14X24 in Stevens County - Washington

Started by LegionFarms, April 29, 2016, 10:42:05 AM

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LegionFarms

I have been following the forums around here for the past few years. I just purchased my Builder Cottage plans, waiting on them in the mail and eventually we will build either a Victoria's cottage or a 20X30 1 1/2 story cabin... I Just haven't decided on which. I will get some photos up for you all to see as we progress.

In February we purchased 30 acres on an owners contract and are developing it a piece at a time, all the while raising livestock and working outside jobs. Thank God all of our kids are grown and moved out now, except 1 high school junior.

I am so excited!!


ED: removed extra font command

LegionFarms

#1
I received the plans in the mail and have already begun dreaming about the cabin. I have tons of ideas of how I want the finish cabin to look and I keep having to remind myself that it is one step at a time.

So, I took my plans to Ziggy's and their home dept is getting a materials list together for me and also a "Critical Steps" plan so that I don't get to far ahead of myself and forget some step. This morning I contacted Stevens County to get my building permit and found out that I need a site analysis first. I can get a permit for a dry cabin that can be later plumbed, which is what we are going to do as we aren't putting in the well or the septic until Spring 2017. Until then we have a weekly serviced portapotty and bringing in potable water weekly.

Here are some photos of the property and why I fell in love with it! With the snow and without  :)


This is the view from the top of the driveway looking down, towards the road.


Same view.. sans snow...


This is the view from the bottom of the driveway looking up towards the mountain. No, it doesn't go all the way to the mountain (Darn!)


mahaoi52

My parents lived in the Douglas Falls area back in the mid 1940s and built a home after their log house burned.  Not much government involvement back then.......  I will be following your progress closely.  I see Stevens County adopted the 2015 IRC which makes me curious about their enforcement of the fire sprinkler requirements.  The other side of the mountains requires you have a well that produces 25 gpm and a 5000 gal. reserve which makes building on rural acreage a lot more expensive. 
Good Luck with your plans!

nailit69

There's something about owning your own little patch of grass that makes it just a little sweeter.  Normally, I wouldn't have looked twice at the piece we bought, but now that it's ours I couldn't imagine a better place to be. 


LegionFarms

Well.. I am working on my site analysis and waiting on Ziggy's. I have contacted a few drilling companies to get estimates on drilling our well. But.. while scouring Craigslist I found a sweet deal on sonotubes for my pier and post foundation. These 20" diameter by 36" tall sonotubes for $7 each! I called the local building inspector to pick his brain about the pier and post foundation. He looked over the Builder Cottage floor plans and said that these sonotubes were overkill and would work fine. I told him that overkill is better than a cabin that will fall on me. :)

I called the gentleman.. went out to look at them... walked away with them and 24 2X10 joist hangers for the floor deck... all for a whopping $90.00. So excited!!





nailit69

Score!!!  [cool]  Those are serious overkill

CL can be a great resource for supplies and materials, i've found quite a few things for my cabin on there.  My latest find was a FREE airtight woodstove.

Eclour87

Those are both awesome deals!   We love craigslist.  My wife will scour the listings throughout the day and we've been lucky to find some good deals.   As a matter of fact, we got a free angling kayak yesterday!  That counts as cabin supplies since we're building near a river, right?  ;)

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: Eclour87 on May 14, 2016, 07:06:23 AM
...  That counts as cabin supplies since we're building near a river, right?  ;)

That works for me!  ;D
My cabin build thread: Alaskan remote 16x28 1.5 story

LegionFarms

Quote from: Eclour87 on May 14, 2016, 07:06:23 AM
... As a matter of fact, we got a free angling kayak yesterday!  That counts as cabin supplies since we're building near a river, right?  ;)

Absolutely! What a score! My husband would love it if I found a free fishing boat for him..


nailit69

Quote from: LegionFarms on May 16, 2016, 01:51:21 PM
Absolutely! What a score! My husband would love it if I found a free fishing boat for him..

Someone (a neighbor) left a nice little 12' aluminum rowboat with oars at my place about 6 or 7 years ago and I never heard from him again... SCORE!!!

LegionFarms

Things have slowed down a little bit. I received my supply list from Ziggy's. I was impressed with the overall cost and I am excited to buy supplies but I have seemed to hit an impasse. We want to obtain a building permit for the cabin - as a dry cabin for now. In order to do that I need to complete a site analysis for the county and turn it in. But I can't turn that in without having the septic people and well people out to help with the layout and site analysis... unfortunately I have not been able to find one who seems interested in helping... even knowing that I will use their services to put in the septic and well. So frustrating... but the search will continue!

On a different note, we started putting up a barn for the piggies. I was hoping to have it mostly finished before we had piglets.. but that didn't happen! Sunday my sow farrowed 3 days early. She was due this coming Wednesday but decided that yesterday was a good day for her babies to be born. BUT.. she was still in the common pen and not in her stall. So we had a great time moving her and the piglets. Fortunately, this is her 2nd liter, she trusts us and she is pretty docile. She had 9 babies.. 2 females and 7 males.... 1 was twice as big as the others and had passed away when I got to them, which seems to be a trend with this boar's litters. One of the females was red with black freckles.. but a black leg like a sock. Weird!


The barn is liveable for now, but we are working on it to make it winter proof.


Backside...


Some of the piggies :)

nailit69

#11
Depending how far from "town" you are... just sayin. 

The folks on my mtn. say they've never seen a building official probably other than to other than to asses the taxable value although there are quite a few obviously permitted homes at the bottom of the mtn..  My place is in a "Limited Requirements Area"... not sure what that means.  I'm building to IBC standards and documenting everything but not applying for a permit. I'm also "packing it in and packing it out" too though.  My grandfather always said it was easier to ask for forgiveness than it was for permission.

Oh... and the pigpen looks great!

LegionFarms

nailit69 - That was our original plan too... to ask for forgiveness :) But we have already had the county "Health Inspector" show up because they had a complaint that we were living on the property without a sanitation setup, which is not true as we have a weekly serviced portapotty. I think between purchasing the property, putting in our Timber management plan, pulling 2 acres out to build, etc... I think I am stirring the pot, which was the reason they came out. Just an assumption, though.

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: LegionFarms on May 24, 2016, 02:26:12 PM



That tree on the right looks like it would make some great komatik runners.  Just in case you see a need to haul a bunch of freight in the winter with a snowmobile.


My cabin build thread: Alaskan remote 16x28 1.5 story


nailit69

Quote from: LegionFarms on May 25, 2016, 10:15:06 AM
nailit69 - That was our original plan too... to ask for forgiveness :) But we have already had the county "Health Inspector" show up because they had a complaint that we were living on the property without a sanitation setup, which is not true as we have a weekly serviced portapotty. I think between purchasing the property, putting in our Timber management plan, pulling 2 acres out to build, etc... I think I am stirring the pot, which was the reason they came out. Just an assumption, though.

Ya... you're stirring up a lot of "dust" and attracting a lot of attention with all that activity.  Nobody even knows we're there other than the title transfer.  There's a new home at the bottom of the mtn. with a temp power pole being built so I know the inspector is coming at least that far.  Thankfully, it's a long way from the inspectors office and quite a ways from town and then we're another mile from there on a not so inviting rd., hopefully that's enough to keep him from "seeing what's up the road".

pmichelsen

I'm in a similar boat, our inspectors office is an hour away and they do most assessments via aerial photograph and the tree canopy covers my place so they can't see anything.

Adam Roby

That's what sucks in the winter, all the foliage falls off the trees then suddenly your hideaway becomes a "oooOOoOOo, a new building to tax!" 

Our assessor will generally just increase the taxes and not mention any building permitting issues... so far.  A neighbor had a carport for years, one year he decided to add sides to it to keep out the snow and the next year his taxes went up.  He then removed the sides and the taxes came back down a bit and now he just adds tarp in the winter and the taxes don't move.

nailit69

It's my understanding that winter is when the mapping contractors go out and do thier mapping and aireal photographing... I was gonna go to work for them a few years back flying a camera rig... weeks on end flying E/W patterns by GPS and staying in motels.  Thier reason for winter shooting was that "all the leaves are off the trees and we can photograph more".

I'm planting sagebrush on the roof of my cabin to camo it from the air  ;).

Adam Roby

What you need to do is to become friends with the old inspector, and find out all their tricks and secrets.  :)
Grass roof might also do the job... and a lot of coniferous that don't shed.

LegionFarms

I just figure I will plug right along doing what I can when I can even if it means wintering through a travel trailer. The man and I are in this for the long haul and not a sprint! But in the mean time.. I received the perk test results that was done last year by the previous owner from the health inspector. He so graciously dropped it off yesterday when I was at work.  ???

According to the test results, there were 8 perk holes dug - 2 holes on each lot. The previous owner was going to subdivide it. 1 perk hole says "pressure system" and the other 7 perk holes state "enhanced treatment". For the life of me I can not figure out what an enhanced treatment septic system is. I have googled and searched. Anyone know the difference between a pressure system and an enhanced treatment system?


Bevis

Have a friend up north, that rolls out military camo netting over his buildings.  He says the foilage drops and they can see everything by air, on what I've built recently.

nailit69

Quote from: Bevis on May 27, 2016, 10:02:08 AM
Have a friend up north, that rolls out military camo netting over his buildings.  He says the foilage drops and they can see everything by air, on what I've built recently.

My place is covered in snow during the winter... I still wouldn't mind a "ghillie suit" for the roof of the cabin during the spring/summer/fall though.  My place isn't going to be a secret for long.