MAKE A LIST

Hey y’all!

No frilly intros today, I’m just gonna cut to the chase. You’re building a house, and you’re looking for a good contractor. Where do you even begin?

Here are a couple of tips to help you make a list of possible builders.

Talk to your Friends

Undoubtedly, the best way to find a good builder is by asking friends and relatives for recommendations. Be sure to ask them all about the building process. Was it worth it? Are they satisfied with the service they received? Would they buy another home from this builder?

Make a list of their recommendations, but don’t just take their word for it – make sure to do your homework first!

But what if you don’t know of anyone who has recently worked with a builder in your area?

Contact your local Builders’ Association

Your local Builders’ Association can provide you with a broad list of builders who construct homes in your area.

You can find and contact your local Builders’ Association by visiting the National Association of Home Builders’ website, NAHB.org. They have an entire page devoted to helping you find a Builders’ Association in your area – Click Here to check it out.

Check Other Sources

Call or email local real estate agents. They may also be able to help you in your search.

You might also want to look in the real estate section of your local newspaper for builders and projects. The ads and articles can help you learn which builders are active in your area, the types of homes they are building, and the prices you can expect to pay.

Hopefully these tips will help you make a list of contractors who build the type of home you’re looking for, but like I said before, don’t just hire the first guy on the list – do your homework!

More information will follow. See ya!

Tags: Advice for Building a House, Building a Home, home builder, home builders, home building, Homebuilding Process

Last week, I poured out my soul into this blog. Advice for Building a House is, by far, the most in-depth and informative blogpost I’ve ever written; and to tell you the truth, it was more than a little draining.

So from now on, I’m going to break major topics like that into smaller posts – kinda like a miniseries!

The next topic I’m planning to tackle is How To Find a Good Builder. (I just thought y’all might like a bit of a ‘heads up’ for what’s ahead here at HousePlans.info)

Hiring a good general contractor is the most valuable piece of advice I can offer if you’re planning on building your own home — so I’m going to be giving you an in-depth and straightforward insight into this important decision. In the meantime,

Take Luck!

Tags: Advice for Building a House, Building a Home, home builder, home builders, home building, Homebuilding Process

The past few days, I’ve been sharing my opinions on the Build vs. Buy debate. Now I know that a lot of you might disagree with the stuff I’ve been writing, and that’s just fine — in fact, I’d love to hear some of your opinions!

A lot of people view homebuilding as a nightmare full of stress, over-shot budgets, delays, and headaches. And although this is often the case, let me share a few things I’ve learned that can help make homebuilding a more fulfilling — even enjoyable — experience:

• Hire a Builder – Now, this rule isn’t set in stone; I know a lot of very capable homeowners who have built their own homes without the use of a general contractor. Each of them has a strong background in construction, and they have jobs that allow them to spend a lot of time on-site rather than at work, but for the rest of us mere mortals, you really ought to hire a professional. Sure, you’ll end up paying more, but you get to keep your sanity!

  Not only will a good builder take care of a lot of the technical details (such as obtaining permits, coordinating inspections, etc.), a reputable contractor is also able to purchase large quantities of building materials at highly discounted rates. Sure, most of those cost savings disappear when the time comes to pay your contractor, but if you try building a home yourself, you’ll likely end up paying retail price for all of your materials — and retail price = blown budget!

  If you’re like me, you might know a thing or two about construction. As a teenager, I worked for an electrician, wiring up new homes; in the past, I’ve done some volunteer work framing homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina; and I’ve had countless hours painting and sheetrocking. But y’know, that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans! At the very least, I would have to locate and hire someone to pour the foundation and do the plumbing. Try to imagine that — locating and hiring reputable companies to pour the foundation and do the plumbing. Maybe you want to hire someone else to do the tilework. Then there is the cabinetry to worry about — just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach! Finding and hiring a good builder is a difficult task, but at least you only have to do it once.

  If you want to use your construction skills, I’d suggest working out some kind of a sweat equity plan with your builder. That way, you do a portion of the work yourself, and your builder knocks the price down.

• Clearly Discuss EVERYTHING – Especially if you’re building a home that your contractor hasn’t built before (this happens all the time when ordering plans off the Internet). You need to be sure that he knows exactly what you expect. Take the time to draw it out whenever possible. Explain it clearly, and then ask your builder to repeat it back to you, just to make sure you’re on the same page. It might seem a little redundant, but good communication is vitally important!

  Most homebuilding headaches come because there was a misunderstanding between the owner and the builder, and once a mistake is made, you’re either gonna have to just live with it or tear it down and replace it (a very pricey option). I can’t stress it enough — you have to communicate plainly!

  Your goal isn’t just to make sure that your builder understands. You have to make sure that there’s no way he can misunderstand!

  Even if you end up being your own contractor, you’re life will be so much happier if you discuss everything with your spouse. I’m not sure if there are any statistics, but I’ve heard stories about homebuilding experiences that ended in divorce. Heartbreaking, but true. So discuss EVERYTHING — everything from floorplans and structural modifications to paint colors and light fixtures.

  If you end up hiring a contractor, make sure to discuss beforehand who will be in charge of obtaining permits. Discuss engineering needs. Find out what you’ll need to do to bring utilities (water, electricity, phone lines, fiber-optics, etc.) into your site. Ask about how much excavation you’ll need to prepare your lot for building. And most importantly, thoroughly discuss the price. Find out about hidden costs, time estimates, etc. Keep in mind that it could easily cost 20% more and end up taking 2 to 3 months longer than what you’ve been quoted — by doing so, you’ll probably end up saving yourself a lot of disappointment down road.

  Like I said, discuss EVERYTHING! You’ll be glad you did.

• Visit the Site and Get Involved – I know I just got done telling you about how your builder can save you a lot of time and worry, but that doesn’t mean that you can just sit back and eat bon-bons. You should make it a point to visit the site every chance you get.

  There are a couple reasons for this. First and foremost, it gives you a chance to inspect the work. If there has been a miscommunication, you can catch it early — before you reach the costly point of no return. But be careful! You don’t want your contractor and his workers to see you as some kind of cruel, unpleasable Nazi!

  While you’re on the site, if circumstances permit, you should try to learn the workers’ names and get to know them. Be a genuinely friendly human being — it can’t hurt! Compliment them on their work. You might even want to consider bringing a pizza or two, or maybe some cold drinks. You don’t want to distract them or disrupt their work, but making friends with your workers can be very beneficial. Not only did you make a new friend (and who has too many friends, honestly?), but you are also letting them know what kind of work you expect from them. By getting familiar with you, they’ll understand that you have high expectations — and they’ll be more likely to put forth extra effort to meet those expectations. So Get Involved!

So that’s my take on building. There is a lot more to it than that, but this should give you enough to think about for now. Sure, buying an existing home is simple, but like My-House-Plans.com says, building gives you the chance to “watch an empty piece of property literally transform into your own personal kingdom!”

Just make sure you have the right set of house plans!

P.S. This is another personal narrative, the events related herein were merely derived from actual happenings. ;o)

Tags: Advice for Building a House, Building a Home, Building vs. Buying a House, Homebuilding Process, house plans, To Build or to Buy a Home

Last week, I wrote I wrote a pretty biased article about whether to buy or build your own home (Click Here to see the full article). I bought our current home, and I’m not really happy with it. You have to understand that it isn’t a terrible home, but if I had to put a percentage to our satisfaction (See “THE 90% RULE”), I would say that we are about 75 – 80% satisfied — not a bad approval rating! But when you have to live with it day-in and day-out, it can get kinda depressing (there goes my dramatic side again). Anyway, my wife and I have decided to get out of this mold trap as soon as possible — but we’re going  to do things right this time; we’re going to BUILD!

Let me get one thing straight — buying an existing home isn’t always a bad idea. In fact, there are several benefits that come with buying an existing home. One of the most appealing benefits to buying an existing home is the convenience. That’s what drew my wife and me into buying our current home; we wanted to be settle in time for Christmas — which we were.

It really was a painless process; we looked at the house, made a bid, signed the papers, and moved our stuff. I was surprised that we had everything settled in less than a month from the time we made our offer! Convenience is a definite plus when it comes to buying vs. building.

Another benefit is the neighborhood. Most homes-for-sale are located in established neighborhoods; so unless you’re looking at an area that was hit with a lot of foreclosures/short sales you should probably plan on getting familiar with your neighbors — which may or may not be a good thing. In our case, the neighborhood was wonderful! One family brought us cookies; another family invited us to go to church with them; and several neighbors came caroling to us over the holidays. Welcome to Small Town, USA.

And then there’s the landscaping…. You have to understand something — I absolutely love working in the yard! Our current yard was a dream come true for me. It was totally overgrown with weeds; the wooden fence (if you could still call it that) was completely dilapidated; and the yard itself was totally uneven, rising and falling several feet in a completely inconsistent manner. I had such visions for this yard! It was going to be my sanctuary filled with countless hours of work and gallons of sweat! — I guess I’m just weird like that. One of the biggest factors was the mature trees. I love trees, and if you’re going to build a new home, you’re probably going to have to start with trees that you’ve planted all by yourself. So don’t plan on building any treehouses on your property for at least 20 years.

And speaking of time, that’s another draw for buying an existing house — the craftsmanship! You always hear the old-timers say “They sure don’t build ‘em like they used to.” Well, it’s true! Older homes were built using naturally stronger, longer lasting materials like hardwood beams and wood siding; new homes usually rely on smarter design principles and lighter, specially-engineered materials to withstand the elements. Both homes get the job done, but newer homes usually don’t have the same rustic appeal. But you know what comes along with rustic appeal — RUSTY PIPES. Rusty pipes, bad wiring, mold, termites, and backed-up septic systems are just a few of the problems that can come with older homes.

So there really are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to buying a home, but the root of the problem is in the selection. When planning for your Dream Home, you have to take several things into account: the neighborhood and landscaping are important, but you also have to consider the community services (how are the schools? how close is it to shopping centers, post offices, etc.), keep in mind the aesthetic quality of the house itself, and you need to make sure that the layout of the home is practical for your lifestyle (something my wife and I neglected).

So there are several variables to consider, and it’s been my experience that you have a lot more control over those variables when you build it yourself. Buying an existing home limits your selection tremendously. In a given area, you only have a handful of houses to choose from, and it’s up to you to pick the best one. Unless you get extremely lucky, you’ll probably be forced to settle for less than 90%. And let me tell ya — it’s no fun!

But what do you think? I’d really like to hear your opinions. In the meantime, take care!

Tags: Building vs. Buying a House, Buying a Home, To Build or to Buy a Home, Why to Build a Home

Sometimes I think I’m just a little too dramatic. Sure, we’ve had to shampoo the carpet twice in the past two weeks (If you’re confused, see yesterday’s post), but there’s no use crying over cracked eggs.  I know I stated very clearly that you shouldn’t settle when it comes to buying or building a new house, but I have to amend that advice a little.

I really have learned a lot since I’ve started working here at The Plan Collection. Not only have I become very familiar with the design process, I’ve also learned some pretty important life lessons. I have learned that a little politeness goes a long way. If you want something done right, start with the right plan. And I also learned something called “THE 90% RULE“.

“THE 90% RULE” is an interesting concept that began with house plans, but it is a principle that can be applied to anything. According to my good friend, employer, and professional home designer Jake England, there is no such thing as a perfect home plan. It just doesn’t exist. You will save yourself a lot of heartache and stress if you just accept this simple fact. Too many people (myself included) tend to expect too much out of their home. Some owner/builders can end up with ulcers before they even begin building their new house, just because they want the “perfect home”. Even if you weren’t constrained by a budget, I don’t think it’s possible to find a house plan that meets your every desire. As Jake put it in a previous article:

“You are asking imperfect people to use imperfect products to build you a perfect house. Guess what, it won’t be perfect. It should be a great home, but it will not be perfect. ” (go to article)

Now, I’m not excusing my own home — that Airlock is CRAZY! But I am saying that you need to be understanding. If you can learn to be happy when a home satisfies 90% of your wants, life will be a lot easier. It’s really a matter of perception and perspective.

THE 90% RULE is great when it comes to new homes and house plans, but you can really improve the quality of your life by applying it everywhere. Our homes, relationships – even our meals – will be much more fulfilling if we can be satisfied with 90%. It takes some effort; it takes practice; but I’m doing my best to apply this principle in my own life. After all, I’m not 100% perfect either — I’m just glad my wife was willing to settle for 90%.

So for all of you out there that are searching for your dream home, be sure to ask yourself if it satisfies 90% of your wants. If it does, it looks like you’ve got yourself the makings for a great home!

Tags: Homeowner Info, Homeowner's Decisions, Selecting the right Home (plan), The 90% Rule, Words of Wisdom

I watched in horror as the carton of eggs fell from my brown paper grocery bag onto the freshly shampooed living room floor. SPLAT! The sticky yokes were oozing from the carton, and all I could think was, “We really should have BUILT rather than bought!”

You might be wondering what broken eggs have to do with buying or building a home. Well, you’ll understand the connection soon, I promise.

A few months ago, my wife and I were trying to decide whether to build a home, or buy one. With the current state of the housing market — including a huge inventory of unsold spec homes — we decided to buy a home… and we’ve been regretting it ever since.  It’s not that I hate our current home — it’s a nice 2,000 square foot Craftsman home with a huge master bedroom and bath; it has everything we wanted in a home; but something just isn’t right!

It’s our own faulty, really. When our real estate agent first showed us this home, the first thing I noticed was the crazy layout. When you enter the house from the garage, you open the door and find yourself in a dark little laundry/mudroom. If you don’t trip on one of the dozen pairs of shoes laying around, you’ll probably end up stubbing your toes on the hidden stairs leading up to the living room. We have begun to affectionately refer to this room as “The Airlock” because of the way you have to open one door, close it; then open and close a second door, just to enter the home.

After making your way through the living room, scooting around the table and past the china hutch in the dining room, you find yourself in the kitchen. The kitchen is nice. It really is. The problem is that you practically have to trek across the Sierra Nevadas before you get there. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but it is a valid point. We told ourselves we could live with it, but I’m beginning to think we were wrong.

Our first clue was when our son lost the ice cream from his cone while trying to close the second door on the Airlock — all over the living room carpet. That sort of thing happens all the time with little boys, I told myself as I shampooed the carpet. It wasn’t until I (a grown boy) started spilling stuff that I began to lament our hasty decision. Throw in the fact that we just found out about a mold problem, and now I’m beginning to wonder if we should try to start again. This time, we’re definitely going to build!

I currently work for The Plan Collection, and I used to work for a residential construction company, so I’m not afraid of building my own home. In fact, I really prefer being able to pick and choose the layout and features of my home. The only reason we decided to buy a home was because my wife and I were impatient. We didn’t want to wait to have it built; we wanted to be settled in for Christmas. In all actuality, we could have built a nicer home (without an Airlock) for a couple thousand dollars cheaper than what we paid for our current abode. We could have our dream home, laid out the way we want, but now we’re stuck with this moldy maze of a house. I guess we’re reaping the consequences of our impatience.

So if anyone ends up reading this post, I just want to point out how much control you have in building a home. I know there are thousands of horror stories about overshot budgets and irresponsible builders, but I can attest that if you’ll just do your homework, make it a point to get involved in the building process, and most importantly Choose the Right House Plan, you really will end up with your dream home. I’ll be sharing a few tips in the coming days and weeks that will make your build much more enjoyable, but the bottom line is this — if you want a home to adapt to your lifestyle, you’re gonna have to build.

If you want it done right, BUILD it yourself!

P.S. This is a personal narrative, the events related herein were merely derived from actual happenings. ;o)

Tags: Building vs. Buying a House, house plans, To Build or to Buy a Home

So yesterday, I wrote a quick post about two house plans that were featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Unfortunately, I lied.

I’m not exactly sure how I missed it, but I just found out that The Plan Collection actually offers THREE separate home plans that were used on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The links I shared in my last post were for the homes used in Wyoming and Oklahoma, respectively. While browsing through some other house plans at The Plan Collection, I came across this modern charmer — M-3985 Extreme

M-3985 Extreme was built for the Byers family in Corvallis, Oregon, and according to Denise Cramsey (the show’s producer), “This is probably the best home design we have ever built.” It is definitely one of kind! You should really Check it out!

Tags: Extreme Home Makeover, extreme makeover, house plans, Modern Style, Oregon House Plans

About two years ago, my friend Woody posted an article about straw bale construction (Click Here to see the full article). At that point in time, straw bale construction was just starting to build popularity, and it has only gotten bigger since. Even in our current economic recession, more and more people are “going out on a limb” to experiment with this relatively uncommon building method. But then again, building a house using straw bales is nothing new; there are straw bale homes in the United States and Europe that were built in the 1800’s — and they’re still perfectly sound!

The exciting thing is that straw bale construction has advanced so much recently. You can still purchase bales straight from the farm, but by using special compacting tools, these bales that can support up to 4000 pounds per linear foot. How’s that for innovation?

If you’re interested in building a home using straw bales, you definitely should check out this website:

http://www.strawbale.com/

You can find just about anything you need at strawbale.com — everything from basic straw bale info, names of experienced straw bale builders, specialized compacting tools, and so forth — you can even find information about how to finance a straw bale home!

And just in case you’re having some trouble visualizing what a straw bale home might look like, here are a few pictures I found on Wikipedia.org that show how awesome straw-bale construction can be:

This shows the straw bales during construction

This shows a fully-finished straw bale home.

This shows how luxurious a straw bale home can really be!

Tags: Green Innovation, green living, straw bale construction

I don’t have a lot of time to write today, but I thought that some of you might find this interesting: The Plan Collection now has the house plans for two of the homes built and featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Now I know I’ve shared my feelings on this topic before — I think that the producers should provide the families with smaller, more sustainable homes — but there’s no denying that these are some pretty amazing homes!

Here’s the link to an on-site article:

http://www.theplancollection.com/house-plan-related-articles/Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition

And here are the links to the actual plans:

http://www.theplancollection.com/house-plans/home-plan-22568

http://www.theplancollection.com/house-plans/home-plan-25161

The Plan Collection has a bunch of other great plans as well. You should check it out!

Tags: Big House Plans, Extreme Home Makeover, extreme makeover, Prairie Style

About a week ago, temperatures here in Logan, Utah, plummeted to 13 degrees below zero. Now, I know that isn’t too impressive when compared to other parts of the country, but there’s no denying that it’s cold!

As I was sitting in my home, I started getting pretty restless and wished I had somewhere to go get some exercise. I have this personal rule that I NEVER go running outside when it’s colder than 20 degrees (I’m a wuss when it comes to cold weather), so I felt like I was a prisoner in my own home. That’s when I started thinking about how cool it would be to have a personal indoor gym. The great thing about that thought is that it’s actually within my reach!

Although you might think that indoor basketball courts are only for the rich and famous, they can actually be built with relatively little expense. A few years ago, we at The Plan Collection were working alongside one of Northern Utah’s premier homebuilders, Jaren Taylor. During that time, he built several homes with indoor basketball courts; many of these indoor gyms were located underneath the garage, so you don’t really need a lot of land either. With this approach, virtually any home can have an indoor basketball court!

If you’re considering an indoor gym under your garage, let me give you a few tips. The most important person in this process is a competent structural engineer. It will be up to him or her to calculate the specific details for the gym.

As far as the specs go when designing an indoor gym, these are some things we have learned.  You really need a minimum height of 16 feet.  To achieve this, you will need to pour your footings as a monolithic pour.  That simply means you pour the floor of the gym 4 inches thick, except at the edges it will be 10 inches thick.  The 10 x 20-inch concrete on the edge will have horizontal and vertical rebar, just like a regular footing.

Also, where the wall sits you will need to use a keyway where the foundation walls will be.  The keyway simply leaves a 2-3 inch groove in the footing so the foundation wall concrete can mold into the footing, thus creating a unit that works together.  This also helps seal the bottom of the wall so water shouldn’t get in.

Like I said before, the foundation walls will need to be engineered.  In the past, our engineer has required the walls to be the regular 8-inch walls, but the rebar is placed every 12 inches, both vertically and horizontally.  The rebar at the top of the wall will need to stick above the walls so it can be bent over and tied to the concrete of the garage floor.

Our suspended slabs were usually made off-sight.  They bring in the “pre-stressed concrete slabs” and install them with a crane.  Then you need to seal all of the joints, bend all of the rebar over, and tie in the horizontal rebar.  This creates a 12-inch mat of rebar through out the entire floor.  The final step is to pour a 4-inch sloped floor over the pre-stressed concrete and matted rebar.

One thing to note, the pre-stressed concrete is about 12” thick.  That means you need to have 9-foot basement walls, or set the gym an extra foot deeper — otherwise you will have to step down when you enter your home from the garage.

We don’t work with Jaren very much anymore, but a lot of people still call us asking about building indoor gyms. Most people want to know about how much it will cost to build a gym.  Every part of the country is different, and building costs vary greatly, but I know that the raw cost to build a gym under a garage a couple of years ago in Utah was in the neighborhood of $25,000 – $30,000.

One last thought, about lighting and heating.  Because these rooms are so deep in the ground, they won’t need central air and may not need any heat.  You can do forced air, but a better alternative is to have in-floor heating.  The lights need to be low profile, like florescent lights.  You can even get florescent lights with a wire cage around them.  You can also have glass block put in towards the top of the walls to shed some natural light in the gym.

Indoor basketball courts are an awesome way to stay in shape year-round, and they offer a great place for your kids to run and play. If you want more information, check out Jaren’s article (Click Here) or talk to an engineering firm in your area. If you don’t know of any engineers, discuss it with a reputable homebuilder — he might be able to help. In the meantime, take care!

Tags: House Plans with Basketball Courts, Indoor Basketball Courts, Indoor Gyms, Underground Gyms