Alternative Housing

Turning Old Buildings into New Homes

In the last few years, the costs of residential homes and building costs have skyrocketed.  As someone who lives in a large (and expensive) metro area, I've watched "starter home" prices become unaffordable for many.  That's why I'm always interesting in housing alternatives, whether they be manufactured homes or kit homes you build on your own land or something else...

A book I found at Amazon falls into the something else category.  Converting Old Buildings Into New Homes is just what is sounds like, a book that discusses turning old schools, factories, barns, and other largely abandoned buildings into livable dwellings.

If you live in a big city, you've probably seen this trend with turning old factories or warehouses into lofts or condos.  Well, there are no rules that say you can't have a building all to yourself, and if you watch the Home & Garden Channel's ReZoned show, you'll see all sorts of examples of people who have taken old public or private buildings and turned them into cool homes to live in.

Of course, if you're remodeling a huge space, the cost is going to get expensive, but an old barn or smaller building could be an effective way to get into a great home... providing you're willing to do the work (and there sure is a lot of work involved with something like this).

To get the lowdown on the process, check out the book shown here.  Here's the cover blurb:

"This book examines every aspect of converting types of redundant property including surveys, legislation and regulations, professional help and advice, and budgeting and insurance. It also discusses design and location of various living spaces; external features; lighting, heating, ventilation, energy conservation, and acoustics; and it guides the reader through contracts, quotations, planning the project, timetables, and on-site operations. It includes a number of case studies which demonstrate what can be achieved with different types of property."

Converting Old Buildings Into New Homes

Converting Buildings into Homes

If you've ever dreamed of converting a barn, church, library, or other old building into a home, then here's a book you might want to check out:

Recycled Spaces: Converting Buildings into Homes

"Recycling old buildings can keep historic landmarks part of the community, and revitalizing these structures makes for one-of-a-kind homes. Recycled Spaces presents projects that have created beautifully designed apartments and houses out of former ecclesiastical, industrial, agricultural, municipal, and commercial sites... This is a perfect guide for renovation projects, but its coffee-table format and striking photographs will appeal to armchair decorators, people looking for fresh design ideas, and collectors of design books."

I know I get excited by this stuff.  It's not within my means now, but someday, I'm going to snag myself a barn and turn it into a home. If you're closer to the dream than I am, the book may be worth reading.

Recycled Spaces: Converting Buildings into Homes

Barn Homes Made Easy

I've written about barn conversions before (old barns that people buy and extensively remodel in order to make them into homes), but it can be darned hard to find a barn on a piece of property without a house nearby (and try to explain to the homeowner that, no, you just want to buy the barn not the house...).  This is even harder in non-rural areas.  Does that mean you can't have a home built in the style of a barn?  Nope.  In fact there are builders who are starting to specialize in this kind of construction.

For instance, Yankee Barn Homes builds houses from scratch in the open, high-ceilinged style of old-fashion barns.  But, of course, they have all the latest amenities.  You can find books with inspiration and ideas on their site, as well as barn house plans you can order.  It's worth the visit just to browse through the picture gallery.   

Converting Buildings into Homes (ie. barns, schools, factories)

Ilove the idea of living in a converted barn or factory. High ceilings, historical architecture, open spaces with that "loft" feel. Because of that, I'm a sucker for books on the subject. I haven't found many out there, but I did come across one that's pretty cool. Recycled Spaces has a lot of ideas and (best) a lot of colorful photographs from agricultural, commercial, and industrial buildings that have been completely renovated and turned into people's dream homes. This isn't a book of blueprints, and it won't give you the nitty-gritty details of how much things cost, but it's a great starting point if you're looking for ideas. There are some floor plans of homes that have been converted (examples include a 17th century barn and a 100+ year old terra cotta factory in New Jersey), too. Aside from giving ideas on what kinds of buildings you convert, the book contains some information on floorings, windows, walls, and roofs and ceilings (the kind of thing that's going to be different in a conversion than it would be in a straight-up stick-built house).

Overall, a nice book. I usually just recommend people check things out from the library, but this has enough cool pictures to make it a fun coffee table book. Here's the link to Amazon if you're interested: Recycled Spaces: Converting Buildings into Homes

From Grain Silo to Dream House

I love the HGTV show "ReZoned."  It always highlights homeowners who have converted old buildings like warehouses, factories, libraries, and schools, into their dream homes. 

Tonight they showed, for the first time since I've been watching, a Kansas couple who had converted one of their farm's 25,000-bushel grain bins into their dream house.  Wheat is big out in Kansas, so I guess it just made sense!  (The owners, Vance and Louise Ehmke, apparently spent less on converting the home than they would have on building a new one from scratch, but it has everything they ever wanted, with a big open loft feel from those 31-foot ceilings.)  As you might guess, all the rooms in the house have circular outside walls (what do you expect when living in a cylindrical tower), but the Ehmkes differentiated it from the other silos on their working farm by adding homey touches like balconies and porches.  One big perk of having a galvanized steel exterior (what grain bins are made from) is that it means very little maintenance.  No need to replace the roof every 15 years on that sucker. 

I scrounged all over the Internet, hoping to find some cool pictures, but it doesn't look like these folks have made a web site yet.  The best you can hope for is to catch the episode of ReZoned when it runs again.  In the meantime, I did find some articles from back when the house was originally built.  Check them out if you want more information:

Grain Bin Design Breaks the Mold

Lane County Farmer Converts Silo into Office

Peculiar Houses from the Area to Be Shown on HGTV Show

If anyone ever comes across a picture, please post a link!