I spent hours and hours on the website and I know it saved me many thousands of dollars and just as many headaches. I'm extremely proud of my house and have already been asked to put it in a home show. I estimate that I have amassed at least $175,000 equity for my efforts. Kris D. in Chillicothe MO

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Just Getting Started

Posted to PensacolaBeachHouse by Jerry in Gulf Breeze, FL on 6/22/2009

• Just closed on lot on Pensacola Beach, Tuesday, June 9th!!! (See lot pictures posted)

• Originally bought as longer-term investment to retire on after kids were grown and we sold our primary home. Now, wife and kids have decided they want to live there and the best way to do it sooner is to owner-build and look at selling primary home early.

• When contractor built our current home 13 years ago, we were moving into the area without a place to live, scraping by to build on the lot we had and my wife was 6 months pregnant, so we didn't plan much and made a lot of quick decisions based on cost that we ended up regretting and not completely getting the quality of house we wanted.

• So, we are not in any major hurry. We want to take out time and plan everything down to the smallest detail and create a fine tuned estimate. Was VERY happy to get this book this weekend that stresses the planning process and has so many good ideas to do the planning part of this right.

• Originally thought it would take 4-5 months of planning and a year to build. After reading most of the book, I'm leaning toward closer to 6-9 months of planning and 6-9 months of building. (We'll see!)

• I am an electrical engineer by education/experience and have managed many large work projects as well as the building of a concrete block pool on pilings in wetlands behind my current home (a whole story of its own!). I know this is going to be an entirely different type of project, but think I can utilize many of my professional and interpersonal skills to do a good job and save a lot of money while building a much better quality home that we couldn't afford if someone else did it and have more equity in it when we're done.

• Have picked preliminary plans from designer and are meeting with him for the first time on this project this week. He designed our first house and a couple remodels so we have a relationship with him and have faith in his technical abilities and his ability to help us through this process at a reasonable cost.

• Have started a "dream" list of modifications and features to the plans and ranked all of them by priority AND costs so as we refine our estimate we can make intelligent decisions about what is in and what is out.

• Also have done a back-of-the-envelope estimate utilizing the spreadsheet on the download page of the website. Will begin to refine once I get a LOT more research done, develop specifications, and start to get bids.

• Really in the research stage at this point. Permitting, covenants/restrictions, financing, foundation/framing types, material options, etc...

• House plans are for a 2,600 sq. ft., two-story home on pilings. Plan on building as high as allowed (15 ft. first-floor elevation, 45 ft. roof height) to minimize as much storm damage as possible WHEN next hurricane comes. Looking into ICF and other concrete-construction methods -- again, to minimize storm damage. Lots of other ideas, but those are the basics. Will post again as more research is done and get better idea of details.

Photos

Vacant lot

Mary's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 23 Interview Answers: 15 Average Forum Rating: 4.13 Image from Mary's blog 6/23/2009	Welcome Jerry! Sounds like an interesting project and that you've got a good handle on it already. My husband and I are also in planning stages for our home, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of your posts.
Editor Mark's Forum Posts: 145 Interview Answers: 246 Average Forum Rating: 4.22 Mark's Selected Image 4/6/2010	Jerry: Why is it that if your house is taller, you risk less storm damage? Mark