Living in a barn?

[papasmurf]

This is my first post and I apologize if this topic has been covered. The search tool was not very helpful to me.

We are considering building a large barn on our land and living in it while we build our "real house". It would take several years to build the house.

My question: has/does anyone live in a barn? Not converting a barn to a house, but living in a new/newer barn. Possibly building a loft apartment or parking a trailer inside the barn.

Are there books or magazine articles about this?

[ChoochCharlie]

Great idea. I always thought I would build the garage or barn first and live in an apartment upstairs or within. I also thought of a camper inside, but that just seemed too...trailer.

[rassd71]

There's a couple not far from where we are building that have built a large garage/barn with a loft apartment and have been living in it for a couple of years and 'eventually' will build their house. It's a good idea, the only concern is if your area has restrictions on living with animals. They had to add an outside staircase and second floor entrance to the loft apartment and seperate it from the barn to meet code.

[RazorBack]

That's what I'm planning on doing! That's about the only way, other than living in a tent, to stay debt free and build a home.

[drillkjh]

i am doing that now. i built a 60x40 ft metel buildin and came in 15' from the back an built a living area with a kitchen/living room, bed room, and bath room down stairs. and two bedrooms upstairs for the kids. have been living in it for 2 years now and hopefully will be building our house this year. it is a little tight with 5 people.

[Drawbar]

The biggest issue with living in a barn is the animals that once lived there. It sounds like a good idea until you put heat and humidity to the place, then the urine and manure smells start to release from the wood.

I have seen this before when people go to use barn boards inside a house. Back in the 1980's barn boards were all the rage, but many urbanites found out that the cool looking barn with its airy feel, had boards impregnated with urine and poo.

Of course if you can use a hayloft that never held animals, or find a barn that had uses other then animal husbandry, you are just fine. It all depends, but I just wanted to point this negative side out, before you go through the expense and time to convert an old barn,only to bit hit with obnoxious, unlivable odor.

[msta999]

I have seen the upstares of a dairy barn converted to an appartment, for the farmers daughter. You would walk up the stares, looking at the cows on the milk machines and walk right into her appartment. Kind of cool.

[MooseToo]

barn living has been fairly common in many areas of europe for quite a few years - animals on lower level - folks above - supposedly cuts way down on winter heating requirements -

[CarolAnn]

When I was three, my dad bought 10 acres and started building his dream - a garage where he could do repair work and support his family without working for someone else. He had a very good start on it when the landlady discovered he had purchesed the very property she had been after - and promptly evicted them! *(The land owner absolutely hated her and sold it to my dad just to spite her.) That was 50+ years ago, so people didn't know about renter's rights just yet. The folks took us six kids and moved into that garage!

So - yeah, it's a similar idea and it probably has been done a lot over the years. The idea was to build a house "someday" after the business was up and running, but with a big family in that building, he soon had to add on some rooms, and then some more rooms, and then some more rooms! He never did get his commercial garage built, but we had a dandy house when it was completed.

Therein lies the one danger of moving into the barn first. You may decide it'll do just fine for your house!

You'd never know, driving by that house that it started out as a three-stall mechanic's garage. I often wonder if the present owners are aware that in one of the back bedrooms there's a 55 gallon drum under the floor that was designed to hold used motor oil! *;D

edited to add -
You mentioned you'd thought briefly of putting a camper in the barn and living in that until the house is up. Actually, there's a lot of merit to that idea. One thing is, the camper will have plumbing facilities that you probably don't need in a barn after the house is built and it will save that extra expense and labor.

Another thing good about it is that if the weather gets extremely cold OR hot where your land is, the barn will give an extra layer of protection to the trailer, both keeping off the hot sun and the frigid wind, making it much more energy efficient.

If you do decide to go with living in the barn itself until your house is completed, think about making the corner of living space into a barn office or workshop after your home is completed. Since you'll want it at least semi-finished, it'll make good use of that labor and expense.

Here's another thought: have your well drilled and put the barn over it. That will put your well house inside a large enclosure, which is much easier to work on at a later date, and easier to keep it from freezing up, too. (And if you think you can have a well and never have to pull that pump - you'll soon learn that just aint' so! *:P

Later when your barn is (presumably) housing animals, the water source will be handy, too!

[hardrock]

Sure, go for it!
That's pretty much what I have planned to do.
I rescued a 1920's era farmhouse a few years back with the intention of "planting" it where I live now.
I've been waiting on the '08-'10 Cap. gains tax shenanigans to take effect so I can dump some property and get started.
Problem I have is, i must live on part of the other property for 2 years to qualify as a primary residence.
In the interm, I can come back here, build a nice 56'X40' fully insulated workshop with radiant floor heat and a
Greenwood hydronic wood furnace, upgrade my electric and septic, pour a basment, set the house, let it settle out, etc.
I figure by that time I'll be low on funds, and just about qualified to sell the remaing residence up the road to finance the remodeling of the farmhouse.
I'll then be pretty much without a home until the house gets near completion, so.............Won't be long before I beez lookin' fur a 27'-30' travel trailer to park inside the workshop. Home sweet Home for awhile anyways!
With the 200A service, hydronic furnace, and shop type bath/shower, I should manage OK without any trailer hookups other than 110 and kitchen H20.
I'm thinking it should heat/cool fairly well inside it's climate controlled "bubble".

As an aside, my contact at the county zoning office told me off the record, that "IF" I wanted, I could make the barn/shop my actual house, but should keep the trailer "somewhat" hooked up somewhere close as my "claimed", "actual" residence.
Here, trailers and mobile homes are a flat $65.00/yr. co. tx.
and barns/shops/ farm buildings are taxed as Ag. (farm)structures. Basically you can have the Taj Mahal for a farm maintence building and live an 'ole MH out back somewhere.

Can ya tell I detest property taxes? :o ;D


Hardrock

[Padre]

Hello.I'm new here.Read about the camper in the barn idea.I parked a motor home in my pole shed one winter to try and stay a little warmer.The problem I found with it was not enough natural light.Sun coming through the shed windows didn't seem to find its way into the camper windows.Dark all day got a little depressing real quick.

[JAK]

Great idea. You wouldn't need much living space as you would have the rest of the barn for storage, and for moving around when you needed to. Presumably you would be kept busy, always things to do, eh. You don't need so much space when you are busy, as long as you have the space you need for working. Enjoy your time in the Barn. I understand some very nice people have come from such places.


In an Old Barn

Tons upon tons the brown-green fragrant hay
O'erbrims the mows beyond the time-warped eaves,
Up to the rafters where the spider weaves,
Though few flies wander his secluded way.
Through a high chink one lonely golden ray,
Wherein the dust is dancing, slants unstirred.
In the dry hush some rustlings light are heard,
Of winter-hidden mice at furtive play.
Far down, the cattle in their shadowed stalls,
Nose-deep in clover fodder's meadowy scent,
Forget the snows that whelm their pasture streams,
The frost that bites the world beyond their walls.
Warm housed, they dream of summer, well content
In day-long contemplation of their dreams.

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts

[HockeyFan]

My wife and I put up a quonsit building to be a workshop, but insulated it and framed inside so that we could have living space. Initially, we moved in and made it our house. This allowed us to sell the house in town and move onto the property that we own, debt free.
We saved and scrimped and then a year ago, started building our house, which is also on the same property. We are living onsite, mortgage free, and happy about it, but the quonsit is quite industrial and/or rugged for most peoples' tastes.

My building project, which is on-going (and probably take another two years) is shown on our website, which is at http://www.freewebs.com/stocktonunderground. We have progress reports, photographs and a bunch of other stuff. If you visit, put an entry in the guest book and say you came from the forums @ Backwoods Home. Thanx.

As far as living in a barn, of course it can be done. I recommend it if it allows you to move to your property in the country, and be mortgage free, or certainly become mortgage free sooner. Why not? It's not so bad. You can make it very livable.

And I'm finding out, that a lot of people are doing this same thing. Most aren't in quonsits, but they are in metal shed/workshop/barn, garage -style buildings. They insulate them and use them as a home while waiting to eventually build their dream home (like we are). In some cases, the livability is enough that people just continue living in these homes and never bother to build anything else to live in.

I've seen several old barns converted into homes on various shows on HGTV as well as "This Old House" and shows of that type. It is being done and people are living in some pretty neat digs, as far as I can tell. My wife and I are certainly glad that we did what we did, and managed to sell our house in town before the real estate bubble crashed and burned.