Home Building Kits?

Nevada,

Charles is running about a dozen businesses at the same time. I don't know how he does it, but I guess that a lot of good stuff slips through the cracks.


Don

The Country Home Journal

Don, thanks for the compliment. Ya, we are really proud of it, and the fact we stayed married. Actually, we became closer...guess we kind of had to. My husband is a jack of all trades and never stops amazing me with what he can do. We've been married 13 years - me a city 'girl' and him growing up on the farm. We've both lived in the country now for over 25 years. Since we've been married we've done a lot of projects together and each time we take on something big i think, there is no way...and then he figures it out. This of course, was the biggest project ever. I wouldn't want to do it again but now that it's about finished (still finishing the basement) I love it. Not enough to do it again but I love it. Building the house basically took over our lives for 18 months and now it's good to be able to work on a few things OTHER than the house.

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Some things are just worth waiting for

The slab measures 16' x 28'. The floor plan is basically the one shown below. I replaced the ladder to the second floor with a ships ladder. I've attached a few construction photos below.

dexter do you have a link to those kits? or are they not on the HD website. or maybe its just me who cant find it


thanks
dean

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Hope is something you give yourself in your darkest moments, this is the true meaning of selfreliance.

greetings from the far east of the western world

Oh I LOVE It!

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"I prayed for patience and God sent me a goat"
Come view our homesteading blog http://ahahahni1.wordpress.com/

ha - you made me laugh outloud!!!!
That's the truth!

You do have a VERY beautiful home!

Jhambly, I think your layout is perfect. what a great place for a single or couple. Easy to maintaine, low energy costs, small footprint which keeps taxes low.

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Some things are just worth waiting for

Jhambly, That's a great little home. Congratulations. It's off subject (sorry!) but, I loved your simple detailing of the ship's ladder. Is that just conduit pipe for the handrails?

I'm designing a ship's ladder for the loft of a small barn. Is your climb comfortable? How did you come up with the dimensions for your rises and treads?

Don

The Country Home Journal

Yes, I made the railing using electrical conduit and used standard caps at the ends and strapping to hold it in place. Here are a few more photos showing how I used a conduit bender to bend the railings at the top of the stairs. As far as the rise/run...I didn't want the stairs to use any more floor space than necessary but also wanted to make certain my two kids (6, 8, 18) could easy climb them as they do their outside play gym. You come down the stairs backwards (like a ladder) and they work really well. Even my 80 year old father-in-law climbed them to see the kids bunks in the loft. To make it even more treehouse-like, I built the kids a crank up rope bucket so they can transport items up and down.

Truthfully, it is amazing how comfortably you can live in a small home if it is planned out correctly. You just can't have "stuff" cluttering up the place. For example, we have a small under counter refrigerator that works just fine for us. In our other house, we had a very large refrigerator that always seemed full but upon closer inspection it contained 30 bottles of half used salad dressing and left overs. We cook in both the toaster and Nuwave ovens along with an electric skillet and microwave. We do have a small freezer which comes in handy as well (you can see it in the dining area against the wall in the previous photos).

The cabin is very energy efficient as we used 2x6 exterior construction with blown cellulose insulation (see photo below). The windows are all Pella low-e, argon filled. We purchased the windows from the return rack at Lowes at a fraction of the regular price over about a one year period before we started building.

This is the third home I have built with my wife of 26 years...and we're still speaking to one another

Stair Railings


Another view of The Stairs


The Kid's Bunk Beds (the kids helped build these from cedar)


Photo showing Cellulose Insulation

Jhambly,

Thank you for the extra photos. I think that's just a great stair design - practical, simple and it looks terrific.

Don

The Country Home Journal

You may want to check if you are required to abide by any building codes since I don't think that ladder fits within the Uniform Building Code. Unless of course, the second story is for storage only, then it might be allowed.

There is a book titled "Basic Home Building" put out by Ortho press and I highly recommend it to be read by anyone considering building a house. I've used the book to build about three different houses, it covers enough to let you figure out what to do.

I do drafting and have seen a lot of different folks build houses and other sorts of buildings. Generally stickbuilt homes are cheaper than kit houses and come out nicer unless you get one of the really expensive kit homes. Any house has to have a septic/cess pool/sewer connection of some sort and that will remain the same for either type of construction. The site work is the same for kit house versus stick built and the electrical and plumbing the interior remain the same for either the kit house or the stick built. Stick built houses usually get their materials locally which generally makes up for any savings you get by buying a kit house.

To build a house, sit on the property where you want to build it and consider how you want to live your basic day. You want to wake up early in the morning? Put your bedroom facing the sunrise. Have a nice breakfast overlooking the stream? Put the dining nook facing the stream. Arrange your house to accommodate your life and draw a few sketches along with notes of what you want. Then find a competent draftsperson to draw it up for you. Read the book, Basic Home Building and figure out how to pay for the construction. Some folks get a loan, some folks build small and expand but pay cash as they go. It is generally different for each person building.