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Ok right now we live in a Nice House, large Garage and Shop, Storage Building, and Shed for Chickens and Rabbits. On 3.5 acres. Our Mortgage Payments are $550 a month for next 9 years.
Have a Small Cabin on 90'X100' Lot, Cabin is 10'X20', water comes from a Tank we fill from Community Well down the road, Composting Toilet, now we have Hide a Bed, Cook stove, Refrigerator, Sink, Cabinets and such. And a Storage Shed.
Can't have our Chickens and Rabbits but can have our two Dogs. This place is paid for, cost $200 a year for Taxes, Road Upkeep, Trash Pickup and use of Shower House.
What we are thinking of is building on to the Cabin so we will be able to have regular Bed mainly but also Living Room area and Wood Heater which we can't have in the bigger place.
Thing is how much to build on, if we just use it every so often just build one room off what is there. If something should happen to our Retirement we would have to move there and have to have more room, so we would need two story.
Would you just build two story?
Both places are close to very good hunting, fishing and shopping.
Ok right now we live in a Nice House, large Garage and Shop, Storage Building, and Shed for Chickens and Rabbits. On 3.5 acres. Our Mortgage Payments are $550 a month for next 9 years.
Have a Small Cabin on 90'X100' Lot, Cabin is 10'X20', water comes from a Tank we fill from Community Well down the road, Composting Toilet, now we have Hide a Bed, Cook stove, Refrigerator, Sink, Cabinets and such. And a Storage Shed.
Can't have our Chickens and Rabbits but can have our two Dogs. This place is paid for, cost $200 a year for Taxes, Road Upkeep, Trash Pickup and use of Shower House.
What we are thinking of is building on to the Cabin so we will be able to have regular Bed mainly but also Living Room area and Wood Heater which we can't have in the bigger place.
Thing is how much to build on, if we just use it every so often just build one room off what is there. If something should happen to our Retirement we would have to move there and have to have more room, so we would need two story.
Would you just build two story?
Both places are close to very good hunting, fishing and shopping.
brushrunner
Building a two story house is much more complicated than a wide and long one story, at least for me. If you are not living in it and it is your go-to place in case of SHTF, add on another room or two if you have to. If you don't have local materials like stone or wood or clay/sand/straw (cob), add onto it via stick construction on piers, simple and quick, no foundation necessary beyond leveling the piers. Beware of spending too much money on your SHTF location.
Building a two story house is much more complicated than a wide and long one story, at least for me. If you are not living in it and it is your go-to place in case of SHTF, add on another room or two if you have to. If you don't have local materials like stone or wood or clay/sand/straw (cob), add onto it via stick construction on piers, simple and quick, no foundation necessary beyond leveling the piers. Beware of spending too much money on your SHTF location.
My $.02
It would be Stick Built and reasonable cost. Yes this would be our SHTF place.
What I'm thinking is most this area is Federal Lands and with the Shutdown some of this is closed off but if person knows the area this is not a problem.
Some factors will determine whether raising the roof to add another story, or building a first-story addition, would be easier or more cost effective. The most expensive and architecturally complicated components of any home are the foundation and roof, so...
1) Is the current foundation able to support the weight of an additional story?
2) Are the current load-bearing walls able to support the weight of an additional story?
3) Is the current ceiling/attic floor able to support the additional live weight of an active floor rather than an empty storage space?
4) Is the current roof adequate for local weather and in good condition?
If the answer to all is "Yes", than it's more efficient to build up a full or half-story, reusing as much of the existing roof materials as possible. Keep in mind that you will lose some floor space on both levels to the staircase (unless you put the stairs outside), and stairs can pose an accessibility issue if you become injured or handicapped later.
If the answer to any is "No", then you need to determine whether it is easier and less expensive to reinforce the existing structure to take another story or to extend the foundation and roofline for a horizontal addition. If the existing foundation needs the upgrade for a vertical addition, it is almost nearly impossible to do that easily or cheaply, so adding on horizontally is probably the best option; But it's usually quite reasonable to double up wall studs and floor joists.
If you cannot easily extend the existing foundation and roofline, and it would result in a complicated roof, you'd probably be better in the long run to build an entirely new cabin to meet your needs and use the existing cabin for other purposes. Unless you are simply making the building longer along it's roofline, cutting a doorway into the non-load bearing rake wall, building on additions can be very difficult and are often prone to weather damage at the complex roofline.
You may find 10x20 quite adequate for living space if you have a number of outbuildings for storage, entertaining, etc. Our cabin is 16x24 with a loft, nearly 4x as big as your smaller cabin, but our climate requires indoor/heated storage of anything that cannot safely freeze for extended periods... in a more temperate climate we could probably eliminate an entire floor and have another storage shed.
ETA: contrary to popular belief, it is not automatically more complicated to build a 2-story than a rambling 1-story... but you do need to make sure that your foundation and load-bearing framing members are properly sized for the load. It is often more efficient to make these components 1/2x larger to handle a 2nd story, than to need 2x more to make the footprint larger. The most important thing is to keep the building shape simple and limit the width (perpendicular to the roofline) to a maximum clearspan for your area and materials (ex. a 2x12 SPF #2-grade floor joist 16" on-center can span 15' 8" with a 65 psf evenly distributed combined load -- AWC joist & rafter calculator)
Last edited by MissingAll4Seasons; 10-14-2013 at 04:52 PM..
I'd be concerned with having another source of water before adding on. That lot is too small to begin with. I'd want to stay on the bigger one. Or sell the big one and buy another "bug out" property.
Well we went to the Cabin today, talked over things, with our age and health, just building on out one story seems to be the best.
Far as water not that difficult to haul, just a matter of having Pickup or Trailer and time. We have done with worse in the past when we caught rain water. But about the only thing we will need water for is Cooking and Dishes.
Today we got a Refrigerator for up there, I know don't need it but found a T.V. too.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I am most happy with the daylight basement homes with full living space and handi-cap accessible on each floor. (for rental / caregiver / boomerang kids, eldercare)
Ideal, would be rammed earth in and out.
2nd choice, find some affordable left over RASTRA or APEX icfs (Concrete impregnated foam). They are way too expensive off the shelf.
I prefer to pour concrete floors between levels in the areas of solar / storage and leave other areas wood framed for access / remodel. Most of the wold has concrete floors between levels and there is some very nice metal decking that you can pour floors directly onto.
Metal or earth roof depending on climate, windows with fully weather tight insulated shutters. Wood heat and infloor radiant that could also be heated solar or via heat exchnager from my WVO genset.
Annualized solar will be part of the next plan.
(heating in summer and storing till winter)
The bearing math is slightly more complicated with a 2-story, while the weatherproofing and detailing is more complicated with a horizontal addition. It's least complicated to make a slightly larger 1-story if you're starting from scratch if you can afford the additional foundation and roof materials.
The biggest pros for a 1-story are not losing floor space or accessibility with a staircase. Otherwise, a 2-story is normally less expensive per sq ft of enclosed space.
Whatever means you choose, it's best to have a clear understanding of architectural math. It's not overly complicated if you aren't trying to do anything fancy like large clear spans or cantilevers; but understanding loads and bearing capacities is crucial.
I agree that a 90'x100' lot isn't really that big, and it would be really difficult to have even a moderately self-sufficient homestead on a lot that's less than acre (espe. with your livestock limitations). Our garden alone would take up nearly your entire lot, forget about the cabin, sheds, garage, woodlot, driveway, etc. But, if it's paid for, perhaps you could live there debt-free temporarily without investing in (m)any improvements while you focus your resources on something more realistic long-term? If the current cabin is a bit tight, you could always park an RV on the lot and live out of that instead (if zoning allows).
One other consideration is that for a cold-weather area, a two-story dwelling is quite a bit more efficient for heating. Especially if you are going with a central chimney and wood heat. You'll spend less time and money on wood.
Personally, I'd always go with a two-story, but that's just preference as much as anything else. I just like the looks of a two-story -- especially the designs of the Victorian era and earlier (back to colonial times).
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