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Building Your Dream Home Part 1
or most of my adult life I Size
had thought about someday
building my Dream Home. After making the decision to raze
Several years ago I finally got the cottage and build a new home,
the chance. I had purchased a I had to first determine what
lake front lot with a small type and size of home to build.
cottage on it. My initial My lot was limited in size and
intention was to use the property required careful planning to
"as is", and someday raze the old ensure that I would meet all of
cottage and build a new home in the setbacks governed by the town
its place. After a couple of I lived in. Although I had these
weekends in the musty old camp I concerns, I decided to forgo the
came to the conclusion that I Architect route. I deemed it too
needed to speed up my timetable. expensive and probably not
necessary for the style of home I
Part of the dream in building my wanted to build. Instead I picked
own home was to act as the up a handful of Home Plan
General Contractor and to magazines and surfed the internet
personally supply a great deal of for home designs. I also picked
sweat equity. I accomplished both up an inexpensive software
of these goals, however it was package for designing homes and
not easy. There were many floorplans. After a week of
roadblocks and bends in the road reviewing home plans, I found one
along the way. In the subsequent that met most of my requirements
parts of this chronology, I will in terms of a floorplan. The
review my experiences in hopes footprint was smaller than I
that others may gain from my wanted, but I concluded that I
experiences. could redraw the floor plan
accordingly using my newly
Determining the Home Style and purchased Home Design Software
Package. full proposal to the bank with
all costs and subcontractors
The Home Design Software package identified, but this is necessary
was not as simple to use as the anyways.
instruction manual implied,
however after a couple of weeks I As the General Contractor I
had a floorplan with all the developed a build schedule and
dimensional information. task list. Some of the top items
included: Identifying
Assuming the role as the subcontractors, pulling permits,
General Contractor and having a septic design
approved.
As I had indicated earlier, one
of my goals was to assume the Carefully Pick your
role as General Contractor on Sub-Contractors
this project. I quickly learned
that banks frown upon lending Identifying the right
construction mortgages to subcontractors is the most
everyday homeowners and to folks important task a General
who have little professional Contractor performs. Poor
building experience. I got around selection of subcontractors can
this issue by deciding not to use lead to delays in schedules, cost
the banks for financing. However, overruns, poor workmanship and
from what I learned later, it may strife between the various
have been possible for me to subcontractors on the job. Prior
assume a construction mortgage if to hiring subcontractors, it is
I had quit my day job and applied important to visit their current
for the loan as a "full time jobsites. Review their work on
General Contractor". Indeed, I existing jobsites and mingle with
would have needed to complete a the other subs to judge the
working relationship. In addition package to the building inspector
get two or three reference checks prior to getting approval. There
on the subcontractors. If there are frequently town and state
are poor workmanship, personality forms that need to be filled out
issues, or references move on. Do regarding wetlands, and home
not settle for second rate subs, thermal analysis. In addition,
even if it means slipping your detailed engineering drawings of
schedule or costs goals, as you the proposed home may be
will more than likely suffer even required. In my case the Framer
larger schedule slips or higher was able to assist in developing
costs by hiring the wrong people. additional sketches of the house
plan to ensure structural
compliance to local, state and
Pulling Permits federal building codes. If I had
used the initial home plans I had
Once you have selected and hired obtained, those would have been
your excavator, chief framer, and sufficient. I also could have
foundation company, review with contacted an architect with my
them your plans. Make sure you selected plans to provide
walk the site with them, and additional details, however it
carefully stake out the house was not necessary in my case.
footprint, paying careful
attention to lot setbacks, septic After about a week and several
tanks, leach fields and well hundred dollars later I had the
location. Once all are agreed permit to build a new home.
upon with the house plans and the
location of the home, contact the Septic Design
building inspector and review
with him/her your plans. You will My home required its own septic
need to submit a very thorough system on site. As a result, I
required a septic design and an septic system on the lot, so the
associated permit for the new building inspector gave me
home. I recommend pursuing this approval. I was at financial
as early as possible in any new risk, however, in the event the
home project as this can take up new septic design was not
to 2-3 months to complete as both approved or needed to be
town and state approvals are repositioned from the proposed
required, not to mention site and location. Fortunately that was
engineering work. not the case and I was able to
move forward on razing the
Without knowing exactly where the cottage and beginning site work.
septic system and tank will
reside, it may be difficult to To Be Continued ...
locate the exact position of the
home and in many cases the In Part 2 of "Building Your Dream
building inspector may not House", I will cover razing an
approve the building permit until existing building, performing
the septic design permit has been site prep work, and pouring
obtained. I was fortunate in that foundation walls. Stay tuned...
the property already had a small
About the Author:
Over the past 20+ years Mr. Donovan has been involved with building homes and additions to homes. His projects have included: building a vacation home, building additions and garages on to existing homes, and finishing unfinished homes. For More information http://homeadditionplus.com and
http://homeaddition.blogspot.com.
Source: www.isnare.com
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