The
new way to Design Homestead Buildings
Until now you had two options for planning a new home or outbuilding:
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Hire an architect or professional home designer to develop custom plans.
If you pick the right person you can get a handsome building that is just
right for you and your site. Pick the wrong person and you could end up with
an ego statement about the designer that may have little to do with you or
your land. This option adds 3% to 15% to the cost of construction. We do
this type of work all the time (usually for 3% to 5%).
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Look through magazines and stock plan books to find a house or building
that's close to what you want. Complete home plans with enough sets for
construction and permits might cost you $300 to $600. But this is only the
start since you usually have to get local changes and additional drawings
done. These are needed to meet local codes, earthquake, wind and snow loads,
and to change out materials called for in the plans but not available locally.
This can add several hundred dollars to the cost of the plans. (This is assuming
you don't start making changes to the plans themselves. If so, your costs
can approach the price of a custom design.) Garage and barn plans are less
expensive and usually easier to build as a stock plan.
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The New Option 3 Design your own!
Powerful home design programs have made it possible for the homeowner to
do their own floor plans. If you read the marketing blurbs on the boxes for
programs like 3D Home Architect, you
would think the program can produce plans you can take right down to your
building department or give to your builder to start construction. This is
overblown marketing BS. These programs have absolutely NO STRUCTURAL information!
I'm sure many people have taken plans from these programs in for a building
permit only to be laughed back out onto the street.
Using such a program CAN let you design the building you want and
save you time and money ONLY if you have the right structural and
planning information at the right time. That information is not in the program.
What you need is a professional designer to serve as coach and detailer for
your design.
With help
and support at the right time, people can design and produce professional
construction plans for their own buildings.
This is a kit of step by step design tools and a six month consulting service
that will help you develop your own set of plans from initial ideas to the
permit and construction drawings stage. This is how you turn your ideas into
buildable projects.
What do I get?
The initial design kit package costs $295. Here's what you get:
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The latest version of 3D Home Architect to develop floorplans, interior layouts
and exterior landscaping.
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The Solar Site Kit to allow you to find the best location on your property
and determine the sunpath and floorplan options that will take best advantage
of your site.
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Help developing a working long-term site plan and setting up the infrastructure
for your building project (things such as septic, grading, roads, power,
water, etc.)
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3D Home Architect space templates and worksheets that allow you to quickly
determine a general layout for your floorplan, and estimate its construction
costs.
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Six months of unlimited e-mail or discussion group help with your design
questions
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A full review of your preliminary plans with suggestions for improvements
or possible alternatives. This will keep your plans structurally buildable
while you design the interior layout and exterior look of the building.
When you've finalized your floorplan and cross section in 3D Home Architect
(on your own time schedule), we will put together the structural details
necessary for your design and send these to you to be include in your completed
plan set. This review and detail phase will be billed separately. A typical
set of construction details would cost $200. In complex designs, charges
could run more. You will get a fixed price for this work before it is done.
Please note:
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We use high efficiency construction details to reduce costs, save materials
and increase energy efficiency.
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Some parts of your design may need to be reviewed locally by a structural
engineer. We will help you narrow these items down so you don't overpay for
such services.
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Local codes may require additional unforeseen changes (this is true of any
plans you might submit).
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This type of program is appropriate for smaller buildings using standard
wood frame construction techniques.
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We suggest you use simple traditional shapes so your buildings will be easier
and less expensive to design and build.
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You can design one or two story buildings with a basement, crawlspace or
slab on grade foundation.
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Starter houses (to added on to later), get-a-way cottages, guest houses,
barns, garages, workshops, outbuildings, etc all these would be
appropriate as owner-designed structures.
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Additions, kitchen remodels, sunrooms and other projects could be done with
this method.
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This program is not appropriate for log homes, strawbale houses or large
structures with many floors, wings, towers or other structurally challenging
designs.
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Save the 4,500SF castle with the indoor swimming pool for later!
Click the e-mail link HERE and
I will keep you informed as this project progresses. This is a special limited
seating on-line interactive teaching/consulting project. If you are interested,
let me know. Let's make that move in '99!