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Tonir
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# Posted: 26 Nov 2016 10:57
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Hi everyone,
We have been looking for forum where we can ask for advice and learn from others. We just started our channel and are at the beginning of our off grid journey. Thought this would be great place to keep you posted on our progress. We haven't even found our property yet. We would like property in Bonner county ID and want to move in Spring 2018. We made a trip to ID in Sept and fell in love! So we need to secure our property and get our house ready to sell. We have a few videos up and it's been fun learning how to edit videos😜 Here is the link.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCYRSMRS6RWfrw3PZKgbE50w
We do you need some advice. We have been tossing around a couple of ideas of temporary living when we move to our property while we build our cabin.
Which one do you think is better as far as cost and practicality?
1. A portable cabin/shed. Looking at 14x20 (min) cost approximately $6800.00 plus the finishing and slab cost.
2. A canvas tent. Looking at 16x20 cost approximately $1500.00 plus a portable garage to go over the tent for extra weather proofing and possible storage and some sort of slab to keep it off the ground. Approximately $600.00. This option is cheaper up front giving us more options financially for our property.
Your advice is appreciated ðŸ‘
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 26 Nov 2016 12:04
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Wow! Was checking out this forum. There is a lot of inspiration here! Very exciting!
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Steve_S
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 07:52
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Welcome to the Forum Tonir ! A lot of different folks with different projects, enough to over fill your curiosity & fire the imagination of "what can I do & where do I start" LOL.
Temp Shelter is a tricky question as it "all depends".
- Will you be Full Time on the property ?
- Will you build over the summer and be "in cabin" by winter ? (Are you SURE ??) and
- What do you "have to have" in your temp shelter ?
- Do you want to repurpose it after the main cabin is built ?
- What will the region, county/municipality allow ?
An older RV / Trailer setup as a temp "worksite shelter" while building is often allowable, as long as it's on it's tires, put it on blocks and they may not allow it: Check with the locality. A good used one can usually be found for pretty cheap and that can be resold when your done. And you get the basics in one shot.
A Cabin/Shed on skids (so it can be moved) can sometimes be used (again depends on locality).
Setting that aside for the moment, as you can see there is a few things to ponder on that question...
For a good securable storage building, Sea Can's / Container's work a treat but beware they can get very hot & humid. A 20' unit could likely be delivered to your property for < 2K and can be reused / repurposed or moved around.
A Portable Garage is certainly handy, especially when weather is foul and you have cutting to do and storing of materials... they do hold in humidity which can be problematic for storing building wood (makes them warp & twist). Have a bunch of Pallets on hand to keep everything off the ground ! I have a 12'x32' Porta-Garage and it's always been full of material and equipment as I build and BOY has it saved me a pile of troubles. Absolutely worth every penny (bought it privately from a find on Kijiji {like your Craigslist} ).
Options to build a cabin are as varied as the people around... Much depends on time, budget, who is doing the work, local rules & regs etc... Some of that won't be known till you narrow the field on what property you find.
In the meantime you can make a list of What you have to have, need to have, like to have. Consider your options as to Water Sources, Power Sources, Preferred heating methods _and_ backups if your going somewhat remote or want that security for "just in case". (*1) Consider the options on what you want to build (Log Home, Stick Framed, Cordwood/Stackwall, Modular) and the time it takes to do so along with the labour & expertise required for those methods. (*2). Investigate & study the options and costs - ask LOT'S of questions and never be afraid to ask a question, the only stupid question that exists is the one that is unasked. Don't worry about someone calling it silly or stupid, not everyone knows everything and people here will happily answer questions without judgements (a rare thing these day's it seems).
IF you have found a general region / area that you want to buy in, start poking around at local builder's, supplier's, lumber yards and big box stores in that area. Get to know where things are and who's who. Keep your mind open to alternate methods and ideas along with what can be converted from one purpose to another... For Example a nice Garage Kit from a Building Supply place can make a lovely Cabin Shell with all the goodies, at a reasonable price. They come with blueprints and specs, just replace the "garage doors" with a French door and a window or two, or not... Get one built with 2x6 Studs for good insulation - might be surprised at how cost effective they "can" be.
Example:
*1) I am fairly remote in North East Ontario Canada, can get snowed in & cut off, no services to my place so it's all on me, therefore I have 3 backups for ALL essential things like heat, water & power. Best to be prepared for the unexpected.
*2) We started out thinking Tiny-house as a temp shelter while building a cordwood cabin BUT turn around time of cutting, splitting and drying logs (2 years) plus heavier foundation etc kyboshed that and it evolved into a stick built 24x20 with storage loft on a Frost Protected Slab Foundation with Radiant Heat... That flipping and changing plans cost precious time & wasted bux. Poor health issues also conspired to make changes in decisions.
There are many threads on this forum with heaps of questions and more answers that lead to more questions.... Julie2Oregon has an extensive set of threads where she asked all the questions and became quite educated & educating for many other's as well... Then Gary_O & Gabby have their long thread from start to current and they shared all the good, bad, hardships & joys throughout their project (worth a read, many chuckles there thanks to Gary's sense of Haha !) YES - A Good Sense of HAHA is a requirement ! I have a few threads with questions, answers and ouches along with giggles too...
Hope it helps, Good Luck and Welcome to the gang again!
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Gary O
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 09:42
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consider a small pole barn
many options; living, storing, outta the elements
rather inexpensive
and
when all is said and done
ya got a pole barn
welcome to the forum,
and
the adventure
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 10:43
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Thank you Steve S and Gary O. We have done a lot of research but still have some tough decisions to make. We narrowed our property search to Bonner county due to they are "lack" on building codes. Finding property is a huge challenge as we live in NV and both of us work full time. It's about a 12hr drive and we can't just drive up for the weekend to look at property. Once we secure the property hopefully our anxieties will cease and we can better plan.
Yes we plan on living in the temp shelter full time and hoping to be in the permanent structure by winter. But the "what if's" are scary ahhhhhhhhhhh!
We have our requirements for the property as far as size, water source and timber.
We would be completely debt free (huge plus) and our boss is entertaining me working from home remotely full time for as long as I want. Cash flow will be nice while getting everything set up. Just wish we could find property now! That would make it more of a reality and keep us motivated. Doing the videos helps stay motivated.
Is there anyone out there who's live in ID? Maybe you know of some property in Bonner county. I could give you our requirements.
I'm glad I found this forum and did read Gary O post and loved it! How's your hand? I'm sure being off grid and self sufficient can be dangerous if you're not careful.
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Gary O
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 12:59
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Quoting: Tonir Is there anyone out there who's live in ID? Maybe you know of some property in Bonner county. I could give you our requirements.I'm glad I found this forum and did read Gary O post and loved it! How's your hand? I'm sure being off grid and self sufficient can be dangerous if you're not careful.
Oh, I heal rather quickly, which goes well with thin Irish skin.
I do know a gent in Idaho. I’ll give him a jingle, see what he knows of.
Anyway, your adventure sounds much like ours started.
Take yer time, savor, enjoy.
It don’t git no better.
It's the dessert.
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 13:12
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Thank you Gary O! We watch a lot of YouTube channels that are doing it and can't wait to get there. I feel it's right at our finger tips but so far away...if that makes sense.
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silverwaterlady
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 16:06 - Edited by: silverwaterlady
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Here's my advice:
1. Find your property before you make any decisions on what type of structure you will be living in as you build.
Like it or not you will be dealing with building codes. In the area we built which is a unincorporated township we were not allowed to build a shed for storage until we built our primary structure.
2. Visit your property in every season before you build. You would be surprised how the perfect spot for a full time cabin in summer can change to a bad spot in the winter.
3. Living twelve hours away and trying to build is going to be a nightmare unless you have builders you can trust. It will take you YEARS to finish living that far away. I know because our cabin was built in 2006, finished in the fall and we didn't get to see it until May 2007. We live twelve hours from our cabin. DH is retiring soon and we will finally be able to finish our cabin. It's a shell. It was great getting out of tenting on our property for 25 years but it's been a major stresser that we did not have the time to do much work on our cabin during our vacations.
4. Since DH is still working I have medical insurance. That's great but when he retires I will need to go on Obamacare. He's old enough to qualify for Medicare. I'm not happy about changing our health plan because we have excellent health insurance. Getting out of the rat race might sound tempting but there is so much more to consider than the fact that you just can't stand it anymore.
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 27 Nov 2016 16:20 - Edited by: Tonir
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Quoting: silverwaterlady 3. Living twelve hours away and trying to build is going to be a nightmare unless you have builders you can trust. It will take you YEARS to finish living that far away. I know because our cabin was built in 2006, finished in the fall and we didn't get to see it until May 2007. We live twelve hours from our cabin. DH is retiring soon and we will finally be able to finish our cabin. It's a shell. It was great getting out of tenting on our property for 25 years but it's been a major stresser that we did not have the time to do much work on our cabin during our vacations.
We will be living on the property while building. Our plan is to secure the property asap and move onto it in spring 2018. We are just having a hard time finding our property because of where we currently live. Thank you for the replyðŸ‘
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 9 Oct 2017 22:53
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Wow! It’s been along time since I’ve been on here! We pushed our move ahead to Idaho a year early. Aaaaaaaaand guess what? We are in Idaho and living on our 14 acre homestead on a mountain! It’s amazing that we did it. From getting our house on the market to the drive to Idaho and securing the property had been a challenge. Then having our storage shed and our shed cottage delivered up our steep driveway... HUGE challenge! Here is a pic of the cottage. It’s 12x28 with a 4ft porch and a 10ft loft. Hubby will be getting it ready for us to move in. The property came with a cabin but it’s needs ALOT of work and would cost too much to fix. I call it the scary cabin, hubby calls it the crap shack...ha! Unfortunately we are living in the scary cabin for now and making do. Anyway that’s my update😀 lots of videos on our channel if anyone wants to laugh at us..lol!
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Borrego
Member
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# Posted: 10 Oct 2017 09:57
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Congratulations!!!
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 10 Oct 2017 12:37
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Quoting: Borrego Congratulations
Thank you.....will provide more updates.
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KabinKat
Member
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# Posted: 11 Oct 2017 17:37
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Congrats!
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Tonir
Member
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# Posted: 18 Dec 2018 17:15 - Edited by: Tonir
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We have been so busy since landing on our new homestead. I honestly forgot about this forum. We made it through our first winter on the mountain and now heading into the next one. Last year was so cold in the scary cabin. Seriously it wasn’t that much warmer in there than outside. We would wake in the morning to sometimes high 30s in the cabin. Then it would take half the day to warm it up. Now we’re in our shed to cabin conversion. It’s not finished inside but it’s insulated and livable. Big difference from the scary cabin. Definitely going through a lot less firewood already. SCORE!
The below pics are of the shed to cabin after installing cedar siding.
We have lots of videos up since we moved to Idaho. We also will be featured on an episode on Tv. Can’t disclose which show yet until we know what date we will be aired. Will be announcing that on our YouTube channel. Don’t miss out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYRSMRS6RWfrw3PZKgbE50w
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