Our Barndo story. We always knew we wanted to buy land in Derek’s home town. In order to make this happen we sold our first home and moved into a family friend’s small rent house. What we planned to only be there for 6 months ended up being 18 months. Let me tell you it was the perfect amount of cozy. During this time we secured the piece of land we planned on buying and spent the next several months figuring out what we were going to build. We knew we needed to do something cost effective. We thought, let’s build something small and then later we will build a custom larger home. That is when we began doing research on barndominiums. I was sold as long as we had, a minimum of 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and I wanted it to look like a house not a building. We settled on a pole barn builder and subcontractors. We thought we had everything ready to go but the bank had other plans. They said we needed a General Contractor in order to sign off on the loan. So that is what we did. Months later and so many headaches we finally closed on the land and construction loan. 

I want to be fully transparent in this blog. I’m not afraid to talk about money here, because I know it is so helpful when making your own plans to build. I’m going to give you a cost breakdown at each point in the building process.

Before we ever stuck a shovel in the mud costs (includes permits, survey, plat, designs, etc): $9380 *we paid for these cost before the loan was even able to be approved

Our first step was to clear land and our first opportunity to save money. We opted out of hiring professionals to clear the property. With a tractor, lawn mowers, chain saws and lawn shears we slowly made a dent in the spot we wanted for the driveway and foundation.

Our well was next! We were so excited to get this step complete. It was rainy season so when they finally got the big truck in without getting stuck it was a good day.

Well: $10,385

Then dirt work…Guys do you know how much dang dirt costs??? I was shocked and thank goodness we had a reserve fund because we went over building budget before we even got started…

Dirt Cost: $11,000 included crushed concrete for the road and culverts

Then underground plumbing. I will give a total cost for plumbing at the end.

Then the posts, then the concrete, then the frame began to be built. 

Pole Barn Supplies and Labor: $33,415

Windows: $1,600

Concrete: $19,329

That part seemed to go pretty smooth, but sooooo much mud. We lived right down the road so would go up there often. Sometimes when were really feeling like fun parents we would let the girls play in the mud. 

The building is 60×40 with a front 6×6 porch, back 40×11 patio, 24×20 porte cochere. We built out 1600 sqft of living 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, open kitchen and living room and a mudroom. We have 800 sqft shop that is insulated has power, lights and HVAC. We actually change the garage door placement from the front to the back on the side. We added 2 more windows on the front in the place of the garage door.

We opted to do open cell spray foam. Our GC suggested we use Tyvek, which I know is the great debate in the barndo world. Maybe we did it wrong, who knows. Which team are you on? Directly on the metal or Tyvek first. Guess it is too late now…lol

Spray Foam: $7,920

After spray foam was up it seemed like we were drawing checks from the bank left and right.

Framing: $8,840

Electrical: $14,300

HVAC: $7,000 *my husband owns an HVAC company so this was cost.

Sheetrock, tape, float and texture: $14,440

Plumbing: $19,000 with gas tie in we also had to pay an additional $2160 to the Gas company to run the gas down our road.

Septic: $7,100

Next was the fun part when we start seeing things come together and the design come in.

Doors, trim and baseboards: $5,250

Cabinets, countertops and flooring materials: $12,295

*our cabinets were from Home Depot designed for our space

*tile flooring in living room, kitchen, bathrooms and mudroom from Floor and Decor

*carpet in bedrooms-don’t love but was cheap at the time from Surplus Warehouse

*counter tops are granite from a local company

Cabinets and flooring installation: $7,650

Paint: $5,600

To make our loan as small as we could we opted to pay for many of the finishes out of pocket. Those included:

Garage roll up insulated doors x 2: $3,103

Toliets, lighting, faucets and fixtures, backsplash in the kitchen, an upgraded front door, cabinet hardware, blinds, shelving for closets and appliances: $10,000

Contractor Fees: $6,700

Total Turn Key Cost: $216,467 (not including cost of land)

Whew almost 2 years later I still get a little stressed writing that all down, but I am so thankful I kept record of it all. Little did I know that I would actually love barndo living. Our initial plan to build a custom home and live in this barndo for a short period of time, has turned into me finding ways to stay here long term. We want to expand into the shop space that is attached to the house, adding another bedroom and bathroom. Doing that will allow us more living and dining space. Hopefully there is more to come with that plan this year. Follow my Instagram @barnhousemomma for more up to date interior of the barndo.