Looking around on the internet it appears that there are many castles here in the U.S. for sale. Everything from modified homes to full-on castles built by castlemagic.com. The good thing about buying an already built castle is skipping the headache of building it and if you get an old castle, then you have the added interest of owning a historic property as well and maybe the added plus of some neat historic architecture and details as well.
The drawbacks? You're limited to where the castle is located, which may not necessarily be where you want to live, and you're living in someone else's dream home. Additionally, some of these places can be pretty pricey to boot. I don't think I've found one that is really neat for less than $1M dollars.
If one were to DIY you have to deal with all of the headaches of design and building the structure, purchasing the land and the fear that once you've started on the project, life or finances could interfere and you'd have to leave it before you could enjoy the fruits of your labor. It's not a run-of-the-mill house you're building that you could find a similar replacement house anywhere in the country, no - it's a potential work of art that could last ages and be a family treasure if you're lucky. The upside of DIY is closely related to some of the downside; it could be a treasured family heirloom, and DIY can keep the costs down to a manageable level for the average person. You are also building something that is from your own imagination, not someone else's. Life interfering - well, that could happen to anybody at any time so you just have to get over it.
thanks Jeff.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep checking in here.
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ReplyDeleteI agree. Just do it, anything could happen at any time. For me, the process of building the castle is just as important as enjoying it later. Thanks for the continuous posting!
ReplyDeleteDavid
Thanks for the comment, David.
ReplyDeleteIt was just one of those thoughts that popped up during a conversation between myself and the other half about the "castle"; the question of "Are we really going to do this?" Sort of an occasional reality check that we go through once in a while when the goal seems far away and not getting any closer. In truth it's not going to be much different than building a regular house. It's just going to be the same process with a few different materials and some unusual architecture. If a person can build one, there's no reason why the other can't be done.
Hi Jeff. I just came across your blog after reading about it in CastleDuncan forums. It's a shame the site is not accepting new members right now. I wish to build a castle someday too, since I have been fascinated with them for a long time. I'll keep on reading you. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Castle Duncan was not accepting new members, that's too bad. Best of luck with your castle dreams, I look forward to hearing about it when you get to working on it!
ReplyDeleteJeff,
ReplyDeleteThought you might be interested in this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510161&in_page_id=1770
- David
That's fantastic! Only 50K ($100K USD) pounds sterling? He got off cheap, that is unless they knock the place down or fine him a lot of money... Maybe he forgot to ask the Queen for a license to crenellate? I guess if you could find some decent land for $100-150K USD and build a structure like that it would still be a fairly reasonable $250K, on par with many houses for sale here today. While I would never dare trying to sneak something like that past the law, it's amazing what he built in just 2 years (from the sound of it the "towers" may have been former silos, so he had a head start). Thanks for the link David, good luck to the guy...
ReplyDelete