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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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Mar 6, 2016 16:31
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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. 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? 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.
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Mar 7, 2016 01:33
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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,
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Mar 7, 2016 01:40
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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. 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.
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Mar 7, 2016 02:04
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Laminator posted:
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.
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Mar 7, 2016 14:32
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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.
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Mar 7, 2016 16:11
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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.
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Mar 7, 2016 16:52
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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.
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Mar 7, 2016 20:10
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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.
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Mar 8, 2016 02:20
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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.
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Mar 8, 2016 13:54
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Just got a call back from an architect we like. Going in Wednesday for a consultation.
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Mar 8, 2016 14:17
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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
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Mar 8, 2016 15:17
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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.
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Mar 10, 2016 02:05
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:Could you explain this? Is his hourly (?) or per-job rate too high? Or is he just pushing toward a too-expensive house? I mean the design fees, and it's just a feeling based on how he was talking. xwing posted:For fee... until you get a proposal you won't know. Many architect's won't give hourly rates unless you have no clue what you want. You have a decent program and information I'd suspect a lump-sum fee. I would expect 5-10% of construction is a likely range (industry averages) which is why I'd say you should shoot for $300K construction cost for stuff you have to cover yourself. 10% fee - $30k? When I was talking with the builders, I asked one of them if they had any ideas on how much architects might cost. I got guesses in the 5k-20k based on past experience, and he very frankly said that the $20k was absurd and was for a crazy house design. But anyways, like you say, not worrying about it until we get the proposal. Land purchase - slight hiccup. We found an old land transfer from the 70's that might include part of the plot. Investigating that. Even if it does, it shouldn't affect our plans but will likely make the land purchase take longer.
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Mar 10, 2016 14:36
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Got a meeting with another architect next week set up. They want to meet us at the plot to see it, which is kind of nice. These guys are a slightly larger firm - a 6 person team. And they seem to be a bit more tech-savvy (gasp a facebook page AND a website!) Other than that, not much happening. So, we're a week into this thread. How's it feel? Too many inconsequential updates? I'm trying to give the feel for the whole process and know a lot of it most people just won't care about.
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Mar 11, 2016 15:18
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I'd like to tell you how it is to work with a town planner, but I don't know yet. Apparently I can't even get a call or email back to set up an appointment. Looks like I'll just have to go down one day and sit there until he can see me. Talking with a retired builder, apparently this town is horrible for that.
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Mar 14, 2016 18:21
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First architect's proposal came in the mail today. $14,850 - includes everything except site visits which would be billed hourly (but are usually not needed). Proposal itself consisted of a letter stating what we talked about, the estimate, and what it would include.
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Mar 14, 2016 20:20
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Found out special permits last 2 years. The one we have is from 2010. But in 2012 there was a stimulus law passed that granted a 4-year extension to all permits granted from 2008-2012. So I think that means ours lasts 6 years and is still good as long as we break ground by July, or maybe August, or maybe 90 days after that depending on what dates you look at. Laws suck to figure out. Worse-case we have a nice delay going through the planning process. Got a call back from planning office this morning. A receptionist that didn't know anything, but was friendly and took down my questions. Didn't call back. I'm hopeful that I'll soon have all the answers I need. Got another call back from a builder we called a couple weeks back. He'll be available this summer to start a new project and we'll add him to our list since we've seen houses he's done and they amazing. Another smaller outfit.
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Mar 16, 2016 01:27
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Met with second architect today at the land. She is part of a larger group. Conversation felt much more methodical and pragmatic, actually getting into things like drainage and how the house would fit in with the rest of the street. But the biggest news... upon hearing about the secret door, she loved the idea and didn't think it'd be a problem. In fact, they're doing one of those themed escape-room things right now that has a few of them. We'll have a proposal from them next week.
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Mar 17, 2016 16:19
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Talked to town planner. First, he has no idea how we got that special permit. I think his exact words were "I have no idea how you got that plot through, good job sir" and then a laugh. He says there's no way the current planning board would approve it. He tells me if we want to make any changes the board will likely deny them. He also tells me I'm unlikely to get approval again. I was correct in my law reading, the permit is good until 7/27 of this year due to that permit extension act. We have to start by then. Getting a building permit or starting site work would count towards starting, so it's not that bad. So we're stuck with a 35x80 build area and the clock is ticking until the land becomes essentially worthless to us. This pretty much guarantees we have to go with an architect to get what we want since none of the online plans that fit are to our liking. To build, we get our plans, have our builder get a building permit, and start. Don't have to deal with the planning board anymore. Fill... if we go over 300 yards, we have to go to the town engineer. If we go over 500, it's a planning board decision.
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Mar 18, 2016 14:37
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Two reasons for denying, not enough street frontage (even for a hammerhead lot) and the slope at the end of the street. Apparently they are much more strict about that first requirement now than in 2010. He mentioned we might not get conservation committee approval for the lot these days as well, but that's less of a concern. I'm not too worried about the starting date. I'm sure we can show some meaningful progress by then if we start pushing the process. One of the builders I talked to stated he could get a couple guys over here for a day anytime to make sure we hit the date. Good idea on separate site-work permit. That could help if we're getting close. I'm not certain a letter would count. Apparently the statue is kind of vague and at the discretion of the planning board.
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Mar 18, 2016 15:29
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ok, great to know. Thanks!
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Mar 18, 2016 15:55
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Made a decision I bet most people who build make at some point. We're raising our target budget from $350k to $500k. Talking with people who have built, seeing what was done, we decided our original budget was on the low end for what we're asking for. We're going into the second architect's office for a presentation on Monday. I really hope it's awesome and not outrageously expensive, because the more we evaluated our options, the more we like these guys.
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Mar 23, 2016 13:43
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One of the reasons I hope this architect on Monday comes in reasonable, they (help) handle all the town stuff. Plus the builder would be responsible for the building permit, so my bureaucracy-load would be low going forward.peanut posted:The building rate here tends to be $4000-5000 for every 6x6 feet (everything is calculated in tatami mats and hectares So your build-rate is around $111/sqft - I've been seeing around $150 here. That would put a 2700sqft house at $405k. Tack on all the other stuff you need to do (site work, driveway, utilities) and I bet we're at $450k. Add a $50k contingency buffer in case things go wrong, and that's what we're ball-parking for a budget.
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Mar 24, 2016 13:16
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). Don't let your budget get out of control- a 9x9 room is completely adequate for kids/office, fancier roofs cost more, and tbh insulation is more important than giant windows.
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Zhentar posted:My 2 acre lot just a couple miles outside of the suburbs is worth around $150k unimproved (and I'm guessing Gounad's is similar). My lot was worth a bit less than that with the dropoff and wetlands, but same ballpark. It had been on the market for years (but not really advertised). Location-wise, we're about 45 minutes west of Boston. You travel 15 minutes closer and the price would double, get another 15 closer and... well... I couldn't afford it. peanut posted:Our budget is much less than yours, but if you're just regular people with regular jobs, I think it's better to match the house to your budget, not raise the budget to match the house. The new budget is still within our means. I'd consider us regular people with regular jobs too, but it's amazing how different "regular jobs" pay depending on where you live. It helps that we've been saving for 20 years plus have equity built up in our current house, the loan we'll need is far lower than the price.
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Mar 25, 2016 13:15
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Met with the other architect today. Price was something like this: Site Survey: TBD Initial Schematic: $7000 Construction drawings: TBD Project management: TBD So we were kind of excited. Maybe they'd be affordable. Surely they would list the big-ticket item, right? No. All-in they said it'd be $32k-$50k - I don't even know why they bothered to list it that way originally. Oh well. So we spent the night scouring online plans again. Found this one: http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/hwepl73590.html What do you think? Almost covers everything we want, and the pieces it doesn't cover aren't worth $50k. It's on the high-side of our desired size. We're having a quote done up to modify that in a few minor ways, and I spent $30 on a build price estimate that I should get back in a couple days. If that goes well, it's probably our plan. If not, it's first architect guy. Either way we decided to make a decision this week.
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Mar 29, 2016 01:57
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Living room probably as a play-room for the kid until he gets older. The bonus room will be the wife's studio space. I need to understand the ceiling heights there more, but one of the modifications we're looking into is skylights there. This is New England, we do basements.
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Mar 29, 2016 02:12
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Baronjutter posted:Just say no to fake shutters. My other project over the next year is getting our current house in better shape to sell. One of the items on that list is to add fake shutters to 4 windows to dress it up. Quick question on that design I posted... if we were to move the garage doors to the left side, any thoughts on how to dress up the then-empty "front" of the garage area so it doesn't look like crap?
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Mar 29, 2016 12:44
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Got the building estimate back. It's a big web-app with a ton of options. Depending on where I set the quality of various aspects, the magic software tells me anywhere from $320k to $440k - so within budget. I know a web-app won't be accurate, but it gives me the peace of mind that we're in the right ballpark and I can go ahead, buy the plans, have modifications made, and get it bid on. That estimate included things like plans, engineering work, land grading, utilities, project management fees, permits, appliances. Hell, it even listed the $30 I paid to get the estimate. It seemed pretty thorough. Thanks for all the thoughts on the garage door.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:03
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Zhentar posted:Your lot is east-west oriented, right? So the garage will be on the south side of the house? Right, so a skylight on that side should give good light much of the day.
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Mar 29, 2016 17:39
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My wife found one she likes better. https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/90118pd I kind of like it better too. One thing that sells it for me... there is a weird second door to the master closet. Clearly that should be a bookcase door. I'm finding it hard to locate a local architect willing to do the review, modifications, and stamp the plans.
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Mar 30, 2016 20:30
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This one kind of has a separate entrance. The bonus room has it's own stairs up and you'd use that left side door. I think that'd be better than exterior stairs, especially in the winter. We throw up some business related art in that hallway and it's all good. The real goal of the external entrance is so clients aren't walking through the living areas. I'm pretty sure the family/living room are open to each other in this one. We'd try to do a more modern version of this:  That makes it pretty open without just having huge rooms.
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Mar 30, 2016 20:51
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Yeah, that one looks great! One problem I've been finding a lot is the depth listed in the details (that one says 32') and the depth when you look at the actual house don't match. I'm pretty sure that one is over 35' since the garage alone is 34 and the house sticks out past that. It' hard to tell, but I think the basement says 38. I have no idea how much of a stickler the town would be when submitting plans, but would rather not chance it.
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Mar 30, 2016 22:06
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Jordanis posted:Those dumb little roof details on the gable ends are going to add like $1,000 to the cost of a reroof, let alone the initial cost to build them in the first place. Working at a roofing company has made me want to slap a lot of architects. That material that is specced to totally definitely last forever in an interior waterway loving isn't going to, stop designing buildings to drain to the middle in the pacific northwest goddammit. Thanks for that. The builders we've talked with have said they can work with us to figure out cost-effective ways of doing things, so I'll bring things like this up with them. xwing posted:I'd be surprised if you found anyone willing to do this that's an architect... if you called me, I wouldn't. It's not worth their time or liability and it's not as simple as you think it to be. You'd be better to seek out a "home designer" or engineer because no architect with self-respect would do that. Gotcha, thanks. Sounds like I didn't know the right profession to seek out. I asked the guys who I bought the plans from for advice on this front. They said they can do it for $3000-$6000 depending on the plan but suggested we'd probably find someone local cheaper. Since we need a civil engineer for the grading work, maybe we can find an engineering firm to do both. On that front, I think our plan of action is going to be to take the plans to the builders, and get their advice on who to go for those. I'm sure they've all worked with local guys before.
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Mar 31, 2016 13:22
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I built the woodshed at my current house and would probably build one for the new one eventually. I've never had a problem burning wood stored in it right away, but I'd imagine I'd bring in a bunch at a time since there's a nice big garage to stack it in and it sucks going to the shed every night. Our first year or two's wood can easily be harvested from the lot.TooMuchAbstraction posted:Instead of running specific cables (or in addition to, rather), install conduit so you don't have to rip the walls open to replace your cables with whatever the new hotness is. Def conduit. We'll have to figure out where a good central location to run it. OSU_Matthew posted:Also look into smart home stuff, like Samsung Smart Things or Nest thermostat/protect. A lot of that stuff is really starting to mature and can be extraordinarily useful. I can only imagine what you could do integrating some of the ideas from the ground up instead of ad hoc installation. Wife and I have talked a bit about it. We (she) don't see a huge need for a big prewired home automation system. Feel free to convince us otherwise, but it seems like a shiny new toy that's going to get obsolete in a couple years. Some home audio would be nice, but we use those sonos speakers now and they're great. Got the plans sent to me. They were for some duplex. Another week for the new ones, then I can start bidding process. xwing posted:So I will admit this has been a bit like banging my head against a wall, I say it because I fully believe it's in everyone's best interest to use professionals. I get it. Nobody is saying custom plans wouldn't lead to a better house. For us, it's all about finding an acceptable risk profile and weighing that against the cost. In this case, there is another element that goes into the equation. We need to be building by 7/27 and buying a set of plans cuts out a a month or two from the process. We're accepting some design risk to lower our start-date risk. Potential savings is a bonus. If that wasn't a factor at all, we would have gone with our first architect, it was a really hard decision for us. edit: City Water - YAY
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Apr 1, 2016 21:51
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I have a well now. Every year, a toxic plume of mtbe from a leaky gas station in the 80's claims more wells in town. On the other side of town a landfill has been seeping dioxane into the groundwater and slowly spreading. Luckily neither seems to be headed this direction, but I'd be happy to not have that worry. e: oh yeah - and all the wells in town have naturally occurring arsenic.
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Apr 4, 2016 20:44
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OSU_Matthew posted:Nah, your average home burglar is all about opportunity, eg window left open or garage door left open kind of thing. It's incredibly unlikely sometime predisposed to petty home theft is gonna locally hack into your home network to disable your security system--99% of burglars will just move on to the next house without a security system. It's the same exact reason all our physical door locks all utilize a hundred year old design that's laughable from any security standpoint. The locks are there to inspire trust in each other, not because they're worthwhile in preventing a half determined criminal. Also, smart locks are awesome, just throwing that out there. The security concerns I'd have around the smart devices aren't the local burglar. It's the script kiddy in russia that gets photos of me in my batman underoos or turns my doorbell into a spam relay. Or even just bricks the devices for fun. House plans due in tomorrow. Wife & I made a detailed list of what we'd like to see in all the rooms. Will be trying to get in builder's schedules next week to go over it and start bid process. This process made me remember when we redid our bathroom. At one point we spent 4 hours picking out floor tile in home depot. Hopefully the marriage survives a home build. Visited a kitchen showroom. They do free top to bottom design work (cabinets, countertops, fixtures, lighting, etc.) so we'll probably take them up on that. Even if it's just to hand to the builder to give an idea of the style/quality that we want. They also mentioned it's good to do that early since you still have some control over things like window-placement and you can plan for standard cabinet designs and avoid custom work. God damned lawyer on the land purchase is dragging his feet. Should have been a done-deal by now.
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Apr 7, 2016 13:48
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xwing posted:I know it's a part of the business but that's kind of a jerk move and not even all that helpful for the contractor. They justify doing the "design work" (really they're pulling from a catalog, dragging and dropping, their probably using 20/20 which is like the Sketchup of millwork design) by being the supplier. I doubt they'll just hand over drawings that will be helpful for the next guy that is working from catalog B instead of catalog A that is actually getting the job. It's wasting their time if you don't intend to use them. You'd be better served to ask the contractor to have an allowance for kitchen install with whoever they prefer working with or to just leave it blank for the kitchen supplier to come in later. The guy we talked to suggested it. Said something like "After the design your builder can have us install, do it themselves, or go off and buy somewhere else." He was pretty confident they would be competitive with anyone else. It will be of value to us in figuring out what we want. OSU_Matthew posted:^^ What still needs done with the land purchase lawyer? Apparently he had been sitting on his hands waiting for me to deliver documents that I had already delivered.
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Apr 7, 2016 15:07
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Got plans in hand. One thing on them... they generally call for pre-fab floor joists. Anything to know/worry about them vs. standard dimensional lumber? From what I read they're fine and are used to span longer distances. Meeting with one builder on Thursday to go over plans, see the land, and start the bid process. Waiting to hear back from the others.
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Apr 10, 2016 13:32
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Lawyer finally called back with actual news. Going in to sign and finalize everything Thursday afternoon.xwing posted:This preoccupation with fire is fascinating to me... is it some phenomenon in the rest of the country that there's a good chance your home will go up in flames? If you have a house fire your place is going to be wrecked short of a sprinkler system that puts it out early. Seems like a goofy thing to go out of your way for. Then again I've had to dissuade clients that a 8" core ICF home was unnecessary to survive a hurricane. I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking like that. Personally, when weighing risks like that, I've been trying to compare it to my current living situation and as long as it's less-risky I've been content. I'm pretty sure any code-compliant house will be better than our current one. So, when I talk with the builder on Thursday, should I be talking about materials quality or anything? I know the plans specify what type, but should I be requesting a certain grade of lumber or not using OSB or anything similar? I'd like to make sure the bids I get are targeting the same quality in that regard. Side-note, just down the street a new house is going in. It's been really fun driving by every day and imagining the progress on my own later this year.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:24
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