It is time!

[bannerd]

Wife and I have a five month old, we currently live in the city and she wants to move out into the country before our daughter gets walking. I've been living out in the country all my life and I'm okay with living out there. I'm a little upset that I need to leave my small humble garage. We started looking at houses and we don't really see anything we both can agree on. We looked at manufactured homes and log cabin kits which are cheap. Then I got thinking.. why not buy a saw mill, cut the lumber off the land we buy and build our own house? Wife agreed and gave me a plan of something she likes... which didn't have a garage

Here's the question, to build or not too build? I've gutted homes to the studs, plumb, re-wired, sheet rocked,hardwood/plank flooring, insulated.. roofed.. so I'm not new to that stuff. Building a home I never done before. I assume it would go up fairly quick as opposed to gutting a home? We're on a tight budget, we can afford only about 100K so I'm trying to figure this out. The land we're looking at is 50 acres for 30K so left over is 70K to work with for materials. I'm a little nervous about this and I'm really getting pushed. I thought about collecting materials and storing them in the attic of my garage... get materials we will need and approach it that way. It would take longer but we would have less expense. Anyone out there build a home with a saw mill? I work full time as well which I would only be able to work on the home nights and weekends.

 

[carcajou]

With todays lumber prices it would be more cost effective to purchased graded lumber in the sizes you need for your house, and sell logs off your property to the local mill. Maybe you can work a trade with them. One of the problems you will have with sawing your own wood is getting the best recovery out of your logs. Most any tree will make 2x4's, few will make 2x10 -20'. Another issue is fresh cut lumber will need to dry (shrink) for a while to be usable for house construction. I did it once, second time around i bought all the house lumber. Framing is not really the expensive part of a house anyway.
It takes a special kind of wife to accept a house in progress. Mine does (10 years and 80 % complete) but will yours?
Regardless of how you do it, it will be worth it in the end. Good luck and keep us informed on your progress.

 

[Playwme]

Don't do it. You'll miss the first two years of your daughter growing up, you'll go over budget, everything will take longer than you think, you still need to rent while doing it, and your marriage will be strained.

To successfully do this you need either a healthy budget, a lot of free time, or no deadline to finish. From the sounds of it you have none of those. A move to the country sounds like a good idea but you need a different way to go about it.

 

[rockwithjason]

Don't do it. You'll miss the first two years of your daughter growing up, you'll go over budget, everything will take longer than you think, you still need to rent while doing it, and your marriage will be strained.

To successfully do this you need either a healthy budget, a lot of free time, or no deadline to finish. From the sounds of it you have none of those. A move to the country sounds like a good idea but you need a different way to go about it.

What he said

 

[theluke]

Buy a log cabin kit and have it built by professionals. That way 10 years down the road you won't have splitting logs from it being assembled incorrectly. Save the trees you cut saw em up and use them for your garage, that way you get your house and garage and still get to build something.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Will you be working a full time job during the build? It will take much longer in you are.

 

[Zeke]

Ask EdT on this forum about building a timber frame home while working and raising a son. He told me his wife chipped in and did a LOT of the finishing work. You're gonna need all the help you can get.

Me, I'd buy the kit and let the factory assemblers stack it. The amount of notches and holes that have to be done as well as the layout would take a long, long time.

Sell them your lumber if it's good stuff. They'll stack it and let it season before milling which is what you'd have to do to have a nice home.

No garage? That's easy, build a barn.

 

[Shoester]

50 acres for $30k?!?!?!?

$30k would fetch me 2 acres around here


I'm planning on doing the same thing you are in about 5 years. Bought my house Summer of 13' in a subdivision. Dumb move. Already itching for some land. I can built it much cheaper than it will cost to buy, and I can do a fair share of it myself. Just gotta find the right piece of property first....

As has already been said, plan to go over budget and not meet your schedule. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and be ready for a wild, stressful ride that will be absolutely worth it in the end.

 

[heavyzee]

where are you buying 50 acres for 30k? in Rural Texas its 10k/acre within 3 hours of a city

 

[David C]

Play and Rock are right. The only criticism I have would be they didn't put enough stress on the "don't do it"

You don't, no one does, have any idea what it is like to build with home milled lumber, unless they have done it. Home milled lumber is two to three times the cost of purchasing lumber from the yard. That is being optimistic. I could write two pages about the problems, you wouldn't read it, and if you did you wouldn't believe me, so accept this advice or not.

That isn't to say carcajou is wrong, it can be a very self satisfying experience if you are prepared with money and time. By your own admission you don't have either.

You will either never finish or your relationship with your family will suffer greatly.

 

[Steroblan]

I moved from city to country 24 years ago when my kids were toddlers. I couldn't afford to build so we bought a "fixer" that needed most everything. Although it was a work in progress for many years (and still is), we never regretted the move or the lean years remodeling the house and landscaping based on quality of life and the effect on the kids character and lives attending a small school and having the great outdoors to enjoy playing, animals, 4H and such. Now, we have a show place where I was able to eventually build two nice shops and enjoy rebuilding equipment to use maintaining the place.

 

[Moose364]

Get the Land that is a steal, and you will be divorced by the time you get the house built, what I see around here is a lot of people buying the metal building like Mueller or one of the other one's and finishing the inside on there own, the bank will loan you money to build a shop no problem, ask for the same money to build a house they will laugh you out of the bank, just don't tell them your going to make it into a home, then they will want it turnkey in 6 weeks, you should be able to get a 2000sf shop for around $30,000 then take your wife's house plans and finish it to her spec,

 

[slip knot]

Buy the land and put a used trailer house on it and build what you want in a few years. You can get used trailers dirt cheap and sell it later. Building a house by yourself is a major undertaking and will take longer than you think.

 

[Askme42]

Depends on where you live but if you have Amish close have them mill the lumber for you. I have a buddy that's built a few homes this way.

 

[bannerd]

Buy the land and put a used trailer house on it and build what you want in a few years. You can get used trailers dirt cheap and sell it later. Building a house by yourself is a major undertaking and will take longer than you think.

This is what we decided. That way I'm home to help the wife and kids and when the free time comes I can build the home. We're looking at log home kits actually. The place in new Hampshire sells kits and can have the shell done in a week. It would be impossible to drive all over and yeah. Don't want my wife leaving me and I don't want to miss out on my daughter when she starts walking.

Land is cheap in Canada Ottawa paper mill sold 106 acres to a guy across the street for 15K. The land is replanted but still has good soil.

 

[cagullett1]

where are you buying 50 acres for 30k? in Rural Texas its 10k/acre within 3 hours of a city

Not sure where you are referring to, as I'm 50 miles outside of downtown Dallas and land sells for 5k an acre.

 

[rburke65]

I like the idea of parking a trailer and going from there. You will have the utilities there already when the house comes along and you can get a feel for the land, where to place the house, best access for the drive, etc. Good luck.