I'm considering something very similar... except I'm thinking about doing it next year. Hopefully, buying land early next spring and building a house on it before winter... or buying land with a house on it sometime before winter. Not clear yet how its going to go.
Been thinking I should bring my partner up so she can see Alaska. I've been up there twice, but she's never been. So we were talking about going up in November. Course, it would be nice to drive up so we can go all over while we're there.
IF some Alaskans would indulge me, could you hit me over the head with the cluebat? I have a stock 2003 Toyota Tundra 4WD, V8. Planning to put a camper shell on it or a slide in Camper. What would be required to do to it to drive up there in November or January? I'm assuming I need a block heater... but the Alcan is a long road, and I have camped along side of it in summer, but I imagein a block heater is pointless if you can't plug it in! Are there alternatives? Is it viable to plan to stay at a hotel each night on the Alcan? When I last drove it, the hotels seemed too spread out, and I had the slide in camper then anyway.... I believe we can camp in the truck down to about zero degress F, but I have no idea how cold the Alcan gets in November (or January!) I'm mostly concerned about something happening to the truck with the cold...
Secondly, what's the soil like in the Kenai and parts south? I've seen reports that the soil in SE Alaska is 4-5 feet of gravel covered by bedrock. When I was north of Fairbanks, the Tundra seemed to be mostly frozen water and not so much gravel, and it seemed like each year it would shift and break and all that.... so all the buildings were built on stilts. Is this necessary in parts of alaska south of Anchorage?
Assuming the land is in Kenai, Kokiak, or possibly north of Talkeetna:
What I think I want to buy is 40-80 acres, about 2 miles away from a road. I want to build using Cinderblock (hopefully locally sourced). I want to put in that 1-2 mile road (well, hire someone local to do it). Think a gravel road can be built for $5,000 (2 miles.) I figure I'll do much of the maintenance on it after its built... but I don't know much about what needs to be done on ground that can move.
But mostly I'm concerned about the ground in these areas... if the bedrock is 5 feet deep, I figure I can put in pilings down to the bedrock (cement) and shore up the footing, and then put in a foundation like a typical slab house (with rebar sticking out vertically) and then build cinderblock on top of that, and bond it to the footing and foundation with cement and the rebar. But that information was for SE alaska which is mostly mountains and islands... whats the soil like in Homer or Kenai north of there? OR around Seldovia? How about Talkeetna and north to Denali in those areas? I figure north of Anchorage its going to be more tundra and less soil.
I know Alaskans seem to be fond of mobile buildings, log cabins, and wood buildings on pilings. _IF southern Alaska, is like the north slope, and I pretty much need pilings, that throws out Cinderblock, and I'm just one that figures if I'm going to put the labor into building my own house, I really don't want to build it out of wood. Any thoughts? Any of you dug any holes in this region or know about the building types and issues?
We may end of living in temporary shelter initially. One thing that's surprised me is that there isn't as much wind in these areas as I expected. One of you mentioned finding land that didn't have wind as a good feature... I'm wanting wind so that I can put in wind generators... figure solar is great half the year. I'll probably put in some other fuel system, or maybe even have a hook up to electricity... but I would like to at least have a self sufficient contingency plan.
I'm sure lots of people move to Alaska and get in over their heads... unfortunately, they aren't writing books "My failure in Alaska" or "Alaska- not for the faint hearted" so its hard for me to learn from their mistakes. Really want to make sure the enthusiastic girlfriend will be enthusiastic after the move. And want to make sure I can handle the winter there.
I'll say one thing... I moved to Seattle because Texas was too hot. Now Seattle is too hot for me.