Colorado Homestead Cost: 864 Square Foot Home With Shop on 2.6 acres: Full Tour & Property Plans

[@ciscokidfab7595]

We are in Chaffee county Colorado. 600sqft house, 820sqft garage and spend most of our time outside. No regrets and love the small living. I think you guys did well.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks! Your setup sounds pretty perfect too. We'll probably do a smaller ranch on the other lot someday for our retirement (don't want to do stairs anymore) home. It's a ways out though......I think.

[@Justin-n1p]

Nice spot, fished Salida a few weeks ago. Started at Stonebridge and worked our way through Canon.

[@DrifterJourney]

Salida is a nice little town. We looked there at one point. Hopefully you caught some.

[@ciscokidfab7595]

@@Justin-n1p it is a very welcoming safe town. Hope you got hooked on some. That is one pretty stretch of water.

[@BorderlandHomesteadAZ]

Nice layout and style. Great job!

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks so much! We're pretty happy with how it turned out! 👌😁

[@mark224466]

Happy for you!

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks! It has definitely been in our minds for several years and it's nice to see it come together.

[@cjg8822]

Awesome home guys, love your channel and excited to see how the grow kits work out for your homesteading!!

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks for watching! We're excited to see how we can build out the property to fit our ever changing lifestyle. We're thinking about a mix of self sufficiency and travel at this point. Luckily it gets cold here so we can't grow food easily year round. That will push us to preserve things and then have a reason to leave for Baja!

[@daynacherry-hancock5178]

Congratulations on your new home! I loved hearing the thought and purpose behind everything.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks! We try to think ahead on a lot of things because everything is so expensive these days. We always get told you can chance it later, which is true, but we would rather prevent that excess waste and use those funds for the good stuff. We're excited to see how we can develop everything over the next couple years.

[@shannonmoore8049]

Well looks like y’all need build that lot next door for friends comin to ski!

[@DrifterJourney]

Or.... you could move here! Lol Maybe one day we'll have something over there. Lots to do!!

[@iamkmann]

Beautiful home guys! We're on a similar path. We bought a small mountain home in 2018, on 1.4 acres in Bailey (4 hours north of you) and are trying to become as self sufficient as possible. We live at 9000' and gardening up here is a challenge, to say the least. We had a greenhouse but the wind destroyed it. We're going to build raised beds this year and also do hydroponics for year round greens and herbs. We also have a Ram Promaster campervan, which is the original reason I started following your channel. I'm really looking forward to seeing how your homestead takes shape.

[@DrifterJourney]

That sounds awesome! Turns out we picked the coldest valley in the area so growing will be difficult here too. It was 5 degrees this morning. We're probably going to start with a high tunnel to extend the growing season. I think a lot of van folks are on the same life path. Seems like we are looking for more self reliance and more adventure!

[@Justin-n1p]

I appreciate the vulnerability of this video. Thanks for explaining everything. I think what people expect to spend and reality are two different things lol. My wife and bought 2 acres, had a 1631 foot house, 3 car garage built, 10x20 barn lofted shed, and xeriscape for $426K. We're very happy with having more land and smaller home. We downsized from 2400 square foot house in the city to more land semi rural in Southern CO. BTW we enjoy get aways to Pagosa, we're south of CO Springs.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks for the comment and sharing your experience. Sounds like you have a sweet setup and got a pretty good deal! What year did you build? Pagosa getaways are what ultimately led us here.

[@Justin-n1p]

@DrifterJourney 2022

[@Justin-n1p]

We were similar to you all we didn't want to spend more than blah, blah, but reality vs what we thought we knew were two different things. Ours was $411k factor in the shed with electricity, and landscaping it came out closer to $425.

[@Justin-n1p]

My wife and I have traditional jobs that we commute into the city for. That 20 minute communicate is nice. I'd rather drive into the city for hustle and bustle /amenities and then drive home to quietness. Enjoy the mtn life and your new home.

[@DrifterJourney]

For sure. We left a small buffer on top of our stretch goal because we had a feeling things would go over budget.

[@jkneeshaw]

Nice house! Appreciate your transparency. I had a well drilled this fall up in the mountains of NE Washington by the leading (and priciest) driller in the area. Ended up going 520' down through mostly granite, and costing a little over $30k. Getting water out of it with the pump, installation, testing, etc looks like it will cost another $5-10k depending on the setup I choose.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks for watching and sharing your well experience! We were quote $30k minimum and folks are hitting water anywhere from 12ft to 60ft in our valley. We have soft soils and should stay above bedrock so we may try it solo at some point. It's crazy how everything adds up!

[@jkneeshaw]

​@@DrifterJourney a DIY sand point well for your garden/orchard sounds like it might be worth a gamble as a starting point.

[@DrifterJourney]

I'll have to check that out. Everyone says to do a culvert well at around 15ft. That would most likely have water most of the year for the garden. I don't want ttospend the money multiple times so we'll ponder options for a bit.

[@sergiostrugar6173]

Very nice house!

[@DrifterJourney]

Thank you! We're pretty happy with how it turned out.

[@caddyzig]

The house looks GREAT and I’m totally envious of that garage and shop space! You’ve sure got a beautiful view. I can’t wait to see how your garden and orchard turns out. How long does your water last between refills? Is there any concern about the cisterns freezing or being able to get water to them in the snow? Also, if you’re worried about snow on the gutters, had you thought about a small patio cover type structure to cover the staircase?

[@DrifterJourney]

Thank you for watching and the fantastic questions! We're excited for the orchard but it may take a long time to produce. We only go through 500-1000 gallons per month currently. I haul up to 290 gallons at a time and usually get it when running other errands so it's not too bad. The cistern shouldn't freeze if we keep it fairly full in the winter and we should be able to get back there with the tractor to fill if it's bad. Worst case.....we'll get a pump to fill from the driveway. The builder talked about a cover for the stairs but that would block our passive southern heat from the sun. We'll keep pondering ideas to remedy it though.

[@KevinDaniArnold]

Nice! I love it! I’ve been planing on making something just like this but I’ve lost all content creating motivation + time

[@DrifterJourney]

We hear you about the motivation and time! We'd love to hear about your if/when you ever put something out......or when we see you next. We still have to figure out a plan for the second lot someday and what you did might be an option.

[@18twilliams]

You should consider a uv water sterilizer!

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks for sharing. Does that do something extra for the city water that we haul? I have thought about putting a whole house filter system in but don't know if it's needed. We do filter our drinking water.

[@grubbyssmokeshack]

Thanks for making this video. I'm dying to do something similar closer to Durango but I'm from Western Kentucky, one of the cheapest places to live in the country so it's tough to handle those mountain town prices.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thanks for watching! The mountain towns just seem to keep going up. We thought this would be our last chance to get in since we're no longer working traditional jobs. We tried looking hard out east but decided we couldn't do the humidity. We also wanted a good jumping off point for Baja road trips.

[@PerryApfelbeck-wk5mk]

Very nice looking house and property!! Gutters and heat tape above the deck and you'll be good.

[@DrifterJourney]

Thank you! Everyone says that gutters get ripped off here but I think we want to try. That side is south facing so it should stand the best chance of surviving.

[@PerryApfelbeck-wk5mk]

Yup I'm a GC. We live in Dillon CO. South facing your probably fine. Heat tape in the gutters and a few feet up the roof would guarantee it. I've messaged you guys before. You have a open invite to join us in Puerto Penasco anytime. We have a place there and know of a awsome place to camp on on the beach at a estuary.

[@DrifterJourney]

That's great perspective, thank you! Everyone here is very skeptical of gutters, so it's nice to hear that we're not crazy. Thanks for the open invite to your place in puerto penasco, we'll have to join you sometime when our routes are aligned! 🤞😁

[@augustbrante8117]

Hi I hope you get a chance to read this. I live in Medellin Colombia and own a small business in AZ . But spent most my adult life in CO and really miss it. Thinking about coming back really want to do a Barndominium in CO. Then do the van life too. Is there any company you know of like they have in Texas that do full builds in CO? To us if we do this we want to Air B&B the home when we travel and do the vanlife. Our thinking in a resortish town close to Denver or the Springs Pls share you thoughts I am total sponge on any info I can get! :)

[@DrifterJourney]

Hi, thanks for watching and for the comment. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a builder willing to build a barndo for a reasonable price in our small town. You would probably have more luck near a bigger city. Barndos aren't super popular here, so many of our areas builders don't know how to build them. Best of luck on your plan for the airbnb and vanlife! Sounds fun!