Thanks for the award. That is very nice of you. I promote you all the time and I appreciate your guidance to owner-builders. Larry C., Lynden, WA

Peter's Forum Posts: 1
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Fall Planning

Posted to Pete--Rhiannon by Peter in Springfield, MO on 9/19/2008 11:16:02 PM

The past two weeks have been relatively slow… Rhiannon and I were both out of town for conferences. That on top of several other circumstances has made it a trying time. That said, I am determined to keep this train on the tracks.

Given that we are building on our own dime for the beginning, we are limited on what we can complete this fall. We’ll do what we can and use the cold winter months to plan. I realize there could be some monetary gain available by utilizing the contractor down time of the winter, but I just don’t know if our budget can handle multiple large projects at once, and I am not prepared to submit a builder loan application right now.

So, what have I accomplished?

·         The test holes for the soil testing have been completed and the septic design will be completed this upcoming week.

·         The house plan has been settled on and purchased. We stuck with our gut feeling and bought the ones we fell in love with in the beginning… upstairs laundry be damned. For those interested, it’s a Frank Betz design named Surrey.

·         The County has approved our zoning variance and we can, once the septic is designed, apply for the septic/well permit.

What do I plan on accomplishing this fall?

·         Develop a “master plan” for the property. I will be working with a civil engineering friend to do this. Mainly, locate the house, driveway and shop. This is something that I feel I can do myself but I really don’t want there to be any issues.

·         Build the metal shop building. I’ll be doing this myself, so it will be a month-long project.

·         Dig the well.

This doesn’t seem like a lot, but a whole bunch all at the same time. I’ll keep you posted.

The Floor Plan?

Posted to Pete--Rhiannon by Peter in Springfield, MO on 9/8/2008 10:29:06 AM

Here’s the floor plan we have all but settled on. From my previous post, you can see the second-floor laundry and the non-existent mudroom.

The total upstairs liveable square footage is 3,150, with a 1,500 square foot unfinished basement.

Photos

The designed front view. We plan on making a few cosmetic changes, mainly with the finishes.	The first floor. This particular plan is the only one we've found that has virtually everything we wanted in our formal common areas. It's so close to perfect, with the lack of a mudroom as the only issue.	The second floor. I like all the living space being on one floor. Rhiannon loves the entire master suite, including the covered porch.

Posted by Jeff in Provo, UT on 9/8/2008 Editor Jeff's Forum Posts: 145 Interview Answers: 206 Average Forum Rating: 3.85 Jeff's Selected Image 9/8/2008

We built a similar Frank Betz floorplan in 2001 - it is "The Cottonwood".  Here are a bunch of photos that Mark took at the time.   We loved it!

One Small Step for Man...

Posted to Pete--Rhiannon by Peter in Springfield, MO on 9/4/2008 4:00:42 PM

Well, we are progressing.

First, I have tackled a rather large red-tape hurdle… finalizing the property “location” and permitting authorities for the well & septic (now) and the building (spring ’09). I’m sure many of you have run into similar situations; I know that in metro areas these city limit/authority lines are a maze.

In our instance, the property was previously located in the county and then was annexed into the small town of Brookline Station, was then subdivided into five-acre parcels and then quickly annexed into the city of Republic. This has left us with a property that is located in the city limits of Republic, has a Brookline Station address and is closer to Springfield proper than any of them.

Obviously, being in the city limits of Republic makes them our permitting authority… to an extent. The vast majority of Republic is serviced by a municipal water and sewer system. As a result, they don’t have the authority from the DNR to issue the septic or well permits, which must be obtained through the county. As part of this, I did have to submit a request for release for the property, which is approved by zoning and submitted to the county, at the bargain basement price of $65. Keep in mind this isn’t a permit, but basically a permit to buy a permit from the county. Nice.

After two weeks that has been approved, so now, when we’re ready for it, we can actually pull a permit from the county for the work.

At the same time I also contracted to have the remaining soil testing completed and the septic system designed.

On the planning and design front, we have run into an interesting situation. From our list of wants and needs, we have found a plan matching almost exactly what we want. It is a generic set of drawings from one of the online home plan design sites. The only issue I have with it is it doesn’t have a mud room, something we have on our list of wants.

There is room in the garage for a bench, boot cubbies and the like, but the garage will not be heated. As for changing the stock plans, it will take CONSIDERABLE changes to accommodate the space. Any thoughts?

Another issue, that may or may not be an issue, is Rhiannon’s sudden desire for an upstairs laundry. Her argument is that that is where the majority of the laundry is made, why not have it there? It happened to be on the set of plans we liked, so now it’s a must have for her.

I have no fundamental issues with it, but I can foresee some hassle with it.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Vibration/noise?

Complexity/cost of plumbing for floor drain?

I guess if you can have one on the first floor of a basement home it can work on the second as well, I just don’t know… it’s very untraditional.  

I’m giving us another two weeks to ponder the final remaining design elements of the house, and then I plan on purchasing a set of plans. From these we’ll start making decisions on how to implement the systems, finishes and specialty items (heated floors in the master bath, etc) that we have listed on our desires list as well as a preliminary budget.

Once we pick a floor plan I’ll be sure to post it. I’ve also taken a few pictures of the lot we plan on uploading in the near future.

The Beginning

Posted to Pete--Rhiannon by Peter in Springfield, MO on 8/27/2008

Well, we have just started the journey towards our new owner-builder home. I have been informally preparing for this build for the better part of five years, but just didn’t know it. After living in our lovely 1,500 sf Ranch for 3½ years, Rhiannon and I have run out of room to grow. Add in our newest addition, Kylie June, and we are virtually packed into this joint.

So, we decided to make some strides towards building our own home. I would classify it as a hybrid of a custom/dream home, because we plan on living in this house for the long term. Our first step has been to find a suitable lot, close to the area we want to be.

Our criteria…

·         Five acres plus

·         Less than $50,000

·         Good school district (we had settled on a few we liked)

·         No more than 10 minutes to civilization

With that relatively restrictive list of criteria, we set about finding a good lot. After several months of looking at acreage, we found a beautiful lot located about five miles from our current subdivision. It was priced in our range, the location was great, and the school district is highly desired. The only issue we had with the property was that it had a sinkhole located on it.

For those unfamiliar with southwest Missouri, we are located in a Karst topography landscape. Much of the area has sinkhole locations that have settled over the passing of time. These slight depressions can be inactive for hundreds or thousands of years… or they can collapse at any given time.

We really loved the area, and decided to enter a purchase offer contingent on a review of a soil scientist and our ability to build and use the land as we had wished. After the scientist's review we were happy with the findings. We then consulted the county about setbacks and building regulations and found that the sinkhole wouldn’t affect our building plans.

So, we purchased the property. Now that we have our lot, we are using our laundry list of features and wishes to develop a home design. We are looking a two avenues for our home…

1.       Prepackaged home plans available through home design firms

2.       Existing home designs available rather inexpensively through local architects.

We’ve been looking for about two months and plan on making a decision in the next two or three weeks.

Posted by RogerC in Phoenix, AZ on 8/27/2008 RogerC's Forum Posts: 53 Interview Answers: 3 Average Forum Rating: 3.38 Randomly Selected Image 8/27/2008

Congratulations... you're on your way! Springfield is a beautiful area. I'd like to see a photo of your lot. Good luck!