New house

[Shannon Hall]

Originally we were going to do a pole barn 1/2 and 1/2 (garage and living quarters). This is going to be our primary residence and with 3 small kids, we quickly outgrew the original idea. I was going to end up with something the size of an airplane hangar. In addition to my family, we needed a room for visitors as we are about an hour from our hometown. All that said, the living quarters grew drastically. We ended up changing our plans....it’s a slab home with a shop attached via a covered porch. The house is 3,000 sq feet and the shop is 1600. Again, we are moving to the country so this is our forever home and not just a weekend get away.

My brother and I laid radiant heat in the floor and a local group of Mennonites did the framing (inside and out) along with the metal and concrete. We are now in the mechanical phase so things have slowed down a bit. Hoping to be in it and settled by this fall.

It will have an indoor buck stove insert and we are hoping to do an outdoor unit as well. I’m on 245 acres of timbered hills and hollers so there is always wood to be cut.

 

[scott44]

Looks good!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Ditto what scott44 said above!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That's not a slab - it's an airport tarmac !! It looks to be about 10" thick or so. What IS the thickness ??

It looks like a solid home for sure. All the covered porch is nice for sitting outside in nice weather.

 

[H20fwler]

It looks great..and I like your stone crew too!

 

[Shannon Hall]

Thanks guys!! I appreciate the kind words. Honestly, I've been back and forth about the move. It's our dream but now that it's becoming reality, I'm focusing on all the things that COULD go wrong.......Tornadoes, copperheads, ticks....losing one of my kids in the woods : )

The slab is a bit deceiving....the outer edge is as thick as what you see but it's only as wide as the footer below it. On the inside of the footer, the ground wasn't dug all the way out. There's actually only 4" of concrete across the span of the floor.

The stone crew is a big part of the reason we are moving. I'm excited to raise them "on the farm". Chickens, bees, cutting firewood, giving them space to ride a dirtbike or shoot a gun/bow, gardening, killing a deer or turkey occasionally. Hopefully it's everything we've dreamed of. Time will tell.

Thanks again for the kinds words.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I am one step closer to living the dream as well, current house is on the market. Hopefully the sale will go quickly and I can look forward to starting the building process next year. Hope your new home brings you lots of great memories.

 

[Shannon Hall]

I am one step closer to living the dream as well, current house is on the market. Hopefully the sale will go quickly and I can look forward to starting the building process next year. Hope your new home brings you lots of great memories.

Thank you and I hope the process goes smoothly for you!! I feel like (hope) it will be one of those situations where once we are there, we will wonder why we didn't do it sooner. Fingers crossed!

 

[buckdeer1]

Looks great,all those things can happen in town and alot more.I would make sure I had all the required smoke detectors along with CO and explosive gas since you will probably be propane along with a alarm system with cameras.Wire your house for all the communications you can think of then some.If I had mine to do again I would have put flex conduit to at least 1 spot in each room

 

[Shannon Hall]

Looks great,all those things can happen in town and alot more.I would make sure I had all the required smoke detectors along with CO and explosive gas since you will probably be propane along with a alarm system with cameras.Wire your house for all the communications you can think of then some.If I had mine to do again I would have put flex conduit to at least 1 spot in each room

I completely agree with your first statement!! I see it everyday. I know I can't outrun the "bad stuff" but I figured a 245 acre buffer zone can't hurt. We are wiring for a security system but honestly, I hadn't really thought about the gas thing. We will for sure be on LP for our furnace and stove. I will bring that up..... If you don't mind, can you shed some light on the flex conduit. I know what it is but what would the purpose be? I'm asking so that when I bring it up with my electrician, I'll know the "why" behind it.

Thanks for the input. I've tried to think of everything but you know how that goes......always helpful to get insight from other viewpoints.

Thanks again!

 

[Skelly]

Thanks guys!! I appreciate the kind words. Honestly, I've been back and forth about the move. It's our dream but now that it's becoming reality, I'm focusing on all the things that COULD go wrong.......Tornadoes, copperheads, ticks....losing one of my kids in the woods : )

The slab is a bit deceiving....the outer edge is as thick as what you see but it's only as wide as the footer below it. On the inside of the footer, the ground wasn't dug all the way out. There's actually only 4" of concrete across the span of the floor.

The stone crew is a big part of the reason we are moving. I'm excited to raise them "on the farm". Chickens, bees, cutting firewood, giving them space to ride a dirtbike or shoot a gun/bow, gardening, killing a deer or turkey occasionally. Hopefully it's everything we've dreamed of. Time will tell.

Thanks again for the kinds words.

I have had my place for about 4 years now.

Nothing glamorous, but a nice house and 15 acres but i wish I could have raised my kids out here. They love love it now when they come home.

You’ll make a ton of great memories. Good luck

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The flexible conduit I think Buckdeer is talking about is blue in color and looks like smaller diameter vacuum cleaner hose. It's a type of plastic, and it bends easily. We in the building trades call it "smurf-tube" because of it's blue color. It's an easy way to place an access passageway from a room back to, say - your electrical panel location or your data / phone center. Very light-weight and easy to install - it's a God-send when everything's closed up and painted if you ever need to get from point A to point B later on. No "fishing" in walls or ceilings. Have your electrician put poly "jet-line" in the flex tubes for you so they're all ready to pull any wire in the future.

I'm an electrician of 38 years.

 

[buckdeer1]

Yes thats what I mean but you can get in about any color.It is handy to have at least one access in a room.Someday broadband will be to almost everywhere and hard wire is always better than wireless but there are some good wireless systems like the Orbi for whole home wireless. And yes the explosive gas detector for LP is a must.Just worked a LP house explosion last week,Killed 1 and crippled another.

 

[yoderjac]

Originally we were going to do a pole barn 1/2 and 1/2 (garage and living quarters). This is going to be our primary residence and with 3 small kids, we quickly outgrew the original idea. I was going to end up with something the size of an airplane hangar. In addition to my family, we needed a room for visitors as we are about an hour from our hometown. All that said, the living quarters grew drastically. We ended up changing our plans....it’s a slab home with a shop attached via a covered porch. The house is 3,000 sq feet and the shop is 1600. Again, we are moving to the country so this is our forever home and not just a weekend get away.

My brother and I laid radiant heat in the floor and a local group of Mennonites did the framing (inside and out) along with the metal and concrete. We are now in the mechanical phase so things have slowed down a bit. Hoping to be in it and settled by this fall.

It will have an indoor buck stove insert and we are hoping to do an outdoor unit as well. I’m on 245 acres of timbered hills and hollers so there is always wood to be cut.

Very interesting! I'm still in the planning phase but I plan to do something similar. We purchased raw land for a retirement home last winter. My wife can't retire for a few years so I had originally planned to get everything ready to build over the next couple years. I planed to put in the driveway, septic, well, power and be ready for a quick build so I did not need to pay the high interest on a bridge loan for very long while the house was built.

Well, when I talked to the county, no luck. You can't get permits for septic, or well until you get a building permit. A building permit is only good for a year, so if you don't make "substantial progress" whatever the county decides that means, they won't renew your permit. We are not close to deciding on the house design yet, so we are stuck. Also, the power company will provide a quarter mile of free wire only if you have a building permit for a residence. Otherwise you have to pay for it by the foot.

I found a loophole. I'm now planning on building a pole barn and finishing off about 550 feet as a small accessory apartment. It will have a bathroom and two bedrooms with no kitchen. It qualifies as a residence for the county so we can get the well and septic permits as well as the free wire. We will plan the septic, drain field, and well to accommodate both this apartment plus the house we plan to build.

The pole barn with apartment should be quick to put up and a simple design and cheap enough I can do it from savings without a loan. Then when it is time to retire, we don't need any bridge loan. We can store our belongings in the barn an live in the small apartment while the new home is being built. This allows us to sell the existing home in the suburbs before we begin the build.

I like the looks of what I see in your pictures!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Shannon Hall]

Great idea Jack! Ours has been a 2 year process and we still missed some things. We lucked out because there was a mobile home at the site when we bought the land. We had electric, city water and approved septic already there. I don’t know about your state but I did not have to pull a plumbing permit (might save a little change).

We are moving in with the in laws this weekend. My garage should be poured and have doors this week. Hoping to avoid having to pay any more storage. That should make the final move a little easier.

I’m excited for you Jack!! A lot of work, but it will be worth it!! I just hope the house doesn’t scare the deer off

 

[yoderjac]

Very nice pic. I may do a little hunting on the lot before we build but I've got another farm where I hunt. Great picture! It will certainly be a adventure.

Thanks,

Jack