The eastern exodus continues

[Jens]

Does anyone on this site live in the Asheville, NC area?  My wife and I are going out for a week in August to check it out.  This will be the first time we have ever both been away from our kids (three oldest, baby going with us)!  Weird stuff man.

[Jens]

anyway...forgot to add the whole point of that post.  Could anyone tell me about the area?  I am especially interested in the building codes, and how lax or stringent they are.

[Miedrn]

Here's a link to some of the codes...http://www.ci.asheville.nc.us/building/main.htm

Michigan has the state codes on their website with a PDF download that you can look up the plumbing, electrical and other jurisdictions. Perhaps NC does also but that is a result of a fast search I did.

Here is a link to somewhere you can check local codes.......just a quick glance at the website looks interesting. Supposedly first search is free to check for municipal codes. http://www.municode.com/

[JRR]

Nice area.  

I strongly recommend visiting the Biltmore House if you have the time ... most of a day.  The mansion visit includes a good review of how the house was built (complete with scaled models, photos, etc).  Biltmore first had to build a railway to bring in craftsmen and materials for the project.  Lavish gardens.  You can get more info online.

Also a Cherokee reservation is nearby.  Very interesting.

White water rafting?   Different risk levels for whatever ages are in group.  Complete with guides.

[Amanda_931]

There was a North Carolina natural building group headquartered in that area.  I think it lapsed into nothingness when the man behind it decided to go back to school in another state.

I think all the states have a building code, or rather buy into one of them.  However some places don't really care if you follow them or not.  I believe that North Carolina is not one of those states.  They do care.

And the Asheville area might care more than say, Hoke County, one of the places I grew up.

[n74tg]

Real pretty country over there.  If you're into rafting or canoeing go do the Nantahala River, a very nice trip, but there is one scary set of rapids at the end of the trip that has a "roller" that you don't want to get into.

[hobbiest]

I think all the states have a building code, or rather buy into one of them.  However some places don't really care if you follow them or not.  I believe that North Carolina is not one of those states.  They do care.

[/quote]

Some counties still don't have building codes.  There are some in Tennessee like this.  Mendicino county, CA, has a class K permit, which doesn't have code backing.  That is the kind of thing I was wondering about.  I did find out (well, my wife did), that a building permit costs $350!  It's 100 times that here in Santa Cruz!

[Moonblink]

We were just up in Asheville, NC.  We were thinking about moving there from Florida....Beautiful country and a great city, unfortunatly most of NYC knows this too and the baby boomers have now been moving there in droves.  Land prices near Asheville are 50k + per acre or way way more depending on the quality of the property.  I would consider Fairview, Candler or Leicester they are about 20 minutes or so outside of CAsheville as I know refer to it.  What really turned me off was the salaries.  25-30k a year are normal wages there, but most housing and land is 300k now.  You do the math, it cant hold up.  I am waiting for all the city folk to realize they dont like it and go away!  or a market crash whichever hits first...but if I could afford it I would definitly move there, the weather is perfect, the views are great and the adventures are a plenty!  Good luck!

Moon.

[benevolance]

I live about 45 minutes away from Asheville
Across the state line off interstate 26 in South Carolina...

If you look at a map Asheville is where interstate 40 and interstate 26 intersect....

At any rate if you head towards columbia on interstate 26 you come down out of the mountains...Asheville is up on a plateau of sorts... I am the first exit you get to when you cross the state line into South Carolina... HWY 14 at exit 1

15 minutes from Asheville you are in the steep rolling side hill country of Hendersonville. Great white water rafting... good wild boar hunting.

If you are going to go white water rafting I recommend the green river...It is the second oldest river in the world and the rafting is great! Water is cold even in the heat of the summer...

Do not try to buy land or a house near Asheville...It is retardedly expensive!!!!! A worn out dead tired fixer upper in the city...is 250,000...Land is ridiculous as well....Nothing to pay 50,000 for a building lot.

Do not go south of the city looking for land...Go north...Mars Hill Area... still some nice land out that way and it is reasonable, (somewhat)

I have only lived here a few years and all I do is work...So I am not the best person to tell you about the sights and sounds...Now my wife and her mom are asheville junkies...They go driving in the mountains all the time...Antiquing.. that sort of thing...

They do get me to stop working every once in a while to go hiking up in the Blue Ridge parkway...Which is a mountain top road....Gorgeous..And asheville has a lot of old tyme home style pizzerias and home brew restaurants....Good food and live music there if that is your sort of thing....again I am more comfortable in the woods... so if you need me to give you directions to the hot spots in Asheville I cannot help you...

[Jens]

We are going to be looking about 15 or 20 minute radius of Asheville.  We have looked all we can on the internet, so we are now planning a trip for a week in August.  We have 4 kids, whitewater rafting isn't really our thing, maybe later.  We currently live about 15 minutes from Santa Cruz, CA, which has good music, events, and local scene, and have been told by people that Asheville is very similar.  We have found a lot of property within our price range, a lot more reasonable than here ($100k per acre).  Thank you to everyone who has replied, and more replies would still be welcomed.  I am trying to get a couple of buddies to move there as well, and we can start building some kickass spec homes.  We shall see.  Main priority is to get into some good land, and get the homestead built mortgage free.  I hate owing money!

[Jens]

Got back from Asheville a while ago, and it was awesome!  Everything is sooooooooooooooooooo green!  We also spent the weekend with some friends at a lake house near Knoxville, TN.  Had an excellent time.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any internet the entire time to get your address and stuff, really wanted to stop by.  Kinda ran out of time too.  Spent most of our time driving around the mountains looking at land.  Mars Hill and Marshall are probably our favorites.  Black Mountain is really cool too.  We found the perfect property for us in Mars Hill area, now we just need to come up with $80k cash to buy it!  Oh well.  We are moving to Maine for about a year and a half in November.  My building partner and I have a 5200 square foot house to build for his cousin.  Way too big.  Conflicts with my morals, but...it is a carpenters dream (and nightmare rolled into one)!  We will be framing, running exterior trim, siding (maybe), tile, hardwood floors, kitchen and baths, and trim.  Basically all the stuff we love to do.  After that, we will probably be looking down south there.

[Jens]

Here are the plans for the house we will be building up north.

http://www.eplans.com/house-plans.hwx/Q/IsLookup.true/Alias.hwepl11853/plan-lookup-form-submit.Go

[FrankInWI]

house?  did you say you are going to build this...?  like with hammer and nails?  Of you are building it like hiring a builder to do it?

[Jens]

My partner and I, along with some hired grunts, are going to build it.  We are going to sub out the foundation, electrical, plumbing, sheetrock, siding, roofing, HVAC, and painting.  This is what we do for a living, although neither of us have been head guy on a project of this size before.  I'm not worried, just keep plugging away until its finished.  It is outrageously huge though.

[glenn kangiser]

I did small projects for  a long time then took on one valued at  over a million dollars.  With good planning and scheduling we did good and completed on time.

[bradschmid]

Hobbiest:
i am very interested in the house you will be building (#HWEPL11853). Do you have any other information on that home other than the link that you posted on eplans.com? Architect, other pictures, etc?
Let me know

[hobbiest]

No I don't have any other info to give you on it.  We have reviewed the blueprints but, as we have not built it yet, we don't have any photos.  Perhaps the site administrator on that plans site has some, or knows who to call.  Are you interested in it to have one built?

[bradschmid]

We are leaning towards purchasing the blueprints from eplans.com and having some builders take a look at the plans. Its too early to say whether or not I will build this house. I do like the house, though. According to eplans.com, it is 4363 sq. ft. but you say that the house is over 5000. Did you make modifications to enlarge the house? Do you have any estimate as to what you think the house will cost you to build?

[Jens]

The garage is 400 square ft, and it is just easier to say 5000.  I think that the plans read as 4800, with 400 garage.  I could be wrong though.  In any case, it is huge.  My estimate is that the building cost will be around 1.5-2 million.  Only the best materials will be used (probably), and the labor is no small thing.  The people that are having us build it are loaded, and have said that they just want it done right.  Like I said, it is the carpenters dream to have a client who values quality above all else, as opposed to all the people out here who want to squeeze a penny until it turns to dust.  I myself am very frugal by nature, but have learned many of the skills to achieve cheap, and quality much of the time.  Still though, I will pay plenty more for, say, a handmade pair of workboots, than I will for the mass-produced "equivalents".  Sometimes frugality must be pushed aside.  Ok...rambling now...cheers.

P.S.  Where are you looking to build this house?

[bradschmid]

sorry its been a while
I am planning on building this house in SE Iowa near the town of Burlington. I assumed the house would cost me around 1M to build, which is much less than what you are thinking. The cost of housing I assume is much less here in IA than in NC. Either that or I'm just fooling myself to think I can build that house for 1M. We live in a 1500sq. ft. condo right now and just had our first child and I think we're going to need a little more space so I'm looking to build. Like I mentioned before, I would like it if you would share any information that you have on that house with me as I'd like to at least know who the architect is who designed it before drop 3000 on the prints.
Thanks

[hobbiest]

I just moved into our rental yesterday!  We are in Barrington, NH, it is a 3/1 Colonial, built in 1792, with a detatched one, and two car garages, a heated pool, hot tub, sunroom, on four acres, about 25 minutes from my job site.  We may exercise an option to purchase as well, and build our house that I have been designing.  Who knows?  I have been in NH for a week now, and finally saw the sun today.  Having a great time out here, but I really miss my family.  They will get out here on the 6th of Dec.  I can't wait!  Anybody here in NH, ME, or MA?

[glenn-k]

Wow - the other side of the world.  

Daddymem and Mommymem are in MA.  Check out the Progress Finally thread in the owner builder forum.

[hobbiest]

check...will do.  Where in Mass?  DM or MM IM me.

[Raider_Bill]

I just bought 69 acres near Tellico Plains Tn. $2200 per acre, beautiful area on the north side of mountains.
Hope to start this spring building!

[glenn-k]

Lofty goals there , Bill.  

Do you have any ideas on what kind of house you are going to build?  

Welcome to the forum.