Building off of the grid is a bit more expensive than we anticipated. The desire to be isolated, have good views, and have plenty of land are the driving forces, so it is still worth it. It’s just expensive. For about a 2000ft road, we’re getting estimates from large establish companies for around $75,000. That’s for 1750ft of gravel, and 250ft of concrete. Moving the house a bit closer to the main road can shave off $5,000+. Lot placement will be huge in this regard. We’ll also have to balance a road that blends in with the surrounding environment versus just going from point A to point B.

To make it worse, they are also a pain to get right. Local fire code forces roads longer then 250ft to be 20ft wide with large turn arounds at all ends so that two trucks can pass. This makes for gigantic circle drives. Local code, understandably, requires signed paperwork for any land the road passes through that is not owned by us to permit use of the road. These sorts of challeneges can be overcome, but they add to the overall complexity of the project. We’re used to a normal house off of a neighborhood street where you just run everything 50ft.

Electricity is under the same considerations. It will be roughly $20,000 to run utility poles 1500ft with the final 500ft underground. It makes us seriously consider living off of the grid. Although, as new builders, that may come with extreme complications. We’ll have to look into it.