Home Remodel: Do, Don'ts, Advice

[Bronco]

Hawthorn shrubs seem to grow pretty well around Bozeman and do a good job of keeping out the riff raff.

[dan_pdx]

Not sure this will ever be a problem that I have the luxury of worrying about, but if you were to buy an empty lot somewhere outside of town and wanted to throw up something cheap where you could stay for the week here and there while saving money to build a bigger structure, would you consider a tiny home? Or just go with something small and site built? Or???

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Not sure this will ever be a problem that I have the luxury of worrying about, but if you were to buy an empty lot somewhere outside of town and wanted to throw up something cheap where you could stay for the week here and there while saving money to build a bigger structure, would you consider a tiny home? Or just go with something small and site built? Or???

It really all depends on the covenants. Lots of people want this type of setup and not many places allow you to just camp on your own land anymore.....or even build a small temporary structure. At least anywhere within 30-40 miles of most desirable towns anymore.

That being said, probably building a tiny home on site.....not right where the eventual house will be built....seems to make the most sense. Especially if the covenants allow a little secondary structure once the main house it built. Then the tiny house/cabin become the guest house/kids bunk house etc etc.

[adrenalated]

Cheapest is to throw an RV on it....

As WRG says you need to look carefully at local regulations and building codes to determine what kind of structure you can put on it. Many places won't allow you to live in an RV but might permit temporary stays. Regulations for what and how you build a temporary or permanent structure will also vary. Bringing utilities to the site, if it doesn't already have them, will be a major expense no matter what you put up, and the cost might vary considerably based on the site (septic vs sewer, well vs city water, where's the electrical service and is a transformer already in place, etc).

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Cheapest is to throw an RV on it....

As WRG says you need to look carefully at local regulations and building codes to determine what kind of structure you can put on it. Many places won't allow you to live in an RV but might permit temporary stays. Regulations for what and how you build a temporary or permanent structure will also vary. Bringing utilities to the site, if it doesn't already have them, will be a major expense no matter what you put up, and the cost might vary considerably based on the site (septic vs sewer, well vs city water, where's the electrical service and is a transformer already in place, etc).

Yes, and even if city/county regulations allow some form of use the covenants attached to the land may not. It is super common to see language such as "no temporary dwellings.....no dwellings not on a foundation.....no dwellings under x,xxx sqft.....no RVs parked for the use of primary dwelling at any time.....construction must begin within 6 months....." etc etc.

[dan_pdx]

Thanks guys, I don't know why folks are so anti-dirtbag. I'll definitely take a close look for those kinds of restrictions if I'm ever looking for some land in the country?

[skaredshtles]

Thanks guys, I don't know why folks are so anti-dirtbag. I'll definitely take a close look for those kinds of restrictions if I'm ever looking for some land in the country?

Apparently you've never lived near someone that treats their land like a dump?

[dan_pdx]

Apparently you've never lived near someone that treats their land like a dump?

Oh no, I absolutely have. That was tongue-in-cheek

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Yep, it's a double edged sword. I think most of us want a place where we could do whatever we want. My "HOA" is me and one other guy and he is out of state 95% of the time and we are surrounded by mostly farms and the covenants are very relaxed......but not total outlaw relaxed.

There is a place not far from here called Clarkston. Anyone who lives in the area knows it. There technically are covenants but they are not enforced/there is no actual HOA. Cheap cheap land. There are a handful of people making a nice go of it out there.....and there are many more who are cooking, hoarding junk/cars, etc etc. If you live out there don't bother calling the sheriff for anything. It's pretty sketchy.

I'll occasionally get a call from an out of state buyer, "Why is such and such 10 acres so cheap? It's less than an hour from Bozeman." I have to explain to them that it's a prime example why covenants and their enforcement can actually be a good thing.

But, YMMV. There are places in other parts of the state and other states where the outlaw no covenants thing generally kind of works and at least if the area is wooded you don't see your neighbors 50 junk cars and meth RV.

[lifelinksplit]

Ha. At least a 1/3 of those Clarkston properties are old disenfranchised bozeman staples. And yeah there are a fair amount of tweakers and preppers.

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[adrenalated]

I live in a county with no enforced building codes for residential (other than state mandated for electrical/plumbing/wastewater) and where the minimum covenants required by the county are basically "don't point a giant spotlight into the sky." Beyond that, we generally can do whatever the fuck we want.

There's some really nice houses. There's some lots with shitty trailers replaced with shitty trailers replaced with another shitty trailer replaced with a tiny house. There's one dude with a tiny house built into the side of a shitty RV. You want yard cars? We got yard cars. Guns? We got guns. Meth? We got meth.

It generally works. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves. It's not a good place to live if you get offended by what your neighbor's house looks like. If you need to hire a contractor, you better know the job better than they do because most of them don't know what the fuck they're doing since there's no standards and everything is done off "redneck ingenuity".

[toast2266]

Not sure this will ever be a problem that I have the luxury of worrying about, but if you were to buy an empty lot somewhere outside of town and wanted to throw up something cheap where you could stay for the week here and there while saving money to build a bigger structure, would you consider a tiny home? Or just go with something small and site built? Or???

The guys who built my previous house built a detached, fairly simple garage and then periodically parked their RV in it while they built the main house over the course of a couple years. Seems like a setup that probably worked pretty well, would probably fly under the radar of at least some HOA's, and also leaves you with a nice garage once the house is built.

[old goat]

I'd rather live in the middle of a bunch of dirtbag methheads than in an HOA.

[dan_pdx]

The guys who built my previous house built a detached, fairly simple garage and then periodically parked their RV in it while they built the main house over the course of a couple years. Seems like a setup that probably worked pretty well, would probably fly under the radar of at least some HOA's, and also leaves you with a nice garage once the house is built.

Nice, I like that! I'm going to keep that in mind in case I'm ever lucky enough to be faced with this situation. I'd rather have a nice sized garage than a nice sized house

[El Chupacabra]

My house and the three adjoining parcels don't have any HOA - - but the entire neighborhood around us does. It's great.

I don't want to live under an HOA but I want my neighbors to.

[::: :::]

Thanks guys, I don't know why folks are so anti-dirtbag. I'll definitely take a close look for those kinds of restrictions if I'm ever looking for some land in the country?

montana or alaska: no land use issues that might restrict temp accessory buildings before a dwelling
there may be others -- i haven't had to deal with that in other states yet

but urban areas (or areas with sophisticated planning offices) often have a requirement that a dwelling be in place, or concurrently in construction, to build accessory structures

[Danno]

I don't want to live under an HOA but I want my neighbors to.

That's it in a nutshell, isn't it?

[skaredshtles]

That's it in a nutshell, isn't it?

It's like a lot of things in life, innit?

[old goat]

A lot of land use rules were invented to keep black people out.

[Hood26]

A lot of land use rules were invented to keep black people out.

The sad truth. The more we can do now to amend these bullshit moves the better our society will be. But what do I know since I am woke?

Not a remodel question, but more of a repair.

A while back the carpet cleaning guy hooked up to the outside hose bib that had broke during a big freeze. Went right to doing his things upstairs. Flooded our living room. Super glad wife was home to catch it because he might of flooded the whole house.

I should have gone into the crawl space earlier.

Since not burning as many fires and using the HVAC more now, we noticed the living room wasn’t getting heat to the registers.

Crawled under today to find that the ductwork had been flooded too. Both the duct and the insulation. I pulled the vapor barrier back and made a few cuts in the ducting to drain the water it to the ground.

Air is getting to the living room again. After it dries out, I will go back under to put the vapor barrier back and tape up the ducting.

Should I do anything else?

Also, found why the hose bib broke. Somehow the insulation in that area had fallen down. Put that back and will replace the hose bib soon. It’s supposed to be the no freeze kind and if I remember right it just threads off and a new one goes on. It has broken before. I probably need to beef up the insulation in that area too.

I guess my new house, built in 2007, isn’t new anymore.

[old goat]

Our no freeze hose bibs have long pieces of pipe that are soldered to the copper pipe in the crawl space. YMMV.
I learned the hard way not to leave a hose attached to the nonfreeze bib in the winter.

[mcski]

Yep, that long bib pipe is on my repair list now too because I left the hose on top long. Face palm