House: The Timber Frame

Yes, the house is a timber frame - basically really big pieces of exposed post and beams timbers with mortise and tenon joinery.  If you ever saw the movie 'Witness' with Harrison Ford or lived in Alsace of merry ole England, you know what I'm talking about. 

I probably heard of the concept of a timber framed house when I was in my teens, and I was watching 'This Old House'.  And I had followed the blog of a US builder of new timber frames for years - who was promoting them for their sustainability features (it's a flexible structure that can be repurposed over the centuries).  It seems Patrick had similar experiences, and he brought up the idea of building a timber frame house about 2 years ago - thinking I would poo-pooh it, he was surprised that I actually knew what it was and wanted to do it.

There are basically four variations of a theme if you want to do something with timber frames.

1.  BUY EXISTING AND RENOVATE ON SITE

You can buy a piece of land that already has an old (and probably falling down) timber frame barn on the property already, and then restore it.

   Sounds crazy, but these barns are more common than you think.  At one time they were across the midwest every 40 acres.  Most have been lost (once the roof goes, it's pretty much downhill), but if you drive around the countryside and look for them, you'll still see them.

   We actually thought about buying a piece of property that had a barn on it - for about 5 minutes - but it's pretty hard to find the right size land, right barn, and right price.

2.  MAKE NEW

You can have someone build you a barn to your own specifications out of new timbers (usually Douglas Fir), and they'll even put it up for you.

   We thought about that for about a month, until we realized how incredibly expensive it can be (~$100K for a 30'X40' structure ... I'm talking just the frame ... you still need to put up walls, HVAC, windows, etc.).  Keep in mind, we're talking about something that is strictly aesthetic ... like choosing marble tile over ceramic tile, or putting a painting on your wall ... so $100K is a big chunk of change.

3.  FAKE IT

You could get the timber frame look by buying some timbers from an old barn and then attach them to the walls somehow.

   I've actually seen this done in production homes to make them feel homey.  I personally hate the look, it just looks fake (like the plastic window shutters that are too small for the windows).  And, of course, they aren't structural. 

4.  MOVE ONE

The last option I can think of is to find someone who already has a barn (and doesn't know what to do with it), dismantle it, and then move it to your location.

But be warned, it's not as easy as it sounds - since construction is all about the details and fantasy hitting reality like a hard brick wall.

We actually did option #4 ... despite the risks, we would rather save a barn than have something new - and saving some cash didn't hurt either.  Once we got into it, we realized that these barns are really about our history, and they are rapidly disappearing.  The issue is that their original purpose (raising animals on a small farm) is now essentially gone - so unless we give them a new purpose (in this case, a house), then they will eventually all be gone - those roofs don't last forever.

We originally were thinking of moving a barn of one of our friends, but unfortunately, it didn't work out.  Even if you get the frame itself for free, there are still some significant costs in just dismantling.  And although many have tried to just pull it down with a chain and a truck - they just roll over.

So advice on timber framing ... find one that's already been taken down ... and for that, just do a quick google search.  You'd be amazed at the number of people who have frames sitting in another barn somewhere.

Although an already dismantled barn has distinct advantages over other options - you are also introducing an awful lot of risk - which I look back now on and think what was I thinking.  The main risk is that you have to trust the current owner that the dimensions are correct and that it can be put back together in one piece.  Usually those barns are taken down for a reason - like a rotten timber - so make sure part of the deal is that the guy you're buying from has to put it back up.

We did end up making some alterations to the barn ... we had to increase the slope of the roof in order to make the second floor more liveable ... so that required extra timbers.  One timber in particular that I had to find was a 40' long ridgebeam - not very easy to find, let me tell you.

But all in all, it went very smoothly.  Just be well aware of the risks involved and some of the hidden costs (transportation, crane rental, etc).

So here's the barn in its original location, which was actually the NE corner of Ohio.

Turns out the barn was built sometime between 1840 to 1850, so it was the first in the area.  The timbers are hand hewn and they are significantly larger than barns built just a few decades later when the saw mills were cutting standard sizes - so some beams are 14" square instead of a more typical 8".

We kept the original footprint of the main part of the house ... so that's roughly 30' X 40' ... we had ended up changing the roofline in order to make the second floor more useable.  And we bagged the side section (we need to replace some of the rotten timbers).

So here's the barn up in our property in Indiana.  The 2X4's are just for safety, and temporary stability.  But it also gives you an idea of how big the actual timbers are.

What about the walls?  That's the next post on structural insulated panels ...

1 Year Update:  It was a crazy idea and it could have gone horribly horribly wrong at a couple of key moments, but honestly - the consensus is that it totally makes the house - and it was totally worth it.  It's a good feeling when you're lying on the couch and you look up at a beam that took you a year to find, and realize it would still be rotting in a field somewhere, if you didn't find a use for it.

House: The Power

One of the first lessons in buying a house is figuring out how you're going to power it ... lots of people fall in love with a piece of land, and odds are, if you fell in love with it, it's probably in the boonies with few, if any, utilities.  So you're usually talking propane (which, right now, is super pricey and is only looking to keep being pricey).

Fortunately we are out in the middle of nowhere, but we did have natural gas at the street - and right now the monthly costs are extremely cheap (thanks to fracking that's messing up our ground water - but I digress) - but that would be a short-term perspective.  First, the installation of a pipe was going to be about $1000 (in all fairness, the house is 800' from the street), so that was going to take awhile to recoup.  Second, once prices on natural gas go back up (and they will), we will be at the mercy of those rate increases.  Third, I just don't like the idea of getting something from fracking - whether you're a "drill baby drill" sort of guy or a birkenstock wearing flower child, the idea of pumping chemicals into the ground intentionally next to water wells we drink out of just sounds incredibly stupid, and really no study or industry 'expert' is going to convince me otherwise.  Finally, the only reason we'd want gas over anything else was originally because of the ability to cook with natural gas was so much faster than electric - but we solved that issue ... I'm getting there ...

So we ended up with a 100% electric house.  Yes, we're in Indiana, which means 99.9% of electricity comes from coal - not good for climate change.  We're in the boonies, so electricity ain't cheap (~8 cents a kilowatt).  And electricity is not the most efficient way to heat a house, and cooking is a lot slower (well, no, it's not, but I'm still getting to that) .  So, we still went with electricity.

First, a little design moment ... we buried the electrical line (instead of having them on poles) ... pay the extra cash to get that done - it was like $300 more for a 400' stretch.  I know we never notice lines anymore, but once they took the old lines down (there was already power to the property - just not the new house site), it just opened up the whole property.  Plus, we NEVER have to worry about the lines being blown down (at least on our property, the street is a totally different issue).

Second, we did not go with solar PV panels.  I know we're totally eco-green-ness house, but it still makes no financial sense for us yet (and I wonder if it ever will).  So we might be green, but we're not stupid.  Rough numbers ... assuming an average electric bill of $100, we'd need to invest $15K to cut our bill in half per a couple of solar calculators we found online.  It would make more sense for us to spend another $2K in super efficient appliances, or $2K in LED lightbulbs before we did the solar PV thing.  Another big reason we didn't do solar PV right away is because we don't really know how much power we'll need ... we've learned this is not an average house, so average usage wouldn't really make any sense.  So we'll probably see PV panels in our future, but they have to do better than a 19 year payback period.

Third, our house doesn't really use a lot of energy (relative to others).  The house needs 55K Btu's/Hr in order to heat it in the dead of winter (typical house of the same size is 220K+) ... that works out to be smaller than the smallest wood stoves, hence why we couldn't do a wood stove (we'd overheat the house).  So using a (tiny) electric boiler is not hurting our electric bill too much.  If it did start to get out of control, we'd probably do a passive solar hot water system for the radiant floor - but that'll have to wait.

Fourth, we solved the gas vs electric cooktop issue - specifically, gas heats up so much faster than electric and is so much more responsive.  That is if you're not talking about induction electric cooktops ... LOVE them ... one more thing that's big in Europe, but few know about here in the US.  Basically instead of using electricity to heat up a heating coil, an induction cooktop powers a magnet, that then heats up cooking pan by exciting the molecules in the pan directly.

   I really can't write about this accurately - instead you really need to see it for yourself ... oooh, future YouTube video ... but I'll try.  Basically, I can put a pot of water on the stove, turn on the cooktop, and the water will boil at least 2 times faster than my gas cooktop from my old house (and it's a nice KitchenAid).  It's amazing.  And it's incredibly responsive, there are 20 heating levels on the cooktop, and I can take a pot of super boiling water at work down each level and instantly see a change in the boil and it stabilize in literally two seconds.  And since the magnet inside the cooktop is actually agitating the pot itself (not the surface of the cooktop that then transfers to the pot), the cooktop is not burning hot when the pan is removed (it's still hot to the touch, but not even close to what a turned off gas or traditional cooktop would be.  I just saw a video where someone fries bacon on the stove and puts a towel between the cooktop and the pan to ease grease cleanup - it takes a second to realize that it's not a fire hazard.  And they are also energy efficient ... since they're heating the pan directly, the energy consumption is significantly less than a traditional electric stove or the energy requires for a gas burner.

   Of course, it's not all honey and roses.  These bad boys aren't cheap - I spent $800 for a Bosch top of the line, but retail is $2500 (it was a return (most people buy them in error) and I had to drive to Illinois to pick it up.  It also requires a specific pan - namely one that has enough metal content to be 'turned on' - fortunately, most high end pans (e.g. All-Clad) are induction capable (you just never cared before) and the trusty old iron skillet is perfect for this.  Unfortunately, the beloved french copper pans are a no go - so my Mom made out like a bandit last week.

So that's about it on the power side - a lot of decisions and options that you might not have thought about.  Hopefully if you follow this blog, you'll start to realize that a simple decision can have ripple effects downstream - like, I bought a house 800' from the street, so I need an induction cooktop.

1 Year Update: Electrical power in the country is EXPENSIVE.  Holy crap !  I was paying 4 cents a KwH in the city, it's more like 12 cents in the country.  Since our major electrical expense is heating water in the winter, it's a no brainer to have some solar panels do it.  Still don't think solar PVs make sense yet, but it's closer at 12 cents than 4 cents.  After the solar hot water panels, I'll probably replace all lightbulbs to LED - there are a couple of pretty good ones out now.  And then I'll see if PV makes sense.

House: The Foundation

So how's this for progress ...

We started looking for land in October of 2009, bought land in December of 2010, spent almost a year in designing and bidding the project, and now we're in November of 2011 with the start of a foundation.

Seems that building a foundation is a bit of a slog, and it probably doesn't help that my sub had 3 other jobs going, and a whole lot of rain to deal with.  But as you can see, we have the start.

We originally were going back and forth on having a basement, but when Patrick's Mom looked to the open field to the West and asked, "Sooo ... what are you going to do in the event of a tornado?" We decided that we were having a basement.

Yes, they're a pain with the sump pump ... yes, they add expense ... but the tornadoes.

We looked into a lot of foundation options that were atypical ... just looking for something that was air tight and a good insulator (concrete by itself just doesn't cut it) ... I know, people say the basement stays a nice 55 degrees all year round, but I have yet to meet anyone who heats their house to only 55 in winter, nor cool it to that in summer.

   We looked at a product called Thermomass, basically a poured wall with insulation on the inside ... super crazy insane expensive - and marginal performance despite what the lab reports would tell you.

   We looked at a product that was essentially pre-formed concrete that was lifted into place and sat on a gravel bed ... more air leakage than my 1920's house and probably less stable.

    We looked into doing simple foundation on our own - have a sub pour a typical foundation, and then we could attach rigid foam on the outside or inside for better insulation.
  
We actually went with ICFs (Insulated concrete forms) for the basement - which is basically two inches of styrofoam with 6-8" of concrete in between.  We had originally dismissed the idea, because they had a couple of disadvantages and the insulation wasn't amazing (just R20) ... like, we would have to finish the basement walls since the styrofoam is not fire rated.  But they ended up not costing a whole lot more than a traditional foundation (actually, I don't think they cost anything extra, now that I think about it), and they were tighter in the air leakage department.  But the main reason is that we wanted to use our neighbor to the north on the project, and this is the only way he built foundations.

We also put insulation down in the floor ... code says you only need 1/2" (and I don't think they even really check to see if you do that), we did 6" (recycled, which is a story in and of itself).  Since we were doing radiant floor heating in the basement, we really didn't want to pay for heating up Mother Earth any more than we already are.

All in all, it's a solid foundation ... which is what you want, right?  Just be prepared for it to take awhile, and then be surprised if it's quick.

1 Year Update: LOVE the ICFs ... it was a good move.  The basement doesn't have that musty moldy feeling, and it's really quite comfortable down there in summer.  I probably could have gotten away with not framing the walls, and instead just putting up the drywall directly, but no one's perfect.

House: The Bidding Process

So the final design is done, and now it's time to figure out how much this house is going to cost us.

As you know by now, we're the general contractors for this project, so we have little knowledge of the good or bad subs ... hence why we hired our building consultant.  Before we brought the plans in (15 copies of 10 pages each), we had already done a lot of pricing and research on various elements on the house.  We essentially did not want to make integrated design decisions only to find out that those sized windows are twice as expensive, for example.

And we also put our energies in the big tickets items that we know could swing in prices one way or the other ... windows, SIP panels, timber frame costs, etc.  We also had the advantage of doing a pre-budget of sorts based on a friends house.  The houses were different in size and scope, but at least you're able to get an idea that lumber costs X% of the total cost of the house or you have to allow for things like trash removal or towel bars.

So after about 45 days, our consultant came back with the final quotes and bottom line price of the house.  Like most people at this stage, I did a little freak fest, since it was about 35% higher than our budget.  Remember, I already knew which items we had to account for, and I had already found the best prices for probably the top 5 items ... still, 35% higher.

Keep in mind, our building consultant really didn't have an incentive to get the price down low - he was pretty much taking what the subs were giving him.  And in a few cases he only got one bid from a subcontractor.

As my Daddy always says, "Never accept the first offer", I went to work to figure out which things needed to be rebid.  Here was the strategy ...

1.  Find more subs.

   Quoting is free, and it never hurts to ask another sub or two for another quote.  This is where I think general contractors really get lazy ... they stick with people they know and trust, but after a year the sub you thought was cheap is no longer competitive.  Since a GC really isn't paying the bill at the end of the day, they just pass the costs on to you.

   Also remember, most subs seem to bid on the moment and based on their current schedule.  If they don't need work, they'll bid high.  If they need a little more, they'll bid low.  If they need a lot more work, then they'll bid outrageously high. Sure, some subs bid like machines based on very clear calculations - but a lot of subs don't do that.

2.  Change your design

   Obviously if you did a good job on the conceptual design and you sized the house correctly.  You shouldn't have to go back and chop off a bedroom now that you realize that bedroom costs you $20K or whatever.  But there are sometimes where you can adopt your plan to save some money relatively painlessly.  The list goes on forever, but maybe that $3K door isn't worth it, and a $500 is almost as good.  Maybe you don't need $50K in marble tile, and the ceramic stuff looks just as good.  Those are the obvious ones.

   What might not be so obvious would be things like not asking for a specific brand of material.  If it's important to you, then spec it out; but usually suppliers have material that they either like to work with or can get at a cheaper price.

3.  Look for things that are totally out of whack, and get creative.

   The HVAC on the house initially came back at $45K for a house that has R values of 42 and super-insulated windows.  The whole point of us having a super-insulated house was so we didn't need to have a complicated and expensive heating system.  Part of the issue was that our mechanical engineer spec'ed out a very specific house setup, and it scared the shit out of the local HVAC suppliers.  He also spec'ed out a HVAC model that wasn't really used in our area - add more money.

   Other reasons why that quote was so high was just plain greed.  We wanted to do a radiant floor heating system, and apparently that is a total luxury item in Indiana.  So the local HVAC guys charge a fortune for it.  Turns out when you're your own General Contractor you have a lot more flexibility.  So a little research and talking to the right people (finally), you learn that you can have the radiant floor company design the system for you - including material list and tube layout plan and boiler size based on the insulation in your house.  The laying of the tubing is a $10/hour job that takes about 100 hours.  And then you just need a plumber to hook up the hoses ... done.  So an HVAC system didn't need to cost $45K, but a fifth of that.

So what was the end story ... I probably rebid about 7 items, and I got the budget back down to my number (we're roughly talking $100K) ... this was with NO design changes ... just rebidding that took 30 days ... so unless you make $1.2M a year in salary or just don't care how much you pay for a house.

I realize a lot of people will hire a general contractor, so they might tell themselves that they don't care about the itemized budget ... but you should ... the inflated sub costs are being ultimately passed onto you.  If a general constrictor is giving you allowances (and they will), then you need to be prepared to shop around.

House: The General Contractor

Um ... that would be us ... just Patty and I

No, we don't have any prior building experience.

No, I'm not even that great a pounding a nail.

No, I had little idea what I was getting myself into.

Basically we got turned on to a concept called UBuildIT, where you basically hire a building consultant for significantly less than a general contractor would cost.  You basically do all the work on scheduling the subs etc, but they consult and guide you through.  We were going to go with UBuildIt, but had another contact who was just a building consultant ... so we went with him.

He essentially took our detailed plans and then bid out the project to a list of subs that he's worked with in the past.  We can choose to either use his subs, or bid them out to someone else.  See post on bidding process.

Once that's done he helps you with the building process, but you still end up doing all the work (e.g. scheduling subs, yelling at subs, begging subs, permitting, etc).  It's definitely not for everyone, because you have to have a certain eye for detail and know what you want. 

Even with a building consultant, there are things that are just missed or done incorrectly.  The bad news is that you usually catch them late.  The good news is that most of them can be fixed.

There are some significant disadvantages ...

1.  YOU'RE A FRESHMAN, EVERYONE ELSE IS A JUNIOR OR SENIOR

  Essentially you have to figure that this is the first time that you've ever seen a foundation constructed before, whereas your sub has done it a million times.  So you have to pick the right sub that you can trust.

  Granted most of these subs are turnkey solutions ... they come in and do the whole foundation (ordering material, setting up inspections, calling the concrete company) - you want that.  But that also means that they can hide things pretty easily if they want to.  Again, pick the right subs.

  If you have a knack for being able to figure out if someone is BS'ing you, then you are halfway there; but remember, you are dealing with people who have been BS'ing for a long time.

2.  IT TAKES TIME ... AND IT COULD BE A LOT

  You basically have to know as much, if not more, on each aspect of the job than the sub does.  I enjoyed it, because I found it fascinating, and fortunately the Internet is an amazing resource.  Just talking to subs and asking dumb questions reveals a lot of information - but all that takes time.

  Here's an example that shows the time commitment or my general perfectionism ... I stumbled upon a basic question ... what varnish and finish should I put on my exterior wood door.  It all started innocently enough as one of my friends was telling about how when he built his house, his general contractor used some crappy cheap varnish on his exterior wood door, and then 2 years later he was calling in a professional and paying $600 to do it right.  He still has to reapply the finish every year or so (all products do), but at least the door continues to look good.

  Well, fast forward to my project ... 3 hours of internet research into wood varnishes reveals that a finish containing Tung Oil is the best, that certain Marine Varnishes are great, but need to be reapplied, that 'Formby's Tung Oil Finish' contains no tung oil whatsoever, and if you want it done right, you need about $75 in product and several hours of work to protect and finish one exterior wooden door.

   Hey, avoid the problem by painting it - but the door is fantastic.


I think there are some significant advantages to being your own general contractor - and for me they far outweigh the negatives ...

1.  MONEY.

   Even with a percentage fee of the total budget of the house (full disclosure we paid, I think, 4.5% of the total budget we went to the bank with).  Some days I was wondering if we were getting our money's worth, but it was a good insurance policy.  We were originally quoted 8%-10% for the consulting service, and that's basically robbery.

   I probably would have done about 70% of amount of work than if I hired a general contractor, but at least this way I paid less.

   The real cost savings however comes from the fact that you are not stuck with one sub.  A lot of the housing to be pretty conservative and safe, so general contractors just go to the same subs project after project.  What you find is that sub prices vary dramatically ... not only between individual subs, but also based on the subs own schedule.  If he's slow, then he'll bid low that month - if he's busy or the project is not really interesting to him (e.g. driving distance, size, etc.), then the price could be significantly more.

   Yes, some subs are very consistent - but you have no idea how much something should really cost until you ask a few other subs - more on that later.

2.  QUALITY CONTROL

  Cold and heartless, but everyone involved in your project has their own motives - and a surprisingly large majority want to finish as quickly as possible in order to start the weekend or move on to the next job.  Subs can talk about quality over quantity, but at the end of the day, you reach a point where it has to be about quantity for them.



  Don't get me wrong, the subs we had were by and large fantastic ... but they aren't 100% self-policing.  If a mistake means that they need to spend another 2 hours re-doing it and you won't know because it'll be covered up by Tyvek wrap ... then the majority aren't going to fix it.

  Don't even count on a county inspector.  Nice guys (or maybe not), but they are going to catch MAYBE 10% of what's wrong with the house.  They aren't going to find out if the panels were sealed tightly (but an infrared camera will), no one is going to get down on the floor and make sure the doors sills are all caulked and air tight - not even your insulation guys do that.
 

  I really don't care how honest you think your general contractor is ... at the end of the day he's not going to be living in your house, paying your electric bills, or probably even building you another house.  So what's his/her fundamental motivation in quality.  It's not non-existent, but it's not 100% either.


3.  DESIGN FREEDOM


  We did a lot of whacked out stuff on this house ... water cachement, SIP panels, timber frame structure, fiberglass windows, radiant floor heating, Control4 lighting, the list goes on and on.  It was challenging enough to try those things, but it would have been impossible if I had a general contractor that had never done them before and didn't want to try them.

  Even if I did find a general contractor who was willing to try those things, he would have had to raise his prices so much to cover the risk, that the project just would not have been possible.


  Friends have told me stories of where they would debate for an hour with a general contractor on how big to make the driveway, because the GC didn't want to pay for a couple extra yards of concrete.  Could you imagine if I told my GC that I wanted to put up a 150 year old barn with measurements written on a piece of scrap paper?  It just would have been a struggle.


  Probably one of the biggest compliments I would have to give my building consultant was that he never said, "Holy crap that's a bad idea."  Maybe he should have at one point, but everything has worked out so far, keep your fingers crossed.

4.  SIGNIFICANTLY LESS FINANCIAL RISK

  I admit to adding this in the end (since I was not aware of the problem until some friends and colleagues experienced it), but one concept that is not well understood by 'virgin' homebuilders ... there is significant financial risk in hiring a General Contractor that should be honestly discussed.

  The simple fact is that any contract you sign with a GC will spell out specific draws that you must pay once certain work is complete.  For example, once the foundation is done, you might need to pay $50K - that is total reasonable.

  The issue is that you don't know if he actually paid that foundation company in full - like for the concrete, AND if he didn't, then you could (and most likely) will be held responsible for paying it.  A supplier or sub can easily and quickly slap a lien on the new house and hold up your closing until you pay it - think about that when interest rates are going up by the day.  There are legal waivers that can be signed (and what banks usually insist on) (and not being a lawyer myself I don't know anything about them), but you have to know your local laws and know if they work for or against you.  

  Yes, a lawyer might help avoid many of these issues - but if you're building a house and hiring that lawyer means you won't get the tile you had your heart set on - it's not surprising most people don't do it.

  And here's the real killer (again, other States or local laws may be different) ... don't think you're going to get your money back from your GC.  Most likely, he (or she) is an LLC, which means they can just close up shop and open up under a different name.  Sure, they'll have to declare bankruptcy, but the new business is free and clear, and there's no cash in the old business to pay you.  And there is really no way to know if this GC is financially stable or not - I've seen GC's in business for 20 years end up declaring bankruptcy.

  Again, don't mean to bash GC's - I'm sure there are some great ones.  I just know how difficult it is to manage ONE house and its cash flow, I couldn't imagine handling 20.  It's easy to see how funds from one house pays the bills of an older house - and it resembles to me a bit of a pyramid scheme.


1 Year Update: I would definitely be my own General Contractor again.  I might not use the same consultant (he wasn't very proactive), but I would definitely want that backup from someone knowledgeable.  I would say if you're planning a pretty standard house, then you should be OK just buying an existing house or having a general contractor do it.  Another option I would entertain is having a general contractor do the shell of the house (foundation, studs, etc), and then you finish the house (drywall, painting, fixtures, etc) - who knows ... there is a bit of money to be saved.

House: Conceptual Design

So the second weird thing we did (first was deciding to build a house at all) was hire an architect.



I had some friends in college who were architects and was always impressed by their view of the World. We lived in one house that you knew an architect had designed, and every day it made you happy that the laundry chute was in the right place or you could turn on and off the lights the way you lived. They always say architects are more expensive, and even though you should expect higher quality should cost more, I'm still not convinced they don't save you money in the end with lower square footage and removing unnecessary costs. I'll keep track and let you know at the end of the project.



But the next step in building a house is coming up with a conceptual design (think: Where are the rooms and how are you going to move between them, and less about where the light switches are going to be). Basically, Chris, our architect, had to take all of our ideas that were more like random thoughts of fancy that we had picked up over the years, and put them into something concrete on how we want to live.



This project was not really constrained by land (20 acres gives you a lot of options), but it was constrained by cost (always) and a somewhat fixed footprint (more on that later). I'm glad we had constraints because it makes us more creative and economical - without them you end up with a 5000 square foot monstrosity with a gift wrapping room and a mortgage that leaves no money left to buy gifts to wrap.



For me, if we didn't care about resale value and we could convince the bank to fund us - I would be happy with just doing the first floor, which would be a killer one bedroom apartment in any city. Although we don't think it makes sense to have a bigger mortgage for the occasional visitor (we could put them up in the Conrad cheaper than the extra square footage will cost us in the mortgage) - we did want a place where we could have long-term family and friends stay comfortably (and privately), so if after a month they started smelling like week old fish, they would have their own space to stink up.

Here's the general plan (and the reasoning) ...

Visitors walk in at point A, while we come in from the garage at point B - but we are essentially sharing one main entrance. (We didn't want to pay for a formal entryway that no one really uses but the pizza delivery man). With land we are going to have a lot of dirty and wet clothes, so the mudroom is right there (I had a mudroom on Alabama, and it was beyond useful). One of the last things we do before we leave is put the dogs away - so the dog room is right there with their own exit to their fenced yard. They also need an out of the way place to chill when there are a bunch of guests around. With only 1400 square feet on the first floor, we wanted to make sure we were getting as much out of each room as possible - so the entrance is big enough for handle visitors coming and going, coats, and shoes; while making a little reading space off to the side at other times.



The main section of the house has a pantry and half bath off to one side - the pantry had to be close to the main entrance and the kitchen, while the half bath needed to be out of the way. Nothing special about the dining room and living room other than half of it is open to the upstairs loft.



The kitchen took a lot of thought because we like the idea of an open kitchen, I just don't like people in the kitchen. And I don't like sitting in the living room or dining room and seeing a kitchen mess (which I am sometimes known to do). So the kitchen is really kind of two parts - one section is open and has seating for six at an island, while a wall hides the cleaning up area. Even though the kitchen is really long with the island and galley footprint - the infamous kitchen triangle is incredibly small, since it's kept to one end.



Chris hid the stairs behind the back of the kitchen (sweet) and there's an exit to the outside garden right off the kitchen.



The last third of the first floor is the master. Bedroom basically handles one king sized bed and some dogs - that's it (never understood a couch in a bedroom). We refused to do a walk-in closet - too much waste in the corners - and it always seems to smell like shoes. We kept the toilet and the bathroom separate - toilet and shower just seems mutually exclusive to me.



There's a lot of things that I like about this plan - there's very little wasted space, whatever hallways exist really need to be there for a reason and can be used by other rooms. The north half of the plan is pretty fixed with the kitchen and plumbing, but the rest is pretty flexible and open.

There you have it - a conceptual design.