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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

#431

Post by moralestapia »

mleonhard wrote: post #422
JALTU wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Ideabox's cheapest home is a 780 sq ft 1BR for $230K. According to their cost estimate, the total cost would be $420k. This seems over-priced. Pre-fab homes should be cheaper than custom-built homes. A new home of that size will not cost $400k in Wyoming or Kansas.

>Pre-fab homes should be cheaper than custom-built homes.

Yeah that's my main pick with all pre-fab proposals that eventually pop-up here and there, some of them even winning awards for "affordable" housing. Every. single. time. the total cost of the project is on the 6-7 figures range ...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#432

Post by moralestapia »

Kluny wrote: post #426
brailsafe wrote: post #313

That Slack money must be nice ;) With no intention of attacking the author, but as someone renting in Vancouver, I think excluding costs while regularly hinting that they didn't have much of a budget seems a bit off, if not even just to add a transparent datapoint to the corpus of potential Canadian/Vancouver salaries that have been stagnating for years, while Johnny and his family likely saw massive appreciation on…

I think it's a cashflow vs capital thing. I'm in a similar situation - my wife and I aren't making much money at the moment, but our condo increased in value by so much that we were able to buy a million-dollar property. Granted it would have been a 300k property about ten years ago, but here we are. And due to the condo sale and the magic of financing, we have about 100k leftover to spend on renovating it and making…

Assuming, of course, that neither of you lose your income for the next 30+ years ...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#433

Post by trosi »

CalRobert wrote: post #63

I haven't used them myself (I live in Europe) but in the US there are companies that will build passive houses and ship them to you in parts. https://www.phoenixhaus.com/ comes to mind. I took a similar approach to building a new house on a field in Ireland - my house was built in Latvia and assembled in a week or so by a local crew.

Care to share which company you bought it from? I am also based in Europe and have been thinking about a similar project.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#434

Post by swader999 »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #394
adamcharnock wrote: post #122

I've done this in Portugal, but on a smaller scale and pretty much with only my own labor. I purchased 6 hectares (15 acres) for mid-5-figures. I've built an A-frame studio house for around €10k (excl tools), and installed a 5kw solar system for about another €10k. The house has air conditioning and underfloor heating (water-based, heated using wood from the land). I've also brought a 50-year-old tractor and started…

One question I always have when people build houses with large windows: don't you worry about someone smashing the windows and stealing stuff when you're away?

Big dog helps.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#435

Post by turtlebits »

m_ke wrote: post #322
glxxyz wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That exposed wood with no rain protection will age terribly. I've seen quite a few houses for sale with this sort of design that probably looked good new too.

That's not true, if you have spacers behind the wood it should dry properly and last a long time. See https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...

Without overhangs and gutters, you are going to have a lot more water exposure to your siding, windows and doors which will definitely affect longevity. In a snow climate, this is even worse.

The concerning part is all the exposed windows, which aren't sealed to the framing at the bottom. There's a much larger chance of water ingress.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#436

Post by bonestamp2 »

pbuzbee wrote: post #259
cols wrote: post #168

Beautiful house and there was a day I would have been extremely jealous but... I live in Oregon and in 2020 chose to (was not officially in an evac zone but the smoke was awful) evacuate when the horrible Beachie Creek and Lionshead [0] fires ripped through the Santiam Canyon. Houses that my wife and I had looked at possibly purchasing were torched, as well as some of the most pristine ancient forest I've seen [1]. M…

Yes, I'm also looking at buying a house in California, but I too am afraid to buy a home anywhere that could realistically burn in the next 10-30 years. It's a shame since it rules out many of the best (and more affordable) areas of the state.

Some of this may be obvious (especially after you read it) so I apologize if this comment is unhelpful...

The fires typically start in open spaces, so if your house is right next to open space, you're at a high risk of fire (and this is basically how your fire insurance rates are determined).

Your best protection against fire is other houses. If the fire has to burn through 500 other houses to reach yours, chances are very high that the fire will be stopped by that time. It's pretty rare for that many structures to be lost in a fire, and from a personal safety standpoint, you'll typically be long gone by the time that happens.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#437

Post by bonestamp2 »

stickfigure wrote: post #423
potatolicious wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could but would it make enough of a difference? Having the structure remain standing, but the entire landscape be totally destroyed (including all major infrastructure like power) doesn't seem like much of a victory. Not to mention a large portion of damage from wildfires is smoke damage, which your concrete house isn't immune to. A fully concrete/steel home would likely remain structurally sound, but you're stil…

My property (rural acreage an hour north of SF) burned twice in the last two years. Black hills everywhere. But looking around now you'd never notice. Whether or not your home burns makes a huge difference. PG&E had the poles replaced in a week. If you've cut and mowed defensible space, your house will be fine and life goes on like normal. The problem is, folks love their tree-shaded homes and love building at the to…

Aside from all the big prep ahead of time, when we evacuate for a fire, is there anything we should be doing at the time of evacuation to help our house survive or easier to partially save... leave interior doors open/closed, leave drapes open/closed, leave hall lights on for firefighters or off to prevent electrical shorts, etc? I've also heard that the fire hydrants are typically on a different water infrastructure from household supply... is that true? If that's true, should I turn my lawn sprinklers on to help make my landscaping less flammable?

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#438

Post by nlarion »

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…

You're out of touch with current prices if you think 5 acres is sub 100k anywhere but eastern wa/or...

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#439

Post by bradlys »

d23 wrote: post #337

I wish he mentioned the total cost. It's nice that this amount of information is provided for those that would want to do similar, but by the same token, I'd need some sort of ballpark cost estimate to know whether I should even begin thinking about something like this.

It’s likely $1m minimum. Assessed value was $1.8m.

I can’t imagine that home being less than $1m just for construction costs. $250/sqft for custom is a reasonable floor - and that’s for a pretty basic house. This is quite upscale with some weird ass options and a finicky customer - so the design and construction firm are going to take them for a ride.

This guy has a lot of tech money. He speaks of financial prudence but it’s more that he was eyeballing 8 figure when he could only afford 7 figure. That’s the level he’s playing at.

Re: Building a modern home in the woods

#440

Post by bradlys »

brailsafe wrote: post #360
lazide wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d probably just get really angry - likely well north of $1m in raw construction costs.

I can see why it would make some ppl angry, but I know how much the house is worth, and it's not much different in the city, but in terms of what it takes to get it done in $$ I haven't a clue, so it's something to be curious about. If anything, it would be a consolation if the development costs were not that far removed from the current value, meaning the person has a lot of money (obviously) but didn't necessarily…

As soon as they started talking about paying cash + HELOC against their duplex in the city - I knew this guy had a fuck load of money. This isn’t your average dude - it’s someone who got rich off of tech.

If you’re not in that ballpark - not likely worth thinking about tbh.

Watch builder videos on YouTube if you want to get an idea of how much this costs.

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