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New Digs in Tennessee
Closed on some property in West TN not far from where I grew up. 30 acres surrounded on three sides by small country roads. Will try to purchased two remaining small lots so the entire property will be surrounded by road, makes for a nice delineation of property lines. Will be so very nice to get out of NY.
Has a small poorly built old house on it that we can live in while building the new house and shop, then it will get torn down. Small pond about 1/2 acres, has about 16 acres in wheat at the moment. Will be changing that over to a vineyard, orchard, food plot etc. Will probably have Morton put up a shop building (60 x 40) before anything else so we will have a place to store equipment and vehicles during the house build. We searched for about three years for the right place. Then one week before we were heading down for an exploratory trip to check out a few favorites this piece pops up and we jump on it, about three weeks from the time we saw it, to when we closed. https://i.imgur.com/h3o6DU6.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OTLMyVX.jpg https://i.imgur.com/J67RLC8.jpg https://i.imgur.com/lIEhRd0.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QaDx75w.jpg |
Congratulations! That's beautiful!.
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Very nice, I wish I had been able to get more property when I bought my current home, but being surrounded by farms, even though I don't own all the acreage, still isolates me from idiots pretty well.
The nice thing about living out here with people that run, and own farms is my neighbors are all level headed, and have common sense. Plus they are willing to lend you a hand if you need something, neighbors helping neighbors. You usually can't run a farm business without it, common sense, and getting along with your fellow man. Good luck with your new home, hopefully you can sell the NY home easily too. |
Wow! Very nice! Shop first, I like that idea….
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Nice.
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That size barn (finished outside and inside with some windows) will cost you $150,000 to have Morton put it up. Ask me how I know. Roof and outside done with dirt floor will be less. I have $18,000 in concrete work above that $150K number. TV |
wow...congrats
looks like here plus rolling hills |
That is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations!
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Congrats!
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Beautiful.
Con grades. Kinda reminds me of Upstate NY my old stomping grounds. |
Looks like a little piece of Heaven. Congrats!
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Great looking property and best wishes for a smooth build process for both the shop and the house!
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Congrats! That is beautiful!!!
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Gorgeous! Congratulations!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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"Don’t commit to Morton until you shop around. I have found Morton to be outrageously high on their building prices." Totally Agree.
I wanted a "Turn-Key" Barn Build. You need to decide what you want to do with your place. A Holley carb friend has a Barn that is "unfinished inside" and the building is 10 feet longer and the same width as mine for 1/2 the cost. It was built 8 years ago. His cost included the concrete inside the barn. Costs have gone up a bunch in 8 years. TV |
Looks like peace and quiet to me,,,,perfect! Whats does 30 acres go for in that area? Sounds like the house basically has little value. I keep telling my wife Id like to have 30-40 acres someplace quiet.
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Beautiful land! If I had to choose a different place to live, it would be somewhere in eastern Tennessee. Second would be Utah.
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ACC Alabama Custom Cabins.com in Lynn AL makes real nice Cabins. All wood interior. No drywall used.
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Very nice property. Congrats dataway!
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Love it- congratulations!
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For those in the West TN area ... I'm about ten miles or so north east of Milan.
Yes the house was of little value. However it does save us considerable expense arranging a place to live while having a new home built. Our other options would have been renting a nearby home with room enough for vehicles and farm equipment, buying an RV to live in an arranging for water and septic etc. So ... the house, poor as it is, saves us a considerable amount, more importantly speeds the process up. When it comes to the shop building, I don't want to say money is not a consideration, but it's less of a consideration than the convenience of a turn key shop. Basically all I want to do is the electric, possibly insulation, possibly the wood I want on the lower half of the walls. It will probably get built before we even move down there as we will need a place for equipment immediately upon moving. The reason a place like Morton is attractive to us is that they can arrange the whole shebang and get the job done in a timely manner, perhaps if scheduling works out we can be down there for the whole process. Although, if I can find a reliable, highly regarded local erector in the West TN area that would certainly be an option. It will probably be a bit more than a functional building as far as the exterior appearance. It will need to complement the house. I'm looking for a full foundation type building, no poles in the ground, poles are fine, but I want them tied to the foundation, so I'll be looking at footings, and slab. Steel frame is also still and option, but it would have to be commercial level construction. Tornadoes are not an uncommon sight in that area of TN. Thanks for the congrats and the advice, I'm sure I'll need more information from you guys in the near future. |
By the way ... the name of the place will be "Sweetgum Ranch"
Here is the name sake, a giant sweetgum tree on the property which will be about 150' behind the house. The wife says she'll take care of the gumballs. She's already wearing her college riding boots in anticipation of having a horse ... which she will also have to take care of :) Back of the house will face the tree, vineyard will be in the distance behind the tree. https://i.imgur.com/Bc66wn2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/bfvE1vj.jpg |
Living the dream.
Good luck with your future digs! Bart :) |
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This piece ticked all those boxes (and has fiber internet to the house). Prices are all over the place right now. I've seen this much land selling for less, and selling for close to twice as much. The key in TN right now is being ready to write a check. If we had waited even one week this piece would have been sold. We watched it happen to a dozen other pieces we wanted. Tons of people looking to escape less desirable areas of the country and the tax situation in TN is very attractive. We saw this piece online, inquired about it, made a deposit and we had already planned a trip down so three days later we looked at the land, told the agent we would pay the asking price, a done deal about three weeks later. This is our forever home, so risking losing it during a negotiation was not an option, we have looked at literally thousands of pieces of land and this was 95% of everything we could have dreamed of ... only thing better would be if it was in east TN ... but this much flat land in east TN costs a fortune. |
Thats one reason Id want some acreage is for my own shooting range on my property where I can shoot a few rounds now and then with no complaining. If I moved to a different state I also would be very picky on which state and county it would be. And then the land,terrain,businesses ,weather all would take into consideration.
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Post 20 glad you hit Like.. We want to visit the factory too, so if you plan a visit (showroom during the M-T-W-Th till 5pm). their phone is 205-269-3492.
3 campgrounds in our area bought ACC cabins, and we stayed in 1 and were quite impressed with the ruggedness, built materials, layout, propane heat etc. They are classed a Park Trailer which is classed a Mobile Home, which depreciates in TAX Assessment compared to a traditional home. We pay $290 Property TAX for 5 fenced acres the 16'x 70' Single Wide, Barn, Garage. Neighbor pays $2,000 for 5 acres unfenced, Trad build home with same sq-ft, no garage, no other structures. See if your County drops the property tax when one of younz turn 65. We look forward to some improvements. The South taxes even minor property improvements whereas PA, NY don't really put improvements under such a microscope. Maintenance is different. Seems the mobile home are more resilient to tornado wind, (and heavy rains) despite what you hear and see on the news. Half or most homes "outside the city" are Mobile with metal roofs. Shingle roofs would get torn up by the winds. Anyway Home Insurance is not fair with Trad built home coverage compared to Northern Home Insurance. Many clauses are added about what severe damage is not covered. Our home sits like a bar magnet aligned South to North for best results in all weather. Front porch faces East, Back Porch faces West. Very nice that way. |
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Congratulations Tom V. |
Congrats on getting out of NY! I'm looking at eastern Tennessee as a potential relocation spot.
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HIS, we spent quite a while looking at Golden Eagle log homes. Kind of the same deal as Morton .. you visit their office and finalize a design and they kind of take care of the whole thing, serving as general contractor. The wife wants room for visiting relatives, so in either the main house, or a guest house will have to accommodate them. She is kind of running the house show ... I'm only in control of the shop :) Personally I'd live in the shop and be happy.
Tax on the property is about $400 a year. We pay ten times that in NY right now. TN has the "Greenbelt" program, long as we keep some of the land in cultivation and promise not to build a housing development it knocks about 35% off the tax bill. I'm considering starting a YouTube channel documenting the move, from the preparations in NY, to the finished product in TN. I've already started filming things like rebuilding my 2011 GMC to make the long trips down. Will be called "From Hell to Heaven" :) |
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Grats on your " Escape" !!!! great location, be sure you have drainage though, rain comes in huge amounts sometimes.. !
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Formula, yes we have one area we will need to address if we don't keep a good ground cover growing at all times. I can see on google earth historic images that there can be an erosion issue when the field is just bare dirt. Can't wait to get the backhoe down there and get to work. I grew up about 100 miles from the new place and remember downpours. |
Congratulations! I live just west of Selmer, about an hour and a half from Milan. We moved from Utah, not New York, so not as much difference in taxes, but it is cheaper. We found 65 acres with a log house and a 30x70 metal shop. The house was a major fixer upper, but the bones are solid. Its nice because the house and shop are a half mile off the road, so we cant see or hear our neighbors. We qualify for the greenbelt, and our taxes are 1100 per year. We had a small mobile home put in for my mother in law as well. Someday my wife would love to tear the house down and design a new house herself. And she would agree with you that the only thing to make it better would be if it were in east Tennessee lol. We love it here, and plan to stay. Maybe I'll see you at a car show somewhere.
Importsmasher |
@ Importsmasher , yea since you gots the metal shop and MinLaw mobile home, you'd do well to buy the log-built style home that ACC makes.
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Importsmasher ... yes, hopefully I will make some contact with some local Pontiac people. I'm not the only one going back home, so is my GTO .. right now in my file cabinet is the last set of plates I got for the GTO, brand new TENN plates never installed, that was back in the 80's ... maybe they will let me use them when I register the car down there.
So far the car has never been registered in NY in the 40+ years I've lived here ( I was in the military when I went to NY). What prompted you to leave Utah? Sounds like you found a perfect place in TN. |
I did pretty much the same thing back in 2003 when I retired the first time. We located a piece of property, built a 32 x 56 shop on it, moved into an apartment nearby, then started on the house. I was the main contractor and hired a builder to coordinate most of it. I worked with him every day. Started the house in May and in by Thanksgiving. I did all the mechanicals and most of the finish work. Since moving in I've purchased every property that touches mine that came up for sale so now we own 3 additional parcels and almost 15 acres. So plenty of elbow room.
We moved here because this is where I grew up and taxes were a LOT less than other places we've lived. We spent quite a few years in Virginia, which is a Commonwealth and personal property taxes were rediculous. PA wasn't much better and we never planned on staying there but it was my last duty assignment before retiring. Looks like you did it right and will soon reap the benefits of waiting to find the right piece of property. The only advice I can give is that buildings are never big enough. I added on to mine a few years ago and plan on building another one next year. The second building will be for equipment and tool storage. It's amazing how much you accumulate in 20 years and currenty in the process of cleaning up and downsizing some. Anyhow, congrats and good luck with your new adventure!...... |
Yep Cliff, sounds like we have/had very similar plans. I would absolutely love to start a house in spring and be in by Nov. I keep reminding my wife we aren't getting any younger and I don't want to spend two years screwing around with building anything too "unusual" or so "custom" we'll be waiting six months to get something delivered. Just want brick exterior, hip roof, full basement and when a choice has to be made .. opt for function over form.
I also keep reminding her the place as to be as durable and trouble free as possible because when we hit 80 years old we aren't going to be in a position to do much work ourselves, and will be at the mercy of contractors. I'm going to feel the need to be there every day when they are building. I'll set up a camera and let them know I'll be posting the build on YouTube :) I'm sure I'll be going through the place everyday after 5pm and adding a nail here, a screw there, making notes. I'm going to try my hardest not to accumulate much, I've done well with that on the current 16 acres, in fact I probably give away too much and end up buying things over again. If I go first I don't want to leave her with a mess. |
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Good plan. Forget "fancy" on the house with all those peaks and gables that do nothing put put potential leak points in the roof line. My house is pretty big but simple, large single floor plan with a full finished basement. I put three bedrooms downstairs, mechanical room, and a bar/man cave area with a pool table. Upstairs is an "open" plan with high ceilings and a HUGE kitchen and plenty of cabinets and an attached bar. We NEVER use the dining room off the kitchen Deb just piles crap up in there and we eat at the large bar in the kitchen or breakfast nook off the kitchen. Have two bedrooms up, 1 1/2 baths up and full bath downstairs. If you add in the finished basement apprx 3500 sq ft of living space.
The only negative we have here is that I'm in a somewhat remote area, mostly farming community. I see more deer and turkeys than people. No big cities either. What I don't like is that every single time the have nots want something, like free health care out the back door of the health department, or to buy old farm houses for recovering heroin addicts, hiking paths none of us have time to use, etc, they ALWAYS go to the property owners for the money. So consequently when they push those things thru the few have to pay for the many and for sure we do NOT reap any of the benefits. It's still a pretty here for low taxes, but increasing all the time as they just coming to us (the property owners) to pay for EVERYTHING.......FWIW...... |
Yea you might want to re-think the basement, for a raised floor deal. We always loved having basements, but the South soil rarely has bedrock like PA, NY, OH, WV.
Soooo, Southern homes have crawl spaces, that which the mobile homes show advantage over trad built homes. We had a Souther home with a basement, and used that finished basement EVERY night for the lower living room. Very nice despite them thin spiders, occasional roaches, Hose Bib freezings, fear of foundation settling. Well we sold that home. |
Cliff, sounds like exactly what we are planing, simple, durable, open.
HIS, I spent too many hours crawling in a crawl space to ever do that again. We'll probably be going with a quite thick poured concrete wall basement, will double as our storm shelter, secure storage, my inside lab/workshop, weight room, TV room. Actually the bedrock up here is a real pain that people have to blast out to build their basements, and then backfill with soil or frost will push the rocks through your walls. I think the reason you don't see many basements down south is because they don't HAVE to have one. Up here you have to go down four feet or more to get below the frost line ... so you might as well have a basement. And up here a basement tends to moderate the house temps when it gets to 20 below zero. The big downside is cost, basements aren't cheap. Lots of excavation and concrete. |
KInd of interesting but my neighbor has a fancy house with a bunch of gables and such. It was built a couple of years before mine. He has had nothing but trouble with roof leaks and ice forming/building up so bad in places he had to run electric heat tape up there plus put buckets in the living room when we had really hard rains. So much for all those peaks and valleys in the roof. They certainly look good compared to my simple and plain big flat roof, but I'm sure glad we pulled the gables out of the plan when we were building it.
You'd think a good roofer could have fixed the issues but after at least 15 tries he finally gave up and had a completely new roof put on last year. The new company that did the work said they'd stand behind it, but he sold and moved to town so unlikely I'll find out as I don't know or talk to the new owner,,,,, |
Having a Basement is nice in the Winter, and Summer. Outside grading all around and downspout extensions for the dry win. Gutters, you'll want them to keep the Basement dry.
Many homes down here don't have gutters. Well, mine has em now. |
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Really nice looking property! Congratulations!
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Basically something to keep the rain off the cars and a slab that would allow a two post lift. Course you are also talking about a totally different environment in the south for barn needs. Many southern barns are steel beam affairs. No insulation, etc. Then you have the lighting cost and no mention in your post about a electric garage door vs a manual garage door and the size of that/ those door(s). Basic with no windows is a lot different from windows and electric 14 ft x 14 foot motorhome type doors. My barn is 42 x 55 x 14 ft doors and 28 feet tall (and a porch 10ft high that is 55 feet long) So not apples to apples by any means. Tom V. |
Down south there’s lots of bottomland. We’ve got basements scattered around but they’re bad about being damp due to that River bottom thing.
Check Reeds metals out of Jackson. I can get y’all a contact from a hunting pal if needed. Father in law built a 250x 120 barn with riding arena in it for quite a bit less than what Morton wanted. |
Steel building layout & construction
Little over 6 years ago, before i pulled the trigger submitting my rough plans, I had spent quite a bit of time planning out where exactly i wanted my work zones, car storage, pallet rack areas, & a mezzanine tucked up in a corner for rows of dealership shelving.. My goal was to become VERY organized & keep from having to constantly walk from the front to the back of the shop when working on vehicle projects. This entailed designating two fairly large bays one in the SW end of the building & another further to the NE. Another need was a drive through breezeway which ended up slightly on a diagonal down the center from the rear door of the building to a few feet behind the 14x12 front door. While this center floor area is not always clear, the path was anticipated. This is so during bad weather i can easily store a 24' enclosed, as well as have room for the truck, either hooked up, or parked in front of the trailer.
Desiring room for auto lift areas perpendicular to the N walls, i came to the decision of 14 ft walls. Going to an engineered steel building there are no trusses that hang down like used in a weld up steel building or wood trusses like in a pole barn. By submitting my rough plans to a local metal building material supplier, they designed the building & an exact materials list which I bought through them. Ended up going with a building 40 wide by 64' deep with a 12 deep x 28' wide "kick out" area in the NW corner. The kick out area makes the building slightly L shaped & helps provides room in the NW corner for two 4 post lifts side by side (with margins). Deciding upon a roof pitch I put quite a bit of credibility to the exp of my cousin's husband. The two of them own over a dozen large steel (& masonry faced) commercial buildings. Other than their first one which they purchased outright over 15 years ago, Scott has done the site work & subbed out most of the construction of all of the others. One of the first things he passed on is how having commercial gutters & too steep a pitch metal roof is a recipe in the winter for having sheets of ice come loose & take off the commercial guttering. We don't get deep snow loads in my area but we do get quite a bit of sleet & occasional ice storms. With that in mind, I settled on a 2x12 pitch roof. He also relayed several problem issues with their earliest steel building which had moisture issues inside the square tubing trusses. This was on an 8000 sq ft shell with a weld up wall supports & square tubing truss design. Since that building, he has put up engineered steel buildings, red iron spans w/ c channel & Z purlins. That's what I also had built but at right under 2900 sq ft. Another trouble issue noted was his early use of upper side corner mounted Liftmaster commercial garage door lifts. On several occasions w 14 ft tall doors he relayed he had been called out very late in the evenings as there were issues with that particular style mounted commercial door lift. All 3 of my garage doors are 12 ft tall insulated doors & roll up & down easily. Am only now taking the time to add two overhead openers. Getting late, in thee morning wil pass on a few more experiences have had with my building. My only regret is not being able to get into it 10 years earlier. |
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