While I do not have experience with this particular company, I am working on my own project which is quite similar. My wife and I purchased a couple of hundred acres last year and have plans to build a vacation cabin/home sometime in the next five years or so. However, I decided we needed a “operational base” in the interim to provide a decent place to stay, store equipment and supplies, etc.
So last summer we put up a 32’ x 48’ pole barn with 12’ sidewalls. I had a 32’ x 24’ concrete slab poured with the intention of framing in a bunkhouse on one end of the barn. I framed in a partition wall enclosing a 16’ x 32’ area on the slab, had several windows installed and ran stringers across which allowed me to drop the ceiling for the bunkhouse to about 9 feet.
I had an insulating company spray 2" of closed-cell polyurethane on the walls (which yields around an R-10 or R-12) and allowed for 4" batts of insulation to be added in the 6" walls. In a steel building, foam is the way to go. It seals the building up tight, provides a vapor barrier, stiffens the walls up, and makes the building much quieter. The “false ceiling” also enabled me to blow in almost 2 feet of loose insulation above which gives the bunkhouse area an R-60 lid. Even in Montana, we get triple-digit summer temps and with the insulation and concrete slab floor, the bunkhouse area stays quite comfortable. And in the winter, I have a small propane wall heater for back-up heat and a little wood-buring stove that is more than up to the task of keeping such a small, tight area toasty.
One advantage to building a living area inside a pole/steel barn is that none of your interior walls are load-bearing so you can design your interior layout any way you want. Because the exterior walls are girt-framed, I decided to use vertical T&G pine to finish the interior walls. I chose blue-stain pine with a natural finish so, while it’s a steel sided pole barn from the outside, it feels a lot like a cabin on the inside. And I just painted the concrete slab with a beige garage-floor epoxy coating. When finished, I plan to install a suspended acoustical tile ceiling which allows a do-it-yourselfer to run wiring, plumbing supply lines and vents, etc. without having to worry about running everything through the interior walls while still staying inside the “thermal envelope” of the living area. I installed plumbing drainlines in the slab so I will have a small kitchenette, bath, shower, etc. As we are in the boonies, I opted for an “off-grid” electrical system with PV panels, battery bank, inverter, etc.
I also had a 12’ x 24’ lean-to roof installed on the bunkhouse end of the barn which I built a wood deck under. This provides additional space for setting a grill, picnic table, firewood storage, etc.
As for the exterior aesthetics, well, it’s a pole barn. But in a rural country environment, it looks more natural than a McMansion. And the steel companies have all kinds of color combinations available to break-up the lines on a building and, with a little landscaping, they can look pretty decent. In our situation, we chose a location which was sheltered with a natural berm and chose colors that blended in with the natural vegetation as we wanted the building to blend in with the landscape.
Apologize for rambling on, but there ya go. I think our little bunkhouse will serve our needs well and provide a very comfortable living quarters while we ponder out next step. And, should we get the cabin built one of these days, the bunkhouse will make a damn nice “guest house.” And even though our bunkhouse/barn is intended as a transitional accommodation, I think with same concept could translate into a very economical and comfortable primary dwelling.