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HopefulHomemake r
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# Posted: 26 Apr 2012 09:36pm
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Hi all. My husband and I purchased some land in NY (Oswego County, Williamstown to be exact) and want to put up a cabin on it, with plan B being a yurt. We want it to be completely off-grid. In fact, we don't want any electricity or plumbing. We do plan on having a homemade composting toilet (basically a bucket that we manual empty into the composting area outside. And an indoor "shower" consisting of a cistern, and draining out to a buried greywater chamber. Heat would be a wood burning cook stove. Our budget is very small. We're thinking of buying a small pre-made cabin from an Amish man down the road and putting it up on piers. It would be somewhere in the 20x20 range, single story. At most it would be 24x26, porch not included. We would be insulating and finishing it ourselves over the course of several months.
My problem is with the permitting process. The agent we bought the land from pointed us towards a local office with a single contact, and when I looked the office up online (ages ago, I can't remember where now) all I found was a single page form to apply for a permit, with a price tag in the $50 range. Does this sound likely, or did I overlook something? Will we run into all kinds of problems if we try to do this? Can we put in our own simple composting toilet and greywater "system"? We don't have thousands to spend on this. Our entire budget, house included is about $8000. And we want to live there year round, to start a primitive homestead. Will we be kicked out later for violating some kind of building code? Is this possible, or are we kidding ourselves?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 26 Apr 2012 10:25pm
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If you want to do this legal so "they" can't come along later and tell you to tear it down at worst or fine you at the best you should contact that official. At the very least you owe it to yourself to find out what would be permited, what the county or whatever will allow and will not allow before you start. Then you will know the risks and the costs. The rules vary state to state and often county to county. Some places are compost toilet friendly, others not so much.
Maybe useful?...
Oswego County Development Regulation Guide
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bhebby
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2012 07:35am
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Hello neighbor. In my opinion its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission on Oswego county. I really think as long as you dont rock the apple cart you wont have any problems. I am in Redfield. If you want send me your email and I can give you what I know and thats a lot since I did everything the hard way. HA. There is a really good guy up there that is a building inspector and he wont give you any problems if you dont cause any.
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bhebby
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# Posted: 28 Apr 2012 07:44am
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Oh yeah and make sure you are very specific with the amish up there. They dont have to follow code so the guys up there build with nominal wood but they dont go 16" on center its more like 24-28" on center with their studs. The process can be time consuming also you should plan on providing everything to them minus the lumber. I.E. to source hinges they write 2 letters and get a quotes,they write back then the amish send funds etc. It can take a week and a half to get hinges. I would also shop them there are many farms up there and they will all give you a different price. Next problem is the a cabin of that size would need special permitting to go down the road in NY. You might need to buy them in sections and assemble. There is a guy in Pulaski that moves them for the Amish with his Roll back.
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HopefulHomemake r
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# Posted: 3 May 2012 02:54am
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The guy we're buying from does nothing but build sheds and cabins. In fact, he had several built and ready to deliver when we stopped over the first time. I'll keep in mind about the hardware, but I'm guessing he keeps it in stock for the most part. Also, he has delivery set up himself, as that's the usual way he does business. I'll make sure I familiarize myself with the codes, and make sure everything is done the way it should be. I already spoke to the code enforcement guy (he seemed very nice) and he's sending me a permit application, along with an overview of requirements. The process seems much more straightforward than I was expecting.
I don't suppose you know anyone in the area who could put in concrete footers for a decent price? We'll do it ourselves if we have to, but we've never done anything like it before, so it would be great to find someone with experience to at least help out.
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dk1393
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# Posted: 3 May 2012 06:51am
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Try Alvin Yerdon for the footing. 315-599-7725. He is in Redfield
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evrmc1
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# Posted: 3 May 2012 07:39am
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I was told that if you talk to the water and electric company there is federal money to be had if you have livestock for putting in water and electric for them. Check out this guy he is totally off grid he has a real good book on building cabin and what you might run into.
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bhebby
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# Posted: 3 May 2012 02:03pm
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just a thought you can place it on a gravel pad with blocks. As long as it is not "fixed" you can fall under the shed status and not raise your taxes.
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