Mikim, That´s interesting that you mention a hybrid like that, with a steel frame and wood siding. I´m planning on building a house like that in about a year, after doing a bit more site prep and gathering materials. Here´s the tropics (Costa Rica) so you don´t have to worry about insulation and heating ducts and stuff, makes building a house a lot easier.
Sawtooth, are there trees on your property? that you could cut down? Do you know a sawyer with a bandsaw that can come and mill up some trees for you? That´s how we do most of our building down here and you get your building materials for cheap! then you can use the top skinnier parts of the trees you cut down as poles for the vertical posts. lotsa cheap if not free building materials, gotta love them. If you don´t know a dude with a portable sawmill, I always fantasize about if I lived up there again that I´d buy a bandsaw because they´re soooo cheap compared to what they cost down here or cost to ship down here take your pick. If you´re considering buying materials you should be able to get a used portable sawmill for a fraction of the price of materials of a big structure. Just a thought. Make a nice board and batten structure over a pole frame structure (super simple), or get the router out and cut ship laps or T+G...
Does stuff made of wood actually rot in Ohio? Here in the tropics stuff rots like crazy but we put it up on concrete pilings or a block foundation a few feet off the ground and as long as its up off the ground and dry it lasts for a good long time. paint it with something nasty like diesel mixed with used motor oil if you really don´t want it to rot. or copper chromate, but I like the used crankcase oil, mix it with a dark stain too. It´s interesting to me to see discussions about different types of rot resistant wood for up there, I thought it would never be a problem. I only really started building stuff once after moving down here to the country (8 years ago), originally a city boy from DC-MD. Learned in the tropics.
