A few starters:

- Select a lot that is easy to build on. Consider sunlight, soil condition, drainage, view, utility easements, roads. You'll find that anything can be done for a price, but if you plan ahead you can keep costs under control.

- Avoid over personalization (make sure it will appeal to other buyers). Start with a plan from a professional architect available on the internet or hire your own.

- Find the right builder. Reputation for quality and schedule, listens to you and works well with other trades.

- Take your time and do it right. Planning and saving seems like a prudent way to start.

Those are some important ones to start with.

It is realistically very difficult to design a custom house without having a specific property in mind. The property, particularly of the size you are considering, will have a very large impact on how a house is conceptualized, oriented, configured, organized and budgeted.

Designing a custom house without a specific property is really just a fun exercise which avoids reality. When one does find and purchase property, most if not all of the prior planning and studies will have to be thrown out and a new design exploration begun.

What may be useful in your situation (and for lurkers in similar situations) is to reach agreement on a list of "needs", a separate list of "wants", and a collection of exterior and interior photos of things appealing to you.

Visit open houses and houses for sale to get a sense of what things cost and sell for, remembering that designing and building a custom home is more expensive than buying an existing home.

My advice (which you and most lurkers will ignore, because it seems like so much fun) is to avoid spending any time trying to develop floor plans of "what you like". It will simply be a waste of time (I know, I know, but I'm sharing my experience), since designing a custom home is a continual and simultaneous exploration of the site, the necessary functions and the architectural envelope. In other words, when designing one must consider the site, functional relationships and interior spatial/exterior envelope simultaneously. This is simply beyond the knowledge and skill of many consumers, who, instead, focus almost unilaterally on arranging boxes next to one another calling them by names like Kitchen and Garage.

Architects do not need to be handed a floor plan from a consumer to "know what they are thinking", despite so many such comments on threads in this Forum. Spend your time working on your lists, collecting photos and visiting real homes to refine your thinking and budget!

Good luck on your future journey. Thinking about and planning for a custom home is a great adventure.

I would start by looking for the land. But once you've located a possibility engage an architect to evaluate the land based up you criteria. He might suggest additional considerations and possibly having an engineer evaluate the site. The more advice you get on the front end the better.

Budget: Seems to always increase. We started out thinking x, after meeting with the archtect we were at X +.25x, after bidding we are at x + .73x (but that does include contingency.

it is never too early to start making *tentative* design choices, but don't tie yourself to anything in particular. Often those choices evolve as the dipesign is finalized.

Don't burden the architect with existing floor plans, but do show him/her pictures of houses you like and be prepared with a list of needs/wants/ would be nice to have. Consider things that can wait for later -- like the pool but go ahead and have the architect include it in the site plan. Same thing with the basement -- we are going unfinished for now with plumbing stubbed, but we had the architect do the full basement design now.

*Assume nothing; everything should be in specs and contract; everything. I used to actually specify nail brand, because I wouldn't use that Chinese galvanized crap they sold at the big box stores. That's why I was more expensive. Maze nails.

*Understand and make sure both you and your architect/contractors have the SAME understanding and definitions of 'green' and 'energy effecient'. No two people I've ever met do.

*Know the reasons you want for being 'green'; it doesen't meant you're saving any money. If that's what you want, then you're talking cost-benefit analysis.

*Study the building science behind your climate. There's not a lot of point in spending a lot of time researching attic reflective barriers if you live in Northern Minnesota.

*Remember that this country is huge; where you live has much different implications for how you site your house, how you build it, how you heat and cool it. We don't worry about building on stilts here, but you might need to.

Congratulations on starting well ahead! We owned our rural property for 5 years before we ever broke ground. Since you want an energy-efficient house (Yay!), start educating yourself on different building techniques. Sites such as greenbuildingtalk.com and others are good places to start learning about modern building science advances. I would look for property soon if it fits within your budgetary plan. Prices generally keep on going up, and it can talk a long while to find that special piece of land that speaks to you. Once you buy something, you can then study it year-round. House siting and orientation should gradually become obvious to you and/or your architect. Proper siting and orientation have a huge impact on energy efficiency and quality of life.

Thanks all, this has bee helpful. One of the things I was struggling with was the chicken and egg situation of do we look for land to fit our house, or house to fit our land...This has really cleared that up.

I'm sure that it varies from region to region and bank to bank, but does it generally hold true that the lot/land must be paid off before construction begins? I understand the reason if that's the case, but I've never known if that was a rumor or old information.

My parents built their home in the mid-70s and before any bank would even consider their loan application, the first question was always, "Do you owe anything on the lot?" Of course that was years ago, and prices are not what they were then, didn't know if practices have held firm.

I'd say find a builder you feel you can trust. While you need everything written in the contract, etc, things happen on site, and you need to feel that the builder is an honest guy doing their best to build the home you want. It's nothing but stress and headache if you are second guessing your guy every step of the way.

actually i've been a lover of house plans since i was about 12, always had a file of them and i rarely looked at the outside of a plan, was mostly interested in room size, arrangement and flow so when we suddenly made a 180 and bought a lot, dh said now we need a plan and it took just a couple of minutes to decide which one to use

the plan we chose first came to my attention 17 years before the build began

so you can begin taking note of things you like in a plan, but the plan itself comes after the lot is purchased

Don't do it!!

rmverb:

Why?

The process sucks.

rmverb, can you elaborate what about the process has sucked?

I could say the same thing in that we're now on month 19 and still haven't started building, but much of that is our own desire to get it right on paper, and then the problems with the city permitting process.

In my opinion, building a home is a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment and when done right you can create something that inspires you, that you love, and that you can be proud of, all while making a small fortune...out of a large fortune.

What I hear you saying is that you want to move; want a larger house; may have a second child. I don't get the leap from there to *building*.

The things you've said you want are not uncommon in existing homes in many areas. I'd look for an existing home and only consider building if *nothing* suits. I'd look at existing RE -- and the first thing I'd consider is Location.

Building -- or extensive remodeling -- siphon huge amounts of money, but they also also tend to take over your life. Parents of young children seldom have extra money or energy to spend years creating a house -- postponing the actual *living* in it.

My DH and I built only after we'd spent two years looking for a 'forever' home. We couldn't find a well built, newer, small house with big rooms, all on one floor, in our desired *location*.

From buying the lot to moving in *consumed* two years. I would have been very unhappy to have taken so much time away from the family as a young mother. (A family built a new house beside ours. While they like their house, their kids most fondly remember 'camping out' in a tiny rental for 18 mos. while the new house was being built.)

I think chisue is right on the money.

In my opinion, building a home is a journey of self-discovery and
enlightenment and when done right you can create something that inspires
you, that you love, and that you can be proud of, all while making a
small fortune...out of a large fortune.

Our experience exactly!

Ideally, I would not undertake this within two years of having a new baby. It is a stressful process and may result in some degree of marital tension (ahem). My husband and I discovered that our approaches to decision-making are completely different. One of us wants to get it right, and the other wants to get it done. Both approaches have advantages and drawbacks, but nothing highlights this difference more than trying to build a house together. On top of that, we went through most of the process of buying a lot, choosing a design+build firm, designing a floor plan, and almost all of the construction while living out of state from where we were building! In the end (it's been 16 months since we started the process and we're about a week from completion), it has been both better and worse than we thought it would be. But if I had my way, I would STILL be tweaking that floor plan...

Our bank did require that the land be paid off before they would give us the construction loan.

Look for what you want already built, then ONLY if you can't find it, consider building. If you HAVE to build to get what you are looking for then find a builder first that is agreeable to the newer/green technologies that you are interested in and make sure they have experience and a good track record.

We would find green builders but they only wanted to build their plans, or we would find custom builders who refused to work with new technologies or plans from other green design firms.

I would not start working on plans til you have a builder. Many builders have their preferred architect and will refuse to work with anyone else.

Good luck if you decide to build.

Ignore rmverb

You have to understand that building is stressful and 10 fold for owner-built homes like mine. My appraiser told me that she had clients where the build ruined their marriages. Once they were done the divorces came and the homes were sold off. It's not for the faint of heart. But as long as you both are on the same page and willing to wade the turbulent waters together, it will all be fine.

Building my own home (and especially literally with my own 2 hands) was very rewarding and while it was extremely stressful, my husband and I both agree that we will do it again in the future.

It's exciting and fun if you're into that sort of thing. :) Good luck!

My appraiser told me that she had clients where the build ruined their
marriages. Once they were done the divorces came and the homes were
sold off. It's not for the faint of heart.

I'd agree with this; when I was a builder, we finished two 'owner-build' homes where the marriages went South quite quickly.

Building and remodeling can be a huge PITA. The only reasons I'm doing it are:

1. I can't find what I want in the market.

2. I am a sick, sick addict, needing intervention.

I'm kidding, a little, but not really. For me, building is like some kind of drug, so take my advice. Don't try it, not even once.

LOL Scone. Yes it is dangerous. Very dangerous.

Honestly both you and your spouse should "divide" the chores. This will save lots of headaches. For example, my spouse does all research on anything mechanical related or structurally related. He also researches town and city issues, and he did all the research etc on finding the loan, etc.

I do anything design related.

To me, it must be like the pain of having a baby - meaning, it sucks at the time but in the end the pain is worth it/you forget about it? I've built new twice, remember hating it both times.....and yet may do it again for a "3rd time's the charm/hope to die here in this house" approach.

If it ain't in writing, it never happened. It is SOOOoooo easy to talk on the phone and get instant gratification with an answer, but three weeks later when what you talked about does not happen, you will wish you had emailed and waited so it was in writing.

Yes every damn thing in writing.