14x24 1 story in Northern Arkansas

[Taylor]

I had a thread about building a house in north central Arkansas. I have changed my plans a lot so I decided to start a new topic. I have a 12x16' shed I built in may, I am going to be building a 14x24' addition on to the shed. I was looking at getting a mobile home to live in but this seemed like a better idea to me, it is just going to be me and my wife living in it. We are living is a 33' travel trailer and it is getting kinda of small. I hope to have the addition built and done enough to live in by x-mass. I don't have a job so I can work on it all the time, I do have a bad knee so it may slow me down some. It only took about a week of building time to build the shed with one of my friends but probably took 4 weeks for us to complete. I don't have to have any permits to build as I live out in the county. Here are some quick floor plans and a rendering of what I plan for, the doors and windows may change, depends on what I can get deals on. I also plan to use the attic for extra storage. I will be sure to post pictures of my work when I get started which I hope is in the next week or so.

Thanks

Taylor

[zion-diy]

Taylor, where about in Arkansas are you? might be able to hook up and share some ideas. wife and I built here 2 1/2 years ago.
        Alex

[Taylor]

I am about 6 miles out of Mountain Home.

[apaknad]

nice location. that area is on my short list. been looking at it for about 3 yrs. can you give a general idea of property taxes?

thanx, dan

[Taylor]

I am not 100% sure on the property tax. The land I have is my mom's and she pays the taxes on it, but I think she said something of it being like $100 a year for the 3 acres that I got, but I am not 100% sure on that.

Taylor

[zion-diy]

Allright, I'm about 50 mi. south. not far out of melbourne. we're near neighbors.
apaknad, I guess taxes depend on county, and of course the kind of building you have. here, our's are aprox $459 a year. thats house and 28 acres. then, you knock off $350 for homestead exemption. Now, my neighbor across the creek built a rather large and fancy house on 10 acres and his taxes were about $1200. also, if you are 62 or older, you're taxes are locked forever. And, if you're a disabled vet, (VA fully disabled) you pay no taxes, or cars tags, and probably a whole bunch more that I've forgotten. We still appreciate vets here.  

[zion-diy]

Taylor, you're drawing looks good. a couple of questions. have you got water and sewer there? type? well, septic etc. which way will house face? It was in the teens here this morning, and that north wind may determine window placement. Oh, and by the way, might want a small overhang over the front door so rain and such doesn,t run on you :-)

[Taylor]

I have a septic system and I have a 550g water tank, my dad owns the house next door so I fill my tank up with his well. The front of the house will face east, so the only north window/door is the one in the bedroom facing the deck. I believe it was about 19 degrees this morning and I live on top of a hill so the wind blows pretty good up here some time. I was planning on some roof over the front porch but couldn't figure it out on my Home Designer.

Here is a picture I took from my front door this morning, maybe he was looking for a place to hide for thanksgiving, lol.

[glenn kangiser]

Taylor, just a thought, but if you have guests they will always have to go through your bedroom to get to the bathroom.  It would either be no sleeping in or squinty eyed guests if they have to wait.  Possibly this was already considered. 

[Taylor]

I don't really have any guest, the only person that comes up is my mom. I have her a 5th wheel on the back of the land, so if I do have any over night guest they have there on trailer to stay in. The reason I put the bath back there, is I already have the washer and dyer installed in the location in the shed and my power comes in that corner too, so it just seemed the easiest to leave it that way and stick the bathroom in there with the washer and dryer.

Thanks

Taylor

[Taylor]

Here is a rough design on how I would like to add-on to my first little house to make it bigger in the future but it maybe 5-10 years from now.

[glenn kangiser]

That looks good.  You may want to consider future plumbing hookups in regard to elevation - slope and leaving stubs for future hookups if pretty sure of your plans.  It can make the addition easier. 

Example - leave enough room to cut a pipe and add a fitting rather than butting a cleanout tight to a tee.

[Taylor]

That is a very good point you have there Glenn, I will defiantly take that into account when I do the plumbing.

Thanks

Taylor

[apaknad]

thanx you guys,

i really like the idea of fishing in bull shoals and norfork. i am a disabled vet and will be 62 in a month. i have dear friends in little rock and it would be nice to be able to visit.

[Taylor]

I was looking out in my shed on how the bedroom out layout. So I came up with this idea, the little room would be the walk in closet with shed roof on it so it would not be a full height room, but it shouldn't cost to much more to build it.

Here is the floor plan

[NM_Shooter]

Consider a skylight in the BR....

Looks like a nice tight plan.

[Taylor]

I will keep skylight in mind. I am on a real tight budget, but can always add the skylight later on. I am going to try to get the shell done with insulation and bathroom for about $3500-4000. I only spent about $1500 building the shed in the first place. My dad works at Lowes so I get a small discount.

Thanks

Taylor

[soomb]

my 2 cents (not that you need it) could the kitchen be at the other end of the living room to allow it (and the plumbing) to stay put while you expand for the larger living room/bath/bedroom in the expansion.

[Taylor]

That would probably be the easier thing and cheaper to do since my plumbing and electrical would be closer to my water pump and service entrance, but I really like the door out on the deck in the kitchen/dining area since I do a lot of grilling it is just easier to carry stuff back and forth.

Update on my construction: I ran my string lines and marked off where my concrete tubs are going and started digging, didn't make it to deep until I hit rock, so I have been trying to get the rocks out.
I will try to get some pictures.


Thanks

Taylor

[Taylor]

Pictures of today's work:





Taylor

[zion-diy]

I'm shocked, shocked, that you hit rocks when digging. LOL

[Taylor]

Yeah it is amazing, I think I pulled more rock out of the holes than I did dirt. I got 5 out of 10 of them dug yesterday, going to finish the holes today and probably pour concrete tomorrow.

Taylor

[Taylor]

Today's update: I got the holes finished up, I actually dug 3 holes with out hitting major rocks. I got 22 80lb bags of quickrete today, so tomorrow is all about getting the piers poured. I hope by Saturday that I can start setting up the beams and floor joists and maybe the deck done. I didn't take any pictures today, because it looks about the same as yesterday other then there is more dirt on the ground by the holes, lol.

Taylor

[glenn kangiser]

Good job, Taylor.  I'm much lazier than you and drag out a machine when I get to rocks.

[Redoverfarm]

Come on Glenn wheres your spirit.  Need to get you more involved in farming and setting fence post with a digging iron and post hole diggers.  Makes you sleep better

Taylor now you will see the progress start.  Keep us posted.