OK Homesteaders I need ideas (soon to be homeless & unemployed!)

Wow your story could almost be ours. We have 28 acres paid for. And now neither husband or I have a job. We have 5 kids still living with us and many critters.We have been contemplating getting to our land for awhile and now that we are poor might be the goldden opportunity.I am considering a pole barn or a basement that we can cap off. If it were just him and I it would be easier. We could live with very little space or conveniences. But with a housefull of kids we will need some room.If we can afford it the basement is a good way to go. It would prob be a great way for you as well. Storm shelter, ez to cool and heat and permanent and expandable. May want to check in to it..know I am.

I'd first do what Deacon Jim recommended... then maybe the trailer... if ya'll are going to be building a new home, you'll want to be nearby. Otherwise, you'll be worrying about stuff 'walking off'. I know the price of 'stealables' in homes has went down, but who know's when a thief will get in a bind...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Like others have said, if you take on the old house project you will not have the energy or desire to go working on your own place.
Ya try to rent a trailer and if you can build a shed, make it big enough to park the trailer in it!

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First off, if ya'll can afford to take some time to build a house I'd just make it a whole-family endeavor for a month. Hire some outside help, find an old man who knows carpentry who people say good things about. You could probably find a decent camper trailer in the south of OK. I worked a pipeline spread from Colbert OK, up towards Durant, then east towards Hugo OK, and south to Paris TX. You might be able to call around some RV parks cause sometimes when those pipeline workers leave a job they've earned enough money to get a new camper so you might get a decent one for cheap.

Also, I would definitely consider building a small barn that you could live in for a year or two while you're building and finishing your house. It would probably be really uncomfortable and cramped, but that would make it all the more of a push to get the house finished. Just be warned that without the right kind of attitude relationships will become VERY stressed. I've lived it with my family, not fun.

Personally I'd be on my land and focusing on the survival priorities. Water, Food, Shelter. If you can make due with tents till the shed or barn is built do it. Meanwhile get the well finished. If you can afford it buy some portable electric fence and a fence charger. Then you wouldn't have to worry too much about the livestock and attention could be focused on the house. I'd suggest looking into Rammed Earth as a house building alternative. If tornados are at all a concern it might be a great option. Also very energy efficient and cheaper in overall building costs. I'm planning a rammed earth house now actually I live in north central Louisiana so the climate isn't too much different than southern Oklahoma.

i haven't read all of the posts but man there sure seems to have been a lot of FEMA trailers beginning in '05. What happened to all of them??? Anyone know if this would help these folks out? I'm in south louisiana but have no idea what they did with all of them.

Many of the FEMA trailers were full of toxic chemicals and made people ill.

Since you havent poured the footers yet I would section off a portion and have someone with a backhoe come out and dig a basement in that section. You can lay up block walls pretty quickly, put a flat roof on it that then serves as the floor of the house when you get it built later. This provides you with living space for now, with a good degree of tornado protection, provides you with extra space in your house when you get it built. A basement is also very cool in the summer, and easy to heat in the winter if it takes longer than expected to get the house built. Do NOT finish the interior too comfy, or you will never get the house built. Leave it raw enough to provide you with incentive to drive those nails overhead.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

When they do sell them, it will be through GSA. Check here periodically. http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/gsaauctions/

The toxins are the same ones you find in all travel trailers. They dissipate over time, and if you open the windows occasionally, they dissipate even faster. Most people didn't get sick. Now that the trailers are several years old, they should be fine.

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I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam.

Popeye

Start looking for an RV with engine trouble, they almost give them away sometimes you can find a moble home they will give you if you will move it.

If you have to move first put up a tent, buy a cheap metal outbuilding to store your "junk" in and start building!

I agree with building a "pole barn" with living space first, then move on to the main house.

I heard of a family that lived in a Tee-Pee for two winters until they could get moved in.

The less comfortable you are during building, the faster you will build...

Good luck!

This is for LaMoncha as well as the OP. I would strongly agree with Yvonne's hubby -- build the basement of your house, or even a partial basement. Then you have shelter, and a tornado shelter, while you work on the house.

For low-cost building, try a soddy, or cob, or cordwood, or log if you have timber (I know the OP in Nebraska/Kansas probably doesn't have timber, but LaMoncha might). There is also earthbag construction, which seems like it might be good in tornado country. Re-read Little House on the Prairie, and see if you can figure out ways to put up a durable shelter that won't cost ANYTHING! (That's a challenge!)

And LaMoncha, as for space for your family, Walter here on this forum (can't remember his screen name, but he has a farm in Vermont, and a blog) lives in a TINY house with several children. Especially if you spend a lot of time outdoors, it can be done. I think you would all enjoy it, for the most part -- my children always loved going camping, and that's what it would be like, a long camping trip!

Kathleen

I hadnt thought about the sod house. A few years ago I was traveling through Nebraska and ran up on one built in the 1800s, obviously vacant for many years but still standing and in good shape.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Yep, soddies are still around. For that matter, I've known people who are still living in them! They're stuccoed now, so you'd never know it except for the really deep window sills (and of course the owners love to tell. lol) One place we lived, the neighbors lived in the soddy his great grandpa had built in the 1890s when he homesteaded...

I do know enough to know I don't want to live in a classic one, though! Yuck. Pole barn is far more useful, as well as more pleasant.

And yeah, our original plan was to finish the basement and live in that while we worked on the rest of the house, but it would be much faster to get a pole barn up and habitable than it would the basement. And now, time is of the essence.

DH has already had three job offers, so at least we don't have to worry about money. Just a home.
BTW, we already have 90% of our shell's lumber and have long had our plans drawn up.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Sounds like your mind is already made up, so get to it. Pitch camp and get to work, time is a wastin'.

Erin,
I had some thoughts about your situation.
Pour a pad and put up an insulated steel building. Later on you can open one end and put garage doors in it. Before you pour the floor pad dig a trench about 5' deep, 18' long and form it. Pour the floor and the trench. Suspend steel plate across the trench while you are living in the building. It could be your tornado shelter. Later on it can be a place to work on underside of vehicles.
I don't believe you would be in a building shell and floor more than 8,000 dollars.
You could stock it with an electric stove, a wood stove for heat and even carpet it. Build a little outhouse out back. Put a 500 amp main power panel in the building. That way you won't be paying the higher rate of a temperary meter. You can come off of that for power to your other farmstead buildings and home at your leisure if you were to stump out some additional conduits.
Depending on the size of the building you could hang a second floor in the back half to sleep there. Build a wall across the center and store your building materials in the front half if you put in garage doors. Also if a leanto was built off one side the building materials could be stored under it. Later to be made into shelter for animals
If you run water in, there could be a waterheater and shower installed. That could be drained onto an area out back.
This all could be adapted to a shop after you finish the house.
These are all just ideas. I wish you the best.

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That which is tolerated by the first generation is magnified in the next.

CIW

Definitely move to your property....you need to get the "feel of the land!" in order to build everything in the best possible place. Any shed building could provoke county ordinances, permits, etc. So get an RV of somekind or tents to sleep in. Most of your waking hours you'll be outdoors anyway. Set up outdoor kitchen, shower, dining and living areas. You'll have lots of fond memories long after the house is ready.

We don't have permits/zoning requirements/etc. The only thing our county cares about is septic. But that's only when you put in a septic.
Our outhouse, for example, is perfectly legal.

OK, this is what we've decided:

We're going to build a pole barn, 24x40 since that's the size we're wanting anyway. We'll have an open bay area in the middle 20' that can park vehicles, tractors someday etc. For now, it's going to store lumber and have the hook-ups for our saws and such. Ten feet on one end is going to be my fabric store, computer, etc as well as sleeping for the kids. The other 10' end is going to be the kitchen/living/bedroom for us.
The central part will just have a dirt floor and we'll put in a deck-type of floor in the two living areas for now.
Sometime in the future we can put in a concrete floor.

We've had our outhouse up for about a month or two. I'm now on the hunt for an old one-piece shower stall to set on a deck of some kind. Suspend a tank above it painted black and we'll have a gravity flow shower.

And I just got off the phone with the final, vital component; internet service.
Our local phone co. is AT&T (bleah!) but they only have dial-up in our area and it's about $300 minimum to bring in a new line. (Besides, there's nowhere to bring the line to, yet!)
So I called our cell co. who said unlimited internet is $30 per mo. at the same speed we currently get with our rural DSL provider. If needs be, we can even put an antenna on top of the hill above our house site (where we get flawless service) for an extra $100.

We're set.

(BTW, DH is speaking at this moment to one of the guys that would like give him some work. Part time, but he's willing to pay almost what DH is making here full time! lol)

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

"(BTW, DH is speaking at this moment to one of the guys that would like give him some work. Part time, but he's willing to pay almost what DH is making here full time! lol)"

Now THAT sounds like a deal! You'd have the income you need, AND have time to work on your own place!

Kathleen

well in Michigan houses are really really going cheap..so I vote for buying something and moving it onto the land..however..tornado alley..yikes..i would get that tornado shelter in really quick.

one thing, your trailer or camper would be on your land..is there work nearby for hubby or for you..you will require some income..is there any "unemployment insurance" involved in the job? if so you might need to use that for a quick while..to get the homestead going..and then get the job..but will the job be there?

i agree with the above posts..i would get the house ON YOUR LAND first..and get some trees in and a shelter for your tools and from storms..and go from there..

when people move into new areas shelter and power and water are first..food comes next..everything else can follow.

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