We have a 20 acre horse ranch and are putting up a steel building. We're lost on what size we need, so I was hoping to get some advice.

We have a 2 bdrm 1700 sf house with decent closets, on a slab. The attic area is going to be expanded to a 3rd bedroom.

There is a 6 stall barn with a tack room and a place for hay storage, but no extra room for other storage.

We will want two car bays in the metal building, plus need to store a small tractor and its accessories. We need a workshop with an area for tools and benches. Some of the workshop's floorspace can do double duty as the tractor's home. We'll also need to store our "toys", kid's and adults; bikes, an ATV, two kayaks, a few storage boxes, etc. It will be kept nicely organized and we have a strict budget, so we'll have to make do on some of these desires.

Also, we can upgrade to have windows, etc. in the future, so that we can get maximum size now, which is obviously much harder to change later.

Our desired budget is $25k, but our max budget is $30k.

We're near Houston, TX.

Any brilliant thoughts to help us decide? Any "been there, done that, so here's my recommendation" kind of comments?

Thanks so much!!

The building itself was $19,500, tax included. We had to bring in considerable fill to raise the site, due to drainage. Your mileage may vary on this, so I've left this cost (a few thousand) out. This also doesn't include the cost of the concrete floor; if you're on a strict budget, you may want to omit that, or just leave it for later, as floors are typically poured into these buildings after construction.

I've also left out the costs of the overhead doors (Morton doesn't do overhead doors; we had a conrtractor install three C.H.I. doors, two with openers, $2865 installed, incl. tax.) and electrification. I can't give cost on the latter since the cable was just buried last Friday, and I haven't been invoiced yet. The only DIY part of this building is furnishing the interior, including installing a 100A electrical panel and wiring....which I'm well along in finishing. An electrical panel this size is to accommodate such tools as a welder, should the need arise.

I've heard the saying before to make the building three times larger than one thinks necessary. At our time in life, this is unlikely to be a consideration. Also, that same life has taught me that the more room I have, the more room I have to fill up with junk that ten years later I can't figure out why I kept....

In any event, I'll include a link to the photo gallery showing the progress of construction. This was my first experience acting as my own general contractor. Handling the five contractors involved wasn't particularly taxing, but it would have been if I weren't retired.

There is a difference between a steel building and pole building. From the outside, they pretty much look that same, but from the inside, they look much different!
This is one place that sells steel buildings: http://www.ameribuiltsteel.com/
They use all steel instead of wood for the frame, this allows an open roof space inside. The gambrel design even give you the option of having a second floor.
I'm hoping to get a gambrel one at my house in the next year or 2.
From what I can tell, there are several (many?) companies that sell the exact same buildings, at least from the website and mention of "Multibuild TM software" makes me think they are the same, just sold by different companies.
I know at least 2 places sell them on ebay if you want to get an idea on pricing. Ebay item 7626269291 for example

My advice, graph on paper what you want inside, visit other buildings and LOOK. I put in lofts and it greatly increases storage with 14 foot sidewalls. I added a drain and have plenty of outlets, 220 and gen plug.is something to consider as well. You can go online to Morton and do colors.

We are meeting with the builders tomorrow and are going to be incorporating several of your suggestions into the project.

Thank you again!!