Sooooo..... finally narrowing down specific plans.
My original plans to try to use a converted semi trailer for housing is decreasing I guess. But not necessarily because of the difficulties of insulating a metal outer wall, more because of wanting more than 7.5 feet of interior width, and deciding that i'm fine that whatever I build should just go with the property to improve the property value over the long run.
My current plan is wanting to build an A-frame house something like 20x24 feet, with the hope I can extend the length later when someone else moves in. This is meant to be more temporary housing but temporary could be 6-10 years - I hope that to be enough time to make some money, buy more self sufficiency things, and be able to build a bigger nicer house before retirement with the A-frame repurposed to be an outbuilding. OR we decide to move and the temp house stays on the property.
One thing i'm wanting to do is either build the A-frame on skids, or even on a mobile home frame. I'm aware mobile home singlewides at least aren't 20 feet wide (didn't want to use a doublewide frame if could help it.. what happens if I lash two singlewide frames together and build across them both though?? Or a pair of schoolbus frames with the bus-shell torn off??) but was hoping to make it happen... the sole reason for this is for housing code authorities to sod off for the time being. A homebuilt 'trailer home' on a mobile home frame doesn't fall under normal housing code but the code of who originally built the frame if it's a mobile home or vehicle law/travel trailer if it's not a mobile home, and if it still appears to be on wheels (which it may be made to at least seem like) it will look even more temporary. It should actually be moveable though, even if it is unlikely to move very far and only go forward a bit and backwards a bit. (one thing to consider if it was two frames lashed together admittedly!) Alternately it can be on skids and towable by tractor or diesel superduty maybe...
I'm okay with power being off grid, water being off grid, using an outhouse if need be. Like I said, temporary housing. We'll upgrade as we can afford, based on available money, available learned skills/tools, and what's decided to be most important. I've lived worse than this already. (had no running water for like 7-8 years already using hauled water so it's nothing new)
I'd like to superinsulate it/thicker than normal insulation. Maybe this is less of an issue with A-frames or using closer to roof thickness insulation on the 'walls'?
One reason I wanted an A-frame is i've read it's alot easier for a 2-3 person group to self build than a normal house. This makes sense for I assume not needing a crane to get rafters up above head height... or needing rafters at all.
I'm wanting to use corrugated iron as the 'roofing' because it should be tough, go up super fast and I thought be inexpensive. (maybe not as inexpensive as shingles tho) Though it brings back my other questionproblem of insulating against metal i'll admit.
If I kept the place i'd upgrade to galvalume or something in time.
The option to eventually put the house on the ground, whether a concrete foundation or on piles or something is there - I was just hoping to not have to pay someone to haul concrete to a deeper rural area or to worry about the cost of someone else doing a foundation right away. Not until or unless it was going to end up tying to the electrical grid or being set up to stay/be sold with the property I mean. A foundation seems like a cost I should theoretically be able to wait a little on if i'm treating this closer to a travel trailer... okay so frost heave happens, so I give a few turns of a leveling jack in the middle of the winter and i'm good, right..?? I can do that a few times per winter without being too annoyed..
One advantage of not being on the ground right away is being a little less worried about the house being in the perfect place on the property right away. I don't mean I plan to live in a swamp or not even plan for a house to go somewhere, i'm more referring to the perfect place might require clearing a bunch of trees with a dozer I don't have yet, or a sawmill I don't have yet, driving in screw piles with a machine I don't have yet, etc etc... I dont want flooding or such in the meanwhile so where i'd put the house on the land would be... not perfect maybe, but not where I REALLY mean the better house ideally to be built over the long run. (tho if I cleared the land and decided to cut and run I could also just stick it there instead)
I'm trying to spend money on self sufficiency machinery, and to have the time to learn how to use the machinery with skill before I DIY everything. The house is meant to be a simplified construction to buy time, kick certain bills down the road into the future, until I learn how to do things myself - better code legal construction, foundations, my own land clearing, etc etc. Feel free to share comments, ideas, suggestions to this plan...
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