A Newer Trend--shed Homes

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hiwall said:
I always thought a metal shed would make a cheap fast house. Here is a 20x30 with 12 foot walls for $6300 installed. It could be ordered cheaper by not getting the two garage doors.
https://www.bigbuildingsdirect.com/...MIzuCUzYzO7QIVkTytBh18GgBzEAQYBSABEgJ7-_D_BwE
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That is such a good price for a building. Starting out, it is shelter, and could be developed in many ways. Where it is colder, an RV would benefit from another layer of protection in a building like that. I wonder what the family paid for their metal building that they built their small home in the back of in Idaho.
 
If you want to live in a shed built home go for it. I want 2x8 exterior walls with sheathing on both sides with at least R20 insulation.
I want an earthquake, fire, wind, and flood proof home on a steel reinforced concrete foundation. I want it located on the exposed bedrock on a hill with a gentle slope on all sides down hill. I want a steep roof that is fully braced with good shear wall diaphragm and a copper top.
Oh, and I want it guaranteed to last at least 100 years.

I don't want a lot, I want EVERYTHING! :)
 
SheepDog said:
. I want 2x8 exterior walls with sheathing on both sides with at least R20 insulation.
I want an earthquake, fire, wind, and flood proof home on a steel reinforced concrete foundation. I want it located on the exposed bedrock on a hill with a gentle slope on all sides...
Oh, and I want it guaranteed to last at least 100 years.

I don't want a lot, I want EVERYTHING! :)
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Here you go.



He built a castle from shipping containers. He has a play list but this is a recent update.





You just need to add some insulation and it should meet your criteria. He has some very nice toys. ;)

Ben
 
There are a few things wrong with that container home for me. It has pier block foundation, needs interior walls for insulation, it's three levels high and a big bay garage door and concrete block upper levels. All that means it is not earthquake or water proof. It would appear to be fire resistant because the roof is steel but the exposed rafters and gentle slope on the roof degrades the fire resistance a bit. I doubt it will be worth having in 50 years much less 100. I know... I'm picky.
 
SheepDog said:
If you want to live in a shed built home go for it. I want 2x8 exterior walls with sheathing on both sides with at least R20 insulation.
I want an earthquake, fire, wind, and flood proof home on a steel reinforced concrete foundation. I want it located on the exposed bedrock on a hill with a gentle slope on all sides down hill. I want a steep roof that is fully braced with good shear wall diaphragm and a copper top.
Oh, and I want it guaranteed to last at least 100 years.

I don't want a lot, I want EVERYTHING! :)
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This thread is about shed homes. You can see that there are many people who are using them for primary or secondary homes. I understand wanting another kind of home. Does the description you wrote about what you want, describe your current home?

For a while I have thought about a thread about what we want in our ideal home.
 
Amish Heart said:
My canning supplies and dehydating stuff, guns, ammo...and where would the food storage go?
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Amish Heart said:
Geesh....where'd the canning and dehydrating equipment go?
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LOL! I can understand this. I imagine a shed home or tiny home more for a family starting out or a retired person.

Stevens Family Farm has their shed home and their rebuilt trailer for storage. They are still developing their homestead. They are just now bringing power to their property. They have most of their needs met by propane and a propane run generator. I fully expect that they will eventually build a home.

There is a family that has two, one next to the other. It has been a while since I watched their videos, but if I remember, they struggled with finances. Wife sewed and had her shop in one, most of the living happened in the other. They had a teenage son.
 
Our farmhouse is half the size of the house we moved from. But here we have many outbuildings. So the man cave type stuff goes in an outbuilding instead of in the house. And then there's a basement for food. So even though the house is smaller, the outbuilding area is larger. Bedrooms are tiny, too, but people didn't spend alot of time in there like they do now.
 
Weedygarden said:
LOL! I can understand this. I imagine a shed home or tiny home more for a family starting out or a retired person.

Stevens Family Farm has their shed home and their rebuilt trailer for storage. They are still developing their homestead. They are just now bringing power to their property. They have most of their needs met by propane and a propane run generator. I fully expect that they will eventually build a home.

There is a family that has two, one next to the other. It has been a while since I watched their videos, but if I remember, they struggled with finances. Wife sewed and had her shop in one, most of the living happened in the other. They had a teenage son.
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My mother was born in a chicken coop. That was all they could afford. My uncle died of malnutrition because my grandmother could not produce enough milk.

Humble perspective helps put the blessing in proper context.

Ben
 
Neb said:
My mother was born in a chicken coop. That was all they could afford. My uncle died of malnutrition because my grandmother could not produce enough milk.

Humble perspective helps put the blessing in proper context.

Ben
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I know that life seems so much better now than it did decades ago or centuries ago. Your comment makes me think of Jesus, born in a stable. People don't typically keep the stories of how poor or even destitute they or their families once were. My family only had a couple stories that they told, but I keep asking questions and have learned more. In doing genealogy, I found out that my grandmother had several siblings born in a sod home. Without my great grandparents help, my mother's family would have starved.

When I see these ideas of homes, such as a shed home, it is not that I think I want one or will live in one, but none of us knows what the future brings. What if my home were to burn down? What if there is an economic crash and all of our retirement funds go away?

We all mostly want bigger and better and to be better off than previous generations. Accepting less is not easy. People born with less are more able to accept less, while people born with more find it more difficult to accept less.
 
I've not seen one that I actually wanted but I like looking at what people have done. Gives me ideas. :)

I've lived in RV's fulltime so I understand living in a small space. I've built storage sheds, both from kit and from scratch. And I've done some home remodeling as well so have some experience with that. Hard part for me is figuring out how not to just build a full-blown house. I get carried away.
 
Over thirty years ago, a church member ask if I would stop by the building booth at the Fair.
I did & said that the building were big enough to make a small apartment.
He told me a man had devoiced his wife & two children. She could not get a home loan.
But she could get a shed loan, different people & no red tape.
So she got a lot & had concrete poured, then got two sheds installed on the slab.
The sheds had attic for the children bed rooms, the kitchen & dinning was in one side.
Living room & master bed room on the other.
I was amazed that the county let her do this, but the sales man said after the sale he saw the house/shed.
That was brave, strong willed person who would not be a victim.
 
Joel, I remember of something similar as a kid... probably 50 or 55 years ago. There was a man who lived in an old fallin' down house that actually did start to fall down around him. My uncle, who had a sawmill, built him a small "house" out of what would look a lot like a "shed" and delivered it to him. I remember of a stove pipe coming out the top of it. He lived in it for several years before he died.

Like you mentioned, I'm surprised that the local authorities allowed it to even happen. Perhaps they understood the situation and had a bit of a heart, at least enough to bend the rules and allow the old guy to live out his days. I'm sure they'd not allow such a thing today, would probably haul him off to jail for even tryin'.
 
A friend of mine has a small home built on a slab, a ranch style with originally three bedrooms, now a master suite, an original small bedroom, and a small addition bedroom. She has a decent sized yard and had a shed that was over 100 years old. She went to a home and garden show where there was a booth that sold tiny homes built from shipping containers, another fairly popular alternative for living. She decided to get a container home on her property, but her shed was in the way, so she had to get that removed first. She put out an ad asking for someone who was willing to tear down her shed. She had to take down her ad because she received so many responses from people asking if they could live in the shed with their homeless families. No electrical or water in the shed, but some people have gotten themselves into difficult situations whether it be from job loss, addictions, divorce, poor financial planning, health situations or who knows what. Container home was to be delivered last week and I haven't seen her since. She already has a renter. Container was originally 8 by 29. Take away what the walls take for framing, insulation, etc., and it is still a small home. Renter has been living in an apartment.

But imagine that, people begging to live in your shed. It could be any of us one day.
 
Weedygarden said:
Container was originally 8 by 29. Take away what the walls take for framing, insulation, etc., and it is still a small home.
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I guess I kinda get the concept. But I wonder how much of it is reinventing the wheel?

I lived in an 8' x 39' fifth wheel with a rear deck and four slide-outs for several years. I know, RV's are depreciating assets. I've never bought one new. But it's all set up. Heat/air, electric (12 volt and 120 volt), propane, stove, water heater, tv with antenna if you want it, bed, kitchen table, sink / shower / toilet, onboard fresh water, onboard waste water / sewer containment (small, I know), and on wheels. Ours even had a small clothes washer and a 120 volt dryer. There was even room for a small deep freezer and my (piano) keyboard. Life wasn't actually too bad.

Granted, there are some things about an RV that are not ideal. The walls and roof are thin. Insulation is usually not great. The windows, unless someone paid for an upgrade, aren't much. They can be cold and drafty in the wintertime. They require maintenance if you want them to remain intact (rain, water leaks). But... they generally come pretty much ready to live in.

For the most part, you can't say that about a shed or container, you have to build out all of that stuff, and often, that's not cheap. Can a person do it? Sure! But I gotta tell ya, if I'm goin' to that much trouble, I'm not likely to keep a tiny footprint. If putting in a permanent foundation gets a person in trouble with the county, I can see a reason to keep it all "detached". Still, lots don't really put much of a foundation even for substantial sized sheds, I see that on a lot of the YouTube videos. I'd want somethin' substantial, more than just a few concrete blocks every 8' or so.

But hey, a person does what they have to do. A tent is better than out in the open. An RV is probably better than a tent. A cabin is probably better than an RV. And a house may be better than a cabin, not sure how far I wanna go with that. Bigger living spaces can add utility, not just space. A nice working inside kitchen is nice to have here on the homestead and I didn't have that in the RV. Could I make do? Sure. Is this better. Much. Etc...
 
Mountain trapper said:
Unless you build your own, these "tiny" homes are way over priced. A friend of mine built one and he's asking $40,000 for it, delivered. No takers yet. It's expensive at half the price.
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I guess 'mobile homes' are no longer in vogue. :(
Already wired for electricity, plumbed for water and sewer, even including a refrigerator and stove, they can be had new for less than $35K. (they are called 'manufactured homes' today :rolleyes:)
https://factoryexpohomes.com/sales/louisiana/
$33,900:
https://factoryexpodirect.com/floorplan/thrifty-family-of-plans/
The-Thrifty-interior-2.jpg

STURDY CONSTRUCTION​

  • 2 x 8 Floor Joists, 19.2” On Center
  • OSB Floor Decking
  • R-14-11-11 Insulation

EXTERIOR​

  • Composition Roof Shingles
  • Vinyl Siding with Foamcore Backer
  • Vinyl Shutters at Front Door Side & Hitch End
  • Vinyl Thermal Windows
  • Blank Front Door
  • Blank Rear Door

INTERIOR​

  • 8’ Sidewalls with Flat Ceiling Throught
  • 1 1/2” Trim
  • Valances Throughout
  • 1” Blinds Throughout
  • White Half Arched Doors
  • Carpet with Upgrade 7 lb. Carpet Pad
  • Tack Strip Throughout

KITCHEN​

  • 18 Cubic Foot Refrigerator (in black)
  • Electric Range (in black)
  • Range Hood (in black)

BATHROOMS​

  • Vinyl Flooring in Master Bath

UTILITY: CONVENIENCE, COMFORT, SAFETY​

  • 30 Gallon Electric Water Heater
  • 200 AMP Electrical Service
  • Electric Furnace
  • Dryer Hookups
Far better than trying to turn a storage shed into a 'tiny home'.
 
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Here in S.W. Oregon there is next to no homes available, even for rent, big corporations have been buying whatever is available, even small lots of property are hard to come by. Our son and his girlfriend are now living on our property in a 40' travel trailer, the last place they were living in was a small basement apartment, even with a lower rent cost, because his girlfriend knew the owner of their apartment, it was $1,200 a month. Their travel trailer is a 2005 and trailer parks will not rent a space for any trailer older than 2015 and one small space would be $1,200 a month and by the way the price of any trailers is about what a new home cost 30 to 40 years ago. The American dream of young peoples first home is basically a thing of the past. Some people need to be in a home immediately, so a mini home could be what they can get into without the time and effort due to the jobs they have not giving them enough time to build a home, things are definitely not what they used to be. We thank God we were able to buy our property when things were still somewhat affordable and build our home when building supplies were not so expensive. Have any of you priced what a roll of 12 ga. Romex wire costs? My son just bought 370' of 8 ga. burial wire to run power from a power panel down to his travel trailer, discounted to $900 because of where he works. Any land that's flat and has water is bought up quickly for growing Hemp or Pot, that's not a good thing especially when it makes growing food less available, there will be a day when that will be regretted.
 
Times are indeed tough for new home buyers. Times were tough when I bought my first house too, also in SW Oregon. I was 19 at the time and worked as a welder. I worked all the overtime I could get to pay for that house. Later when I wanted more house and land I learned the skills to make more money, and then went to where the jobs paid more. Eventually taking jobs around the world.
I don't know if anything is any harder now days than it was back then. It just takes a lot of hard work, learning skills that are in demand, taking advantage of opportunities, and living well below ones means.
 
Haertig said:
Wow! You got a great deal on that one!
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I did! It was a HUD. Six people had tried to buy it and HUD wouldn't sell to anyone who was already a homeowner and that made them a little angry. Neighbor was beginning the process to sue HUD because of that vacant home. This was during the time that HUD put out it's own flier in the newspaper, listing all the homes for sale. There were actually some houses about a mile from me that were $3,000, but you had to pay cash. At that time, I was too poor. Today, I could do that.
The thing about my house was that it needed some work--new roof, a couple windows replaced, water pipes, etc. It had been vacant for a while and had been broken into and any metal that could be was stolen. Kitchen was last replaced in 1948. Lots of work to update that kitchen, with the help of some kind and talented friends. I bought materials and did what I could.
 
Weedygarden said:
I did! It was a HUD. Six people had tried to buy it and HUD wouldn't sell to anyone who was already a homeowner and that made them a little angry. Neighbor was beginning the process to sue HUD because of that vacant home. This was during the time that HUD put out it's own flier in the newspaper, listing all the homes for sale.
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Yes, there are bargains to be found, you just have to be patient.
Every 'housing-bubble' will eventually burst.
The first 'real' house I bought was 3 years old, 1350sqft, 3br/2bath, vaulted ceilings, wall-to-wall carpet, 2-car attached garage, fireplace, for $30K.
Considering what I was paying for apartment rent, I lived there for 3 years, rent-free, and pocketed $11K when I sold it :).
Yes, I will confess to living in a 'mobile-home' with an add-on when I was young and just starting out.
Bought it and the half-acre it sat on for $5k. Made money when I sold it too.:thumbs:
 
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Supervisor42 said:
Yes, there are bargains to be found, you just have to be patient.
Every 'housing-bubble' will eventually burst.
The first 'real' house I bought was 3 years old, 1350sqft, 3br/2bath, vaulted ceilings, wall-to-wall carpet, 2-car attached garage, fireplace, for $30K.
Considering what I was paying for apartment rent, I lived there for 3 years, rent-free, and pocketed $11K when I sold it :).
Yes, I will confess to living in a 'mobile-home' with an add-on when I was young and just starting out.
Bought it and the half-acre it sat on for $5k. Made money when I sold it too.:thumbs:
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That I was, patient. I was driving down the street during Christmas break and saw my house with some HUD sign in a window. I called my realtor and he was able to get us in to see the house. It was not on the market at that time, so I carried on, looking for houses I could afford. In early June of the following year, realtor told me that my house was listed in the HUD paper. We put together an offer including asking HUD to drop the price a few $1000 because of all the work it needed and HUD accepted it, because of that neighbor who was going to sue. I was truly blessed to get the house at the price I did. It still needs some work, but I have done a lot already.
 
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