Family Lives In Morton Building

Family Lives In Morton Building BUILDINGS Houses 27-4-25 "We saved a bundle over traditional construction by making our home inside a Morton building, and acting as our own general contractor," says Cynthia Willis of Orrstown, Pennsylvania. "We live in a really nice home that cost $195,000 (Canadian), but has 3,600 sq. ft. of living space and an attached 2,000 sq. ft. garage. I think that translates to $35/sq. ft. Morton now sells housing units, but we just converted a conventional steel building. We love it." They started with a building 105 ft. long and 54 ft. wide. Morton put up the shell, installed the windows, two double-wide garage doors, and 6-in. side wall insulation with vapor barriers. Morton affixed 1 by 3 boards to the inside walls, which is what the interior walls attach to. "We subcontracted locally to finish off the inside of the house," Willis says. "Before they poured the concrete, our plumber came over and installed the water lines and drains, and the electrician ran lines that were needed in the floor." Interior walls were framed up with 2 by 4's but none of them are load bearing. "We don't have any walls between our kitchen, family room, dining room, and living room," Willis says. "It's wonderful that way. I can work in my kitchen, and feel like I'm still part of the family instead of feeling isolated. My kitchen is huge - it has two 4 by 8 1/2-ft. islands, two stove tops, and a double oven. The cabinets are 8 ft. tall and were made by a local cabinet maker. The kitchen/dining room area is about 32 ft. wide and the family/living room is about 36 ft. wide. The distance across the room in the other dimension is about 40 ft." The only rooms with drywall on the ceiling are the bathrooms. In the other rooms, they used "drop" ceilings because with the 54-ft. roof span they were concerned about heavy snow and ice loads. It's not noisy inside the house when it rains because there are 15 in. of blown in insulation between the ceiling and the roof, but they say they do hear a muffled sound of rain on the roof and they find it very relaxing. "We have a little wood stove in our family room that can heat the whole house. We also have a ground water heat system but wood heat just feels good, so we use it a lot in the coldest months," she says. "Our air conditioning for the whole house is no more expensive than the window units we used on our old house. My husband says he wanted the house wide, so the earth's natural 55 degree temperature could help both heat and cool. It sure seems to help." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cynthia and Paul Willis, 6406 Ebenezer Rd., Orrstown, Penn. 17244 (ph 717 532-3516; email: pwcw1998@yahoo.com) or Morton Buildings, Inc. Corporate Office, Box 399, Morton, Ill., 61550 (ph 800 447-7436 or 309 263-7474; fax 309 266-5123; website: www.mortonbuildi

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