Morton Building quote....

[Kotskop]

Thank you, I would be glad to share. I used a Amish family out of Jamestown,( Millers quality contracting, if I remember the official name). John and Urey, I think that is the correct spelling of his name?. They had a crew of about 6 along with 2 drivers. Cannot say enough good things about these folks. They built me a great building and had a couple of great ideas for an issue meeting power line easements with my original covered patio design and were able to do them with no additional charges. Also wound up going with 66x40x14 with a 12x66 lean-to down the back. Original plan was 64x40 for 8' centers on the posts, using 8' centers I would be using the same number of posts as a 60' building. almost the same cost per sq ft to go 64 over 60 as the only real additional cost was 4 addition steel panels. The 66' came into play after we discussed adding the 10x10 door on the rear facing long wall and spacing those two trusses at 5' centers, all others on 4' c keeping every other truss over the top of a post. We cooked , smoked or grilled a lunch meal for them everyday they were here. Only delay was a few days waiting on the trusses. The work site was always clean during and at the end of they day. Pictures are day 1,2 and 3 to give an idea how fast they worked. last ones are some of the finished product. I subbed out the floor, O/H doors and the electrical service panel, doing all of the wiring myself. 90% of this building was done with a handshake, very little paperwork. can post more details or pictures if you would like.
Mike

Hi Mike

First of all, thanks for replying, very kind of you to take the time. I kind of just stumbled on this forum and it is awesome, tons of info and folks actually engage, very, very cool.

Congrats on the building, looks great and what I get from you is that all went rather well. I am completely new to pole/ post structures and with with a lot of reading and YouTube subscriptions trying to educate myself in preparation of our intended move and our focus is on the garage (36x56 or so) with a small apartment so we have a place to go to and storage for our stuff before starting to build the actual house (40x60) as well. Besides some of the technical aspects I think the most challenging is to find people that can build with quality and you can trust at a decent cost. That is if you do not go turn key. I probably have to sub everything for the garage as it needs to provide living space but with the house itself I would be able to do parts myself.

How did you go about this building, did you get a kit and the Amish folks did the construction or do they do it all. Reading up on some of their info of what they do on several web sites it seems there are a lot of options with them. If they have their own materials what is the quality? If you purchased a kit, would you mind sharing who you used for that. I am hoping once I can get in contact with someone who actually does construction like the family you used, I can either use them as well or if not, they can provide someone who can. As tight as these communities are that seems the most likely To get a good referral . It appears the challenge here is that most of them are more at the West and Central side while our lot is in Eastern TN. (Monroe County, +/- 2 hours away from yours in Jamestown)

Sorry for going on like this Mike, just a lot of enthusiasm that is boiling up and I can not even start building yet

Rene

 

[Snip]

Rene, We did not buy a kit, the builder aid I discussed what I was wanting, overall size, spacing of trusses, etc . They ordered all of the materials. The lumber package came thru a commercial supplier and I think the trusses and the metal came from 2 other suppliers both of which I believe to have been Amish run. I'm not sure if you would be in range of where they would like to build but can check with them as you get closer to building. If not , like you said maybe they can recommend somebody? Are you currently living in the area? if so you are more than welcome to come by, visit (code for have a beer)and I can show you what they built. I'm just an hour from Madinsonville, between Crossville and Crab Orchard.
Mike

 

[Kotskop]

Hey Mike

No we are still here in CA, cannot wait to get out of here but I am still need to work 3 years. We will be back in Tennessee for 2 weeks probably in April/ May or so as we want to do as much preparations as possible. If you work it backwards it is not too much time as the garage and living space have to be done before we can move. The lot is pretty much 600-700 feet from the road and we need to have a lot of different stuff done like power, probably a culvert, grading, a drive way and that kind of stuff. We want to use the time to meeting local contractors (concrete/ electrical) to get a feel who we would like to work with. With the schedules of most construction folks being 6 to as far as 12 months out all this has to come together in the near future. I would love to see your building and I will reach out to you at that time if that is ok. I’ll try to find the folks you used as well, if they were a good experience as it seems to be the case, it would be a good starting point. I kinda have a soft spot for these folks as I am Dutch myself but more as they just seem to be honest and hardworking with quality workmanship.