Where to start...

[Cropping Up]

I'm just beginning to plan for a small house and I'm unsure where to begin in earnest.  Land?  Check.  Water and electric?  Double-check.  But ... what now?  I'm in no rush to get the project underway and really wouldn't be surprised if it were a year or two before I actually commit to it, but I'd like to get my ducks rounded up and in something resembling a row so at least I know what to expect.  What can you guys suggest?

[walkabout]

If you have a zoning board that is strict and/or are asking for any/many variances, figure out what you want to build and start the approval process long before you want to start to build.

I have a small property that I wanted to put a small cabin on, and because of a dispute between the township and the county where I wanted to build it took much longer than I thought it would to get approval to tear down and rebuild on my property. It took me over a year of meetings, changes, more meetings, etc to get approval to rebuild.
My county has the past few years property and zoning meeting notes online so I was able to see what they liked and did not like, but even with this information you are sometimes subjected to the moods of the P&Z committee.

If you don't have any of these issues then great.

Good luck.

[Alan Gage]

I decided to build about a year ago. Spent all winter planning and started building this spring.

I didn't have a clue where to start. Never done any building before. It was overwhelming. Started out with graph paper sketching out floor plans. Looking around online found out standard sizes for things like doors, hallways, appliances, etc..Then bought some software to make it easier to change things around get 3d views. Read lots of stuff online and started ordering books on framing. JLC (Journal of Light Construction) can be some interesting forums to follow but most of my info. came from searching the archives, which is free. I also paid $15-$20/year for access to their online magazine archives. Lots of great articles that helped me understand some of the things I had questions on (like different foundations).

One thing I didn't come across, and wish that I had, was a good book on actually designing a house from the standpoint of an owner builder. I finally came across it a few weeks ago. I wish I'd found it a year ago. Great book. The first half is design, the second half is how to build. Also chapters on dealing with contractors and subcontractors if you don't want to do everything yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/Independent-Builder-Designing-Building-Living/dp/0930031857/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323441422&sr=8-1

I know it seems overwhelming now but you just need to jump in and start sketching things out. Pretty soon things will start to make sense and you'll get a game plan worked out.

Alan

[rick91351]

First off welcome!   

As far as building you own small house or larger one you have found a good sight or forum.  I would just suggest just hanging here gleaning from others builds and asking questions.  Read through some other people projects that are archived and see what others have done. 

I would purchase several good books on house building - explaining it from foundation to the roof cap.  There are several out there that offer great illustrations and explanations.  There are a couple publications out there that are sort of code for dummies.  They can sort of explain code in laymans terms and drop the legaleze to where you understand the requirements of shear and why.  Why headers have to be that way here and are costing you $$$ but over there but over there not even close to be required.         

I'm just beginning to plan for a small house and I'm unsure where to begin in earnest.  Land?  Check.  Water and electric?  Double-check.  But ... what now? .......snip.......................

Reading from that I am sort of unsure if you own land now and in the utilities are there...............  or you know you need that.

If you own the land or looking to buy, start with planing and zoning.  The owner that wants out of a deal of a life time will dump his stuff on you especially if it is a problem property.  Real estate people will out and out tell you untruths.  So go to planing and zoning, they will point you to state or local heath department requirements.  They can inform you of set back problems and requirements.

Property is me is the ultimate buyer beware.   If you have bought or are buying do not assume it is build-able.  Or build-able in your price range.  Do not think that all lots in developments are okay to build on for what you might want to build.  There are set backs and perk tests and well set backs and where the heck is my power at?     

We had a personal experience of finding a spot to build on our place.  Every where we wanted to build it just would not pass a perk test.  We had most likely eight holes in a acre and a half.  Looked like huge gopher and ground squirrel  problems.  Some we did not count were flooding as soon as we dug them.  Those we covered covered back up right then.  Others were dry that day next day to have water in them.  So we went to another location found a better site.  I was lucky to have the property to do such.  If we would have just had an acre or two and needed to go with a conventional septic system.  Bad news....  I know there are people here that have and love their composting toilets and all that but they are not for me and my wife.  Especially in a full time use environment.           

Mountain property in snow country you will find is often times very expensive buy, design for and build on.  Most the times they will not except 'stock drawings'.   So you have to get an engineer.  The engineer will require the set redrawn to engineering details.  $$$  You take that to the truss company.  More and bigger lumber and better grades of lumber.  Their engineering is part of the truss package and not a big add on but the larger lumber is.  $$$ If you hire it done it will cost more in travel time and logistics.  If you do it yourself, you will find the same applies.  I can guarantee almost daily there is the half inch widget pin that the whole project depends on gets left out of an order and a fuel ranging from $3.00 to $4.00 a gallon it adds to your cost.       

How much property do you require?  You state small house.  For most designers that is anything under 3000 sq ft.  For some on this forum a small house is around 1000.  What else do you require?  Shop, barn,  really thinking a small farm or ranch.  You might be thinking well we will start with 1000 sq ft and and fill out as we go.  I love this idea, there you can have the drawing done or draw you plans with the additions and all figured in and you can include doorways that you will knock out latter but never see today, all hidden behind the sheetrock.  Headers installed.  Electrical there just stubbed off.  You might even stub of the plumbing for the addition close by.     

[MushCreek]

If you do have land, you need to start hanging out there- a lot. Watch how the angle of the sun changes through the seasons. Visit during the worst possible weather to see where the rainwater wants to go, where it collects, and what kind of wind you can expect. I started building in August, and have been camping on my land. It was amazing watching the changes over time, and really becoming 'one' with my property. All of this will give you insight when you ultimately decide what to build, and how to site it on your property. I started designing the buildings first- should have spent more time on the property to understand how my dwelling would interact with the land before the design process. I've thrown out many of my older designs now.

[MountainDon]

I concur with the idea of spending as much time as possible on the land before deciding on the final placement of the cabin. We changed the location twice from the time we started thinking and planning. Of course that presupposes that you have more than a suburban sized lot to work with. We has three acres to play with at the beginning, although much of it was impractical due to a steeply sloping grade. Impractical, not impossible.

Our cabin size grew during that same time. That too worked out best for us. We've talked several times since the build, expressing how pleased we were that we "grew" the extra amount.

[Cropping Up]

First off welcome!   
...
I am sort of unsure if you own land now and in the utilities are there...............  or you know you need that.
...
If you own the land or looking to buy, start with planing and zoning.  ...they will point you to state or local heath department requirements.  They can inform you of set back problems and requirements.
...
You state small house.  For most designers that is anything under 3000 sq ft.  For some on this forum a small house is around 1000.  What else do you require?  Shop, barn,  really thinking a small farm or ranch.

Hi, Rick (and everyone else).  First off, thanks for the welcome.  I wasn't sure how much to put in my first post so I figured less was probably more.  But I can see I didn't really cover much and you (and others) raised some good points so, here's a bit more.

The land is bought and paid for, with working electric and water on-site.  It's outside the city limits, zoned rural, and I am looking into/waiting to hear back on what building guidelines/regulations effect the parcel.  As you said, probably boundary and well/waterline setbacks, but I don't expect a lot else.  It's several acres with good drainage but isn't hillside (or at least not all hillside) and has a working septic (though that's currently hooked up to an older mobile home in disrepair that I'm not sure what to do with).  And I'm looking at a house size probably under 500 sf.  It's just me so I don't need anything too fancy, and there are a couple outbuildings on the property for extra storage that I can pack-rat in if I feel the need.  I'm hoping to do a substantial amount of the labor myself and leave contracting for the electrical, roofing, and maybe plumbing.  So that's a better picture of where I am and what's going on.

And thanks to everybody for replying.

P.S.  (for MushCreek and MtnDon)  I think that's a really good idea, which is one reason I'm living on-site, too.  I'm familiar with the property in all seasons now but am still really undecided about building location.  Each possibility has its pros and cons and I'm not even sure what size construction I'm looking at, which makes it harder to plan around.