Well, I've always wanted to live out in the country and I finally have bit the bullet. Prices are sky high right now but I don't anticipate them going down anytime soon. Have been considering building for a few years and finally just said time to put it down on paper. The longest part of the process so far has been purchasing three acres out of our family trust to get the whole process started. I don't know much of anything regarding construction and it's been a bit overwhelming. I keep telling myself it will be nice when it's all done and I can just walk out the back door and see a coyote spinning in a trap without leaving my porch. The best part is my back yard is 77 acres of pasture for the kids to enjoy and grow up outside the concrete jungle.

Just a driveway with a tube so far. Laying base today and hopefully laying out markers for concrete on the hill.



View of the back yard.

Looks like a great place, congrats.

I am sure your kids will love that "yard".

Looks nice...

3' doors and hallways, all one level, step in shower with hand rails, you'll thank me when your old and broken down!, lol

That's Awesome

Wonderful!
I am currently trapped in suburban H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, so I might be a bit jealous.

Do this. Prepare for the future. Put a 2nd story on and thats for the kids.

Are you south of Omaha along Hwy 75? Seems I remember something about that from some past posts. Will you put up your own building or put up a Morton building and then finish a part of it for living space? That seems to be a fad around here.

This is in my plans wish list especially now. That geting old and broken down can come much sooner than you think. My issue is I dont want to over build. My kids are daughter 24 boys 16 and 13. If I build for today I wont need near as much space in just a few years. I suspect my daughter will pick a spot on the farm and put in a small house in the next few years.


Your place looks great and you will enjoy having the space. I hope your not in an area where urban sprawl will ruin it for you like I am. I will never understand people moving from their 1/4 acer area in town only to get one long skiny acre and still have houses next store destroying the "country" they are moving to. They get zero country living benefits, less and more expensive services and a further drive to everything. But they keep building.

We moved out of town into the country many years ago. Best move we ever made. You will see it that way too. Congratulations!

We made the plan with everything as we get older to be on the first floor. Master bedroom, laundry, utilities, and kitchen are all on the first floor with no steps for entry into the house. Second floor will have three bedrooms, a large bathroom, and a pretty large living area for the three kids to go crazy. Main shower is also going to be ground level with a bench for when we're broken

Luckily I believe we are far enough out of town that the urban sprawl won't be an issue and I'll eventually own the rest of the 80 acres surrounding to insure we don't have to deal with too close of neighbors.

Gary we are down along the Nebraska / Kansas border but yes south of Omaha. We are having a local company that mainly does agricultural buildings but has now for quite some time been completing residential/commercial buildings. They are SIPS panels. They pretty much complete the shell and we have worked to outsource most of the interior subs/decisions which has been quite a feat while raising kids and working full time.

I had looked into typical stick builds in this area recently (we've been shopping around for 4-5 years) and was quoted by numerous builders for $750-900k for a 2000 square foot house depending on basement without much more than a single car garage. We were able to get about 2880 square foot living and 1280 square foot shop for a sizeable difference. We had priced acreages that were already established around here as well and most were 500-600k before you likely needed to update most of the old farmhouse that sat on the acreages. The good news is we get to build it exactly how we want it.

Great move on your part! Don't forget the old saying regarding up grades...Buy it once.

How long of a drive is it , to find some shade and have a cold one ??

Looks pretty nice for a s house.

I would highly recommend in the floor heat. It is the absolute best way to heat a building on a slab.

Plant lots and lots of trees

In designing the inside consider, putting the closets and master bath along the inside walls creating extra layers between the hous and your bedroom and insulating the interior wals to reduce sound. It great if you ever end up working a night shift or things get a little noisy when the kids are home. With the upstairs may want sound proofing in the bedroom ceiling. Its amazing how loud my kids are walking in their room right above our heads.

I never gave sound proofing bed rooms much thought untill working night shifts. And I have never had the opportunity to build from scratch and try out my ideas.

X2

Sorry responding to a number of comments.

The drive is about 200 feet Ness and there will be a covered porch for cold ones plenty of shade.

We did do floor heat, was an extra $12000 but buy once and cry once. We intend to leave the main floor concrete and seal possibly stain may go with natural. We then will use rugs. If we ever decide we want flooring on the main floor we could add it easy enough.

I did go all electric. Plan to add a 240 V in the garage right off the bat so I can run a generator as needed.

Master bedroom is on the exterior main floor with main bath, utility room, and walk in closet separating from the main house. Pretty open concept main living room and kitchen. Still tossing up full storm shelter or just reinforcing the pantry or jack/jill bathroom for the tornadoes we sometimes encounter here. The house itself will just be on slab.

I did look into the trees but our local NRD runs a spring program so missed the boat. The trees are $1.25 and $1.50 to plant them. Will definitely be on my list for next spring.

I'm pretty much done making most of the decisions I had to make and now it's time to try to be patient and let them build. They have a goal of being in the house and living by Christmas. One similar last year they started in September and had cabinets left by Christmas.