I was poking around and found this old thread -- thought I'd update it a bit. We haven't moved onto the land (yet). I did some figuring, and it would have been about three years before we could have moved into the house. (I had been planning to move the travel trailer over there as soon as we had water, septic, and electricity in, but someone was reporting anyone living 'illegally' on their property, and that would have been illegal, even though we would have been building a house. Oregon has it's good points, but in that area it stinks.) We were living in a 26' fifth-wheel parked at my mother and step-father's place, and SF and I don't always get along that well (sometimes he's fine, sometimes he's awfully grumpy -- his doctor thinks he's bi-polar, and he has PTSD from 'Nam).
So, I looked at an older double-wide on an acre and a half that a friend had for sale, near my land (only about half a mile away), and we bought that and are living in it. There are pro's and con's -- gorgeous view, and I like the layout of the house -- and I love that the property taxes for house and land are under $200/year!! The double-wide is not very big (800 s.f. plus a 10' X 15' addition that serves as an entry and utility room), but it's had a lot of work done on it, and is well insulated with good-quality windows, and an attractive wood floor made of 2 X 12's (hard to clean, though, as the boards shrunk and left cracks between them). We heat with a wood stove, and have lots of natural light; there's a large deck on the south side, but it isn't often usable -- either too much wind or too many bugs any time it's warm enough to be out there. I put in a small patio on the other side of the house, where the front door is -- it's in the corner sheltered by the addition, so is protected from the wind.
Cons -- there isn't much mass in the house to hold heat; with good insulation and windows, it doesn't lose heat as rapidly as it could, but in cold weather I do have to keep the fire going all the time. I'd really like to be able to use a masonry stove or a rocket mass heater, but doubt that the floors would support anything that heavy and I'm not sure about cutting holes in the floor of an old mobile home.
Also, we are sitting on the side of a hill (thus, the great view over the valley), up on blocks rather than on a solid foundation. This isn't much of an issue unless we have a bad earthquake, which could happen in this area!
We have good water from the well, but the well is pretty deep for a hand pump (nearly three hundred feet deep). So that's another issue.
So, at the present time, I'm trying to decide whether to proceed with building on the other land -- which is paid for (I bought the second lot from my step-father, so I've got over twice as much land over there as I have here, and there's likely to be adjacent lots available sooner or later), or stay here. Or sell both of them and move up onto the Tableland, which seems to have a growing season up to a month longer, even though it's higher! The soil isn't great up there, but it's easier to improve soil than to make the growing season longer (without building a greenhouse). Wells are not much deeper up there than what I have here at the house.
Kathleen