Background: Last year, my father passed away. To say that he was a hoarder is an *GROSS* understatement. My sister and I have inherited one building alone that is 23,000 square feet of *STUFF* ranging from knee to head high... There have been some absolute treasures in there: old family tintypes, heirloom coins, etc. and also plenty of true junk, trash, and scrap.
When I finally get to the end of the mess, I plan to have an auction and also hope to sell the 2+ acres of commercial property which my buildings sit on. If you've ever seen the former TV show "The Colony", my building would have been an IDEAL place to host a TEOTWAWKI simulation show. There was literally everything within my place to eventually build an airplane for escape...down to the propeller...or a Mad Max RV.

For the past 10 months, I've been sorting through things to decide what to keep, sell, and toss. In the midst of that stuff has been a LOT of new building materials (not so much lumber, but hardware, plumbing, wiring, switches, fixtures, etc.) which I've been setting aside for an upcoming project which is:

Within the next three years, I would like to build a small homestead on some acreage here in the Ozarks of AR.

My vision for this draws somewhat on the tiny house movement, in that I foresee a metal shop building with a modest sized, tiny-home-type of living "suite" above. In the bottom "front" of the shop, a typical garage, and on the other side of a dividing wall in the back, a commons laundry/kitchen/utility area. An overhang on one side would provide covered storage for my Scamp (to stay in while working on), and utility trailers, and I would like to build nice upper and lower decks off the back. Ideally, I'd love to have a basement (to be later finished as its own suite) under the back half of the slab of the building.

Eventually, a tree house somewhere "out back" would be another goal. When completed, it would be awesome to have a little compound which would allow me to stay in whichever suite mood/weather dictated, or allow myself and family members to each occupy our own little area, with a shared commons.

Thus far, a few of the considerations which I've pondered are:

Location:

* Rural and secluded, but how much is too much? Where I live allows for both.
* Size of acreage: need room for gardening, a handful of livestock, enough to have a buffer from neighbors, but not too much to have to keep up with overgrowth, etc.
* Availability of water by spring, creek, ponds? Will also be digging a well

Construction:

* Usage of solar/wind/renewable energy and appliances as much as possible
* I plan to have my building itself built by contractors, but do the living quarters myself (with help).

Of course, I have had a million of other thoughts, but time dictates that I hop off here, and you all get the picture of the project.

What I would welcome from you all is your input. If this were a project that you were undertaking, what would be some of your considerations for setting up this little, independent compound?

I was left a pretty daunting situation to clean up both physically and financially, and vow to never put my sons through the trials I've been facing with with my father's estate. Hopefully, I can leave them with a relatively self-sustaining little place that will have them debt free and a means to get by, with a little gumption applied.

Thanks for your help!

H

hthomp, I would recommend that you consider berming in as much of the building(s) as possible. The thermal stability will do wonders for your power conservation. You can use skylights for some natural lighting. Perhaps you could look at building a Monolithic Dome as they are pretty solid.

Don't forget to collect rainwater. If you have old water heaters or can get you hands on them, use them for storage. Don't forget to flush them out really well before use.

Standard Disclaimer

my $.02

Yessir I've been thinking the underground/partially route as well to make use of temp.

Fortunately, my buildings of stuff have yielded about six food grade 55 gal drums, a 600 gal plastic water tank, a dozen plastic 5 gal water bottles, and a half dozen glass 5 gal bottles (glass ones new in box - score!), and a water heater or two. Oh, and a big box of new plastic caps for the 5 gal bottles. Definitely trying to make plan for water collection/storage, too.

I like your thinking, and appreciate the input.