Howdy All,

Some background:  I am 59.  I've been in the precision high-temperature electronics industry (O&G, Aerospace, Geothermal) for about 30 years.  Mostly O&G.  As such the market cycle is a constant Sine wave of "really good" times and "really bad" times.  In short, I'm getting worn out from the layoffs.  Just got laid off a week ago although this time it was inter-office politics.

I am currently looking for work in the industry but I'm also thinking about the possibility of an early retirement, within a few years.  

If I can set up the low cost living, I'll probably get a CDL and do some part time truck driving for some "pizza money".

So here's where I am now, and what I'm going to research:

I have a house just outside of Houston with some decent equity.  Probably could come out with 150-$160K cash.

I own 3/4 acre in East Texas that already has power and local MUD well.  My taxes for this property is a whopping $45 a YEAR.

So as far as living in ET all I need is a small place, about 800ft/sq would do it, and I install a Septic system.  The biggest question to ask now is: "What type of housing should I research?"

Metal kit building shell on slab?

Manufactured home on peer & beam?

Manufactured home on f**king cinder blocks?

Climate controls:  Mini-split, a few electric baseboard heaters and a Cast Iron Wood Burning Stove with a fan kit.

Thoughts?

What else should I be researching?

CMOS

Look into "Smiling Woods Yurts"

Costa Rica.

Simple house on slab with metal barn type siding.  Wrap the framing with 1 inch foam sheets and tape the seams before you put the metal on.  Insulate in the wall cavities with blow in blanket fiberglass or cellulose.  Utility costs aren't getting cheaper.  Exceed the minimums for insulation.  It WILL pay off.  Low utility costs are important in retirement.  If you design the building correctly, you might be able to heat and cool it with 2-3 mini splits.  Mini splits usually run very efficiently.

What will the taxes be once you build a house?  TX is known for high property taxes.  High property taxes are a negative to retirement because they are fixed expenses.

Another random thought.....don't build like too many people do in TX as far as water lines.  Make sure your water lines are well below the frost line (shouldn't need to be too deep) and make sure any water lines in the house are well insulated from the exterior.  TX doesn't get very cold weather so protecting water lines from freezing is only an afterthought.  If this is going to be a retirement place, protect yourself from a water flooding situation in future cold temps.

Have a backup generator set up.  Shouldn't have to be too big a generator.  Will there be access to natural gas?  If not, can you install a propane tank for backup heat? Something like a vented fireplace or even a couple unvented back up radiant heaters run off a 100lb propane tank with propane lines installed in the walls would be a good backup.  I'm not a fan of unvented heaters but for backup heat in an area that doesn't get too cold for too long, they can be a great backup.  

Need a little more info about your particular area and what's available will be helpful to make more targeted suggestions.

I do plan to install a 250 gallon Propane tank to run the Range and a Gas Grill, and as I said earlier, I will install a Cast Iron Wood Burning Stove which will be the main heat source, backed up by the Mini Splts and a few electric baseboard heaters (mostly for the bathroom).

CMOS

@ColtRifle

Tell me more about these sheets around the framing.  I don't understand what this looks like.


CMOS

Long winded answer……

Barn metal sided houses are becoming more and more popular….at least in my area. Extremely low maintenance and durable. If done right they look nice too.

Metal siding needs to be screwed to the framing. So, the house is framed conventionally. Then, wood “girts” are nailed horizontally on the outside of the framing. They are normally 2x4. Normally, the metal is then applied to the framing. With 1 inch foam sheets, you attach foam sheets to the exterior over the girts using cap nails. You then tape all seams and then screw the metal to the frame over the top of the foam sheets. You do need to use longer screws….usually 2 inch screws.  The wall thickness is the same as 2x6 framing with OSB exterior sheeting so doors can be conventional 2x6 type doors.

The advantage is better insulation. Wall studs are a conduit for heat flow. While insulation doesn’t stop the flow of heat….it does slow it down. A house with, let’s say R13 in the walls has an EFFECTIVE R value somewhat lower…more like R8-R9.  With foam sheets on the exterior, let’s say you use EPS. That’ll be about R4 for the foam. Now your R13 wall is more like a TRUE R17…..but it gets better. You can fit R13 in a 2x4 wall but in this wall system, you actually have a wall cavity of 5 inches. So, if you use blow in blanket or damp spray fiberglass or cellulose, you get a final true R value wall around R19-R20. A 2x6 wall cavity gets you R19 batts but true R value will be more like R13-R14. The blow in blanket will also insulate behind a portion of the studs due to the girts. The foam combined with blow in blanket insulation will also prevent most, if not all, air currents in the walls so no convective losses vs regular framing with fiberglass batts.

Additionally, if you have water lines in any exterior walls, you can put 1.5 inch foam sheets between the girts (before you apply the exterior foam sheets) and that will give you 2.5 inches of foam (plus any wall insulation and/or pipe insulation) between your water lines and the exterior of the house. That will be plenty of insulation to prevent pipe freezing in all but the coldest temps in the US (but would be more than enough for any part of TX).

There are a few other things you can also do to increase insulation value but if you build like I’m describing, I imagine you’ll have a better insulated house than 99% of Texans.

I am a big fan of insulation. We built our current house as described above and calculated the extra insulation cost vs payback time to be 3 years. We’ve been in the house for 7 years now and will likely live there in retirement too. We are loving the very low utility bills. We pay a fraction of what our friends in the area pay for winter heating and summer cooling bills. Since utility expenses aren’t getting cheaper but in retirement you’ll be moving to a fixed income, high efficiency would be very high up on my retirement priority list.

Barndaminium is what you seek. Have you looked at other southern states ? Texas is not cheap on taxes

This would be my first bit of homework.  Shopping tax bases around the country and move there. Rent something while you build.

A barndominium is traditionally a large shop building with either an attached living area or living area build into the shop. I don’t think that’s what the OP is after. You CAN build a house that looks like a traditional house but just sided with metal like a barndominium. Depends on the area but in my area they are getting more popular. 15-20 years ago they weren’t that popular but they are much more common now. I’m a huge fan of mine and if I built another new house, it would be sided with metal.

Maybe also take a look at houses built from shipping containers. There are drawbacks, but lots of nice looking homes appear to have been built from them.

Hope it turns out great for you - whichever path you follow.

Still want to say "Thank You" (again) for that awesome AR15 "Build Party" you hosted way way back.

I had just moved to Houston and it was great to meet so many of the "colorful locals" in the Houston HTF.

Good Luck to You CMOS!!

Bigger_Hammer

One of the most expensive Latin American countries

I was in Iraq from 2003-2006 got back divorced unemployed and n living in a suv. I bought a $55k 950 square foot cabin on a lake in east texas . $450 annual taxes 500-800 for lake dues. I early retired in 2015 at 45.

A friend built a rectangular concrete block building on his own - had the slab poured and then he laid the blocks, put up wood roof, and did the plumbing/wiring himself.  He put multiple garage doors in the building.  
He lived in it for a couple years until he finished his dream house, then the concrete building became his really nice detached garage.  

If you can do the work yourself and have the luxury of time you can save a ton of money by avoiding the labor/profit of a builder and getting materials from liquidators, on clearance sales, etc.  

ICF construction

I’d be looking at ICF construction with a metal roof with closed cell foam

High SEER mini split for heat and cooling. The better units with hyper heat you can skip the baseboard heaters.

I would suggest finding a piece of property away from the city that is cheap and building a barndo so you can have some living area and shop area to work on stuff.

Do you want to stay in East Texas?

"Winning"


CMOS

Basically yes because I already have the property, which has both power and MUD water.


CMOS

Do you mind sending me an IM to tell me where this is?  I'd like to take a look.


CMOS

Some of you have suggested moving to another state, due to the Texas Property taxes.

As this is a retirement place, if I moved to another state, I would have zero support network.  No friends.  No relatives.  Not a good plan for an older person.



CMOS

I would not have a wood stove as a primary heat source while moving into retirement.  We have a wood stove but it's a backup.  We only use it when the power is out and when the temps are extremely cold.  Wood stoves are lots of work and some of the work is pretty hard.  That's not a bad thing when you are young but not as good as you get older.  Since you are planning for mini splits, make sure you install heat pump mini splits.  They can be your primary heat source and then have a wood stove as a backup.  With it as a backup, you can use it as much or as little as you want.  Realistically, TX doesn't get that cold and wood stoves work best when it's cold outside.  A couple backup radiant propane vent free heaters might be the best backup to the mini split heat pumps.  I don't like vent free heaters as a primary heat source but for backup, they work fine especially in a state that doesn't get too cold for too long.  

Friend of mine recently installed one of THESE in his bathroom.  I thought it looked like a pretty nice heater.  

Speaking of property taxes.....I don't think property taxes are necessarily a reason to move from your state but high property taxes are a negative.  You might do a little research to see if you can minimize your taxes based on how your county calculates them.  For example, maybe a detached garage will have lower taxes than an attached one.  Or, maybe a larger attached garage will be cheaper than a detached garage.  Perhaps a 1000 sq ft house is much more expensive than keeping it under 1000 sq ft.  Either way, just do some research to see what really raises property taxes and try to avoid it as much as possible.  I don't know how your particular area calculates taxes so can't make specific recommendations.

"Within a few years" of 59 is not early retirement. You'll have SS by then.

What kind of retirement account balances do you have? Would help in suggesting whether or not what you want is even feasible.

One more random thought.  I noticed in your OP you mentioned it's 3/4 of a acre and you mentioned septic.  Can you install septic on that small of a plot?  In my area the minimum land for septic requirement used to be 3 acres but it's now 5 acres.  There are some systems that can be installed on small acreage.  However, what about water?  You mentioned a well.  Wells and septic will have separation requirements.  Will your property meet those requirements? I don't know what those requirements are for your area but you will need to research that.

Aerobic Septic systems require very little space.  Not a problem.

There is a neighborhood Well, and it's piped throughout the neighborhood.

CMOS

Not sure why you say this.  I have used Wood Burning Stoves for decades, and I would not use the phrase "hard work" at all.  What's  your experience?

Serious question.

CMOS

Where do you get the wood for your woodburning stoves?

East Texas is timber country.  It's plentiful.


CMOS

It sucks you have to install that type of system but it is what it is. Those systems are more of a headache than an anaerobic system.

Community well means you won’t have to worry about your own well but will cost something. Water quality can vary from good to terrible from what I have seen with those systems. But you have it so that’s better than no water.

Do you cut your own wood? Cutting and splitting wood is work….fairly hard work unless you have power tools for everything. Buying wood? Yeah that’s less work but also any heating $$$ savings is gone. Purchased wood isn’t cheap from what I have seen. Plus, this is a retirement place. Presumably your physical abilities will deteriorate as you age (as we all do unfortunately). I would not want to rely on wood as a primary heat source as I age. Back up? Sure. Then, you can use it as much or as little as you want/as your health allows.

Another thought….insurance may be higher in some places with a wood stove vs not having one. It’s TX….not exactly a state that needs a lot of heat in the winter most of the time. Will any heating  savings offset potentially higher insurance rates? It might be better to have something like backup propane heat instead of wood.

Ultimately, it’s your decision so I’m just throwing random ideas out there. Given your location, I wouldn’t do the wood stove but that’s just me. My area is colder than yours so I take advantage of having a wood stove but in my case, it’s just a backup to the dual fuel heat pump/propane furnace. Also, wood stoves, if a backup, don’t add much insurance increase in my area because they are so common. Other areas aren’t as lucky. No idea about yours.

One more random thought.....if you exceed the standard insulation for your area, you will find you really don't need much heat to keep your house warm (or AC to cool it).  No matter what house style you build, rigid foam sheets on the outside will pay off as they help keep your entire wood frame either warm or cool depending on the season.  After seeing what exterior rigid foam can do, I would never build a house without it....unless I lived somewhere like Hawaii with constantly nice temps.  If you build a smaller, very well insulated house, you may find a wood stove is too much heat for it especially in an area like that part of TX where it gets close to freezing overnight and is 70* during the day time.  In my case, we don't even light our stove unless it's below 25* and going to stay like that for awhile.  We have tried and it gets the house way too warm.  

If you do build above the insulation standard for the area, make sure you get a Manual J calculation done when sizing your HVAC system(s).  Most places will just use rough estimates and most of the time, they work fine.  However, a very well insulated house needs smaller HVAC units.  You do NOT want to oversize a unit ESPECIALLY in a tight, well insulated house.  Most HVAC companies will NOT install units with as little capacity as you will need because they are afraid you will be unhappy if they can't cool/heat as well.  But, they never take into consideration that your house is better insulated than all the surrounding houses.  Get a Manual J done and do NOT let them talk you into a larger unit than the calculation calls for.  If the company installing your system(s) can't do it, there are online places you can have one calculated for a couple hundred dollars.  WELL worth the cost.  

Another thought.....not sure how much you entertain but if you plan to build a small house, setting up an entertaining area can be handy.  It can be simple....maybe move the vehicles out and use the attached garage for entertaining.  Hang a TV on the wall.  Get some chairs and tables for the garage.  Install a mini split heat pump just for the garage and you can heat and cool it just when people are there.  It can be as fancy or as simple as you like.  Or, maybe install a large covered patio area for entertaining.  Shelter from rain or sun is always nice.  

Another totally random thought....if you have an attached garage, consider a heat pump water heater.   They need a heat source to work and parking cars in the garage will provide the heat for the heat pump water heater to work well.  As long as they have a decent heat source, they save a lot of money.  We have a Rheem in our garage and it's been working for the past 6+ years now without issue.  You may also have local utility, state tax, and maybe federal tax rebates available for a heat pump water heater to reduce the cost some.  They are expensive but will pay off over a number of years in lower water heating costs.

I'm full of random thoughts as they pop into my head..........


There are all kinds of house plans on line you can purchase.  I would look into one of those plans first.  Any builder worth working with can modify it as needed.  If you can't find what you are looking for with one of the purchase plans, then go to a drafter and have them come up with a set of plans for you.  Unless you have experience building houses, if you try to design the floor plan yourself, you will get it wrong.  My first house I built we purchased a set of plans.  It was fine.  My second house I built, I couldn't find what I wanted so I went to a drafter.  Cost me about $1100 (in 2017).  I had come up with a bathroom plan and thought my idea was good.  Then I saw the drafter's plan.  I realized how stupid my bathroom floor plan was.  Pay the money for someone to draw up a proper plan or purchase an already drawn plan.  It will be totally worth the money spent.  Some places may require engineer stamped plans and some do not so check into that before you make a purchase of a plan.

Excellent input.  I'm saving all this in a Google Doc.

CMOS

Based on a quote I already got for s Metal kit shell on a slab (26' x 30') I don't think I can afford a slab type home, unless I go true "mini".  The one I got quoted was about 800 ft/sq.  $32K for the slab an shell with doors and windows, (reasonable) but the Buildout was like another $130K, which I still think is high.  I bet I can find a couple local Handymen to HELP ME finish the place.

CMOS

Both houses I built I had the foundation and shell built for me and I finished it. Well, I didn’t insulate it (pay for that job trust me) and didn’t do the drywall. Other than that, I did everything else. It’s no perfect but it’s really nice and I’m really the only one who knows were the errors are. We saved an enormous amount of money that way. For example, painting a house is expensive. Buy a sprayer and do that yourself. Vinyl tile and/or luxury vinyl plank flooring is easy to do and not very expensive. If you do a slab you could just paint the concrete and your floors are done.

Get quotes for stick framing. Metal frames are nice but very pricey.

If I do a  slab, I'm going to polish and seal the concrete.  No flooring except an occasional throw rug.

Again, that's some good input.


What kind of Insulation did you pay to have installed?



CMOS

We did damp spray cellulose.  I would do blow in blanket cellulose if I did it again.  

Regardless of the type of insulation you choose, insulation is one of those things where it's almost always cheaper to have it done for you.  And, I'm a dedicated DIYer but even I won't insulate a building.  For small jobs, you can usually do it yourself.  For an entire house, you can almost certainly have it done cheaper than you can even buy the insulation for.

I lived in military housing in the Deep South for a couple years, the homes were single story brick on slabs.  They had the bedrooms on the north side of the house and the garages on the south side.  Garages were always hot and the bedrooms were always cooler.  Greatly reduced the AC use.  
The brick also soaked up the heat during the day and held it into the evening which reduced the heating needs in the cooler months.  

They had a utility closet in the middle of the house where the AC, water heater, breaker panel, etc. were.  There was a door inside the house and one outside the house to make maintenance easy (and possible when you weren’t home).  Short runs of plumbing made the hot water flow almost immediately and it saved money on wire and pipe.  All the plumbing and wiring was run through the attic to make maintenance easy, only drains were under the slab.  

Those houses made a lot of sense and were well thought out, they were built in the 50s.  I’ve lived in a lot of houses all around the world and if I ever get to build a dream house it’ll be that sort of layout.  

OP,,,We retired WAY early due to a great business we owned and then sold. Our biggest fear was having fixed costs of ownership that would, over time, erode our income.
In our home that we built to retire in we spent a TON of money on insulation and LED lighting to reduce our monthly expenses as much as possible. It has worked our well with about 3500 ft. HVAC costing only about $250 a month to heat/cool. In your case I suspect you could get down into the $75 a month range for heat/cool if you try.

Minialiste House

The easiest housing solution.

What is your cost per kw/h or what's your avg kw/h usage per month?  Curious how our costs in KY compare.

@Morgan321 - is this something you could sketch out and post?  Or do in paint/publisher?  Interested in seeing it, I'm a visual learner.

I can't tell if you're serious.  

Shower would get hot within 1 second, faucets in 2-3 seconds.  
Neighbor had their water heater die and they replaced it while nobody was home thanks to the external door to the closet.  
The utility closet also had a 1-brick high perimeter and a drain in the floor so water from a leaky water heater or condensate back up wouldn't touch wood.  

I know a fellow who built a house 'off grid' on his plot of land.  He got permit to build a large metal barn (I don't recall if it was open sides or not), then built his house inside the barn. BOOM, no taxes on the value of the house.  From the satellite view it still looks like a metal barn.  But he didn't have any water or elec hook up, he's pretty much self sustaining (solar etc...).

I am hoping I can afford to go Tankless on the water heater....



CMOS

Don't go tankless unless you have a water softener.

Thanks!  I was definitely serious.

I'm sure that access was convenient for the base housing maintenance crew.

Are you referring to the "scaling" that can happen if the unit doesn't get flushed out with white vinegar on a yearly basis?  Or something else?

Yes.  Sure it can be cleaned but who actually bothers to do that?  

Tankless water heaters don't save money.  They save space.

How do Tankless compare to Tank, as far as long term reliability?


CMOS