Small houses Part 2 (power lines, big house, buy)

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Following up on the small 1.5 story gambrel roof house pics, I came across this post from a tiny house blog via some googling.
https://tinyhousetalk.com/jasons-800...of-small-home/

Thanks for posting this, OL. I don't particularly like the exterior colors or interior design (too modern and not cozy at all), but it "appears" quite spacious. I could live in that, I think.

[Last1Standing]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

Here's a nice 16x40 house plan with a screened porch and loft. I am not a big fan of lofts with ladders, but this plan still has the primary bedroom on the first floor and the loft allows you to get some inexpensive *extra* space under the steep roof, and could be used for storage or a guest bedroom; that inclined ladder could be done better with a raised metal handrail to make it a little more secure. If you're going long/skinny for a small house, 16' width is just about ideal in my opinion.

https://tinyhousetalk.com/kanga-16x4...armhouse-feel/

Very nice! Much homier than the previous one.

[nm9stheham]

As for pipes freezing, even if there is heat in the basement or crawl space, often small cracks are overlooked, and if near a pipe, with some wind and cold, zappo... It's frozen. It's usually 1 or 2 specific spots.

Want some deep freezing? We are building in Wy at 8000 ft.... Pipes get buried 7 ft minimum. Odd part is that garage foundations are put down just a few feet. The dry climate has the moisture penetration only down to about 30".... With no water, there's no frost heaving, no matter how cold underground. Very different.

[Tiredofnyclife]

Is there such a thing as small houses but big plots of land ? Or are these houses only cited on micro lots?

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Tiredofnyclife

Is there such a thing as small houses but big plots of land ? Or are these houses only cited on micro lots?

If it's the primary dwelling, to my knowledge there is normally no lower limit on size for the house, so you could build a 600sq ft house on a 100 acre lot if you want to.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Tiredofnyclife

Is there such a thing as small houses but big plots of land ? Or are these houses only cited on micro lots?

I am not aware of anything that would prohibit a person from buying 200 acres of woodlot and constructing a 400 sq ft house on it.

But I think the typical person who is interested in buying a 200 acre parcel, is going to be a person who wants to raise chickens, goats and pigs.

If you raise livestock suddenly you need to have a bunch of stuff.

I breed pigs and sell piglets, sometimes I need to butcher a pig. Along with the setup and gear to allow us to butcher a pig easily, we must also have the capability to store 400-pounds of pork once the butchering is completed.

I am a beekeeper. All of my honeybee stuff needs to be stored somewhere. If it is left outside the weather will destroy it over a few years. My bee stuff would barely fit inside a 400 sq ft building.

We have a chicken-plucking machine, which has been invaluable everytime that we have scheduled to process 50 birds in one day. But that one machine is the size of a washing machine, and it needs to be stored somewhere.

Two or three times a year, we schedule a poultry processing event, people bring their turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens and in one day we get it done, in a festive atmosphere.

This lifestyle does not lend itself to tiny houses.




The forester we bought our land from, still has many parcels for sale. He has a 300-acre parcel adjacent to my land, in the past 15 years the only buyer who has expressed an interest in that land parcel has been a New Jersey mob garbage company who wanted to construct a Municipal-Waste incinerator and landfill on that parcel, to drain its leachate into the Penobscot River.

When we waded into the legal battle to fight that incinerator from being constructed, in the hearing depositions we learned their business model is based on the profit margin of hauling municipal waste up here from Mass and from Quebec. There is a lot of money on the table for someone to make urban waste disappear.

Otherwise nobody seems to be interested in buying large parcels of land. I think he is asking $300 a acre.

[Last1Standing]

1976 house appears nicely renovated, except for aqua walls. Nice basement but no garage. 5 miles from the center of Belfast. One acre. For a better idea of the surroundings see the street view at

https://bit.ly/3ExGFO4


Sad that prices have risen this much for such a small house.

[daphniesman04]

Hello, sorry to jump in here but I have a question. See, I'm examining my options to move to maine. I read this forum often, but this particular post scares me. Does maine power really go out that much? I was told by family up there that they spend about 400.00 a month for heating in the winter. Does that sound right? Unless one has many acres of wood to heat a wood stove then how do y'all survive up there?

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by daphniesman04

Hello, sorry to jump in here but I have a question. See, I'm examining my options to move to maine. I read this forum often, but this particular post scares me. Does maine power really go out that much? I was told by family up there that they spend about 400.00 a month for heating in the winter. Does that sound right? Unless one has many acres of wood to heat a wood stove then how do y'all survive up there?

For the power to go a lot, it depends on where you live. For a good many of us, it doesn't go out much.

As for the wood issue, it is quite possible to buy firewood cut and split... dry even.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by daphniesman04

Hello, sorry to jump in here but I have a question. See, I'm examining my options to move to maine. I read this forum often, but this particular post scares me. Does maine power really go out that much?

The majority of Maine, is extremely rural Un-organized Townships [UTs]. My experience living in a UT, has been that our power grid normally goes down at least once a month.

In my UT, every home has at least one generator, and it would be normal to budget $100 a month for generator fuel.

However most Mainers live in more densely populated towns or cities. It appears that in the cities the power grid is a lot more reliable.

... I was told by family up there that they spend about 400.00 a month for heating in the winter. Does that sound right?

We budget to spend $700 a year for heating fuel.

... Unless one has many acres of wood to heat a wood stove then how do y'all survive up there?

Cutting your own wood is a huge process. It takes a lot of labor and a surprising amount of equipment. My eldest son tried to cut, split and deliver wood for a living, and he failed terribly.

There are people who have all the proper equipment and they can process three or four cords of firewood per day.

There is competition among firewood folks which keeps the prices down.

People will gladly deliver split firewood to your dooryard every spring. So you get the joy of stacking it.



I have neighbors who consume fifteen cords a year. You will see a wide variety of wood burning systems, as well as a wide variety of home insulation.

My home is 2400 sq ft and we consume 3 1/2 cords a year.