Kid #4 is on his (I presume it's a "he") way. Our house, 1800 sqft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths on 0.4 acres, is not big enough for 'comfortable' living, as I see it.
I've always been more of an out-in-the-sticks kind of guy, and my house is in the less populated suburbs, so we're close, but we can improve.
I can find land, 3-10 acres worth, for around $30-50k. I know from experience that I can build a big enough, nice enough house for around 100K is I swing hammers myself. My stepfather, Mother and I did that a few years back and built a very nice ranch in Upstate NY with 2x6 walls, 9' ceilings with vaulted sections and a cathedral section in the great room, 2x10 roof with 2x12 hickory for the hips and three 2x12 for the beam. It had a full block basement, bonus room, attic, big windows, granite countertops, wood floors, tile everywhere else. I know, based on that, that 100K budget for the materials and small amount of labor (I hate sheetrock, but may do it anyway to save money)
My current house is worth $160k. I owe roughly 100K on the mortgage yet.
This is a multiple part question.
A: How do I do this? I have three very young kids (essentially, 4, 2.5 and 1) and a pregnant wife. I can't exactly rent a two bedroom apartment while I build this house, and I don't think I can carry two mortgages and a building loan all at the same time (not anywhere near enough cash to buy land outright) with my meager salary (between 50-80/year) and the kids preschool costs. How do you swap houses when you're planning on building the one you're moving into? Hiring a builder on a contract that required my house to be sold means the new house will be far too expensive.
B: What kind of house? A nice ranch that I build with 2x6s would be fine, but we love log homes. We've read that kits are great, kits suck, they seal very well, they leak all the time, resale is impossible, resale is great, they are easy to build, they are very difficult to build and pretty much everything else. I have almost fallen in love with the timber type barn-like houses that are sometimes made from actual barns, and I would love to live in a converted barn, either one that I buy with the land, or one which you buy in a kit, like Yankee Barn Homes, but the prices are insane. I have no idea if that's typical or not. I'd consider other oddballish ideas, but they would have to be somewhat reasonable.
C: I'd also considering moving into an old Farmhouse, moving interior walls around, replacing piping, wiring, etc as I go. Not sure on how much of a pain this typically is, but it would be neat and give me a place to live, albeit messy and loud, while I worked.
D: Should I just buy a regular house and suck it up on the cost?
http://www.remax.com/property/102071426-60470388/171-Ridings-Drive-Inman-SC-29349/
Just for more information, this is going in Upstate SC. I hate slabs, would consider crawlspace but really like basements, don't care on much else, bedrooms >=4, bathrooms >=2.5. I like energy efficient stuff, but more from a financial perspective than an environmental one.
Thanks, guys.
