Anyways, old timer neighbors aside (which I get their feelings and we had plenty of nice conversation with those two as well, just a few interesting moments). The property is 9.6 acres, two approximately 4.8 acre parcels together. I'm not sure on the logistics of combining the two lots vs. leaving them separate. If we sold down the road then separate would probably get more money, but combining them would allow us to homestead both and lower taxes. I'm not even sure the county would let us combine them. The nice part of not having money is I have plenty of time to answer these questions.
Anyways... You can't build buildings within 25' of the property boundaries since it is zoned A1. Right now there is a neighbor to the south with a house. Their house is pretty much in the middle west of their property. The lots to the east are unoccupied, but might not always stay that way. I would like to have as much privacy as possible for the house.
Equine residents would be one to two horses and one mini-donkey or mini for a companion.
My plan would be to put a two-sided lean to spanning the pasture fences to provide shade. Ideally this would have electric so that an outdoor rated fan could run during the hot afternoons. And potentially this would be set up to be able to be closed so I could confine if needed. Water trough that spans both pastures would also be ideal. I'm going to ride in the pastures for a very long time to come, but eventually a space to put an arena would be great.
There are no super special trees on the property other than one live oak to the west of the pond. That will certainly stay, but otherwise I'll probably leave trees along the property lines and perhaps a clump in the center of the larger pasture for some shade as well.
Picture is oriented with north to the top. The blue fingers are the county demarcated possible flood zones. There is an actual "pond" (dry during dry seasons, muddy to holding water during rainy season) in the northwest of the property, the dark area on the picture in the possible flood zone. Ignore the large red border, I can't seem to get that to go away in the picture.
The small blue area on the right hand side (east) is where we noticed signs of water running during heavy rains; house is dark green square; barn (for equipment, feed, tack, and hay) is light grey border; garden is lime green; red dot is current well (TBD if that is functional still); thick black line is future driveway. You can kind of see the current driveway and mobile home. Mobile home maaaayyyyy be leaving this week with the kindness of strangers.
Layout 2:
Layout 3:
With truck/trailer parking along the left in the "lean-to". The truck/trailer parking would be closest to the driveway in all of the above sketches. Then tractor/other tool storage under the main part of the building. Eventually part of the building would be enclosed, probably 10x14' area, with window AC unit, to be feed, tack, and tools that need climate control storage. While we are living in a 5th wheel the building would also house an outdoor, detached catio. So that my husband and the cats all live through the experience.
Layout 1:
My vision for the pole barn is something like this....
Anyways, stream of consciousness. It will (hopefully) be fun to document all the planning and building stages here, so I'm content doing just that. But also this is an open invite for suggestions, thoughts, pros/cons, and even "are you an idiot, obviously _______". The amount of $$ this is going to be, I'd rather have people point out every possible consideration before we start putting sweat and $ into this.
Looks exciting! And smart thinking about watching the water movement during hurricane season!!! My only advice is insulate your barn! I live in NC and the people who built my barn put insulation in and it’s crazy how big of a difference it makes in the summer keeping my barn cool. So I’d definitely look into what people do in Florida for keeping the barn cooler bc it can make a huge difference :)
ReplyDeleteGreat point re insulation! And I wonder if it can be done post-installation... ie we do the essentials to get things done to make it livable... then the nice things later on as we get money.
DeleteSo exciting! Sorry about those neighbors giving hunters a bad name. Especially since there's a buffer zone around the perimeter of the property where you can't build as well as water sources at least during part of the year, I'm sure the wildlife will adapt just fine.
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, I think I like layout 2 the most for its even pasture division, nearness of equipment barn to pastures, and circular drive. Of course, it puts everything pretty far from the current well, but if it's not functional, that's a moot point. I love the idea of a shed spanning the pasture fence. I've seen setups where a shed houses a round bale feeder that can be loaded from outside the pastures, but is accessible from two paddocks (located in the corner where two pastures meet).
Exactly re the wildlife. Since I periodically have deer try to murder me while I'm driving home at night, I am pretty pro population control with them... Fortunately Ryan bow hunts, so the neighbor ranting about guns won't be hearing them.
DeleteI like 2 as well, I did realize after posting this though, that I may want to move either the house or barn just a bit in that so I can get the pasture view from my porch. Because that will be part of the view of having him at home is staring at him while sipping morning coffee. But I could pretty easily shift one or the other. And then the west pasture could be closed off if it gets too wet.
Mini donkey - that's Bryan's dream come true! This likely sounds silly when it's already going to be $$ but if you are able to, build the pole barn (or pour the slab) bigger than you think you need. In less than a year of owning our ranch, we have completely filled out our barn (read: shop) with vehicles and "stuff" and we are already is looking at barn expansions so that our tractor can be parked inside
ReplyDeleteUGHHHHH you are not the first person to say that, but it is so freaking expensive. But harder/more annoying to build multiple other structures later. I do need to price out limerock base vs. concrete. I know ideally we would do concrete, but again $$$$.
DeleteMy UGGHH is at the knowledge that I should expand the barn plans, not at your comment LOL. I am hoping that the lean-to on the side helps some, since in our current set up, the truck/trailer are in the barn and take up fully 50% of the space. But I also don't have feed/hay/tack to store in this one.
DeleteI feel you on the whole budget getting out of control thing too. You're completely correct with the lean-to helping if you just need some cover. What with birds / bugs / etc, we are choosing to go with a fully enclosed expansion but we also don't live out there full time so it's nice to be able have things locked up
DeleteOmgosh this is like the most fun puzzle game lol you should literally print the map and then cut scaled pieces of cardboard for each structure and then just keep playing omg haha!
ReplyDeleteFor my two cents, I like layout 2 bc 1) larger distance between house and flood zones; and 2) proximity of barn to pasture spaces.
You're totally right re printing! I am using the county GIS maps and they are... only somewhat user friendly... the "draw" feature is separate from the measure feature, so I did get lazy about the building sizes after the first one, little cut outs would save me that trouble.
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