Sagus and I are getting a Financial Planner to help us make plans for buying/building a home, retirement, creating Trusts for our sons, etc.

My question is, how difficult and expensive is it to biuld a home to our specifications?

We want a Ranch-style home with a Great Room with 2 wings with one wing that will contain a Master Suite/bathroom for Sagus and I, and the other wing will contain small loft-style apartments for the boys as they get older.

We wanted to make this into a sort "U" shaped house with the middle of the "U" having a plant-area/arboretum.

quote:

arboretum

Main Entry: ar·bo·re·tum
Pronunciation: "är-b&-'rE-t&m
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -retums or ar·bo·re·ta /-'rE-t&/
Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, plantation of trees, from arbor
: a place where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes

We HAD thought about making this an Earth Home for better insulation and lower costs for heating and cooling.

Can anyone help me or provide ways for me to obtain this information?

HELP!
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03-19-06, 11:42 AM
Walks On Water
This may not answer all of your questions but is a start. I am sure you will hear from other Poolies.

The cost of building a home is based on so much per square foot for a given market area of the country. The more square feet, the lower the cost per square do to “Quantity” buying. A small home will cost you less but you will be paying more per square foot then a large house.

This cost goes up based of special requests. You want stone counter tops, that will cost you more then laminate tops. You want custom cabinets over stock, you pay. That goes on for each special request.

Next are the architect’s fees. When you build or buy a common, open market home, these fees are spread between all homes of that design the builder builds. He buys the plans for a set fee and builds 10 homes. This fee is divided between the 10. When you do a custom home, you pay for all the architects’ fees. I must add that this also applies to city approvals if needed. City approves one and this will apply to all.

One last thing to remember when building a custom home is re-sale value. What you need and what you want may not be what the buyer is looking for. I have found that swimming pools in our market is a detracting to a buyer. They don’t want the bother.

Start with an architect who will list your ideas then come up with plans you can take to a builder to give you a quote on you cost to build.

Don't forget about the lot. You should have a good idea where you want to build before talking to the architect. Some even want to see your land before making a design.

03-19-06, 05:00 PM
aminator2002
Most people have to own a not as perfect as they want it to be home for awhile and then consider taking on the cost of building. It's quite a bit more to build.

I suggest you interview some builders in your area and tell them what you would like to do and get some feedback from them. It would be meaningless for me to comment on prices because they are so area specific.

It doesn't hurt anyone for you to call a builder and discuss it with them. Look for builders that do "Design Build" services. Many residential builders are working this way in conjunction with an architect rather than having you go through an architect.

03-20-06, 02:51 AM
Ritzmar
There is a lot of good advice here, Sherasi. I cannot really add anything, except that your situation in the US sounds very similar to ours across the pond.

If you really do intend to stay for a very long time then build whatever you can afford, because it is for you. If you see yourself selling on within a few years then check the market for plus & minus points, e.g. the swimming pools as mentioned above.

Finally, ask as many local builders as you can for views, opinions, suggestions, etc., but try to be as clear as possible about what your designs and dimensions will be. Drawing up design ideas on graph paper and having at least some concept of overall measurements saves a lot of time.

Finally ask to see any work done by those builders, and physically go to look at the results if at all feasible. Where possible ask any of the residents (where mutually convenient) how satisfied they were with the service provided, and note any plus/minus points which arose. Good luck!
Wink

03-20-06, 05:41 AM
Sherasi
My purpose for building this house is to live in it and then die in it and then leave it to the boys (or rather their Trust). We are considering having it donated to a Group Home Corporation after we die with the stipulation the boys remain in the house with total supervision for the rest of their lives.

We plan on getting a LOT more information before making any committments.

Another alternative for us is to buy a Ranch-Style home with a lot of land and then, as we can afford it, make additions to the home.

All this is speculative, but we have some time to research and determine what would best suit our needs and pocketbook.

03-20-06, 12:16 PM
DvdGStwrt
It also depends on if it’s a buyer's market or a seller's market. For a long time here in California it has been a seller's market, as such having "custom" homes was not as affordable to existing homes due to the market. Due to a lack of available existing homes new home construction was riding the high wave of demand and were able to stick it to the buyer, thus allowing existing home owners to raise their price, feeding the construction companies to raise their prices. 10 years ago the property we are on was worth $300,000.00 Today it is worth over $850,000.00 that is just the land…

Now as the trend is shifting to a buyer's market new constructed homes, custom homes are priced at less than existing homes and in many places where companies have bought up a lot of land for developing and have committed to a contract for building they are "loosing their shirts" having to offer incentives such as free built in entertainment centers, complete with room to room speakers, throwing in free appliances to sell their property and at least break even.

As for building with "alternative" materials. Straw Bale construction will always be cheaper than stick frame construction (Stick frame is framed in 2x4/2x6 most popular method of construction). Rammed earth is still cheaper than stick frame as well, not as cheap as straw bale, but cheaper.

Usually you have to deal with "Green" People who are in the business of sustainable housing out of a sense of duty to the Earth, thus they are not being competitive for design and building. After all they have a Message or a Mission to reduce your impact on the environment - Money is secondary to that Mission thus they will most often undercut costs and keep those alternative materials thus the whole house cheaper to build per square foot than it costs to buy a previously owned home or even a factory uniform designed house.

I am still planning on Straw Bale Construction in a rural setting. The further from city/town you get the cheaper the land becomes. My house (the house and a couple of acres) would be about 75% the costs of a suburban sprawl postage stamp lot house due to its inexpensive materials (Bales of straw a cheap compared to lumber, sheathing, insulation) and of course its location (we were looking at foot hill property recently) in the middle of cattle country would mean the price of land would be far less than near or in town/city.

It all comes down to Location, Home Materials and the size of the home.

03-20-06, 04:14 PM
aminator2002
I definitely think it is wise to see what's the market for ranch style homes on nice lots.

I really hate to see people with busy lifestyles go through building especially if they are on tight financial constraints. I see couples and families go through it and it is really tough. I mean really tough. I explained to my sister once that I really didn't want to see her and my brother-in-law get divorced so I would never draw plans for what they were considering as far as a construction project.

I have never heard of straw bale construction and have to wonder if it is allowed in most areas. I think the Northern Calif area is way ahead of most parts as far as using alternative materials. You have to be very concerned that if you pick an alternative material that you have a contractor that knows how to do it and has done it successfully in projects that you can go visit. You definitely don't want a standard builder to be coming out and doing an earth home for you. There are all sorts of ventilation issues to be concerned about and totally different heating and cooling requirements.

So anyway, I really like the idea of you finding a house that nearly meets your requirements and that you feel confident can be improved upon without having you go without basic amenities. (I mean washing dishes in a bathtub is not practical for a person with two special needs kids.)

I know you want to build your dream home but frankly... it's not all it's cracked up to be.

03-20-06, 05:37 PM
Sherasi
Ami (or anyone else), perhaps you can help me with this further quest for information.


Sagus and I REALLY wanted to do the Earth Home for the long term benefits of Heating/Cooling costs, NOT NEEDING to replace many windows, etc.

Are there a sort of excellant quality windows that will last decades?

Will a really good insulation job do as well as having an underground home?

Dwight- thanks for that link... I will have to check it out when I have some time.

I know these are a lot of questions but we are in the position of possibly buying in the next year and I REALLY want to do what is best for us. This is an AWEFUL lot of money to maybe lose.

We do not want to 'flip' any homes or anything, we want to live until 'death do us part' if possible.

Thanks SO much for all your help, guys.

03-20-06, 06:46 PM
aminator2002
Sher:

I believe there are better options than Earth homes for saving on energy costs. One reason that I don't agree with a lot of methods that save on energy costs is that the solution involves enclosing the space very tightly. This actually has negative affects that I feel outweigh the additional energy savings. I totally appreciate the idea of being energy efficient but I am also very big on being very cautious. I think perhaps the best solution for you would be to investigate green roofs. I think as opposed to being enclosed by earth on all sides that having a layer of turf and planting on the roof and keeping all other forms of building somewhat standard is a good approach. To do this I suggest you look at using precast plank concrete over a concrete block structure. Of course you can have windows and many openings and still achieve a green roof.

In the spirit of being as cautious as possible about this, I want to warn you that there is no green roof that doesn't require maintenance and possibly costly maintenance. (this is the issue with many of the green products that can be installed by conventional contractors)

Imagine that you develop a roof leak. You can never quite be sure where water is actually leaking from because it tends to travel along the path of least resistance. So rather than just being able to assess the general condition of the roof or visably tell where you have weak or damaged sections, you have to find the bad spot. Now this involves removing the dirt and playing a guessing game in between rains. It's a pain on a regular roof but my experience is with leaking planters and it involves lots of digging.

My opinion is that for residential use that Anderson or Pella windows will be the best choice. They don't last forever and there really isn't a window made that will. There are many things you can do to keep your windows operating well and extend the life.

I think what you want to do is look in house plan books from the library and find a plan that you like. You then would take that plan to a builder and get a basic price for conventional construction i.e. frame construction with fiberglass insulation and asphalt shingle roof. Then you have a baseline. You then take that baseline and research what you can to find out what you'd like to do in addition to the standard.

The key here is that if you are serious about doing this in the near future (next 5 years) then you should start to find a plan, then talk to a builder in your area and see what they think.

One word of caution - the home building profession is not 100% honest and trustworthy (it is also probably not as bad as some people make it out to be) so eventually you will need to cross check information with several sources. You should not feel guilty for doing this. It is normal and expected and most builders are quite accustomed to the cruel fact that not every job they bid comes their way.

And another thing... why not write to Extreme Home Makeover? Or get a friend to do it. You seem to be a good example of what that show stands for.

03-20-06, 07:57 PM
babthrower
Congratultions, Sher, on your next great adventure!

We built our house to our specifications and some of them, I must admit, were rather romantic. Red-cedar ceilings, red cedar vertical tongue-and-groove siding, chalet-style - very pretty. Cost more than your basic stick-house, but we thought it was worth it.

Everyone kept nattering about resale value, but we said, hell no, we'll die there, so that was one less worry.

The best advice I can give is to make a floor plan for every room, in rough form. This will give you an idea of the living space you need. Make it to scale, and make outlines of the basic furniture types that you will need. Then when you know that you need, for example, 15 x15 for your bedroom and that the adjacent bathroom and closet space is sufficient, go on to the next room. Same for the boys' suites.

Then go through magazines and catalogues of house plans until you find some that you like the feel of. Then make the overall model, and fit you room-models inside that outline.

Of course you will adjust the shapes of the rooms. But your furniture outlines will help you decide if a given arrangement will 'work'.

There are computer programs you can buy that will do layout for you.

I mean down to the last 2x4! (Or in our case, 2x6.)

This really helps with estimating materials costs, which you will need if you are going to be your own general contractor, as I was.

You can save a lot of money on lot price if you build out of the city. And do the working people a favor too, because people who don't need to live in the city, but do anyway, just drive housing costs up for the working people.

Be prepared to spend some serious money on inspections if you decide to buy a pre-existing home. The electrical wiring, the plumbing, the roof, the insulation, the basement or crawl space, the foundations, water drainage on the property, soil stability, presence of termites or other pests -- all these things you should be prepared to take into account.

Get copies of the building codes for any area. These are helpful for understanding what people should be looking for. Then when you decide where you will buy or build, get the local building codes.

This should keep you out of mischief for a while, shouldn't it? Big Grin

And when you draw up the contracts with the contractors, make sure the 'draws' or advances are staged so that your inteests are protected.

By that I mean, the contractor will want $n down, and an additional amount every 30 days or so, for materials and wages. This should be spelled out, so you should get some legal help at the time. I would suggest a time-penalty as well. My sister in Long Island was deprived of her kitchen for eight months as the renovators dawdled over the work, taking on too many other contracts, etc., etc. And there was nothing she could do. A time penalty would work like this:

You: When will it be done?
Contractor: Oh, n months. N+1 tops. I'll put all my men on it.
YOu: What will it cost?
Contractor: Oh, $x.
You: Are you sure you can do it in n+1 months?
Contractor: You have my word as a professional.
You: I'll ask my lawyer to write that in. He/she'll propbably want to put in a financial penalty if the work is not done, because we'll need to find an alternate place to live till it's finished.
Contractor: Excluding Acts of God and labor disputes, okay by me.

03-20-06, 08:20 PM
Sherasi

quote:
Originally posted by aminator2002:
And another thing... why not write to Extreme Home Makeover? Or get a friend to do it. You seem to be a good example of what that show stands for.



Ami,

I actually thought of this... but don't the make-overs have to be MAKE-OVERS.. I mean homes you already own and want to modify?

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