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My wife and I live in the heartland and also build A-Frame kits. We are only recently finishing our "webpage" as it seems that this is where buyers are looking for purchase information.
Our company is TradeMasters Kithomes in Onaga, Kansas.
We came back (home) to Kansas barely 3 years ago. Previously we lived on a 40 acre ranch in eastern Colorado where we experimented with many sustainable designs and materials. We built cob buildings, straw bale buildings, papercrete buildings, ferro cement buildings, etc. None performed as well as the A-Frame both in longetivity, and utilization of space.
We began our "grand experiment" with a raw piece of land in a drought stricken region and ended up with a completely self sustaining homestead that not only housed us, but fed us and fulfilled most all our needs.
The A-Frame was certainly a key to our final preference of structural style. It offered the greatest utilization of materials for the least cost as well as offering convective heating/cooling not offered by othe structures. Eventually, we made all of our own energy as well as most of our own food.
I also developed a "bracket" that allowed a number of struts of equal length to be inter connected to create a number of polygon shapes, the stongest of which was a pentagonal building we called "The POD".
Coming back home to Kansas after 20 years away, we decided to utilize what we had learned over the last decade and began marketing small A-Frames as hunting cabins. We are currently searching for another perfect piece of property here at home (Kansas) to duplicate our former eden on the harsh plains.
Please stick with your project and let me know if I can help with natural/green methods of making your A-Frame work to it's full potential! My designs have been likened to Bucky Fuller and Henrik Bull but I'm just a guy who knows that the A-Frame is an Idea Whose Time Has Come...AGAIN!
Good luck and let me know if I can help,
[EMAIL="GregT@BlueValley.net"]GregT@BlueValley.net[/EMAIL]
My wife and I live in the heartland and also build A-Frame kits. We are only recently finishing our "webpage" as it seems that this is where buyers are looking for purchase information.
Our company is TradeMasters Kithomes in Onaga, Kansas.
We came back (home) to Kansas barely 3 years ago. Previously we lived on a 40 acre ranch in eastern Colorado where we experimented with many sustainable designs and materials. We built cob buildings, straw bale buildings, papercrete buildings, ferro cement buildings, etc. None performed as well as the A-Frame both in longetivity, and utilization of space.
We began our "grand experiment" with a raw piece of land in a drought stricken region and ended up with a completely self sustaining homestead that not only housed us, but fed us and fulfilled most all our needs.
The A-Frame was certainly a key to our final preference of structural style. It offered the greatest utilization of materials for the least cost as well as offering convective heating/cooling not offered by othe structures. Eventually, we made all of our own energy as well as most of our own food.
I also developed a "bracket" that allowed a number of struts of equal length to be inter connected to create a number of polygon shapes, the stongest of which was a pentagonal building we called "The POD".
Coming back home to Kansas after 20 years away, we decided to utilize what we had learned over the last decade and began marketing small A-Frames as hunting cabins. We are currently searching for another perfect piece of property here at home (Kansas) to duplicate our former eden on the harsh plains.
Please stick with your project and let me know if I can help with natural/green methods of making your A-Frame work to it's full potential! My designs have been likened to Bucky Fuller and Henrik Bull but I'm just a guy who knows that the A-Frame is an Idea Whose Time Has Come...AGAIN!
I havent checked this thread for a while, but I am progressing slowly, as I write this GAS is going up, Fast,the value of my Condo is dropping, FAST, and my food bill is rising, FAST I will preservere though, I have now gotten my building permit, the power lines buried and run 600 feet into the property and a temp pole, dug out my basement area, and I am preparin g to dig my footers next, but have a little surgery to get done on my shoulder, hoping to heal QUICK so I can go put up the 1500 blocks it will take for the basement walls. I have given myself until Christmas to complete the Basement, wish me luck my web page is at Home - Jon's NC Mountain Cabin I will try to post more pictures, and have met a few more A-Frame fans, will pass on your site!!!
keep tugging away! you'll get there, just give it some time. i am assuming you own your property that youve had 15 yrs right? do you plan on employment up there? if so take out 15,000 and be as conservative as you can and finish your house. use 10 to complete it and 5 to pay back the loan for so many months.if you dont sell atleast you'll have some equity in your new project in wnc.. and list your condo asap. has your condo depreciated that much? will you be able to atleast get it done, pay back the small loan and put a chunk in the bank?(when it sells) if so thats what i would do. you can build a stick frame home alot cheaper and get more for your money without buying a kit (cut out the middle man). the markup is a ripoff. We are in a similar situation but have more equity here with our scenario. were just south of bradenton and north of Sarasota. We keep buying and selling props in the waynesville area and are continuing to profit. Not by as much as a few yrs back but still able to almost double our investment. Take your blueprint and price it out yourself. youd be surprised what you really can build it for. You can live in it as long as its dried in and continue to wk on it as you go.. just my 2 cents hope it opened your mind to some different ideas. Im sure the guy your dealing with is a reputable place but facts are that money is tight gas is astronomical and people need to do what they need to do to make things wk. Best of luck to you my friend. Ross and Devin
Thanks for the support and info Ross and Devin. My plan is pretty close to your suggestion, I have time so I am just doing it in stages and trying to keep it simple, pouring my footers, then put up the 32x32 cinderblock basement, then plumb and pour the floor, Then put up trusses, then the next big part is that large, steep A-Frame roofing job, but, a step at a time... I just had a momentary lapse after the drumbeat of gloom and doom from the news. I own the property outright, and actually have a small 24x20 cabin on it, and just got a temp pole for the new build site but could run it to my old cabin, if the need arose (24x 20) I'm getting there, but sometimes I want to BE there so much I lose the vision! Thanks again, will keep yall posted of my progress, good luck to you guys too! I'm impressed your doing well in this market! It shows to go ya it can STILL be done...
Hey! I AM Continuing with my A-Frame, its gotten a bit bogged down by the recent spike in the price of everything else in my life, but I continue to move forward, see my site at http://jonathansmountaincabin.wetpaint.com/
and you can get a tiny sliver of the thrill I feel every time I think about it. I am coming to the expensive chunks, (Basement, Roof Shell) and i am real nervous about it but I try to just do one little peice at a time.The Design was from the A-Frame designer on South East Domes website David Martini, he still hand draws his prints. I dont know if I will be able to afford an entire from made from glass, but I plan on as much as I can afford!
Hey! I AM Continuing with my A-Frame, its gotten a bit bogged down by the recent spike in the price of everything else in my life, but I continue to move forward, see my site at http://jonathansmountaincabin.wetpaint.com/
and you can get a tiny sliver of the thrill I feel every time I think about it. I am coming to the expensive chunks, (Basement, Roof Shell) and i am real nervous about it but I try to just do one little peice at a time.The Design was from the A-Frame designer on South East Domes website David Martini, he still hand draws his prints. I dont know if I will be able to afford an entire from made from glass, but I plan on as much as I can afford!
I'm enjoying watching your progress - hope you keep posting!!
I don't know how you stand being 12 hours away from such a gorgeous place! How long before you can retire and make the move permanant?
Wooo-Hooo! Well, just got back to Ft. Lauderdale from getting my Footer approved in the western NC mountains to pour! I ended up having to put a 30" wide 10" deep footer in (no rebar) for my 32x32 A-Frame but thats DONE! (man, Im sore , thats plenty of digging in hard clay! My hero is "Charlie" the 64 year old guy who did most ALL of the digging I just pounded some grade stakes and minor stuff, I'm a computer tech by trade, it would killed me outright)
The next phase is to purchase and lay the block, county inspectors will need to verify the 7/8" rebar in the block before filling them. I want to put some Glass block in those walls but will have to check the cashflow status at that point. In any case, hoping to get this puppy dried in before the economy gives me an early retirement, with luck, I can keep doing this in $2k chunks till I am ready to make the move to NC. The actual A-Frame trusses and steel (either 5v crimp or standing seam if I have more $$$ available for the roof is gonna be a REAL BIG chunk, by then I hope I can have sold the Condo, at ANY profit here, for some help on that.(thats positive thinking, the market here is still tanking, and we are ALL upside down till things improve) Thats the latest...wish me luck..
I 'm from SoFl and live in Wilkes. This is a great place to live.Good luck with u're home.I would check with the Wilkes County Offices again and call them frequently to get updates on the plans. Its wise to keep up with to get a clear answer. I recommend a beautiful garden for u're home. Check out Lowes and Walmart for good prices for lawn, flowers etc in spring time. They are building a Super Walmart where the old Kmart was on 421. So, landscaping with a pretty garden will highlight u're home.
Hey! Well, the footer was poured succesfully, on to the basement walls! as for landscaping I hope to plant lots of fruiting trees and bushes. Over the years I have planted much will little success, either it wilts or is eaten by Deer in my absence, my only succeses are low growing bamboo, (this type is a very slow grower, and Arbor vitae trees that are doing well. I would also like to put in some Clumping bamboo, a sturdy variety I might use for lumber at some point, as the mountain "Tiki Bar" is surely in the future plans!
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Moving forward damn the torpedoes!
The A-Frame continues
