michele rainer

Thanks, im kinda thinking thats what im going to do, just wing it and if it comes back to bite me, so be it. At least i have tried to do the right thing, i guess. works in my favor, i just keep thinking its too good to be true, lol

first off, sorry if I am putting this in the wrong section. I have been searching all over the internet and my limited local resources for some kind of answer to my questions and Im not having much luck. I live in a very rural part of my state, and there doesnt seem to be much as far as local zoning laws in place. There is a very small part in town that is zones, but i will be working much removed from town. My plans are 1. find a used mobile home to put on property, adding to the existing one bedroom that is there
( we will be a family of 5, i am due with baby #3 in april)
2. while living in location, build a home to suit our needs. i am looking primarily at building with earthbags or a cob mix.
the soil in that location is very high clay content and i believe will do well. we will have a well,( 150 ft), free gas, and no rent.
i may have to pay property tax, not sure yet.
i believe i have found a suitable mobile home, for around $3,500. i have a rough budget of $5000, for now. so I am told i will have to have a permit to move this mobile home to location, and find someone who is insured to do it. once home is there i must file for a address permit. neither of these permits should be too costly, but my question is this: why do i need to apply for the address permit if there is already an existing address in that location? and from what im told, (except for legally) the only reason i need a permit to move the mobile home is so i dont get fined when i apply for an address permit. same with finding someone insured to haul the mobile home to location, instead of hooking it up to a tractor.
also, how do i find out about building codes, and if we have nothing locally, dose it revert back to state? would i need a state inspector to come? i honestly doubt anyone would even notice WHAT i put out there, the only "traffic", would be my neighbors, who are also family. i just want to know IF someone would report me for any "wrongdoings" what or if i may be fined with?

i have looked up building codes for my county. there seem to be none available. i keep getting kicked to another state. zoning laws are equally rare.

Noble county, oh.

thanks every one! My Dad came over today and we are going to start looking for a used mobile home. I am feeling a lot better about the situation now, and hopefully we will be able to get things going sooner rather than later. I think some of it is just pregnancy anxiety :/

I have a small delema, which really isn't a problem at all, I guess just me being disappointed. My grandmother passed away last year and the land is staying in the family. My dad and my aunt and uncle have split up the land and i have been told I can live on my Dad's portion for free. (And use my aunt and uncle's portions with permission) My grandma had a very small, 1 bedroom mobile home with hookups on the property. This property is fairly large and in the country. Dad and I had discussed building a cob home on the property, and everything was a go. We are also starting a small orchard for family use.
Here is my not-really-a-problem.... i am 6 months pregnant with my 3rd child. My boyfriend just got a new job working about 60 hrs a week and i work full time as well.
This baby will be born in April, about the time i had wanted to start construction. I just don't see a foreseeable way for this to actually happen. there will just not be enough help to get
this project done by ourselves at this time. So.... we are looking at adding onto the existing mobile home. I don't want to sink a lot of money into this project for 2 reasons -1. I don't want to give up and "settle" for less than my "dream home". 2. I don't want to waste money by putting into something that may be torn down in the (nearish) future.
The ideas we have tossed around are buying an older mobile home, one that needs work, and renovating it to something that will fit our family of 5 needs. We can add the smaller, already functioning mobile to it, adding space.
I am NOT trying to sound ungrateful for this opportunity, I am just disappointed that things were not working out as i had planed, and trying to find the best solution for now.
We currently live in an apartment, in a small town. We have no yard for the kids to play, not much room for a garden, and space is at a premium. Also, i hate paying rent and high
utilities We DO have a stable roof over our heads and a clean environment, so its not an emergency situation. Its just the sooner we get "out there" the sooner we can make our lives
better all around.



1. I know this isn't technically all green building, BUT these homes are being reused. Most of the "new" building supplys will most likely be coming form
my Dad, who does renovations on chain stores, and can get a lot of torn out materials for free, that are still good.
2. This is the most frugal option I could come up with. The rent will be free, we will have welll water and free gas. Eventually i would like to transition
a more "off the grid" set up, but as things stand now, I can't pass this up.
3 I guess i am looking for more moral support, some one to say, "sounds good!" or give me a better option, because options are always good!


thank you!
Michele

that looks pretty promising, and hopefully could help on all the wood hauling. I'm pretty short so i will have to prune my fruit tree regularly so this may be a good method to try, thanks!

hello every one! i have been reading this site for about a month now, and i am REALLY enjoying it! loads of info, advice and opinions on here.
i am 29, i have 2 young children, and one on the way. i am very interested in learning how to make our lives better with less- less money, less time
and less headache. i dont mind hard work and want to teach my children how to better their lives instead of holding a hand out. we have been given a wonderful
opportunity to move into the country, after my grandmother passed away last year. i miss her terribly, but i know she will be proud of the changes we
hope to make.
1. my grandma lived in a very small 1 bedroom trailer. this worked fine for her, but for our growing family needs, it will not work for us. i hope to build a combination
earthbag (foundation) cob home with in the next yr. we have limited access to other recycled products such as glass doors, tin roofing and other construction throw off.
i am blessed to have a dad who is an electrition, plumier and all around handy man. he also believes in "i will tell you how to do this on the phone and you can figure it out smart girl"
philosophy lol.
2. this past summer, we have spent cleaning up the yard, planting some fruit trees, grapes, blueberry bushes, and a horribly failed garden. MANY of my fruit trees died. (over $200 worth)
but im not discouraged. i know i need soil amendments, as it seems to be a high clay content (shake test). im pretty sure this is also why my garden failed. so i hope (plan) to
implement a lot of new found knowledge from this site. some of which : raised garden beds combined with hugulculture (sp?) some soil amendments for the fruit trees
(re digging a pond in the holler and using that soil in and around the trees) we also plan on building some beehives to help with pollination.
3. we have access to free gas for heating, but we will be living in a semi wooded area and i really like the idea of a rmh incorporated into the home, as i can see only benefits of this
with a cob home. the drying properties alone seem like it would be worth it.
4. eventually, i would like to add a few animals into the mix. some chickens, goats and rabbits, ideally. i had my first butchering experience this year (fresh wild rabbit), and it was....
different. we grew up eating deer and other wild animals but i never cleaned one myself. i watched a you-tube video before i set out and i think i did a pretty good job (my opinion
is subjective lol) cooking it wasnt the best, although most everyone ate it ok, i thought it was tough. i have learned quite a bit from asking around and i have high hopes for next time!!

thats about it. a huge objective, IMO, especially with soon to be 3 kids running around (free labor?! LOL) but the most important thing is getting our house built. i hope to start as soon as
i can next year. this baby is due april, but i can sure direct my husband in the meantime! any suggestions are welcome!

hello everyone! this is my first post, although i think ive read half the threads on this site (j/k) any way, i am 29 and we grew up very...frugal (aka-poor)
but im sure glad i learned so much and how to "make do" from my parents, and grandparents. my grandma used to save wrapping paper, folding it neatly
and reusing it later, when i was little, i refused to rip my gifts so i could save my paper! we shop from trift stores whenever possible. we have always canned
our food, as much as possible, and im so glad for that now, as i have gotten older and learned of all the chemicals in prepackaged food and general
unhealthiness of it. we always had a wringer washer and hung clothes out to dry, and i learned how to mend and quilt and reuse until nothing was left but thread.
i have 2 small children and one on the way. prices only go up and my monetary resources keep going down, so alot of this so called "lost art" of living frugally has
truly kept us going strong for awhile now .