would you buy land and a barn instead of a house

[upsetandang]

There is a barn and field for sale near where we live. its obviously very much cheaper than a house, but we have no experience in converting barns to houses.

HOWEVER

my dad is a carpenter and a builder. He has 30 decades experience. We have a steady income and we could make it work over a few years. but we would need to live in a caravan or something for the time being to save money, or we could continue to rent out our flat and have less money... I don't know what to do.
my heart says yes but my heart is crazy.

I know its mad but it is the dream and people do do it.

does anyone have any experience?
or thoughts?

thank you in advance

oh we have children. but this would mean they can stay at the same school as its close to where we live now.

Does the barn have planning permission for conversion to residential use?

It will probably be a hideous few years crammed into a caravan and test your marriage and cost double what you think but I’d do it in a heartbeat. And I say that from the other side of completely and utterly gutting and extending our house the main thing I found tough was DH going straight from work to do 3-4hours on the house and falling into bed. Weekends we’d have an afternoon together but always there were hundreds of jobs to do so we just had to keep going. It’s sucked all our money but I do love it, we bought it because it’s exactly the right location for us - my heart is always going to want land though!

30 decades experience is a lot of experience...

You can't just convert a barn unless you have planning permission. The first thing to check is the local plan and maybe an informal chat with the planners.

sorry yes there is planning permission for a bungalow

How big is the field?

oh no I meant 3 decades- gosh I thought you were making fun of my dad's age for a second!

@BadgertheBodger (nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah :-D)

do you have kids and if so how many and how old?

we have been looking and looking for the perfect house and even when we look at millionaires mansions for fun there has never been the one.

I want land more than anything I would be happy in a caravan dp less so

This would be the dream

Try and get Kevin mccloud involved (without falling pregnant)

1 year in a caravan with kids, MAYBE. A few years? Not a chance. The people I know who've built their own house either didn't have kids or moved in with other family, and even then the build was 1-1.5 years. It sounds a lovely plan but even a year out of a child's life living like that isn't great, it's a big chunk of their childhood (well depending on age, less than 5 years old is more of a problem for you than them!) could you move in with parents?

Is there a cheap house you can rent nearby? Caravan living is fine in the summer - a damp hell hole in the winter! I moved into our very, very rundown house 5 years ago (with dogs, no kids) and it was fun for, oh, 2 hours. Then reality set it. It's gorgeous now and I've mainly forgotten the dust, the mess, the noise of renovation.

We didn’t have to do a caravan but we did live with my parents for 15 months and there is a still a lot of work to do even though we’ve been living in the house for almost a year. I would have done a caravan though if land had been on offer! DS is 3.5 now. It’s been full on especially both working full time

Do it OP opportunities like this don’t come up very often x

Do it!!

Another issue: is it fair to dump this big project on your father? I know that you and your husband have every intention of being there to share the renovating jobs, but it's a lot of responsibility to dump on your father. It always costs more than you think. How old is your father? How old are the kids?

OK. I live in a barn conversion (didn’t do the conversion). One thing to consider is it’s proximity to other farm buildings and the farmhouse - are they close (they usually are) and would that put you off? You could have rolling acres out of one window and a blank brick wall out of another or be overlooked. Are the other buildings derelict or in disrepair? Is there an agricultural tie? Are you in an AONB? It’s the odd little things that can make a huge difference. But if you do go for it make sure you build in your wardrobes as normal furniture won’t fit with ceilings that slope! Good luck!

Sound great. Is it connected to mains, sewage etc - this could be a big expense.

I wouldn't with planning permission for a bungalow, unless you want to live in a bunagalow so much you'll put up with several years of inconvenience to do it.

If you do, then go for it, of course. But given bungalows are generally on the cheaper end of the housing spectrum, I think it might be a poor investment.

How much do bungalows of this sort of size go for in your local area? If you add up the cost of buying this, renting somewhere else to live, and the cost of building work, is that an amount that's the same as/less than a similar property? What you don't want to find happen is that you do all this work, then for some reason you need to sell, and you feel the property is worth 50 or 100k more than market value, because you're factoring in the inconvenience and cost of having lived somewhere else during the building work.

What I'd say OP, with your thoughts on: 'There is a barn and field for sale near where we live. its obviously very much cheaper than a house, but we have no experience in converting barns to houses ...', is, do you know what the planning situation is around that plot?

It seems that planning regulations have changed, so every part of land is being developed. If you can get the planning permission and have your own bit of nature, I'd say go for it. However, you may find your peaceful bit of land is no longer peaceful.

No experience of this but experience of a build and I would say go for it, I would love do. You do realise everyone gets pregnant mid build though.

30 decades, is he like 300+ years old?

God yes, in a flash. Do it.

This would be my worst nightmare. We both work full time and hate DIY though!

@SakiSiam
that is a great point
I would be gutted i was surrounded by houses in a few years
I will look into it because then if would definitely not be worth even 10 quid to me.

We have done this, DH is a builder.
Some points to think about:
Planning permission for a bungalow does not definitely mean you will get planning on the barn.
Is there enough land to sell a building plot for the bungalow to finance the barn conversion?
How expensive will the services be to connect: water, gas, electricity and drainage- will you need a septic tank or is there mains drainage?
We have lived in a caravan while building. It can be done, but it's not fun. Buy the biggest one you can afford and connect it to mains water and drains. The novelty soon wears of fetching water and emptying the chemi loo.
Mud.
And more mud.
Our dc were called pikies because we lived in a van.
Does your dad really really want to spend all his spare time building your house? Or are you paying him to do it as a job?
How structurally sound is the barn?
To convert a barn is actually more expensive than to build a new modern house - sell the barn and build a fantastic new house?

We have done this, it's worked for us, but do your sums first!

You may not need planning permission to convert the barn if it falls under Part Q permitted development.