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Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Well, it's happening. We're building a house.

I plan on taking you, fellow goons, along for the ride in this thread so you can live vicariously through me. But more important, so you can tell me when I'm about to make a huge horrible mistake and end up in the crappy construction tales thread.

Let me get you caught up to speed on where we are in the process to-date. We found a nice plot of land and are going through the motions to actually own it. We've lucked out that we're able to buy it outright with no loan, which makes getting the construction loan a lot easier.




Like any lot, there are upsides and downsides to it, so here's some info.

2.6+ acres - nice and big!
It's fairly private
There is a brook just touching the west side
There is a small wetlands area to the north east
From the road to the build plot is a 21' drop, so we'll have an "interesting" driveway, especially in New England winter.
There is a sewer easement along two sides which we can't build in (but we couldn't build along one of those sides because of the brook anyways)
In a good town with a good school district
Closer to the highway than we currently live, but far enough away that you can't hear it
Dead-end street
It's a hammerhead lot, but it's already gone through the planning board and is deeded to build.
We're breaking one of those real-estate rules and will be building the nicest house on the street (not nicest in neighborhood)
Public water & sewer


We're pre-approved for a construction loan from our bank. Since we will own the land, they'll cover the whole cost of the build, but we do have some cash towards that and will have more after we build and sell our current house. We can't do any more on the loan front until we have plans and a construction bid.


While we're getting the land legally bought, we've started interviewing builders. We currently have two candidates.

Candidate #1 is a larger construction company. We've seen a few examples of their work in person, did the usual online-review and BBB search and talked with them.

Candidate #2 is a small company, 3 guys who do almost all the work, contracting out some pieces like electrical and plumbing. We have a couple good personal references for these guys and I've been to one of the construction sites to see the work they do.

It'll be interesting to see how the bids differ between such different styles of builder, especially to see the timelines.

We're still looking for a third candidate to get a bid from, but we've only gotten "don't go with this guy" recommendations from our friends and families who have built in the past. It seems there are a lot of bad builders around.



Before we can actually get the builders to bid, we have to get some plans for the house. Now, remember above where I said the lot went through the planning board already? There is a small problem with that. The plans approved were for a 35x80 build area. While that is big enough for what we want, it puts the 35' side facing south where the best natural light will come from and most of the plans we've looked at wouldn't actually fit (they're more square than rectangle).

Luckily, in this town, a 25% increase in area is considered a minor change to plans that does not require fees and a full public hearing from the planning board. We're hoping we can get a different footprint approved as a minor change. Right now, I've got an email into the town planner but haven't heard back for 3 days, I'll probably go down to town hall this upcoming week. That may get complicated with the two wetlands areas and keeping it fit outside the exclusion zones. Worse-case, we design a house in that 35x80, best case is we build exactly what we want with a bit more hassle.

So... what kind of house do we want to build?

We want 2 bedrooms, 2 office spaces (so the house would probably be considered a 3 or 4 bed if we ever sold it), at least 2.5 baths, a mostly-open first floor... you know.. here's our wish-list we're going to take with us to the architect:


House wish list

~2400-3000 sqft

Exterior
Wrap around porch
Area to add patio + future pool (perhaps from walk out basement)
2 car + lawn tractor garage


Rooms

1st floor
Kitchen + pantry / butlers pantry
- Open to dining & living, but with defined boundaries so it’s not all one big room.
- Island/peninsula w/ stools
- Double ovens
- No need for table in kitchen
Family Room
- Fireplace insert w/ mantle
- Vaulted ceiling
Dining Room
Half Bath
Mud room

2nd floor
Laundry
- with sink
Master Bedroom
- Doesn't have to be huge, we just sleep there.
- Bath w/ large walk in shower and soaking tub. dual-sink not necessary
- walk in closet, not huge
Kids Room
Office
- built in bookshelves
- location flexible, but quiet is better
- Secret door (optional)
Office/Studio
- lots of natural light
- separate entry
- over garage?
Bathroom

Basement (walk out)
Playroom
Half Bath

Somewhere:
Workshop (garage or basement is fine)

General design elements we like:

Skylights
Lots of large windows
Pocket/Barn/French doors
Exposed wooden beams
Storage areas (attic, closets, etc)

Nice to have:
Firewood storage
t.v. / video game / media room
Guest room
Space for treadmill
Sunny area for plants
Screened in porch


Things we don’t care about :
Formal Foyer



We know we probably won't get all of that.

In terms of style, here's one we almost like enough to build:
http://www.houseplans.com/plan/2470-square-feet-4-bedrooms-3-bathroom-european-house-plans-2-garage-15486

We're also looking at the farmhouse style with the attached garage that looks like a barn that you occasionally see around here.

I'm sure a lot of this will change after we talk with an architect, which we're trying to find one this upcoming week.

Considering we decided to try and build about 3 weeks ago, it's all moving amazingly fast.

Gounads fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Mar 6, 2016

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Catatron Prime
Aug 23, 2010

IT ME



Toilet Rascal
Congrats! Bookmarked--Looking forward to seeing lots of build pictures! I really like the look and layout, especially that backyard.

One thing to consider with the great room, is that they're awfully expensive to heat and cool, so you're kind of paying a penalty for that throughout the life of the house.

E: What's your budget for the house, if you don't mind me asking?

Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Mar 6, 2016

18 Character Limit
Apr 6, 2007

Screw you, Abed;
I can fix this!
Nap Ghost

Gounads posted:



House wish list

Office

- Secret door (optional)





Tell us more about this requirement.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Good luck! Whereabouts are you located?

1488
Feb 24, 2013

Why would you build a house when you can live in a yurt?

Suspect Bucket
Jan 15, 2012

SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

1488 posted:

Why would you build a house when you can live in a yurt?

Yurts are not for everyone. For one thing, they'd take all the good canvas and price all us noble yurtfans out.

Pigsfeet on Rye
Oct 22, 2008

I'm meat on the hoof
What decided you on the current house style that you're leaning toward? Had you ever thought of a modernized Craftsman-style house?
e: I'm glad to see this thread, I'm rooting for you. Also, I looked at the house plans and saw the 'Craftsman-style house'. I'd love to build and live in one of these:
http://thebungalowcompany.com/

Right now I'm in a ranch-style house. :rolleye:

Pigsfeet on Rye fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Mar 7, 2016

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

OSU_Matthew posted:

One thing to consider with the great room, is that they're awfully expensive to heat and cool, so you're kind of paying a penalty for that throughout the life of the house.

E: What's your budget for the house, if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, it's a price to pay to get what we want. In our current house we heat a lot with wood, and we're hoping to do one of those high-efficiency fireplace inserts in the greatroom to continue that. We have a source of cheap firewood. Also, when we say great room, we're not talking a 40x40 monstrosity, but we do want cathedral ceilings.

We're hoping to spend around $350k for everything (including landscaping, driveway, appliances, etc.) There is some wiggle room. We talked pricing with the smaller builder and he thought we'd be able to build something like what we want with some higher-end finishings for that.

If we can squeeze $20k or so from the budget, we'll do a nice inground pool out back, but that's likely a future project.

18 Character Limit posted:

Tell us more about this requirement.

We're quirky and would like a quirky house. Whether it's a bookshelf door to get into the office or a secret passageway between rooms, we want something that people won't expect. I won't be surprised if it's nixed in the end, but I'll press for it.


TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Good luck! Whereabouts are you located?

Central Massachusetts. Please don't doxx me.


Pigsfeet on Rye posted:

What decided you on the current house style that you're leaning toward? Had you ever thought of a modernized Craftsman-style house?
e: I'm glad to see this thread, I'm rooting for you. Also, I looked at the house plans and saw the 'Craftsman-style house'. I'd love to build and live in one of these:
http://thebungalowcompany.com/

Right now I'm in a ranch-style house. :rolleye:

We were browsing plans more or less at random and loved it when we saw it. Mostly basing that off of floorplans, but we liked the exterior too. We do not want a giant box of a house. Before finding that plan, we didn't know what a craftsman was, but we've been looking at them ever since.

We've also since decided that not buying plans online and doing an architect is probably a better way to go, especially if we might have to work within the planned bounds, so who knows what we'll end up with.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

1488 posted:

Why would you build a house when you can live in a yurt?

I couldn't convince my wife to build an octagon house, no way would she go for a yurt,

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Personally if I were going to have a secret passage, it'd be an additional way to get from one room to another, rather than the sole entrance/exit. My only reason for this is that in the event of a fire or something, I wouldn't want the house to be difficult to navigate.

I guess if you're more worried about having armed burglars invade than about your house catching on fire then you'd go the other way.

Pigsfeet on Rye
Oct 22, 2008

I'm meat on the hoof
I have stayed in a house that had a secret set of rooms. The guy that built the house had a 2-story living room with a long loft over half of it, the loft had a sectional couch, some end tables, a TV, etc., and there was a big wall of shelves for VHS tapes and books. If you pulled out a tape on the far right end of the shelves and pressed a concealed switch, a shelf section swung out to reveal a bedroom and full bathroom, and a doorway to a larger room over the garage, with a drop-down set of steps to the garage. No sign of the steps from the garage either. I wound up in that bedroom while I stayed there, it was great.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Personally if I were going to have a secret passage, it'd be an additional way to get from one room to another, rather than the sole entrance/exit. My only reason for this is that in the event of a fire or something, I wouldn't want the house to be difficult to navigate.

I guess if you're more worried about having armed burglars invade than about your house catching on fire then you'd go the other way.

So my wife is a photographer and wants a studio space with an external entrance. I work from home and need a quiet office space. A good example might be a secret door between those two rooms so she can get into the house without going outside, but still be awesome. I don't know what we'll end up doing, it'll depend on the floorplan we eventually settle on.

Laminator
Jan 18, 2004

You up for some serious plastic surgery?

Gounads posted:


We're hoping to spend around $350k for everything (including landscaping, driveway, appliances, etc.)


:sigh:

Living in a totally outrageous housing market makes things like this sting a lot. $350k here in Austin will get you an older home outside of the city needing repairs, on a small plot of land. It can get you a lot or a home needing to be torn down near the city. For reference, the house we're renting now is a total POS ("charming") 900 sqft 2 bed and it's worth about $420k.

I too will live vicariously through this thread and look forward to what you build!

Catatron Prime
Aug 23, 2010

IT ME



Toilet Rascal
You should absolutely do the secret room! Just think ahead to if you ever sell the house--that's a guaranteed way to make your house stand out and get offers. The relatively small cost of installing that upfront will probably pay dividends later.

I'm currently contemplating doing this with a small bedroom/office in my house.

The architect sounds like a great way to go too--small overall cost, but that could probably pay you back having someone else looking out for your interests.

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius

OSU_Matthew posted:

One thing to consider with the great room, is that they're awfully expensive to heat and cool, so you're kind of paying a penalty for that throughout the life of the house.

If your cathedral ceiling is well insulated (which, to be fair, is much more difficult than with open attic spaces), you don't pay more of an efficiency penalty than any other feature that increases the exterior surface area of your home. You do pay a comfort penalty, in that greater stratification makes it harder to maintain at a comfortable temperature, but all you need to negate that is some sort of fan to mix the air.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

Laminator posted:

:sigh:

Living in a totally outrageous housing market makes things like this sting a lot. $350k here in Austin will get you an older home outside of the city needing repairs, on a small plot of land. It can get you a lot or a home needing to be torn down near the city. For reference, the house we're renting now is a total POS ("charming") 900 sqft 2 bed and it's worth about $420k.

I too will live vicariously through this thread and look forward to what you build!

For reference on prices, we bought our current house for ~250 10 years ago on a half acre. It was around the same size as our plans, but unlivable. Kitchen/Bathroom had to be gutted. It's a single bath, cheap rear end finishings, and has some significant problems with layout.

If you're buying, $350k could not buy the house we're looking to build, it seems there's a premium to be paid for the convenience of having a house already built. Also remember, that doesn't include the land price, just the build. I'm honestly surprised we're looking at building this nice for this price.

If we went east 40 minutes, we'd be looking at a shack for that price. Luckily, I don't have to commute to work anymore.


Zhentar posted:

If your cathedral ceiling is well insulated (which, to be fair, is much more difficult than with open attic spaces), you don't pay more of an efficiency penalty than any other feature that increases the exterior surface area of your home. You do pay a comfort penalty, in that greater stratification makes it harder to maintain at a comfortable temperature, but all you need to negate that is some sort of fan to mix the air.

Speaking of insulation, our current home was built in the 20's. It had a lovely refit with blown in insulation, but whatever we build is surely going to be more energy efficient than this.

dreesemonkey
May 14, 2008
Pillbug
Is this going to be your forever home? You may want to look for something that has a suite on the 1st floor, could be used as a office for your wife in the meantime w/ some sort of exterior entrance (you could have the builder frame for a patio door but install an exterior door for a entryway, for instance).

I love looking at house plans, I'd love to build someday but I think that ship has sailed.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Yes, forever home.

One requirement I didn't mention... Anything that could be converted into an inlaw suite is a no-go.

She wants a south-facing wall for that whole natural-light thing being a photographer. Due to the lot slopes, the driveway will also come from the south, so that's why over the garage was appealing. But we're still looking at plans and some sort of first floor suite thing could be in the cards.

xwing
Jul 2, 2007
red leader standing by
The survey is great and your list is extremely helpful. That saves work going in for the design. If you don't have it already be prepared for a soils report, that's usually an owners cost and it'll be needed to confirm foundations. They'll bore the ground to see what kind of soils are there. If there's other homes around there's probably nothing unusual, but you are near a creek and wetlands. If that creek wandered in the past you might have some soils that are less favorable and need deeper foundations.

For the large vs. contractor. Realistically there's probably going to be the same amount of "active" people on your home keeping oversight and the larger one more likely to be "brokers" and not "builders". Subs either way are doing a lot of the work. So I guess that's a detraction against a larger construction firm but they also may have the clout to push aspects through if there's a rush, which is a plus. Personally speaking of my feelings home builders are usually small and sub-1 million a larger firm might not be competitive in bids because your project is "small change" for them and not worth pulling workers of other larger more profitable projects.

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius

dreesemonkey posted:

Is this going to be your forever home? You may want to look for something that has a suite on the 1st floor, could be used as a office for your wife in the meantime w/ some sort of exterior entrance (you could have the builder frame for a patio door but install an exterior door for a entryway, for instance).

And/or design in a location where you could retrofit an elevator (and in general, consider accessibility). Not too long after I moved into my house I realized that it is pretty unfriendly to people with mobility issues; if I should develop one I will likely have to move.

Gounads posted:

From the road to the build plot is a 21' drop, so we'll have an "interesting" driveway, especially in New England winter.

I took a closer look at that... that's pretty rough. North facing, and part of that is quite steep. I would seriously consider a snow melt system - just two 2' wide tire tracks, so you can get traction. It's not particularly cheap, but I think it's worth it as a safety investment.

Gounads posted:

Speaking of insulation, our current home was built in the 20's. It had a lovely refit with blown in insulation, but whatever we build is surely going to be more energy efficient than this.

Will you have natural gas available?

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

Zhentar posted:

And/or design in a location where you could retrofit an elevator (and in general, consider accessibility). Not too long after I moved into my house I realized that it is pretty unfriendly to people with mobility issues; if I should develop one I will likely have to move.

Will certainly consider. Maybe we install a fireman pole that could be converted (joking)

quote:

I took a closer look at that... that's pretty rough. North facing, and part of that is quite steep. I would seriously consider a snow melt system - just two 2' wide tire tracks, so you can get traction. It's not particularly cheap, but I think it's worth it as a safety investment.

No poo poo, huh? The good part is that flat area by the road, we own and there's been about 12 yards of crushed stone dumped that's not on those plans to help regrade a bit. Our current thinking is to build the house up a bit, so gain 4 feet or so there, and then regrade from the street. We figure we can get something like a 8% grade with a bit of work and maybe a bend in the driveway. Legally, it has to be 10% or under for the easement. Any way we do it, there is going to involve some significant earth moving.

If it was ever completely ice, we could park at the top until cleared. We'll also have to work with the town for where they plow the street's snow. Right now, it gets pushed to where our driveway will be.

quote:

Will you have natural gas available?

No, I wish.

We aren't sure what we're doing for heat yet. Oil+baseboards is the usual around here. We do want a propane range and central a/c so that will likely affect what we choose. Wife wants radiant heating in bathroom. Very little research done on this front so far and compromises will likely be made.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Keep in mind that you're going to end up excavating a fair amount of dirt for your foundations. Might as well put it to use regrading your driveway.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Ad on facebook today for these guys:
https://www.themurphydoor.com/

Kind of creepy that it popped up, I don't remember searching for anything recently.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

This is the kind of poo poo Ghostery blocks when you're on SomethingAwful.


I started following your thread. Really neat stuff!

Waldstein Sonata
Feb 19, 2013

Gounads posted:


No poo poo, huh? The good part is that flat area by the road, we own and there's been about 12 yards of crushed stone dumped that's not on those plans to help regrade a bit. Our current thinking is to build the house up a bit, so gain 4 feet or so there, and then regrade from the street. We figure we can get something like a 8% grade with a bit of work and maybe a bend in the driveway. Legally, it has to be 10% or under for the easement. Any way we do it, there is going to involve some significant earth moving.


I've done a bit of surveying work and, while that survey has everything buttoned down, really make sure you get your grading ideas in front of a civil engineer to make sure that they're feasible. Especially since you have that 20'+ rise to the housing envelope's east and the obvious drainage to the west, you'll want to make sure that grading for both the foundation, as well as general site drainage, doesn't cause a huge, unexpected expense... or a frequently flooding basement.

Depending on your locality, you may also have certain requirements for permeable surfaces and storm water treatment for new construction. This would also need to be worked out by the civil engineers and may not be included in the projected price of commercial house plans. Even if they're not required by your municipal authority, you may want to consider them given your proximity to a brook and a wetland area.

If you already have this in the works, hopefully I'm not coming off as condescending, it's just items of concern that people are often unaware of. (Lovely lot, too, but I bet it was a pain for the surveyors to shoot in :))

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
My father in law is a retired surveyor and has been telling me very similar things. It's pretty high on the list of potential risks right now. I found out they did do a perc test about a decade ago and drainage was supposedly good, but I can't find the actual results so I'm treating it like a rumor at this point.

So tell me, how do I find a civil engineer? Will my architects office likely employ one? Would a good builder/contractor hire one? Should I just call some engineering firms? Speaking of which, we're meeting with a potential architect this Wednesday afternoon.

Catatron Prime
Aug 23, 2010

IT ME



Toilet Rascal

Zhentar posted:

If your cathedral ceiling is well insulated (which, to be fair, is much more difficult than with open attic spaces), you don't pay more of an efficiency penalty than any other feature that increases the exterior surface area of your home. You do pay a comfort penalty, in that greater stratification makes it harder to maintain at a comfortable temperature, but all you need to negate that is some sort of fan to mix the air.

Ah, ok, gotcha. Having the air movement from the fan probably makes all the difference.

To be fair, I live in a house where the insulation is largely comprised of crumpled up newspapers from 1937 and asbestos from 1968.

dreesemonkey posted:

Is this going to be your forever home? You may want to look for something that has a suite on the 1st floor, could be used as a office for your wife in the meantime w/ some sort of exterior entrance (you could have the builder frame for a patio door but install an exterior door for a entryway, for instance).

I love looking at house plans, I'd love to build someday but I think that ship has sailed.

This is an excellent point--also make sure you go with extra wide doorways that can accommodate a wheelchair (or more practically moving your furniture). One of my friends' parents just bought a house with extra wide doors, and I can't believe that all houses don't have them, they are just super convenient. Since you're starting from the ground up, a small bit of thinking ahead now will pay dividends later.

Waldstein Sonata
Feb 19, 2013

Gounads posted:

My father in law is a retired surveyor and has been telling me very similar things. It's pretty high on the list of potential risks right now. I found out they did do a perc test about a decade ago and drainage was supposedly good, but I can't find the actual results so I'm treating it like a rumor at this point.

So tell me, how do I find a civil engineer? Will my architects office likely employ one? Would a good builder/contractor hire one? Should I just call some engineering firms? Speaking of which, we're meeting with a potential architect this Wednesday afternoon.

From my experience*, you would need to hire the civil engineer and surveyors since you are, in essence, the developer of the property. The boundary and topo survey that you have shows the allowable house envelope for the site which will help you work with the architect, in terms of the house's footprint, regardless of civil engineering work. That said, the grading/drainage/storm water treatment will need to be completed so that the architects and their structural engineer can have the foundation and footings properly designed for the soil and topography of the final lot.

If your father in law did his surveying in your area and retired recently, I'd ask his opinion of the civil/survey firms. Anyone working for these companies will tend to very quickly get a feel for the reputation of the firms in the area. If that's not an option, the architect that you work with may have a firm that they recommend. If you want to get everything taken care of sooner than later, just google "central MA surveying and civil engineering" or search for the Massachusetts state association for licensed surveyors and civil engineers. The google search will get you the businesses so that, if nothing else, you can get some quotes for the work you'll need and the state professional organization can definitely point you to properly licensed and certified firms in addition to giving you much more qualified answers than I can.

*I was an instrument man, draftsman, and deed monkey, so this is based on my view from the bottom in the Northern Virginia/DC Metro area

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

I have only 1 requirement for any house we build or renovate: secret door.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006
I've been following this thread now since you posted it in the crappy construction thread and am quite excited for you.

The nerd in me wants to remind you: Wire the house with cat6. All rooms. Consider even the master bathroom. Bring it all to a central location and have a tiny 19" rack installed, terminated, and tested. Consider installing a multi-room audio system wired to the same rack. When the studs are open is the only time this isn't a huge cost/pita. Even if you don't install the low voltage electronics, having the wires (network, coaxial, speaker) in place lets you do it over time in the future. More is better, especially where ever the TV(s) is going to go.

Quaint Quail Quilt
Jun 19, 2006


Ask me about that time I told people mixing bleach and vinegar is okay
Make sure your drainage and foundation are over engineered. I had an old neighbor who's house perpetually flooded, you don't want sump pumps running all day.

Place your windows smartly and don't cheap out on them, but stout, insulated walls would be better, windows have nothing on walls for eco friendly cost savings unless they are few and placed for your lot orientation and climate.

Tint some heavy and some not, idk how this will work with painting and natural light.

Thick cellulose in the attic is awesome and you could blow it in yourself.

When I build I will be re reading tauton build like a pro series and especially the one on insulation. I am also a fan of thick wall construction with thicker walls that are built to eliminate "heat bridging"
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/klingenberg-wall

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/design/articles/six-proven-ways-to-build-energy-smart-walls.aspx

This may be a tease because I don't know that anyone here knows how to build like this.

This may be too expensive, but you may need very little heating or cooling over the life of the house.

I will follow your thread.

Quaint Quail Quilt fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Mar 8, 2016

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?

H110Hawk posted:

The nerd in me wants to remind you: Wire the house with cat6. All rooms. Consider even the master bathroom. Bring it all to a central location and have a tiny 19" rack installed, terminated, and tested. Consider installing a multi-room audio system wired to the same rack. When the studs are open is the only time this isn't a huge cost/pita. Even if you don't install the low voltage electronics, having the wires (network, coaxial, speaker) in place lets you do it over time in the future. More is better, especially where ever the TV(s) is going to go.

Yup. Also open conduit so I can pull the next thing in wiring 10 years from now.

xwing
Jul 2, 2007
red leader standing by
Your architect will get a civil engineer on the job, especially if you request it. If you walked into my office with that site there's no way I'd accept the job without one. Part of having the civil engineer they can coordinate the foundations and drainage you may need. That's why I mentioned the soil borings and Geotechnical Engineer earlier... A geo-tech report gives perc test and the actual soil composition, bearing capacity, etc... which your civil engineer will look at for drainage and a structural engineer will look at for designing your foundations. These can all be rolled into your fee to the architect. Even if you could find the previous report it's probably too old to be acceptable, it'd need to be done again.

My advice, if you think you'll save by getting a civil engineer and all the soils reports yourself, you may not. The Architect knowing they have to coordinate with another entity (that isn't contractually tied to them) will likely add a bit into their fee. I've professionally experienced this myself with other design professionals. They'll do their work and then check out. They'll be unresponsive because they already got paid and don't want to alter their work (lower their profit on the job because time = money). They also may ask for more money if changes are needed. If they're a consultant their coordination is expected and their payment is beholden to completing the job.

galahan posted:

This may be a tease because I don't know that anyone here knows how to build like this.

This may be too expensive, but you may need very little heating or cooling over the life of the house.

If someone local doesn't know work with these things you're asking for issues. They'll inflate their bid and the likelihood of them messing it up are higher.

Seriously OP... go along for the ride now. Without a design worrying about stuff like exotic insulation assemblies and windows is premature. Your Architect will lead you through this. You'll have a Schematic Design in a few weeks and then in Design Development you can get into some more planning things.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Just got a call back from an architect we like. Going in Wednesday for a consultation.

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Got a call back from the larger builder to get an idea on pricing. That plan above they're saying $500k plus just for the house. The smaller guy thought we could do everything $350k. (To be fair, the larger company took a couple days looking at it, the smaller guy took a few minutes) Looks like we'll definitely need a third option since they're so far apart to see who's sane. But that'll wait until we have actual plans, and hopefully the architect can help steer us in the right direction.

One thing I learned from the call, that nice rock/wood exterior is probably out. Easily added $50k

xwing
Jul 2, 2007
red leader standing by
Yeah, until there's a firm plan they're all likely blowing smoke out... though 35'x80' is 2800 sq.ft. so with $350,000 you're at $125/sq.ft. all fees included. I don't know about there in MA but down here in FL that wouldn't get you much. Either way it'd probably be helpful to included a "what we could live without" portion to your program so that the Architect can reduce the scope of the build to meet your budget if necessary. Also finish expectations factor into that. If you want to have a fancy millwork cabinets in your kitchen you may have to sacrifice finishes elsewhere to maintain the budget.

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius

Gounads posted:

No poo poo, huh? The good part is that flat area by the road, we own and there's been about 12 yards of crushed stone dumped that's not on those plans to help regrade a bit. Our current thinking is to build the house up a bit, so gain 4 feet or so there, and then regrade from the street. We figure we can get something like a 8% grade with a bit of work and maybe a bend in the driveway. Legally, it has to be 10% or under for the easement. Any way we do it, there is going to involve some significant earth moving.

If it was ever completely ice, we could park at the top until cleared. We'll also have to work with the town for where they plow the street's snow. Right now, it gets pushed to where our driveway will be.

If you can get it <=10% the whole way, then that's not so bad (although that looks like a challenge); snow tires or 4WD could get you through even when it does ice up (visitors will not be happy, though). My driveway is 10% overall, but 25% at the steepest point and that is sadness in the winter (south facing, though, so it at least melts quickly when the sun comes out)

Gounads posted:

We aren't sure what we're doing for heat yet. Oil+baseboards is the usual around here. We do want a propane range and central a/c so that will likely affect what we choose. Wife wants radiant heating in bathroom. Very little research done on this front so far and compromises will likely be made.

Fuel Oil is pretty cheap in New England this year (using EIA retail prices $2/gal - $17/MMBtu, compared to $31/MMBtu propane; 1 MMBtu is 10 therms if you want to compare to current natural gas bills, or for context my 2500sqft WI home needs 70-80 MMBtu a year). But I'm not a fan of it - higher maintenance, the tank takes up conditioned space, and you're more or less stuck with non-condensing equipment (which means a flue running all the way up through the roof, and backdrafting concerns). A standard approach would be a condensing propane furnace with a heat pump - a high end heat pump (such as the Carrier Greenspeed) would likely be able to cover 95%+ of your heating load at ~$20-25/MMBtu with $0.19/kWh electricity. There are a ton of other options depending on your priorities, though.

Your wife is right to want heated bathroom floors. They are wonderful. It's easily handled by electric resistance heating though, so it shouldn't constrain your HVAC options.

galahan posted:

Make sure your drainage and foundation are over engineered. I had an old neighbor who's house perpetually flooded, you don't want sump pumps running all day.

On a hill, this is pretty easy - run a drain pipe downhill to the surface (aka 'drain to daylight') and let gravity do the work for you, relegating your sump pump to an emergency backup. (This is one of the few things the guy who designed & built my home screwed up - instead of just draining down hill into an existing swale, I've got a sump pump turning a section of my lawn to swamp every spring)

Gounads
Mar 13, 2013

Where am I?
How did I get here?
Had a minor scare today. Bank sent an email requesting 20 or so more documents, when I thought we were all set. After contacting the email was sent in error and we are all set. I'm self-employed and my income is adequate, but not always steady, I worry about loans because of that.

We also met with an architect today. Sat down, showed him the site plan, gave him our wishlist, and talked about what we wanted in a house for half an hour or so. He seemed to really get it and had a great attitude. Showed us a sample plan he did. And... well.. it was in pencil. Looked around, and big ole' drafting table sitting there with no giant computer monitor next to it. I assumed everyone did these digitally these days. A little digging... So apparently he's semi-retired. He used to run a 10 man team doing these things (and his office was certainly big enough to support that) but it's just him now. The work he showed us looked amazing. He talked about modern house features, so I don't think the design would be dated. Thoughts on that?

I didn't have the guts to bring up the secret door in the first meeting, but it was on that wishlist that he kept.

Well anyways... he's going to send a proposal to us next week. From how he was talking, my guess is he's way too expensive for us, but I do like how he talked about being a partner in the project throughout. He even offered to help us get the plans bid on with companies he's worked with in the past (we'll still get our 2 candidates to bid to make sure we're not being sandbagged). He's willing to work with the builder to make sure our vision is realized. And he was very careful to say it'll be our design, and not an artistic vision of his.

We are planning on talking to at least one more.

On the land-front, I got the last two documents the lawyer needed to draw up the papers.

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

Hand-drafting is a dead art, I'm always impressed when people can do it well still. I work with a semi-retired electrical engineer who still hand-draws. I don't think it's a red flag or anything, just means he's really old school. All that matters is that he's come up with a good design. Please do a good architecture. Also be loud and proud about that secret door, that's a good feature. It's not a hard feature, just replace the door to a room with a swinging shelf, easy.

My friend had a "cabin" (full sized house) on a hilly lot way out in the country. It looked smaller than it was because a bunch of areas had secret doors, whole bedrooms. Also since it was built to host large groups, there were wall panels in various areas that could slide open to reveal sort of capsule-hotel little sleeping areas, it was super cool. So what looked like a little 2 bedroom cabin could transform into a 3 bedroom with 4 extra sleeping compartments.

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Pigsfeet on Rye
Oct 22, 2008

I'm meat on the hoof

Gounads posted:


Well anyways... he's going to send a proposal to us next week. From how he was talking, my guess is he's way too expensive for us , but I do like how he talked about being a partner in the project throughout. He even offered to help us get the plans bid on with companies he's worked with in the past (we'll still get our 2 candidates to bid to make sure we're not being sandbagged). He's willing to work with the builder to make sure our vision is realized. And he was very careful to say it'll be our design, and not an artistic vision of his.


Could you explain this? Is his hourly (?) or per-job rate too high? Or is he just pushing toward a too-expensive house?

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