[Cliff R]

Good plan. Forget "fancy" on the house with all those peaks and gables that do nothing put put potential leak points in the roof line. My house is pretty big but simple, large single floor plan with a full finished basement. I put three bedrooms downstairs, mechanical room, and a bar/man cave area with a pool table. Upstairs is an "open" plan with high ceilings and a HUGE kitchen and plenty of cabinets and an attached bar. We NEVER use the dining room off the kitchen Deb just piles crap up in there and we eat at the large bar in the kitchen or breakfast nook off the kitchen. Have two bedrooms up, 1 1/2 baths up and full bath downstairs. If you add in the finished basement apprx 3500 sq ft of living space.

The only negative we have here is that I'm in a somewhat remote area, mostly farming community. I see more deer and turkeys than people. No big cities either. What I don't like is that every single time the have nots want something, like free health care out the back door of the health department, or to buy old farm houses for recovering heroin addicts, hiking paths none of us have time to use, etc, they ALWAYS go to the property owners for the money. So consequently when they push those things thru the few have to pay for the many and for sure we do NOT reap any of the benefits. It's still a pretty here for low taxes, but increasing all the time as they just coming to us (the property owners) to pay for EVERYTHING.......FWIW......

[Half-Inch Stud]

Yea you might want to re-think the basement, for a raised floor deal. We always loved having basements, but the South soil rarely has bedrock like PA, NY, OH, WV.

Soooo, Southern homes have crawl spaces, that which the mobile homes show advantage over trad built homes. We had a Souther home with a basement, and used that finished basement EVERY night for the lower living room. Very nice despite them thin spiders, occasional roaches, Hose Bib freezings, fear of foundation settling. Well we sold that home.

[dataway]

Cliff, sounds like exactly what we are planing, simple, durable, open.

HIS, I spent too many hours crawling in a crawl space to ever do that again. We'll probably be going with a quite thick poured concrete wall basement, will double as our storm shelter, secure storage, my inside lab/workshop, weight room, TV room. Actually the bedrock up here is a real pain that people have to blast out to build their basements, and then backfill with soil or frost will push the rocks through your walls.

I think the reason you don't see many basements down south is because they don't HAVE to have one. Up here you have to go down four feet or more to get below the frost line ... so you might as well have a basement. And up here a basement tends to moderate the house temps when it gets to 20 below zero.

The big downside is cost, basements aren't cheap. Lots of excavation and concrete.

[Cliff R]

KInd of interesting but my neighbor has a fancy house with a bunch of gables and such. It was built a couple of years before mine. He has had nothing but trouble with roof leaks and ice forming/building up so bad in places he had to run electric heat tape up there plus put buckets in the living room when we had really hard rains. So much for all those peaks and valleys in the roof. They certainly look good compared to my simple and plain big flat roof, but I'm sure glad we pulled the gables out of the plan when we were building it.

You'd think a good roofer could have fixed the issues but after at least 15 tries he finally gave up and had a completely new roof put on last year. The new company that did the work said they'd stand behind it, but he sold and moved to town so unlikely I'll find out as I don't know or talk to the new owner,,,,,

[Half-Inch Stud]

Having a Basement is nice in the Winter, and Summer. Outside grading all around and downspout extensions for the dry win. Gutters, you'll want them to keep the Basement dry.

Many homes down here don't have gutters. Well, mine has em now.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

Good plan. Forget "fancy" on the house with all those peaks and gables that do nothing put put potential leak points in the roof line.

That's a big pet peeve of mine - drive through any development of new homes and it's like they're competing to see how many they can put on. I don't find them attractive and all I can think of is how much they add to the cost of construction.

[carcrazy]

Really nice looking property! Congratulations!

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

Mr. Vaught, found Lion Builders out of NC. A 30’X70’X12’ is $24,000 and change; built on your fountain or slab. I’m figuring $15,000-$18,000 for a 35’X75’X 6” slab using high strength concrete. On the high side I’ll be in for $42,000. No wood involved; all structural members are galvanized steel square tubing.

That is right in line for a barn similar to my co-workers barn.

Basically something to keep the rain off the cars and a slab that would allow a two post lift. Course you are also talking about a totally different environment in the south for barn needs. Many southern barns are steel beam affairs.

No insulation, etc. Then you have the lighting cost and no mention in your post about a electric garage door vs a manual garage door and the size of that/ those door(s). Basic with no windows is a lot different from windows and electric 14 ft x 14 foot motorhome type doors.

My barn is 42 x 55 x 14 ft doors and 28 feet tall (and a porch 10ft high that is 55 feet long) So not apples to apples by any means.

Tom V.

[Sun Tuned]

Down south there’s lots of bottomland. We’ve got basements scattered around but they’re bad about being damp due to that River bottom thing.

Check Reeds metals out of Jackson.
I can get y’all a contact from a hunting pal if needed.
Father in law built a 250x 120 barn with riding arena in it for quite a bit less than what Morton wanted.

['ol Pinion head]

Little over 6 years ago, before i pulled the trigger submitting my rough plans, I had spent quite a bit of time planning out where exactly i wanted my work zones, car storage, pallet rack areas, & a mezzanine tucked up in a corner for rows of dealership shelving.. My goal was to become VERY organized & keep from having to constantly walk from the front to the back of the shop when working on vehicle projects. This entailed designating two fairly large bays one in the SW end of the building & another further to the NE. Another need was a drive through breezeway which ended up slightly on a diagonal down the center from the rear door of the building to a few feet behind the 14x12 front door. While this center floor area is not always clear, the path was anticipated. This is so during bad weather i can easily store a 24' enclosed, as well as have room for the truck, either hooked up, or parked in front of the trailer.

Desiring room for auto lift areas perpendicular to the N walls, i came to the decision of 14 ft walls. Going to an engineered steel building there are no trusses that hang down like used in a weld up steel building or wood trusses like in a pole barn. By submitting my rough plans to a local metal building material supplier, they designed the building & an exact materials list which I bought through them. Ended up going with a building 40 wide by 64' deep with a 12 deep x 28' wide "kick out" area in the NW corner. The kick out area makes the building slightly L shaped & helps provides room in the NW corner for two 4 post lifts side by side (with margins).

Deciding upon a roof pitch I put quite a bit of credibility to the exp of my cousin's husband. The two of them own over a dozen large steel (& masonry faced) commercial buildings. Other than their first one which they purchased outright over 15 years ago, Scott has done the site work & subbed out most of the construction of all of the others. One of the first things he passed on is how having commercial gutters & too steep a pitch metal roof is a recipe in the winter for having sheets of ice come loose & take off the commercial guttering. We don't get deep snow loads in my area but we do get quite a bit of sleet & occasional ice storms. With that in mind, I settled on a 2x12 pitch roof. He also relayed several problem issues with their earliest steel building which had moisture issues inside the square tubing trusses. This was on an 8000 sq ft shell with a weld up wall supports & square tubing truss design. Since that building, he has put up engineered steel buildings, red iron spans w/ c channel & Z purlins. That's what I also had built but at right under 2900 sq ft. Another trouble issue noted was his early use of upper side corner mounted Liftmaster commercial garage door lifts. On several occasions w 14 ft tall doors he relayed he had been called out very late in the evenings as there were issues with that particular style mounted commercial door lift. All 3 of my garage doors are 12 ft tall insulated doors & roll up & down easily. Am only now taking the time to add two overhead openers.

Getting late, in thee morning wil pass on a few more experiences have had with my building. My only regret is not being able to get into it 10 years earlier.

[dataway]

With the lay of this particular of land I'm hoping a basement won't be a problem, the site for the house is elevated, probably the highest spot on the property. Property varies about 25-30' from lowest to highest. House will certainly have gutters and for sure 2' eaves around the whole house. If we have to raise the ground 3 feet or so it shouldn't be a problem, would like to keep it above the clay layer.

SunTuned ... I messaged you about Reed's, looks very promising, I like dealing local. I PM'ed you a question about a local contractor that could handle the slab and building construction.

HIS ... yep, I'm now thinking about going all metal. Probably 14' as I'd like to have room for some overhead storage/upstairs area. I've been working on a floor plan for a few months now.

Appreciating all the advice.

We got the Deed in the mail today ... so I officially have a TN address. I'm wondering if I can arrange a TN registration for my GTO while I'm down there. I know in NY I can drive a car registered in another state with a NY drivers license.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Fencing. The discussion for full perimeter fencing will allow sheerless sheep for fulltime self-cutting lawn. Then feed em hay in the 3 winter months. Well 4 due to the wet Spring rains.

We're fully fenced, had the sheep. But taking a break from sheep this year. Already got to cut the grass alot.

[4dblnkldude]

Very nice!! Congrats and the best of luck on your new adventure!

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Yea you might want to re-think the basement, for a raised floor deal. We always loved having basements, but the South soil rarely has bedrock like PA, NY, OH, WV.

Soooo, Southern homes have crawl spaces, that which the mobile homes show advantage over trad built homes. We had a Souther home with a basement, and used that finished basement EVERY night for the lower living room. Very nice despite them thin spiders, occasional roaches, Hose Bib freezings, fear of foundation settling. Well we sold that home.

Depends on where you live. My wife’s father had to use dynamite to build the basement under our house down at the farm; it IS definitely in the South( SE KY). East TN is just as bad as is N. GA.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

That is right in line for a barn similar to my co-workers barn.

Basically something to keep the rain off the cars and a slab that would allow a two post lift. Course you are also talking about a totally different environment in the south for barn needs. Many southern barns are steel beam affairs.

No insulation, etc. Then you have the lighting cost and no mention in your post about a electric garage door vs a manual garage door and the size of that/ those door(s). Basic with no windows is a lot different from windows and electric 14 ft x 14 foot motorhome type doors.

My barn is 42 x 55 x 14 ft doors and 28 feet tall (and a porch 10ft high that is 55 feet long) So not apples to apples by any means.

Tom V.

I’m pretty handy when it comes to electrical wiring. I have to have a certified electrician to install the external service/meter box and the circuit breaker panel along with ONE circuit( got love KY building regs!) I’m going with ZERO windows or exterior service doors; light tubes in the roof. We had these in our house in WI. You didn’t need lights on in the house except at night. No exterior entry doors, either; three 10’ high. 10’ wide overhead doors with independent openers and remotes. That keeps the “tweekers” from robbing you blind. R-30 in the rafters; R-19 in the sidewalls with a vapor barrier. 15’ X 30’ will be an enclosed shop and clean area with pebble board on the walls. A mini split system in the shop with wood/coal fired boiler for hydronic heat in the actual bays. It’s nice to have plenty of coal and timber on the farm along with lots of local saw mills who allow you to haul off the slabs they can’t sell.

[Tom Vaught]

The windows I have (6) are about 14 ft above the concrete floor. Good Luck moving a car part from that location.
Basically doing what you are doing but want that Motorhome door for the next buyer
down the road IF I do not use it for my own stuff.

My wood shop will be enclosed area 14 ft x 32 feet with a 10 ft ceiling.
Figure out what you need for YOUR barn Dataway.
Tom V.

[beemergary]

I 'll never feel sorry for a farmer with a Morton Building . I built my latest for a 1/3 of what they wanted. That was 10 yrs. ago and probably worse now.

[roger1]

Stunning piece of property! Congrats.

[dataway]

Lots and lots of research to do this winter.

Some aspects of an all metal building I like, some aspects of a wood/metal building I like.

Some things offered by Morton I like (their own approved contractors, arranging the slab construction, interior/exterior finishing options) But the price point of other metal suppliers is very attractive.

Wife really wants a basement, I'm kind of neutral, no basement would mean approximately 5,000 sq. ft. foot print, more money for exterior (brick), more roof, etc. But then again single level living is nice. So lots to sort out.

Total budget for 60x40 shop, approx. 5,000 sq ft house (probably smaller if single level), septic, well, 20x60 run in shed for equipment, driveway ... probably gravel transition to concrete (probably 150') or so, about 20kwh in solar .. is about $1m. Any more than that and we'd have to wait a bit to finish things as we are trying avoid any mortgage and you never know what the future will hold.

[roger1]

No question for me if I'm in your shoes. I'd go for the basement. 5,000sqft on a single level gives you a huge roof and more valleys and such. Probably 2 HVAC units with the single story too. Building cost and replacement cost for both the roof and HVAC is much higher as well.
A 2,500sqft footprint with a basement would be my ideal sized house. Still plenty of space for solar if you position the house well and less A/C current draw in the summer. Are you planning on battery storage too?
It always cost more to build than you estimate it will and it seems your list is very long for your budget of $1M. Easy to underestimate interior upgrades as you go.