Starting Home Build - Introductions

12 years ago

Hello everyone,

I have been working on this home build since about June of this year. We are building on farmland - and the process to do a "minor subdivision" took months. This was just to split 1 residential piece of land out of 40 acres. Our land will be 4 acres...and slopes gradually down from front to back - therefore we will have a walk out basement! We will be building about 300 feet from the road.

The home is a 1.5 story ranch. 2360 square foot split bedroom design, with an open kitchen and living room. The living room will have a cathedral ceiling with a stone fireplace going up to the peak (at least for now). The first floor will have 3 bedrooms on the first floor. The master closet has a second door that loops you into the laundry room. The laundry room has a door off of the mudroom.

The kitchen has a 10 foot island. At this point, I am looking at GE Profile appliances (we have a friends and family GE discount). I originally wanted to get a DCS gas stove just like on America's test kitchen - but really I think induction is where it is at. We will have a single wall oven (the PT9050), and an Advantium. It seems that people really like their advantiums - so that is how I decided on GE. I had Bosch and Electrolux on my list - but their speedcooks seem to not be as well liked as the Advantium.

The home will have a 12 by 14 screened in porch, a 19 by 12 deck.

The upstairs is 750 square foot including a flex space, office, and a 4th bedroom and full bath. We have an optional bonus room which at this point is a 500 foot storage room over the 3 car garage.

The walk out basement is 2360 square foot - and the plan is to leave it unfinished for now.

I am planning on installing geothermal - in order to keep our utility costs down. While the house looks small on the front...it really does have a lot of space to heat and cool.

I would post floor plans - but my plans from my builder say that I cannot duplicate them - so I have not posted them. I will repost the elevation drawings here.

Anyways - I just wanted to say Hello...during this process I will likely have questions so I throught I would introduce myself and my home project.

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Comments (3)

Brian_Knight
12 years ago
Hello and welcome Bobby! I think youre on the right track and it takes a wise but tough person to present their homebuilding ideas to the internet community. As you know, GW is an exceptional resource.

I generally avoid stylistic subjects but would like to focus in on the utility/energy costs of your project since this seems to be important to you as it should be. It would be helpful to know your location and directional orientation. Floorplans and other elevations will probably be needed for better evaluation by all.

Your roof seems overwhelming and out of proportion. Its got a lot of gables and looks expensive to heat, cool and build. Since you have a big space, a ground source heat pump GSHP (geothermal) might very well make sense. Just be aware that if you are building to the current 2012 International energy codes, the payback for the upgrade from an air source heat pump could easily be longer than the expected life of the mechanical equipment.

I strongly urge you to get educated on blower door testing, insulative sheathing and window performance as these building envelope upgrades are likely to have better financial returns, comfort and durability. These measures will also last the lifetime of the home (75-200 years) unlike upgrading the mechanical system which is measured in the 15-30 year range. If you tie these building envelope strategies into a ventilation system that provides outdoor air like that called for in ASHRAE 62.2, you will have the best possible impact on Indoor Air Quality.
crhbobby1
Original Author
12 years ago
Brian,

Yes - the roof is big - it is one of my concerns as well.

Here is how I got to where I am at... I really wanted to build a 2800-2900 square foot ranch home with walkout basement. The cost was quite expensive. I toured a 1.5 story model home by a builder I didn't quite like. It seemed to make sense...rooms that don't necessarily need to be on the first floor like an office, and a guest bedroom can go upstairs at a price much cheaper than having it on the main floor. This also allows us to have the additional 500 sqft bonus room (or attic space).

The draftsperson originally had the upstairs portion jut out of the roof. This looked to the builder...and to me...and so they changed the pitch of the roof from 8/12 to 12/12. This definitely added some height to the roof. I have been looking around - and it appears there are a lot of 12/12 roofs around here. Is the concern that the massive roof is going to act like a big heat catcher and heat the house up?

The home will face east. The back of the house will catch afternoon sun. There are only 5 windows on the back of the house, and 3 of those are in the living room. We live in Indiana.

I decided to go with geothermal because we do not have natural gas available. The increase in cost to do geothermal from airsource was only $10k. After tax incentives, it really doesn't add too much more.

I have asked the builder about the energy code before. He said they build to the 2009 energy code, and they won't have to build to the 2012 for a couple years. I have talked to several home builders in the area, and they all seem to build to the 2009 code. I called our county building inspector's office to get their opinion - and they really didn't seem to know much about the 2012 code.

It has surprised me how much I hear about the 2012 code, but here - it seems to be something that no one really wants to talk about. I did some research on what this would change on my home build - but I wasn't exactly sure what the major differences were.

You mentioned getting good windows. I know my builder uses Quaker. I know I have read on gardenweb that these are not the best windows - but I couldn't find anything to suggest what is bad about them. I did notice that consumer reports rated Simonton quite high. I told the builder that I was researching windows - but I wasn't to the point in which I was going to specify something different. My budget range on my house is 377 to 392K at this point for the home construction. I am not sure that I am in the price point of Marvin windows.
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dekeoboe
12 years ago
I toured a 1.5 story model home by a builder I didn't quite like. It seemed to make sense...rooms that don't necessarily need to be on the first floor like an office, and a guest bedroom can go upstairs at a price much cheaper than having it on the main floor.

Wouldn't it be even less expensive to put them in the walk-out basement that you are building? Then you wouldn't have to build the second floor.