Costs to build?

[timmyt]

I'm a newbie...my son and i are signed up for the Marc 3-4 class. As i read these forums i feel overwhelmed by it all. I read and want to believe costs to build will be kept low as i will do as much by hand as possible. However, when you throw in the cost of the roof, the flooring, the well, the septic, the electrical, the plumbing, the fireplace...wow it seems like it will add up in a hurry. Thinking about a 40 x 50 cabin with a loft, 10 pitch roof and a rookie building team. I throw between $5K and $10K at each of the above mentioned....am i all wet?

Thanks, Tim

[rreidnauer]

Welcome to the board Tim, and congratulations on signing up for the class.

I've mentioned before that building your own place can be anything from very affordable to very expensive, and individuals usually find balance determined by their finances. Ingenuity and effort can be incredible money savers. Although I set aside $60K for property and construction, I hope to spend less than that. Many things I plan to do is pure sweat equity, but will be worth it.

I will live on the property in a travel trailer to avoid wasting money renting an apartment and losses for travel times. I plan to construct my own septic system. (http://www.eco-nomic.com/septic.htm) I think I'll build a dry stack foundation, but pier blocks remain an option if it will be significantly cheaper. Excavating for foundation and septic I haven't figured out yet, but it sure would be nice to find a backhoe cheap. If not, I'm sure I can work a deal with someone in the area. The well, yea. That's is a tough bill to avoid. But, I'm contemplating buying a used well-drilling truck, using it, and re-selling it. (heck, maybe I should keep it and make it my profession) Since I already planned on building a sawmill, I'll likely make my own wide-plank flooring and larger dimensional lumber. (I don't think it pays to make 2x4's) Since I was an electrician, doing that myself is a no brainer. I teach myself the plumbing aspect. (I don't want my drains gurgling :wink: ) If you build your own fireplace, it can be done pretty affordably, but I'll likely use woodstoves to reduce cost and boost efficiency. (click here (http://www.loghomebuilders.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=23) for my idea of an ultra affordable heater)

A lot of money saving ideas are offered in the class, so pay close attention. Though, I suspect you'll give up you desire for a 40x50 home for something a bit smaller. (I did after the class) I think you'll find that you can build a nice 35x35 or 40x40 two story for less than you might pay for a mobile home, provided you are willing to put in the effort. There lies the key.

[gumpond]

Man, to be able to build a 2000+ square feet of living space for 60K is unbelievable. Materials for stick built would be 100K more here in middle Ga. And I'm talking rural.
I'm really looking forward to the class. I need a change in lifestyle. Put a trap in front of the rat so to speak. This race ain't no fun nomore. (Triple negatives put you back on track and give you a chance to let it off.) :)
Look forward to seeing you there Tim.

Greg

[adubar]

[quote="timmyt"] However, when you throw in the cost of the roof, the flooring, the well, the septic, the electrical, the plumbing, the fireplace..."

Quite a few on your list can readily be done in a lower cost way by simply not "throwing money at it." Don't assume you need to hire it out. It depends upon your local codes and ordinances in many respects.

As an example, fireplaces are not difficult to build. Many university outreach programs have classes on masonry and fireplace building.
The LHBA class will discuss roof systems and strategies for savings there.
There are "alternatives" to the traditional contractracted work/hire for plumbing and electrical. These are covered in the class as well.

In the end, even in these areas it depends upon how handy and how much sweat equity you want to put in.

-A

[heavyopp]

Tim - One question Where do you plan to build?

I would also be willing to bet that house shrinks some after the class.

I know mine did -- at least in my mind!

Jer

[timmyt]

Hey Jer,

Thanks for the reply....i will probably shrink some after the class as well. Anyway, i plan on building this up in God's country in Northern Michigan near Lake Michigan town of Empire. Nothing but woods and water and snowmobiling. Where are you?

[heavyopp]

I was born and raised and live in NJ. I am on my way out.

I'm currently looking for land in PA or NH. The wife says PA. It's closer to family.

I don't know what I will do for work but I do know I will build a skip style home.

I'm done with NJ. I have a 1 acre lot with a 2200 square foot ranch. Property taxes are nearing 10,000 per year. I'm tired of working 3 months a year for property taxes alone.

So to answer your question " where are you" I'm not sure....

Jer

[akemt]

I know it is so difficult to figure out what kind of cost-to-build to expect before you take your class. The poor LHBA guys had me hounding them via email with questions of that nature before our class. LOL We haven't built yet, but are preparing to this Summer assuming financing, etc all works out. Yes, we're financing part of it, though it'll be about what we have into our current home, with a house about twice the size and worth a great deal more.

Here is our situation and projected costs, etc:
We'd already started moving towards financial independance through building ourselves (a stick-built addition and remodel to our home) when we took the class. So while we haven't quite finished the remodel/addition (SO close if we could just figure out where the darned 5 year "old" roof is leaking) yet, we have about 1-2 years' income in equity now. We don't want to take the time and "do it right" to save as much money as possible, we're eager to get moving and since we have some money to work with, we're going for it now. For us, that impacts the price greatly, though we're still working to save as much as we can. I should also add that new stick-built construction runs a good $120/ sq ft here now easily. Everything is more expensive here and supplies have to be barged in --there aren't discount stores or manufacturers around here.

Locally, we can get free logs (we have to pick them out, fill out the forms, cut them down, and then organise and pay for transport to our island, etc) but it'll take us 2 years at our areas allowable limit to get the amt. of logs we want, along with a great deal of effort. So, we've been looking around and found logs in Canada for under $20,000 plus shipping. Many LHBA members would choke at paying that much for their logs, but it is the cheapest we've found for the kind we want --and we want them now. ;) For us, the money is worth the 2 years.

I've been researching and calculating pricing and building time-frames a great deal of late. The fact of the matter is, at worst-case scenario (buying all our materials locally, paying others to do what we are currently unsure if we want to do, and doing what we know for sure we can do ourselves, etc), we can afford to build a 40 X 40 log home of roughly 3200 sq ft. To do the same thing with a stick-built house (doing the same work ourselves on both homes), we'd be building
roughly a 2200 sq ft home for that cost. Incidentally, to buy an older, good quality home here, we'd get roughly 1600 sq ft. The log home *should* be liveable much earlier than the stick-built home (perhaps only the first floor, but big deal), though which would actually get fully completed first I cannot say. Add to that that the log home's resale won't compare to that of the stick-built home and we've decided that even if we have to pay $60,000 for logs (our first astronomical quote from a local cedar mill), the log home is more feasable ecinomically and gets us further down the road of financial freedom as owner-builders. Not to mention, wouldn't you rather have an awesome, significantly larger log home than a smaller, run-of-the-mill stick-built for the same price?

I'll share actual estimates and cost breakdowns (planned, not real) if anyone wants to PM me. I don't want to share them on open forum, though, because our building situation and costs are so drastically different than many areas in the US.

A great deal of construction is actually fairly easy to do yourself, assuming your local regulations, etc allow it. Running electrical was my biggest eye-opener. It's SO easy to do, coming from a 25 y/o stay-at-home mom of a 2 y/o and a 3.5 y/o. Our next hurdle, after the roof of course, will be plumbing. We've never done that before either, but I bet we can handle it! This isn't to say we haven't read up on how-to's, asked for advice and help when needed, or had to redo something we messed up the first time, etc, but what is that compared to 1-2 years' pay in equity? Not to knock the building professionals in general, but hasn't everybody met a few that weren't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box? If they can do it with some learning and experience, you can. And even if you can't do some of the work yourself because of beaurocracy or you simply don't want to, the class helps you navigate cheaper ways of hiring others too.

Don't let thoughts of the class or log home building intimidate you --you'll love it! You'll come out feeling so eager and so capable when you're done! I had a blast and obviously wasn't intimidated about building.