and grove and are planing to use the same on the
flooring. Just added the Tyvek to keep the structure dry and cut holes for windows. The door is in place
and now we want to add the floor joist 2x6 over the already in gravel flooring but placing the joist closer
than the standard width to secure a sound floor. I know this is not the norm way to build but we live
three hours away with no place to stay that is cheap so we wanted to secure outside to stay inside to
finish building. We are planing to put radiant barrier foil in roof, walls and foam panel insulation but are
looking for a good deal. Check out craigslsit for you can get great deals in your area for building materials
as we have. I will be posting pics soon to better explain myself. Hope I haven't confused you. Forget to
tell you that we did make the structure 4ft longer with roof for a small porch. We had a builder help up with
the 20ft post and he post the middle post at the end of the 24ft instead of the 20ft which complicates the
porch concept but we just have to work around it.
Oh deedonke2 in N Louisiana; greeting from one cajun to another. I am from Kenner La. and moved to Maryand with my yankee husband about ten years ago. I really miss my friendly place but really love the
nature and pure beauty of the Deep Creek Md mountains.
If you do some research pole building is a less expensive way to building and a great way to extend the
length of your cabin later if you wish. We are think of building a porch on the side of the building which
should be 20ft long. As long as we don't enclose with a heating or cooling unit and keep it screened it is
not consider in the living space. Just trying to keep under the grid of beaurecratic red tape of government.
Keep them out and let me live.
take it easy. Looking forward to viewing your progress.

[devildog]

thanks for the welcome karnf, Ill be honest and say it is hard ( for me)to visualise some of what your talking about. pictures help. im looking forward to seeing pics of your place. fortunately our property is unrestricted and I think I can do almost anything I want (maybe?)

[Jens]

First two posts reminded me of the Bob Newhart show, " I'm Larry, this is my brother Darrell, and my other brother Darrell".  Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your prelims there.  The building department and inspectors can either be a help, or a hinderance, so be nice.  And yes, some of the things they ask for will be stupid sounding, but they need to be done nevertheless. 

[Redoverfarm]

From one Mountineer to another   .  Have heard of Hillsville just can't recall the exact location. Somewhere below Roanoke I believe?  Not that far from me. I am on the VA line near Warm Springs.

[devildog]

 thanks hobbiest. Ive been told that bob nehart thing my whole life, but unfortunately have never seen than episode. Ive heard the building dept. in small towns is nothing like big city,but ill still play by there rules.

and thank you redoverfarm , hillsville is on the east side ofI77 1/3 of the way up from NC. . Its known for its labor day gun show and flee market , they have about 500,000 people roll thru on that weekend.

[Mo]

Welcome to the area. Hillsville is quite a nice little place. We live in NC about 15 miles from Galax 25 from Hillsville. We looked at alot of property over there before we bought in West Virginia. If you need any information about the area maybe I can help.

[devildog]

 thanks Mo , I may have questions in the future. what part of WV? and are you building on it?

[Mo]

In Barbour County outside Audra State Park. What area are you from?

[devildog]

I lived in huntington wv till I was17 joined the marines for 5yrs and moved across the bridge to ashland kentucky for 2 yrs, been in florida ever since

[Mo]

My parents live in Huntington, the most unhealthy city in America, what a great claim to fame.

I went through Hillsville today, it was 27 degrees and sunny. There are a couple of small sawmills in the area along with factory log homes. Are you going to be starting soon?

[devildog]

yeah I know, all my friends and co-workers read that and joked with me all that day.
hopefully starting in the spring, going there tuesday to get 911 address and well/septic permit

[devildog]

 went to hillsville during thanksgiving week, got the 911 address ( 165 sunnyvale rd) but was afraid to pay the $560 for well and septic permit because our car over heated after about 5 hrs of driving and i took it easy and had to keep pulling over, the last 3 hrs took 7. my mechanic friend in Fl. said by what I was telling him it was ablown head gasket,  I think He was right. I put barrs radiator stop leak in, and ripped the guts out of the thermostat and was able to milk it back home. the sad part is it broke down on the way up and backon vacation in june. I hate our car.
I did take some measurements. I also took along look at our creek, it doesnt have much fall its shallow,but it has speed. I  want to do solar panels, but would also like to do hydro. Ifound this site http://www.oasismontana.com/AQUAIR.html
  we're going back in feb/march for the well/septic permit. my wifes going to let me order plans for christmas

[glenn kangiser]

That generator is pretty small.  2.4 kwh per day.  We make and use about 12 to 15 kwh per day although we don't too much to try to conserve.

[devildog]

Im still trying to learn and figure out whats what. at least it would be continuous w/solar panels and a bank of batteries. It is expensive though.

[MountainDon]

When thinking alternative power sources you sometimes need to re-think how you use power. An accurate energy audit is imperative. You may want to switch some things such as a cook stove to gas. Ditto the clothes dryer.

It IS possible to build a tight efficient home and power it solely with PV panels. The battery bank does add to the cost.

Here in NM we have at least one home builder that offers a zero energy option. It's a regular house with energy saving/conserving features. It's $44K extra for a 1300 sq ft house and that does not include batteries. It's grid tied and uses the power company as the battery. Meter goes one way in the day and the other at night as a rule. All electric, no gas at all.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

When thinking alternative power sources you sometimes need to re-think how you use power. An accurate energy audit is imperative. You may want to switch some things such as a cook stove to gas. Ditto the clothes dryer.

OR... you could cook over a wood fire and hang your clothes out and not have to worry about gas or the dryer period.  My mom hangs her laundry out no matter how cold it gets... sometimes it freezes and takes a few days to really get dry, but so what as long as you have a few extra things to wear (I don't know any American who doesn't).   Especially shouldn't be an issue if this is going to primarily be a retreat and not a full-time home.  I hate having to listen to the dryer going anyway, and will be so glad when we can have a clothes line again. 

[MountainDon]

... you could cook over a wood fire...

It would take a lot to make me want to build a fire to cook on most of the here here in NM where our primary home is located. [need a hot sweaty smiley for this]

[devildog]

Ive actually been considering gas fireplace w/blower for heat and gas cooktop for cooking, havent really thought much about washing and drying clothes.........I guess thats pretty important. maybe an over /under combo deal w/ gas  for dryer or hang them like HT said. thanks for reminding me to think about things I sometimes take for granted, Im used to opening a dawer and  finding folded clean clothes, and thats how they got there