mossbackfarm
Member
Hi GJ!
Longtime lurker, and I’ve gotten tons of useful information over the last few months as my new shop has been brewing in my mind, so Thank you already!
Now, the timing is coming together, and I’m looking to pull the trigger in the next month, for fall construction. I’ve got some ideas and a vague plan, but I’d like to run them here, and see what people think.
The plan is to make a place that I can maintain and store equipment for the farm, out of the rain. Novel, after 10 years of living here, I’ve never had a space to do that, and my stuff shows the abuse. There’ll be an upstairs portion on the loft as well…I’m not sure what I’ll do with that, but an office for me, a music studio for my wife, or a living area are all potentials…I figure if I build it, they will come.
The plan is to have a local contractor put up the pole building, after me and a friend with a cat do the site prep. Then finishing out the inside will be me, as friends and beer and time and money allow.
Here’s a rough look at the building(24Wx36Lx14H). Not the best at sketchup, but it works if I put the time into it.
Here’s the current site. Pardon the mess…10 years of accumulation that I’d really started to get a handle on, but a bad woodshed roof is getting replaced, and all the loot in there got hauled out. Easier sorting!
I’d prefer the site to be more to the left and back, between the house and the big tree and well house, but not only is the septic tank there, but it turns out the folks who built the place put the septic tightline and well water/power feeds there, widely scattered. Grrr. I can put an unpermitted (up to) 10x20 building there, but not much else.
So, here’s my questions and thougths (of the moment!)
Size / use: What’s the gut feeling on this size? Depending on funds, I might have to pull the rightward overhang, making it 24x24. I figure I can add that / an additional enclosed area as I see what’s working over time. I know these things are never big enough, so if I plan for expansion, I hope I’ll be ok. One additional possible use is an attached greenhouse at one of the overhead doors for heating and gardening, but that’ll depend on getting a better-than-current water supply, but a rainwater tank is on the wish list.
Orientation: I think the building would look more “welcoming” from the road if the gable end was facing that way, but then I think the options for expansion might become more limited.
Also, our place looks pretty “junky” compared to some of the high end houses around us. This might make us more of an appealing target, and then welcoming doesn’t work! We don’t have much valuable portable stuff, but the yahoos don’t know that. Also, I’d be interested in a solar array someday, so the current orientation optimizes that.
Site prep: The site has a slight grade… 1-2% There’s a pile of fill behind it from when the house was built that I’m cleaning up. I’d prefer not to cut too deep by the big tree, but do you think that using the current fill (40’ x 20’ x ~2’, before the grass/etc is scraped off) will get me level? I can do the math, but sometimes these things throw in variables that simple math just doesn’t cover
Utilities: The well behind the big tree has a 60A service. I have a feeling that’s just not going to be enough, even for the more domestic uses. That leaves me with either running off the house, or getting a new (and paying forever for) electrical service. This pic shows the layout.
Red is power, the bottom one is service from the power company, the paired with blue one is power for the well from the house. The paired blue is the house water supply, and the single blue is the septic tightline out to the drainfield. The pinkish colors are potential routes to run them. I need to keep at least 20’ from the tree, or alternatively I could run things down the inbound service line. But it seems that trenching that out would be a huge headache. A friend is plugging his airknife, but figured I’d get a sense for what people think here. Water would have to come from the well through an additional trench that could possibly meet up with the final electrical configuration.
I think that’s just about it…sorry for the wall of text, but I suspect folks here like to think about this stuff
Thanks,
Rich
Longtime lurker, and I’ve gotten tons of useful information over the last few months as my new shop has been brewing in my mind, so Thank you already!
Now, the timing is coming together, and I’m looking to pull the trigger in the next month, for fall construction. I’ve got some ideas and a vague plan, but I’d like to run them here, and see what people think.
The plan is to make a place that I can maintain and store equipment for the farm, out of the rain. Novel, after 10 years of living here, I’ve never had a space to do that, and my stuff shows the abuse. There’ll be an upstairs portion on the loft as well…I’m not sure what I’ll do with that, but an office for me, a music studio for my wife, or a living area are all potentials…I figure if I build it, they will come.
The plan is to have a local contractor put up the pole building, after me and a friend with a cat do the site prep. Then finishing out the inside will be me, as friends and beer and time and money allow.
Here’s a rough look at the building(24Wx36Lx14H). Not the best at sketchup, but it works if I put the time into it.
Here’s the current site. Pardon the mess…10 years of accumulation that I’d really started to get a handle on, but a bad woodshed roof is getting replaced, and all the loot in there got hauled out. Easier sorting!
I’d prefer the site to be more to the left and back, between the house and the big tree and well house, but not only is the septic tank there, but it turns out the folks who built the place put the septic tightline and well water/power feeds there, widely scattered. Grrr. I can put an unpermitted (up to) 10x20 building there, but not much else.
So, here’s my questions and thougths (of the moment!)
Size / use: What’s the gut feeling on this size? Depending on funds, I might have to pull the rightward overhang, making it 24x24. I figure I can add that / an additional enclosed area as I see what’s working over time. I know these things are never big enough, so if I plan for expansion, I hope I’ll be ok. One additional possible use is an attached greenhouse at one of the overhead doors for heating and gardening, but that’ll depend on getting a better-than-current water supply, but a rainwater tank is on the wish list.
Orientation: I think the building would look more “welcoming” from the road if the gable end was facing that way, but then I think the options for expansion might become more limited.
Also, our place looks pretty “junky” compared to some of the high end houses around us. This might make us more of an appealing target, and then welcoming doesn’t work! We don’t have much valuable portable stuff, but the yahoos don’t know that. Also, I’d be interested in a solar array someday, so the current orientation optimizes that.
Site prep: The site has a slight grade… 1-2% There’s a pile of fill behind it from when the house was built that I’m cleaning up. I’d prefer not to cut too deep by the big tree, but do you think that using the current fill (40’ x 20’ x ~2’, before the grass/etc is scraped off) will get me level? I can do the math, but sometimes these things throw in variables that simple math just doesn’t cover
Utilities: The well behind the big tree has a 60A service. I have a feeling that’s just not going to be enough, even for the more domestic uses. That leaves me with either running off the house, or getting a new (and paying forever for) electrical service. This pic shows the layout.
Red is power, the bottom one is service from the power company, the paired with blue one is power for the well from the house. The paired blue is the house water supply, and the single blue is the septic tightline out to the drainfield. The pinkish colors are potential routes to run them. I need to keep at least 20’ from the tree, or alternatively I could run things down the inbound service line. But it seems that trenching that out would be a huge headache. A friend is plugging his airknife, but figured I’d get a sense for what people think here. Water would have to come from the well through an additional trench that could possibly meet up with the final electrical configuration.
I think that’s just about it…sorry for the wall of text, but I suspect folks here like to think about this stuff
Thanks,
Rich