09Giants420
New Member
So I thought of a good way to put my time to good use while I am not working on school work and tending to my girlfriends needs haha (jk I love her haha). What I have been doing is planning for the future. I will soon be able to start investing money towards my own house. I want a stick built house that I put together with my own two hands. I have a lot of construction experience in most fields and is actually tied to my major of civil engineering.
My first step was basically to make a full lay out of a basic set up I would want for my compound! Small house nice sized garage drive way landscaping etc..... Now this is where it gets interesting and I should now tell you my real motivations for all this planning.... TO LIVE ALMOST 100 PERCENT INDEPENDENT from the grid. Energy independance, independance from meter readers etc etc etc. I want to be self sufficient all the way as much as possible. I do want all the basic commodities such as a television and computer and nice appliances, but I want to do this in the most envirnmentally friendly and most energy efficient way possible....
Some of my ideas to get this project started....
1) Using as little help from the banks as possible. This is not the same as government grants or credits. I am speaking of loans. I will begin to buy my house each 2x4 at a time if I have to....
2) Buy the land first and develop it quickly using all of its resources to its max. Put my foundation in and all the utility hook ups required (This is where it gets tricky because I have to have all my energy sources planned out, I am trying to be almost 100 percent off the grid.)
3) With my land bought and my foundation in place as well as the utilities I am good to go. Start building peice by peice, everyday and as much as I can afford WITH CASH. I have some good friends with different trade skills and put together with my experience we should be good. Building codes are always an issue, and there is not much to do to get around them, should be another "need" expense....
4) My driveway will consist of nothing but compacted dirt and stone as well as all my sidewalks. The house will be basic 2x4 construction, massive insulation and venting for extreme energy efficientcy, windows doors etc all planned out to be as energy efficient as possible. I want a small ranch style house with an open space concept to maximize space for a little house. My garage will have all the space I need but we will get to that later.
5) Grow room - Seperate section of course
I was thinking of building a secret space into my foundation that is not in the blueprints since I will be constructing the house by myself. Any other tips on an extremely well placed secret grow room would be extremely helpful!!!!!
6) On to energy!! The lifeblood of the house.... Here is where I need more ideas than any other section!!!
So far I have these ideas....
Solar panels - Can be built with recycled materials for roughly 200-300 dollars per panel, a new design concept I have been researching with a dish magnifing the light may come in handy for maximizing these bad boys.
Wind turbines - Again can be made from recycled materials, most likely will be built from sheet metal welded together into a unique design that I wish I could post on here, but I dont have a scanner or anything like that...
Hydro power - If I am lucky enough to get a stream or something than a lot of problems would be solved.
Radiant floor heating system - Heating the home through the use of water. I have actually done the installation of these systems in garage floors, but never applied it to a whole house. I did a little research and it seems to be an extremely energy efficient system. Will look into more.
Bio Fuels - I will grow massive amounts of veggies, fruits and could easily go to the local fast food place to get this stuff. Very very awesome stuff here with a simple conversion to the diesel engine.
Some type of sanitary system - In place to actually use our waste for good use. I know it can be done just have not but enough time into researching this aspect.
I thought I had some more just cant think of em right now may need to smoke another joint >>
Anyways, with my house being constructed for these technologies I should be able to maximize the output to service my house. I need to run a lot more calcs to ensure it and actually test the technologies, but I am getting there >>
So, financially, I have a simple overview laid out stating what I need what I want etc and the initial cost of all this. Becaus all I want to have is the initial cost, I do not want costs in the long run this is the main goal of my project.
That is all I have for now I am a little tired, but I have been looking strongly into this and think its a good use of my down time..... I hope some1 finds this as interesting as me and it may just be rambling on but sorry for that..
Some things I currently need help with in my project....
- Any easy cheap methods of construction.
- Easy to hide grow room, remember I am building my house so it can be semi-sophisticated.
- How to acheive the grow room on a seperate energy source from my house for another method of hiding it.
- How to pay the lowest possible taxes ( I know it depends on states, but any general tips would be appreciated).
- More energy sources.
- Any tips in general.
Thanks for any1 who reads this sorry if I rambled on just trying to put most of my thoughts down. I hope we can get a nice discussion going and it would really benefit my future if some people could help me out on this design!!!! Thanks again guys smoke on!
My first step was basically to make a full lay out of a basic set up I would want for my compound! Small house nice sized garage drive way landscaping etc..... Now this is where it gets interesting and I should now tell you my real motivations for all this planning.... TO LIVE ALMOST 100 PERCENT INDEPENDENT from the grid. Energy independance, independance from meter readers etc etc etc. I want to be self sufficient all the way as much as possible. I do want all the basic commodities such as a television and computer and nice appliances, but I want to do this in the most envirnmentally friendly and most energy efficient way possible....
Some of my ideas to get this project started....
1) Using as little help from the banks as possible. This is not the same as government grants or credits. I am speaking of loans. I will begin to buy my house each 2x4 at a time if I have to....
2) Buy the land first and develop it quickly using all of its resources to its max. Put my foundation in and all the utility hook ups required (This is where it gets tricky because I have to have all my energy sources planned out, I am trying to be almost 100 percent off the grid.)
3) With my land bought and my foundation in place as well as the utilities I am good to go. Start building peice by peice, everyday and as much as I can afford WITH CASH. I have some good friends with different trade skills and put together with my experience we should be good. Building codes are always an issue, and there is not much to do to get around them, should be another "need" expense....
4) My driveway will consist of nothing but compacted dirt and stone as well as all my sidewalks. The house will be basic 2x4 construction, massive insulation and venting for extreme energy efficientcy, windows doors etc all planned out to be as energy efficient as possible. I want a small ranch style house with an open space concept to maximize space for a little house. My garage will have all the space I need but we will get to that later.
5) Grow room - Seperate section of course
I was thinking of building a secret space into my foundation that is not in the blueprints since I will be constructing the house by myself. Any other tips on an extremely well placed secret grow room would be extremely helpful!!!!!6) On to energy!! The lifeblood of the house.... Here is where I need more ideas than any other section!!!
So far I have these ideas....
Solar panels - Can be built with recycled materials for roughly 200-300 dollars per panel, a new design concept I have been researching with a dish magnifing the light may come in handy for maximizing these bad boys.
Wind turbines - Again can be made from recycled materials, most likely will be built from sheet metal welded together into a unique design that I wish I could post on here, but I dont have a scanner or anything like that...
Hydro power - If I am lucky enough to get a stream or something than a lot of problems would be solved.
Radiant floor heating system - Heating the home through the use of water. I have actually done the installation of these systems in garage floors, but never applied it to a whole house. I did a little research and it seems to be an extremely energy efficient system. Will look into more.
Bio Fuels - I will grow massive amounts of veggies, fruits and could easily go to the local fast food place to get this stuff. Very very awesome stuff here with a simple conversion to the diesel engine.
Some type of sanitary system - In place to actually use our waste for good use. I know it can be done just have not but enough time into researching this aspect.
I thought I had some more just cant think of em right now may need to smoke another joint >>
Anyways, with my house being constructed for these technologies I should be able to maximize the output to service my house. I need to run a lot more calcs to ensure it and actually test the technologies, but I am getting there >>
So, financially, I have a simple overview laid out stating what I need what I want etc and the initial cost of all this. Becaus all I want to have is the initial cost, I do not want costs in the long run this is the main goal of my project.
That is all I have for now I am a little tired, but I have been looking strongly into this and think its a good use of my down time..... I hope some1 finds this as interesting as me and it may just be rambling on but sorry for that..
Some things I currently need help with in my project....
- Any easy cheap methods of construction.
- Easy to hide grow room, remember I am building my house so it can be semi-sophisticated.
- How to acheive the grow room on a seperate energy source from my house for another method of hiding it.
- How to pay the lowest possible taxes ( I know it depends on states, but any general tips would be appreciated).
- More energy sources.
- Any tips in general.
Thanks for any1 who reads this sorry if I rambled on just trying to put most of my thoughts down. I hope we can get a nice discussion going and it would really benefit my future if some people could help me out on this design!!!! Thanks again guys smoke on!
