What’s Up! sweet friends?  

If you are loving the farmhouse style, but do not have the cash for a total makeover, well… this is the case with most of us especially during this pandemic when inflation is out of the roof. You have heard the phrase (penny pinching) growing up as a child, and never really understood the phrase until you moved out on your own. That is when you truly grasp the concept of the meaning. We all like a change of scenery from time to time, and our homes are our sanctuaries. Adding modern farmhouse touches can be easy and inexpensive. You do not have to break the bank and start from scratch. Modern farmhouse décor can be found in so many places these days. Dollar General and Family Dollar are introducing a large line of farmhouse décor. My favorite place is with family and friends who just do not want old things. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. 

 What is a modern farmhouse? It is the clean lines of contemporary and mixing in cozy farmhouse vibes. Cozy and simple is what blends the two together. Natural textures, such as linen, cotton and cloth painters canvas mixed with natural wood tones and adding in a few vintage pieces such as dishes or furniture pieces. We should love our surroundings and add beauty to our homes. We should start at the front door. Nothing says welcome like a door mat and a flower basket on your front door. This is an eye catcher for guests as they walk up to your front door. You can change the flowers and look out easily for different seasons just by changing out the flowers and ribbon. Easy and inexpensive. Now for some living room inspiration. Imagine yourself as a first-time guest entering your home. Colorful pillows and a throw on your sofa or chair for contrast and texture. Black, cream, and grey are more of the modern farmhouse colors but put your own spin on the colors try mixing farmhouse black and white buffalo check pillows with a solid red pillow. A wicker serving tray or wooden tray with a plant and colorful candles. Start here for instant gratification and work your way up until you achieve the look you desire. Then move on to your next room. Don’t be afraid to try new projects. Even if you live in a brick home. You can deliver the same look by painting your brick white and adding wooden porch beams. Inspiration is as close as your computer, tablet, or phone. 

Hope this gives you a place to refresh and redesign your home into a modern farmhouse style. 

I have read so many articles online lately titled “What is a Barndominium” most do a fantastic job going over what a Barndominium is, unfortunately people are still confused and sometime more confused after reading a few articles that do not jive with each other. I would like to clear the air on a few things right out of the gate. First defining a Barndominium, Barndominium is a made-up term to describe a custom-built home that has styling cues taken from pole barn construction builds, or for you northerner’s post beam construction. Many people since hearing the term believe that a barndominium is a metal building that resembles a barn. This is only half true, a Barndominium can absolutely be a metal building that looks like a barn; however, it does not have to be a metal building and that is where a lot of confusion is held unfortunately. Many of our clients here at Buildmax build barndominiums out of wood the same way you would build any other home. Other clients do choose to build with metal, either a full steel building from the roof down or even a partial steel building where it’s framed with wood and wrapped in metal as the exterior siding. The point is that a barndominium can be built in many ways with many diverse types of materials it’s not a cookie cutter home it’s a custom-built home with the materials and house plan of your choosing whether it’s a stock house plan or one you designed on a cocktail napkin Buildmax will turn them into custom professionally drafted house plans for your custom barndominium.  

 Another misconception that I find hard to wrap my head around is that many people we speak with think that because they are building a barndominium they have Limited options when it comes to materials, builders, styling, and financing, this is not true. You are building a custom designed home so honestly your imagination can run wild when you are designing the layout, style, etc. you have much more freedom when you are in control of the design process so I cannot really understand why people believe they are limited to certain materials just because they are building a barndominium.  

 Banks can be a little tricky to deal with since the housing market crashed, everyone knows it’s more difficult to get a loan today than it was before the fall of 2008, Don’t be discouraged, banks are still in the business of lending out money and basically every loan officer you talk to is on your side and want you to get a loan so they can make a commission, so knowing that you can confidently provide the bank with everything that they like to see to increase your chances of walking away with the loan package of your dreams. Most banks nowadays like to see a well-planned out build with everything on paper with all your bases covered, a nice cost to build spreadsheet or breakdown, a budget that you have drafted up, it’s important to allow the bank to experience your organizational skills in your proposal or plan, good credit will obviously be a huge help to you in this situation by getting a better rate based solely on your credit score. Something else a bank will want to see is an extended period with a stable account balance no overdrafts preferably, stable savings is a big plus that sort of thing. The banks’ goal in this is only to keep their risk to a minimum by ensuring that you can pay back the loan in full or at the bare minimum you have a very stable and responsible record of accomplishment.  

 I have heard people say that steel Barndominiums are not very energy efficient on account of the metal not being a good insulator of heat. Metal overall is a terrible insulator of heat compared to anything really, a mud brick hut is going to keep you warmer than a cold steel box that’s only common sense, right? I will tell you what else is common sense and that is the fact that nobody builds a home today without top-quality insulation to serve as a barrier between the exterior wall and the framed-up interior walls. Without this insulation, yes! You will be sitting in a metal box, and it will not be enjoyable in the winter or the summer at that rate. However, with insulation, it just makes for an extremely comfortable and energy-efficient metal barndominium. 

 Some People are under the impression that living a simpler lifestyle means giving up everything that you hold dear or have grown to love. This is also false, People advocating for a more Minimalistic and energy efficient homes are just pushing for the populous to embrace renewable energy to maintain a more conservative approach to energy use and even material items, this idea has grown in the last 5-10 years and shows no signs of slowing. People are seeing value in living a simpler lifestyle opposed to a fast-paced busy lifestyle in the city, or a nice size home in the suburbs, either way you will contend with crazy electric bills, privacy issues, unnecessary maintenance fees, and many more reasons to switch your lifestyle to something a little more simplistic, quiet, reasonable, and my favorite. Customized. Living minimalist does not mean you are living like you are homeless eating beans from a can 3 days a week or that you are financially destitute. Quite the opposite, you are saving money by using renewable energy allowing you to use that $ of other things. It is simply another way to proactively help the environment by not purchasing unnecessary items. I have overheard more than one person this holiday season discussing a resolution to not use plastic bags this year. This choice is a great start to living free of clutter and doing your part for the environment and with so much waste in the world it’s going to take us all working as one to make a change.

With the tornado season right around the corner for most of the US, here in the southeast where I have lived my whole life, many people get on edge this time of year and it brings on a lot of anxiety for many people. Some people chose to build in rural communities where you must be more self-reliant. In response, many have gravitated towards using engineering to reinforce their steel frame barndominiums, when you consider that a tornado can have winds of up to 300mph in the most extreme cases but even at a standard F2 which is a significant tornado wind speeds range from 113-150mph according to the national weather service the damage you can expect with an F2 category tornado includes “Considerable damage. Roofs tore off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated” After reading that I can understand why some people would get anxious. So that got me thinking, can my barndominium withstand an F2 tornado? Do I need to reinforce my barndominium?  

 Everyone thinks steel reigns supreme in defending against the wind, after a little research I have concluded a steel frame building can withstand between 160-170mph, respectively. I personally believe it will take much stronger gusts of wind than that somewhere closer to 200 potentially? however, no steel building company will put their name on a quote like that. Insulated concrete forms or ICF for short is a method of building that incorporates insulated concrete blocks in the construction, what is interesting is that an ICF barndominium can withstand 200mph winds from an F2 tornado. ICF was popularized in Florida where they are no strangers to fierce winds. You cannot even tell the barndominium was constructed with ICF blocks as you can wrap it in any exterior siding you like. I’m not saying the siding will weather the storm, but the structure should stand strong. 

 A fantastic product that I’ve noticed being used more often with stick-built barndominium homes in the Midwest is the installation of amazing above ground steel storm shelters being incorporated into barndominium builds all over the country but hugely popular in the Midwest due to the long intense storm seasons as well as being in one of the best locations for atmospheric activity in America, the beauty of one of these steel structures really shows in the adaptability of the unit, they bolt to a concrete floor but can be positioned within the home, possibly in a basement, or outside the home in a shed or simply in your backyard.  You can look at a handful of quality-built structures and different models on websites such as tornado master.com to see if they would bring some peace of mind to your home in the event of a dangerous storm. 

According to a report by the government agency FEMA has come out and stated that newly built wood homes if built due to current codes a home built with quality lumber can expect their home to withstand up to 150mph winds which are quite impressive, it just goes to show the importance of reinforcement if you live in a storm rich area. The newly enacted codes compared to the old codes will help increase the load the house can withstand and extend the life of the home. Functional shutters are another popular feature on many new homes, the faux shutters have been popular since the 70’s but recently customers are wanting authentic, functional shutters to protect their windows in case of heavy rain or hail shutters were successfully used for centuries before they fell out of popular favor, but like everything else, it’s making a comeback with the younger crowd.  

Winter storms can be another concern depending on your location, being snowed in, and having a warm place to live is essential to just about everyone, the weight of snow has had some of our customers worried this winter, a roof is designed in such a way that the snow will slide off the roof if too much is collected, however in some cases, this does not happen, not to worry. How much snow is too heavy for your roof to handle? Lucky for you it takes a lot of snow to compromise the integrity of your roof, at least somewhere over 20lbs per sqft of roof space, to put it into perspective about a foot of snow; 12 inches is somewhere around 7lbs per square foot of roof space. So, in most cases, you are going to be fine, the pitch of the roof will keep substantial amounts of snow on the roof limited and will also promote the melting and drainage of the snow. Some customers with flatter pitches that could potentially collect amounts of snow will install sections of small heating elements to slowly melt the snow so there is no chance of any damage during a snowstorm. Gutters are also an essential element when trying to manage the flow of water as you want it directed away from the home to avoid any pooling or flooding anywhere near windows or doors.  

We hope this article gives you something to think about and consider when building your own barndominium just knowing you have options that you have not fully considered should get you excited to see what else could be out there for you to make your barndominium a safe happy place to call home. 

When it comes down to how your barndominium is seen and perceived from the road this is called curb appeal; the architectural attraction from the point of view of the road is what we are talking about. As the proud owner of a barndominium you have thought to yourself many times and contemplated diverse ways to improve the look of your home, you settle on something as standard and simple as picking up sticks and fallen branches out of your front yard keeping it fresh and clean with an unobstructed view. Unbelievably and as simple as it is yard work is the number one activity homeowners actively engage in to improve the look and curb appeal of their barndo’s. However, if you want to improve the curb appeal of your home beyond simple yard work it’s best to begin with just a simple weekend project that is economically realistic as well as simple and quick you want to start out easy and with a single project, so you do not take on too much too fast and end up with unfinished projects. You will honestly be shocked at the impact some of these weekend D.I.Y projects can have in such a short amount of time and with a surprisingly little amount of physical labor in most cases as well, the easy nature of the labor makes it available to about anyone young or old who happens to be interested in improving the overall curb appeal of their barndominium. Let us highlight and list some easier style projects that you can start and even finish today!  

Flower beds in the landscape can get kind of expensive depending on how far you want to go with it you can do a simple landscaping job or the Magnificent landscaping job both will bring attention to your home you can sometimes get a lot of good Landscaping work done for a relatively cheap price having your yard landscaped makes your barndominium pop like nothing else will don’t be embarrassed to walk to the end of your driveway or around your home to take in the whole scene to really get a good view for yourself or even go down there and sketch out a few drawings if it’ll help you visualize a plan, where things would look the best, what kind of layout you would like, and where you would like certain flower beds arranged to have a good plan instead of going in blind will save you a lot of time and money and this is a good way to visualize an end product. 

 Barndominium siding the wood and brick look genuinely nice from the road and carry a lot of curb appeal especially coupled with the right Landscaping as we have talked about for driveway materials can also affect the curb appeal the Cobblestone driveway looks better from the road than a dirty old gravel driveway that stretches up to your home. Also, along with the siding the color that you choose in the style of shutters is also a factor you want shutters that show nicely from a distance and may contrast the color of your home adding some depth.  

Let us talk accessories for a quick minute, gazebos, and glider swings as well as Lily Ponds actual ponds, or other outside structures really help to tie everything in the yard together. if you have a pond a building a dock something to fish from about maybe a small shed anything that will add curb appeal to your yard is usually a good thing biscuit add substantial curb appeal to a newly built home or barndominium for a shophouse having a nice Pond as a front drop in your house as a backdrop really accentuates the features of the home  

Floodlights and accent lights for your home can bring attention to your Barndominium from the road after the sun goes down. This allows your home to be seen at all hours, not wasting any curb appeal at night. This is a smart way to get more curb appeal time for your barndominium. Lights on the front of a barndominium have become immensely popular recently, it can double as a security feature giving you light at night keeping Critters and other unwanted visitors away but also draws attention from the road in a subtle elegant kind of way. accent lights for the windows and the flower beds we are also extremely popular they allow anyone driving by to see your Landscaping even at nighttime with all the work that you have put into the landscaping it’s nice for it to be seen at all hours of the day and night and brings plenty value to the curb appeal of your home.  

A more extensive and time-consuming project can really pay off in the end given that you have the patience, determination, and overall knowledge to plan and pull off a project of that size. One such project Would be to build beautiful retaining walls out front on either side of your front door, made up of material of your choice that is easily accessible and affordable in your area, that’s creek rock or paving stones, in your area brick or specialty blocks designed specifically for building large retaining walls are easy to come by. The retaining walls will step down in tears very reminiscent of the Graduated terrace steps built in the Rice paddies of Vietnam, Laos, and other southeast Asian countries for thousands of years. The walls will start from the front of the house at the base of the porch, moving out towards the front yard creating a stunning visual effect from the road especially when accompanied by accent lighting and custom landscaping allowing for all your projects to come together resulting in a barndominium with a unique one-of-a-kind style of curb appeal that is all your own. 

Building a barndominium can be super exciting and a real dream come true for most families! There is something incredibly special and almost magical about being a part of constructing your family’s dream home. Unfortunately, if you’re not experienced or properly informed on the process of construction, it can easily become bogged down and plagued by costly mistakes.

A large majority of the construction process will be done by specialists in whatever field you’re working on; drywall, electrical, framing, etc. More than likely, you will only be involved in the planning aspect. However, many mistakes can be made at the planning level that will reverberate across the whole house build. Poor planning, in the beginning, can affect the outcome or severely hinder the building process. Any poorly planned or drawn instructions on your barndominium floor plans for the builder will have to be corrected if you don’t want to cause a catastrophe late in the build. Below we have included some of the most common mistakes made and how to avoid them from the beginning.

When DIY goes wrong

Getting in over your head happens easier than you believe it could. It could happen to anyone, by not having the skills & experience for a certain job. It can cause more problems even when you have the best intentions like taking on a project to save money. This is where many first-time home builders trick themselves into taking on projects that are essentially out of their wheelhouse. This can cause delays when you eventually run into a problem that you don’t have the prior knowledge to overcome. At this point, a professional must come in to finish up your failed DIY project. With careful diligent planning, you can determine if you have the skills to complete the DIY project or if it would be in everyone’s best interest to hire a professional for the job from the onset. Hiring a professional to fix your failed project will be a much more challenging task as builders don’t like to fix others’ mistakes. They like to start with a clean slate. 

Skimping on Materials

There are many reasons why Builder might skimp on materials whether he wants to put a few more bucks in his pocket or he just prefers to use cheaper materials it almost certainly comes down to money In The End. Listening to the recommendations of your builder can save you in the long run  Or it could cost you depending on the motivations of your Builder. By saving money on sub-par materials you are really causing your family more hardships in the long run as the materials will break down at a quicker rate Leading to more repairs, more material, and more cost when all could be avoided with quality materials being obtained in the first place.. Sub-par materials that are constructed with little or no oversight will not hold up to the rain and wind over time, the materials may look good on a superficial level but won’t hold up to the elements over time. This is especially important in areas of the country with extreme weather conditions. Builders know the best materials to use for the areas they serve. You can get some of your best information and recommendations from builders in your area on specific materials and how to get the most for your money out of those materials all it takes is some extra effort in tracking down the top builders and having an honest conversation. Getting the best deals on your building material is different from skimping on materials and there’s a right and wrong way to do mostly everything when building a home.

Location, location, location

Switching gears, a bit, focusing on the location of the build, most people don’t have the luxury of having tons of properties to choose from. They sometimes have already purchased the property and it’s not realistic to assume all those properties are perfectly flat and ready to build on. The terrain of the property is especially important. Is it conducive to build on? Are there any flood plains within the property? Are there lines already for water and gas? Does the location need to be cleared of brush and trees? Does the location meet your needs as far as being in a good school district or being close to your job? These are all things to consider before purchasing your property to avoid any issues down the road.

Not pre-planning your build

Not planning your build properly and I stress properly is probably the most common mistake of all when it comes to building your barndominium. When I say planning I mean having a strong budget and an even stronger cost to build breakdown, many times people don’t realize the planning involved in building their own barndominium and they either underestimate material costs because they didn’t use the house plans to get quotes, Things like this can be avoided with just a little pre-planning as well as being well organized, having everything organized and on paper will save you a lot of stress and headache especially when you’re in the thick of the build with workers yelling and running around and you need a copy of a specific document for the inspector, in a situation such as this being prepared and organized will take you a long way.  

There are many more common home building mistakes out there, but these three mistakes seem to pop up time after time. It’s important to always be aware of common mistakes and things you can do to avoid issues building your very own barndominium dream home. Stay vigilant and determined and always do proper research on whatever project you’re working on knowing what to avoid before you start.