Planning ahead for our future build.

5 years ago

Pulled the trigger on a building lot. Plan is to list our home in March of '22. While we could do a construction loan with our current mortgage, I really don't want to gamble and end up with 2 mortgages for an extended period of time. So our plan is to put an RV on the site and live in that until the house is shelled out and finished enough to stay in.

The RV will need power, water and septic. I have a generator that can suffice for the power if need be, but I won't have the means to tow a 40' RV to a dump site to empty and refill with fresh water. I am tempted to try and cash flow the well and septic system before we start the construction loan. That way I could get the RV set up on the site ahead of time and it would be able to be lived in.

Anyone ever do anything similar? Will need power and a location for a pressure tank and powering the well pump. Trying to figure out a temp setup for that which can be transferred over to the house once it's ready.

A second question which kind of goes along with this in regards to the well/pressure tank. Our current home has water coming into the pressure tank and distributed throughout the house. There is a 3/4" line that runs outside and is buried over to my shop. Curious with the new build if I should mimic that or if I can install a split off the well and have separate lines and pressure tanks going to the shop and the house?

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Comments (5)

LH On the Move
5 years ago
Check your neighborhood and city/county codes. Many won't allow temporary living, and certainly won't allow you to move in until a certificate of occupancy has been granted.
amodernmountainhome
5 years ago
Yep, your biggest problem will likely be zoning. This wouldn't be allowed where we built.
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Charles Ross Homes
5 years ago
Hi, Walleyemn,

Yes, we've done that. We installed a well and septic system with a special connection to septic for the owner's RV (essentially a dump station.) They lived in the RV during construction of their new home. We typically install a temporary power pole and that also provided power for the RV.

Included in the project scope was construction of a large shop/RV storage building. We installed the well pressure tank in it and fed both the house and the shop from a single pressure tank. Check with your well contractor to see what makes sense for your project.
walleyemn
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks for the responses so far.

I should have mentioned, I am located in North Central MN. We purchased 10 acres of raw land, primarily woods that is about 5 miles from the nearest town. Our county doesn't require building permits, which is weird. I still plan to check into the legalities of everything.

I like the idea of a power pole and dump station hooked to the septic. I was planning on a few 30-50 amp RV outlets on the property in case we have large get togethers and people want to bring their campers.
sheepla
5 years ago
Not exactly the same facts since we already had all utilities on our property but we recently put in a full hook up septic pad for an RV. Right now it is our "guest house" but when we tear the current house down to rebuild in a year or so, it may be our temporary housing for a while.

We are in a very rural area. Pad (gravel, not concrete) was about $4k; electricity (we have it on the property but had to run a line) was about $1500, water line about $2400 and the big expense was the aerobic septic system ($8k) but we positioned that so it is currently connected to our existing house and will be usuable with the new larger house later. We also had to buy a larger propane tank for the RV but our propane company fills it for us when they come out to fill the one for our house.

No building permits whatsoever required where I live (even when we build our new house).

We've been very happy with the results but it was a process.