Hello to everyone, My name is John and I am going to build this house, 3 bedroom 1 bath in Indiana for under 10k. I am doing a shed roofed version of the 16x28 two story similar to what alot of people have been doing here. Better yet its going to be done in approx 1 month by my dad and myself and an occasional hand from my brothers. EVERY STEP IS GOING TO BE RECORDED AND A DVD IS GOING TO BE MADE FOR A BASIC STEP BY STEP INCLUDING MATERIALS AND COST. Please give me feedback and tell me what you think. I have done all calculating including overages. Luckily my dad owned a concrete company, my brother is a journeyman plumber and my friend is an electrician.
The house is going to have a slab foundation which will be stained and used as the floor inside, most everything is going be bought from the big orange box and Lowes. I might possibly be one of the cheapest people on earth when it comes to finding deals but all prices will be recorded for proof. Tell me what you think Thanks and I love this site. Wish me luck and keep it positive. MORE TO COME!
w* johnbrakingground
This'll be great to watch. That's a nice cross section of skills you have there. :)
Great idea I have mine allmost framed now and into it 6 days. Should be ready for siding and roof plywood in 10 days max so I am moving right along for the main builder and a kid helping me move wood and lift walls. I should be done in a month no problem except for inside sheet rock and plumbing. It will be wired and all painted on the outside tho. Best things to document are the loads of wood rquired for doing a few days of work and leaving nothing at the job when your not there. Not hard to summit a set of plans and get a package of wood droped off to build with. I had to brake mine down into sections and it has workd out into 3 loads so far and the forth one will finish the framing part. Mark
PS I left out one major part I spent 2 months thinking about how I was going to build it on paper during the winter while waiting for the snow to go away! I had the whole thing broke down in a note book to build off of.
I have been doing the same thing as far as building it on paper and putting timelines on certain parts of the build. I will have no distractions because our house in Oregon is getting sold and I will be going back to Indiana by myself and my wife and kids will come when the house is finished. Luckily my father and brothers live in the same town I'm building in and my father is retired so he will be able to help out alot. As far as lumber price how close are you to your budget at this point?
Sounds like an exciting project. I'm curious to see how you keep the cost under $10k.
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on April 06, 2008, 02:55:04 AM
I have been doing the same thing as far as building it on paper and putting timelines on certain parts of the build. I will have no distractions because our house in Oregon is getting sold and I will be going back to Indiana by myself and my wife and kids will come when the house is finished. Luckily my father and brothers live in the same town I'm building in and my father is retired so he will be able to help out alot. As far as lumber price how close are you to your budget at this point?
I would have no problem coming in under 10K for the framing, electrical, outside trim, roof metal and insulation. I would go over that if I added in the sheet rock, plumbing and inside trim. You can eatup 10K worth of money on cabnits and appliances in the kitchen alone. Course it depends on quality and if you need to hire out any of the work also. Mark
The price will include everything, cabinets and counters will be custom made for the most part. I have also bought alot of the fixtures including the one piece tub and surround at deep discounts from Lowes. It just takes going into lowes early morning as often as you can to find the discountinued and blemished products such as my solid surface countertop for the bathroom with built in sink special order price $264 my price with a corner broke off and end of the year discounts at 75% off discount price is $3.00. Tub surround normally 287.00 had been dinged where nobody is going to see it, my price $125. All the windows I bought are odds and ends or special order returns that I got for half of what retail is. All this really starts adding up. My posts might start coming a little slow because I am getting ready to move so I won't have access to the net as often but I will get on as much as I can and post updates and pics and prices.
Just courious where in IN are you? I am in NE IN. Look forward to seeing your project!
The house will be built in Terre Haute, In. Construction will start at the end of May. Untill then I will be buying up as many clearance items I can find in Oregon where there is no sales tax.
Best wishes on an interesting project. You have an economical and easy to build basic shape - that goes a long way towards economical construction.
Looking forward to pics and updates.
It may be a little tough, but you can do it for that. Great deals can be found. Where in OR are you now?
I currently live near McMinnville, Oregon.
As far as for current house details its been hard trying to get accurate building codes for Terre Haute, In. I've been able to get a hold of the Building Department once. I asked about insulation codes and wall thickness's and sq ft requirements and all answers I got back included "I think" and "I'm pretty sure" ??? which is not very reassuring. I don't want to have my plans finalalized and then be told that my building is to small or something like that. Indiana is not a RESCHECK state so it hard to get concrete answers on anything. If someone out there has any information on code there, please let me know. Thanks d* ???
Looking at the ReChek website I see the following notation:
Notes on the State's Residential Code:
Indiana Energy Conservation Code
(1992 Model Energy Code with Indiana amendments)
Pretty old. If you're unable to get more concrete info from the officials there you could always choose to draw them up with more modern standards, such as the IRC2003. The surrounding states seem to have all gone with the 2006 standard. I'm not sure of what those differences would be, however the 2003 would likely save you money in the long run over whatever they have now.
Maybe someone will have something more useful to add.
It might be better, long term, to try to up the building to higher standards, even if it means bumping over your self imposed $10K limit. ???
I was born in McMinnville, Oregon, Johnbrakingground. Has the city recovered yet? [crz]
I'm not sure how long its been since youve been here, but Mcminnville is one the more expensive places to live in the Willamette valley with many regular homes going for $3-400,000. Utilities are nice and cheap though.
I don't think I have been through there in the last 15 years or so. Maybe once or twice. Flew into the airport there --probably early to mid 90's.
Still got Evergreen/CIA choppers there?
Can't wait to see the progress on this one, this is similar to what I'm wanting to build.
[cool]
Welcome to the forum, KyJohn68. :)
Well, thank you! Good to be here!
Well its been a long time since I posted anything, so............ We have decided to stay in Oregon and have found a piece of property 8 min from the Ocean near Lincoln City. The lot is a half acre and has 250+ ft of year around creek frontage. This lot is a steal of a deal and this spring to summer we hopefully will be starting this project. Originally we wanted to do this last year but the real estate market fell on it face so selling our house was not going to net us much profit. This year is a little better and we are setup to do it so please let me know what you think. I love this site, we have learned a lot.
Definitely looking forward to seeing your project! Good luck!
You are getting closer, John. My grandparents homesteaded on Widow Creek road, Rose Lodge. Parents and cousin still live and have land there.
I went to Taft HS, Oceanlake school, DeLake school and Rose Lodge school.
Which part of the area are you in?
Its actually right in Otis. My kids will likely go to Lincoln City schools. Small world.
Welcome back, funny how life can get in the way of progress.
;DConsiderations, your right. By the way your one that I have continued to follow. Nicely done. We just went by the property and did measurements and took pictures. I will post a few in the next day or so. ;)
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on January 10, 2010, 01:23:27 PM
Its actually right in Otis. My kids will likely go to Lincoln City schools. Small world.
Otis Cafe.. My cousin and daughters worked there for a long time -Still? - I dunno. My uncle used to keep his cows in the triangle shaped area where the two highways meet and my mom is still the mail carrier there but I think she works out of LC now. I used to hang out at Roy McDonalds garage.
Please keep us posted.
I will update as soon as something happens. Thats very cool though
Hard to tell whats what, but these are some of the pics we took this weekend.
The creek runs behind the property and there is a paved road on the the other side.
(https://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/johnbrakingground/Otis013.jpg)
(https://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/johnbrakingground/Otis010.jpg)
(https://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/johnbrakingground/Otis011.jpg)
(https://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz194/johnbrakingground/Otis012-1.jpg)
Oh, that's nice! Ferns too! I'm green as well, but with envy.
Hmm Looks just like the place I grew up in.
A bit overly wet for me though.
As a kid I picked a few fern, cut firewood and peeled chittum to make a few extra bucks near there. :)
Another dream crushed. I just found out today that this lot is not approved for Septic and water is questionable. We were suppose to sign papers this coming week. This suck big time. The septic place I called said they may be able to put a newer style septic system in but that it would cost around $16,000. No thanks. We will find a lot by this summer hopefully.
Sorry to hear that, John. My nephew is in a place that floods south of LC and that is a real pain also. Hope you find the right place soon.
composting toilet, and rain water catchment. If the price is right, and the land is right, it's always doable. Maybe even easier (not as much a compromise) than you think. No pumping septic, no leach fields, no well problems. You should get enough rain where you are.
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on January 12, 2010, 07:50:30 PM
Another dream crushed. I just found out today that this lot is not approved for Septic and water is questionable...
Bummer! :(
But so much nicer to find out before you sign the papers...
Keep looking, it's out there somewhere.
I looked, and waited, and looked, and waited...
Eventually I found a deal that worked for me! I'm sure yours is out there somewhere, just waiting for you ;)
It took me at least a year and a half to find this property....now you know to get all those additional questions answered before you let yourself get too excited. One cannot depend on the real estate agents to know (or tell you) the specifics about a property. Just get the "street " address and the parcel number and head for the county seat to look all that stuff up yourself.
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on January 12, 2010, 07:50:30 PM
Another dream crushed. I just found out today that this lot is not approved for Septic and water is questionable. We were suppose to sign papers this coming week. This suck big time. The septic place I called said they may be able to put a newer style septic system in but that it would cost around $16,000. No thanks. We will find a lot by this summer hopefully.
Bummer. Keep in mind that it may be possible to approach an abutter to get an easement to put a septic on their property.... depending how bad you want it and what the abutting properties are like. All of the cheap lots have some issue... and if someone could invent an affordable off-the-ground septic/waste water system (burn/evaporate waste/water) ... they'd be millionaires. Anyone got any ideas ??? :-)
Jens you got me thinking. The property is still available and I was looking into codes for composting toilets. It is legal to use them in Oregon. The code for Grey water systems was a little confusing but I think they are also allowed. Can anyone confirm either way. I don't mind using composting toilets to save 15k on alternative septic system. I am getting a little excited again. Please any advice or general feedback from anyone that has run these systems. Thanks
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on March 10, 2010, 12:03:36 AM
Jens you got me thinking. The property is still available and I was looking into codes for composting toilets. It is legal to use them in Oregon. The code for Grey water systems was a little confusing but I think they are also allowed. Can anyone confirm either way. I don't mind using composting toilets to save 15k on alternative septic system. I am getting a little excited again. Please any advice or general feedback from anyone that has run these systems. Thanks
Hmmm....how remote are you? Will you live there? I probably missed that.
In WA Composting toilets are allowed but if you have a well or live permanently you MUST still put in septic. Rain water is doable but not for living unless you put in a major cistern with pump and filter etc and the state probably won't go for it.
But if it's remote, out of the way, hidden off the main roads with a 4x4 trail to get there then who knows ;)
Quote from: Johnbrakingground on March 10, 2010, 12:03:36 AM
Jens you got me thinking. The property is still available and I was looking into codes for composting toilets. It is legal to use them in Oregon. The code for Grey water systems was a little confusing but I think they are also allowed. Can anyone confirm either way. I don't mind using composting toilets to save 15k on alternative septic system. I am getting a little excited again. Please any advice or general feedback from anyone that has run these systems. Thanks
You really need to go to the county building department and talk to one of their engineers. Make an appointment if necessary (more likely to get some of their time that way). Tell them what you are thinking about doing and ask if it's possible, and turn that around and tell them about the lot and ask how they would recommend doing it in order to make things work with that lot. I'm in Klamath County, and I'm not sure how similar the codes/regulations are from county to county, but here we can have a composting toilet only if there is a place to put in a septic system later if it should be wanted or needed. In other words, if you have a lot that won't perk no matter what, they won't consider it buildable even if you plan to use a composting toilet for the rest of your life. But if there's a place to put in a septic system later on (even if you know you never will do that) then they'll let you use a composting toilet. Personally I would at least start out with a humanure system (low cost and easy maintenance). Here you have to bury the waste from the composting toilet at least 12" deep, and I think there were some other stipulations as well -- it's been a while since I looked into it.
I love the Coast -- was born at Florence and would love to live in that area again, but it's gotten so costly that it's not likely I'll ever be able to. I hope you'll post pictures if you do get the lot and start building! (If you do, keep in mind that the Coast can experience very high winds at times -- tie your structure together extremely well!)
Kathleen
Kathy, Down in Klamath county is where all that inexpensive land is correct? We thought about buying some land in Christmas Valley and putting up a vacation house there. So you can use a composting toilet down there with out a septic as long as you could put a septic in? How lax are the building codes down there?
Don't put the cart before the horse! I'll bet anything the septic nor gray water system is allowed BECAUSE of that creek you seem so enamoured with