So, if I understand correctly, after the construction documents were finished, you have been unable to find a builder to bid and begin construction. No construction has been started, no construction contract signed and no money has been exchanged...is that correct?

I Googled "certified passive house Texas" and got a long list of responses. Have you tried this? Would that help with contacts and a possible strategy for you?

To Charles Ross Homes: Thank you! :)

We started looking for builders once we got a 'builders set' I believe, not the final set, and it was with the builder set that we could not get more than one builder to be interested.

Yes, the architect knew our budget which was 60% of what we increased to. We were in sink the whole way. She gave me 3 options, one at my original (60% of final) budget, one at about 80% increased and the one ultimately up to my final (100% of what we ended with). I 'chose' the 100% once. I could have afforded the 100% one, but when the builder said he thought he could do it but would have to make a few changes, I still thought we could get reasonably close to the architects final work at my final budget.

Now that I tell it like that, it almost nails in the fact that the builder is the one who said he could do it, or rather perhaps I did not fine tune what he said he could do, but in my memory I felt he said he could do it. So it is almost him that I could be mad at. I don't know.

Thank you Charles Ross Homes

To Angel 18432: As far as redesign, my architect reminded me that she will have to charge me for any redesign. I got to a point where I had no one on my side and I didn't have anyone to give me advice on what to do.

I was fighting with my husband about what to do, family did not understand why I would even go this Passive House route, and nor did friends.

I had no one but the architect on my side to give advice about what to do. I finally caved in and gave the whole project (of our one time dream house) over to my husband.

He is now self contracting us a barn-do-minium. Yes we own the land outright . This barndo will have normal (current level) efficient green features but nothing out of the ordinary. I've fought him for the last 2 years to get as far as we did with the Passive House, I just don't want to fight anymore.

Uggghhh! :)

Thank you Angel18432

Has your husband "self-contracted" before? It sounds like a recipe for disaster and will take much longer than you expect. Better to scale back your plans and find a builder who can handle them. Self-contracting is a bad idea on a project of this scale. And do you want a barndominium? If it's your dream house, both of you should decide. Don't give up!

Right. These folks generally know one another! And, maybe there is someone local who would like to take on your project but isn't comfortable with how to charge for it. That is a huge risk for builders-that they will underestimate the job and honestly have to close up shop. Perhaps one of the builders who is not close enough would be willing to work with someone who is to help them put together a budget and understand the finer details of the project here is one link I found with a quick search

https://www.buildnative.com/building-a-green-home-specialty-builders-vs-national-builders/

To greenfish1234: Interesting! Trust me, I don't think I could have done more investigating ways to afford this house. I even applied for a grant through the Department of Energy (the kind that does not fit into any other bigger category-I forgot what it's called) but ultimately was turned down.

I tried to use the fact that we would be the first Passive House in our area (on the Gulf Coast) and could serve as an example to others to try such energy efficient measures. I emailed several times our current DOE Secretary Rick Perry (a fellow Texan) and never heard back.

I wrote many many many letters asking for help in any way I could think of . . . . . . to no avail. I was up on all the possible incentives and rebates, etc. (which by the way for our state, most had stopped at 12/31/17 that I was aware of . . . . )

I finally stopped and said, since it is not coming easy, maybe it was just not meant to be. I just gave up.

Thank you greenfish1234!

ILoveRed: I'm sorry, perhaps "could not even read them" was not the best way to say that they were over their heads is more how they put it. They would say we just don't do plans like this.

Thank you!

To Virgil Carter Fina Art: (dang I gotta get back to work and I can't figure out on Houzz how to reply to each comment; what am I missing?)

Yes, you are right. There is so much out there about Passive Houses and the new design type, but when it all came down to it, no one wanted to actually do it. I called almost all of the closer builders who advertised green building and they either did not reply or replied "we just don't do that type of building".

Thank you VCFA! :)

To Carolina Kitchen and Bath: You are the 2nd person (the architect was the first) to thank me for at least trying. I thought I was doing a good thing too, but . . . . . . . now I feel guilty that I'm giving in to a barndominium with no special 'green' features.

I'm not kidding, I signed the contract with my architect on 5/6/16 and have been working on this project ever since. It is exhausting and I just couldn't keep it up; especially since my husband would argue with me constantly about how wrong it was for me to do this blah blah blah.

Thank you Carolina!

To greenfish: Yes I would love that link you sent me, but they are about 3 hours away from me AND they are TOP NOTCH, I am more middle notch. :) as far as money pockets are concerned.

But thank you!

To Carolina:

My dad has build many things and is 'supervising' my husband. We can now afford this without a lender AND my family (cousin and nephew) have built barndominiums that each have self contracted with family help.

You may be right, but we are going to give it a try despite the warnings because we have heard horror stories as well.

Thank you !

I am so sorry for your experience. It's HARD to push the envelope. And people want to do what they know. With "full employment" - builders are sticking to what they know and building things that they know they can make profit on.

It's even harder now to find someone that will take the time to LEARN and grow - when they can work 24/7 on cookie cutter boxes. :-(

And I am also sorry that your architect didn't have a builder that could asses these things as they went.

And mostly - I am sorry that you really didn't have the support you needed for this. it's not for the faint of heart, but trying to do it AND having fight to do it with your partner isn't a good recipe.

Yes jannicone. You are so right about all the builders and I really do understand. They too have to make a living and stay within budgets' etc. etc.

You are so right! :)

I've been in different parts of the construction industry for 25 years and my husband still tries to tell me how we should do something and occasionally pouts if I don't take his advice. Tell me, does the barndominium go backward? Is it less green than a regular home?

Husbands: you can't live with them and you can't live without them right? (tee hee)

Well, about the barndo's, they are SO popular where I'm at and for that matter even where I"m not, that I think we could make it as green as we wanted.

There are so many vendors around offering metal buildings. And so with my husband, I plan on at least trying to persuade him on as much as possible when we build out the inside to try and do as much as we can that is efficient.

:)

I feel your problem begins with trying to change an existing builder into a passive home builder. They aren't experienced and likely aren't interested or can afford the retooling. So expecting ordinary builders to respond wasn't reasonable. And when no experienced builder was close enough to undertake your project you have to choose another path. That path is to commit to a major amount of self-education and supervise each part of the process from a position of knowledge and understanding. You need to be able to do each succeeding task yourself if necessary. Them you can choose others to do things and correct and supervise them as required. Everything is different not complicated. If you aren't willing to put in the time and effort, if your partner isn't there to help, you'll need quite a bit of fortitude to get to a successful conclusion. . . . Just from the mention you made of trying to contact Rick Perry for help with a passive house project. That's a wildly unrealistic possibility. I don't think you're on the path to get a passive house yet.

I agree with everything you said. I was a small fish trying to swim with the big fish and I was not prepared. I agree.

Well don't give up faith. There are plenty of things that you CAN do to make a difference!! I regret not looking into gray water solutions for flushing toilets for instance! Why not use water from your kitchen sink and tub's to flush down the toilet. It just infuriates me that we flush gallons of drinking water down the toilet every day. You can go solar. You can make sure that the windows on your house are not letting in so much light at the hardest times of day that you are using 10 times more electricity cooling house than you need. you can make sure that the windows on your house are not letting in so much light at the hottest times of day that you are using 10 times more electricity cooling house than you need. You can plant a native lawn tht doesn't need a ton of watering and mowing. Let your husband do his thing, but keep up the good fight you won't be sorry :). Who knows maybe you can get a little money back from your architect if she can use the plan for someone else, but start a new thread on ideas to "green up" a Barndo

This is an interesting read. I'm sorry that you didn't get to build your dream home the way you would like to. Keep us abreast of how the project progresses and the final results.

Thank you both greenfish and pugga! I am smiling. I like so much support from y'all. Yes, I will try and influence my hubby as well as do my own efficiency 'green' efforts.

I commend you on your effort and desire. Don't give up. Maybe you will need to scale back a bit but any improvement in efficiency is better than no improvement. What you are encountering is not abnormal, the construction industry has always been slow and many times highly resistive to change. There are many reasons for this, some valid and some not so valid. Unfortunately many have had or read about poor experiences with new materials, systems and techniques and as such they are only willing to stick with what they know, most builders are not risk takers.

Having been directly involved in building material and systems research and development I can appreciate many of the issues and concerns. The two most critical related to how extensive has the material/system been tested to ensure long term performance and how to ensure that the material/system is properly utilized and installed. Getting this right is very costly and time consuming and it can takes years or decades to gain the industry trust needed for wide spread adoption.

Thank you Kitchen Abode. I am just LOVING these comments from all of you professionals. You all make me want to give myself a break. I worried at first that somebody might pipe up and say, as my dad has, there is only one person to blame as he points at me (but he was fairly nice about it if that makes sense :( :) )

Yes it took almost 2 years for me and my architect to get as far as we did to involve a builder, but I kept giving her all the benefit of the doubt because she did this for me outside her full-time job and only had nights and weekends to work on it, though she did charge me with no discount on the 'delay' if that is what you want to call it.

Then when we made contact with the builder, I gave him every benefit of the doubt due to Hurricane Harvey having hit the larger local area and definitely in his vicinity to help and as most people know that was the worst Hurricane for our area in a VERY long time.

I really did not want to feel that my project was any more important than anyone elses' especially if Hurricane Harvey house owners were without a house.

:) :) (I'm making smiley faces btw but they are not coming out on the Houzz site. :( (that was a frown btw). It's habit . . . .

I had a client about 3 years ago in a similar situation. His new custom home build was designed around a new steel framing system and the incorporation of a number of energy efficiency systems. He also was unable to find a builder that would undertake the project. To carry out the build he took on the role as the General Contractor and sourced and managed the necessary trades and material suppliers. Took two years to complete the build and it consumed every bit of his time 24/7 to deal with all of the many details and difficulties. But at the end of it all he had the home of his dream. Not only that, but as a result of the experience and knowledge he gained he has now joined forces with the Architect and other Trades to assist and oversee similar builds for others. He built his custom home and developed a new career at the same time.

That is AWESOME!!! I love that story. Oh how I wish mine would have turned out fractionally as good.

When my DH and I did a large addition and remodel several years ago, I was really interested in trying to incorporate some green aspects. I looked into everything from a green roof to natural (no chemical) carpeting to sourced in the US materials and work equipment and trucks. (None of these worked for me, with the exception of many US-made items.) At one point I complained to my mom about the difficulty and expense of trying to be greener. In response she bought me a clothesline and clothes pins and basically reminded me of how we were 'green' growing up.

I still draw by hand, I wonder if that counts?

Mark Bischak, I am laughing . . . . . yes, that counts.

And chicagoans: totally sounds like my mom. It's not related but similar, my mom shakes her cell phone when she doesn't get a good connection.

Yes, we were all very green growing up.

I love it.

Paper is from renewable resources and it's recyclable, inks are now water based and pencils are lead free. Does not require you to be plugged into the grid or burn hydrocarbons to power the drawing process. I think that's as green as you can get.

It's good that you're laughing! Keep it up.

Yes Yes! Thank you!

Thanks for writing your story - it may help someone down the road.

I just wanted to say that my spouse’s bestie and his wife built a barndominium from scratch. Well, THEY didn’t. We have a large population of Amish/Mennonites and they built it. “Noah” and his crew. :)

Another friend and his wife did the Family-Built barndominium like you say you are trying. Various skilled craftsmen within the family all helped.

Both projects turned out great. Barndoes are common here.

Just remembering what one of the guys I talked to said. He was a bit of a jerk, but his point was well taken. Again, it was about meeting certain building standards that are incentivized by the state and include things like extra wall thickness, better insulation, etc. When I told him we we're doing geothermal heating and cooling, he said "why on earth would you do that?" his point was that if I had followed these building guidelines my energy consumption would be so low that the geothermal system ( which is expensive) would not get me much if any savings. He was saying that a well-built house beats alternative energy sources as a way to reduce energy consumption, dollar for dollar. Kind of to the point above, "we were green growing up!" An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, right? Put all of that over-budget money in to a few important expenses like windows, insulation, landscaping (nobody likes trees anymore which is probably why we can't live without air conditioning yet somehow humans have gotten through millennia without it) and you may be better off than where you thought you would be :)

BTW, I alsolutely love our geothermal system but it really does have its work cut out for it heating and cooling my very leaky house :/

greenfish, all well said. I am banking on the fact that my husband will 'not cut corners' and will build this barndo while paying attention to detail and am hoping that what you say above will be the case: " A well built house will get us far. . . . "

I was all hell bent on having a "Solar Chimney" because the picture of it totally blew me away and I LOVED the idea of this working for us by pulling in cooler air from the ground:

My dad finally told me in a way that I understood and that is that he said where we are near the gulf coast, the under ground is so wet, that your underground tubing and what not would be wet and problematic or something like that. I don't know. I'm not a real smart girl. (54 years is still a girl?) (tee hee).

But anyway, greenfish (and all) I had really big dreams of doing something cutting edge and tricky and I could make it that the house we built would make it comfortable at any time of the year. But then on another tangent I read that there is probably not a place in the world that you will be climatically comfortable EVERY day of the year.

Ho Hum! I can still dream about right?

Ughhh!! So you were getting a healthy dose of sexism, paternalism, and "not invented here..." I love that concept!! Very similar to geothermal, it is geothermal I guess. FWIW geothermal systems work cheapest in water because you don't have to drill as deep. In fact, you can still consider this awesome option. I got a 30% tax write off, a 10k grant and a 25k 0% interest loan. I use 0 fossil fuel but some electrical. Wish I had the bandwidth to do solar at the same time.

http://www.geothermalgenius.org/states/texas.html

That is AWESOME. I"m going to totally check this out. And yes, I would guess this is geothermal as well . . . . . . .

Thank you!!!!

I got a 30% tax write off, a 10k grant and a 25k 0% interest loan.

Everyone has their own passions, but this rationalization sounds eerily familiar to a common affliction among men called 'I need a truck' syndrome. Most guys don't need trucks, and Passive+House are just two oddly incompatible words that never in the history of the English language were strung together prior to a few years ago.

To the original poster, in dollars, how far out-of-budget are we talking here?

The elevation doesn't look complex enough that it would warrant a total re-do if converting to more traditional building methods.

Go for 2x6 construction with zip-r sheathing. Then drop 6k on a couple super-efficient heat pumps, and you will be more efficient than 99% of homes built in America today. If you're feeling particularly OCD, a weekend of work and under 1k on some specialty caulk-gun sealants and and you'll knock the blower door test out of the park.

What am I missing?

I didn't think I was rationalizing, rather giving a heads up that there are many programs out there to help make good choices easier on the purse. It isn't easy paying to do things right when real costs are not reflected in the price of cheaper, easier choices. Thanks for the smackdown, though.

Much easier to find builders to do Passivehaus in MN, NY and other northern states than in Texas.

A few thoughts...

- Passivehaus is a tough standard. It makes sense in Germany and much of Europe where energy costs are massively more than in the U.S. It's great from an altruistic standpoint in the U.S. (we considered it) but does not make monetary sense here until our energy costs increase about 2x to 3x todays rates.

- It is the final 2-5% of the passivehaus energy efficiency that costs the most and requires the most accurate and exotic building methods (something that U.S. builders are not use to). You can get 95% of the benefit for 60% of the cost (and headaches) using other techniques that are more comfortable for U.S. builders.

- Double stud walls, triple glaze windows/doors and some attention paid to thermal bridging and air exchanges (ACH50) will get you a good chunk of the way there and none of this should seem exotic to most builders.

- Some attention to what faces what direction, where windows are, how air flows through will gain you a bit more.

There is a lot you can do to build a house or barndominium that is massively more energy efficient than standard and for little extra cost or pain.

Very cool that you wanted to go the Passivehaus route and that your husband was as patient with the process as it sounds like he was. You're both luck to have each other. Very similar to my wife and I.

I have always understood that one of the most important elements in passive house design is the orientation of the home. I know that our previous home, on the far south coast of New South Wales, required no air conditioning in summer because it was located on a ridge, oriented appropriately for afternoon sea breezes, and protected on the west by a eucalyptus forest. So, effectively, nature provided the A/C.

Effective use of thermal mass is also important: keeping things cool in the heat of summer, and warmer in winter, is again something to designed into the build. But neither orientation nor effective use of thermal mass require any special construction techniques - they're both dependent primarily on design.

Then, we move onto insulation, triple glazed windows, water-efficient taps and appliances, again, pretty standard building practices.

So, while the OP may not get her dream passive house, she ought to be able to get within distance of it if her barndo is designed,positioned and built with some of these factors in mind. It's not an either/or situation: passive design is a sliding scale from less to more efficient and there's no reason to forget everything about passive design just because you can't get perfection. Settle for 7 or 8 on a scale of 10.

I am still on good terms with the architect and could ask her. In fact I did email and ask her if she knew of a way I could recoup some of the 'lost' money and she did not reply, but I did not push and ask again.

I mean she did reply to that email but only mentioned other things, but not about selling them. Again, I could ask her, but I did not want, at that time, to press it because I am still a little emotionally fragile over the whole thing.

If you asked for ways you could "recoup lost money", she might think your hinting at a refund because "she designed a plan that is over budget and no one wants to build." (It is not unusual for clients to blame architects and engineers for designing something that is too expensive even though they design specifically what the client requested. You're acknowledging your part in requesting an expensive design, but some clients do not.) I would specifically ask for permission to sell the plans to someone else with the conditions that they can only build it once and you relinquish all rights to build it. She has the right to say no, but maybe she'll be sympathetic and say yes.

Sophie Wheeler: "Plans always belong to the architect. They are the instruments of service. What you buy is the ability to personally use them one time only."

This is incorrect. In some cases such as from a plan book or pseudo custom this is true. In most upper end custom builds I've been involved in the client owns the plans outright.

If you wish to have "full ownership" of a plan then this would need to be discussed with the Architect before you start. If the Architect is willing to do this they will have you sign waivers that relinquishes them from all liability. They will also likely add additional notations to every page of the plan that the end user assumes fully responsible and liability resulting from the use of the plan. If this is not the case then you do not have "full ownership" rights, the plan is tied to you only and the lot is was designed for.

Yes, thank you all. But I have pretty much decided that I will not try and do anything with these plans.

Just fyi, I paid a total of $13,950 to the architect for those plans.

Just typing the amount again brings back the sick feeling I have in my stomach and tears are close by but hiding. Like the song . . . . I'm getting a little bit stronger every day.

I can rationalize it maybe if I look at it this way.

The architect can put part of that money back into the economy which is good.

Then because I still believe she is a good person, this will contribute to keeping her life well balanced and she can continue to spread good for those less fortunate than me and her. and many others.

Who owns the drawings and specifications for building project? Well...it all depends on what your architect-owner contract says (or the contract from whomever prepared the materials).

The standard AIA owner-architect agreement stipulates that all work (drawings and specifications) are instruments of service and the architect retains all rights to them. The owner only has the right to use the documents for the purpose intended, i.e., to build the house depicted in the documents.

Agreements for builders and other may (or may not) differ.

OP, I honor your quest and your effort. Although your passive house will not be built at this time, you have learned a lot and you have also educated many of us. Your goals and hopes were worthy. Please do not be discouraged.

Pains me to see such good intentions go to waste though writing about the experience here will help others. This situation is why some builders advocate for being involved in the design process. Even if just a consulting roll, a collaborative team effort might have prevented this unfortunate outcome.

I think designers often fear their vision will be watered down but with the right people involved, costs and alternative construction details can be evaluated as the design is developed without sacrificing design or aesthetics. Design-bid is a bit antiquated for those seeking higher performance. In my experience, everyone benefits in a collaborative approach.

To address some confusion above, Passive house (PassivHaus Institute PHI) is a German born building certification. Passive House US (Passive House Institute US PHIUS) is the N. American split from the German version.

Passive Solar Design is the traditional term used to describe getting free heat from the sun. Being mindful of those strategies can help reduce cooling loads in TX, like stretching a home from east to west helps minimize windows on those vulnerable directions. Keeping Homes Cooler is a blog I wrote for new and existing homes.

Often Passive House homes end up with passive solar design elements as do other designs looking to maximize efficiency with no extra upfront costs. Some passive house projects are approaching cost parity with typical crappy construction. I always enjoy Steve Baczeck's articles in Fine Homebuilding.

If you can't do Passive House, at least do Energy Star. This will involve a third party energy rater who will help push a home towards current international building codes. Though these codes are rarely adopted and enforced locally, they represent a very good balance of cost and efficiency. Involve the rater early in design process.

Matt Risinger is an awesome resource for building in TX and anywhere in the south. I would follow his advice as much as possible. His videos and articles on airsealing, insulation, waterproofing and humidity control are particularly important.

Springtime, thank you, thank you. Love Matt Risingers' work!

Have already been looking at his video's for help and guidance.

Yes, I plan on doing Energy Star for sure.

Here is an awesome graph I got that made a lot of sense to me.

And the rater that was initially very involved in my passive house project from the beginning told me basically the same thing. That passive house might be very very good but why not get some where on the rating scale as energy efficient as you can afford.

I liked looking at it that way. Similar to what you said. Thank you.

Following...

Many are speaking about cost to operate today but there's no conversation about the availability or increased cost of the oil that powers our electric plants. In the future, near or far, it's very possible that oil will be no longer a feasible energy source. Solar, geothermal will all be here and will end up being lower-cost. In Texas, you don't need a heating system of note but you will need electricity to power your AC.

Following

This thread is over a year old...

Good point Virgil.

At the time OP was pricing this project in 2018 we experienced massive increases in lumber costs, which are back down today.

Futures are starting to move again. It depends on supply, demand, tarrifs, etc.