Is buying/renting a trailer home an option? It would be tight, but it would give you a place to be while your house was built, and you could resell it when you were done.

I feel your pain, we are only a family of 5, but it is challenging to find a place that will take a family with terms that work for construction.

We've been looking for a trailer but we have several members of our family with various allergies. It seems any trailer we have found makes them unable to breathe....sigh.

If you do a temp kitchen pipe and plan first. We used antique dressers and tables for things like counters and cabinets. Old armoires could be a pantry. Yes it will save money but consider things like bacteria free surfaces, a restaurant stainless table could serve as a prep area. Check the resale resources for fixtures too. If you have a pole barn you have the storage for thrifty finds.

Well, we don't have a pole barn yet. ;-) But we do have storage options available. I probably have a few items that would work already. The main thing I would look for is a cheap cabinet with a sink. Everything else could be hodge podged together.

What about the range hood? Would that need to be done at the time of construction? I'm hoping for a good one.

What exactly do you mean by "temp kitchen pipe and plan"? Do you mean we would use different pipes for the temp stuff? I just assumed we would have the plumbing in place for when we got the good stuff in.

You need to contact your local codes office and find out the minimum finish level that will be accepted in order to be able to receive a certificate of occupancy. And the timeline in which they expect you to finish the home without penalty. And whether or not they would actually allow you to occupy a pole barn during construction.

With only 30K as proceeds from a home sale, that won't cover the septic and electrical to the property. Unless you have substantial savings with which to create the infrastructure, and a high tolerance for permanant camping, you might be better off exploring putting the proceeds into a slightly more expensive home than you are currently occupying, and then sell it in a couple of years to keep moving your property investment up the value ladder.

Is this a cash build? If not, you need to think about how this will effect the appraisal process.

Am I misunderstanding that you are hoping to start a build with only 20-30K worth of funds that won't even make a pole barn habitable, much less legally habitable?

Sorry to confuse. We will have about $130k cash to begin building. The $20-$30k will come (hopefully) once we sell our current home. It's probably going to cost about $215k-$225k to build the house including utilities. Plus we would like to build a simple barn for about $15-$20k. I'm trying to borrow the smallest amount possible while we still have our current mortgage.

Our county doesn't have a lot of codes. We have checked into all of that. I have talked with the bank before about how finished the house would need to be to transfer from a construction loan to a conventional mortgage. At that time I hadn't thought about the kitchen possibility. I will check with them of course but I was just trying to think it through first.

By pipe and plan I mean put your temp fixtures in the location your permanent fixtures and appliances will go to require minimal changes. It would be less cost effective if you need things moved (electrical, plumbing). Many places would limit the ability to have a residence in a pole barn. I would check and recheck to make sure you are OK, especially with children to consider.

Okay, gotcha. Yes, I was thinking I would have the plan all worked out and just stick my old range where my cooktop or range will be. Have the sink already plumbed and put the temp sink in that spot. That sort of thing.

There is no problem living in a pole barn around here. It's a very rural community. ;-) But I would rather just build the house than have to live in the barn. LOL

We have to get through many inspections here and with that said, it is still possible to move in with a very unfinished kitchen. We moved in as soon as we had our temp occupancy. We had our cabinet builder build us some of the base cabinets. We put in all plywood counters...actually very nice (cut to size, round edges, poly finish). We bought a sink and fixture that will eventually go into my laundry room. We did install the appliances and that was about it. Since then we have added some more of the cabinets, crown and casements. I can't wait until the flooring goes down and then my island, and eventually the granite and backsplash. It can get frustrating at times, but it is very budget friendly and really makes you appreciate every latest, finished detail. Best wishes to you on your plan. P.S. We are now a family with 6 boys and moved out of the rental home we were in during construction because it was costing us a fortune.

Thanks! Speaking of flooring...when you build a new home do you normally put flooring in the entire kitchen and then cabinets all over it? We have only ever renovated never built new.

"I was thinking that the things that cost the most to build are the kitchen and bathrooms. It seems that the bathrooms need to be done right away "

Maybe I'm missing something, but where are you going to get the water/sewer hook up for the pole-barn?

I'd check into what you need to get a certificate of occupancy.

GeoffreyB - My goal is to not have to live in the pole barn. But if we have to then it will just be hooked up to our well and septic. This property is 90 acres of field and trees.

"Very rural" means well and septic, not water and sewer hookups.

Also, "outhouse" could also be done, most likely. Though, with 7 people using it, it might get overwhelmed very quickly.

Outhouse isn't on the agenda. ;-) LOL

You could always do a permanent kitchen with Ikea cabinets with Harlig doors, and then replace the doors/add cover panels/pull outs at some point down the line.

Hi Tammy-- We also considered this idea, but nixed it as it would be far too costly to get the pole barn up to living standards (for our family anyway) for any length of time. In our case, we chose to sell the house and move into an apartment temporarily while we built. Another option is to buy a mobile home (maybe even new or a clean repo) and resell it once the house is built to recoup some of those funds. Odds are, you don't need a pole barn to be habitable after the house is built--you will need a barn. When we finally built our barn/shop, it cost $42K unfinished with another ~$1K of gravel and ~$12K of concrete. Another $10-15K or so to finish the interior perimeter walls (insulated), build 1 divider wall that spans the width of the barn, electrical & lighting, plumbing for a sink (no plans to put in a toilet or shower right now)--but DH, DS & DDad did all the work themselves. The HVAC isn't installed yet either. That's alot of money to sink into temporary human housing that will only need to house farm equipment/cars/livestock after the house is built. Depending on the size of the barn, the size of the house you plan to build, & the builder you choose, building the barn may take just as long as it would take to build the house.

So, in a nutshell, building an habitable pole barn for a family of 7 to live in may not be the most economically viable option. It would probably make your DH very happy when all is said and done though as he will have a REALLY nice barn. You also need to check to see if local codes even allow you to build more than one habitable building on 1 piece of property/lot. Our local code does not allow that--you have to survey off and deed each building and the land it sits on separately--another big expense. And our codes are pretty lax around here too.

Likely not what you want to hear, but I hope the information above helps!

Thanks mydreamhome. Those are some of the things I was worried about. That's why I was considering the kitchen later idea. No apartments around here will rent to us. There are some rental homes but they are very expensive and want a 1 year lease minimum. We have looked for a mobile home but haven't found one that all our allergies can handle.

Instead of doing lots of work on the pole shed, could you buy a camper and use the bathroom & kitchen in there? That ought to reduce the extra work done on the barn...

I'm not sure I'd want to do that if you anticipate building over the winter, though.

Zone4 - We have considered that. Thank you. Biggest problems would be 7 people using that one bathroom would be difficult and not sure how we would deal with the waste issue. Winter....sigh...I know.

You would not be the first family of 7 to share a bathroom... and in your case, it would be temporary.

My mom is one of 14 kids - and all shared the single bathroom in the house. They survived just fine.

Oh no I just meant the idea of what to do with all the dumping of that one bathroom in a camper. I've never owned a camper but I would imagine it would get full pretty quick with 7 people.

I think we could share one bathroom fairly easily. I'd just have to have a baby potty chair for my ones in potty training. :)