Wyoming Possible? (Gillette, Sheridan, Story: sales, power lines, modular home)

[walker]

Have a remote chance of buying 2.3 acres of land around the Story area
and the gears are moving in my mind. Plans are to try to settle in the area after my son starts college. Living in Indiana, we follow the International Building Code -- which I'm familiar with in the course of my job. Can anyone
provide information what the building code is like for Wyoming? If you have
a modular home built on the lot, is there a minimal square footage allowed.
How far down are the wells in the area? What is the cost of septic and
drilling a well in the area -- just looking for a "ball-park" firgure. Heard that
if you build a log cabin from out-of-state timber that you pay sales taxes on that timber to the state of Wyoming -- that one confuses me. With the amount of wind stories that I've read about, and just about all power lines
are ran via poles, is lost power for extened times a concern? How good of
job does the state do in keeping the main roads clear during the winter?
Some of the messages I've read on this forum compares the lack of conveninces as compared to other places -- but that is one of the main
attractions for me. I'd rather look at a deer strolling thorugh the yard
than being able to drive 5 mintues to the large mega grocery store.
Everything that I've seen and everyone I've meet offers such a positive
impression of Wyoming.
Anyway, any input of the expenses of building in the area and the challenges
would be greatly appreciated. I'm flying out at the end of October -- can't
wait to see another facet of the prettiest diamond I've ever seen :-)

[dc53]

Hi- sorry I did not let you know some of the answers- I do not know all of them. Story is beautiful! It is in a small valley, about 15 miles north of Sheridan. It is a very small town, bout 1,000 or less. You will not have a job, unless you do it at home, or can find one with one of the few ranches. or, you will have to find something in Sheridan. What kind of work do you do, if I can ask? The highway between Story and Sheridan gets closed frequently in the winter, when ther is a storm. Whenn I say 'closed' in Wyoming, I mean that there is a guard-like a railroad crossing that blocks the highway. I just talked to planning/zoning, and, as I thought, there is no Building Code in Wyoming- that is a big problem here lately- with all the people coming in, there are people who advertise themselves as 'contractors' or 'builders'. They do not have to have a license, any tests to pass, etc. There are houses that are not built correctly, and in just a couple years, or sometimes almost immediately, the new owners have problems. As an example, my mother had a home built in 2001- by a local builder that builds 'one of the better homes'. A couple months after is was built, she had a leak in the sprinkler system- it blew in the crawlspace, and flooded the crawlspace. I went under, and found that the water pipes had a band that was of a different metal- something that you don't do, because that will cause corrosion- the two metals did not 'agree' with each other. You wonder why they did that- because they had some yahoo working- or because they knew that the corrosion would cause a weakened pipe to burst, and that they would 'have another job to do in the future'? Many people who no nothing about construction get jobs in construction, because that is all they can find. It is seasonal, and anybody is better than nobody. So be very careful there! My neibor had a septic put in a couple weeks ago- a small one-500 gal, the cost was $4,600.00. Wells depend- one person might go 100 feet down, 1/4 mile away might have to go 300 feet. Mine is 120 foot. Last I knew, and that was about 4 years ago, wells were $250.00 a foot. $10,000-$20,000 is not a far out figure. Do you have land? Look on the web to see what you can find and call a realtor. Land will be at least $10,000 an acre- if you are lucky to find iy. I have been looking, and it averages $10,000/acre for a not so nice site-one that you might not get water/power to, to $100,000 or more per acre. It is all over the scale. As far as mobile or manufactured homes, if you are not in a subdivision, and have land in a 'no restriction' land site, you can put up whatever you want. I have looked at manufavtured homes a couple weeks ago, as I want to downsize, and with the needed windload,insulation, a Marlette, or Bonnivilla, at about 1,500 sf will be about $125,000-$150,000- not including set-up, skirting/foundation, etc. They are getting to be pretty expensive. A site built home is running about $150.00 a square foot. Yes, poweroutages do happen -usually in the winter. Not frequently, but a couple times a winter. You must be prepared-wood stove, bottled wate-lots, because you will not have your water pump running without power. Lots of canned,dried foods that you can cook on the woodstove. Lots of wood to burn. I have an old wod cookstove, and a pellet stove that is computerized, and can run on a 12 V battery. Hope you find what you want!

[Wildman]

Story is actually south of Sheridan where Ranchester and Dayton are north. All are nice areas. The bigger the location the more stringent the rules can be. More than likely Story will follow county subdivision regulations. Modulars can be placed anywhere in Gillette as long as they are truely Modulars and are set onto a foundation. The minimum lot size is 6,000 sq. feet and you have to meet setback rules. I believe the State Highway Department does a great job for the resources they have and the area they cover. I would guess between 100 to 150 dollars per square foot would be norm for building cost in the area. IMHO, I would buy the Story property due to the excellent access to the Big Horn Mountains.

[dc53]

Your right- I was thinking of Ranchester- I had it all pictured in my mind- but any way, except that Story is not as pretty, and it has a populationof about 1900, the rest is the same. If you are talkin living in a subdivision, then there will be restriction (I hope), but if you buy property, there usually are no restrictions.- I am talking how many horses you can have per acre, how big a home you have to have, 2-story maximum height, things like that. Even out where I live, you have a 15 foot setback, but I can think of nothing else. Just be careful if you build, or do the building yourself. Are you talking city of Gillette? In, Story, the highway still gets closed, etc., but you just plan on things like that. My farrier was here last night to do the horses, and he works contstruction main job- he said that they are building a house 2,100sf, and lumber cost $70,000 just for the lumber! Yikes! Make sure you have a job first.