Barns with Living Quarters

[B&B]

I have convinced my wife that we should move to the country, and build a 40x60 barn with living quarters on one end of the barn. She wants at least the front to look somewhat like a house with a porch, the reason for not building a new home is, about 10 yrs we will inherit a large ranch home and land, therefore we do not want to build on our land and have a home we have to sell, and let someone other than family live on our farm land. Does anyone has a suggestions, or previous experiences with building a barn with living quarters. I will very thankful for all suggestions.

Thanks,
B&B
Fairfield, Texas

 

[MikeD74T]

5 years ago a local contractor sold his business to retire & expand his wife's horse interests. They bought 45 acres of bare land (no buildings, some woods ,some fields) and sold their 5 acres & home. They build a 40x80 gambrel barn with living quarters on 1/2 of the second floor until they had time to build a new house. They've since built an arena and abandoned the house idea. The living quarters are very high end as is the center front section of the barn which contains lobby & office space. Just because your house is in the barn doesn't mean you have to live in the barn.
Barn sits centered on a slight rise at the back of a 7 acre fenced pasture facing the road. The front center section is a gambrel dormer with a balcony. Also has a large cupola with a brass chandoleer that can be seen from the road 800' away. Very nice looking property. MikeD74T

 

[MikeD74T]

On the other end of the scale, Farm Show had an article where someone built a 30 X 70 building 16' high, pulled in an older used mobile home, jacked it up to the second floor level & supported it with beams & posts. They parked vehicles & equipment under the mobile home. The rest of the barn was for hay, not livestock. MH could be easily removed when no longer needed. MikeD74T

 

[EddieWalker]

I built a small living quarters on a shop when I got divorced. It was a little over 400 sq ft of living area, and kind of cozey. For what it was, I was happy with it, but it was kind of crowded when Steph and the kids came over while we were dating.

My current home started out as a shop with a livng quarters on it. It evovled into the shop with a small 3/2 home. Nothing fancy, just 1,000 sq ft of living area that we're very comfortable in. We want to build our dream house next to it sometime in the future, but we're not in a rush as this has worked out very well.

This is the thread on my current home.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/56621-creating-workshop-home.html

This is the thread on the barn, then if you read through it, you will see where I built the living quarters.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/33401-my-container-barn.html?highlight=container+barn

I know it's not what you asked for, but maybe close enough to give you some ideas.

Eddie

 

[tallyho8]

How about just pulling in a double wide to live in till you move again then move the double wide out.

It seems like a combo barn-house would be a nightmare to insure and possibly taxed higher than a home and barn separated. Some utility companies even charge higher rates when connecting to a barn first instead of a home.

 

[drssg]

When we looked into it, the banks weren't interested in financing that sort of thing. There are also insurance concerns, since a fire in your barn will also burn your house down.

I know people who have done it, and are quite happy with it, but they have enough money that they weren't concerned about these things. Often times, the barn help ends up living in the barn apartment. So they get a place to live as part of their salary.

 

[schmism]

we had seriously considered building a barn and living in the "loft".... after discussing plans it became clear that it would be easyer to build the front half of a 30x60 barn into an apartment.

we had plans drawn up and were going through the offical bid process before we came to the conclusion that it was going to be to expensive.

we settled on finding a used single wide trailer (easyer to move) for $16K, and purches it and set it in aprox the same location as the barn would have been.

In hindsite we are happy we chose this route as it was much cheeper, quicker, and allows us to re-sell the trailer in a few years once we have the "big house" built. (or in your case the farm is yours)

If your woundering, yes living in a $16K house is exactly what it sounds like. everything is cheep, crappy stuff. But its great to lay in bed and think i have no house payment either...

 

[Jimbrown]

Barn belongs to my cousin 40x40 (I think) steel building with apt inside. Click for larger.

 

[hudr]

I have been living in the barn we built since 1999. Our original plan was to stay there for 5 years. We built a 60x40 barn and put 800 sq ft of "apartment" in one end.
Well, there are now 5 of us living in about 1300 sq ft. We added on 2 bedrooms, a laundry room and another bath inside the shop a couple of years ago. Its a little cramped, but it and the 55 acres we built on are REAL close to being paid for. There are several things we would do different (hindsight is 20/20). Especially if we knew we were going to be in longer than our original 5 year plan.
Like I say, w/ 5 of us in there its definitely cozy, but no matter how I figured it, my wife and I were just not going to be able to get that apartment we were renting paid off.

 

[bigtiller]

I have convinced my wife that we should move to the country, and build a 40x60 barn with living quarters on one end of the barn. She wants at least the front to look somewhat like a house with a porch, the reason for not building a new home is, about 10 yrs we will inherit a large ranch home and land, therefore we do not want to build on our land and have a home we have to sell, and let someone other than family live on our farm land. Does anyone has a suggestions, or previous experiences with building a barn with living quarters. I will very thankful for all suggestions.

Thanks,
B&B
Fairfield, Texas

What a tight wad! Spend your own money now and enjoy live rather than wishing for your love ones to die sooner rather than later. Besides, they may just give the church your share of the inheritance.