This week's #WhatItCostWednesday comes from northern Georgia and drives home a point I've been trying to make for years, structural steel isnt the best option for every build. Lets dive into this $405,000.00 adventure!
THE BASICS 3 bed / 2 bath 2100 sq ft living 1200 sq ft garage
What was the total cost of your build excluding land?
405k
Who built your home?
We self-build (general contracted on our own), but we used Fowler Exteriors for the structure.
When did construction begin and when did it finish?
We boke ground in November 2021 and took approx 9 months to finish up.
What is the structure of your home? 2x6 structure with pre-manufactrued trusses What is your ceiling height? We have 9' ceilings on the first floor with a two story living area and 8’ ceilings on second floor loft. Did you work with a lender that you’d like to highlight? The Community Bank of Pickens County was a dream to work with on this build to be completely transparent. What are some things that saved you money vs some things that you splurged on? We literally splurged on everything. We went with a thicker gauge metal for siding and roof, spray foam, exposed duct work for hvac, whole house generator, two fireplaces, black on black windows...
I often see people arguing over what structural construction is best, and this build is a great example of why thats different for every single build. Heres why this family ultimately built with stick framing, instead of steel...
Some backstory: "When we decided to sell our home we made a really great profit and thought we'd build and see if we could do it all with cash... with that thought we started down the route of designing a structrual steel home. After talking with 5 different manufacturers we put down a deposit, only to find out a month later it would take 8-9 months to recieve the building. At that point we made the decision cancel the building, give up $5,000 from our deposit, and start all over with a stick built option. I never fully quoted out both options to see which was cheaper but my rough numbers showed they were both pretty close in price. Once we made that decision we tweaked the floor plan and made our shop larger, then broke ground in November and started grading ourselves. Fast forward about 6 months and our house was 80% complete by the time our steel structure would have been delivered. It felt like the right choice then, and I am glad we didn’t second guess or decision."
If you enjoyed this post, you'll probably love the others I've done in this series. #WhatItCostWednesday is a weekly IG post & blog where I try to cover a build with as much detail on cost as possible. Let's be honest, people all over the interwebs like to tout that barndominiums are cheaper to build, but few people want to discuss the bottom line of their personal project. This series is aimed right at the heart of the matter, what does it really cost to build a barndominium?
If youre building a barndo and would like to participate in this series and share your bottom line wtih the world, please email or message me on instragram! email Megan@BarndominiumTour.com IG @Woodys_Barndominium_Build
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