Didn't really know how to ask the question that I wanted to ask but... We bought a nice sized brick home in a fairly nice neighborhood a little over 8 years ago. We are giving up the house in CH7 and hopefully will be discharged in about another week.
Anyways, It's a great home but I (we've) pretty much decided that we don't like people
just kiddin (not really) haha, and we'd like to have some land to ourselves. After this we will be renting for at least a year but hopefully no more than two and can start building something.
I would like to build a house myself or at least the majority of it. I have no experience but I've never met a challenge that I couldn't do yet. It's just the learning curve is always pretty steep. I also have a number of friends with different trade skills that I can look to for help or advice.
So, my first thought was building a (hurricane) Katrina cottage. Lowes sells plans and you can buy the materials in stages. They had an 1800 sq ft plan that the rough dry-in cost around $35,000 at the time. Sounded good but the unknown $$$ seemed kinda scary considering I'd have to build this while working a full time job.
My second thought was a steel frame home kit. They often go together like an erector set with pieces numbered and/or color coded. With the exception of the heavier pieces I would be able to frame it by myself and a few pieces of equipment. But, again, some of the costs were higher up front and unkowns gave me pause. My biggest concerns is how fast I can get the thing dried-in.
So, I'm to my third idea and it's REALLY been growing on me. I've looked into shipping container housing. These are the containers that you see on some trucks, trains, and cargo ships. They are EXTREMELY sturdy. They are designed to be picked up by the corners full of cargo weighing as much as 80,000 lbs and stacked on each other. The containers themselves weigh around 8-10k lbs. The floors have steel I-beam floor joist 12"s on center and the "hi-cube" containers have interior dimensions over 8 ft wide, 9 ft tall, and up to 53 ft in length. They can be set on foundations, welded together in different formations, even stacked, and inside walls removed to make rooms of any size. I've even seen them used as root cellars.
My thought is that these are practically instantly dried in, are fairly cheap, are built to last a lifetime with no more, possibly less maintenance than a traditional house. The outsides can be fitted with any type of siding one chooses or can simply be painted and left with the corrogated metal siding. And they can be insulated, plumbed, roofed, and heated and cooled like a traditional home.
Quite frankly, this economy and my experience with BK has, I think, made me realize that alot of the debt I've had is a bunch of fluff...feel good stuff, impress the neighbors, etc. Epecially if one lives in a neighborhood with an HOA. It seems like there's an unspoken feeling that you have to keep up with the Joneses or be the Joneses. I don't want to live like a bum by any means but I believe I could be happier with much less or at least less costly things. My wife and I still make decent money, thank GOD, and my goal would be to build something I could have paid off in 5 years.
Anybody else take an approach like this after BK?
Anyways, It's a great home but I (we've) pretty much decided that we don't like people just kiddin (not really) haha, and we'd like to have some land to ourselves. After this we will be renting for at least a year but hopefully no more than two and can start building something.I would like to build a house myself or at least the majority of it. I have no experience but I've never met a challenge that I couldn't do yet. It's just the learning curve is always pretty steep. I also have a number of friends with different trade skills that I can look to for help or advice.
So, my first thought was building a (hurricane) Katrina cottage. Lowes sells plans and you can buy the materials in stages. They had an 1800 sq ft plan that the rough dry-in cost around $35,000 at the time. Sounded good but the unknown $$$ seemed kinda scary considering I'd have to build this while working a full time job.
My second thought was a steel frame home kit. They often go together like an erector set with pieces numbered and/or color coded. With the exception of the heavier pieces I would be able to frame it by myself and a few pieces of equipment. But, again, some of the costs were higher up front and unkowns gave me pause. My biggest concerns is how fast I can get the thing dried-in.
So, I'm to my third idea and it's REALLY been growing on me. I've looked into shipping container housing. These are the containers that you see on some trucks, trains, and cargo ships. They are EXTREMELY sturdy. They are designed to be picked up by the corners full of cargo weighing as much as 80,000 lbs and stacked on each other. The containers themselves weigh around 8-10k lbs. The floors have steel I-beam floor joist 12"s on center and the "hi-cube" containers have interior dimensions over 8 ft wide, 9 ft tall, and up to 53 ft in length. They can be set on foundations, welded together in different formations, even stacked, and inside walls removed to make rooms of any size. I've even seen them used as root cellars.
My thought is that these are practically instantly dried in, are fairly cheap, are built to last a lifetime with no more, possibly less maintenance than a traditional house. The outsides can be fitted with any type of siding one chooses or can simply be painted and left with the corrogated metal siding. And they can be insulated, plumbed, roofed, and heated and cooled like a traditional home.
Quite frankly, this economy and my experience with BK has, I think, made me realize that alot of the debt I've had is a bunch of fluff...feel good stuff, impress the neighbors, etc. Epecially if one lives in a neighborhood with an HOA. It seems like there's an unspoken feeling that you have to keep up with the Joneses or be the Joneses. I don't want to live like a bum by any means but I believe I could be happier with much less or at least less costly things. My wife and I still make decent money, thank GOD, and my goal would be to build something I could have paid off in 5 years.
Anybody else take an approach like this after BK?
Those would probably make great root cellars due to their shape.
Comment