Thinking about Building a House

[Bobs69]

Well having it built for me.  I would be very receptive to some opinions and lessons that you guys have learned.

It is just me and my wife, so we don't need a huge home to impress the neighbours.  I want something that will be comfortable, built to last, and something that I can have pride of ownership in.

Now, the house will be built for 2, and hopefully on a lot in a upscale neighbourhood.  The garage should be built for 3 or 4.  Have running water in it, and a drain for washing the cars in the winter.  I may want a sink and shower in there as well.

I was told by the contractor to look for plans online and start going to all the open houses I can. Then I can bring him what I like, get a price, and go from there.

Are there any preferred sites to find plans?

[Kern Dog]

Your spelling tells me that you are Canadian. Cold regions do need special considerations regarding basements, radiant floor heating, triple pane windows, etc. Remember to include all of that.

[mr. hemi]

Bobs69, if you are located in the "Great White North" pm me. My wife and I completed a very similar undertaking a few years ago. We can offer suggestions.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

I am in the midst of building a one level ranch style house with an attached oversize 2-car garage now (digging the foundation hole today). I too started looking online, but I never quite found a design that I liked, so I somewhat copied a design of a friends house and modified it a bit. From that, I had real architect's drawings made and once he presented them to us, they needed to be tweaked a couple times to get to the final design. We're also going to build a separate 50' X 46' garage for my junk.

The house is just for my wife and I, but we designed a 3-bedroom house for future resale because 2 bedroom houses don't sell well.

[odcics2]

I am in the midst of building a one level ranch style house with an attached oversize 2-car garage now (digging the foundation hole today). I too started looking online, but I never quite found a design that I liked, so I somewhat copied a design of a friends house and modified it a bit. From that, I had real architect's drawings made and once he presented them to us, they needed to be tweaked a couple times to get to the final design. We're also going to build a separate 50' X 46' garage for my junk.

The house is just for my wife and I, but we designed a 3-bedroom house for future resale because 2 bedroom houses don't sell well.

[John_Kunkel]

I have a couple of friends who had custom homes built by a contractor, on the advice of others they employed a "hired gun" who had no dog in the fight to oversee the work of the general contractor. Kinda like getting a second opinion on medical procedures.

[Homerr]

I'm an architect - what Kern Dog said. 

I'd suggest finding a local architect or draftsman familiar with your local codes and building practices.  In the larger picture the cost of this will still modest and allow you to get exactly what you want.

[69 OUR/TEA]

Best thing I ever did when I built mine was radiant floor heat in the garage , wicked efficient , set it and forget it , keep it at 65 all winter long . Just pre-plan if you think you might do a lift (2 post ) so when you have to drill for your anchors .   

[b5blue]

  Be VERY careful about Home owner associations! I've seen huge issues over things I consider nothing. The last thing you need is to get locked in to a conflicted site. Things like drainage/flooding, access or lack of right away, projected area expansion, utility specific concern for water sewer gas power and toxic or proximity to past toxic exposed areas.
 

[gtx6970]

Regardless of what you may think you need right now.
DO NOT build anything less than a 3 bedroom house.


Look around the neighborhoods of interest to gauge the size and  style , don't veer to far from the norm or you may never be able to resell ,,,not if  but WHEN the time comes ( think appraisal values )


After moving across country recently we seriously looked into buying a lot / property  and build. We ended up buying a nice 2000 sqft house on .75 acres, with a 3 car garage . Not my dream home but it came  REALLY close as far as style, and floorplan AND garage . So we went that route and odds are its our last one. Knowing we  can change the things we didn't like ( flooring  treatments, bathroom style , etc etc ) but cant change the location or setting which was key factors for us

Good luck on your hunt.


( ps, the grass is fake, I don't have to mow squat )

[Finn]

Great lighting! Shows off the yard nicely.

[Bobs69]

Great advice guys thanks.  This time around I will be getting very close to having my own way.  At least I'll do my damndest to do so. 

[NHCharger]

I built houses for over 20 years. When it came time to build my current house, which I built in 1999, my wife and I went thru 100's of online plans. We finally decided on one house we really liked as far as the exterior of the house. The interior layout didn't make sense so we redesigned the interior of the house and tweaked the footprint a bit. I had a $100 dollar design program at the time that I use to draw all my house plans on. You could probably do the same thing.

As far as others have said- three bedroom minimum for better resale.

As far as a third party inspector, it depends on how trustworthy the GC is and what previous customers have said. I built a house for two girls back in the early 90's. The Realtor they bought the land from convinced them to hire her as an consultant to "keep me honest". Her and I got into a disagreement on a certain construction technique. i had to have the bank inspector (a former builder) and the building inspector tell the owners that the consultant didn't know what she was talking about. In the end the owners told me they were pissed that they spent the extra money with the Realtor. 

[69bronzeT5]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice as well. My wife and I are wanting to build in the next year or so, so it's all fantastic information. 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice as well. My wife and I are wanting to build in the next year or so, so it's all fantastic information. 

Whoever follows my advice can't go wrong.

[John_Kunkel]

As far as a third party inspector, it depends on how trustworthy the GC is and what previous customers have said.

Logic tells you not to hire a cabinet maker to advise on a heart transplant. 

[odcics2]

As far as a third party inspector, it depends on how trustworthy the GC is and what previous customers have said.

Logic tells you not to hire a cabinet maker to advise on a heart transplant. 

Unless you are operating on Pinocchio.   

[Old Moparz]

At one time, maybe in the early 1990's, my wife & I were considering having a house built. We used to stop at EVERY SINGLE house that was under construction just to look & compare quality & get an idea of layouts. There were many different builders & developers out there & the quality varied greatly. One thing for sure, the biggest difference was usually within a development or subdivision of a large number of new houses compared to just one or a few. These development houses were almost like an assembly line where you will generally see the quality of both materials & craftsmanship at the lower end of the spectrum. The faster you turn one out the more profit there is.

There was one custom home builder we saw time & time again (Pomarico Construction which is still in business) that had the best work in our price range of almost all of them. The site was always clean, orderly & there was no debris scattered everywhere like a hurricane passed through. The foundation was perfect, the cuts on the framing were nice, the plywood joints had no gaps, windows, doors, siding etc., were installed correctly. The finished product stood out from the others. We priced a house with this builder & his numbers were about 20 to 30 percent higher, but in my opinion the difference wasn't too bad considering that several other builders had mistakes that were obvious & some are no longer in business.

Plan to spend some time between now & when you are going to build looking at houses that are currently under construction. You will start to get more familiar with it & also start to get an idea of what you like or dislike in a house. The advantage I had was that I had worked for a few places doing home improvements & new construction so it was easy for me to look at someone's work & know right away if the laborers knew what they were doing & took pride, or if they were crack-heads with stolen hammers or hungover drunks waiting for quitting time tp go get a cold one instead of reading a tape measure.  

[stripedelete]

Stone from the footer tile to grade, regardless of code.
(and be there that day)

[Kern Dog]

The RANDOM post of the day goes to........

Stone from the footer tile to grade, regardless of code.
(and be there that day)

I have no idea what this means.

[stripedelete]

The RANDOM post of the day goes to........

Stone from the footer tile to grade, regardless of code.
(and be there that day)

I have no idea what this means.

What's random about it?   Damn good advice.  99% of basement issues ( issues= wet, leaky, damp, cracked, caving walls) could avoided by spending a couple of extra bucks and backfilling entirely with stone.   However, most building codes still only require 2 feet. 

And use schedule 40 for the footer tile.

I don't care how much you trust your builder, be onsite to verify both!

[RiverRaider]

Stop by the local city/town/county clerk's office and pick up a copy of the local ordinances.  The building codes usually are consistent but some ordinances can be surprising. Limiting peak height of garages or how tall the garage door can be, paved verses concrete driveway,  overnight parking on the street, having trailers outside overnight on the property.  Other things like snow emergency and fencing rules.  The clerk may have tax information or the number of the local accessor so you can ask what may increase your property tax.   The style of home, things like trapezoid windows, door types, patio sizes, square footage of the home and paved or concrete driveway.  Better to know going in rather than finding out after the fact that a couple small changes could have saved hundreds a year in property taxes.  Also it may not apply to you but if you build an additional building or adding a shed in the future make sure the property has enough sq. footage. Some ordinances required a specified percentage of the lot be open/green space and its better to have enough room rather than trying for a variance.   

   

[69rtse4spd]

When we added the master bedroom over full basement, backfilled with clean number 9 stone too within 2 feet of the top. Did it myself, so it was done right, water hits the stone, goes right to the drain tile, does not lay up against the basement walls, dry basement, cost a little more but peace of mind. And yes be there that day.

[stripedelete]

The stone also absorbs the expansion of the surrounding soil during the winter.   The frozen soil pushing against the foundation is the cause of the cracks in the walls.   Water will find the easiest path.   With no stone it will find the crack.

If you currently have a leaky basement, every solution except digging it up, replacing the tile(drain) and backfilling with stone, is just a really expensive band-aid. 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

   With no stone it will find the crack.

This stuff works good for cracks.....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwCPhHezc-o

[white]

 

[NHCharger]

The other thing you need to mention when talking about foundation drains is where does the water drain. The seasonal water table here in NH is 3' so when ever I was looking for the next lot to build a spec house I would always make sure I could set up the lot for a daylight drain outlet for the foundation drain. If you are going to have a septic system check the local soils map to make sure you're not sitting on clay or soils that would create a high water table. It took me a year to find the lot that I ended up building my own house on.

[Bobs69]

Stone from the footer tile to grade, regardless of code.
(and be there that day)

This is for water drainage correct?  And to save myself massive headaches down the road?

[Bobs69]

The RANDOM post of the day goes to........

Stone from the footer tile to grade, regardless of code.
(and be there that day)

I have no idea what this means.

What's random about it?   Damn good advice.  99% of basement issues ( issues= wet, leaky, damp, cracked, caving walls) could avoided by spending a couple of extra bucks and backfilling entirely with stone.   However, most building codes still only require 2 feet. 

And use schedule 40 for the footer tile.

I don't care how much you trust your builder, be onsite to verify both!

Ok so we go above and beyond the building code.  This will make the house much more comfortable.

I have worked construction as a labourer in my youth, I've also seen a couple people dig up along their foundations to fix drainage issues.  F**K that......

[69 500]

build what you want , build a home not a showroom, think of retirement years and use a few simple rules.  no matter where you live .
  1. poured foundation
  2. proper drainage around foundation
  3. sprayed in insulation (seals airgaps as well as insulates)
  4. good floor plan (master bedroom living room, dinning room, kitchen and laundry room on main floor, definitely radiant floor heat (you can zone rooms),
  5. tile floors are expensive but well worth the money as well as real hard wood floors (not laminate) they also work really well with radiant heat.
  6. if you have the money you can also go off grid expensive up front but low cost down the road when elderly.

      lots of options and opinions , plan well for the future , never use a plan based on price, base it on necessity ,when you plan cheap all you get is a cheap plan. 
                                                                                               

[superbirdtom]

get a good contractor and a turn key price. make sure u have maximum R value in your insulation.  the building inspectors can kill you so my advise is dont try and be your own general contractor and sub out everything its a nightmare and u can be taken to the cleaners by the subs that can tell its your first house.  make sure its a 3 bedroom w a big master and walk in closet and a bathroom w separate poop stall.  u wont regret it for resale.  pay for good quality kitchen cabinets solid plywood boxes zero particle board. go to www.outwater.com to find anything for your home just to see whats out there instead of lowes which every other person has in their homes.  dont buy from them but search elsewhere for lighting door knobs -its just to get an idea .   make sure u go to the homes contractor has built and satisfied customers  too many cons and flakes out there that talk a good game.    good luck.

[draftingmonkey]

Have you thought about looking at a modular home? If not, take a look online at the variety of plans available. Seriously looking at going the modular route when I get out of SoCal and head back to the frozen north.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

I've been in a few modular homes and I'm just not a fan. To me, they are just a couple notches higher than han a mobile home. You just can't beat a quality stick built house

[BSB67]

I designed and had built a second home a couple years ago. Why I thought I could do this I'm not sure as I had no experience in this at all.  My wife and I are very pleased with the outcome.  Here are some take a ways from our experiences.

1) Don't start with the exterior of the house, which flies in the face with what 95% of people will tell you.  You spend +90% of your time inside the house.  Make that the priority.

2) think really really hard on what you like and what is important to you.  Cooking?, outside deck time?, entertaining?, family time?, ........and equally important think about what is not important and trim cost in those areas to help finance the important areas.

3) look online and in magazines at the interior features that are important to you in very high-end houses and see how that "feel" or "look" can be baked into your plan in a modest way.

4) open houses and home shows are good too.

5) get to know others that are one or two years into their new constructed homes and see what their likes and dislikes are.

The process can be frustrating as there are so many decisions to be made, especially if it is a true custom home.  As an example, look up drawer pulls on builder.com.  I think there were 7000 choices.  Have you read "The Paradox of Choice"?  You will learn a little about youself, and more about your wife.