Having a house built

RatLabGuy said:
3,000 sq ft is an wakeful lot of house to have to maintain, keep clean, and keep warm/cool.
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I agree. We just downsized ourselves. We moved into a 1700 sqft house from 3200. We have 3 kids. The oldest is in college but she's home for breaks and summer. I wish we had never bought the big house. So much money wasted. Between mortgage and utilities I'm saving a little over $500/month.
 
RatLabGuy said:
3,000 sq ft is an wakeful lot of house to have to maintain, keep clean, and keep warm/cool.
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We are currently in 1200sf. And that's too small.

There are just two of us.

We *tried* to keep new house plan to 2400sf. That died quick. New goal... We *tried* to keep it to 2750sf. Better, but not everything we wanted. Ended up at -- yep -- 3000sf.

Three things factor into that. We have a group of friends that like to get together for dinner at one house or another. 8-10 of us. "Dinner" can take several hours. We have hosted twice here, because you just can't easily have 10 folks over for dinner in 1200sf. So, entertaining space was important to us. Second, I have always worked out of the house. Retired now mostly, but looking at getting back into something part-time, and need private office space. So, office/work space had to be there. (Our two offices (about 420sf total) would be "bedrooms" when we eventually put the house on the market, making it a 4br, 2-3/4 bath.) Third, this is our "grow old and die in it" house. When we are 95, we want to have room and quarters for live-in hired help.
 
We live in a 1600 Sq ft house and it's just too small for us. It's been a good one but we're sorting through plans now and looking to build. I dread it because it's going to be a huge PITA but in the end it'll be something we designed and thought out to fit our needs. Every house we've looked at in the area is horribly overpriced and in my eyes fixer uppers.
 
I'm currently in a 1000sf house. Planning on building within the next year thinking around a 1600sf house,as well as a 40x40 building. Just me and the wife so should be plenty of room.
 
My house Is right under 1000sf. If it had one more bedroom and a few more acres I would never move. I plan to build in the next 5 years or so but don't plan on it being much more than 1600sf.
 
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kaiser715 said:
One other thing we did when doing our house plans. Made a couple of trips to Vanderbilt (big mobile home place in Sanford....dozens of units on the lot you can walk thru). You'll pick up some good ideas on layouts, room sizes, etc. Those guys are experts at squeezing the most into a given space, and make it look and flow good. Take your tape measure, an take pics of what you like. Then work that into your own plan.
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Vanderbilt is pretty good. They are fairly fast, can get you a CO in 6 months or so. They generally have their act together when it comes to permitting. There's a group out of Richfield that's pretty good too, Modular Homes of NC.

Two things to keep in mind when serving as your own contractor: 1) you have to live in the house for at least one year after completion and 2) technically you're required by law to be on site for every building inspection (NCGS 87-14) unless the plans were drawn and sealed by an architect. Some jurisdictions may be hardcore about that requirement.

Permitting process isn't that hard. If you go the self contractor route send me a PM if you have any questions.
 
Thanks for all the info guys, it's been extremely helpful.

kaiser715 said:
We are building this year. Some stuff that we have done and some things to think about, in totally random order:

Find out how much you can afford. Be wary of scope creep. Make a budget. And stick to it. Don't be tempted by "we're spending 500 thousand, whats another thousand...or ten thousand". Talk to a financial advisor, and be sure of what you can truly afford. We built our current house in 2002. Qualified for around $600k loan. We built a $115k house. That sub-$700 payment sure was nice come 2009 when things dried up (most of my clients were in the construction industry).

Read up on energy effiiciency, green building, etc....then forget most of what you have read. We are targeting to build "a little better house"....better than average energy-wise, but still where we will meet a break-even point while we are still living (and taking inflation and future energy costs into consideration). Lots of things to do to be energy efficient, but payback is too long to be realistic.

Look at hundreds/thousands of canned plans. Lots of house plan websites out there. Then get out some paper and draw up your own. After we had our basic floor plan and hand-drawn elevations, I took them to a local draftsman (that does drawing for most of the builders around here) and had her draw up a full set of plans. Cost $600 (way less than the cost of the canned plans).

Be prepared to make a lot of phone calls. Of all the builders, graders, sales people, septic guys, surveyors, etc I have called in the past few months, have only gotten replies from at best 2 out of 5.

Go to the local home shows. You'll get lots of ideas, inspiration, and make some contacts with folks you may use, or sources for some items. Raleigh convention ("downtown") show is Feb, Southern Ideal at fairgrounds is in April IIRC. Go hit local kitchen/bath showrooms for ideas. Be able to mentally separate what you like from what you can afford. Look other places than Lowes and HD for your lights and plumbing. We have looked at a bunch of under-construction houses and open houses....and most all of them get their fixtures from Lowes/HD....and you keep seeing the same stuff everywhere.

Draw up a budget. Be sure and include a contingency allowance. I did 10% of the entire project cost (land, land devel., house construction, shop build, driveway, etc). (and I am pretty anal about doing estimates). We already had one surprise with the costs of the septic as specified by the county. Don't forget $ for things like blinds, curtains, rugs, misc. furniture, etc....I figure we'll blow about $25k on stuff like that between getting the CO and moving in. Here are the major line items on our budget list:

Land and closing fees
New construction impact fee (if required by your county) (I hear Chatham is now $3.5k)
Legal Fees – Closing (lawyer, title insurance, recording of deed, etc)
House Plans (local draftsman)
Survey (mark corners, flag lines, etc)
Soils Test (soil scientist to locate possible septic locations)
Septic application (county)
Septic construction permit (county)
Temp power pole
Power line installation
Phone Line installation
Land clearing
Driveway/access road construction
Repair driveway after underground services installed
Well and piping well to house
Water softener if hard water
Water Tap Fee (county)
Waterline trench and fill – backhoe
Waterline installation – pipe and labor
House construction
Construction insurance policy
Permits (building, elect, plumbing, mechanical) (for house)
septic system defined by permit
Shop construction
Permits (building, elect, plumbing, mechanical) (for shop)
Shop – clearing and grading site
Shop – interior walls and finish
Shop – electrical
Shop - exterior concrete
Carport/Concrete Pad
Concrete drive/parking 2400sf (12x200')
House Misc – furniture, window treatments, rugs
Tractor/FEL
Alarm system and extras
Video system
Moving Expenses
Farm Gates (4)
Fencing
Auto start generator system (small)
500+lb propane tank

Last of all, have fun! For most, house-building is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It can make a marriage stronger, or break it.
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Thanks man...this was beyond helpful, I think I had like 4 of those on my checklist.

RatLabGuy said:
3,000 sq ft is an wakeful lot of house to have to maintain, keep clean, and keep warm/cool.
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We probably have too much stuff, but like @kaiser715 said, we do a lot of entertaining...and I do a lot of working from home with two side businesses and any take home stuff from the 9-5. I can't say it'll be my forever home yet, but hope for the best. There are 7 on her side and 13 on my side that randomly pop in or invade on holidays. It's not uncommon to have a guest room filled 2-3 nights a week. Plus, she'd generally host the parties/showers/get togethers for her besties. My first house was 2400sq/ft and just the two of us, natural gas and electricity was an average of $200/mo. We downsized to 1800sq/ft when we moved to the beach, was relatively tight. And now we're renting 1500 sq/ft until we find a house, and we're like sardines. The last two places were always $150-200/month in utilities too.
 
When you do your budget, have some flex/droppable items identified in it. Things you are willing to give up, if other costs are unexpectedly high. For us, it's the carport, concrete vs. gravel for drive (near house) and parking area, patio area down by the pond, etc are all negotiable. Expanse of concrete outside the shop bays went away when we found out septic will be $15k plus. Makes those surprises hurt a little less.
 
Think code plus. When 1/2" CDX will do, upgrade. When 24" o/c between roof trusses is called for, go 16" o/c. Make floors stronger. Insulate between interior walls. Use GOOD windows! Leave ample crawl space room. Tell/show electricians which switches you want to control what lights when you walk into a room, have it in writing and don't pay them until its right. Use the best roofing material you can get, 15 years goes by in a flash. If you use carpet get high quality berber and a good pad. Use traditional styling that has weathered the test of time, don't follow trends. Plan ahead for bigger electrical service. Use top of the line HVAC products.
 
^^^ What he said. Remember, building "to code" is the absolute minimum required.
 
Geez.

This is my fucking job. And there is no way in hell I'd build my own house from scratch. I'd much rather find something I didn't like and fix it.

Given the choice, I'd up the thickness of the roof sheathing before I'd change the rafter spacing. Don't insulate interior walls, unless you're adding mineral fiber batts around sound-sensitive rooms. Draw an electrical/lighting plan. Spend the time to get it right. Spend good money on the air barrier and continuous insulation. Same with windows. Fuck a vinyl window.

Our house is 2,700SF, but could stand to be at least 500SF bigger than it is. But it all comes down to what you're doing with it. If you need a guest room and a home office and a handful of bedrooms besides, it's tough to make that happen with less space.

You're going to want to hire a GC. Find a good one and pay him for his services. If you're GCing yourself, you have no leverage over the subs. They'll come and go whenever they want, they'll drop your job to go take care of their regular clients.
 
shawn said:
Geez.

This is my fucking job. And there is no way in hell I'd build my own house from scratch. I'd much rather find something I didn't like and fix it.

Given the choice, I'd up the thickness of the roof sheathing before I'd change the rafter spacing. Don't insulate interior walls, unless you're adding mineral fiber batts around sound-sensitive rooms.
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I insulated in between my interior walls and my house is very quiet. I used insulation with no vapor barrier on it. I am very happy with that part
My house was a remodel of 900 sq ft, and add 900 sq feet. The remodel part took forever! ( I did a lot of the grunt work) the new side was a breeze! But my contractor friend hooked me up by just supervising at a good rate, let me pay subs directly, and pay for all materials so he didn't have to mark either of them up. Mine is at 1800 sq ft and I could use more living space also.
 
A 2x4" wood stud wall with 1/2" GWB on each side is probably an STC in the low 30s. 32, 34, something like that. Adding fiberglass batts to the cavity bumps it up to... probably the high 30s. The rate of return isn't very good. Mineral fiber sound batts would probably get it into the mid-40s, but if you're spending that kind of money, you'd be better off to add a resilient channel to one side of the wall and get something that actually resembles a sound wall. That would get you into the 50s.

Regardless, if you're not putting putty pads on the backs of all the electrical boxes and caulking the wall top and bottom, you're not changing anything.
 
shawn said:
A 2x4" wood stud wall with 1/2" GWB on each side is probably an STC in the low 30s. 32, 34, something like that. Adding fiberglass batts to the cavity bumps it up to... probably the high 30s. The rate of return isn't very good. Mineral fiber sound batts would probably get it into the mid-40s, but if you're spending that kind of money, you'd be better off to add a resilient channel to one side of the wall and get something that actually resembles a sound wall. That would get you into the 50s.

Regardless, if you're not putting putty pads on the backs of all the electrical boxes and caulking the wall top and bottom, you're not changing anything.
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All I know is I resemble your avatar after reading that.
 
shawn said:
And there is no way in hell I'd build my own house from scratch. I'd much rather find something I didn't like and fix it.
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Thanks...this is on the table too. But figured I'd eliminate options...and it sounds like building a house should be eliminated based on the responses.
 
McCracken said:
All I know is I resemble your avatar after reading that.
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I'll translate:

Getting good sound isolation only happens if you do it right. Small things make a big difference - or at least forgetting a small thing (like the contact between receptacles and the wall and/or studs) can negate a lot of other expensive stuff.
 
R Q said:
I insulated in between my interior walls and my house is very quiet. I used insulation with no vapor barrier on it. I am very happy with that part
My house was a remodel of 900 sq ft, and add 900 sq feet. The remodel part took forever! ( I did a lot of the grunt work) the new side was a breeze! But my contractor friend hooked me up by just supervising at a good rate, let me pay subs directly, and pay for all materials so he didn't have to mark either of them up. Mine is at 1800 sq ft and I could use more living space also.
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We had the builder put insulation in specific interior walls too. It helped reduce noise considerably.
 
shawn said:
A 2x4" wood stud wall with 1/2" GWB on each side is probably an STC in the low 30s. 32, 34, something like that. Adding fiberglass batts to the cavity bumps it up to... probably the high 30s. The rate of return isn't very good. Mineral fiber sound batts would probably get it into the mid-40s, but if you're spending that kind of money, you'd be better off to add a resilient channel to one side of the wall and get something that actually resembles a sound wall. That would get you into the 50s.

Regardless, if you're not putting putty pads on the backs of all the electrical boxes and caulking the wall top and bottom, you're not changing anything.
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Hey ya know, I did the best I could with the knowledge I had at the time, I'm good with it. :D
 
shawn said:
Geez.

there is no way in hell I'd build my own house from scratch. I'd much rather find something I didn't like and fix it.

.
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That was our original plan. After looking for a long time, we gave up and bought a lot and built. I love our new house, but as I mentioned earlier, it was the most miserable year of my life and I wish we had stuck to the plan and just waited longer for the right house to come up for sale.
 
kaiser715 said:
Find out how much you can afford. Be wary of scope creep. Make a budget. And stick to it. Don't be tempted by "we're spending 500 thousand, whats another thousand...or ten thousand". Talk to a financial advisor, and be sure of what you can truly afford. We built our current house in 2002. Qualified for around $600k loan. We built a $115k house. That sub-$700 payment sure was nice come 2009 when things dried up (most of my clients were in the construction industry).
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That is good advice. In my situation, I think we were being a little cheap when we set our original budget. Three years later there are a few things I wish we would have decided to spend the additional money on when the house was built. The biggest one is we were trying to decide between finishing in above the garage or above the living room as a play room/gym room. Above the garage would be about 750-800sqft. Above the living room was about 400-450 or so sqft. We chose the smaller to save money. I now regret that since the play room/gym room is packed to the gills with toys and gym equipment with no room for anymore stuff. Now I think it is just a matter of time before we end up finishing in above the garage and turning it into the play room/gym room.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Getting good sound isolation only happens if you do it right. Small things make a big difference - or at least forgetting a small thing (like the contact between receptacles and the wall and/or studs) can negate a lot of other expensive stuff.
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More or less. Sound attenuation is one of those things where there's a lot of test data out there. You can basically figure out what you want to do, then go pick out an assembly that delivers the STC and/or IIC rating that you need to get the performance you want. It's all been quantified. But if you don't do it right, you end up with an air leak somewhere, and you might as well not have gone to the trouble and expense.

Given the choice, I'd spend money on solid-core doors.
 
Since you guys sufficiently scared the shit out of me from building a house...bought this one instead. 5bed/4bath 3000 sq/ft, 3 car attached. Was a much, much easier process.

IMG_1337.jpg
 
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