best and cheapest way o build a house

Lots of great housing ideas here BUT everything will depend on the county building codes. Many counties will not let one build any kind of residence without a well and septic in place. Before you sign a ourchase agreement check with the county about residential building requirements.

The cheapest house I have heard of is from some friends of ours in Arkansas. They took one of those metal building kits that you see advertised for not much and went from there. Their's had 12 ft sides. As the sides come up to the roof area, they curve around-----bear with me as I try and describe this-----and then up to the roof. He put this on a concrete slab, but then made a subfloor on top so that he could easily run plumbing on top of the concrete and secure the inside walls to the "floor". Then he had to come inside the metal walls enough to avoid the curve at the top in order to build the stud walls. It is basically a wood stud structure inside a metal structure. This made the "walls" about 2 ft thick and so where each window is, there is a "window seat" area or a deep plant shelf where she grows indoor herbs and veggies. From the outside, quite frankly it looks like a nice mobile home. From the inside, it is incredibly quiet and energy efficient and there are no load bearing walls.

A good slab foundation will run you about $4 per sq ft. The steel building----just saw a 25 x 40 advertised for $4990. Then there is the "inside" that you could do for about $10-$15 per sq ft.

www.pioneersteel.com
www.steelspan.com

OK, first off, I'm NOT telling you to do this - I don't have the background - I'm just raising possibilities for you to look at.

Second, as others have said, whatever you do must be constrained by local zoning and ordinances, or someone will come and throw you off your land and fine you enough thousands of dollars that the local pillars of the community will end up owning your land for cents on the dollar. KEEP IT LEGAL - YOU aren't rich enough to afford illegal - the people who could make money out of buying up your land are.

Third, also as others have said, you don't appear to have time to build a permanent house now before winter. Apart from the non-bonded block method (which DOES sound interesting, but I haven't looked at, so I'll just leave it to you, while I talk about what I do know) that leaves you with about three possibilities:

1. Rent. Always look at this. If the other possibilities are more expensive than renting, then you gotta think about it. Renting is probably more convenient AND cheaper - at least until winter is over.

2. Live in a permanent non-house. I'll return to this.

3. Live in something else non-permanent (tent, caravan, cardboard box).

Both 2&3 have their problems, particularly with local rules and regulations. However, if you are allowed to live on-site in a temporary home while building, you have real possibilities.

We've got to consider old crappy mobile homes. If you can pick one up for a couple of thousand dollars and it's legal to use it, at least for a few months, then you gotta think about it. There are always trailer-parks where blocks are becoming available and the old mobile home on it isn't wanted. A morning spent on the phone could find out what sort of thing becomes available, and how much it costs. My impression is that an old, barely-livable-if-that, place could cost maybe a thousand dollars if you'd pay to have it moved.

In your situation, what I'd do would be to seriously consider building a pole barn and putting services there. It's enough to get electricity connected. You could put a composting or humanure toilet in it, and a concrete pad you could do laundry and shower on, with a sink and basin and general wastewater drainage. Your barn might give you enough roof area to catch significant amounts of rainwater. Without a flushing toilet, and being frugal with water, you could possibly live self-contained on that alone. I and a family who acted as I told them could.

Look at Easy Refrigeration for an idea of easy ways to get around some of the restrictions of living without modern permanent built-in conveniences. The sticking point is laundry. There are ways around that too, and I know them - ask me if you want more, but it is possible to do a week's laundry for YOUR family, Sancraft, in about the order of 25 gallons, and maybe less.

OK, given the pole barn with power, water, toilet - well, really, you've got about all you need. Pitch a tent in it, and you're done. However, to avoid legal hassles with Child Services or whoever, if you could get an old crappy no-cost camper-van and park it inside the barn, you should have it covered. That gives you kitchen facilities and walls and build cupboards and beds and everything. PROVIDED your local authorities will allow it. You don't have to tell them - you just have to be able to cite examples of what makes it allowable if someone calls you on it. Really, just about anything else inside the barn would be livable - the barn gives you windproof and waterproof. The only thing you'd have to watch then is that dark-ad-gloomy pulls some people down emotionally. They call it SAD - something like Seasonally Affective Disorder - but it means that too long in the dark - short days and too little sunlight - messes with people's minds. You need to think about that, and maybe either schedule sitting out in the late-afternoon sunlight, or budgetting daylight-palette fluorescent lights and the electricity to run them.

Hope this ramble helped with things to think about.

__________________
ô¿ô Don Armstrong,Terra Australis

Grandad, tell us a story about the olden days, when you were young and men could walk on the moon.

You can go several ways. One is to build a prefab post and beam barn. I built mine 45x65 for six thousand. I then bought things piece by piece board by board til I had what I needed to build the house. The whole time keeping it out of the weather under the barn. I built the house(I have since sold it) and it was paid for upon completion. But some weeks I bought a couple sheets of plywood and some months I bought a whole bundle of 2x4s. I am now infilling the barn with straw bales and will have a 45x65 two story home. I poured a slab under it and started on the walls. I will have it in shell form completely in the dry for a grand total of about 4 thousand not counting the original cost of the barn. I will subdivide it into various rooms as time allows. Also you could look around and be patient. I bought a 1992 14x70 three bedroom one and a half bath mobile home with a new central ac unit and two large decks for 3200. A couple hundred in carpet and I will have a home I can rent for about 400 a month or sale for about eight thousand home only. There are deals just look around. The good thing about the older mobile home is after you finish your build you can either rent it out or sale it. Near me there is one of those wood outbuilding repo places. they have a 12x18 right now with shingle roof and plywood floors for 1200. Or they will finance no down and 62 a month. Two of these could make a very functional temporary home. Small ,weather proof and easily heated and with windows to boot. I had a 12x12 at my hunting club with a bunk bed a small rv fridge and a small rv sink and tv etc, All the conveniences of home on small scale. I sold it for 2000 and he made a loft over half for extra sleeping.

Please don't do cordwood. If you don't season the wood correctly (up to 2 years drying time) your walls will be full of cracks when the wood shrinks. The wind will blow right through.

My family bought land and moved onto it immediatly because we were homeless. (thanks for the financing mom and dad) We lived in tents the first month. This was in the middle of a texas summer. We built a shed that was about 12 x 14 ft. and lived in it for 2 to 3 months. No running water, no elect.. It was...interesting with 5 small children. Then we got a travel trailer. I have never been so happy to see a real toilet! It wasn't easy but we did it and as I look back, I think that was the happiest time of my life till now.

I say go for the land and get a small frame building up for the winter-even if you have to use pressure treated foundation mud sills.The building will do for the winter, and then you can cut logs and build your perminent home next year.Just make sure whatever you build is insulated well, and make sure any woodstove is properly installed

Oh my goodness. I never dreamed I would get so many good responses. I appreciate everyone's honesty and candor. I was really worried about starting so late in the year with no experience. I we have evry built was a chicken coop, which turned out well. We have a woodstove already that we can use for heat and cooking. I also have a gas range which was on porpane at our old house. We can live in small, we are in one room at my sister's house now, so what's the difference. I would like electric for the computer and tv on those rainy winter days when you can't get outside and the refrigerator which I have too. We are not against using a bucket and scrub board for clothes. The barn sounds good. I could put a wall up and we live on one side and aniamls on the other. Then in the spring, either finish it off for us or do something different for us. I have a free supply of seasoned wood from the tree company I work for (owned by good friend). He also has the machinery to do graded and clearing, etc. which he would do for free, but he's busy so it would have to be when he has time. Winter can be very busy for him with trees freezing and falling. I have to go and see a 2bed, 1 1/2 bath single wide that a lady is selling for $1000.00. I also have to see how much it will cost for me to move is there and if I have to have septic in place. There is county water available on the tract that I'm looking at, but don't know if that includes sewer. This may be an option.

This is Sancraft. DD was logged on.

If you are intent on building, and I suspect that you are , then your best bet for new construction is a pole building. Something about 16' X 20' or even 20' X 28' could be erected and made livible in a short period of time. Get to a book store or amazon.com and get a book on pole buildings. BASIC process is as follows:

1) Layout holes around perimeter - 12 to 16 foot centers, making sure everything is square! Check the diagonals to be sure!
2) Drill holes with a rental auger.
3) set poles, plumb them and tamp gravel around them.
4) Strap poles
5) Set roof trusses
6) Side and roof.

Even easier yet, would be a prebuilt shed/barn. I have seen some around here that are up to 14' wide and 20' long. They have a wood floor in them. All you would need would be some blocks to set it on. It could be easily insulated and heated with a direct vent propane heater or tiny wood stove. For sewage, you could have a port-a-john delivered to the site. It is a completely contained system and with only five people it wouldn't have to be pumped too often.

Food for thought.

I started out with an old, old, old (did I mention that it was old?) trailer 8' X 38' that I bought for $100. I moved it myself, rewired and replumbed it, drywalled, cut doorways where I wanted and added on to both long sides. I built a roof over the whole thing, trailer and additions, and wrapped it all up in siding. No one even know the trailer is in there. Now all of this took time but the trailer covered the essentials while I did the rest. I did have a permit for the trailer and later the additions and I got inspections on the last possible day of each potential expiration period to keep the permit alive. I stretched it to the limit on account of what I had available for time and funds. Now this all was some time ago, about 15 years, and things change. But that's what I did. I am kind of an unorthodox rebel and even today sometimes I find myself in a position where I would rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission from people in authority. I am not recommending that, I am just saying I get that way sometimes. And now you know why dawg is spelled the way it is.

I certainly love the advice you are giving you guys! I'm getting ideas about what I could do, once I get out of college and get a job.
I absolutely love the site and advice!
Thanks!
Michelle

Wow, I love what I see, is there anything like this in Southern Illinois?

With some of the more rustic suggestions, I would also caution you to check out the legal situation in your area with regards to your children. In some areas of this country, unfortunately, it could be grounds for children's services to stick their noses in!

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"Challenges are what make life interesting -- overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

I've read a lot of good info on research by the forest service on using sawdust as insulation. They say it does not attract more vermin or cause more fires than conventional fiberglass insulation. And it can usually be obtained free of charge.

I had thought at one time about putting up a pole structure with deep walls. Perhaps using slab wood from a local woodmill and filling the cavity with sawdust. Then I could plaster with adobe and use a lime wash over that. The adobe plaster would nearly fireproof the walls. You could use slabs and adobe plaster on the ceiling as well or put sheet rock up on the ceiling. Then insulate the attic space with sawdust. Sand poured inside the walls to a depth of 4 to 6 inches prior to adding the sawdust would keep the sawdust up off the ground and help keep it dry.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

We used conventional building techniques and build our 960 sq. ft. house six years ago for $5000; give or take a couple of hundred.

Herself keeps the books and she calls it $5000.

This includes the electrical but we have a privy and no running water.

Our 6" casing well drilled to 85' cost $2700.

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“It is tedious to live, it is tedious to die, it is tedious to c**p in deep snow”
Old Norwegian observation

Sancraft
There is a 1978 wilderness trailer up here in NY for sale $500
21 foot very nice shape with what looks like fairly new tires. 6 different beds
with the contents in it. lawn chairs, microwave, the hitch, lantern, and lots of stuff

Oo! Oo! build a yurt. Now I've never tried it but it seems like a very practical idea. I skimmed the other posts. I see alot about trailers, rv's, just build the garage, build it with concrete blocks. All these options cost $ for materials or financing and a building could be permanent.

DON'T build now. Too late in the year. Get your vision and your knowledge base straight. Research cordwood. I really wanted to try this as we have alot of brush cedar in cen TX and pines also have a toxin that preserves them. I know one gentleman who built his pump house out of cordwood masonary and it is doing great. As I am writing I am also referencing a book called "The Art of Natural Building - Design, Construction and Resources" It is a good jumping off point for ideas and is VERY validating, convincing and thoughtful in discussing the positive quilities of green building (if you lived closer I would lend it too you ) There is a section by Rob Roy called Corwood Masonary an Overview and a section Green Roofs with Sod, Turf and Straw. You have to meticulous about living roofs as they are heavy and need to shed water properly. Check out www.cordwoodmasonry.com. This guy looks like he knows what he's doing.

I am planning on doing this in my little place for toilets and maybe you guys could use it over the winter until plumbing and septic: www.weblife.org/humanure/

As to my first idea yurts. They are warm, cool and comfortable and you disassemble it and reuse the materials or move it to another location or keep it for company or extra space etc. Check out these pages: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/yurt/ (complete instructions and history) or you could buy a small one
at http://www.pacificyurts.com/.

Hope this info helps. I'd love to hear how everything unfold for you.

Megan

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...328131356&rd=1

for 2k.... you need someplace to live while you build.

Welcome to tn--pm me when you get here and we will see how we can help you.
(This time of year, if you are heading to East tn any further north than knoxville, rent or find a salvageable mobile home.)

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In Jesus' love,
Jim

http://www.minicabin.com/

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My Craft Forum

Here is a link to a site that sells plans for building a simple house for under $5000 and since it's modular one can add to it as money and time allows.

http://pyramodule.com/

__________________
“It is tedious to live, it is tedious to die, it is tedious to c**p in deep snow”
Old Norwegian observation