Hello Friends,

I wanted to briefly talk to you about how the tiny home market has shot to the moon in terms of popularity, especially within the last couple of years. 

As more families took an interest in tiny homes, especially during the covid-19 pandemic when folks had fewer materials to work with but had much more time to spend at home or simply working on their passion projects. As more and more families begin to look at the tiny home as a real option for their future living situation they will inevitably all come to the realization that they are going to have to give up a lot to make a tiny house work as a full-time residence. That statement is complicated further with the addition of pets and children, space is the real deal killer when it comes to tiny home living if you can’t tell. While living in a tiny house may sound ideal on paper, transitioning into a tiny home can be tricky, if not downright difficult. Even transitioning from something comparable in size to an apartment is what I would recommend doing, so the transition isn’t as much of a shock to your senses during the first week in your tiny home. You could easily find yourself  Sitting there wondering if you made a huge mistake. 

Tiny living is fantastic, as long as you’re single, not claustrophobic, don’t have many material possessions, and don’t care about entertaining guests. This may be you to a T, but for the average family, it’s just not gonna work well. This is where the Barndominiums really outshine the tiny homes, they come in custom sizes tailored to your specific needs, or you can go with one of Buildmax’s stock  barndominium plans that are designed with the family in mind. With a barndominium you’re not going to have to give up things like storage space, like you would with a tiny home, quite the opposite actually, you’ll have plenty of storage space as well as having the luxury of never feeling closed in and claustrophobic in your own home. Our barndominiums are designed to have more of an open floor plan with plenty of windows allowing for an abundance of natural light making the space feel bigger than it actually is. 

When having family over for dinner or friends over for a cookout it’s generally accepted everyone will have a place to sit, that can’t really be said for a tiny home, there’s often a need to improvise when living with a tiny home. You won’t have worries like those with a barndominium, you will have ample space indoors and out with any of our many Buildmax Barndominium house plans. We strive to provide our customers with the best quality Barndominium plans and professional guidance that have been specifically designed and engineered for families just like yours. 

Our house plans have features you’ll never find in a Tiny home, mud rooms are a common feature and especially popular with our customers up north, and Dog washing stations have become popular all across the country, Going back to having options, you have the ability with the help of Buildmax to customize your floorplans adding spacious shops and attached Garages to store all of your toys and vehicles away from the sun and rain. Many of our homes feature kitchen islands and large storage pantries, and more times than not our customers opt for some type of porch or outdoor entertaining space Like grilling areas or outdoor kitchens complete with sinks and outdoor fireplaces. The outdoor kitchen seems to be this year’s most popular addition. I’ve seen them added to numerous plans this last year. 

Simply having the ability to share your home with family and friends is a huge advantage when considering a future home, if your family is as important to you as it is to us you’ll agree that having that extra space is crucial and the space just simply isn’t there with the tiny homes currently on the market. Those are the real reasons that a majority of families who are initially interested in the tiny home market get drawn into the larger barndominium market the options are endless, you can wrap your barndominium in vinyl siding, metal siding, shake wood siding, anything you want to cover your house in it can be done with a barndominium. 

The best part of all is that Buildmax offers building material packages in not only stick framed options, but post frame and steel frame. No other company in the USA offers their Barndominium Kits in Stick, Post & Steel frame options. Having creative control over design aspects of your own build is a major plus for our customers and probably any customer when choosing to go with a barndominium. 

If you don’t see a floor plan design that appeals to you on our website don’t worry. We will be happy to adapt any hand-drawn interior plans and ideas into existing designs so that you get the custom-designed barndominium of your choosing. Our senior design team has years of computer-aided drafting experience under their belts and they are constantly honing their skills with intricate customer projects and building new stock barndominium designs for our website as well. Our team is dedicated to your project from day one until you get your materials on site. 

In some cases, customers have opted to use our crew to come and do the initial framing. We have a couple of dedicated crews that construct our steel framing components, as well as specific crews for Post frame, & stick frame projects as well. All the contractors we work with come with references and a solid history of jobs. Visit our website for more information on specific plans, or to purchase stock house plans and start the journey towards your family’s Dream Barndominium today! 

Unless you happen to be an actual builder yourself or you lucked out and you are best friends with a builder. I mean really best friends with a builder, not I work with a guy every other year on a crab boat and his uncle can fly a crew in and build a barndominium in a weekend in any state in the US. Let’s be honest you probably wouldn’t be interested in reading my informative article on how to find a reputable barndominium builder if that was the case. For the average guy or girl that’s building their first ever barndominium even if you’re interested in doing some of the less labor-intensive aspects of the build yourself like finishing out the basement, building the decks on your own to save some extra money, maybe you’re a whizz at drywall and you can knock it out in a few days versus waiting for a crew of people to finish up their other 2 jobs just to get around to doing it. Things like these are great ideas if you are able to do the work, What if you are too busy with life to do all that D.I.Y money-saving jazz and you just want a guy who can take charge, who knows his stuff, and can build your barndominium to spec and do it quickly. Isn’t that what we all want and it rarely works out that way. Especially in 2022 with crews walking off of jobsites never finishing to job, overcharging for the minimal amount of work it’s all out there, and through the years I’ve managed to pick up a few tips and tricks along the way so hopefully you can avoid some of the craziness that I didn’t see right out the gate.

References shouldn’t be hard to come by if you are a well-known builder of quality barndominium homes, you should have customers who can vouch for your work going back to the first week of operation you would think. If you picture references falling outa their pockets you’d be surprised I think. You wouldn’t imagine how many jobs are started without seeing any kind of proof of concept. At the very least ask for a simple portfolio of up-to-date current jobs that you could maybe drive by, and take a look at some actual handy work before you commit to a builder. Not everyone out there is trying to scam you but keep your guard up when hiring a builder because there are crooks out there looking for their next sucker. A lot of it starts with where you find the builder, to begin with, craigslist for instance might net results but they just may not be the results your after. Aside from asking for solid references my second word of advice is going to really serve you well if you take it to heart. 

Finding Quality builders locally can be extremely difficult depending on the area of the country you are building your barndominium in, one thing you can generally bet on is having a least one if not more solid lumber yards in a relatively short driving distance, Home Depot, Lowes, local yards the types of places that Barndominium contractors are going to buy their lumber and maintain accounts. First of all, let me get this out of the way early on, do NOT! go and hound the workers at lumber yards for contact information that’s not what I’m proposing. However, if you approach the situation in the right way you can probably walk away with more than enough information to get you started on the right path. Many times it’s all in how you treat people and approach a conversation that determines the outcome of that conversation, just a little extra tidbit to think about. I would approach the conversation like explain what you’re trying to do and simply ask if they can provide you with a phone # to a reliable builder who always pays their bills and keeps their account in good standing your goal is to come out with a couple of contacts, if you happen to ask 6 different workers odds are you will find at least one or two through the course of a few hours that honestly do have solid reputations for building custom homes. Then you can rest easy at night knowing you did your diligence and your build will be better off because of it.

Bardominium Kits can be a fantastic option, look at it like an all-inclusive kind of deal, many people find they can get everything they want and more out of a barndominium kit, it’s almost like the buffet option you can customize your build a little more precise, you will usually pay a set price for the material package, delivery, and a crew to setup the shell everything is wrapped up in a nice package for a nice price. Typically you would hire contractors to come in later & finish up after the initial framing is complete depending on the style of framing, traditional wood or stronger longer lasting cold form steel. Companies like Buildmax have some amazing barndominium house plans online you can purchase, they also have kit offerings through a cold form steel company so any barndominium on the Buildmax website can be framed up in rigid steel with a package shipped straight to your build site on a flatbed and erected in a matter of days not weeks, it really is an amazing process to witness if you’ve never seen it happen. It’s nothing short of spectacular to watch something go from an empty graded lot to a framed up barndominium practically overnight with only a 4-man crew versus a wood frame barndo along with 10 guys swinging hammers around, dropping nails everywhere, holding boards up over and over, all while trying to yell over one another trying to get the next instructions out.

Google believe it or not can be a great resource when searching for a builder near you. Google has a feature where it will automatically search local business listings for whatever is closest to your search query for instance if I was looking for a builder in or around Atlanta Georgia I’d type Barndominium builders near me, the beauty of it is you can be anywhere in the country and it will find the listings based upon your IP address so if your happen to run a VPN you may have to enter your actual city. Results that show up towards the top are going to be the companies that are paying the most in advertising and potentially have the best ranking for what you’re looking for. I always look at the comments and evaluate others’ experiences you can weed out a lot of unreliable crews simply by taking the extra time to read through some reviews from previous dealings the public has had with a specific builder or company if nothing more than to gain a little more insight, you can’t always trust reviews either there are a lot of super picky customers out there who you can never truly satisfy.at the end of the day trust your gut and take your time searching out a company that you trust.   

Hello friends, I wanted to talk today about something that hits extremely close to home and very close to my heart in a lot of ways. I live in Northern Kentucky and the news in my neck of the woods has been following the terrible flooding that has been ravaging the eastern half of our state what is historically known as Appalachia or the Appalachian mountains and historically one of the more poverty-stricken areas in the state. It’s amazing how they build homes up in the hills, if you’ve never seen it I urge you to take a look sometime, it’s simply amazing. Floods can come out of nowhere and nobody knows how bad the damage will be until it’s over and the flood waters start to reside. There are some important things we can do as homeowners or future homeowners to minimize the damage to our barndominiums if the big flood hits and that’s what I want to discuss. 

Being prepared by installing a sump pump on the basement floor, if you break a water pipe in your home or if your getting water coming in from outside gravity is going to pull that water down and down and it’s finally going to end up in the lowest point of your home. If you have a basement especially but even if you only have a ground floor make sure you are pumping the water out far enough away from your barndominium and into a drainpipe somewhere outside of the home that it doesn’t cause more problems for you. It may be a good time to invest in a very large shop vac or three just to have on standby because believe me you’ll be glad you bought them early like you did because if a flood or excessive rains do occur you won’t find many in stores unless your one of the first to get to them. Prepare and buy some nice shop vacs as well as save all of your old towels, they may one day come in handy as well. If a flood ever does happen after the storm and rain quits air your home out by opening the doors and windows and running some good strong fans, I’ve found box fans work nicely for circulating larger amounts of air. This is going to not only help things dry out quicker but it’s going to help prevent mold and mildew from forming or at least keep it to a minimum the drier that you can get the conditions in the room.  

When designing your home if you live near a creek or brook or even a drainage area it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to just build your barndominium up off the ground on stilts. This is a popular style of home in Louisiana in the marshland as well as in Florida along the beaches many homes even affluent homes are built on stilts in case of hurricanes or general flooding from the beach. I figured it would be a bit too far to include treehouses in my article but many people are seeking alternative style houses these days.

Make sure your yard isn’t at the bottom of your yard angled in such a way that when it rains heavy or at all the rainwater naturally drains toward your home if this is the case you will need to get someone that can bring a dozer over to knock the grade of your yard down and work the earth so that the end result allows for you to divert that water around your home and any outbuildings that you don’t want to wash down the hill during the next big rain storm. This is a very common thing for heavy equipment operators who specialize in moving dirt for residential developments, you can find one in your local yellow pages online, google would be my first stop in locating someone local,  the actual work and time on-site may only take them a half hour or so to finish the job it really depends on the extent as each job is different and with its own set of challenges. So now that we have prevented a river running through your build site, or Barndominium maybe just some property in general. 

Electricity and water don’t mix I’m no einstein but even I have some common sense when it comes to electricity I’ve been around the building since I was young and have grown up helping out on build sites so maybe what is common sense to me isn’t necessarily common sense for everyone. For instance, I know if you build near a large body of water or there’s a possibility for flooding I install appliances like washers & dryers, Electric stoves. Anything that plugs into the wall and sits on the floor needs to be sitting on small blocks allowing for water to flow under or moved to higher ground if possible. If it’s not possible to lift or put on blocks your best option is to unplug it immediately before the water reaches any internal circuit boards while plugged into the wall socket that’s the best you can do at that point. If flood waters reach within 1ft of outlets or switches it’s best to cut the electricity to avoid damage to the home or anyone due to electrical shock. Having sandbags filled and located somewhere on the property where you can stack them to prevent water from coming in is another great strategy if you’re dealing with an emergency and fighting to save your home from flood waters.  

(https://blushieldsconstruction.com/ )

Generally speaking, I like any excuse to climb up on my roof. I have made a habit of getting up there at least once a year to poke and prod around with my sealant/ caulking gun just to make it look like I’m doing something important, I do ensure the winter ice and wind hadn’t stripped any sealant off. If any spots look old I may put down a few new beads but for the most part, it holds up well after the first application. On every other inspection I’m looking for cracks near any skylights, or cracks in the actual roof, they don’t last forever and sometimes need repair, less frequent if you maintain it as you should. The other place I go is under the house which is actually my least favorite place in the world and I avoid it at all costs, however, that’s, where my water shut-off valve for the entire barndominium is found. I have installed check valves on my water pipes so I can narrow down the problem if a pipe bursts inside my barndo, I have that shut-off valve that cuts the water coming into my house from the county water line at the road. This is a must-have valve in an emergency situation where you have no idea where the water is coming from. 

There are many more simple things you can do to help prevent flooding or prepare for a flood it’s best to be ready for the worst and not need it then need it someday and not have the essentials to protect your barndominium. For barndominium house plans built up off the ground check out Buildmax.com, they have some awesome Barndominium plans from small to multi-family home plans. If you don’t see what you’re looking for reach out you’ll be surprised at what they can design.  

A back deck is a special place! Many people wake up in the morning, take their coffee out on their deck and watch the sunrise and listen to the birds wake up. Those same people will likely end up back on the deck as the sun goes down in the evenings. It is considered a tradition in the south, where I was raised up from, to “porch sit.” The decks attached to our homes are gathering places; areas to entertain guests, host neighborhood cook-outs, and in many cases a venue to help our communities grow closer. Decks can come in any shape or size that your home could possibly work with. Here I will talk about the several types of desks you might consider adding to your barndominium house plans when it becomes design time. 

Wraparound Barndominium porch:

My all-time favorite style is going to be the wraparound deck and by a long shot. I love a nice wide wrap-around deck with plenty of walking room, you see I like to pace when I’m on the phone and many of my homes have had wrap-around porches and I must say, that I certainly used them a lot and much prefer a wide wraparound that I have plenty to view as well. I’ve grown up in the south my whole life where large wrap-around porches are king, almost every old farmhouse had some style of a large wrapping porch. When it came to the most beautiful wrap-around style victorian era homes are known for their ornate spindles and intricately cut decorated posts, I find the workmanship fascinating. Back to actual porches I think having the extra wide space to move and enough room to have a little stroll the extra space is worth every penny that it might cost. With large wraparounds and even smaller ones You can still choose to sit anywhere you want, never getting tired of the view and always having a different one right around the bend. Maybe you would enjoy a swing on one side, rocking chairs on the front with a nice cozy relaxing nook area in the back with seating and pillows. Wood is the preferred decking material for a wraparound porch, but I always have my eyes on innovative technologies and new materials that rise to the forefront of the market. One of those materials that have become pretty popular in recent years, is composite decking. Composite decking is an extremely durable, flexible, and very long-lasting material that happens to be made from recycled plastics such as milk jugs and water bottles. As the “Go Green” movement is gaining traction, more people are looking for environmentally friendly, building materials.

Attached Porch:

An attached deck is standard on almost everything from shop houses, barndominiums, cabins, and even newly constructed dream homes. This type of deck is what your gonna find in most homes, it’s a go-to decking option for many Americans and it’s a great option to choose. With all the different decking materials on the market to pick from it’s no wonder most people go for the most simple straightforward option you have, it’s simply a deck anchored to the house. Some attached decks are designed with a little more spice, adding additions and pool houses, the porch can be anything you want it to be. A covered roof or screened-in deck allows it to be used year-round as an extra entertaining space, or a playroom for kids, With all that extra room I’m sure you can find a fantastic use for it, everyone has their own special hobbies and family activities. One of the attached porches on my personal home I have dedicated solely to cooking, so this is a space that holds things such as my grill and my big barrel smoker, those things being on their own mini porch was a nice idea that I’m glad I did, when I’m cooking on the grill or the smoker for my guests it’s nice to have the smoke far enough away on a different deck to not choke my friends and family to death before their meal. Simple design features like that can really make living in your barndominium a pleasure. making things easier by placing rooms and features in logically thought out places during the design process can save you headaches later once you move in and start to use things on a daily basis, you can take this same concept of simplistic design straight to your deck as well.    

(Barndominium blog-Composite decking)

Detached deck area:

A detached deck is a nice area for an outside fireplace or swing. A raised patio area is also considered a detached entertainment space. My mother had a raised covered patio area when I was a child. She placed a nice glider swing right in the center of the detached deck with flower beds that surrounded the perimeter. We would convert it into an entertainment area when guests would come to visit, complete with a small fire pit. Remember a detached deck is way more suited for a fireplace or fire pit since it should be a safe distance from any structure. Be cautious when considering if your entertainment area is a safe distance from your home and also when considering the materials used for construction.

2-story/ multi-level:

This can be complicated as a DIY project, it’s a job more suited for a specialist. There are a bunch of different ways to do multi-level decks. You can have stairs that span from bottom to top, or you can have entry to the deck only from the home with no external stairs at all. I’ve seen many barndominiums built on the sides of hills with three separate levels of decks allowing for some spectacular views.

(blog on decking and railings)

No matter what type of deck you decide to build with your barndominium build, BuildMax can help your dreams become a reality. Your vision will be sketched out, put into a computer program, and come to life right before your eyes. If you are interested in starting your barndominium house plans today, contact us at BuildMax.com

Barndominiums are still a hot trend on the market, even a couple of years after I first started to seriously notice them around. I began to pay attention when I noticed a substantial uptick in these uniquely styled custom metal buildings that had recently started popping up in my area, so many in the first year that it began to feel like a game of wack-a-mole. I live in a fairly rural county in Kentucky my family and friends have always considered the state as a part of the southern United States, it’s a very close-knit kind of community, the type where neighbors help each other out, so when something out of the norm is going on, or a new trend really decides to take hold and spread, then it tends to get noticed fairly quickly. Things go unchanged around here for many years and that is generally the way people like it, so when all of a sudden there are building projects going up left and right people take notice and get interested and intrigued themselves, especially once they understand the process and savings and potential applications these barndominiums can have everyone wanted to build one. If not to live in as a primary home I’ve heard of individuals building barndominiums for Anything from vacation homes, short-term rental investments, long-term Investment rentals, office buildings, automotive garages, duplex style barndominiums, and just recently I have been told of an amazing old rural school house that is being replaced by a barn style school house that will fit right in among the farming community that populates the area. The options are literally endless,  barndominiums are still making a splash because of how affordable in versatile they are. 

If you are open to the idea of using metal to frame the barndominium you can in some cases construct the house for a fraction of what it would cost to build it traditionally, that’s not always the case with prices of materials fluctuating so wildly lately but it’s generally not going to cost you more than building a barndominium traditionally with a wood frame. When you couple that with the ability to get the structure built in half the time with cold form steel framing the barndominium goes up like an erector set and only takes a crew of 4-5 guys saving a ton of time and money in the process. There really are many ways to build barndominiums these days and each way has its own advantages and disadvantages in the end it’s really all about what materials you have at your disposal in the area and what kinda price you can get those materials for compared to other options, the idea is to get the best material you can for the best price. 

You can build different ways and it’s up to you to choose which is right for you, with so many options and the simplicity of the barndominium floor plans that is another reason why we are seeing Barndominiums popping up Nationwide, people are attracted to simplistic designs that actually work. A large majority of people get interested in barndominiums because they think barndominiums are so much cheaper than building a traditional stick-built home but once they do their own research the truth of the matter is that they are much closer to the same price than anyone might imagine. If you do it right you can source much of the material and do much of the work yourself this can make all the difference in price. You might think with the price of steel rising across the country, even a steel frame barndominium which was once much cheaper to construct than a traditional wood frame barndominium is now about the same price. However, what you get for that price really makes the difference. You’re going to get a stronger structure that lasts much longer with less maintenance in between. A barndominium is a pretty timeless-looking home to build just about anywhere but most families that are moving out of this city want something that looks and feels country and quaint in appearance to match the rural atmosphere. Moving into a barndominium in rural America will have plenty of open space as designed, and rural America has plenty of property Just waiting for families to come to build on. Buildmax is a company helping to push this process forward, with the noticeable influx of families interested in building barndominiums in Rural America and families noticing they’re paying way too much money in rent to live in cramped accommodations within the city when they can afford a large barndominium in the country for the same price. companies like build max are here to help those families make their barndominium dreams come true.

Buildmax helps by providing barndominium floorplans and designs. Buildmax has a number of high-quality floor plans to choose from, no matter the size of your family or your specific needs, we are confident you’ll find a barndominium that suits your family perfectly. Buildmax can also help in customizing the floorplan to accommodate your specific needs so you can get the plan in your hands so can start building on your dream home sooner than later. Having a row in building your own home is important for many people there are many individuals to have the necessary skills to do a lot of the work themselves realizing this could save a tremendous amount of money along with obtaining your own floor plans from Buildmax you can begin to see the appeal and attraction to building your own barndominium, and how an individual could build a dream barndominium for a relatively reasonable amount of money in comparison to buying a home already on the market( which right now is like a battle in the roman colosseum, or akin to pulling your own teeth ), even if the price is equivalent to buying a home on the market, you’re still getting a newer, custom designed, stronger, more curb appeal, and just better product overall with a barndominium floorplan from Buildmax. When the interest rates go up see difficult to buy a home on the market people become Thrifty and April signed away to get what they want for the price they can afford. this is why we are seeing so many barndominium homes popping up in Rural America. Price barndominiums just look awesome there are so many different designs now with more people getting bit by the barndominium bug it has blown up into a building Revolution with people from every background and walk of life imaginable pitching in helping design new barndominium homes with new styling end trends daily interest Facebook and even National Publications like Dwell magazine. I have seen New Age looking Barnes Classic Barns solid white bones solid black phones barndominiums made with reclaimed wood from vintage barns people are very creative when it comes to doing the decor of their barndominium interior and exterior. Just because you’re building a barndominium doesn’t mean it has to look like a barn on the interior I have seen barndominiums that are built with more technology and gadgets as well as heated flooring, heated driveways for the winter, inset lighting throughout,  the interior has all the modern equivalence of a modern custom luxury designed home in a gated community somewhere, yet it’s in a field full of wild green clover in Rural Kentucky picturesque like it was dropped onto the landscape from above.

Barndominiums are still making a splash because of how affordable, versatile and customizable they are not to mention the unique styling that sets them apart from just about every other home being built today. Buildmax wants to motivate & jump-start your plans to build your dream barndominium by putting quality barndominium floor plans in your hands immediately. Because Buildmax does all of their super-skilled work remotely you are able to purchase your plans and immediately receive a digital copy that is ready to print right then and there. Don’t put off what you could go ahead and do, with a set of plans you are able to take those plans to any builders to look at and give you quotes based on your set of plans. Simply having a full set of plans printed off and accessible can make a world of difference when it comes to researching and studying the plan to determine if any modifications will be made and exactly where to, making accurate modifications is impossible to do without a set of plans in front of you. Next to finding and buying your property your house plans are the first big step to getting you into the barndominium you’ve been dreaming of.

Cashing in on a trend when it’s in full swing can cost you a ton of unnecessary time & savings simply on account of the hype and hotness of an idea at any given time. Who’s to say you can’t use that hype as fuel & motivation to complete your very own dream barndominium. I’d like to show you how using popular trends and ideas online as a roadmap, you can arrive at the barndominium that you’ve always dreamt of for much less than everyone else is paying for essentially the same things, just by putting in a little extra work on the side you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

When you have the time to stand back and admire the build quality of a beautiful structure like the great pyramid of Giza, you wonder how something of that magnitude was constructed. Nothing of that size and scale can be built without exquisite planning and knowledge of design on the part of the builders. Building off of the ideas that others have already troubleshot and worked through can also save a lot of money and time, by already knowing the potential trouble areas of a project you can take special care when you run into that portion of the build, I’m in the process of planning my own dream barndominium and I’ve noticed myself taking aspects of other builds and attempting to work those ideas into my own.

I get a lot of things done by launching home D.I.Y projects. Instead of buying design elements, I prefer to buy materials and build my own design elements. I get this from my mother. She’s always decorating or doing arts and crafts at home to some extent or another; My dad is the same way when it comes to woodworking and building, so I’ve picked up a few things growing up that I can use while building my first barndominium. I’m sure that you have skills gained throughout life that you can use toward your build that will help propel you down that road even faster than me.  Using resources like Pinterest is a springboard for so many awesome D.I.Y projects, you don’t have to limit your search inquiries to only barndominium-related ideas. I’ve even drawn inspiration from color combinations that I’ve run into and taken pictures of while out shopping; your resources really are all around you.

I like taking long country drives to see what people in my area are building, It’s nice to stay current on the local trends as much as national trends because at the end of the day you don’t want your house to stand out like a sore thumb because it looks so drastically at odds with all the local residences in the neighborhood.  I always begin my planning process with a good drive to clear my head or even a long brainstorm session alone at my build site can do wonders for me, I can put everything else on the back burner temporarily and have a fresh blank slate to start building my idea from and that’s an important step for me personally and I feel like it helps me set on track to succeed in my project. As well as Pinterest, I like to also tap into the endless knowledge base that is online forums. There are so many great ideas to be gained on forums. I’m a huge advocate of sharing information with others in general and forums are a wonderful place you can go to interact with likeminded people who are most likely doing the same thing you’re doing building their own barndominium. There are forums that are specific to the exact project you’re doing, while some forum categories are more broad and general but my point is you can probably find some ideas on forums that will really surprise you.

Forums are a good place to gauge trends as well. You can ask other readers about specific trends, and what their thoughts are on ideas. It always helps to get feedback from outside sources that are not bias toward you. Forums allow you to do this on a large scale and reach many people in a very short period of time. There are builder-focused forums and sub-contractor-related forums online now that are geared at sharing information between builders with many times posts with step-by step D.I.Y photos and instructions for building projects, anything and everything from the foundation to the roof trusses and everything in between is covered in some of these forums.

Youtube is a less complicated way to find more basic D.I.Y ideas and how to videos related to building your own home, or barndominium-specific projects, whatever it is, you can usually find some content on youtube that will at least cover the topic. Facebook groups are another resource that seems to be fast growing in popularity recently. I’ve noticed barndominium topics showing up all over Facebook, so that tells me barndominiums are still trendy to the masses. 

Springboarding off the sharing of information online and how accessible information is these days, we have more resources at our disposal online as owner-builders than most contractors had to work with just a short 10-15 years ago. We have access to all the current trends, the how-to videos, material lists, cost-to-build breakdowns, budget spreadsheets, cost calculators, house plans, consultants, you name it, all of these tools and resources can be easily found online by anyone. 

Knowing how to spot trends is another skill altogether; if you look at enough barndominium pictures that others have built themselves, you can start to pick things out, things you would do different, things that you really like, you’ll see these types of things rather quickly, different areas of the country have different trends based on the climate and weather. Sliding barn doors are a nationwide barndominium trend.  Florida homes tend to be more colorful and built up off the ground more than other areas of the country. There are hundreds and hundreds of trends you can identify just by looking at pictures of barndominiums built by others, maybe it’s best to even start in your own state or region of the country, just to try to focus on some local trends and building staples that you might not latch onto by simply looking at a national pool of barndominium images.

House plans also have trends, you’ll notice trends in the overall design of a barndominium sometimes you can see where it borrowed certain elements, Buildmax is primarily a house plan company that really takes those trends and design elements and blends them into some really stunning barndominiums that could work just about anywhere in the country with a little personal and regional touches I’m sure. Taking a look at some home plan designs on the Buildmax website, you can understand what I mean. The quality and thought put into the interior layouts coupled with the timeless exterior designs lend themselves to looking great in almost any environment. Take a virtual tour of some of Buildmax most popular designs and browse the many others available; if you don’t see that dream home right away, stay a while and explore more designs, your dream barndominium is waiting.

How will all these rising interest rates affect the barndominium industry? Better yet, how can it affect you?

The sudden rise in interest rates Nationwide is just one of many tools in the federal reserve’s big bag of tricks. They will occasionally use these tools to proactively combat inflation on a grand nationwide scale. Inflation has forced prices up 8.6% in the last year. Everything from food, to fuel, has skyrocketed in recent months. 8.6% happens to be the biggest spike in 40 years. That’s 4 decades. Think about that for a second, the last time interest rates were this high; Star Wars was in theaters and Barry Manilow was on the radio. The Federal Reserve, which is our Central Bank here in the US, is in charge of keeping our economy stabilized and growing, as well as keeping unemployment as low as possible. They can do this by adjusting interest rates, adjusting the Bank’s reserve requirements, thus altering the supply of money. The federal reserve has even resorted to buying and selling treasury bonds on the open market to manipulate interest rates, and in order to directly increase or decrease the supply of cash, our Federal government can be very thrifty if the situation calls for it.  

By raising the interest rates the Federal Reserve hopes to deter the majority of consumers from making large purchases, this is allowing more people to save money When the demand goes down from a spike can interest rates this will typically stabilize the economy the federal government is very skilled at using rates to manipulate the economy take Covid for instance, the federal government lowered rates to almost zero this made it much easier to get loans it allowed for a bun in spending everyone was flush with cash it worked a little too well the government’s end now they are backpedaling and throwing water on the fire to cool the economy down Sam if they aren’t able to slow the inflation we will find ourselves in the middle of a recession similar to the housing crash of 08.

Experts say” it’s a seller’s market” there’s never been a better time to Buy or Sell a home than you lose by not buying or selling. However,  many consumers do tend to wait too long, therefore allowing homes to appreciate while they hesitate. some homes that I’ve looked at have appreciated 10% just in the last year. It’s hard to not make money in a situation like that or at least get a really great deal while you still can, while home values are still appreciating. However, with this new rate hike, fewer and fewer people will be able to qualify, making the situation a fleeting opportunity for some. the time to act is now. 

Just so you can get a picture of what this could mean for you and for the average American in general, say, just last year you took out a $400,000 loan. At that time your mortgage was $1,700 a month; your budget allows for that, no problem. Now, with this new rate hike imposed, that payment has shot through the roof from $1,700 a month to a whopping $2,000 mo in only a matter of a few months, it may as well be overnight, because now your budget is completely upside down and you can’t afford your housing this is a big problem. The Federal Reserve suggests that if you’re looking at buying a home at this time, it may be in your interest to wait to see if the market stabilizes before making your purchase. Housing is becoming a real issue for many Americans, as prices are steadily climbing and cutting individuals out of homes that they could once afford to live in. The average 30-year fixed-rate is hovering around  6%  but just back a few months ago it was at 3.25%. We think it’s rough when prices go up, but it could always get worse, back in the summer of the 1980s about four decades ago. Interest rates hit an all-time high of 15% due to inflation, with an unemployment rate of 7.5% this period in time has been referred to as the great inflation. 

We understand here at Buildmax with the recent increase in rates and the prices, in general, going through the roof in all aspects of our daily life, you’re definitely going to be looking to save money around every corner Buildmax is in a unique position to help you save money to get you into your dream home with affordable house plans all the way through to getting you the best deal we can, all material packages in many cases you can build your dream home for less than buying a home in today’s market this has led many families to re-evaluate their Entire living situation and adopt a more simple lifestyle out in the country to raise a young family. Our goal is to save you money and get you into your dream home Buildmax is ultimately a house plan company, however, in our ever-changing quest to accommodate our customers we have partnered with A couple of material supply companies That provide material packages for post-frame Construction as well as for cold form steel Construction which is an excellent option for any of the barndominium designs that we offer. any designs on our website can be built with traditional wood or for a more rigid, lower maintenance, and longer-lasting option that can withstand some major snow loads and winds beyond anything we are likely to see in the united states, then cold form Steel is definitely the way to go. 

Buildmax can guide you through the whole process from purchasing your plans all the way through ordering your material packages, We can even organize the crew to come out and erect the steel frame in no time flat, it only takes a few men to lift the beams and bolt them into place, it resembles a gigantic erector-set and it’s fascinating to watch it go up. If a steel frame barndominium is something that you’re seriously interested in, we have a couple of articles that go more in-depth on what the cold form steel package includes as well as some ideas on pricing compared to traditional stick-built. 

As you can see interest rates can have a huge impact on someone who’s wanting to buy or build a new home. We feel like we can help mitigate some of that cost through our process. after you run the numbers, you’ll be able to see on paper how much you can save by being in charge of building your own home as opposed to buying in today’s market. We think what you’ll find is that you can afford a much larger barndominium than you ever dreamt possible in a rural setting based on the money you have to work with. We think you’ll really be surprised. Slide on over to Buildmax and browse our beautiful Barndominium designs. We have available our collection of house plans is always growing so if at first, you don’t see something that you absolutely fall in love with, don’t worry. We can work with you to develop just about any kind of barndominium that you want. Maybe you’re a more independent type of person and you want to build a barndominium based on your own drawings. This is no problem either. As a matter of fact, we encourage our customers to be as involved in the design process as they feel comfortable being. this will ensure not only that you know solid details of your home’s construction that may come in handy at a later date. This also ensures that you get exactly what you want in a dream barndominium. We also allow for any one of our house plans to be customized to your family’s needs. say you need to add a bedroom or make the garage bigger. Maybe residents will need a ramp instead of stairs for mobility. These are simple customizations that our design team can make to the home plans. Our goal is to get you into the barndominium of your dreams at a price within your budget, and with the best-priced materials, we can find, allowing you to save money while building your dream.