general questions for the more experinced

[jmt1271]

I am in west TN. I am pretty sure on my prices. I was talking to the guy from whom I bought the land, and he thought my price was a little high. He just had a menonite carpenter build him a concret floored 36x30 shop, turnkey, for $11k. It is quite nice. His has no living quarters, however. I am going to window A/C units and gas wall heaters. I have gotten several prices from different builders and they are all between $25-40K depending on how much they do. It will be a wood framed metal building. Minimal windows. doors etc...

 

[CTyler]

Have you priced building a second floor or a finished loft? Seems you want a real "Finished" space to live in. Would be a shame to rip it out again.

 

[BB_TX]

A good friend did something similar. He built a shop something in the range of 30'x30' for him, his wife, and 3 girls (ages about 5, 10, 12 at the time!). He built a bathroom in one back corner and a kitchen area in front of that. He did not build any interior walls. He simply used furniture and portable partiions to section off the rest of the building. They lived in it for a little over a year. Not a lot of privacy, but nothing to tear down when his house was finished. The bathroom is a nice convenience in the shop and the kitchen cabinets became his workbench with a place to wash his hands in the sink.
I built a 30'x40' with the same intentions, although my children are already grown and gone. Here is mine. We plan to build in a couple years or so. I plan to make some temporary portable partitions (basically some simple frames with something like curtains) to separate the different living areas. This was shortly after I built it and moved in some furniture to spend some weekends there. Now after 5 years, you can hardly move around in it without moving some things out first.

 

[RonR]

BB,

That Tractor in the Kitchen pic is GREAT.

Probably as close to heaven as any of us can get on this earth!

You must have a very loving wife........

ron

 

[BB_TX]

BB,

That Tractor in the Kitchen pic is GREAT.

ron

Yeah and did you notice the welder in the living room?

 

[EddieWalker]

Bill,

Thanks for the pictures. I've seen a few of them before, but this is the first time I've seen them all together. You really did a nice job of making it nice and livable without dumping allot of money into it.

Eddie

 

[BB_TX]

Eddie - Thanks for the compliments. They are always welcome. Especially from someone doing projects on the scale you do.
I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

[MikeD74T]

BB TX , You are a man with his priorities in order !!! MikeD74T

 

[andrewj]

I build my 1250 sq foot farm house for me, wife, three kids for 45 thousand. Some of those prices for barns make me feel like either 1. I am some kind of pauper; or 2. you guys bought gold plated two-by-fours.

 

[randy41]

i think the price of building materials has gone way up over the last 6 or 7 years.
i built my 1300 sq. ft. house from '96-'99 and it cost somewhere in the 40's.