Looking for ideas

[Lburou]

If concrete is cheap enough it is the way to go.  You can do the forms yourself, even the stucco on the outside you can do.....Saving on the labor cost will make up for the cost of foam blocks & rebar, and it will be somewhat insulated when you are finished.

If there is a company near you making Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs), you could go that way and have a great outcome too. But, SIPs are not cheap.  If anyone could find a bargain though, its Perry!  :-)

[Les]

Perry, if what I am reading, you are building this barn with the thought that at some point in time it could be converted into a residence?  Also, did someone write that there is a view from the back of the barn?
If that is the case, from a female's perspective, I would build the peaked roof barn and put the front door on the front of the house (duh) and possibly put windows on either side so that it looks like a home.  Then, I would put a bank of sliding or folding glass doors in the back of the barn.   You could have your driveway go around the back of the barn, offload your stuff right there and bring it in through the opened glass doors.  You could even pour a slab in front of the doors and it could serve as an offloading area and a possible patio for the future residents to use as a patio and have a nice view.  Also, if you are considering a conversion at some future time, I would suggest you visualize what the floor plan would be like now so you put your water and septic in a place where it could stay and serve the bathroom and future kitchen.  Might also want to consider where you would locate a kitchen and then you could install your outlets above kitchen counter heights.  Typical woman, always thinking wayyyyy ahead.  Good luck with your project. 

Oh, one other thought......radiant heat in the floor before you pour your slab???

[Perry]

In floor radiant heat would be great, but remember, I am trying to do this without busting my already sad wallet.
25K, 50K, easy to say and not really that much difference in the big scheme I suppose, but has anyone ever tried to save 25K? Not easy! It has to be paid back at some point.

[lazy shooter]

It is hard to save money.  It is much easier to gain equity.  Perry, you are a young man in today's world of modern day medicine.  You very likely have 20 to 30 years of work time left.  Ten or 15 years from now, if you tire of beekeeping you will have a huge equity in your home and honey house.  At some point, you may want to sell your bee business and to Alaska and be a profession hunting guide.  There will be a big equity.  In my long life, I have always made money on real estate (excluding my houses that I had to buy and sell at sometimes inopportune times).  It's the only investment that has never failed me.

You're a clever guy.  Build all you want now, and when and if you decide to sell, you will be able to make a property gain or a big money profit on the equity.  You can't save much, but you can gain a lot of EQUITY.

Lazy

[efmesch]

Knowing your way of doing things, Perry, I think Lazy S has given some very good advice and is thinking in the right direction.  If, as you are probably planning,  you will do the construction yourself, you'll be "saving" a lot of money and getting exactly what you want for minimum cost. 
What you are doing now is the first and possibly the most important step---planning it out with a lot of thoughtfulness.  Try to build with the maximum number of reasonable options answered, remembering that having to make additions or changes later will always be more expensive than doing them from the start.  That is particularly important with items such as electricity and plumbing. 
However, give yourself a reasonable time frame to do the job.  Remember too that your son is growing up and, if he tends to lean toward your way of doing things, he'll not only be happy to work with you, but he'll learn a lot, be of enormous help and both of you will have the pride of his participation in this "project".

[Michelle]

what about actually loving there and selling your house in town?

[apisbees]

http://atriumvillas.ca/fpsf/fpsf.htm
This is one of the cheaper ways to do the footings have the out side ground level 6" lower than the cement floor level. have a cement slab out from the door  10' at ground level and then dug down on one side to creat a level loading dock.
Perry can you screen capture google maps of your property and draw in the property lines, water well and line, septic tank and inlet and field as best that you know. And the property distance between corner posts.
And where on the property you would like the building located.

[Perry]

That is an excellent link Apis, thank you.
I will try and bring up what you mentioned.
OK I did my best Apis, here is the screen shot:



2 acres of land.
The old house was torn down. The septic tank is in yellow, the septic field is in green. The well is just to the right of the old house, across the driveway.
Where I would like the building to go is in blue.
The building would face west towards the road that way, or I could turn it sideways to face south if I stay 45 feet in from the front property line.

[Perry]

what about actually loving there and selling your house in town?

I do most of my loving in town Michelle, my wife is not the outdoor type! 

[apisbees]

The septic tank itself is not under where you have the honey house drawn? Normally the tank is not to far from the house.

[Perry]

No, the septic tank itself is the small yellow circle. I would try to have it not too far from a corner of the honey house and that is the corner where I would put the bathroom.

[apisbees]

OK miss read I was thinking the yellow was the well. Glad I got that straightened out. Pool two houses down  GREAT BEE WATERING HOLE. the bees will like it.

[Perry]

  Never noticed that until you mentioned it.
There is a small lake even closer, just out of view at the bottom of the picture.

[apisbees]

There are 2 in the picture both about the same distance from the honey house "They Like to be in the center so they don't have to decide" "Mr Cristy You make good cookies"

[Mosti]

Given up on trying to save for a proper honey house so we went to bank and applied for funds to help put one up. We have 2 acres of land with a well and septic just 10 minutes outside of town. I finally have DOT approval on the driveway and the DOE OK'd the well and septic. All I need now is a set of basic plans.
I am thinking something around 1,000 to 1,200 sq ft. on a concrete pad with a about a 1 foot concrete wall around the edge of the pad to keep the wood up so hosing floors is easy.
Because of zoning I want to make this place look somewhat like a residence which will help in a future sale if the time comes when I have to stop. A home would be much easier to sell than a "garage" type building.
At this point I have been lugging each and every super from the back of my truck to the back door, down a flight of stairs, extract it, and then lug the empties back up. With the amount of colonies I now have this just is not sustainable anymore after this year. I have all the equipment I could use to make extracting seem almost pleasurable, but no ideal place to set it all up.
I am thinking something basic (cheap) to the extreme. 4 walls with a full bathroom in one corner, and the rest being a completely open floor plan. I can always partition things off as they dictate later. I think a steep pitch roof, maybe a 12/12 to allow for possible storage above?
I have scoured looking for plans and images but nothing yet. Anyone have any ideas or pictures of something suitable?


  Get rid of the garage doors and put in some windows and a man door?

At least you have to go down not up like I do! Good luck at your quest.

[lazy shooter]

@Perry:

Going back to my thoughts on equity: I visited with a young farmer yesterday, and he told related to me that he didn't make a lot of money after he paid his farm mortgages, but he was building a nice equity.  We looked at some cotton and hay crops and he told me he paid 1,200 dollars an acre for the land in 2005.  That land is worth about 3,200 dollars per acre now.  That's a gross gain of over 100 percent, it's probably an 80 percent net gain after taxes and fees.  His plan is to work and own as much land as possible and someday sell his farm and live on his earned equity.  I think you can do the same thing with your honey house and property. 

You will eventually have two options to sell.  You could sell the property and the honey house to someone and keep your beekeeping on a smaller scale, or you sell your business by combining all of your beekeeping assets in a whole and selling the total business.  You're relatively young in today's world.  You're in the driver's seat with a lot of knowledge and skill.  Strike while the iron is hot.

[caesarsfish]

Dang, the building code must be tough where you live.  When I retired here in Alabama on my dads ole home site, I took four sets of blueprints to the court house to get permits to build my house and I was told that in this county, no permits were required and no inspections, just build it the way I wanted because I had to live in it.  The only permit I had to get was for the septic tank, I think this is federal.  I have since added a three car garage with a man cave on one end and a 14x24 bee room on the back, no permits.  Also in Randolph county, if you are over 65 and homestead, there are no property taxes.

[lazy shooter]

I live in a place like ceasarfish.  The state requires the county to inspect and make sure my septic system meets all state regulations.  It takes a permit prior to work and an inspection prior to backfilling the septic system.  The electric cooperative requires the same thing.  Other than that, there are zero regulations outside of the city limits. 

[LazyBkpr]

In Maine, I ws fined for REPLACING an old porch with a new one. REPLACING a deck with a new one, and with REPLACING old windows with new ones...    Fine was 25 dollars, Permit was 50, and I had to wait for the county to decide if it was OK that I did those things on my own without hiring a contractor etc....    I didnt ask for a permit to build my new house out there, I just built it, AND moved in...   then we were told we had to move out, tear open walls so the wiring could be inspected. Dig up the septic so it could be inspected, etc... I said.. nope, fine me...  cost me 200 dollars... for the septic and 150 dollars for the electrical..   
   I imagine its even worse now. That was 30 years ago.

   Moved to Iowa, went to the courthouse to talk to the code enforcement officer...   I also asked what i needed to do for permits.. I was told..  "YOUR the one who has to live in it, build it how you want."
  I had to have the electrical inspected, and I had to build the septic system to code, and have it inspected, no permits or fees.

[apisbees]

Up in the tundra no mater where you live what we do needs to meet the national building code, that is standard across Canada So unless what you are doing is hidden and not hooking into the grid, Power, Water, Sewer, and Natural Gas. You need a permit to get hooked up.