Designed & Built a House

[LearningMustachian72]

Hey!

Longer term dream of mine is to design/build a house or a cabin.

Has anyone done this?  If so, please share photos if you don’t mind.

Curious to what something like this costs and the end product.

[Spicolli]

I'm thinking about doing this too. I found this online:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/062614/should-you-buy-or-build-home.asp

There are also websites that can give you ideas of the different styles...one I like to go to is

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/

[Nate R]

Hey!

Longer term dream of mine is to design/build a house or a cabin.

Has anyone done this?  If so, please share photos if you don’t mind.

Curious to what something like this costs and the end product.

In the process now (slowly) of building a cabin we designed, on 4 acres of land about 2 1/2 hours from our main home. ~520SF.
We're doing a dry cabin, so no water inside or septic. (In theory, a well on site is allowed, just not plumbed inside.) We do have grid power.
But, we're not going the cheapest route either..at ALL. Building at a time when lumber is expensive, and using relatively expensive windows, doors, trim, etc.. I'm guessing the build itself will come out around 60K, plus the land and outhouse costs.   If I were trying to do it more cheaply, I could EASILY see it being 20K less.

I'm chronicling the build online here: https://www.small-cabin.com/forum/6_9981_0.html  and also on IG @tallpinescabin .

[Fishindude]

I built this pole barn hunting / fishing cabin a few years ago for right at $100k minus the land purchase.   Included a septic and water and electric tie in.
Pretty basic metal exterior but very functional; covered porch, garage space, nice kitchen & bathroom, two bedrooms, heat & AC, wood stove, etc.   Concrete floors with rugs, OSB ceilings and OSB walls in bathroom and bedrooms, T&G pine walls in main living space.  Very well insulated and minimal maintenance.   

We use the heck out of this place.

[Fishindude]

Here's the floor plan

[TheFrenchCat]

Thanks for starting this thread.  We're planning to build a small house on the land we just bought this December on the lake where my husband's family lives.  If there were any good houses here for sale, we'd have done that instead, but the only one available was in terrible condition.  When this land came up we couldn't pass it up. 

We're still debating whether to build ourselves or buy a modular home.  There's some really good modular companies in our area.  And if we build ourselves we're not sure if we want to do a traditional stick built, metal or structural insulated panels.  We both have some building experience and my father used to be a carpenter and he's offered to help. We'll definitely clear the land and excavate ourselves (my husband's uncle has an excavator/bulldozer he's offered to lend us).

We have $130k we can put towards building now, more if we wait a bit and save up.  If we have someone else build, we don't want to go over $200k, and the modular company gave us a quote of $160k for 1150 sq ft house.  We're still waiting on another company to give us a quote too. 

Any advice on any of this would be very welcome.

[Rural]

We designed and built our house (built as in swinging hammers rather than hiring contractors). I don't know about cabins and etc, but doing this with your primary residence is pretty all-consuming and exhausting for and extended period -assume more than one year at a minimum. I recommend being fairly young and in a rock-solid relationship if you do it together.

[soccerluvof4]

Thanks for starting this thread.  We're planning to build a small house on the land we just bought this December on the lake where my husband's family lives.  If there were any good houses here for sale, we'd have done that instead, but the only one available was in terrible condition.  When this land came up we couldn't pass it up. 

We're still debating whether to build ourselves or buy a modular home.  There's some really good modular companies in our area.  And if we build ourselves we're not sure if we want to do a traditional stick built, metal or structural insulated panels.  We both have some building experience and my father used to be a carpenter and he's offered to help. We'll definitely clear the land and excavate ourselves (my husband's uncle has an excavator/bulldozer he's offered to lend us).

We have $130k we can put towards building now, more if we wait a bit and save up.  If we have someone else build, we don't want to go over $200k, and the modular company gave us a quote of $160k for 1150 sq ft house.  We're still waiting on another company to give us a quote too. 

Any advice on any of this would be very welcome.

it depends a lot on what you mean by modular as in different parts of the country it can mean different things. Alot of time modular just means its walls , trusses etc.. are prefab inside. shipped to your sight and set on foundation. Other times in certain areas its two sides of a house brought in and put together. I have been involved in both types and in the first case there can be alot of advantages as long as you get the plan down exactly how you want it. Making changes is where they nail you. Where I live we call them pre-fab homes. The second one where they bring in the two sides and put together I generaled one for a friend and it was actually very nice. We call them side by sides. But in every aspect it was built very well and he put it up north about 1500 square feet 3 beds 2 baths and nice open living room, dining and kitchen area. He also had a nice garage built and all were side in cedar. It cost about 125k to do it all. The only thing I didnt like was in the bathrooms the plastic trim on seams they used it made it feel like a trailer home. The rest was all dry wall and wood so not sure why they did that. Anyhow that home will last as long as any other and was set on a foundation with wheels on. I would think for 160k even with the expense things have gone up you would get something nice if they built it all. Thats 140$ a square foot. I could even toda build a stick framed house with full basement for that (area depending and finishes). I would just really check out what kinda of construction be it 2x4 or 2x6, Windows are a biggie, make sure good quality windows. 30 year roof, Good mechanicals not undersized which so many builders do and pretty much good strong bones. Fit and finish you can always add or change out down the line. Make sure to0 that you put in wheel chair wide door width and hallways etc.. When I designed houses I basically tried to avoid hallways all together.

[TheFrenchCat]

Thanks for starting this thread.  We're planning to build a small house on the land we just bought this December on the lake where my husband's family lives.  If there were any good houses here for sale, we'd have done that instead, but the only one available was in terrible condition.  When this land came up we couldn't pass it up. 

We're still debating whether to build ourselves or buy a modular home.  There's some really good modular companies in our area.  And if we build ourselves we're not sure if we want to do a traditional stick built, metal or structural insulated panels.  We both have some building experience and my father used to be a carpenter and he's offered to help. We'll definitely clear the land and excavate ourselves (my husband's uncle has an excavator/bulldozer he's offered to lend us).

We have $130k we can put towards building now, more if we wait a bit and save up.  If we have someone else build, we don't want to go over $200k, and the modular company gave us a quote of $160k for 1150 sq ft house.  We're still waiting on another company to give us a quote too. 

Any advice on any of this would be very welcome.

it depends a lot on what you mean by modular as in different parts of the country it can mean different things. Alot of time modular just means its walls , trusses etc.. are prefab inside. shipped to your sight and set on foundation. Other times in certain areas its two sides of a house brought in and put together. I have been involved in both types and in the first case there can be alot of advantages as long as you get the plan down exactly how you want it. Making changes is where they nail you. Where I live we call them pre-fab homes. The second one where they bring in the two sides and put together I generaled one for a friend and it was actually very nice. We call them side by sides. But in every aspect it was built very well and he put it up north about 1500 square feet 3 beds 2 baths and nice open living room, dining and kitchen area. He also had a nice garage built and all were side in cedar. It cost about 125k to do it all. The only thing I didnt like was in the bathrooms the plastic trim on seams they used it made it feel like a trailer home. The rest was all dry wall and wood so not sure why they did that. Anyhow that home will last as long as any other and was set on a foundation with wheels on. I would think for 160k even with the expense things have gone up you would get something nice if they built it all. Thats 140$ a square foot. I could even toda build a stick framed house with full basement for that (area depending and finishes). I would just really check out what kinda of construction be it 2x4 or 2x6, Windows are a biggie, make sure good quality windows. 30 year roof, Good mechanicals not undersized which so many builders do and pretty much good strong bones. Fit and finish you can always add or change out down the line. Make sure to0 that you put in wheel chair wide door width and hallways etc.. When I designed houses I basically tried to avoid hallways all together.

Thanks, that's super helpful.  Though I think our area (Northeast) is very expensive.  We haven't gotten a quote from a traditional builder yet, but the architect we've been talking to has said he's been hearing prices around $240 a sq ft for a contractor to do it recently with all the craziness.  He may have been trying to shock us a bit, but I'm not sure how much lower we can get.

[Fishindude]

In the past you could order a complete house kit from the Sears Catalog, drop shipped to your location.   Everything was included except the foundation; framing lumber, sheathing, doors, windows, siding, roofing, interir wall material, trims, cabinets, plumbing and electric components and fixtures, nails, insulation, etc.   A lot of Sears homes got built around the country by do it yourselfers.

[soccerluvof4]

In the past you could order a complete house kit from the Sears Catalog, drop shipped to your location.   Everything was included except the foundation; framing lumber, sheathing, doors, windows, siding, roofing, interir wall material, trims, cabinets, plumbing and electric components and fixtures, nails, insulation, etc.   A lot of Sears homes got built around the country by do it yourselfers.

You can still do this with the big box stores. Menards, Lowes, Home Depot etc...

https://www.google.com/search?q=home+depot+homes+for+sale&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS921US921&oq=Home+depot+homes&aqs=chrome.1.0j0i457j46i175i199j0l5.10074j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8



https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/the-project-store/home-projects/c-1474668109497.htm

[familyandfarming]

Dwell magazine is a nice resource of well-designed small homes (along with some homes owned by mega-billionaires)

Carmella Rayone http://www.carmellarayone.com/ lives in a very nice 665 sq ft. home that she designed. Her story is compelling. (wiped out by the Great Recession, vowed to only live in a house they paid cash for, thus the 665 sq ft) She also offers house plans ranging from 1000-1400 sq ft. https://www.assortmentblog.com/assortment/house-plans.html

[Poeirenta]

Lloyd Kahn at Shelter Publications put out a Small Homes book a few years ago that has lots of examples to check out.

We did a custom stick built house, 920 sq ft. We had a contractor do the shell for us, then did a fair amount of the interior work ourselves, and hired subs for the stuff we didn't feel competent doing. Especially the drywall mudding!  The closet I did myself is an advertisement for hiring that job out.

Design was mostly ours, but we had a designer who specializes in passive solar draw up the construction plans and make sure our mass-to-glass ratio and overhangs were correct.

Took us almost 2 years to get it finished. Slow pace allowed us to tweak a few things we hadn't thought of in the design process, like increasing the width b/t the counter and kitchen island.  Also had to fix some contractor screwups. We should've listened to the dog- she never liked him!

Sent from my Z5157V using Tapatalk

[Rural]

We're passive solar heated, too! Or will be when the sun comes back.

[Just Joe]

Lloyd Kahn at Shelter Publications put out a Small Homes book a few years ago that has lots of examples to check out.

We did a custom stick built house, 920 sq ft. We had a contractor do the shell for us, then did a fair amount of the interior work ourselves, and hired subs for the stuff we didn't feel competent doing. Especially the drywall mudding!  The closet I did myself is an advertisement for hiring that job out.

Design was mostly ours, but we had a designer who specializes in passive solar draw up the construction plans and make sure our mass-to-glass ratio and overhangs were correct.

Took us almost 2 years to get it finished. Slow pace allowed us to tweak a few things we hadn't thought of in the design process, like increasing the width b/t the counter and kitchen island.  Also had to fix some contractor screwups. We should've listened to the dog- she never liked him!

Sent from my Z5157V using Tapatalk

We renovated and sold a house a while back. Drywall was a surprising education. Assumed it would be easy. It was at the end but early on had lots to learn. 

[zolotiyeruki]

Posting mostly to follow. I have dreams of building our retirement home, and it's going to be awesome

[joedad189]

@Fishindude did you use a vendor to supply a pre-engineered building or an engineer/architect for designs 

i see barndominiums often that i think would be fun to build or have built

[soccerluvof4]

Ironically this was just on Reddit- Also interesting to scroll down and read the comments.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldPhotosInRealLife/comments/lg4css/craftsmanship/

[Kay-Ell]

This is a life long dream of mine too. I’ve been interested in sustainable architecture since about 2012, and hope to some day build a straw bale home. I’m probably 5-10 years away from realizing that dream though.

[TomTX]

One feature set which is important to me for a "forever home" is being designed as ADA accessible.  My Dad has mobility issues, and it's difficult even getting a walker into the bathroom here, wheelchair might not even make it down that hallway.