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Building a modern home in the woods

johnnyrodgers.is

51–60 of 508 posts

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#51

The way to do this if you're not wealthy is to get a cheapo plot of land on the Oregon/Washington coast ($<100k for up to .5 acres) and put a manufactured home on it. It's way simpler, cheaper, and the construction on manufactured homes has improved a lot over the years (they're framed with 2x6s to survive transport, and this makes them sturdier and better insulated than most traditional houses). I did it and it's be…

Yeah where can I find land like this within 30 minutes of Seattle/Tacoma?

You can’t. (I just bought 12 acres 50mins within Seattle.)

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#54
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the house has wood siding with a flat roof and grass growing on the roof! Yikes!

Yeah, I saw those flat roofs, and talk of whistler, and thought what a nightmare. Peaked roofs exist for a reason. I wonder what their snow strategy is? Because one day of rain on top of several feet of snow causes severe structural strain if it can’t just slide down.

The last photo is in snow...

I wonder if they actively melt snow on the roof?!

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#55

The way to do this if you're not wealthy is to get a cheapo plot of land on the Oregon/Washington coast ($<100k for up to .5 acres) and put a manufactured home on it. It's way simpler, cheaper, and the construction on manufactured homes has improved a lot over the years (they're framed with 2x6s to survive transport, and this makes them sturdier and better insulated than most traditional houses). I did it and it's be…

You must not be aware that mfg homes have gone up in price by about 60% and are now on 14 month wait.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#56

"The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A" Am I the only one who almost spit out his coffee when reading this paragraph? I mean, building a remote home in the middle of a forest is a cool idea, sure. But then end up feeding the whole thing with 400A worth of e…

I'm from the US and I was shocked they needed 400A plus propane. We draw more current then you guys because our voltage is lower but still, 200A services are pretty standard for large rural homes.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#57

"The bigger issue was that the energy demands for the house, which included hot water heating for the pool and hot tub, outstripped the electrical supply we could get on a rural residential build: 400A" Am I the only one who almost spit out his coffee when reading this paragraph? I mean, building a remote home in the middle of a forest is a cool idea, sure. But then end up feeding the whole thing with 400A worth of e…

I had the same reaction (European too). If it's in Canada the supply voltage is 120V, so roughly half what we have in Europe, apples-to-apples it's comparable to 200A in Europe.

Still, it's a very high amount of power (48kW) that would not even be subscriptable in France for a consumer (the max is 36kW).

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#58
If this sort of thing interests you but you can't afford a multi-million dollar build I'd recommend checking out Theron Humphrey's work building a modern lakeside home in Montana (https://www.thiswildidea.com/casa). He built a simple, modern and affordable (think low 6 figure) home and did a good amount of the work himself while sharing info on the process. Apparently he's embarking on a new build this year in Arizona and sharing more in-depth info on his youtube.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#59

The way to do this if you're not wealthy is to get a cheapo plot of land on the Oregon/Washington coast ($<100k for up to .5 acres) and put a manufactured home on it. It's way simpler, cheaper, and the construction on manufactured homes has improved a lot over the years (they're framed with 2x6s to survive transport, and this makes them sturdier and better insulated than most traditional houses). I did it and it's be…

What manufactured homes did you consider during the process?

Another option is kit homes. I've been looking at First Day Cottage and Shelter-Kit. They are designed to be assembled by homeowners, but some people hire contractors. This FDC on Reddit looks extraordinary.

https://www.reddit.com/r/woodworking/comments/sibihx/first_d...

https://www.shelter-kit.com/patrick-kit.html

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#60

The way to do this if you're not wealthy is to get a cheapo plot of land on the Oregon/Washington coast ($<100k for up to .5 acres) and put a manufactured home on it. It's way simpler, cheaper, and the construction on manufactured homes has improved a lot over the years (they're framed with 2x6s to survive transport, and this makes them sturdier and better insulated than most traditional houses). I did it and it's be…

The manufactured home thing is really interesting. Do you have more information regarding that? I Googled a bit and found much info about "Mobile home", is it the same thing?
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