Giving up on building my own cabin and thinking of converting a shed

So it seems like most folks in my subdivision start out with lofty dreams of building a cabin from scratch or building an earthbag structure or some other type of DIY living arrangement. Most folks live in either RVs or rental sheds that they have finished to be cabins. In the past year of building goat sheds chicken coops and other temporary animal structures I realize I'm quite far from a carpenter and neither are my children well yet my youngest son has potential.
So I am thinking of buying one of the pre-built cabin shells that is 14x40 ft with a loft it is going to have a porch and electricity and is priced at 13k does this sound reasonable? From working on my school bus conversion I think I have the basics understanding of water pumps a propane water heater and PEX plumbing as well as insulation and building interior walls. Biggest difference in my building attempts and my bus project has been structural integrity and soundness I feel like the bus conversion was more interior decorating and actually making sure I can build something on a foundation that won't fall down.
Also I am pregnant and due around Halloween so I want to be finished with a home we'll before then. The cabin company has an 8 to 10 week build time so I would be getting the shell with electric wiring in late July. I feel like that would give me enough time to do insulation for the winter and basic plumbing as well as putting in an interior wall for the bathroom and kitchen. I just feel like if I tried doing something from scratch this spring and summer by the time winter rolled around we'd be left with a skeleton and staying in the bus again for another winter.

That sounds like a well thought out plan.
When its finished you may have learnt a bit more and will be able to extend it through a window or similar.

I encourage you to go for it.
The other idea is to get a kit home, but you need skills to set out the foundations.
Or purchase an existing transportable place a similar size, we call them Granny Flats in Australia

Gail Jardin wrote:So it seems like most folks in my subdivision start out with lofty dreams of building a cabin from scratch or building an earthbag structure or some other type of DIY living arrangement. Most folks live in either RVs or rental sheds that they have finished to be cabins. In the past year of building goat sheds chicken coops and other temporary animal structures I realize I'm quite far from a carpenter and neither are my children well yet my youngest son has potential.
So I am thinking of buying one of the pre-built cabin shells that is 14x40 ft with a loft it is going to have a porch and electricity and is priced at 13k does this sound reasonable? From working on my school bus conversion I think I have the basics understanding of water pumps a propane water heater and PEX plumbing as well as insulation and building interior walls. Biggest difference in my building attempts and my bus project has been structural integrity and soundness I feel like the bus conversion was more interior decorating and actually making sure I can build something on a foundation that won't fall down.
Also I am pregnant and due around Halloween so I want to be finished with a home we'll before then. The cabin company has an 8 to 10 week build time so I would be getting the shell with electric wiring in late July. I feel like that would give me enough time to do insulation for the winter and basic plumbing as well as putting in an interior wall for the bathroom and kitchen. I just feel like if I tried doing something from scratch this spring and summer by the time winter rolled around we'd be left with a skeleton and staying in the bus again for another winter.

Another consideration is that lumber prices could continue to skyrocket. If you build it yourself, you could end up paying higher lumber prices in the future, whereas if you build the structure yourself, you lock in today's lumber prices with a completed structure. I would buy the finished structure, these are built in a factory with mass production and you're barely paying anything more than the value of the lumber used to build the structure. 13K is a bargain for a prebuilt structure of this size, and after buying your own tools it would cost you nearly as much to build it yourself.

John C Daley wrote:That sounds like a well thought out plan.
When its finished you may have learnt a bit more and will be able to extend it through a window or similar.

I encourage you to go for it.
The other idea is to get a kit home, but you need skills to set out the foundations.
Or purchase an existing transportable place a similar size, we call them Granny Flats in Australia

I have been looking up a few of the bill that yourself kit homes well ones that are basically just shells and their costs are about the same as this building that is made by a local shed portable cabin manufacturer that caters to the rent to own type of communities I live in. The 14 ft by 40 ft building is around 13 Grand and a 16 ft by 32 building is around 12:00 and the delivery time is still about 10 to 12 weeks out.

Another consideration is that lumber prices could continue to skyrocket. If you build it yourself, you could end up paying higher lumber prices in the future, whereas if you build the structure yourself, you lock in today's lumber prices with a completed structure. I would buy the finished structure, these are built in a factory with mass production and you're barely paying anything more than the value of the lumber used to build the structure. 13K is a bargain for a prebuilt structure of this size, and after buying your own tools it would cost you nearly as much to build it yourself.
Some other projects around our homestead I feel like I already have a good portion of the basic tools my ability to use them is not what I was hoping it would be after a year. Yes the lumber prices are going up a lot the people said that this particular building a year ago was I believe 10 or 11 Grand instead of 13 so if I wait any longer I'm afraid it'll cost even more.

I like your idea especially since it comes wired for electricity.  

That is something similar to what we did when we built the house we live in now.  The land came with a prebuilt shell which saved us a ton of money.

We were able to move in long before it was finished.  Dear hubby insisted on getting it insulated before winter and then we could work on the rest as we had time.

I got my kitchen cabinets off craigslist which saved us a ton of money.

Best wishes to you and the new cabin.

Gail, I'm on my phone so I can't tell what climate or area of the country you are in?  Are you in tornado country, and If so is there a community shelter for when the alarm siren goes off? If you are in tornado country, then at a minimum you need 2x4 construction and the roof needs to be tied to the walls  and then of course you will tie the walls to your foundation. Foundations are not cheap either, and I personally am finding out that they require quite a bit of forethought and work if you're doing them yourself.
Are other people who've bought these sheds and converted them happy with them?
Just some thoughts, not to discourage you but so that you're looking at the whole picture and not creating more trouble down the line because you're just trying to solve the problem of the moment. This is what I'm currently dealing with. 🙄

denise ra wrote:Gail, I'm on my phone so I can't tell what climate or area of the country you are in?  Are you in tornado country, and If so is there a community shelter for when the alarm siren goes off? If you are in tornado country, then at a minimum you need 2x4 construction and the roof needs to be tied to the walls  and then of course you will tie the walls to your foundation. Foundations are not cheap either, and I personally am finding out that they require quite a bit of forethought and work if you're doing them yourself.
Are other people who've bought these sheds and converted them happy with them?
Just some thoughts, not to discourage you but so that you're looking at the whole picture and not creating more trouble down the line because you're just trying to solve the problem of the moment. This is what I'm currently dealing with. 🙄

I am in the Ozarks and the general tornado risk here is pretty small usually if there is one it just touches down and then goes back up it's not like in the other parts of the Midwest where there is a real risk. But it's not an impossibility either so it is a concern that's crossed my mind I may decide to use a pier foundation instead of a gravel foundation like the other folks in my neighborhood have and the companies recommend. Pretty much everyone in the neighborhood seems to be happy with their rental cabins and rental sheds if turned into cabins some folks have ones that are 12x20 and other folks have ones that are two stories and 16x32 so there's a whole range of different tiny homes and converted sheds to cabins that are fairly large as well. There are a couple of families that have started out with one smaller rental and then gotten a second smaller rental so they basically have two homes.