Yeah, storage is our big thing. Between my tools, hunting stuff, and well...All of my wife's crap, we will need storage out the you know what. Haha, I will gladly host a GTG. Actually spoke to the realtor today regarding an existing ROW issue and they're still doing some research with the county and township on the Oil and Gas rights. I told her if either of these are able to be remedied, there's no reason to even continue:D Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4.
We just moved, the wife needed more room for us and the three dogs. We are at 3459sq. ft. not including the unfinished basement that she wants to finish. 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bath and three car garage in a cul de sac backing to a preserve. I'm 10 minutes farther from my hunting spot though Like MTSCMike we have the balconies, 20 ft ceilings only I don't plan to retire here. Ideally I would love 20-50 acres with a 2400sq ft. ranch home.
Mine is 2,500 square ft finished and the basement is around 1400 unfinished. I feel its just about right for a family of 5, but when kids move out its gonna be a little big!
My house is 1950 sq/ft not including the unfinished basement, which will hopefully be done this winter. Optimally I'd like 2500 + basement. My wife wants another kid which will take over my current man cave and I'd like to have an office/den area on the main floor instead of in the basement. I'd also like a bit larger garage to hold the 4 metric tons of hunting BS that I own.
If there's a trophy for smallest house, I think I win. We have a two BR, one bath ranch at about 1,000 sq. ft. The basement is partially finished in that we have a sauna and shower and the area for my husband's reloading. Our two children, both girls, share one bedroom. I can't have any more children so that's that. I don't know that we really need any more space. We have a living room and a family room so there's room to spread out. The back yard is completely private, covered by trees and shrubbery, so the girls and I can sunbathe in a natural state and we can also target shoot with our bows. It's not legal, but nobody can see us. (The targets are backed up by a board fence eight feet high.) May The Sheep Be With You
So, after having the realtor do a little digging for me, there are two hang ups that have pretty much sealed the deal on me not being interested in this. For one, the current deeds on record don't have anything written in them about OGM rights. The owners don't know if they own them, and the farmer who sold them doesn't know (I don't know how this is even possible). However, I'm not willing to pay for a title search, so that's not going to work for me. The other problem is with the ROW. The township has access to the ROW (as shown in the map below), but as you can see, it extends beyond the culdesac and over to the farmers property. That ground is very buildable, and we don't want to risk having the farmer further subdivide out the ground and have someone build a driveway right past our house. The realtor spoke to the farmer, and he said he doesn't want to sell back the ROW, and will let his son deal with it someday (he left the farm to him in his will). The ground is enrolled in CRP, so it won't be developed anytime soon, but I have a feeling once the song gets it (who doesn't live here), he'll just subdivide and sell. So, for now, it's off the table. Maybe it was meant to be since like I said, I'm not a fan of this size home.
4400 sq. ft. heated. 4 bedroom 4.5 baths. It also has a guest suite on the main floor. I also have a bonus room and a 3 car garage set up. The 2 car garage is extra large with ample room for my crew cab pickup and the single car in oversized as well. I built the house myself and considered it my forever house. Full brick and hard coat stucco with tudor accents. Super efficient blown in fiberglass insulation, high end windows, efficient on demand hot water and 20 seer A/C units. The result is low utility bills despite the large size. I also have forever materials such as site finished hardwoods throughout and tiles. I used to build homes for a living and had sold my company and plowed some money into this house. I realized with my first home, that time really flew by and I didn't want to be exterior painting and replacing carpet. 5-7 years sound like a long time, but it goes quickly. Same with skimping on the mechanicals. I was blessed having sold the business that i had "discretionary" income to build such a nice house when I was only 33 years old. Now that I am 39 I am glad that I did. Despite that, I still want a detached, Cabana/pool house/junk garage for stuff like 4 wheelers and outdoor stuff. Essentially, a detached cabin on my own property. That may happen sooner rather then later.
Pictures? I know building is the way to go, I just can't find land. I'm doing a lot of research on building science lately, and I really would love to build a house to Passive House Standards. I could, in theory, build a 3500+sq.ft home using 20% of the energy most traditional "energy efficient" homes are today.
I used every passive building trick in the book. The entire back of the house faces South. So there are 44 windows in the house. Its great in the winter to open the blinds and shades. I planted decidous trees back there that have leaves all spring and summer that shade those same windows in the heat of summer. I added a snow photo of proof of 4 seasons in NC. As I mentioned in the earlier post I also used tankless on demand water, blown fiberlass in the walls, traditional insulation on the interior walls, low-e windows and 20 seer AC. The end result is a low monthly cost of utilities. My only regret was not using foil backed roof sheathing to reflect heat out of the attic. I may tackle that this winter with some foil product. Garages are about 1100 sq. feet its hard to see them in the photo. I also have only one neighbor despite living in a "neighborhood".
Thanks Hooker. The tub is seldom used now, but when the kids where 1 and 3 when we moved in, it was used nightly. I think you could bathe a horse in it. The master shower is 5x9, so now it get used by the kids the most despite each of them having their own rooms, with bathrooms. They actually sleep together in the same bed for the past 1.5 years since they are both scared of the dark.
I'm late for the party, but anyways...... We currently live in a 3100 sqft 4 br 3.5 bath house on a .75 acre lot, which we have listed for sale. Once we sell this place we will be moving to the farmhouse which is 1250 sqft 2 br and 1.5 bath, but its on 38 acres with a creek running through the back of the property. We plan on building a new house there in 3 years. As of now it looks like we will be building a 2800-3200 sqft house. You're smart in turning down the large house. My parents have a 7000 sq ft, 5 BR, 5 full bath, 2 half bath house on a lake. I have 6 other siblings and none of us really want it. Its just too big to maintain. They have a cleaning lady come once a week and a landscape guy there 2-3 times a week. Its great when the whole family gets together, as there are 23 grand kids and 4 great grand kids. But its not practical for smaller families at all.
In the end, it would have been too much to deal with, and I never could have made it into exactly what I wanted. Blessing in disguise.
