Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[GeneV]

No floor?

Including my parents' house, I lived in 4 houses with crawlspaces and rehabbed/flipped 2 more. Some had a dirt floor, a few had gravel, and then one of them was concrete.

The concrete one was a total headscratcher. It was a 4' crawl, accessible from the garage, with the furnace and water softener down there. The house was a sprawling ranch, with the furnace positioned smack center of the crawl...so doing any service to it (or checking on the sump pump way on the far side) meant duck-walking way in there. Going down there to dump salt into the water softener wasn't fun neither.

But the place was dry, insulated...I would always joke with my wife that I'll stick a couch and tv down there for my "man cave". So why in the blue hell did the original owner build this stupid setup as opposed to a basement, no friggin clue whatsoever! In this case, how much more would it be to dig deeper for a basement or make it a raised ranch? I imagine minimal cost.

 

[GeneV]

Have you looked into Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)? If you have a contractor they go up really fast, and you are dried in shortly after that. You don’t have to hunt down framing crews, and then insulators. Biggest issue is if your electricians and plumbers haven’t built with, their quotes will be high.

I've looked into sips before, really interesting stuff that.

 

[ovrszd]

Including my parents' house, I lived in 4 houses with crawlspaces and rehabbed/flipped 2 more. Some had a dirt floor, a few had gravel, and then one of them was concrete.

The concrete one was a total headscratcher. It was a 4' crawl, accessible from the garage, with the furnace and water softener down there. The house was a sprawling ranch, with the furnace positioned smack center of the crawl...so doing any service to it (or checking on the sump pump way on the far side) meant duck-walking way in there. Going down there to dump salt into the water softener wasn't fun neither.

But the place was dry, insulated...I would always joke with my wife that I'll stick a couch and tv down there for my "man cave". So why in the blue hell did the original owner build this stupid setup as opposed to a basement, no friggin clue whatsoever! In this case, how much more would it be to dig deeper for a basement or make it a raised ranch? I imagine minimal cost.

In the situation you describe, I totally agree. Might as well of poured the additional walls.

 

[hcallaway]

Plan for the future and stairs. We were both in great shape as we looked at building when the last kid graduated from college.

In our current house which I built at age 57. I oriented the house to the slope of the land. The front door has a sidewalk that runs the width of the garage on the outside and as you approach the porch there are only 2 steps. All living is on one floor. I did it so if I needed to add a wheelchair ramp it would be maybe 12’ for a proper incline. After building ramps with my men’s group, a wheelchair ramp can end up being 40-50’ if built to code. Doorways are all wheelchair accessible etc.

Jumping to this past March 19 my wife had a Level 1 trauma car accident. She was in incredible shape so her recovery was 10 times faster than a normal person. When she was released to come home the statement that stuck with us by the occupational therapy person was; you are the first person that I have encountered that I don’t have any issues with since you have a truly accessible house.
She has since been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and thank god we have made decisions that were proactive.

Dad is 90 and mom is hanging in at 86. I may be here for a while. You never know.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I’m about half way through designing an ADA compliant senior home for my older sister. One level, roll in shower, cabinets with an extra drawer layer on top, which can be removed to drop the counter tops, and the under sink plumbing arranged to go directly back and the toe kick removable, to allow conversions to roll in sinks.

I’m going with full SIP construction, becasue around here it is currently impossible to hire trades folks. SIPs eliminate framers, sheathers, and insulators. Which means I can be dried in, wrapped, and insulated in less than two weeks.

One of the local concrete suppliers, is lined up for the excavation, and basement. I have a couple of guys lined up to do the siding, trim, and roof. I can do the plumbing, electrical, and interior trim out. Still going to be spendy. And I might retire earlier than I have been planning, just to have time to do it, before next winter.

 

[ovrszd]

I’m about half way through designing an ADA compliant senior home for my older sister. One level, roll in shower, cabinets with an extra drawer layer on top, which can be removed to drop the counter tops, and the under sink plumbing arranged to go directly back and the toe kick removable, to allow conversions to roll in sinks.

I’m going with full SIP construction, becasue around here it is currently impossible to hire trades folks. SIPs eliminate framers, sheathers, and insulators. Which means I can be dried in, wrapped, and insulated in less than two weeks.

One of the local concrete suppliers, is lined up for the excavation, and basement. I have a couple of guys lined up to do the siding, trim, and roof. I can do the plumbing, electrical, and interior trim out. Still going to be spendy. And I might retire earlier than I have been planning, just to have time to do it, before next winter.

In case you haven't saw it, here's an excellent thread on building a SIPs house. Still ongoing project in it's 5th year. Lot of great info with excellent videos.

My Industrial Cabin Build

We broke ground on the homesite this weekend. As many of you know, I have been building an orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. 55 acres purchased in last summer 2015. We had 20-25 acres logged, leaving us with an inordinate amount of slash and debris. We have 3 acres of Apple...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[civilian]

One thing I didn't see with the discussion on basement or second floors. If the land elevation are such for both floors to have a walk out, that makes things easier. Ours is that way. If we can't go down the stairs in our older age, then we can always walk around. Not the ideal situation, but doable. Both the upper (main livining area to die in) and the lower basement (can be finished with future bedrooms when/if needed) have double doors for entrance and the 4ft wide stairs connect the 2 door sets. 4ft wide would allow for stair chair if wanted, but elevators are now becoming a better possibility. We also did separate 3 car garage building and a 36' x 72' workshop tractor storage. Workshop and garage have heated floors. Jon

 

[ETD66SS]

One thing I didn't see with the discussion on basement or second floors. If the land elevation are such for both floors to have a walk out, that makes things easier. Ours is that way. If we can't go down the stairs in our older age, then we can always walk around. Not the ideal situation, but doable. Both the upper (main livining area to die in) and the lower basement (can be finished with future bedrooms when/if needed) have double doors for entrance and the 4ft wide stairs connect the 2 door sets. 4ft wide would allow for stair chair if wanted, but elevators are now becoming a better possibility. We also did separate 3 car garage building and a 36' x 72' workshop tractor storage. Workshop and garage have heated floors. Jon

My lot is very close to Lake Ontario, hence the land was once under water, and is very flat. Walkouts are not an option.

And, I never thought this many people would prioritize the stairs as being such an issue. I guess maybe these forums are populated by older generations while the younger ones are are TikTok and the like lol.

 

[ovrszd]

My lot is very close to Lake Ontario, hence the land was once under water, and is very flat. Walkouts are not an option.

And, I never thought this many people would prioritize the stairs as being such an issue. I guess maybe these forums are populated by older generations while the younger ones are are TikTok and the like lol.

Yep. Most members here are past the eternally young mentality. More into the getting old reality.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I learned the lesson, when my Mom started to get older, and she had me cover over the sunken living room and get all the first floor on one level. Then, six months later she had me convert the two car garage into a studio apartment, because going up the stairs scared her.

Twenty years earlier, I had access to a hydraulic car lift, from a service station i was helping convert to a C-Store, and I had offered to build her an elevator. But she didn’t like the idea. Once, she got old enough the stairs weren’t manageable, she wanted the elevator, but the pieces parts, were long gone.