Anyone build their own house?

[Gardenarian]

Hi -
As much as I love my cabin, the value of it has more than tripled since I bought it a year ago. I'm thinking of selling and buying a nearby lot for sale, and putting up my own cabin. The cabin would sell for ~500k, the lot I'm looking at is 99k. I'd like to build a cabin with bath, 2 small bedrooms, full kitchen. I would love to include passive and active solar.

Any suggestions? I've been exploring kits and pre-fabs but haven't found anything I like that is affordable. I'm fairly handy but not terribly strong. I could be my own contractor, but hire out plumbing (I'd need to put in septic) and electrical and other things beyond my ken.

Thoughts? Advice?

I am willing to wait awhile and watch the market - really hard to tell what is going to happen next with housing.

[Float On]

Tripled in a year----wow.

[redfox]

I built a traditional stick frame construction small house, 512 sf, 2 story (loft), with my former community land trust coop many years ago. We built seven small homes as a collective. We had a paid site Foreperson who was an experienced builder, and tons of volunteers. Check out the coops built by this org: wwwlopezclt.org. My former neighborhood is Morgantown. I miss it!

Since then, I have participated in straw bale construction, which I highly recommend. Also, take a look at SIPS & Passive Haus technology.

Here is my fav kit & plans place: http://www.modern-shed.com/

[Tussiemussies]

Redfox, what a great and interesting living experience, no wonder you miss it...

[Tussiemussies]

Hi -
As much as I love my cabin, the value of it has more than tripled since I bought it a year ago. I'm thinking of selling and buying a nearby lot for sale, and putting up my own cabin. The cabin would sell for ~500k, the lot I'm looking at is 99k. I'd like to build a cabin with bath, 2 small bedrooms, full kitchen. I would love to include passive and active solar.

Any suggestions? I've been exploring kits and pre-fabs but haven't found anything I like that is affordable. I'm fairly handy but not terribly strong. I could be my own contractor, but hire out plumbing (I'd need to put in septic) and electrical and other things beyond my ken.

Thoughts? Advice?

I am willing to wait awhile and watch the market - really hard to tell what is going to happen next with housing.

Lucky you Gadarian that your house as tripled in vale. That is amazing. Good luck in finding the perfect home fit for you!

[Gardenarian]

Yes, I bought a foreclosure and got an amazing deal - another house on the same road (smaller house and lot) just sold for 478.

Thank you redfox for the tips and links! I'm off to check them out now!

[SteveinMN]

Back when, soon-to-be-DW and I discussed selling both of our houses and buying a lot and building a smaller modern prefab house on it. It didn't happen -- the housing crash and the effort of selling DW's house got in the way. But we learned a great deal in the process.

- Pre-fab housing still suffers from the taint of being associated with mobile homes and the like, even with some lenders. That can affect construction funding.
- Pre-fab is not necessarily cheaper. The prices we saw were pretty close to the cost of stick-built, and there were expenses like hauling the panels from the factory to the construction site, which sometimes included the cost of permits and surcharges and tree-pruning/power-line-moving/cranes depending on the site and how big the panels were.
- Pre-fab is typically a greener form of construction: there's less waste in the building process and building under controlled conditions can allow much tighter tolerances and fits, making the finished building more tight than a stick-built home.
- It's cheaper to build out than up. Covering more of your lot with house is cheaper than adding a story and/or digging a basement. And it's cheapest to stick with a foundation that looks most like a rectangle. Every corner you add to a house (pre-fab or stick-built) will cost you $$.
- Consider resale. There are many styles of pre-fab, but we were looking at fitting a modern-looking house into neighborhoods of much older houses. If your preferred style sticks out among your neighbors, prepare for some discussion with your future neighbors and maybe a limited audience of future home buyers.

We decided we were better off staying where we were -- this house is not seriously deficient in features or condition, it's relatively cheap to mortgage and run, and FI comes sooner with this house than any other one we've seen and liked. It's still something we'd do if we won the lottery, however. :)

[Merski]

We had a house built just for us. Think real passive solar. Think real high but safe insulation and windows. Think accessibility (doors & ramp) for the future and think lighting for the darkness of winter. Think about how easy will it be to maintain, clean, and do think about storage. We are very happy with our finished project. Just wish we would have spent more time on some of these subjects. Get a Not-so-Big house book or two.

[Gardenarian]

Thanks Steve and Merski, all good stuff to consider.
I was thinking prefab as that might be easier to do on my own, and also possible greener and faster. I was thinking of building up, rather than out (to keep the land open, and seems like it would conserve energy??) but will rethink this. I would like to keep the footprint tiny.
Merski, I would love to do straw bale, the more I look into it the better it gets - though it can be such a long, tedious building process.

I'm planning on having a couple of outbuildings: a shed for storage and laundry (no need for storage to be built to the same standards as living areas) and a bunkhouse for overflow guests, with possibly an Incinolet (legal.)

So, a small, heavily insulated main house, wood heat (free firewood is easy to come by - at least now.) Probably electric on-demand hot water, and lots of south facing windows. (The lot is quite open in all directions.)

I plan on using deer fencing and putting in a fruit orchard and native wildflower meadow (hopefully all very low maintenance.)

[Merski]

One thing a friend told us when we were in the design stage is to add extra height to the basement foundation so you can finish it and you won't feel like it's a basement. It's the least expensive part of the house to do this to. Could even be a walk out with windows! We took him out to dinner for that. Our lower level is incredible and still a small rectangular footprint. I don't know about roofs....I think the more roof the more leaks!

[redfox]

The book Tiny, Tiny Houses is one of my very favs.

[Gardenarian]

Merski - in my primary house we have a walk out basement and though we didn't build it, it is great - definitely makes the most of expensive San Francisco real estate! as well as retaining heat/cool well.
The cabin will have to be on a slab.
I should say the lot is 1/2 acre, has a slight slope and is open except for one large, old oak.