About a month ago a friend came to us with an idea. She has a large piece of property that she has yet to build on. She also has a layout for a large home that would be a barn on the first floor (well, as tall as two floors, really) and living space on the second. When it's all said and done, it would have a great room, large kitchen, laundry room, three bathrooms, and 8/9 bedrooms. She can sell her present home for enough to pay for the building materials, but not a whole lot beyond that. So her plan was this: Her and her husband (empty nesters), DH, Myself, and our boys, and our other friend Andrea (also an empty nester) would all work on the house. We would also all live there. She would have to take a loan just for whatever professional building services we would not be able to do (i.e. laying the foundation). So we would all split the loan payment in some contractual way as to pay it off as quickly as possible. There are several reasons for this arrangement, most of which are financial. -If we did this, none of us would have living expenses that were even half of what they are now. -There is more than enough land to have plenty of pasture for the horses and plenty of farmland for us. We could grow anything we would need from the produce section, keep chickens, and we've even toyed with the idea of a milk cow. -Drea is disabled and doing basic housework is about all she can handle. It would be a much better situation for her if we were there to take care of home repairs and heavy yard work. -Trasi wants to quit working and give riding lessons full time. She has said many times over that if she cut her bills by doing this, she could stay home with my boys long enough for me to finally finish college. She even drew plans the other day for a separate but attached tiny school house. We are already determining things that would be in legal agreements, i.e. what exactly each family would be responsible for financially (for instance, our family would pay more than a third of the electric bill because we're using more of it since there are 5 of us). We would only do this if we were all able to agree on these things ahead of time. The name of the game here is self sufficiency. Right now we are all so bound by our own limitations, but collectively we could do much more than we are. So, here's my question: Am I totally nuts for being on board with this idea? My mother thinks I've completely lost my mind. She says that living a "commune life" is a terrible way to raise our boys. She says they'll be secluded from society and never learn how to function properly. She also says that all the extra work gardening a large tract of land requires would mean they'd never have time for school. I guess I don't understand her fears. I mean, the only thing that would change, other than our physical location, would be the number of adults around for them to learn from and be loved by. We would still go to church, the library, homeschool academy, etc. All three of the other people we would be living with are Christians. One is a retired pastor. The garden and farm chores would be small, as we're not looking to make a living from it, only sustain ourselves as much as possible. So there would be no more work for any one person than if we were working our own backyard garden. Is my mom just being paranoid or does she have rational concerns? Do you think this could improve our children's quality of life or diminish it?
My first thought was....would the barn smell rise to the second floor especially in the hot summer heat? As for the community living.....that is really a personal issue....how well do you know the folks, etc. Your mom probably wouldn't think it was as strange if it was your family living with other family members (many countries have extended family living together)....maybe its just the fact that these are 3 unrelated families living together? I don't think I could personally live in the situation because after years of living in military housing, we're enjoying living in our own standalone house :lol: I would DEFINITELY have everything spelled out in very legal terms and signed, notarized, the whole ball of wax. Just my 2 cents
I am with Rhonda, we have animals and their, we will call it "fragrance" is quite pungent especially in the summer-even after you have shoveled the poop. I would be concerned about living above animals. The living arrangement sound fine if that is what you and your family wish to do. If you all get along it can work out well. I myself would not care for it because I need my space and privacy. What does your dh think and kids?
These people are practically family anyhow. The couple that owns the land are the same couple who owns the land where we board/ride our horse. We've known him for over 10 years (DH and I knew him long before we knew each other). We've known Trasi for more than 2 years and see her at least 3 times a week already. We would have our privacy in the sense that we'd have our own rooms (that would be grouped together and connected). That's enough for us. As for the smell, this layout was purchased from a company that sells housing plans. It's a pretty popular one around here. There are measures that will be taken to ensure the smell is kept to a minimum (just having the animals in the first place will mean some smell). And we only keep animals in the barn when they are having health issues. The barn we use now is more for storage of stuff related to the animals than the animals themselves. Matter of fact, in the two years that I've been riding there, I can only think of 3 times I've seen a horse in the stall.
As long as you have enough room to not annoy the crap out of each other (kitchen-sharing is notorious for creating problems between women) I think you should be fine, as long as it is all completely spelled out legally.
It sounds like this is something you really would like to do. If your dh and kids are on board, I say go for it!
Hadn't thought about that but I am very territorial when it comes to my kitchen. Youngest ds and I work well in the kitchen. When dh tries to help he is like a rock in my way. He doesn't go with the flow. :lol:
I think your plan sounds fantastic. It could offer help to all people involved and frankly, we have but one chance at life so why not grab this opportunity? I think your kids would benefit. Weird lifestyles don't hurt kids, just make them more interesting people. And you're a homeschooler so the weird part is already covered! I agree with Rhonda about getting all the legalities straight. You need to protect everybody should it not work out. As for living in a barn, that's just to cool. A well-cared for barn doesn't smell bad but proper ventilation could deal with the smell anyway. Since this is something to be built it might be nice if the bedrooms are clustered by family and ther' is some space for individual family time. Also, look at things like active solar heat and super insulating. One more thought - I just recently saw a solar house where the main living space was downstairs in the "basement" (two walls being bermed by earth) and the shed was upstairs. I wonder if you could do a similar design for a barn? It might actually be worth the cost of consulting an architect to save you guys headaches and costs down the line. See? now you're getting me all excited! BTW, communal living - Very christian idea!
The kids are still too young to fully understand. But when I asked them about it they said that they want to live with our horse so they can ride all the time. lol. Priorities, right? DH is a little more pragmatic. He sees the benefit to each family. He would hate living so far from his parents (40 miles as opposed to 20), but thinks it would be the best solution for all of us.
Oops! didn't see your next post...Anyway, have you got a link to the company that produced your plans?
We are going to build with concrete block (in the desert) as that is the best insulation and cheapest building materials apparently. Hubby has researched for five years so I trust his judgement. This will enable us to have minimal heating and cooling costs. We will also put up a windmill for extra help in cutting energy costs and install all 12 volt lighting etc. http://www.thenaturalhome.com/drystackblock.htm
Hey! That's a great idea!!! I'll have to bring it up to Trasi. We will be using as many alternative building design elements as possible. There will be solar panels and heating rods, etc. At least as much as the budget will allow for. Would you believe that my mom is completely on board with us homeschooling, but has such a huge problem with this?! I don't get it. That's what I thought too, but my mom seems to think it's only a Hippy Thing. Fortunately for me, Trasi hates the kitchen. And Andrea isn't so fond of baking and I'm not so fond of cooking. I think I'm rational enough to weigh the benefits over the inconvenience. I certainly don't think this plan would be all roses. There would be sacrifices and hard work. But that's not really a bad thing, is it?
I'm looking at Insulated Concrete Forms or blocks with insulation built on. We'd be building into the ground so the insulation would keep the ground from sucking heat from the foundation walls. We're looking at windmills too... You know, with all the interest on this board on saving money, being green and build energy efficient houes it might be good to have a green resources sticky thread.
You know...It might be worth looking at communal living sites just to see what issues might arise. Here's a link if you're interested: http://www.communa.org.il/world.htm
The saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". You would have that under one roof. 20 extra miles isn't bad at all. We live in the country and LOVE it! Do you have to sell the house you are living in right now? Our house is very cool in the summer, the walls are a foot thick and made from adobes, the inside walls have drywall like any other house and the outside has stucco, it is a southwestern look. It was about 86 degrees the other day and it was 69 degrees in the house. If we had the money we would be going off grid and installing solar panels for electricity.
Yeah, we looked at ICF's for the longest time too, but we found out to our surprise that cheap concrete blocks work better in pracitce. We were so surprised! See, the insulation keeps the house from being passive solar so you don't get to use the power of the sun for your house. The link I used ( http://www.thenaturalhome.com/drystackblock.htm) has a better explanation, I think. "Materials such as strawbales, rubber tires, wood, carpet, logs, ICFs, autoclaved aerated concrete and drywall, all effectively resist heat loss ("R" value), but they have very low energy storage capabilities (K value). Strawbales just don't store any heat! Sure, they insulate well, but in a passive solar home you need to store energy."
We have noticed in the winter that once we get the house warmed up and the walls are warm we will be warm. I dont think adobe is very good in the winter. Do you have any info on that?
