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