College Grad First Build, Low Budget, Need Design Input!

[nick3757]

Hi everybody.

As a little background, I recently graduated with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. I got a decent paying engineering job near where I grew up, which is pretty hard to find, but I have a lot of student loans to pay back. I wanted to have my own house and garage so I started looking through the county tax sale listings.

I ended up with a winning bid on the property below for an extremely good price. Here is the property last year before I bought it and cut down the jungle that became of the place.

Here is the aerial view from google maps. My house is the one in the top left.

The place has been vacant since approximately 1995 by the newest garbage sticker on the door and it shows. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures showing the amount of overgrowth I cleared with a ton of help from my dad and friends. But, the front of the house is totally clear, along with almost the entire back yard to where that curve is between the nice cut grass and the jungle.

It was so overgrown when I bought it, I didn't even know there was a detached garage in the back until we started cutting down everything. A garage in need of extreme repairs, but it's there.

I'm also dealing with some encroachment issues due to the fact that a single family owned all the property around mine, and just built stuff wherever. This picture shows the survey map.

My property is 50'X140', with the house being 40' wide at the front, and about 46' in depth. The attached garage sticks out an additional 11' to the right, and is a little over 20' in depth. The detached garage is 16' wide by about 28' in depth. However, the back of the garage faces a hill, and the garage is now partially buried into the hill.

I'm not worried about the property line issues, as the neighbors are great and that is getting worked out. So right now I'm trying to design the house and garage to replace what is here currently.

My first thought was to rebuild the garage within the property boundary and complying with the proper setbacks. The size I wanted to build was 28'X40', with a similar orientation as currently. But, I wanted to put a second story, or half story, above the garage so I had an apartment to use as an office, get washed up, and make some food, etc. while I'm building the house. However, the county this is in has a mean roof height restriction of 15' for detached buildings. And I'm not sure id I'll be able to get a variance for the height. Also, detached buildings are limited to a single story, so I think I'd have issues with this plan.

What I wanted to do with the house is tear it down, fill in the basement, and make the whole 40'X40' ground floor/daylight basement a garage with a 14' ceiling. I need 14' so I can stand up straight under the trucks when they're on the lift, and to fit my 66 GMC 5000 and eventually military truck into the garage.

I wanted run a beam down the middle of the garage, and use 20' I joists to form the joists and support the floor. But to do the first and second floors I'd have about $7,000 in wood and joist hangers. I'm working with a budget of $9,000 a year if I buy absolutely nothing except the gas to get me to work everyday after my loans, and I can't get a mortgage or building loan due to those damn loans.

So here are my questions.
1. Is there a more cost effective way to build a house/garage 40' wide
2. Does anybody have an idea for a garage/apartment that:

• 
  Has enough room to do a restoration on a 67 gmc long bed truck

• Room to weld on a motorcycle frame

• Do some small assembly and machine work

• Has room for a bed, kitchen, bathroom, and office

• And most importantly, can be built in a few years with a budget of $9,000 a year for materials

Sorry if this was long-winded, but this has been stressing my brain trying to figure out an affordable solution so I can finally get some work done on my trucks and bikes, and have my own place to go. So if anybody has some input I'd love to hear it.

 

[Helipilot]

Perhaps demo existing garge in back, get drainage issues resolved for new concrete pad, install sewer lines and locate inflow points for your apartment, etc. design your 28-40 plan a little deeper to accommodate your apartment and do the slab this year. A per-engineered metal building is a good start. I priced a 46-42 For a client at $19,000 delivered. Assembly is straightforward. Finish out the interior at your leisure and budget. The bank should loan you the money for your building and with sweat equity you can have a great bottom line when you go back to the bank for the house loan. I am a licensed contractor and have done this approach numerous times for clients who needed to develop equity.

With a building erected, the apartment buildout should not cost over $40.00 per sq.ft. I am out of my office now on a job in another state but when I get back to the office I will forward the contact info for the metal building manufacturer. Good luck.

 

[pepi]

If they grab your land and take care of it you will permanently lose your ownership of that property. Do not be to kind, that big smile and hand patting you on the back has a knife in it.

Harsh statement I know but fair warning, you need to survey and mark the property lines and move those folks off your property.

Being that the house has been uninhabited as of 95, you need to move on it now, they already can claim they have rights it cause they have been using it for 18 years, again fair warning.

 

[jd_1138]

Maybe build the garage and live in an RV/trailer/camper that's parked near it. Put a bathroom and small office in the garage to hang out in when you don't want to be in the trailer/RV.

With a hotplate and microwave, you can cook pretty much anything you want. Then you can work on building the house.

Or get a girlfriend who will let you move in with her.

 

[rsanter]

Personally I would look at the option of buying a used single wide and putting it in the back and move in
Use the current house as storage and live cheap for now.
Save your money so,you can get things fixed up to a livable state.
Unless that house is un-fixable I would look at a remodel and expansion before a teardown

Bob

 

[nick3757]

If they grab your land and take care of it you will permanently lose your ownership of that property. Do not be to kind, that big smile and hand patting you on the back has a knife in it.

Thanks for the input. I've been talking to our lawyer lawyer and surveyor and we have a plan that shouldn't upset anybody.

Maybe build the garage and live in an RV/trailer/camper that's parked near it. Put a bathroom and small office in the garage to hang out in when you don't want to be in the trailer/RV.

With a hotplate and microwave, you can cook pretty much anything you want. Then you can work on building the house.

Or get a girlfriend who will let you move in with her.

I like the last part. I should work on that one lol

Personally I would look at the option of buying a used single wide and putting it in the back and move in
Use the current house as storage and live cheap for now.
Save your money so,you can get things fixed up to a livable state.
Unless that house is un-fixable I would look at a remodel and expansion before a teardown

Bob

I've been thinking of fixing up the house thats there. It is fixable, but real difficult to work with. The guy actually made his own cinder blocks for both garages, so I'm a little leery on keeping them. I'll have to look into the feasibility of getting a single wide behind the house. It's actually built into a hill which adds yet another challenge to the whole project.

 

[ufvj217]

Sounds interesting, subscribed

 

[NUTTSGT]

Did the neighboring family attend the Sheriff's sale ? Have you considered tearing the house down and selling the lot to them for a profit ? Basically, flipping the property and buying another place ?

 

[AZ Pete]

If they grab your land and take care of it you will permanently lose your ownership of that property. Do not be to kind, that big smile and hand patting you on the back has a knife in it.

Harsh statement I know but fair warning, you need to survey and mark the property lines and move those folks off your property.

Being that the house has been uninhabited as of 95, you need to move on it now, they already can claim they have rights it cause they have been using it for 18 years, again fair warning.

I may be mistaken, but I think the OP's structures are the ones encroaching on the adjacent lots. That being said, given the age of the buildings, he probably has a valid claim on the land that is encroached on via "peaceful adverse possession". In many locals this involves 7 years of uncontested occupancy (by the buildings).

 

[nick3757]

I may be mistaken, but I think the OP's structures are the ones encroaching on the adjacent lots. That being said, given the age of the buildings, he probably has a valid claim on the land that is encroached on via "peaceful adverse possession". In many locals this involves 7 years of uncontested occupancy (by the buildings).

I believe it is 21 years in Pennsylvania for adverse possession. The house has been there since the 1920's so it should be okay. I'd really much rather buy the property to the right of the house, as that would be easier for everybody.

Did the neighboring family attend the Sheriff's sale ? Have you considered tearing the house down and selling the lot to them for a profit ? Basically, flipping the property and buying another place ?

I did think about selling it, but I like the location. It's only 5 minutes from where I work, and I really only have 1 neighbor close by.

I'd love to have a small farm for the house and garage, but there aren't many engineering jobs near those

A quonset hut style building would be cheap, but they waste a lot of space. I'm looking into steel buildings and pole barns/timber frame buildings to try and do a cost analysis on all of them.

The open steel trusses do have a cool industrial look to them. I could just have the slab polished and save on flooring. All i know is that there are a ton of options to check out!

<div><a href='http://www.houzz.com/photos/111214/Diva-industrial-dining-room-seattle'><img src='http://st.houzz.com/simgs/7c01d37f0d3c7332_8-4858/industrial-dining-room.jpg' border=0 width='500' height='630' /></a></div><div style='color:#444;'><small><a style='text-decoration:none;color:#444;' href='http://www.houzz.com/photos/industrial/dining-room'>Industrial Dining Room</a> by <a style='text-decoration:none;color:#444;' href='http://www.houzz.com/professionals/architect/c/West-Vancouver--BC'>West Vancouver Architects & Designers</a> <a style='text-decoration:none;color:#444;' href='http://www.houzz.com/pro/hljohnston/place-architect-ltd'>PLACE architect ltd.</a></small></div>

 

[DeadSock]

I believe it is 21 years in Pennsylvania for adverse possession. The house has been there since the 1920's so it should be okay. I'd really much rather buy the property to the right of the house, as that would be easier for everybody.

Do that ... on the adjoining lot, put your new building. Since it's a seperate lot your "garage" could qualify for a habitable structure, e.g. a small house/apartment with a large garage .

The existing non-compliant structures can't be simply torn down and rebuilt non-compliant (at least not in any zipcode I've lived in).

You might get away with improving/restoring the non-compliant structures, but then again the amount of "improving/restoring" could result in them needing to be compliant to "current code, set backs, etc".

Proceed carefully.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Whatever you do, get the encroachment issue resolved BEFORE you put any money into that property. Even if it is a letter that states you plan on tearing down the offending structure within the next 10 years and that the other property owners agree to take no legal of financial actions against you during that period.

I would hire a lawyer to draft the papers. It is worth several hundred dollars to get this done.

Even with these documents in hand, it is questionable whether or not you could ever get a mortgage !

Forget the 2 story garage. Build it as tall as possible. Build your office/apartment on the first floor.

 

[theoldwizard1]

And most importantly, can be built in a few years with a budget of $9,000 a year for materials[/LIST]

Sorry to burst your bubble but, "You can't get there from here !"

Tearing down the old garage and pouring a pad for a new one will cost you 3 or more years of your budget.