Barn/Loft Apartment as first building?

As a builder i can tell you mudwoman is on the ball. BUILD YOUR HOUSE FIRST i've been down this path. When i was younger i found some land and built a barn that became my family's home.After i did this i read somthing that said do not build your barn first as you will find it will become your home.Well duh.

Personally, I would rather have a small cabin or something on my property to live in rather than start off with a barn and live in the loft. Like others have said, getting up the stairs can be a chore. Also, I know someone who lives above a barn, and they say it's sometimes smelly in the summer and the flies are a real problem. Down the road, I could maybe see renting a barn apartment to someone who was a caretaker or something, but it'd be much easier to rent a guest house.

We built a small guest house on our property for about $15,000. We roughed in a kitchen but didn't actually put it in, so that $15,000 includes the actual building, flooring, roofing, and a full bath. We tied into our existing septic and electricity. On the side is a workshop/storage area, and towards the rear is a room to hold our bicycles. The little house is used primarily by the children for their school work (it's pretty much wall-to-wall books) and for when they have friends over. When we have out of town guests, they stay in the little house. We have a sleeper sofa in there with a feather bed we put on top when it's used as a bed. That plus a full bath makes it plenty comfortable for visitors.

According to a neighbor who is a real estate agent, that $15,000 structure increased the value of our property by about $50,000. Of course, property is worth what someone will pay for it, so who knows. Still, I feel comfortble that we added more value than we spent, and even if we just broke even, it's made our lives so much more comfortable having the extra room to spread out.

Thanks for all the replies.

Rutherford County has quite a few homes for sale for UNDER $45,000 and just this last week we recieved a listing of a house on 17 acres for under $80,000.

It IS possible to find properties just requires a little work and staying away from the mountain areas(although we have mountain views in two directions)

We have thought of doing a small guesthouse but thought it would be less useful than a barn/apartment.

The company that quoted us a price on the barn also build cabins for about the same price with the inside somewhat complete with bathroom,etc.

Thanks for the replies.

"I realise that the apartment upstairs would be a problem-it was bad enough for me at the guesthouse we stayed in this past week as I have bad kness...."

Stairs can be comprovised a bit if you are willing to give up the space. Rather than a single flight of stair, it could be multi-leveled, perhaps with rises less than normal. You go up a couple of steps and have a small landing. Couple of more stairs, another landing, etc.

Can the building be side-by-side, rather than one over the other? Apartment takes up one half of ground level and one half of second floor. You have the areas you use most often (living room, kitchen) on the first and only a bedroom on the second. On garage side you use first for large items and loft for smaller item storage. If stairways was in the center of the building, a single set might service both areas on the second floor.

Ken Scharabok