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Thread: Little House, Big House

  1. #11
    LHBA Member Tom Featherstone's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by spiralsands View Post
    "my materials will be under $1900 plus cement for posts and the tubes...so well under $2500 anyway..."

    Ben, the plans for the little house I'm getting don't even require me to be mixing any cement. Even easier. The foundations are pier blocks and posts on pavers. According to the website, they don't even have to be leveled. The beams that are on top of them are leveled.

    In these plans there are 3 sizes of little house. I may build the smallest one with a flat roof first. Stay in it and then build the biggest one with a loft for longer term living. Then I could use the little one for tool storage. (Or my daughter...Actually, if my daughter wants me to build a little one for her, I could ask her to cough up some money. Really. At what age do kids just stop expecting freebies from parents? Rhetorical question....I know the answer....sadly... I just never imagined I'd still be feeding her when she was in her twenties.)
    Frances,
    Congratulations on moving forward to get to "Winterwood" sooner. Living where you wish to build is probably the most important thing through all this anyways. It will give you the opportunity to wake up there everyday and to start enjoying that part of your dream sooner.

    The only thing I'll add to your little house idea is to at least put a slight pitch on the roof even a 2/12 pitch. I've had very good luck with shed roofs here with a min 2/12 in the UP they seem to collect very little of the snow we get and the wind blows off the rest. Flat roofs up here seem to load up with snow as those that have valleys and dormers on them. I wouldn't skimp on the roof support just in case but you're not building a big place anyway so a few extra 2x6/8's no big deal.

    To have the chance to live at the place where you wish to build is hugh in the whole process. There are many things about the place we build that most only find out after you live there. Once you build your place if you were off by 10' to give you the best view in the house.. pretty hard to move that. Some folks this is already figured out for, by dimensions of their property. As an example being here the last two winters I payed close attention to the drainage and runoff of the snow and where I plowed to this year and the changes I'll make next year.

    I would encourage anyone to move to their property before you build by whatever means possible for those looking to build your home. The benefit of one reason is living there why not start enjoying that part sooner it pays great dividends along the way. We ended up here sooner than and not how we planned. But Linda would echo this statement that "It has been a Blessing" our build will happen when it does.

    Get to Winterwood asap you'll be saying later I wish I'd done it sooner!

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by loghousenut View Post
    Any kind of structure helps. To pay for my logs I agreed to thin 50 acres that were 2-1/2 hours from home. For several months that fall and winter I spent 4 nights per week over at that property, working my days off while spending 40 hours pretending to work at my job. I built a little camping hut out of the firewood that was not worth hauling home, and it kept me comfy with 10" of snow on top. It had a warm bed, woodstove, campstove, kitchen stuff, and junk carpet on the ground. I even had a portable DVD player that I could run from a car battery. Usually I'd get there at 2:00 am after working all day. Made it so easy to get up early, whip out a hot meal and fire up the saw for a day of real work. I don't know how you folks who commute to your build site get anything accomplished.

    You, of course, are civilized and looking for something more domestic that will be a permanent addition to your homesite. It'll make such a difference in your life.


    Truly a CLASSIC there LHN .... still there I hope. Part of the story lore ...... really thinking outside the box on this one. Love it

  3. #13
    Francis,

    I am building a 30ft diameter yurt for about 2K. Plus a deck for about 1K. It will be insulated with one inch bubble wrap, a couple of layers for warmth. It will be 700sq feet. The roof can be easily supported to take a heavy snow load. It is not rocket science!

    It is easy to transport and easily set up. I am building it in the tiny yard of my condo and will transport it almost 500 miles, to my lot and set it up. No, it will not fit in my VW bug. But it will fit in a borrowed pickup.

    I have been using info from Laurelnest Yurts to build it. I would be happy to share their info, if you wish it.

    Blondie

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by spiralsands View Post
    .
    In '07 and '09, my daughter and I came up from FL and camped caveman style (no RV) on the property. If a leaking tent, rained-out campfire, wet propane stove that won't light and 40 degrees in June doesn't make you want a nice warm dry roof over your head, you're nuts! Ever check into a hotel when you were soaked with mud and shivering? We did. So we decided NO MORE CAMPING!! .
    Few years back we spent a lot of the summer up in Voyageurs National Park living on the islands on Kab and Rainy Lake(s). Many leaky nights - then the big one showed up. We saw it coming from maybe 15 miles away and all he!! broke loose.. we tied up to a shoreline and prayed. Thankfully I have a bigger boat ... when we finally able to get back to the camp trees were done, the fly gone(didn't notice at first as we dashed to tent) and opened the zipper...bet it had a hundred gallons of water in it. We should have caught the bowed sides I guess as we ran to it but it was about 4:30am and we exhausted.
    So we waited out the next round that hit huddled together under trees.
    We called it a day/trip and summer that morning. When we got to the Park Service area were truck/trailer was they all asked if we were ok. Turns out there was a tornado that was bouncing around all around us and even turned a 1800s era cabin around almost 180....the storm was so incredible we couldn't hear each other from 4' so I imagine the twister was part of the noise.
    That was the 3rd twister we have in while camping or on the water and this one totally freaked us out. Don't remember the date but they called it the worst storm in 100 years - and down towards the TC's it was hot. That was the same day that Corey Stringer of the Vikings collapsed and died...we learned that at the Ranger station too.
    Our camping days have been less and less since then. I miss it (camping) but I don't miss the storms

  5. #15
    LHBA Member blane's Avatar
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    are the piers something you can buy or do you pour them yourself? And, are there codes for building one of these?
    Quote Originally Posted by spiralsands View Post
    Attachment 634

    This is the foundation, piers and posts.

  6. #16
    LHBA Member blane's Avatar
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    LHN, how did you seal that structure up from wind?

  7. #17
    Blondie - or anyone else who might know,

    Is a yurt considered a tent? ….or is it a more permanent structure?

    I was going to ask this question later this summer once we had completed the May ‘12 Memorial weekend class and we are on the wonderfully mysterious ‘other side.’ Actually I will probably ask it again, especially to see if anyone has built using the LHBA process in the same county. ……… Anyway … our land is located in El Dorado County CA which, because of it’s zoning (R-20), allows unlimited camping on your own land. We plan on putting a 5th wheel on the property to live in while we build. However, my lovely bride of nearly 35 years is convinced that at some point in a small trailer and during a long winter that I will take on an uncanny resemblance to Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining.’ … thus a little extra living space might be nice.

    An alternative we have considered is to obtain a junker/clunker RV and tow/drive it to the property to give us that little extra room. They are plentiful and cheap around here

    Heeeeere’s mario

  8. #18
    LHBA Member spiralsands's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blane View Post
    are the piers something you can buy or do you pour them yourself? And, are there codes for building one of these?
    You can buy the piers. This pic was from the builder's narrative about her own 14X24 build which was very unique. She wanted it very high. At this point in the pic she wasn't yet done putting the rest of the beams and cross beams on.

    Here's another pic further along: 20080819002.jpg

  9. #19
    LHBA Member blane's Avatar
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    Francis,
    That looks like it would be so easy to do. I bet you could have it done with an easy chair kicked back in the living space in about a month.

  10. #20
    LHBA Member edkemper's Avatar
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    I still think a 14x14 shed will be our first structure. We can live in it while building the house. But need to get a shipping container to house family belongings, supplies and equipment first.
    edkemper

    Class: Valentine's Day weekend 2009

    Feel the Bern!

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