Ben in Galloway Township, NJ 17 entries to date 8 forum posts to date
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 9/10/2007 9:40:36 PM
Okay, so what IS up with the prices of ICF blocks?
I have found exactly two manufacturers that post their prices online. So, maybe their prices are through the roof. Are they? BuildBlock posts $3.05 per sq. ft. or $18.31 per block and Fox Block posts $2.70 per sq.ft. or $14.40. How is one to compare contracting prices for a crew if it seems to take an act of Congress to get material prices. I got a quote from Amvic at $3.47 per sq. ft. Anybody have any other prices I can compare?
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 6/21/2007
We are getting somewhere now. The architect is finishing up the elevation drawings and I am creating the 3D versions so that Lourdes can get an idea of what we are looking at. The pictures here show a rear elevation that is facing South as well as a 3D image.
The third image shows you how I am trying to communicate with our architect. When he sends me PDFs I can easily paste in my own version of the elevations for example with changes that I am suggesting.
Photos
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 6/12/2007
I cannot believe it has been this long since my last post. We have been working with our architect designing our home. We went back and forth on the size of the house. We are now at 4,500 sq ft not counting the basement. Below I have drawings (subject to subtle changes, I might add) for the 1st and 2nd floor as well as the front elevation. It really starts to look like what I had in mind!
What is interesting is that our architect seems to be using 2-D architectural software. So, things take time to work out. Lourdes (my significant other 75%) cannot really think in 2-D. So, I have put most of the drawings in AS4000 to give her a feel for the look of the house in 3-D. AS4000 then automatically draws the elevations while we are waiting for our architect to finish his elevations for us. Moving over to 3-D CAD would save them a ton of time, I am sure. Too bad that AS4000 does not give me drawings that could be used as final blueprints.
We are negotiating/discussing what brand of ICFs to use. I am leaning toward BuildBlock if only because of the fact that they give you the pricing right on their website (buildblock.com).
It is funny to get into discussions with our architect. We are building an ICF house and I am trying to use some common sense in terms of passive solar and so on. Passive solar folks suggest to only have 2% of your surface area as window area on the North side. That was giving the poor man some major heartburn, because our main entrance is facing North. Our ICF walls will be at least 9 or 11 inches thick. So, I asked him about the R-value for windows (about R-9 if you are lucky).
I remember that in Austria, homes used to have double windows (similar to storm windows here in the states, but with a nice air space between the two windows). What if I put in double windows to get an R of 18 even for the windows? I could use the cranked casement windows for the outside (so that screens etc. can stay in when opening the windows) and casement windows that open to the inside on the inside of the wall. Depending on the extra expenditure I might go for it! What is the use of ICFs with an R-value of 18 if you have windows everywhere at an R of 9?
Files1ST FLOOR PLAN.pdf2ND FLOOR PLAN.pdfELEVATIONS.pdf
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 9/17/2006
Okay, for those who have followed our saga so far... We closed on September 14 and are now the proud owners of five acres of wooded lot. A bunch of trees really. So, we are one step closer to realizing our dream to build our own house. I will attach a picture of the google'd location of the property. Just in case you are curious to find out where these crazy people are thinking of putting down that ICF house. We have started our own design using a product from Punch! software AS4000:
punchsoftware.com/products/as4000
Not that I am plugging that software or anything. It definitely has some shortcomings, but is relatively easy to use and that for a reasonable price.
We started out with a design that I liked, but that was quite a bit too big for us. It was about 4,200 sq ft not counting the full basement or the two 3-car garages. I like the Mediterranean style and started changing things around a bit. We are now down to about 3,600 sq ft, but a more compact.design. I'll try to find the link to the original design and show you the design that I came up with.
Now I want to try to construct the house fully in ICF and InsulDeck. That is a bit different from what I have seen others do. The interior walls I would like to construct in conclaved aerated concrete block. That stuff has been used in Europe for 50+ years, but just started to show up in the States in recent years. It is very lightweight, glued together with quick set-like mortar. You then use a router to cut grooves for your electrical wiring. ACB comes in different sizes and widths. So, you can make some serious progress if you take large blocks. You can finish ACBs directly on the block either with a finish for wallpaper or painting or a textured finish.
Photos
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 9/4/2006
Well, we are still working the purchase of the five acre lot I mentioned in my last post. Pretty wild roller coaster ride I must say. If all goes well, we will close by the end of next week. We are planning to take our time to prepare for the construction. Probably April next year.
My dream is to build a house fully constructed from ICFs including roof and floors. In our area (South New Jersey) I have seen only a few ICF buildings go up. One of them used the AMVIC building system. If anyone has experience with residential applications of ICF walls, floors, and roofs, drop me a note.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 6/17/2006
For those who have been following our endeavors, a quick update. As you may recall, we were trying to purchase a 20-acre lot that
contained some wetlands, but still had enough space for us to build the
house we had in mind. We had the usual disappointing experience
with getting in touch with surveyors, attorneys, etc. Beyond
that, however, the current owner thought it better for us to drop a
clause in our sales contract that would protect us in case the
pinelands commission decided that we could not build because of the
wetlands.
Very cute move on their part, but not exactly what we
had in mind. The attorney that I asked for advice thought
that the seller's attorney did a great job at protecting his client,
but that it left us completely unprotected. In fact, when all was
said and done, surveys were done and paid for, and the paperwork was
completed, the sales contract stated that the seller could change his
mind and withdraw and pay me a small amount ($3K) for my trouble.
Thanks, but no thanks!
In the meantime, the seller of one of the lots (5 acres) that has
approvals had a change of heart and was willing to lower his price to
something that was within the range that we had in mind. Someone
must be telling us something about that 20-acre lot. Call it
divine intervention or something... We are now in the process of
closing the deal on the 4-acre lot, speeding up the planning phase,
getting funding in place for the lot purchase, etc.. etc. Very
exciting times indeed!
If anyone has a referral for surveyors, attorneys, and contractors in
the south New Jersey area, drop me a note! I am especially
interested in solar panels, heat pumps (DX), ICFs, and radiant floor
heating.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 5/16/2006 11:45:28 AM
How cool is this! Somewhere on the Atlantic County, NJ website I found a place called site investigator. Gives you all kinds of fun facts about the land you may consider buying. I will attach a snapshot. As expected a good part of the property is designated as wetlands, but there should be plenty to build on!
Photos
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 5/13/2006 5:12:26 AM
We have set aside (a lot loan of) $150k for the lot. The prices here have gone through the roof as I may have mentioned in an earlier post. At this point we are negotiating about the purchase of 20 acre lot (75% of which consists of maximum buffer and about 5% consists of actual wetlands).
I picked up Jeremiah Hansen's budget spreadsheet and am trying to start filling in the budget items. So far I have received some decent feedback from several of the folks on this website about costs. Still have to do quite a few calculations though. How much square footage am I going to have for the ICFs that I will use for the exterior walls and the basement. Should I use ICFs for the interior walls as well or use regular framing? Anyway, still plenty of planning to do.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 5/13/2006 4:28:57 AM
While waiting for feedback from the realtor / listing-agent / lawyer / seller chain I read some more. This project is somewhat of a dream of mine. Applying existing technology to a house that I will build myself. Terms like "off-grid" and "zero-energy" and more come to mind. I recently read somewhere that fixed roof-mounted solar panels require twice as much surface than panels placed on a solar tracker. So, what to do? I could probably find a place where I can place panels on solar trackers, but one of the issues folks always warn about is the distance from the solar pickup to the location of the equipment that will use the juice these solar puppies collect.
I am sure that my wife, Lourdes, will be more than happy not to see solar panels replacing part of the mediteranean style roof. That may in fact be all the incentive I need to look into solar tracking systems. It may not be a bad idea to create a detached energy shed of sorts that houses a backup generator, batteries, and the like and connect that to the main house using an AC electric cable.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 5/12/2006 12:39:16 AM
While waiting for the sellers and their lawyer to go over our proposed contract and make changes, I am trying to prepare for the next steps, i.e. after we have a signed contract.
It sounded like getting a good surveyor would be a good plan. On one of the examples of a survey that my realtor gave me I found the address, phone number, etc. of a local surveyor. I pass his office on the way home from work every day. So, I stopped by and walked into the office. 'must have interrupted something and got a response that reeked of disinterest ("...call tomorrow and make an appointment"). Not giving up and slowly getting used to the grumpiness of people I called the next day to setup an appointment. I left my name and all the phone number he could reach me, but did not hear back from him. Now, if that is an indication of how rapidly he will respond to requests that I actually may need to pay for I am not in good shape. Better look around some more for a good surveyor. If anyone in Southern New Jersey knows of one, let me know.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 5/11/2006 3:52:58 AM
As Cara has indicated elsewhere on this site, progress is slow. Hurry up and wait. We have made a good faith deposit so that we can purchase the land, but with the caveat that we can get our pinelands/wetlands approvals, building permits, and lot loan squared away. The current lot owner is in no hurry and his lawyer is slower than molasses on a cold day. My realtor told me last week that we would receive a revised contract, because an addendum was made. Yesterday it turned out that we are now waiting for an revision to the addendum.
At this point my hands are tied, because I do not want to shell out money for surveys and the like before we have some certainty about the seller's willingness to sell us the lot. To see that in black and white would be a nice first step.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 4/26/2006 3:29:28 PM
Okay, so we found a lot and made an offer pending pinelands and local approval of our plans. If anyone has experience in dealing with local wetlands restrictions, etc. please contact me. I can use all the help I can get.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 4/11/2006 8:10:05 PM
okay, I think we have it down to two lots that we are interested in. Pricey though. The lot prices are going through the roof in south new jersey. ...and I still have to put a house on it as well!
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 2/26/2006 5:57:38 AM
We have choosen a design from http://www.designbasics.com that is fits what we wanted. A little on the largish side of things, but still very much in accord with what we were looking for:
The Waterford: http://www.designbasics.com/plan/plan.asp?PlanNo=29134&PlansID=2035
I had done some research on different constructi methods and to me ICFs sounds like the way to go.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 2/26/2006 5:53:18 AM
We have to have a DX Geothermal system for our new house. This article (http://www.techomebuilder.com/article/4466.html) convinced me even more.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 2/23/2006 4:59:33 AM
As you can see by the date of this entry I am really catching up with
things that we have done so far. We met with a loan officer from
Weichert in Northfield, New Jersey. We explained our plans as
owner-builders, the fact that we currently own a house, etc.,
etc. He was quite helpful and we sent him the paperwork he asked
for. No response for a while though.
We also got in touch with IndyMac. Bob Biguette (sorry Bob if I
butchered your last name) has been reminding me to send him the
paperwork he needs to see if we qualify for a lot loan. So,
Lourdes (my wife) sent out a bunch of stuff. My other signifcant
75% is much better than I am at keeping on top of things! She
spoke with Bob about the things that were still missing and gave him
that information. So, we are waiting to hear back from him.
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Posted to TheWillemsHome by Ben in Galloway Township, NJ
on 2/23/2006 4:54:32 AM
Some time ago we decided we should. Of course, in the meantime
the prices for buildable lots have gone through the roof in South/Shore
New Jersey! We are looking at four locations, 1, 1, 3, and 5
acres respectively. We like the 5-acre lot, because we can nicely
set back the house we are thinking of building. Asking price for
the lot is too high, though. Can you believe the asking price is
$225k? The seller mentions that all offers are welcome. So,
I assume s/he is just fishing with such a high asking price, but my
internal calculator is working overtime: If I offer $150k and the
construction is going to cost $200k, will I be building a $500k house?
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