Housing: Buying, Building or Making Do

Part 1: The Pros and Cons

Wise Living Journal blog is oriented toward people who have chosen to live closer to the land than most do these days, and who are willing to take responsibility for as much of their lives and life choices as is possible in this modern world. This generally means those living off the edges of crowded cities or suburbs, or those lucky enough to have found a bit of countryside to call their own.

I’ve covered the basic homestead tool kit, started talking about some basic home repairs and maintenance jobs the homesteader can do for him or herself much cheaper than they can hire someone else to do. I’ve talked a bit about planning yard and garden space to make the most of your surroundings. And these subjects will come up again and again, as there is plenty to cover. But this sub-series is about housing itself.

Buying

Some people have found some real bargains on acreage in various rural areas of the country. While the “housing bubble” in home prices in cities and extended populous areas of the country have swelled to absurd proportions in recent years - then ‘busted’ when the economy entered its most recent depressive phase on high energy prices and deficit spending in D.C. - some places still offer land at reasonable prices.

If you aren’t planning on large-scale farming or livestock production, the average family can have a wonderful life on 3-5 acres of land. Such plots can be found for $10,000 or less per acre in most states that aren’t California, Florida, New York or New Jersey. Sometimes a motivated seeker can find a 5-10 acre homestead that includes a basic, older model “fixer-upper” house or cabin, even an outbuilding or two, and spend less than $100,000 on the whole sheebang.

Building

Building your home on raw land offers many choices for the frugal homesteader, particularly for the new kit log homes and timber frame homes that the buyer can supply a lot of the labor for building. In my own area of southern Appalachian North Carolina, whole lending consortiums have sprung up to fill gaps in traditional financing for such homes, as there are some odd “city code” requirements that have been attached to home financing in recent years that simply don’t apply to people who don’t live in cities.

With Baby Boomers facing imminent retirement, many of them are buying land and building retirement homes - lots of them log or timber frame - and sustaining a mini-boom of gated mountain getaway communities that cost every bit as much to live in as it costs to live in cities. The ‘trickle down’ benefit is that there are mortgage sources for such construction and land.

Making Do

My family bought 13 acres of land 15 years ago for $5,000 per acre. It came with a 100-year old “fixer-upper” of a 28-foot square chestnut cabin that wasn’t worth anything at all. A freebie! A basement was dug from the foundational root cellar years ago and an indoor bathroom was added (along with septic tank and drain field), which we expanded when we replaced one whole side of the foundation because termites had turned the beams to paper.

That renovation included complete re-plumbing, which wasn’t too bad with just one bathroom and one kitchen sink upstairs. The roof had also been raised to add a loft room which we use as a spare bedroom, but it’s none too firmly attached and will have to be dealt with when we re-roof within the next year.

But for 15 years this little cabin has served our family very well in all seasons, all kinds of weather, and through all the comings and goings of family life. There’s still a lot that needs doing, and lots of cosmetic things that would make it ‘nicer’. But because we’ve had a little experience with how to add space without adding on (or rebuilding from scratch), this alternative is something a homesteader with a “fixer-upper” - or just a homespace that’s become too cramped - should consider.

The first sign that your home has become too cramped is that you’ve run out of storage space. Think of the cartoon character who opens the closet door to an avalanche of sports equipment, hats, ironing boards, bowling balls and assorted other stuff. You look around after a whirlwind cleaning of the entire living space and it still looks cluttered.

You could construct an addition to your home, but this can be a very expensive proposition. The high square-footage cost of construction, tying in to heating and cooling (plus additional cost), high interest on home improvement loans - if you can find one these days and that’s not easy. Redesigning an attic, basement, garage/carport or attached porches is more economical. The basic structural components are already there and the materials you’ll need to finish the space will cost substantially less per square foot than an addition would.

There are wonderful ideas out there for redesigning your already existing living space, some linked below. Before you decide, do take into consideration the construction mess you’ll have to work around on a daily basis during the project, how that may effect the family, and be aware of any zoning or building restrictions which may apply.

Eventually we’ll get into some fairly easy redesign projects that a homesteader should be able to do for him or herself, or with just a bit of strong-back help. Such improvements can add significant value to your home, but so long as it’s fairly invisible from the outside, it won’t add more to your tax bill than the ‘normal’ increases that come around every couple of years to reflect rising land prices.

In Part II of this sub-series, I’ll look at some of the deals that can still be had on new construction using those kit log and timber frame homes on raw or prepared land.

Links:

Homebuilding & Renovating: Top Tips

Ezine Links: Home Improvement/Remodeling

Real Estate Blogs: Interior Redesign

Realty One: Average Cost (hired labor)

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Filed under Building, Home Buying, Homestead, Renovating |