designing and building your own house

[PhillyB]

So I am roughly a year away from being able to buy a piece of property and about two away from having the funds to put a downpayment on a sizeable house, which I'll be custom designing. I'm not an architect, so I'll need to hire one. I have some very specific thoughts in mind, as well as general design frameworks and styles. I understand architects are not cheap, particularly when you're coming up with lots of details, and if you've got high square footage.

I'll skip all the details about the house, but I'm curious if anyone here has ever had a home custom built, or works as a contractor that does these sorts of things. How'd you go about getting everything done? Was your architect cheap? Any thoughts in general?

[pstall]

One of my best buds is an architect  and i know between he and i we know several contractors as well.

I can pm his info if you ever want to talk to him.

Draw up plans over some bourbon.  :lol:

[Gabriel100]

My brother-in-law works for a contractor,  if your building from scratch, they will survey the property and give you options with different house plans to your liking.   Plumbing starts first, just modify any plans they give you, remember you are in charge of what you want.  Custom building is not cheap, but you can cut corners, just be stern with your particular builder.

[SmokinwithWilly]

Best advice I can give is start looking for your contractors now. It gives you time to go look at thwir work in progress. You dont want guys with sloppy job sights. If the job is sloppy, chances are their work will be as well. Of all of the trades, framers are the most important, IMO. Make sure whoever you hire has the ability to stick build. It sounds trivial, but it ends up being a big deal if you need to make any changes. Also, a great framer will reduce future costs from other trades due to problems with rooms being out of square.

 A good foundation is also a huge necessity. I try to stay away from slabs, because too much can go wrong later. I didn't like having plumbing through the ceiling. One pipe break and you can have major damage throughout the house, where crawlspace won't have near as much. Also, a broken pipe under a slab can cost thousands to find and repair.

Don't skimp on insulation. We over insulated our house and during summer our electric bills ran about 75 bucks and 80 during winter for 1800 sq feet. I'm 100 miles south of Canada so winters get pretty frosty here. Poor insulation can cost you $200 or more a month. It will add up fast.

Lastly, figure 80% of what you plan your mortgage to be for your building costs. It never fails, prices change (like drywall going through the roof after the recent flooding), issues come up, delays happen. You don't want to be maxed out with little to no wiggle room and have to cut corners. It will really piss you off. If you do manage to stay on track, it's an added bonus.

 

 

[PhillyB]

i have a contractor that's offered to manage the project and sub out jobs, but obviously i'm not tying myself down.

the property is significant... i'm looking at 7-10ksqft total, spread over a three-story center and two two-story wings. i've been flipping properties for a while now and i have a lot of experience doing reno, so i can do a bunch of the work myself. that's not realistic though for a project this size, in the structural phase certainly, so if possible i'd like to get contractors to come in, lay a foundation (definitely not slab) and put up the walls, a roof, plumbing and electricity and pretty much leave me an unfinished box to come in and do myself, or hire out guys to finish it at my own pace.

if it's possible to coordinate several units in the same property i'm going with ductless mini-splits. i ran a new system through my first house and it was incredible... low bills, changed temperature on a dime. four splits per unit was the max though and i imagine i'll need a minimum of 16, probably more than that. i'd have to talk to architect about that though, with several floors to potentially run ducts through it might be worth it to just save the wall space.

[PandaPancake]

7-10,000 square feet? Starting a cult? CH flop house? Both of our houses are around 2300 square feet and I have two bedrooms I haven't been to in months

[Ja Rhule]

7-10sqft home will cost you around $400k-$500k not including cost of dirt lot which you will need to develop... Developing a lot can cost around $100k.  but it also depends what kind of home you want to build... If you trying to build to latest style like most current home builders in Ballantyne then it will cost you around $700k.

Also, if you building this home as a investment property, you will need to apply for a different mortgage with much higher interest rate.

[chknwing]

someone help this man get this house built.  I dont want to see him LIVING IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!

[Ja Rhule]

Philly, are you planning on living in that home or flip it?

[Panthro]

I am looking at either building an additon onto or bumping up the roof of the house.

I have been dorking around with this site...

https://planner5d.com/

[thefuzz]

9 hours ago, PhillyB said:

i have a contractor that's offered to manage the project and sub out jobs, but obviously i'm not tying myself down.

the property is significant... i'm looking at 7-10ksqft total, spread over a three-story center and two two-story wings. i've been flipping properties for a while now and i have a lot of experience doing reno, so i can do a bunch of the work myself. that's not realistic though for a project this size, in the structural phase certainly, so if possible i'd like to get contractors to come in, lay a foundation (definitely not slab) and put up the walls, a roof, plumbing and electricity and pretty much leave me an unfinished box to come in and do myself, or hire out guys to finish it at my own pace.

if it's possible to coordinate several units in the same property i'm going with ductless mini-splits. i ran a new system through my first house and it was incredible... low bills, changed temperature on a dime. four splits per unit was the max though and i imagine i'll need a minimum of 16, probably more than that. i'd have to talk to architect about that though, with several floors to potentially run ducts through it might be worth it to just save the wall space.

WHOA...

When most folks talk about 7-10k sqft, they normally mean the lot, not the house.

I'm not sure how much money you are looking at spending on this, but the loan programs for C/P loans are not the greatest in the world, doable, but not great.

I would try to look for a plan, even if it's not perfect and purchase that, rather than drawing from scratch, but that's just an easy way to cut costs.

To "dry in" a house that size, I would expect to pay at least 70$ per square foot, possibly more if you are as opposed to slabs as you say.

Your biggest issue is going to be the loan, or lack thereof, especially if you do it the way you described.  As in half complete, with you supplying the fixtures/drywall/plugs/etc...

[PhillyB]

i'll be living in it... hopefully for the rest of my life. if it's a 10k floorplan about 5k will be caught up between the two wings, which are all residential and part of my commune plan (as well as to house foster kids when we start adopting.) because of its function it should cost far less than most 10ksqft houses (though the featured salon, library, staircase, and interior dome could get a little pricey, at least on the design side.) it'll be renaissance as fug though.

my main concern is figuring out loans. i've calculated saving myself about $200,000 by doing the interior work myself (mainly by avoiding material markups, and some on labor.) i'm estimating ~900k as the total cost, but that includes a 20% indirect cost calculation. i'm guessing i'd need about 500k to get it where i need it to be for me to start working on it: prepping the lot, laying the foundation, building the walls, roof, windows, doors, plumbing, and electric.

the question would obviously be whether a bank will give me a half mil loan for effectively half a house.

[Ja Rhule]

18 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

WHOA...

When most folks talk about 7-10k sqft, they normally mean the lot, not the house.

I'm not sure how much money you are looking at spending on this, but the loan programs for C/P loans are not the greatest in the world, doable, but not great.

I would try to look for a plan, even if it's not perfect and purchase that, rather than drawing from scratch, but that's just an easy way to cut costs.

To "dry in" a house that size, I would expect to pay at least 70$ per square foot, possibly more if you are as opposed to slabs as you say.

Your biggest issue is going to be the loan, or lack thereof, especially if you do it the way you described.  As in half complete, with you supplying the fixtures/drywall/plugs/etc...

Philly is also a bartender which will not fly well with mortgage companies.  Hope Philly got some cash saved up cause it will be impossible to get a $800k loan on anything less than $150k a year income.

[PhillyB]

1 hour ago, Panthro said:

I am looking at either building an additon onto or bumping up the roof of the house.

I have been dorking around with this site...

https://planner5d.com/

playing with it now. i've debated buying a sophisticated piece of design software and learning it to see if i can draw up my own blueprints. it'd be an unbelievable amount of work but i've seen plans like mine go for 30-40k for someone to actually sit down and design, soooo