Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Buying land and building camp?

I am currently by springfield vt. This will be the primary residence so it will need all the creature comforts. We are saving money staying in wife's parents old house we will have a good down payment together by late winter. I have some land to hunt but would like my own to 4 wheel and put a food plot, Apple trees, and berries on.

I'm jealous of anyone who can do this.

I'd love to have 50 acres with a small cabin. Just can't make it happen yet.

I just had my entire septic replaced, new tank, 250' of line and a 200 foot curtain drain with 75 tons of gravel in it (to keep run off water away from the drain field). Told cost was $5000.

Unless you need something silly, septic shouldn't be crazy, though I know the more liberal a state you live in the more it will cost ya.

I'd also go with the most amount of land and the least amount of 'house/cabin'

A couple thoughts from someone who�s having a house built, basically a cabin but on a bigger scale. It�s been nearly a 5 year journey, looking at houses and land and having bid on one house and 4 lots before finally getting a lot and having a house built. What it came down to is that we�re both somewhat picky and finding something we both liked that was already built was out of our budget and we�ve been able to build a nicer house brand new than we could have bought used, but that is mostly because of our housing market being tight and having found a lot at a great price.

I wouldn�t go in with the preconceived notion of getting bare land and building. If you find an existing cabin that meets your criteria and is reasonably priced, it is likely a better option than building and it won�t cost a fortune to remodel or upgrade it.

The thing to consider when building is you have the same development costs whether a 1000 sq ft cabin, or a 3000 sq ft house. Clearing the land, well, septic, driveway all cost the same. Just punching in a driveway and clearing a spot for a cabin can cost 10�s of thousands of dollars if you contract the work. That�s the real rub with going new on a smaller house or cabin and why it typically doesn�t pencil out. But, if you find acreage that is right for both of you, it might be your only option. Whatever you do, don�t rush into it. Completely against my nature to proceed slowly, but I�m very happy that are project has taken long than desired as the results are way better than I could have imagined when we started.

The big question is, are you going to develop the lot and build yourself, or hire someone to build it for you? You can save a lot by doing the work yourself, and spending time on the land clearing it gives you time to get a feel for the land during the different seasons and hence pick the best spot on the land for your cabin. I had a preconceived notion of how the house would be located on the lot when we bought it, but after spending the winter and spring clearing the lot, came up with an orientation 90 degrees off what I�d thought, and it was a much better choice. I wouldn�t have come to that conclusion if I hadn�t spent all that time on the land clearing it.

If you can do most of the work yourself and pay cash it�s not that hard to do. If I had had the time and could have paid cash I would have just had the foundation put in and built the house myself. If you have to hire the entire project it�s unlikely you can get it done in your budget. If you have to get a construction loan, then you�ll have additional constraints from the bank as far as what builder you can use and to some extent the design of the cabin. Basically the bank wants to make sure if you default they�ll end up with something they can sell.

wildhobbybobby,

The pitch of that roof is not optimum in my experience for snow and ice to slide or melt off of up North. I have seen such ice and snow slide off of metal roofs with a steeper pitch.

Here is your roof:



Here is a roof with a better pitch:



I may see shingles under that snow and I much prefer metal roofs up North.

Link to roof design

Down here in Montgomery, County Va septic systems are now averaging $20K+.
We built this in 99 and have one of the last $2K septic systems allowed. Sits on 75 acres that we initially planned on just hunting. We originally had 140 acres but sold some to go ahead and build:

"The Keweenaw Peninsula averages more snowfall than almost anywhere in the United States�more than anywhere east of the Mississippi River and the most of all non-mountainous regions of the continental United States."

I understand the need for as much roof pitch as possible, but I was working with an existing building, and if you look at the photo, there was no way to have a steeper pitch on the porch roof without lowering the outside edge so far that I would have to duck to enter the house. So I built it strong so that it could hold a snow load if necessary. It has worked fine for two winters so far. In practice, the wind helps to keep too much snow from building up on the porch roof.

Mine has no porch and small overhangs with a much steeper pitch on a steel roof. It has lasted over 60 years.

My cabin was originally surrounded closely by heavy woods, which prevented winds from getting through. I have seen as much as 4 feet of heavy snow built up on the roof.

Following a break-in, I cleared about half an acre of land around the house and installed cameras and a security system. The open area helps to deter intruders and has the side benefits of reducing the bug problem in the summer and snow accumulation on the roof in winter.

Is the added porch sistered to roof joists or butted up to fascia?

I will clear the land and do the driveway myself. Going to be pretty selective on the land want to get a 4000+ tap sugar bush going in the next three years. Found one good place but it's on the Canadian border.

Tough to do that here in the mid Atlantic or northeast. Idiot state regs make even an outhouse an expensive proposition. Pennsylvania actually makes you put an outhouse over a tank that has to be pumped periodically. We're having trouble getting the bears to use them though - they still seem to prefer the woods.