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Building a modern home in the woods

johnnyrodgers.is

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Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#291

Post by dekerta »

xyzzyz wrote: post #87
claudiulodro wrote: post #25

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…

Regular houses these days are also commonly built with 2x6s for external walls.

That might depend where you live. 2x6 is standard here in my part of Canada, but that's just for added insulation, not for any structural reason. Older homes were built with 2x4 exteriors

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#292

Post by [deleted] »

jcelerier wrote: post #236
danans wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was shocked they needed 400A Seconded. I recently completed an all electric high performance remodel, and with 200A service, I can power a heat pump, heat pump water heater, all electric kitchen and laundry, and an EV charger, with Amps to spare. This is in the mild Bay Area, and my heat pump draws about 6A (15A breaker). The largest loads are EV and cooktop/stove. A 3000sqft custom house built to high performanc…

reading this as a french, this is wild. AFAIK you can't even get more than 136A as an individual, you need to operate a company (if my calculation is correct - max. for individuals is 15kVa AFAIK). Huge majority is 6kVa / 230V => ~26A

[deleted]

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#293

Post by dleslie »

odonnellryan wrote: post #274
dleslie wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you bought a house _anywhere_ in Metro Vancouver and held it for ten years, you could likely finance this project if you sold it now.

You would have net $3m+ on any of those homes?

You don't need the full value to finance a $3M project; the author mentioned a mortgage.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#295

Post by dleslie »

dahfizz wrote: post #288
hinkley wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if it doesn't burn down first in a forest fire.

Are there forest fires as far north as Vancouver? It gets wet & cold up there. I though forest fires was mostly a California problem.

Oh yes, yes there are.

Millions of hectares burn down every year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_British_Columbia_wildfire...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_British_Columbia_wildfire...

Last year an entire town disappeared:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-sept-7-2...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#296

Post by hinkley »

dahfizz wrote: post #288
hinkley wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if it doesn't burn down first in a forest fire.

Are there forest fires as far north as Vancouver? It gets wet & cold up there. I though forest fires was mostly a California problem.

Oregon was on fire most of 2020.

And the pine beetles are doing a number on BC. It's only a matter of time before those catch on fire.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#297

Post by porknubbins »

This house and lot are incredible and I would love to build a modern home in the woods, but I feel like this article was missing a disclaimer somewhere "Step 1 be rich" - even though land in Canada may not be super expensive this project was clearly in the one to several million dollar range.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#298

Post by OxO4 »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #229
folkrav wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snow removal must be... fun.

I can't believe no one at any step of the process gave them a warning about flat roofs, huge glass windows, having a pool, etc. in frigid mountain areas with tons of snow. I feel like there must be a lot more to this story, like cycling through different architects and engineers until one would finally not tell them the idea was bonkers.

Not defending the other design choices, but there are places in snowy mountain areas where (almost) flat roofs are common [0].

[0] https://www.davos.ch/en/information/portrait-image/storybook...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#299

Post by JALTU »

JALTU wrote: post #80
claudiulodro wrote: post #25

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…

In my short experience, there is a very practical difference between "manufactured" and "modular" which is explained at the Ideabox site link below. We have seen/stayed in one of these Ideabox homes and they seem a good balance for a house when you're not a "I want to build my dream castle" kind of person (that's me). https://www.ideabox.us/

To clarify a little: Where I am interested in building, there are county-wide laws or code regarding mfg vs mod homes, effectively taking one of those options off the table for me.

And, just to be clear, I am not a build my castle person, but I do want something more modern than the usual cabin in the woods. Hence, Ideabox...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#300

Post by anonAndOn »

deltaonefour wrote: post #249

Kind of off topic, but anybody know how I would gain the skills of building a house from scratch without quitting my day job as a developer?

You're going to need to figure out what trades you want to do and what ones you'll need/want to hire out. Volunteer to work on other people's projects for free (or beer) to see what you enjoy working on. For example, Habitat for Humanity and other home building charities often need bodies and can be a good way to sample different aspects of a build.

Then, start small and try your hand at something simple like a shed. Once you've shelled out for all of the tools you'll need to build a shed, you're well on your way to the investment in tools you'll need to build a home and can decide from there whether to proceed.

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