alt.house

I'm building a house. I'm tired of paying $550 in rent for a small, one bedroom apartment, $150 for electricity, for a total of $700+ to live. I believe a house can be built for under $15,000. it may be an alternative type housing but it can be done. personally, I think it could be done for under $10,000. However, as I'm building and designing, I am realizing that I want it to look a certain way, and for that, I have to push the $10,000 number a bit higher. anyway, I'm think it can be done cheap, and I'm setting out to prove it. this blog will chronicle the project.

I am starting this blog a bit late, as the project is well under way, but I'll get you up to speed. I have some sketches I had my brother phil draw when we designed the basic plan and I'll get those uploaded as soon as I can. until then I'll describe it. it's a rectangle, 24x16. it's so small, we can actually move it from site to site if needed. we actually saw one my cousins had built that was the same size, though theirs included a 4 foot porch. I didn't think this porch needed to be attached to the house. I'd rather use the whole 24' and add a porch later. also, theirs had a traditional type roof, with 2 angles pitching up and meeting in the middle of a house, like a normal cottage looking house. we decided to go with a more shed type approach, one angle with a 2' pitch. this saves a small amount of material but also makes it look a bit more modern in my opinion. not for everyone, but I like it. also, because it's such a small space, any attempt to make it feel spacious is not only helpful, but perhaps necessary. so we have one wall at 10' and the higher wall at 12'. as I said, our sketches will illustrate this later on.

one last note. I did look at making this a 12' by 24' house, but decided it really wasn't saving me much money, and was more cost effective and comfortable to stay with the 16' number.