Your Dream Home In The Built Environment

Author: Karl Duncan

Author: Karl Duncan

Most of my free time during my adult life, I had thought about someday building my dream home. Several years ago I finally got the chance. I had purchased a lake front lot with a small cottage on it. My initial intention was to use the property "as is", and someday raze the old cottage and build a new home in its place. After a couple of weekends in the musty old camp I came to the conclusion that I needed to speed up my timetable. Included in my dream of building my own home was to act as the General Contractor and to personally supply a great deal of sweat equity. I accomplished both of these goals, however it was not easy. There were many roadblocks and bends in the road along the way. In the subsequent parts of this chronology, I will review my experiences in hopes that others may gain from my experiences. Soul Searching For the Home Style and Size Soon after deciding to fire up the cottage and build a new home, I had to first determine what type and size of home to build. My lot was limited in size and required careful planning to ensure that I would meet all of the setbacks governed by the town I lived in. Although I had these concerns, I decided to forgo the Architect route. I deemed it too expensive and probably not necessary for the style of home I wanted to build. Instead I picked up a handful of Home Plan magazines and surfed the internet for home designs. I also picked up an inexpensive software package for designing homes and floor plans. After a week of reviewing home plans, I found one that met most of my requirements in terms of a floor plan. The footprint was smaller than I wanted, but I concluded that I could redraw the floor plan accordingly using my newly purchased Home Design Software Package. It was not as simple to use as the instruction manual said of the Home Design Software, however after a couple of weeks I had a floor plan with all the dimensional information. My role as the General Contractor One of my goals as I have mentioned earlier, was to assume the role as General Contractor on this project. I quickly learned that banks frown upon lending construction mortgages to everyday homeowners and to folks who have little professional building experience. I got around this issue by deciding not to use the banks for financing. However, from what I learned later, it may have been possible for me to assume a construction mortgage if I had quit my day job and applied for the loan as a "full time General Contractor". Indeed, I would have needed to complete a full proposal to the bank with all costs and subcontractors identified, but this is necessary anyways. Being the General Contractor I developed a build schedule and task list. Some of the top items included: Identifying subcontractors, pulling permits, and having a septic design approved. With Much Detailed Consideration Pick your Sub-Contractors Searching and qualifying the appropriate subcontractors is the most important task a General Contractor performs. Poor selection of subcontractors can lead to delays in schedules, cost overruns, poor workmanship and strife between the various subcontractors on the job. Prior to hiring subcontractors, it is important to visit their current jobsites. Review their work on existing jobsites and mingle with the other subs to judge the working relationship. In addition get two or three reference checks on the subcontractors. If there are poor workmanship, personality issues, or references move on. Do not settle for second rate subs, even if it means slipping your schedule or costs goals, as you will more than likely suffer even larger schedule slips or higher costs by hiring the wrong people. Applying For Permits Upon having selected and hired your excavator, chief framer, and foundation installation company, review with them your plans. Make sure you walk the site with them, and carefully stake out the house footprint, paying careful attention to lot setbacks, septic tanks, leach fields and well location. Once all are agreed upon with the house plans and the location of the home, contact the building inspector and review with him/her your plans. You will need to submit a very thorough package to the building inspector prior to getting approval. There are frequently town and state forms that need to be filled out regarding wetlands, and home thermal analysis. In addition, detailed engineering drawings of the proposed home may be required. In my case the Framer was able to assist in developing additional sketches of the house plan to ensure structural compliance to local, state and federal building codes. If I had used the initial home plans I had obtained, those would have been sufficient. I also could have contacted an architect with my selected plans to provide additional details, however it was not necessary in my case. A week [assed and several hundred dollars later I had the permit to build a new home. Designing The septic Tank The town building code required me to provide a septic system on site. As a result, I required a septic design and an associated permit for the new home. I recommend pursuing this as early as possible in any new home project as this can take up to 2-3 months to complete as both town and state approvals are required, not to mention site and engineering work. Since I did not know exactly where the septic system and tank will reside, it was difficult to locate the exact position of the home and in many cases the building inspector may not approve the building permit until the septic design permit has been obtained. I was fortunate in that the property already had a small septic system on the lot, so the building inspector gave me approval. However, I would have been in financial disaster in the event the new septic design was not approved or needed to be repositioned from the proposed location. Fortunately that was not the case and I was able to move forward on razing the cottage and beginning site work.About the Author:

Want to find out *more* valuable information to get huge discounts on Self Build House products without paying a penny? Check this out... http://timberframekits.info

POST COMMENT

My Online Income System Review: Truth For This Online Work At Home Opportunity More Bang For Your Buck With Two Story Homes Finding the Right Owner Builder Home Building Service Locating The Land to Build Your New Home Building Your Own Home And The Cost To You Legit Online Jobs Review: Truth For This Legitimate Online Work At Home Opportunity Quality Counts! -How Will You Know Good From Bad In Building Your Own Home Learn How You Can Gain Permanent Relief From Ovarian Cysts By Applying Ovarian Cyst Home Treatment Methods Amish Country Furniture 5 Reasons Why Custom Designing And Building Your Own Dream Home Is Better Than Buying Casual Area Rugs - Great Addition To Your Living Room Inflatable Bra Get Great Cleavage Whenever You Want To Create More Space With A Room Divider