Barndominium’s.

Scotty Con Queso said:

Congrats.  I love Florida.  When you say west central are you talking Tallahasse or Tampa? Just curious.  

North of Tampa, south of Tallahasse. 

SV reX said:

In reply to bobzilla :

I'm offering the same caveat that Stampie and Purple Frog are offering.  Florida is terrific (and I have a house there), but the rules are MUCH different than they are in IN.

I know how important a rural lifestyle is to you and the freedom to not be bugged by government, and honestly FL is not that place.

I have been in construction for over 40 years, but I won't be building in FL (because of the regulations that are VERY limiting). I also have a place in AL (which is where I enjoy those freedoms)

At this point in life, if I can have a few acres with trees, a house and garage, sunshine for most of winter and I'm not staring at a 1.2million square foot warehouse 1460 feet off my property I will call that a win. its coming, no matter where you live sadly. I just need some sunshine, some friends and family and a place thats mine.

bobzilla said: I just need some sunshine, some friends and family and a place thats mine.

This is the dream, really.  

Loosely following, as a few acres and a barndo have been a loose goal for a while now.  

preach said:

bobzilla said:

I mean thanks for everyone trying to talk us out of what we want. It's always so refreshing.

Not to turn this thread downward, but this is one of my favorite things about the internet.

Here's the plan I decided on. 

"oh no! you should do this instead."

There is a reason it's called my plan, not yours.

Carry on. My wife and I are considering a barndo, but in TN. TN winter? A joke to us up here in NH.

I didn't get that impression from anyone, more of a "the best laid plans of mice and man" type thing.

I also suspect many questions are coming from a place of curiousity, since I would bet many of us have thought of building a Barndominium. 

In reply to bobzilla :

I'm not trying to dissuade you just want you to be aware. In my case the covenants and restrictions say I can't do a trailer house but nothing says I can't store an RV on the property. So I'm storing one while I build. In your case it sounds like you're good since you won't need the CO until you actually move in. 

Yeah, honestly I'm curious and hearing some real feedback on the challenges and what works and doesn't work is great. I already own land but whatever I build I want to be low drama to maintain and that's what got me curious about Barndominiums. I'm past my days of being willing to climb a ladder to replace siding or repaint.

Stampie said:

In reply to bobzilla :

I'm not trying to dissuade you just want you to be aware. In my case the covenants and restrictions say I can't do a trailer house but nothing says I can't store an RV on the property. So I'm storing one while I build. In your case it sounds like you're good since you won't need the CO until you actually move in. 

Well, I think the term "barndominium" throws a lot of people off too. It's not REALLY a barn, it's a metal building that is finished out as a house/garage etc. I always thought they were literal polebarns but that is not the case (with good ones).

Although, I had always wondered what it would be like to put a house, like structure, insulation, outer covering/siding inside of a warehouse/massive polebarn. The house would have it's normal insulation and protection with a full roof but inside a warehouse. 

EDIT: and I will NOT live with an HOA/Covenants of a neighborhood. 

Can we be neighbors?  Obviously, good distance between houses is required.  

In reply to jmabarone :

I'm down. 

bobzilla,   I misunderstood your original post, thinking you were looking for someone to build the shell and you would build the home inside.   Going back and re-reading first post it looks like you want a soup-to-nuts builder.   my bad.

I can tell you that I have worked with 3 buildings built by Morton Buildings and all were top quality.  They handled all the inspections, etc.  Did top notch work.   Not cheap, but quality.  Two were built in North FL.

My brother had them build this on on top of a hill in TN looking at the Smoky Mountains.  Sort of large.  In the picture the RV parked next to the building is a 40' diesel pusher for reference.  Home is built in front right side.  10 years old and still no complaints.

For HVAC: put all systems inside your thermal insulation.

Do not place air handler and ducts in a hot "attic" type space. Doing that in the southeast is really common.. and a lousy idea. 

edit: Basic floor plan looks fine.  Will need more width for the laundry room but you have 40' deep so it'll fit. 

In reply to bobzilla :

If Morton (or other) builds your shell, I'll bet Purple Frog and I could do an awesome interior for you! 

In reply to OHSCrifle :

This was a quick sketch as a proof of concept. My brain is fried today maybe we will work on it tomorrow night some. Wife had some ideas and some of them I will not like 

SV reX said:

In reply to bobzilla :

If Morton (or other) builds your shell, I'll bet Purple Frog and I could do an awesome interior for you! 

I imagine y'all could. 

In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah I'm getting too old and lazy to do that much work myself anymore. Plus I was always crap at finish work. Framing? Roughing in? Got that covered. Want it to look nice? Well crap, I'm out. Our deck turned out OK but that's more framing than detail work and you just don't look too close lol

+1 for Morton.  Our Brewery is a Morton Pre-fab with some small custom on-site stick-framed details, and it was a) WAYYYYYYYY cheaper than conventional building, like an extra 0 cheaper, and B) so much less stress since they have engineers on staff to handle all of the minutiae like load handling, spans, clear heights, etc...  While you may not face those issues in a Barndo, it was a very nice piece of mind to have it all handled by professionals well before we signed the agreement.  FWIW, they were also 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and handled all of the logistics on their end.  

Citrus county is looking promising right now. Trying to find any special building codes they may have for rural zoned lots. 

In to follow the process/progress.  Barndominium was my dream, but I didn't have the funds to make that happen.   We bought an old house on 2 acres and slowly fixed it up and later built a 1500 sf detached metal garage.   I'm very happy with how we ended up, but still dream of that barndo!  Good luck!  North florida is a beautiful area.

Working with a nice guy down there. He has a couple of companies that he works with to get all the right answers you need before spending the money basically. Also looking into the property itself for any "gotchas" we aren't seeing. 

Fascinating thread.  Neat seeing perspectives from other areas, in particular I never considered that winters in Indiana are so much colder than in PA.  I'm a good bit north of you geographically and I don't think I have seen 'negative double digits' in my LIFE.  Ever.  I was so skeptical I looked it up, and yeah, indy is apparently cold as **** in the winter by comparison with averages and record lows that are 10 and 15 degrees lower respectively.

This kind of barndo was a dream for a while but we ended up buying a place that was already built, on a few acres with (2) 24x30 buildings.  I do wish everything was attached together, especially in...wait for it...winter.  Just had our first serious snow since moving and it's a chore for sure.

In reply to RedGT :

Yep.  We saw -14 actual temperature a few winters back.

   Brrrrrrrrrr

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Coldest I can remember was 1994 and it was -27 with windchills in the -40's at our house. We were going out and starting the cars every 3 hours and letting them run for 30-40 minutes to keep things moving. Summer 2012 was 105*, but back in the late 80's we had a couple summers of 100+ as well IIRC. So yeah, we see an extreme swing, up to 135* in a year, but more normal is about a 90* swing for the year.

In reply to bobzilla :

We see the same crazy things here in Oklahoma. When I picked up my car in December '22, it was so cold the diff was making noise because the fluid had congealed. I think it was -20F that day. Then we see 110+ in July/Sept. We had snow on the ground Monday, 60 today, and supposed to be -10 on Monday. 

Any luck finding land and a builder, Bobz?

OHSCrifle said:

Any luck finding land and a builder, Bobz?

I quickly read this as 'Any luck finding land and a BULLDOZER?' and I was very very very excited, haha.  Bobzilla, taking matters into his own hands, quite literally!