My brother sold his in 2 days. There are all kinds of them around me, some have been there for 30 years or so.
Why? My wife wishes we had a bigger garage. I’m glad she likes cars and tools and going to car shows and races with me.
My wife likes our big house. We did renovate the garage within the limits of our house lot in a small city, but if I asked her to move into a small house connected to a large garage or to move out of town just so I could have a huge garage, she would not be happy. Her life does not revolve around cars, though she likes nice cars and has mostly owned BMWs and now has a Porsche. On the other hand, I would happily trade half of our 5000 SF house for 2500 SF more garage.
Yea it's usually a big box with one corner turned into living space. And usually there's no view, which is a requirement for me. I spend a lot of time looking out the window.
In Minnesota I like having our shop attached to the house, our garage tomorrow on Christmas is just another huge living room, with 25 people here it is nice having another big room.Yea it's usually a big box with one corner turned into living space. And usually there's no view, which is a requirement for me. I spend a lot of time looking out the window.
About as well as pickup trucks with manual transmissions and window cranks.
Snark aside there's been some pics of really nice barndos on this site. But I think when they get that nice, the total cost gets closer to that of a separate house and shop. When the buildings are separate you can build the house nice and the shop cheaper but still nice enough for a shop. If they're one building the quality of the house part tends to drag the shop quality and likely the expense upwards.
www.zillow.com
You can make them look like whatever you want. Fake rock exterior, real rock, and windows and doors however you want. The one building of ours with finished living quarters is as nice inside as any stick building we have lived in. Cheaper to heat and air condition, and plumbing and electrics are much more easily accessed than in most homes.
They tend to be rectilinear boxes with generally low slope gable roofs. Harder to add ins and outs, mor interesting roof lines, turrets, etc. Even two stories and a basement are challenges for post frame. I appreciate those features may not appeal to you or are even negatives, but lots of people like those things. Hard to imagine a two story prairie style barndominium. I think that is what "architectural sensibilities" refers to. Luckily we have choices. Some value the appearance of a building. Others value what they can do in it. I appreciate you can probably buy more square footage in a barndominium than many other houses. And of course a renovated 100 year old barn is entirely different, yet may be called a barndominium.
I know it’s not for everyone, but I think the front of mine looks good. Not just a big rectangle box like one of the builders estimates I had when we built it wanted to do.
Even this one about 5 miles from me that just sold, but not closed yet. It doesn’t look bad from the front.
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Perfect place for us for the past 23 years. Paid someone to put up building shell, I did all interior walls, electric, plumbing, etc. which saved $$$. 10,000 sq. ft. under roof, 2,800 sq. ft. 3 bedroom 3 bathroom house.
Very nice also, looks a lot bigger than I would want but very nice.I need to get a better (lower) drone pic, but here is our 1952 home with steel buildings built in 2004 and 2015. Traditional ranch home construction was one story. Rock and metal roof are considered high end around here. Steel building to the left is climate controlled with living quarters inside.
Mine sold pretty quickly for a lot more than I had in it.
Place I bought had been on the market going on 4 months, when regular places sold in days. I sold my old house, a standard 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage before it was listed for over asking and they paid all fees, closing, etc.My brother sold his in 2 days. There are all kinds of them around me, some have been there for 30 years or so.
This one is for sale for $1.3 million, the garage is 50X100 with another unattached 50X100 outbuilding.
This one below was built by a World Of Outlaws Sprint car racer, now a Snocross racer lives there. The driveway’s on both of those is concrete, lots of concrete, the Snocross racer’s driveway is big enough that a 53’ tractor trailer with a featherlite race trailer can drive up the driveway and turn and back into the garage
Mine is smaller, our garage is 40X48 and our house is about 1550sqft.
I need to get a better (lower) drone pic, but here is our 1952 home with steel buildings built in 2004 and 2015. Traditional ranch home construction was one story. Rock and metal roof are considered high end around here. Steel building to the left is climate controlled with living quarters inside.
I can see that - they are quite trendy at the moment (as is evident by the NYT article). I guess my question was more hypothetical, what happens in 10 years when they aren't so trendy? You do seem to see this ebb and flow - for example the 'modern farmhouse' that was all the rage in the 10's is now a bit past it's prime: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/07/realestate/modern-farmhouse-suburbs.html
Mine sold 10 years ago. They are fairly common in rural Texas.
You can’t see it in that pic but the driveway goes out 100 yards past that apron. All done in 2004. It was big $$$ then - can’t imagine it now. The last few years we were working we did the metal roof, new windows, and the concrete. Shooting for stuff we would never have to re-do.
I always find this argument irrelevant, at least to us. Our home is for living in. Resale value or desirability isn’t a factor for us. We moved into our current home planning to stay until the end (28 years and so far, so good). I realize that not everyone can do that, but I also suspect it’s not uncommon. The drivers of making decisions are completely different than if you are always looking ahead to the sale.
That was our thought as well when we built ours, my brother said it is going to be very hard to sell a 2 bedroom house that we should make it three bedrooms and bigger footprint, I told him I don’t care, we are staying here until the end.
That's what I did in mine, 1140sf two bedroom apartment, conventional 2x4 framing with 2x6 ceiling joists, sheetrock everywhere. inside a red iron building. I did acid stained concrete for the floors, but if I had stayed, I was looking at vinyl plank or engineered hardwood. Double insulated as the frame was insulated when erected, and the 2x4 walls were insulated when I built the apartment. Very quiet and very economical. I had no problem recouping my out-of-pocket costs plus labor when I sold. 30x80x10 building, a little more shop than apartment.Here are some interior pictures of the apartment we have in one of our red iron buildings. Other than the suspended ceiling, you can’t tell that it’s not traditional stick construction. Because the entire building is insulated, it’s very inexpensive to heat and cool. Also one floor so we can move out here if stairs and mobility become an issue.
If you look at the picture of our buildings the two red steel ones are taxed identically. One has electric and water (no septic) and is a work shop. The other is climate controlled and fully finished inside with its own septic system. Here the tax man can’t come onto the property without permission so they make their best guess. YMMV.
