Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[ETD66SS]

Also, I didn't see a basement. I dislike slab houses, and if you're going to put a crawl space under it, and need to dig down to put in frost footings and a foundation, you might as well go another 4-5' deep and put a basement under the house if you go with plan 2.

The ICF house hase a full 9ft basement. The crawl space is under the a-frame living room only.

I suppose I should add that my thoughts for the future concerning the stairs to living space, is that I would build a small single story house in the future and that upper living space in the shop would be converted to a workshop of some type. The issue there I guess is the town hall meetings required to ask for that living space to be removed from assessment.

Also to answer another question posed, I did have the ICF house quoted as a stick frame home instead of ICF in 2021, and it was not much less than the ICF version.

 

[ovrszd]

Also, I didn't see a basement. I dislike slab houses, and if you're going to put a crawl space under it, and need to dig down to put in frost footings and a foundation, you might as well go another 4-5' deep and put a basement under the house if you go with plan 2.

What will be in the basement?

 

[ETD66SS]

Insurers don't like garages ready to light up a living space. Check insurance prices. I'd build a small ranch and a separate huge garage. Having to climb stairs to the house is a pain especially a wintry day with groceries or guests. Shovel required first thing. Ranch - safer, less dust and dirt in the home, quieter, etc. The cook in your kitchen gets to enjoy noises from anyone going to the bathroom, and to listen to the washer/dryer. Not my cup of tea.

I live alone.

 

[MossRoad]

What will be in the basement?

Mechanicals, food storage, recreation room that's naturally cooler in the summer and easy to heat in the winter, and Clem Studebaker's fossil collection.

 

[ovrszd]

Mechanicals, food storage, recreation room that's naturally cooler in the summer and easy to heat in the winter, and Clem Studebaker's fossil collection.

Equals stairs.

But it sounds like stairs doesn't bother the OP.

 

[ETD66SS]

Mechanicals, food storage, recreation room that's naturally cooler in the summer and easy to heat in the winter, and Clem Studebaker's fossil collection.

Plus in my state basements are not taxable square footage.

 

[ETD66SS]

Equals stairs.

But it sounds like stairs doesn't bother the OP.

Stairs do not bother me no. My father just passed away at 88 years of age and used stairs to the end.

Now that doesn't mean I won't have issues at that age.

I guess I should also say I am a life long bachelor and plan to stay that way. I suppose the Barndominium design reflects that more than the ICF design.

 

[turbo36]

Leave room for an elevator, a little over a year ago I was doing 4,000' elevation mountain bike rides and hikes out in Utah, but by three months later I couldn't walk. Recently had surgery and back on the mend but you never know how fast life can change. Plan ahead.

 

[ovrszd]

We built 4 years ago. Were I a Bachelor I would have built the shop and house in one building. Good friend of mine is a builder. He taught me how to segregate the two areas without noise and odor exchange. By the time we did all that, it was a similar cost to build two structures. So my house is 25ft from the shop.

House has a one car attached garage. House is 2x6 stud 1900 sqft on a slab, no stairs or steps. Shop is 39x48 2x6 stud metal paneled all weather.

We were very considerate of required maintenance. Both of our buildings require minimal maintenance. Nothing outside to paint for example.

Sounds like you have a grip on the costs. Design changes can have a large affect on construction cost. Our house cost $122 p/sqft. Shop cost $43 p/sqft. In discussion, cost can be comparable when using cost p/sqft terms. Otherwise you lose valuable information quickly. For example, in my World, cost analysis on a house does not include the square footage of the attached garage. So total cost of the structure divided by the square footage of living space. Sounds like your tax people use something similar. So they don't tax you for the basement, as long as it's unfinished.

Another lesson learned, curb appeal is expensive. Fake dormers, roof valleys, fancy doors with transom all add to the cost immediately.

 

[ETD66SS]

Another lesson learned, curb appeal is expensive. Fake dormers, roof valleys, fancy doors with transom all add to the cost immediately.

This is very true.

The attached renders is what I had in mind when I first designed the ICF house. I soon realized all the "fancy" stuff like natural stone veneer, clear span floor diaphragm via the floor trusses etc, caused the build cost to skyrocket. The faux A-Frame was another feature that cause builders to freak out. So I'm thinking, be it ICF or stick frame, that design while only being 1243 sq-ft is very expensive to build due to the way I designed the home. So I'm very curious to hear what this latest builder has to say for the build cost of that design. I've only had one builder give me an estimate on that ICF design and he came in at $460/sq-ft! All the other builders at the time no-quoted the build...