My husband and I have decided to start looking for a piece of mountain property and we'd like to put a small (800 sf would be big), modern cabin on it which we could eventually expand. Not sure if the property will be N. Georgia or Mentone, Alabama area. The key here would be budget - think as little as possible. We could do some of the finishing ourselves but would need a contractor do to the majority of the building work. Any ideas on where we should start for resources on a project like this? Any books we should read before jumping into this? I'd love to do prefab but am not really seeing anything that hits our budget or that is the right small scale - they are either too tiny (one 200 sf room) or 1,200 sf. Are there any architects out there who work on budget projects like this?

One final question, for the property, how much does a sloping property really increase our building costs? I am assuming quite a bit but could be wrong. Is there a degree at which it suddenly gets much more expensive (i.e. - where between flat and a cliff do the problems really start?) Anything else we should look for on property? Thanks for any advice!

i was at the ATLmodern meeting on 10/7, there i met Gregory Walker. he told me that they are designing a community of small modern cabins up in the mountains that are also environmentally friendly. their site is ; www.houserwalker.com also you can get in touch with our architects, we have a sloped site and it has been both beneficial and a burden. check www.dencitydesign.com contact me if you have any ?'s -Kimbajean