Oklahoma Dreaming: How to Build an Affordable House
by Donna Schoenkopf
I built my first and only house a year ago. It cost me $22,000 for the land (thirteen really gorgeous acres in the country in Oklahoma) and just under $50,000 to build. That includes putting in a very long gravel driveway, half a mile of water pipe, and about a quarter of a mile of electric and telephone wiring.
And you can do it, too.
First, start with ...
Land
Find some affordable land.
This will require some research. I recommend the Internet.
Check areas in or outside of your city or town. Too expensive? Check areas of your state that beckon to you. Up north? Sunny south? If those areas are still not affordable, stretch your limits and check in other parts of the country. Or the hemisphere. Or the world. Information on prices and terms and photographs of the pieces that interest you are at your fingertips.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Want the countryside? Want the ‘burbs? Want the city? There’s something for everyone. Suit yourself, is the best motto.
The Boonies
The countryside is the easiest. There is a lot of land out there and most of it is really, really pretty and certainly cheaper than the suburbs or city. Consider whether or not it has the climate you want. What about things that matter to you, like schools or medical care or soil composition? Be prepared to have your breath taken away with the affordability and beauty of land away from the maddening crowd.
The ’Burbs
The suburbs are not so easy. Available land is being scooped up by developers and speculators. But it IS out there. You will be paying more than rural property, but affordable ALSO means that you really want to live there and nowhere else. And if you’re unhappy as hell with living in the boonies or in a downtown city space, then it is NOT affordable. To your SPIRIT.
With the Internet, you just type in price and select vacant land and see what comes up. Sometimes there will be something available in the older sections of town that are somewhat blighted. But YOU can transform that trashy lot into a little bit of heaven. I KNOW you can!
The City
The city ... hmmmm ... requires real ingenuity. You can find little scraps of land that seem unbuildable. For example, little pieces for sale sandwiched between a freeway off-ramp and a street. You know, those pieces filled with weeds and trash that seem like No Man’s Land. You can be highly creative with how to insulate against sound pollution.
Blighted inner city areas will have buildable lots, too. Remember, you want cheap and you want to be in the city. That requires your best genius self. You can do this. Yes, you can.
REMEMBER!! Location, location, location is the most important decision about your home.
After you have decided on some pieces or areas, visit your land. When you actually lay eyes on it, you need to LOVE it. Your land, if it is really meant to be yours, will begin to inspire possibilities.
The Shape of Your House
The most environmental AND the most affordable shape for a house is a rectangle. A simple rectangle. Two long sides, two short sides. The fancier the design, the more expensive it is to build and the harder it is to be environmental.
The reason for the rectangle is that it makes air circulation for cooling and passive solar heating possible. If a house is a rectangle, breezes can move through your house by coming through the long side of the house and circulating through and out of the other side.
If you eliminate interior walls, you have even more circulation. I happen to love the spaciousness of lofts, so I have no interior walls except around the bathroom. (My friends insisted on those.) Not only does it save money in building costs when you eliminate interior walls, but it also heats and cools your interior more easily. You don’t have all those walls to heat and cool. You don’t have cut-off spaces that stagnate. It also makes your home seem huge. If you must, you can divide your space with furniture arrangements, folding screens, curtains, blinds. But I love just having the whole thing open. I can breathe!
Building Materials
Affordable means building your house out of materials that are inexpensive BUT will stand the test of time. By that I mean, the termites won’t eat it, mold won’t grow in it, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Steel
Steel is fast, easy, lasts a LONG time because termites and mold hate it, is strong, and is a very good environmental material. It’s what I built my house out of. And I am very, very happy. Also, with the advent of special paints, metal now reflects heat, which keeps utilities low in the summer. (My house is cool as a cucumber.) Before the invention of this marvelous paint, a metal building could actually burn you, if you touched it. Imagine how hot it was inside!
Also, you get a good deal on your house insurance for a metal house. It isn’t damaged during hail storms. Nor does it burn.
You do have to put down a concrete foundation with a steel house. But this is exactly what I wanted for my floor, because concrete is excellent mass which can cool your home in the summer and heat it in the winter. Be careful about finding a reputable concrete company. My guys put down the smoothest, prettiest floor you have ever seen. It didn’t hurt that it gently rained during the curing of the concrete. (This is good. It doesn’t crack if it is kept from solidifying too quickly.)
You might have a problem in the suburbs with building codes using metal. Check first. If they say no, why not fight for your rights?
I have no clue about city zoning rules on metal houses.
Railroad Shipping Containers
My dear son, Eric, says that he wants to build a container house out here on the thirteen acres. These are good, too. They are really, really cheap. They have all the benefits of metal. And railroad container cars come with fabulous hardwood floors, already installed. You can configure them in all kinds of great designs. They are (I think) 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet tall.
Straw Bales
Then there are straw bale houses. They’re pretty labor-intensive, but cheap. You need a solid floor of some sort, a lot of rebar, some powerful friends or paid workers to lift the bales onto each other and anchor them with rebar. But it doesn’t stop there. You must stucco them. Or do something about covering the straw. Adobe?
They have excellent properties of keeping the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer, though. I, personally, would miss having lots of windows. If you do put a lot of windows in, that would kind of defeat the purpose of being well-insulated.
Wood
Expensive. Not good for insulating. Termites. Mold. Labor intensive.
But it’s pretty.
Orienting Your House
IF you choose to do the rectangle, face one of the long sides to the south. This is very, very important.
And put a LOT of windows or sliding glass doors along the length of the south side. This will allow winter sun in to warm your house and summer breezes through to cool it.
In the summer the sun is directly overhead and consequently the interior of your house is in complete shade, and if your house is metal, the heat hitting the roof is just bounced back into space.
I have, on my 60-foot southern wall, eight sliding glass doors. This lets in a magnificent amount of light all year, making my house extremely happy. When people first walk in, they almost all exclaim how wonderful it is. Light is the brightener of spirits.
In the summer I open all the sliding glass doors. (I have some on the east and west walls, too.) The gentle breeze that wafts through the whole house is glorious. I only have to turn on the air conditioner during the hottest part of the day, for three or four hours. I have overhead fans that keep things moving. Oklahoma is unbelievably hot and humid in the summer and I discovered in my research that air movement is the best possible cooling system for that type of climate.
During the winter I have the low sun coming through the glass on my southern wall, warming the concrete floors. It is like living in a greenhouse. I am usually at least 20 degrees warmer than the outside. I have never been below 70 degrees on the coldest day, unless it was cloudy and dark. I am amazed with how easily and naturally my house is warmed. After the sun sets, the house cools quickly, so I use the heater for three or four hours after dark. I don’t use it while I sleep.
The most bang for your buck in energy efficiency is just by having your house faced south.
Trees
I have planted several trees around the house. One is full grown, a cottonwood. All the trees I’ve planted are deciduous. This is because the trees are bare in the winter, allowing heat and light into my house, and in the summer, they are leafed out and shade the house and deck. Isn’t Nature wonderful?
Energy Sources
I wanted more than anything to be off the grid, but I couldn’t afford it. Wind power would cost about $50,000 to install and solar was almost as expensive. Geothermal is not nearly so expensive, but was still out of my league. It is a remarkable system that requires a lot of pipe and a pump. It uses the constant temperature of our planet to cool the inside of a home.
I opted instead for an all electric house. I couldn’t afford anything else. Being out in the country, the local electric cooperative gave me a good deal on my all electric house.
Because of the orientation and shape of my house, my electric bill at its highest, which is one summer month a year, has been about $100. That’s for everything. Lights, air conditioning and heating, computer, washer and dryer, electric stove and refrigerator.
It cost about $1500 for connection fees and to have wiring laid.
Suburban and city electric power is pretty easy. Just connect onto the grid. Fees will differ in different locations.
Water
I distrust well water in agricultural areas. Pesticides, herbicides, methane, etc. So I signed on to a Rural Water District. It’s expensive, but the water’s clean. Costs me about $25 a month.
It cost about $1500 to have pipes laid and pay my water connection fee.
Suburban and city water is just a connection fee. Pretty simple when you are in civilization.
Yes, You Can!
That’s about it, folks. You CAN do it simply, inexpensively and with a great deal of satisfaction. Once the decision is made by YOU, it’s amazing how easily it all falls into place.
It’s also incredibly gratifying to put it all together to make your place YOUR place.
Have fun!
donna@fourstory.org
Comments
I love this site — it stimulates my imagination!
2009-05-09 by FlohHi,
I just bought my dream ranch acreage and am in the process of designing and planning my home, hanger and runway.
My property has a large, very old, lake on it and adequate depth for geothermal usage. So I plan to heat and cool with geothermal as well as getting hot water basically for free and better fishing in the winter!!
Do you have any construction contacts in the southern ok area? I am right between Durant and Marrietta.
I loved your article. Maybe you would like to come see mine when I am finished in about a year.
I am really focused on cost savings since my dream is about twice the money as I have.
Enjoy country life, I am going to!
Bob Parker
817-999-7389
Excellent. I have also posted this one on the kiosk in our parish hall. And, by the way, I always keep looking to the Left. Hasta..
2009-03-26 by Fr Clark Shackelford