Vancouver Island A-Frame Project

Started by Lakelife31, July 13, 2016, 01:21:19 AM

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Lakelife31

Well this is the first post on my Journey to Build my "off-grid" dream cabin. I use quotations because It will be a nice practical mashup between sacrifice and convenience until I can afford to go fully off grid with solar, wind, ect. It all started with an instagram post. This one to be precise....



That combined with my present landlords finally deciding to sell their current house. Thats the bad news. The good news? They offered for me to put up a decent sized cabin in the back corner of their new fully tree'd lot, which was only 2 minutes away.

After a week or two of panicking, I started to do my research. Literally logging countless hours, googling, "pinteresting", reading forums, emailing, messaging and pretty much doing anything to soak up as much as I can before I start my journey. There were two major inspirations in the form of bloggers who had captured their experiences. One  of them being http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=9259.0. A great blog following a young couple who erected a 20x32 A-frame in central KY. Another great source was http://ouraframe.blogspot.ca/ . This was the first blog I came across. I used these two sources mostly for visualizing, and in combining that with any and all similar experiences building this type of dwelling. I look forward to attempting to be as diligent as possible in keeping this blog updated.....more to come soon.

Welcoming any and all tips/tricks/suggestions/experiences/criticisms/Ect.

Cheers,
Jeff

kenhill

Just from what you have described so far, I have some worries.  It will be their lot, it will be your sweat and equity to build a structure, that you may have no legal right to access or stay in in the future.  I see red flags here.

If you have land rights, that is another thing.  Then you should spend some time in an A-frame to see if the shape is in reality more limiting than one can visualize.


John Raabe

I echo the concerns that KenHill mentions. Also, in the image, note the way the roof to ground connection leads to water soaking into the rafters and floor framing. This is never a good idea.
None of us are as smart as all of us.

NathanS

I would guess that Vancouver Island has extremely strict zoning laws. You probably aren't legally allowed to build a second home on the (someone else's) property. There are probably a lot of other legal issues with this. Unfortunately one of the worst and most complicated parts about building a home is all the stuff that isn't actually building (codes, zoning, insurance, site work, septic, engineering requirements). Never mind real estate, which is a whole beast unto itself, and in my opinion is generally pretty corrupted.

I don't mean to dissuade you, but there are a lot of items to check off before you start digging a hole for your full perimeter (:P) foundation.

You might be able to get around code and zoning buy building a tiny house on a trailer frame. Also you could just move the thing somewhere else if something happens with your land lord.

Lakelife31

Quote from: kenhill on July 13, 2016, 11:07:05 AM
Just from what you have described so far, I have some worries.  It will be their lot, it will be your sweat and equity to build a structure, that you may have no legal right to access or stay in in the future.  I see red flags here.

If you have land rights, that is another thing.  Then you should spend some time in an A-frame to see if the shape is in reality more limiting than one can visualize.

Hey Ken!
Thanks for the feedback, and you would be correct with your advice. Definitely reminded me how important it would be. In this case I have some pretty amazing landlords. The type of people that have more character and class than anyone can ask for. That being said, we are still chatting about this subject, as they too would like me to be comfortable with the situation. We are discussing everything from simple written contracts, to them "internally subdividing the property for me. I will definitely assume some risk during the very early stages of foundation construction, but we will have something in place before I really sink my financial teeth into it. Feel free to follow and share your thoughts as I am certainly not as experienced as I would like. Cheers.
Jeff


Lakelife31

Quote from: John Raabe on July 14, 2016, 01:33:02 PM
I echo the concerns that KenHill mentions. Also, in the image, note the way the roof to ground connection leads to water soaking into the rafters and floor framing. This is never a good idea.

Hi John!
Agreed. I am in the process of putting something in place for my own protection financially, and with respect to liability. As for the one pictured above. That was more of the inspiration to build this design, and will almost in no way resemble my finished product. That was my first thought as well. Seems like that design leaves itself very vulnerable to moisture underneath. I will be resting the dwelling on 15 4 foot cement sonotubes. Here is the foundation design I plan to use. I looked at many options(but would love to hear more feedback), and after speaking with many on the matter, it seemed the one pictured below was a solid design, without going too expensive. 2x12 doubled up box beams, 2x10 green treated joists, finished off with some 5/8 treated plywood. Might have some lattice, but other than that, will leave the underneath fairly open to allow it to breath. Let me know what you think. Cheers

Lakelife31

#6
Quote from: NathanS on July 14, 2016, 04:03:25 PM
I would guess that Vancouver Island has extremely strict zoning laws. You probably aren't legally allowed to build a second home on the (someone else's) property. There are probably a lot of other legal issues with this. Unfortunately one of the worst and most complicated parts about building a home is all the stuff that isn't actually building (codes, zoning, insurance, site work, septic, engineering requirements). Never mind real estate, which is a whole beast unto itself, and in my opinion is generally pretty corrupted.

I don't mean to dissuade you, but there are a lot of items to check off before you start digging a hole for your full perimeter (:P) foundation.

You might be able to get around code and zoning buy building a tiny house on a trailer frame. Also you could just move the thing somewhere else if something happens with your land lord.

I have learned this area has very few rules with respect to that. Just only under legislation recently, in fact. We don't even have speed signs where we are. That being said, we are building to better than code. Just minus the permits and government approval. It will be mostly off grid and using the many loopholes of our glorious, failing legal system, it will be classified in a manner that fits accordingly, and has it fall under minimal scrutiny. I considered going to tiny house route with respect to code, but I doubt I will need to. I will keep it for as long as I live, or they move, but this is long term for them, so they aren't going anywhere soon(I hope).  I do appreciate the consideration however. We will see how she goes. Cheers.