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3 Nov ’14
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Hi,
My husband and I live in Northern California. It is way too expensive where we currently live, and we are tired of the suburban sprawl. We would like to live rurally, raise most of our own food, and be about to be much more self sustaining than we currently are. I am originally from a very small town in Oklahoma, so none of that will be new to me! We are both open to alternative housing, such as a yurt, straw bale house, cob house, etc. The biggest thing is deciding where to go. We would love to stay in California, Northern not Southern, but the cost is so prohibitive. Maybe Placer or Trinity Counties would work. Would love to live in Sonoma County or Humboldt, but with Sonoma the cost is too expensive for even a small amount of land, and I don't think the job market is exactly thriving in Humboldt.
My husband owns his own business, 15 years as an arborist. I work in the legal field, but would be open to any type of work. We have a 22 year old daughter, so schools or it being a place to raise a family is not of concern. What we are looking for is a place we can buy at least a few acres of land, with relaxed building codes if there is no house on the land so we can construct alternative housing. An earthy/green vibe would be great, but as we want to live rurally that is not as important, hoping to not be in town as much!
Does anyone have any ideas? Any place in Northern California that comes to mind? Does anyone have experience with alternative housing?
Thanks!
15 Feb ’12
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Welcome hpygrl40, as far as location in Nor Cal, that is out of my knowledge base, but @Mr.-Negative or @dunc might have some suggestions for you. As far as alternative housing, we have personally done earth sheltered, dry stack method and earthbags. Any particular method you were leaning towards?
3 Nov ’14
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No particular method in mind right now, we are just researching. We are open to different types, it will most likely be dictated by where we end up and building codes. In California they are notoriously a pain in the butt as far as alternative dwellings. I know that many counties will not approve a yurt as a permanent dwelling, though I do know some people who live in one under the radar. We have watched some documentaries on the Earth Ship house, but that is more expensive than other methods.
Our biggest concern is land, and having a few good acres to grow a garden on, have chickens, etc. California is crazy expensive, but has such great growing weather!
15 Feb ’12
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If you haven't seen it, here is how we built our home here in Maine, Earthships were a big influence on the design for us, we did it for around 50,000
11 Oct ’12
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I live in Calaveras County and can give you info about Calaveras and Tuolumne if you want it. My house is simple. 1700 Sq. feet on .58 acres. It was built in 71 and I have almost completely finished remodeling the inside since purchasing in July. I know all of my neighbors and they all have gardens and chickens. I am hoping to get to that soon but the interior of this house was ugly, functional but ugly so that had to come first. I also used to be a building contractor in the area so I have a lot of hook ups.
The only real problem in the area I live is that the ground is very hard. You cannot in any way shape or form dig a decent sized hole with a shovel. A pick will work maybe 50% of the time.
I bought my home for 172k. I would consider looking at Amador county too. Very inexpensive but not too sure if the weather there would work for you.
One thing I have seen people do to get around some of the building code issues in this area is to build the garage portion first. Then you put all of your permanent living requirements in the garage. Bathroom, hot plate, etc. You then make that your home and don't build anything else. Now you have more flexibility in what you build because your permanent dwelling is already there.
15 Feb ’12
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Thank-you for your thoughts @dunc , hopefully it helps @hpygrl40
19 Feb ’12
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dunc is correct.
its all about planning ahead, especially in CA. prioritizing your needs/wants will help you figure out what you need to do and when you need to do it.
for example, I live in Orange County (Huntington Beach to be exact) and will never own acreage in HB. my wife and i decided we'd rather rent a home and purchase acreage in nearby silverado/trabuco canyon and focus on building out there. there are plenty of 10+ acre sites where i'm looking with year round streams and enough flat land to have a large garden and a few large farm animals. not cheap, but we should be able to have everything we want for around 350-500K once its all said and done.
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