Barn with living quarters

[Amelia Farms]

Here is the garage/apartment we are finishing up now. It is 30 x 30. all open downstairs for storage. Upstairs is 2 bedroom/1 bath with open den/kitchen area. We have right at $75k in it, and I did a good bit of the work myself.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thinking about this a lilttle more, be sure to consider what it would cost to just build a house on it's own and a barn on it's own. I'm all for an apartment in a barn, but that would be a very small, simple place to stay short term. Putting anything extra into it to make it nice and comfortable seems like a waste if your long term goal is to have a stand alone house.

Eddie

 

[Dr Dave]

Nice looking garage/appartment, any more pics.

 

[Tororider]

Amelia, that is beautiful. I wouldn't mind seeing more pics too, living space as well.

Eddie, I am tending to agree more and more. Plus now that the wife knows I am serious about this she has indicated she isn't. If we ever buy a vacation or lake lot I will still consider something like this, but for now it will have to be the house first. Thanks for all the great ideas.

 

[Redbug]

Here's a past thread about this same subject...I like the idea, personally. If I were single, that's how I could live.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/199824-pole-barn-house-building.html

 

[shortthrow50]

Just when you thought you heard it all hahahhahaaha
is how i live

 

[jinman]

Thinking about this a lilttle more, be sure to consider what it would cost to just build a house on it's own and a barn on it's own. I'm all for an apartment in a barn, but that would be a very small, simple place to stay short term. Putting anything extra into it to make it nice and comfortable seems like a waste if your long term goal is to have a stand alone house.

Eddie

I was thinking something similar or close to it. I think Tororider is not considering what a job it will be to have the entire 2nd story of a shop as a living area. I would say that he'll have to make it huge to have enough head space in the shop and still have room for the apartment above. The best solution is to follow what most people do and build a bigger square footage barn/shop and then build living quarters on one end. The living quarters can be two story or a single story with storage above. If it were in our hot weather here in Texas, I'd say keep the living quarters on the first floor for cooling/heating cost savings. There is just no way I'd put my living area completely above my shop. The initial investment and continued costs associated with that seem excessive.

 

[mvwicker]

Ditto on the temperature issues for second story living quarters inside a barn.

There is 20'x40' one-bedroom residence built into one end of my 60'x40' metal barn. The residence is very well insulated all around and the concrete slab keeps is above 40F in winter and below 80F in summer. The barn part is only insulated under the roof and gets below freezing and above 100F. A second-floor residence would be more like that, requiring more heating and cooling effort and expense.

Drawbacks of living on the slab include condensation on the floor in summer (need a dehumidifier, if not A/C) and mouse and insect invasions.

While the metal barn was cheap to build and the residence comes in handy, it is more like a hunting cabin or caretaker's outpost than a house to raise a family in. I'd only do it while building a more normal house dedicated to humans, with a basement, more and bigger windows and porches and stuff. But that's just my opinion.

 

[wedge40]

Barnplans [Blueprints, Gambrel Roof, Barns, Homes, Garage Workshops, Dormer Window, Cupola] Just to get some idea's.

I'm in Indiana, so I don't know exactly what the local restrictions are, but there is a family up the road that built a real nice garage with living quarters up stairs. He had a wife and two small children and lived in that for about two years. Eventually he built a real nice house that architecturally went with the garage. I also know a some people who built a huge pole barn then took part of it and finished the inside. From the outside it looks like your typical pole barn, but once you get inside the "House" part you'd never know the difference.

Wedge

 

[Tororider]

For the record, this is kind of what I had in mind when first thinking about it.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11470-Kathleen-Ct_Brooklyn_MI_49230_M49380-05747

 

[RoyJackson]

For the record, this is kind of what I had in mind when first thinking about it.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11470-Kathleen-Ct_Brooklyn_MI_49230_M49380-05747

I could live in that!
Been a while since I've read this thread...but if you're planning on livestock in the barn, you'll have flies and other pesky critters...

 

[dave1949]

For the record, this is kind of what I had in mind when first thinking about it.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11470-Kathleen-Ct_Brooklyn_MI_49230_M49380-05747

That's too much deck and stair maintenance for my tastes, and they dominate the aesthetics of the building. If not kept up, they are going to look tired all over your house, but to each his own.

The linked layout could work well for a split-entry two story if you have a bank to put the front door side into a bit. I've seen that done, but it was on a flat lot and looked goofy to have an artificial hump in the grading.

There are drawbacks as mentioned with having garage space below living space. Overhead doors put noisy vibration into the floor above them, they do have isolation mounts to help with that. Unless the garage space is heated, second story floors can be chilly. You wouldn't want to have much of a workshop below living space due to noise and fumes, fire hazard.

There are standard house plans that use the layout in your link. They use the back-end of the garage area for mechanical systems (furnace, water htr., well tank, supply and waste lines, elec. service entrance, etc). You could also put a laundry area and pantry/storage there to off-load some space needs from above. I think the main advantage is cost savings on construction, and if done well and if stairs are not an issue, it would make a fine house. But, it doesn't sound like it is the house you really want.

I agree with Carl and others who think your barn plan is over-complicating your life for not much gain, and I think four kids in 1600 sq ft is going to be tighter than what people (wives perhaps) normally expect.

 

[Tororider]

If I were to have done it, there would have been less deck and interior stairs. As noted I believe the best plan will be to live Ina double wide while building the house we really want.

 

[JoeBuyer]

Well if you and your wife have another kid and have a home birth...... And someone asks the kid some day "were you born in a barn?"......

 

[Mikemahindrah]

Hey,
I am browsing through this thread and I know I'm late to the party as they say....that said, I am planning a garage with an apartment in the back yard of my house. My plan is to turn my current residence into a 2 family (its a ranch with a walk out bsmt) I'm in the process if filling in the yard with fill to make it level with the back yard. I'm probably looking at least 20X32. Construction to start hopefully 2017. Any advice, assistance is greatly appreciated and welcome.
Mike

 

[robbridgland]

Hey,
I am browsing through this thread and I know I'm late to the party as they say....that said, I am planning a garage with an apartment in the back yard of my house. My plan is to turn my current residence into a 2 family (its a ranch with a walk out bsmt) I'm in the process if filling in the yard with fill to make it level with the back yard. I'm probably looking at least 20X32. Construction to start hopefully 2017. Any advice, assistance is greatly appreciated and welcome.
Mike

Hi Mike

I had a stock barn 60ft x 30 ft. Planning for a house here in the UK is impossible for a house. So when I built the barn I pitched the roof to allow me to put a floor 60ft x 15ft on one side above the animals.

Then I put up stairs and balcony and stud and plasterboard walls. Ended up with kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom and small storage room. Very easy to do. Main problems were getting drainage pipe out of living into septic tank and lifting a Rayburn (cooker made from cast iron) up into kitchen. Used plenty of insulation so living is nice and warm in winter. Ran my own electrics. Just took it nice and slow and easy and now fine for the two of us plus 4 dogs.

Main thing is to plan the layout and run plenty of electrical wall sockets and lighting. I got this a bit wrong so have to improve it. in 2016 going to put up a couple of balconies and extend kitchen and living.

Half our friends think we are totally mad living over the animals and the other half think we are totally cool. Animals below include horses, llamas, sheep and ducks.

Just do it and you will love the result. Use plenty of insulation to keep heating bills down. I used non slip stairs to take care of winter ice and rain.

Hope this helps

Rob

 

[moparrob]

Wife and I are planning the same thing. We got a quote from a steel building supplier for a 50x30 kit with a mezzanine. We're thinking an upstairs "granny unit" above the multi-purpose barn/shop area to live in while we build the main house. The quote for the building was $36k, including exterior framing, roofing, siding and framed openings. The rest we'll build on our own for hopefully less than $100k total.

 

[Tororider]

Wife and I are planning the same thing. We got a quote from a steel building supplier for a 50x30 kit with a mezzanine. We're thinking an upstairs "granny unit" above the multi-purpose barn/shop area to live in while we build the main house. The quote for the building was $36k, including exterior framing, roofing, siding and framed openings. The rest we'll build on our own for hopefully less than $100k total.

Make sure you start a thread about it.

 

[Got2BTru]

We're not building a barn, but doing something incredibly similar. We plan to start in the spring...it's a 4 car garage with "in-law" suite above. We'll build that, move in & sell the house we're in now. Once paid off, we'll then build our barn and then within 5 years build the main house.