Living in the country

[wakeboarderdave1]

My comment was for building a "stick-built" or modular house, without the moving in from the town factor.

[Tracktor]

[chavez]

Yes, I have no experience with anything to do with primary education. None whatsoever.

Here, I've got something for you.

[Okie Boarder]

[Okie Boarder]

I've looked at a couple of the modular builder websites, specifically those that are local or regional. Seems to me the modulars are pretty solid and well built. I'm sure there is a feel inside that is a bit different than standard construction.

Here's one of them:

http://www.palmharbor.com/model-center/oklahomacity/#.VJNKy8kebcs

To answer your specific question bambamski, my motivation would be primarily cost. We can get a lot more for our money with land and a modular versus land and standard construction. We aren't selling a house in the city, so the equity thought you have doesn't come into play. Another thought for us is that we would live in what we buy until the kids are grown and gone, then maybe construct something different on site, or find a different piece of property to build on.

[Bambamski]

I get the actual dollar cost, apples to apples. You can see that figure up front at the time of purchase. I think what people kind of forget is the additional costs of living in the country.

I think everyone I know that moved out to the country have all bought the riding lawn mower, most of them also bought a small tractor, there's the side by side, maybe a quad ect ect.

The extra driving (time), gas costs, wear and tear on the cars. Instead of a new car every 5-6 years maybe, that might turn into 3-4 years. Insurance can cost extra, both home and car. There are a lot of things that people don't factor in when moving outside of town.

Sometimes people don't put a dollar value on their time but living out of town and commuting into work can sometimes increase drive times buy 2-4 hours per week. 4 hours times, even 25 bucks an hour is 5k a year.

What a buddy of mine told me that moved back into the city summed it up best. If you move out of town it should be for a lifestyle change, not for financial reasons.

[Okie Boarder]

Yeah, those are all good points. To me, this is more about the lifestyle and not cost, per se. But, if things work out as planned, my wife will move to one of the schools closer to where we move and the only "cost" from a getting to work standpoint is about 20 minutes of my time. There is definitely the cost factor in regards to the purchase. One of the places we are kind of looking at would probably be twice the price if we stayed just on the outskirts of town where we're at now.

[Tracktor]

[E.J.]

^^^Are you REALLY guessing, bad poker face...

Like saying does E.J. talk about his pups, does Jt like CFB & cooking, is 06 building a house, does Aubs take a fine beach selfie, does Swass have a clean garage, does JRY kill large animals with UW colored firearms....ect.

[Okie Boarder]

We've been casually looking at properties online and have one that is of interest. It has a Palm Harbor brand home set on a foundation, big shop, pond and creek, nicely wooded property with some areas cleared out, 10 acres, about 20 miles from where we live now. Definitely seems like the type of place we are looking for. We're actually going to look at it tomorrow to get a feel of the drive, the area, layout of a place like that and what the house is like.

[ohsix]

[STPHNSN23]

i moved from a 15 minute drive to work to a 2 minute walk to work: more sleep and less gas.

[jgriffith]

I live 30 minutes from my work in San Antonio and five minutes from town (boerne). We live on 4 acres and I love it but it is a lot of work, but I guess that depends on the land you buy and the landscaping you have. Our house is on about one acre of 8 foot fenced in (to keep the deer out) flatish land on top of a hill, with the remaining 3 acres being a hill with tons of trees. The previous owners were retired and loved to garden...so the one acre is really nice but requires tons of maintenance to keep it looking nice. I have to spend several hours each week just to get bye both around the house tending to the yard and garden and also with the chain saw on "jakes hill" (i guess my son claimed the hill). I could change things up a little and make things a little easier but I enjoy taking care of the land.

I already have many ideas for jakes hill...paint ball, zip line!

I really enjoy the feeling of being able to do whatever i want on my land and not having to worry about anyone spying on me or having to deal with city ordinances.

Not sure if 5 minutes from town qualifies as living in the country , but it feels plenty issolated enough for me, while at the same time being closer to town then most city folk.

[Okie Boarder]

Most of the areas we are looking at would be fairly heavily wooded, so mowing would be minimal. Trimming and brush hogging would definitely be more of the type of work we'd have. The one place we are interested in has had a couple acres cleared around the house and lot of things cleaned up, so it would be a bit more of a mow situation. Here is an aerial of that place.



Just fresh new properties tend to be fully wooded or at least mostly wooded. This is a property for sale. Obviously, it would take some work to get a house in there and get some area cleared around the house. Then it would be years of trimming and cutting to thin out to what we'd want. The plus side of that is we could generate a lot of our own firewood.

[Okie Boarder]

The one place was pretty nice..definitely a piece of property that's been well refined. After being in the modular and getting the feel of it, we're not sure about that concept. In what we've read, it seems like, at best, value would be flat. We're leaning back towards resale "Stick built" or building.

A couple items that haven't been covered...

Any thoughts on septic...aerobic versus non-aerobic?

Utility to house...all electric? Electric + propane?

[RampageWake]

[dirtysparks]

[eeven73]

All you would have to do is make a hole in exterior wall and extend piping to whatever vessel you choose.

You may run afoul of whomever regulates water in your area. Phosphates are of concern.

[RampageWake]

[Okie Boarder]

Here are a couple pictures of properties we looked at Sunday. Both of these are 5 acres total, in a little different areas out where we are looking. It seems like we can probably find a fairly wooded lot, in that size, for the price we want to pay.

[Okie Boarder]

Anyone have experience doing concrete floors versus tile, carpet or wood?

[vette74]

You also might look at doing a metal building house know as a barndominium here. My river house was built this way it is quite a bit cheaper than stick and bricks.

http://www.whirlwindsteel.com/pub/residential-steel-buildings

[Okie Boarder]

[vette74]

I do a LOT of floodplain mitigation. I wouldn't worry about the flood plain issue too much if it is not where your house pad is going just make sure the Finished Floor elevation is 18" above the nearest flood plain.

[Okie Boarder]

Sounds like our guidelines out here are such that if I am including the property in the loan, flood insurance is required if the flood zone extends on the property at all. I think we like this other property better, even though it is smaller, due to area, surroundings and the way the lot is laid out. So, even without the flood issue, we feel like it is the better property for us.

[vette74]

That is cool. Just FYI if you house is 18" or greater out of the flood plain flood insurance is only $300 or so a year.

[Tracktor]