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Thinking about building a house in the mountains — advice? (2 Viewers)

Otis said:
Regular house is close to, but not quite, 5k. 

I love big open spaces. For a family of 5 I’d love a nice sized 4BR, but also a “guest wing” down the hall with a few bedrooms and bathroom for a guest family. And we need a big family room and kitchen, and a finished basement/game room type thing. Also big pool and poolhouse and outdoor setup. Nice sized garage for some toys.  
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Need vs. Want

;)  

 
Otis said:
Good shtick so far.

What I mean is, I'm looking to buy a piece of land and then hire some people to build me a house.  It would be a weekend/vacation home, and a place to go whenever Trump or whomever runs the country into the ground and the governments collapse.  And good point re: a place for the daughters to get married, not a bad idea.  Also contemplating renting it out during most of ski season, since we don't ski.  We'd probably mostly go up in the Spring and Fall here and there to get away from the hustle and bustle.

Maybe a piece of land like this to start: https://www.timberlandproperties.net/catskillsrealestate/mls-38148-address-TBD-Johnson-Hollow-12430-Halcott-NY.php
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Isn’t that like 3 hours from Casa de Oats?  

 
Otis said:
Would love to do something fairly big, maybe 5k+ sqft.  Something with a guest wing, or even multiple guest wings, so extended family can come up and stay, have their own bathrooms etc.  We'll want a really nice pool and outdoor kitchen area/poolhouse too, to make it rad for summer.  

Figure I'll hire some dude to manage the property locally when I'm not around, cut the grass, maintenance etc.

If I can get the land for $100k or less, maybe we could be all-in for less than $1M?  $800k?
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This idea has been floating around my noggin for 20+ years. Just picked up floppinho from camp in the Catskills and picked up some real estate brochures for us... the key is distance from the city- once you start getting past that magic 2ish hour mark, prices drop significantly. You're how far out on LI? What would your family commute be to that spot you linked?

Looked like 100k gets you decent land. 800k-1mil seems like a fair price for the build given the area and what you're describing, especially if you get creative. Could be tight. Also- some areas have horrible resale value and iirc real estate taxes vary.

But certainly don't consult or hire an architect for this. You've got it covered.

Eta... 5k sq ft? Why so big? Will you plan on having the family summer there? Winter weekends for skiing?

 
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My brother is actually doing this right now in North Carolina. A couple of random notes:

They are actually going to build two houses. The main house will be smaller, as they are designing the property to be off the grid if necessary. The other house will be a guest house - think small log cabin with two bedrooms, a small kitchenette, bathroom, small living room.

The main house will have 3 bedrooms, a couple of full bathrooms. Maybe 2000 square feet total. By having the two houses they can control the utilities a little better and not waste power. They are going to be hooked up to the grid, but they will have solar on the property. They also bought a piece of property that has a really active stream - they are putting in a turbine as well to generate electricity.

The land also has a large pond (about an acre) as an additional water source. They will also be digging a well also. I believe they are installing septic. So they will have off the grid access to electricity and water. The house will also have a wood burning insert type fireplace, and the house is designed so that heat can radiate to the whole house.  The land is 13 acres with probably 11 of that in timber.

If a back up plan is to be off the grid, an extremely large house like Otis is thinking will suck up a TON of energy.

 
We currently in the market for a lake/ski house up there.

You much better off buying an existing house and fumigating/renovating that.

 
El Floppo said:
This idea has been floating around my noggin for 20+ years. Just picked up floppinho from camp in the Catskills and picked up some real estate brochures for us... the key is distance from the city- once you start getting past that magic 2ish hour mark, prices drop significantly. You're how far out on LI? What would your family commute be to that spot you linked?

Looked like 100k gets you decent land. 800k-1mil seems like a fair price for the build given the area and what you're describing, especially if you get creative. Could be tight. Also- some areas have horrible resale value and iirc real estate taxes vary.

But certainly don't consult or hire an architect for this. You've got it covered.

Eta... 5k sq ft? Why so big? Will you plan on having the family summer there? Winter weekends for skiing?
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:lmao:   :lmao:

 
ChiefD said:
My brother is actually doing this right now in North Carolina. A couple of random notes:

They are actually going to build two houses. The main house will be smaller, as they are designing the property to be off the grid if necessary. The other house will be a guest house - think small log cabin with two bedrooms, a small kitchenette, bathroom, small living room.

The main house will have 3 bedrooms, a couple of full bathrooms. Maybe 2000 square feet total. By having the two houses they can control the utilities a little better and not waste power. They are going to be hooked up to the grid, but they will have solar on the property. They also bought a piece of property that has a really active stream - they are putting in a turbine as well to generate electricity.

The land also has a large pond (about an acre) as an additional water source. They will also be digging a well also. I believe they are installing septic. So they will have off the grid access to electricity and water. The house will also have a wood burning insert type fireplace, and the house is designed so that heat can radiate to the whole house.  The land is 13 acres with probably 11 of that in timber.

If a back up plan is to be off the grid, an extremely large house like Otis is thinking will suck up a TON of energy.
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All good points.

Is your brother doing Geothermal?  The more I read, the more that seems like a no brainer to me.  Even if you have a wood burning heat source to supplement, you only need to warm the house from 55 degrees to 68; as opposed to 20 to 68 in the winter.  Big freakin difference. 

 
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El Floppo said:
This idea has been floating around my noggin for 20+ years. Just picked up floppinho from camp in the Catskills and picked up some real estate brochures for us... the key is distance from the city- once you start getting past that magic 2ish hour mark, prices drop significantly. You're how far out on LI? What would your family commute be to that spot you linked?

Looked like 100k gets you decent land. 800k-1mil seems like a fair price for the build given the area and what you're describing, especially if you get creative. Could be tight. Also- some areas have horrible resale value and iirc real estate taxes vary.

But certainly don't consult or hire an architect for this. You've got it covered.

Eta... 5k sq ft? Why so big? Will you plan on having the family summer there? Winter weekends for skiing?
Click to expand...
We're in Nassau county, so not far out on LI.  I think we'd look to be a 2.5-3hr drive.  The trick there is to do the drive off-hours--you don't want to fight through NYC traffic on bridges etc.

Yeah, looks like 100k for a nice property, and even if it's another 1M to build what I have in mind, not too terrible.  I like the idea above of a separate guest house, as opposed to a guest wing, so we can shut it down and conserve when we don't have company.  Or maybe just separate them by a hallway and insulating type door, and you can close off the "guest wing" other than when we have company.  But interesting thoughts.

Maybe 5k is too big.  Maybe we should be at more like 3-4k.

I have an architect buddy in town here who did the covered patio on the back of my house.  Maybe I should start asking him about this.  Or I could see if El Floppo's services are available, and you can build yours and mine at once....  double the bang for your buck in your trips up north....

 
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=Smackdown= said:
We currently in the market for a lake/ski house up there.

You much better off buying an existing house and fumigating/renovating that.
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Why?  Just cheaper than building from scratch?  Just half the fun would be the project and designing and making it come to life, and then you get exactly what you envision.

 
Otis said:
We're in Nassau county, so not far out on LI.  I think we'd look to be a 2.5-3hr drive.  The trick there is to do the drive off-hours--you don't want to fight through NYC traffic on bridges etc.

Yeah, looks like 100k for a nice property, and even if it's another 1M to build what I have in mind, not too terrible.  I like the idea above of a separate guest house, as opposed to a guest wing, so we can shut it down and conserve when we don't have company.  Or maybe just separate them by a hallway and insulating type door, and you can close off the "guest wing" other than when we have company.  But interesting thoughts.

Maybe 5k is too big.  Maybe we should be at more like 3-4k.

I have an architect buddy in town here who did the covered patio on the back of my house.  Maybe I should start asking him about this.  Or I could see if El Floppo's services are available, and you can build yours and mine at once....  double the bang for your buck in your trips up north....
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I'll pm later... about to switch jobs to a place that is making me sign a non-compete prohibiting outside work. If this were a couple years from now when they lay me off or I quit, the timing would be perfect.

But I'd love to help/advices somehow regardless- keep me in the loop. And I'd bet the FFa will provide a great resource for things like septic options, geothermal, etc... No joke.

Fwiw, we were looking at land for less than 40k with a build of less than 200. But more of a guest room than suite (I love your ideas...just can't afford)

 
The General said:
I didn’t realize our budget was 1+ Mil. I’ll talk to my team and circle back.
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I mean, I'd love to be in this for under a mil.  Maybe if we decrease the size of the house -- which may make sense as noted above if we want the house to be energy efficient and self sustaining -- maybe cost will come down a bit too.  And seeing some land may help.  Otis has zero concept of what 5 acres, or 10 acres, or 30 acres, or 50 acres looks like.  I just know my home is on like a third of an acre.  And that's a good chunk of space around here.  

Really just want it to be big enough that we don't have neighbors building on top of us, and we have some open spaces and views and some land to explore.  Thinking we could forge a secret path into the woods, and have the contractor build a bad-### treehouse while he's there.

 
Otis said:
I mean, I'd love to be in this for under a mil.  Maybe if we decrease the size of the house -- which may make sense as noted above if we want the house to be energy efficient and self sustaining -- maybe cost will come down a bit too.  And seeing some land may help.  Otis has zero concept of what 5 acres, or 10 acres, or 30 acres, or 50 acres looks like.  I just know my home is on like a third of an acre.  And that's a good chunk of space around here.  

Really just want it to be big enough that we don't have neighbors building on top of us, and we have some open spaces and views and some land to explore.  Thinking we could forge a secret path into the woods, and have the contractor build a bad-### treehouse while he's there.
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If it were me I’d spend more on the land to get the perfect spot, building home over time. Might as well go big on lot size.

Just having a 50 acre lot with a modest structure sounds pretty epic to me.  

My Dad has built 2 houses (using contractors) one he was able to monitor and it went great, the other was a cabin that was hours away and it was a bit of a nightmare. Choose wisely!

 
My friend built a massive house in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City. Awesome. Moved there full time and raised their kids. Outside of 30 minutes down the mountain to a store no regrets. 

 
ChiefD said:
My brother is actually doing this right now in North Carolina. A couple of random notes:

They are actually going to build two houses. The main house will be smaller, as they are designing the property to be off the grid if necessary. The other house will be a guest house - think small log cabin with two bedrooms, a small kitchenette, bathroom, small living room.

The main house will have 3 bedrooms, a couple of full bathrooms. Maybe 2000 square feet total. By having the two houses they can control the utilities a little better and not waste power. They are going to be hooked up to the grid, but they will have solar on the property. They also bought a piece of property that has a really active stream - they are putting in a turbine as well to generate electricity.

The land also has a large pond (about an acre) as an additional water source. They will also be digging a well also. I believe they are installing septic. So they will have off the grid access to electricity and water. The house will also have a wood burning insert type fireplace, and the house is designed so that heat can radiate to the whole house.  The land is 13 acres with probably 11 of that in timber.

If a back up plan is to be off the grid, an extremely large house like Otis is thinking will suck up a TON of energy.
Click to expand...
THIS!  I would like to find/build a place along side a mountain stream.  Energy source aside, I absolutely love the sound of the flowing water.  Music to my ears.  

 
The Z Machine said:
That sounds like 10x the headache and pita.
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I mean, it's not headache and PITA if someone is doing it for you.  Tell architect what you want.  He draws up plans.  You modify and finalize.  Farm it out to some contractors and get bids.  Pick one you like.  Pay people to build.

The annoying of this for me is when they bug you for the tiny details like "hey what faucet fixture do you want in the sink" and what color tiles do we want in the 2nd bathroom.  Stuff like that is just a who cares for me.  

 
urbanhack said:
But they look cool!
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I think so too. Looked into a long time ago and don't love their proportions...too narrow, especially once insulated. Need lots of adjustments to make nicely habitable. Just remembered a layout I considered with a gap between two that would covered but allow the two to open into it to create better space. Then can start stacking them to get additional floors...

Ok! I'm back in!

 
Otis said:
I mean, it's not headache and PITA if someone is doing it for you.  Tell architect what you want.  He draws up plans.  You modify and finalize.  Farm it out to some contractors and get bids.  Pick one you like.  Pay people to build.

The annoying of this for me is when they bug you for the tiny details like "hey what faucet fixture do you want in the sink" and what color tiles do we want in the 2nd bathroom.  Stuff like that is just a who cares for me.  
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This is the area that wives usually take over...until it turns out that the husbands' "don't care about this stuff" is actually bs.

It's exhausting, but we try to make it easy for you...inspiration pics early on for general direction, and then provide 2 options (3 max) of this or this...done. usually makes for a long, boring meeting, but its usually done then and there. Unless you/wife want to see the stuff in person (which you should), which adds another meeting or at best replaces the first one.

 
I care too much about the details to leave the decisions to others. Plus, I'm too nosy and inquisitive and cheap to leave the contractors alone.

 
Otis said:
,Would love to do something fairly big, maybe 5k+ sqft.  Something with a guest wing, or even multiple guest wings, so extended family can come up and stay, have their own bathrooms etc.  We'll want a really nice pool and outdoor kitchen area/poolhouse too, to make it rad for summer.  

Figure I'll hire some dude to manage the property locally when I'm not around, cut the grass, maintenance etc.

If I can get the land for $100k or less, maybe we could be all-in for less than $1M?  $800k?
Click to expand...
Build it with a caretaker's suite over the garage.  I'll take the job of caretaker. I'm experienced with seasonal property, mountain property, and sponging off folks, I mean grounds keeping and light maintenance, plumbing, electrical and carpentry.  I'd be like a useful, older Kato Kaelin.

 
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Wondering why build, with permitting and construction hassles.  Why not buy?  I bet their are thousands of very nice homes available.  Homes built by guys much like you, with the same dreams, homes which no longer work for them, life having moved on?  Building could take years.  Find one turn key ready.

 
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