building small and/or cheap

[akemt]

The house we've been trying to sell for over the past year is closing this month!  One can hope, eh?!  Then we'll finally be out of debt, though it may take us a few more months to pay off our recent medical bills (we now have a 6-week old --thus the bills), then we'll have no debt whatsoever.

We're now a family of 6:  Me, my husband, two daughters under 6 and two sons under 2; and are currently living at my mother's and looking to build with cash as soon as we can.  We can get a loan on land if we must, though we'd prefer to avoid that too!  

About the smallest size house I've been able to fit us into on paper is roughly 20 x 24 two story (possibly 1 1/2 depending on roof pitch) with kitchen/family down and three small rooms up.  A design that could be added onto later.

Anyone have suggestions on cutting building costs or living area for our size family?  Within about a year we could likely double the size as needed, but I'd rather spend that year on our own than at my mothers if you catch my drift...And the sooner that can happen, the happier we'll be!

[rdzone]

akmet,

I see you are in southeast alaska, where are you planning on building?  I have several friends live in southeast, that have cut down on building cost by taking advantage of forest service regulations.  The forest service allows a certian amount of timber (I can't remember exactly how much) to be harvested by an Alaskan for free.  My friends hired someone to cut down the trees and milled them into demensional lumber to build their cabins.  It saved them $$ for lumber and they had everything from beams to studs milled.  I believe they both have 1 1/2 story places. See the regulation below.



             TITLE 36--PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY

          CHAPTER II--FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

PART 223_SALE AND DISPOSAL OF NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM TIMBER
--Table of Contents

                      Subpart A_General Provisions

Sec. 223.10  Free use to Alaskan settlers, miners, residents,
and prospectors.

    Bona fide settlers, miners, residents, and prospectors for minerals
in Alaska may take free of charge green or dried timber from the
National Forests in Alaska for personal use but not for sale. Permits
will be required for green saw timber. Other material may be taken
without permit. The amount of material granted to any one person in 1
year shall not exceed 10,000 board feet of saw timber and 25 cords of
wood, or an equivalent volume in other forms. Persons obtaining
materials shall, on demand, forward to the supervisor a statement of the
quantity taken and the location from which it was removed.

(Sec. 1, 30 Stat. 35, 16 U.S.C. 477)

[akemt]

Hey Chuck, Thanks for the advice.  Yes, I can get free logs.  Or rather we can, but the problem for us lies in the fact that the one's closest to us are all on another island.  I don't know if it'll still be worth it monitarily by the time we've traveled to select the trees, paid someone to fell them, then trucking to a barge, barge them here, and then paid for trucking to our building site.  I would love to get those logs and build a loghomebuilders log home, though.  Ahh...dreams come true!  I still have the form to get the trees somewhere.  Depending on how things work out, maybe we can go tree-hunting next Spring.  I don't think we'll get that far, though.

My feeling is that financially, we'll have to build small (we're going loan-free) with a countryplan home, then save up and maybe we can add a massive log home onto our cottage later on.    While I feel it is futile, one can hope our economy/freedoms hang on long enough for us to do some of these things. 

[rwanders]

Don't give up----slow and steady will win for you. Happiness isn't guaranteed fora anyone but living within our means makes a great down payment!!

[Bishopknight]

My tips:

Get lots of those 10% off coupons from Lowes. You can buy them on ebay or signup for them online. I've had relatives sign up and then email the coupon to print out.

Keep the design to 4's and 8's, dimensional lumber wise.

Search major city window manufacturers "pig pens" or "back rooms" for deals on perfectly good, never used thermalpane windows.

Check craigslist for sinks, cabinets, windows, un-used countertop, building supplies.

Get a hitch and a 4x8 utility trailer if you dont own a pickup. I borrowed my neighbors pickup for Home Depot trips and my compact w/ trailer is 3x cheaper in gas for getting < 200 lbs worth of long/wide stuff.