As you said, prices will vary widely (and wildly.) Sadly I've never had the means to build something like this, but a friend of mine built and lived in this home (and sold it a couple of years ago.) You can see pics of his basketball court but it's on the high end (the beams alone...) In terms of lessons learned, wooden floors can get damaged from high heels etc. when the space is used for parties. I think they ended up getting some coverings that they could roll out over the floor for parties. For regular use I think he had some signs up saying no street shoes on the floor. So you'll want to carefully review flooring and consider your tolerance for dings.

Hard to tell from the pics but he had cages over the lights. I never saw him change the bulbs or clean the windows, but those are considerations of course. In this case the gym was accessed through the home's basement and from an outside door that led to a stairwell down about a flight of stairs; from the outside it looked like it was one story. I don't know if that's an option for you or if it interests you, but in this case it was nice that the gym didn't overwhelm the house, since they were connected.

Trusses or some kind of roof support without posts will be another consideration since you want a large open space. This might be where a large part of the expense comes from.

I'm glad you're planning on having a bathroom. Your barn could be an awesome place for practices and parties, so I think you'll appreciate having a bathroom there. Enjoy!

Wow- that's amazing! Thank you for sharing. And great tips- hadn't thought about the roof line other than we know it needs to be high, but yes, that will add costs. Thanks again!

We built basically half the structure you’re talking about as a workshop. Without the plumbing. Vaulted only 1/4 of it for the auto lift clearance. 62K in today’s money with us doing all the labor but the excavating and slab pour. A 60x60 square will have a lot of issues with roof size and shape. Square isn’t good. Rectangle is good. A big square will need steel trusses and supports. A 30 x 120 or something rectangular that works within a standard inexpensive wooden truss widths will be a lot less expensive.

Planning in a bathroom was something that we really wanted. We were not allowed to connect to the existing septic. Sewer was available, but the whole property would have been forced to connect. That was 40K from a plumber and not allowed to be DIY. (My neighbor had to redo theirs, and it was 35K) So to do half of your projected project would have been 100K here in a low labor cost market with mostly DIY.

You are planning on climate control? No wood basketball floors without it. Or woodshop. Ours is insulated well enough to not need a large system, but that too had its costs. Insulation requires a finished drywall surface for fire prevention issues. No HVAC without insulation, or you’re trying to heat the outdoors as my grandmother would say.

You are planning on cooking ventilation if the grill is under roof? You’ll asphyxiate without it. We just pull the grill out to the driveway between the house and shop which serves as a patio.

I don’t think 100K will be enough to do this. You can plan it in stages though, if you plan it correctly. The big wild card is the plumbing issue. Hire a plumber to consult now about the siting and connecting issues, before you do anything else. If allowed to connect, the existing plumbing could limit where you place the barn.

Good luck!

Great insight- thank you! It won't be a true square-- thinking the traditional barn layout with room on either side (don't know the term)-- one will be storage, the other will be more of a patio for the kitchen (open walls). The inside will be closer to 50 x 36 or something along those lines. Also no heating, but good to think about. PNW weather is relatively mild so think we will be ok. Likely do simple electric heat in bathroom and other room as necessary, but we will see.

Thanks so much!

Thank you! Such great insight!