Thanks everyone for the great feedback. I think the out-of-town location is feeling like the right choice, but still waffling between already built or building my own (hiring home builder/contractor for the general structure). Of course building from scratch is a huge undertaking (parents did it several years back), but then you get what you want. Perhaps I just need a reality check on what building out of town would entail to narrow down my choice further.

The concerns I have with building are:
1) cost - without factoring in the lot, approx. what cost am I looking at for a basic house if land has gas/electricity to property line. I'm thinking a 2-storey, ~1500 sq.ft. (too much space for me but I want room for visiting family, I would live on main floor). The design would be a basic rectangle, not too many corners, and a full basement foundation. I would get it finished with wiring, plumbing, windows, drywall and then would do the rest myself. I need to make sure I have enough room in my budget for the basic interior finishing, planting fruit trees/bushes, setting up a coop, gardens, sheds, generator, hand pumps, etc.

2) logistics of building out of town - how do you ensure that delivered materials are not hauled off site in the middle of the might? Put up a locking garage/shed first? Do I relocate closer to build site to make sure I'm visiting site every day?

3) how do you pick the ideal land to make sure you have a good water source on it and no contaminants? I'm assuming this is part of offer - to get things tested.

Once again I welcome any feedback.

Seedsprouter:

1) Basic 1500 sq' ft' $125/sq' ft' to $150/sq' ft' with you taking care of the finishing. It sounds like a lot and is. Trades in Alberta do not come cheaply, but the cost would include a general contractor who would take responsibility for question #2.

2) See answer #1. Find a general contractor who has references and whom you can communicate with.

3) You make acceptable soils, water, and septic tests conditions of any offer you make on a property. If the owner or realtor tells you that they don't have it and don't want to spend the money on it, run away. There are plenty of other properties with owners who actually want to sell.

Happy hunting.

Antsy

Hi seedsprouter!
I am new here also,and am in almost the exact same situation as you (except the job part...kinda stuck in the city for that!)
...In fact, i was just trying to formulate my own questions regarding this matter....It's a real dilemma, as far as safety goes...at least in the city, there are people around you...out in the country, if you were invaded in any way, you would be on your own....what to do....what to do!
IF you come to some conclusions, let me know!

Hi deleau, I must say that some of the neighbours I currently have I avoid on a good day and would not want to be around in crisis time. 😮 I wouldn't want to be in too rural of a setting with no neighbours for miles, just far enough for some privacy but close enough to be of assistance to each other. I'll let you know once I figure anything out and you do the same.

We did our own home start to finish for $40 sq ft finished and it is only 814 square feet. We are expanding and the cost will come down per square foot as the expensive rooms are done already. Expensive are bathroom and kitchen. We even have 46 breakers throughout with 12/2 wiring and all the goodies (I consider a $350 faucet expensive but we use faucets a lot). PM me if you are interested in seeing our floor plan.

Here is a few thoughts if you go rural, and build.
Build for yourself, do what you want. plan to stay in it for 20-30-40 years, dont view it as a investment, but as a home, you want a investment buy a second property.
A sea can is invaluable, for a number of reasons, during the build it is lockable security for your tools, and lumber. After the build if you thought ahead and put it down where it can function as a privacy screen, say along side a gravel road, or maybe as a visual barrier to a close neibour for aditional privacy, but it has a 3rd benifit after everything is done in that it is great secure storage, allowing you to uncluter your home of all the stuff we have a habit of collecting, and unlike a garage it is personal property, and untaxed storage space.
Prices fluctuate, but right now in Edmonton you can get good weather proof ones for 3500.00 thats 40 feet long 8 feet high by 8 feet wide.
delivery up to a hours drive out of Edmonton might be 250.00 350.00 some will want more I have heard quotes of 500.00 I would not pay that.

I know of no one selling rural properties with soil,water septic test info. If its a developed property you can ask for a real property report before you make a offer, that will show you the property boundries, wells, easements, structures and their measured distances.

I do not recomend subcontracting out any work on a rural property(other than a concrete basement) for two reasons, first you can build youself for dramatic savings, Labour is painfully expensive, materials are relativly cheap, the second reason is its just to hard to get steady reliable trades people in a rural area, I personaly know of endless stories of work unfinished/substandard in the country.
The last house I had a hand in building was 10 years back, briefly it was built by a woman, and her husband(she did most the work)
Total cost 25,000 to get it to the move in stage. It was a wood preserve basement 24x32 , then a main level, and then a second story I spent 1600.00 of the 25,000 buying the electrical supplies needed to wire the home to code. gravel for the base was 600.00. The basement wasnt dug, rather the house was built and earth pushed up maybe 4,5 feet around the basement (only needed a tractor). The 25000 framed the house, sheeted it, tar papered it, stucko wired it, plumbed it, insulated it, vapor barrioured it,wired it,framed all int walls, bought the rafters, and finished the roof in shingles. ( windows came from auctions cheap). They moved in with pink insulation for walls, and then over the next few years drywalled it and put in the hardwood flooring.
Costs for lumber and such would not be that much more today, electrical would likely be another 500-600 due to higher copper prices.
I would put in no services, as for the size of structure you are looking at heating, that will (and hotwater) easly be taken care of by a Blazeking fireplace (king model with cat, thermostat control, and bypass door) you can get one from Ruby at Fireplace and stove world on stony plain road in Edmonton.
The cost of solar panels in Alberta is bouncing around the 1.50 to 2.10 per watt range right now so I suspect a 2kw array will cost you less than a power pole and wiring to hook up to the grid.
Do all the work yourself, pay as you go, its not just about the money you save, when done you will be highly skilled.
For the electrical, home depot has a green book, called electrical wiring for Alberta or some such title with pics of how to wire everything, you really cant get it wrong. I have seen one for the plumbing but cant remember where. Dont know how to frame? one weekend voluntering for habitat for humanity will teach you what 16 inch centers are, and if you have seen one header, and top plate you have seen them all.
I would suggest that if you do build, dont use 24 inch rafter centers with 5/8 drywall, even though its code it always sags, spend a little extra and go to 16 inch centers for the rafters.

Seacan is a must as analog says. That was our first purchase. Built 2X4 shelving in it.