Moving to the Farm

[Tororider]

Well I have convinced the wife and we are leaving our nice house in a subdivision in the suburbs for a piece of property in the country. We will be land contracting 18.6 acres from my parents and living in a mobile home for a few years while we save some money to build. We are in the process of getting the cement pad for the mobile home and the septic field put in. Natural gas, water, and electric is already at the barn so will just need to be connected to the house. I will post some pictures as we move forward, but I am excited that we are able to move towards my dream. As Obed and others have done on here I hope to share an learn through this experience.

First question: should we need to drill holes for piers to set the mobile home on if we are planning on putting in a full cement slab? I plan to call the building department for the county tomorrow, but was wondering what thoughts were on it.

Thanks

 

[Larro Darro]

Congrats on the move. There is nothing better than country living. Not sure about the codes, but I'm guessing that down here the slab would be fine if it's thick enough. As long as you could do the tie-downs, you would be alright. {But I live in the sticks, and we don't have much code enforcement}

I'm looking forward to pictures on this thread. We all love the projects/house threads.

 

[deerseeker001]

once slab is poured then you need cement blocks stacked up to place mobile home on,every 10 feet stack a few blocks and jack up trailer and shim up to level.

 

[300UGUY]

What county are you moving to? Codes vary by county and sometimes by township. Some places are very wary of owner / builders that live on the property. And financing from a land contract can be iffy.

 

[Larro Darro]

Some places are very wary of owner / builders that live on the property. And financing from a land contract can be iffy.

I was wondering if you were going to own the land before you started building. There is nothing like a deed for security.

 

[Fi-Q]

It is always good to move toward our dream. Me , it all started 9 years ago when my adress and permanent base was move back to my roots ( i wasn t tere more than 5 weeks a uear for the 5 yets following this, but knowong it was home again was enougj... For a while... Builded the house 4 yets ago, exterior is finish, but we are still living in the basement, finishing the upper level. Been buying chunck of land slowly aroud the property, but sofar none of it is farm land, hopefully, thats the next step... But I need to convience the wife to hold on her nice huge kitchen so I can buy some good land. But everything around here is veing farm as good potato land, and it s around 1000$ / acres.... So will see.... Looking for some deal....

As for your trailer, As mentionned above, with a good thick floatin slab design, you should be allright and no need to have pier.

 

[2458n]

Well wishes. Always alot of drawbacks but take them in stride as you move towards your goal.

 

[Pieter78]

How cold will it get? Do you have any photos of the mobile home ?

 

[Gordo 56]

Glad to hear you are going to live your dream, that is when most people are happier when they go after and live their dream. I too have bought my land and am slowly building my bare 40 acres into a farm. I retire in two years then I will move from the city of Chicago to the country in Iowa. I have even created a blog about it to journal my progress. You might think about doing the same. Keep us all up to date on your progress.

Good luck

 

[EddieWalker]

Congratulations!!!

I did the same thing in 2005 after many years of dreaming about it. Now I could never imagine living close to anybody and every time I go to town, I can't wait to get back out here.

Eddie

 

[wolftree]

Tororider,

I built the home I am now living in largely by myself, hiring only what was necessary. I lived in a mobile home as well while building. It took me four years, as I paid for the materials as I went rather than a mortgage.

Best wishes to you on your new begining.

 

[dave1949]

When our oldest was 2 yrs old, we moved from an second floor apartment with no yard or outdoor space, to a lot with a mobile. After a couple years we built a house behind the mobile. Except for the brick chimney and hanging the dry wall, I did that myself. The first summer I got the foundation and floor in, it was a ranch on a crawlspace. We moved into the next fall, although there was lots to do yet.

The trailer was no beauty and I sure didn't miss it when it was gone, but it was a way to get to our goal. It's not a bad way to build. Your materials are secure, you are there so you can work for an hour if that's all you have with no wasted drive time, etc. The barn will be helpful.

When you place your septic system and run the utilities, try to make them work for the eventual house location as much as possible.

If you pour a slab for the trailer, I would try to position it and build it to be useful for something later on assuming the mobile leaves eventually, get your money's worth that way.

 

[Stimw]

In 1998 I sold my house in the city and paid cash for 2 rural acres with an old mobile home.
I did some repairs to the home to make it liveable and lived in it for 13 years.
Two years ago I bought a custom designed (by me) new upper end Manufactured Home. The new home cost less than $40.00 a sq ft. Try building a house for that!
If you haven't looked at the quality of Manufactured homes today check them out in your area. They still build the lower quality/cheap homes but if you pay a little more you get a lot better quality.
I put a deposit on the home and they entered it into the factory build schedule and had it built in 4 days!!!
One other advantage is my taxes didn't go up that much.
I believe less is more! If I don't spend it I don't have to earn it! I have been out of debt since 1998.
If I had to go back to a subdivision I would lose my mind!!

 

[ultrarunner]

Do you guys have to renew your permits each year?

Here... you have 12 months from the start date to finish before the city collect fees for each extension...

It can get complicated because earth moving is only allowed after the rainy season is over.

 

[creekbend]

It would be in your best interest to check with the County that you are moving to. If it gets very cold in the area, I would suggest Double Pane windows.

 

[Tororider]

Wolftree, I plan to do similar to what you did. One of the reasons for the move is to get and stay debt free.

When we build, I would like to build with ICFs doing as much of it as I can myself. I have looked at pre fab houses and that would be a consideration as well.

The location of the septic leaves very little wiggle room because of our soils. We will be able to have a conventional septic, but it will be deep. Based on test holes at least 14 feet.

The slab for the mobile will be used as a full sized basketball court when the mobile is removed.

 

[wolftree]

Tororider,

If your mobile home is older, I HIGHLY suggest that you go through and replace EVERY electrical receptacle and switch. I ended up replacing every one in my mobile home before I moved out. The factory receptacles melted, tripping the breaker each time.

Consider SIPs(structural insulated panels) as a means of construction as well if you haven't already.

 

[Tororider]

Wolftree, our mobile home is a 2003 unit, I would hope that we would be good with the electrical.

SIPS would be another consideration. I would truly prefer an icf build, but I have a while to figure that out.

 

[Tororider]

This is where we have the septic marked out as of now.




These pictures show where we have the mobile home marked out. We are trying to find the right balance between being behind the barn, but keeping as many trees as we can.

 

[Tororider]

This will be the view out one of the master bedroom windows.