Hi all, Just wanted to chime in on this thread. I am starting my 3rd self-built home project. (Yes, I need to have my head examined) I run a remodeling company so it's not completely insane. Previous comments about kitchens and baths being core expenses are right on the money--- so to speak. They are expensive. Building one in an apartment and then a new one in your finished house is really shooting yourself in the foot. Try this instead. Build with the foot print of a 3 car garage, say 38 x 25, but only utilize the space a two car garage would generally take up as garage space--- 25x25. Use the 25x10 part to put your permanent stair, a foyer and your permanent kitchen in. Now you can think of the space over the garage as a second story of your finished home. You can get 2-3 bed rooms and a bonus out of the space with a hall bath. Unless you really need an apartment this approach can save a bunch of cash. Someone was asking about standing seam metal roofing. If you use the commercial folks you see on TV expect to be asked to pay $65 a square foot. I had one come out and give me a quote just to check it out. It was a real manipulative "hard sell" with all these "bonuses" and "programs" available "if you sign today." Be very careful. No matter how you slice it it's a rip. Either HD or Lowes will special order metal roofing for you. Its's not hard to install. (Be careful, wear sneakers and don't bend down on your knees, it is really slick.) If this is your forever house, install 40 year architectural asphalt. It looks nice and will likely outlive me. Good Luck and Be careful out there! Bruce

In my jurisdiction they are prohibited

Oh man YES. I had to repeatedly remind myself that we CHOSE to sell first. I still think it was the best way to go but it stunk. No 2 ways about it. It was 10 months in an old home on a very loud and busy street with no dishwasher, no air and one bathroom and no garage during the worst winter in over 30 years. The well was so bad that you could not shower, wash dishes and do laundry at one time. In fact you could only do 1 of those things and we had 2 boys in sports! It was at month 2 when I turned the faucet on to fill a pan with water and brown came out I had it! So they did put a new well in finally but it was still not pleasant. Did I mention those little lady bug things were everywhere? I would fill the sink to wash dishes and they would get in the water while I was washing. Totally CREEPED OUT! Kitchen had no vent fan and no light above the stove-black painted cabinets and red walls. I did set the smoke detectors off more than once and had to put up one of those puck lights just to see what I was cooking! I told my husband it was an assault on all of your senses, depressing! It was dark, loud, damp, cold and smelled old! We made good use of the sound machine mentioned above. We already owned it because dh worked midnights for a while. I didn't sleep for about a month off and on-Tylenol PM was my friend. Semi's would shake the house. You could not even hear the tv when traffic went by, the living room was the lightest (most windows), loudest and coldest room. The day we received occupancy I walked out with the kids and the coffee pot, literally. We slept at the new house for a couple nights and I gathered myself up to go back and actually start moving boxes and I could not believe the marked difference in feeling when I walked in to that dark kitchen. It truly was like a cave. Our new house has so many windows-love the light. There were not many or any other options where we lived to keep the kids near school and it was totally no lease, month to month. That I know was worth a lot but it was quite miserable indeed. We made it though and you will too. Battle scars I tell ya! Hang in there. This post was edited by Autumn.4 on Fri, Jul 18, 14 at 19:40

I did this once in the 1980s. Even in a town with tight zoning and strict enforcement of buiding codes, they had no problem with granting the varience I needed to set the mobile home closer to the road then the setbacks allowed. The connection to the septic tank would never have met code for a permanent installation. (Too steep and above grade.) I had to get the building permit for the permanent house first and promise them the mobile home would be removed within a year. They told me that if steady progrss was being made on the house, they would be happy to grant an extension of the 1 year limit. When the project was finished, I sold the mobile home for a bit more than I paid for it. As an aside, a co-worker was moving to California at the time and needed a place to park some of his modest automobile collection until he settled in. I promised him that I would dutifully start and drive his mostly restored 1960 Bentley on a regular basis. The folks in the neighborhood who initially thought "trailer trash" when they saw the used mobile home being towed in were at a loss for words when I pulled the Bentley into the drive. Wayne