# Pole barn with living quarters????



## billooo2 (Nov 23, 2004)

I posted this in the "Questions" forum, but I would also like to get the perspective of singles,,,,

I am planning to sell my current property. I am looking at land and talking with a couple builders. I want a VERY SMALL house (a little larger than a 'tiny house/tumbleweed-type of house')..... storage shed......and a pole barn (I have dairy goats.....and occasionally have chickens, raise a calf, etc.)

Both builders have suggested that I might think about just building a slightly larger pole building and having the living quarters inside the pole barn.

Having the living quarters on a second floor is not really an option ........my right leg has been amputated, and stairs are too difficult to constantly deal with.

I am having great difficulty trying to wrap my head around the idea of living on the same level and under the same roof as the goats, chickens. etc.

Has anyone actually seen this done????? Any pictures????......pictures would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i got no pictures but i certainly remember it. there were so many people living like that when i was a child. my uncle had a covered walkway from his part to the barn part like a porch i suppose because it was all in the one building. worked for them. i'm planning on getting a small place built on my property but i'm sure the powers that be would frown on that these days. ~Georgia.


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## tambo (Mar 28, 2003)

I've been thinking about doing the same thing here. I have a friend that did this. Her house was taken by a tornado. She built one of these back. She loves hers. Her insurance is only like a hundred dollars a year or something like that because they consider it a barn. 

There was/is a guy on HT ericjeepers maybe that built a nice house from a metal building. He documented here with pictures and everything. I don't think his was partly a barn though.

Another lady I use to work with did this too. They raised horses. Hers was part barn. I talked to her about it once and she sounded very pleased with it.


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

I believe sidepasser's place is like this(the one she has for sale). Horse stalls on one side and living quarters on the other.

I think it's a great idea. A pass through door for ease in taking care of the animals in all the nasty weather.


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## tambo (Mar 28, 2003)

I found this

http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/pole_barn_house

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/co...tead-construction/466284-pole-barn-house.html


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

My second husband and I lived in our pole barn while building a house. 

We didn't share it with livestock, although I suppose it could be done!

The house I live in now has a goat shed attached to the back, and our hay barn (really just a lean-to) is along one side.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

Interesting idea, and I have seen pics of dairy operations (older pics) where the family and livestock were under a common roof. It would seem that you would need to make keeping it clean easy and a priority. The barns at our home place (and the barns I've built) were (are) down wind from the residence. If I get slack at mucking things out, the smell doesn't head up to the house, and the barn flies are several hundred feet away too. 

Best wishes with moving forward, and it is surprising to me that you are considering this. You've always seemed very content (and busy) on your farm.


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

If I were to do something like this, I'd put a buffer room between the two areas-garage, tool or storage room.

Years ago we took a tour of a round barn in WV that had raised cows on the lower level and 1/2 of the top was their living quarters and the other 1/2 was hay storage.


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2013)

Sidepasser just recently posted photos of her place in Georgia ? In the real estate section.

When I lived in Maine, everyone I knew had their barn attached to their house via a wide enclosed hall.. This allows for nasty winter winds and ice storms to be more tolerable when tending livestock/poultry

They key, IMHO , was that enclosed hall .. Odors, vermin and insects were kept out of the house .. All of these enclosed halls entered into the far end of the kitchen.. A person left the kitchen, put on his barn boots and jacket in the hall where they were kept on pegs... Opened up the inside barn door, closed it behind him and "voila"


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

I have a 3 bedroom, kitchen, bath, huge hall, and office connected to the barn by a breezeway type room that has shelves on one side and the attic is above and the other side would have been the back of the walk in closet from the bedroom.

I was in process of completing the interior of the harn (that is what I call my house/barn combo) when I had to move. The whole place is plumbed including the barn, has electric, ceiling fans in the house, a whole house exhaust fan, double paned windows, and I use wood to heat the house.

Taxes are low because i built this way and the insurance is very low, although it is comparable with a house, but the ins. company considered it a very, very fancy barn - lol..

Horses on one side and the walls are insulated so you did not hear them very often. The horse side had a cement aisleway, cement stalls that were matted, fans for the stalls, electric sockets next to each stall, overhead water misting system for summer time cooling (that is the coolest thing, set it on a timer and it comes on and keeps the horses cool by misting them, and the fan helps the evaporation rates), there is a tack room, feed room, and a storage room on that side as well.

Very low odor because one has to be diligent about keeping the barn clean, but horse folks that build this way generally have a cleaner barn than house.

got to run, have a meeting in four minutes...


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## Shadohart (Aug 30, 2013)

... And as the person thrilled to be getting sidepassers place, you can certainly sell later if you need to. You might have naysayers but don't listen to them. It's a brilliant design.

Totally looking forward to finishing the house and bringing critters back to all the improvements she put so much heart into.

Go for it! We will be documenting our adventure starting oct 1 if you still need to see pics.


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## Molly Mckee (Jul 8, 2006)

Our neighbors have a large horse barn and indoor arena with a two bedroom apartment attached. They lived there while they built a house. It's nice.

Years ago friends of our built a house with the master bedroom over the garage. They turned the garage into a horse barn, both were vets so it was really nice. All they had to do was pull up a trap door in the bedroom floor to see the horse below. People said they would never be able to sell it, when the time came it took about 12hours.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

billooo2 said:


> I posted this in the "Questions" forum, but I would also like to get the perspective of singles,,,,
> 
> I am planning to sell my current property. I am looking at land and talking with a couple builders. I want a VERY SMALL house (a little larger than a 'tiny house/tumbleweed-type of house')..... storage shed......and a pole barn (I have dairy goats.....and occasionally have chickens, raise a calf, etc.)
> 
> ...


I'm not sure that it is common in other places but in Saskatchewan, I have seen quite a few large dairy barns built into the side of a hill and the animals are housed in the second story (what we would think of as the hayloft) and the humans reside on the main floor area. I was told that a lot of the families immigrated from Germany and the concept is or was quite common there.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

We have built cabins that we rent. They are on large in town lots, up to an acre in size. We built the buildings on a continuous concrete slab, cabins are 1 bedroom, bath and great room, 16'x24'. Some have 12'x16' open carports and an 8'x16' insulated storage shed. Some have an insulated garage and no storage building. Some have both. I have added a lean to animal shelter to 3 of them, some to the storage shed, some to the garage wall with 3-4"x4" posts set in the ground for the other wall and with 2"x6" rafters. The renters like this set up well, most of my renters are elderly and don't get around too well. The yards are fenced and several like to have goats, chickens or rabbits It seems to work well, no one complains....James


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