If your goal is to stay under 100K, that will not include a 100K dream kitchen.

bry9811, when we built the house in Thailand we used QCon. It's an autoclaved, aerated block with some R value. We were able to get enough to build the house at a great price because a big vendor was happy to dump the thick blocks and they happened to have just enough for us to finish. Apparently people don't build houses with thick QCon there and it became a "stuck in inventory" item for them. The construction crew balked at the QCon and then we got people to do it. In Thailand, the weight of a home is supported on concrete pillars throughout the house. The outer walls don't bear weight and essentially just separate the inside from the outside. So people use thin concrete blocks and the coat them with a finish. They don't use insulation anywhere in the home. You don't have to worry about heating there, ever. It's just air conditioning. Of course, we insulated very well. We heard all sorts of talk about this and were warned we were doing the wrong thing, etc and so on.

Very different way of building. They put down about 1.5 inches of concrete, and not all that level either. They put up the Qcon walls and then they started finishing the house from the roof down. The last thing they did was the floor, where they put down another inch and a half of mortar on the top and then very large tiles. The floors came out as smooth as glass. They tiled the entire kitchen, walls and all, and went from the roof to the floor. Then they made a 2nd outdoor kitchen. Then a cement and iron fence around the whole property. It was amazing to see it all come together so well.

All an amazing experience but Corona has created a disaster for us as far as traveling to our 2nd home. I'm hoping things return to normal in another year or so. I am well aware that I won't get so lucky here like I got in Thailand.

You seem to be focused on the "how" of construction and overlooking the "why". Perhaps you should look for a design-build contractor.

I've scored. I am working with a design guy who says my stamped plans will run me 4k. He's local, coming to my jobsite. Plenty of experience with the building department I'm using. I have what I need now and going to proceed. I'd like to thank everyone for their input here. My solution was finding a draftsman who could get his drawings stamped.

chispa, you hit the nail on the head. Even though a host of our friends here are upset with me, I found someone whose combination of skills and ability to stamp fit my needs. I've been willing to pay 4k all along, but most have attempted to turn this into a 10k billing. While that may be what their time is worth, it's not worth that much to me. In short, I'm too small of a fish for their cost/price structure. That is business. My guy is independent and works from home. My advice to others is to find a designer who can get drawings stamped. The people who feel they at the very happening spot in the pinnacle of architecture are the people to avoid if you're already sure about what you want.

"A designer who can get drawings stamped."

There are certain legal ramifications to that. You may find yourself associate with a criminal investigation, of which is hard to estimate the monetary impact of. Good luck.

The draftsman probably has a relationship with an engineer - the stamp that is required.

4K is a bit much in FL for just the drafting.

It's the drafting and the stamping. Everything ready for a building permit.

Mark, I am waiting for the FBI to spring out from under my bed and arrest me for not hiring the likes of you. The fear is overwhelming.

If you can drop the facetious banter for a moment, the issue of "hot stamping" should be realistically considered in order to avoid unnecessary trouble for all involved.

Assuming the drafter is not using any form of the professional titles "architect" or "engineer", the only person who could be punished for violating the state requirement that a drafter wrork under the engineer's direct control and supervision, would be the engineer and that would require a written complaint to the regristration board and some kind of proof which is difficult to come by so I doubt any action would be taken unless the engineer has been doing it openly and frequently especially since it's now common for employees to work remotely.

However, the professional way to do this is for the owner to pay the engineer and the engineer to pay the drafter. This avoids the appearance of "hot stamping" and it provides you with the protection of the engineer's liability insurance.

OK, you can return to the silly banter.

If you'll be paying the drafter directly and the drafter will be paying the engineer, I would look up the engineer's license status online before proceeding.

Wife has decided she wants a hip roof with shingles. She's walking around now saying "I like it". Looks like I'm going to be stick framing.

Better get her 100K kitchen sorted out first, or it’s going to be the only room in the build.

Will you be asking that drafter or engineer to help you design the kitchen?

Actually Mark, I've decided to have my house drawn up for me by 3 unaffiliated draftsmen on another online platform. We are just not entirely sure what we want and for me to spend a couple of hundred dollars having 3 entirely different plans worked up makes sense. We've got to do a good deal more research to determine exact room sizes, etc. But it will be another month before I get my money ready. Then I shall build that house. Having no mortgage, energy efficiency, no onerous requirement for property insurance - all makes it very nice. So no, I'm not asking the guy to do anything. If I find a draftsman that can get permit ready plans, I may just have an engineer review and stamp. This cuts a guy like you right out of my plans. Tsk. Which makes me wonder the fascination you've got with my thread here?

General advice on this forum is to get a kitchen designer rather than having the kitchen designed by the draftsman/engineer/cabinet salesperson ... The shown kitchen "plan" is missing major elements, which should be determined before drafting the house, especially since you are designing a house around the kitchen. I hope that your final plans will have a complete, detailed kitchen layout, unlike what youre showing here, regardless of whether or not they are technically required for your stamp. It's a lot harder to go backwards than take time and effort to plan it right in the first place.

Why are people continuing to read this thread? Curiosity about what's at the end of the tunnel? You're actually giving updates and haven't just vanished like some posters do? We get notifications, and the little green dot doesn't go away until the thread is visited?

Your unconventional approach to house construction with a poor preconception of a house plan all fueled with a 'facetious' attitude, does not lend itself to the free furnishing of beneficial information. My fascination is seeing someone becoming their own worst enemy.

I rest my case.

Edit: This comment was made in response to a degrading comment made by the OP that has been deleted.

Thank you Mark! Let's hope you leave it rested :).

I would not take moisture problems associated with low slope roofs lightly. I have seen the wrong assemblies are I can tell you first hand - don't do it. It will smell bad in your house like something rotting. Follow https://www.demilec.com/es/sites/demilec.com.es/files/2019-10/2015-IRC-R806.5.pdf

Also recommend mineral wool e.g rockwool

Like watching a train wreck, forum members are drawn to such a stunning example of "how not to design a house". It's difficult to believe its not all a joke.

Arrogantly announcing you have no insurance during construction assures you of a high ranking in all future internet loser contests.

My advice to members is to terminate email notifications at the bottom of the page and skip the body count part of the wreck.

BT, isn't that for a hot roof? What about a cold roof, well vented along all the edges, so that vapor will have a place to escape?

Excellent advice for your lemmings, RES2. Let's hope they take your advice. I've got about 25 years of insurance premiums still in my pocket. And you? How many claims did you have? In Florida, those who have built in parts of the state that make sense must subsidize those who build in areas subject to damaging wind/water. I choose not to do that because I am not a slave to a bank. It's not a joke. Look at the collar around your neck. Very wise.

BT, isn't that for a hot roof? What about a cold roof, well vented along all the edges, so that vapor will have a place to escape?

In the house that we are in the process of building, have a similar design 2 3/4":12 pitch. Natural venting works BUT not for low slope roofs and esp in our the Northern climate. One of the large contractors yesterday declared that: THE CODES ARE OPTIONAL. He apparently been using open cell foam on 5 million $ houses and commercial construction, "without any issues". Done 1000s of houses with vapor open cells, all commercial structures "without any issues".

Our design calls for R21-R24 [3" closed cells] and 2x-3x rockwool. This DOES NOT MATCH OUR EXPERIENCE or the code. The sub claimed that IF there is a leak you can not detect if the closed cells are used unlike the open.

Our experience tells us: (1) Frame the roof and apply one way open underlayment. (2) Let underroof decking to dry up for one 1 month (3) Check for leaks during a rain (4) apply 3" of closed cells [your area will be different] (5) mineral wool and close. Anything else: dirty sock smell and the rotting decking.

In addition this company started to massively overcharge for closed cells. $1.50/ft 1" is an outrage other contractor did this for $.70. Alternatively you can put a thick foam above the roof decking, but this complicates the build. Matt Risinger has some videos of "monopoly framing".

BT, if we go with low slope roofs it's something we'll have to watch for. I've done this design for small projects many times over the years, never a problem. If it were a bad enough problem, I'd have to do a roof over to convert from a flat roof. The point is that this size of a project is easy enough to fix. I don't think it will be an issue in the first place. My brother tore the top off his house many years ago and did a sizeable flat roof upstairs addition. His roof? 2 x 10 framing with R-30 insulation, plywood on the top. Drywall on the bottom. He's never had a problem. He did a stucco addition, looks good.

Let's say I do it, it smells. The worst thing has come to pass. Then I'll roof it over if I have to. I'm leaning this way because I don't want to fall and break my neck trying to make a hip roof. That takes more skill than I want to dish out that high up in the air. A flat roof is easy and safe to build. You get one piece up and it's easy going after that. You improve a flat roof's appearance if you spit it into 2 heights, so you've essentially got 2 smaller roofs to worry with. We may move things around a bit. I might bring in dirt, pour a slab and not do the house on piers.

I had better be thinking about all of this and more. Once you do something, it's done. I worry more about starting and getting stuck waiting for something I can't get than anything else. In the meantime, thanks for your head's up.

Not having homeowner's insurance is more than just being able to afford the repair costs from a loss or the cost of a total rebuild. Homeowner's insurance also provides liability coverage should someone get injured on your property and personal property coverage. We own both our primary residence and our beach house mortgage-free and I would not dream of being uninsured. The last loss we had was actually the equivalent of 40 years of premium payments.

@medicrn - You are not an outlier. Once every other month someone comes here with same belligerent attitude, fully convinced they are going to beat the system with their particular flavor of Dunning-Kruger.

Seriously, if you looked up a few old threads you could see what you are going to say next.

I suspect the belligerence is only necessary to convince yourself of your genius. It is easier to tilt at windmills about other people "wasting money" on personalized design, than admit the utter stupidity of getting three separate unqualified strangers on fiverr to design your house. I could use an extra $50 bucks and I have a design program... wanna make it four designers?

Now there you go bry using terms like Dunning-Kruger that the OP will probably have to look up to see what it means.

bry911, sad that you are an all too common groupthinker who lives his/her life to "enforce" his flavor of groupthink online. Every discussion board online is full of your type. First, it's boring!!! Second, you couldn't possibly be more irrelevant than you are to me here. And with your attitude, you're not worth $0.50 to me, let alone $50. Since you are so unhappy with my thought processes, why not make it one less person reading this thread? Doh! Because that's the obvious solution?

Caroline, it's all a matter of chances. I've never in my life had anything happen where property insurance mattered. If I had property on the beach, I'd insure it. But I'm in a very low risk location and I'm keeping the premiums in my pocket. Some risks? Yes. But acceptable to me to forgo the premium. You are about to watch your premiums skyrocket. That's the beauty of life, we all get to make our own choices.

@medicrn - LOL... I suspect no one with any experience here would claim that I suffer from what you are implying is "groupthink."

However, once again, you are confidently incorrect... this time in your search for a satisfactory insult. It seems you are railing against conformity and somehow believe that groupthink is similar to conformity. It isn't. No one who has commented here has demonstrated anything similar to groupthink. As bad as you are at home design, at least you know what some of the words mean.

Just curious...do you carry liability insurance? I could handle the property damage costs but no way would I put my assets at risk to avoid the low premiums of liability coverage.

bry911, I'm just building a house and researching the best way to do it. I will wind up doing all my own work. That's really all there is to it. Doesn't matter how you like it or don't like it. With your comments, you are boring me to tears. I realize on some bizarre level it means a lot to you, else you wouldn't be putting so much energy into it. Pitiful, really.

"I'm just building a house and researching the best way to do it."

Really now..................................

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

@medicrn Op understand, if you overpay contractors just 30% - you may as well have a GC. I gave you an example $1.50/ft 1" closed cell insulation. I knew he was overcharging me 200%. But would you? There is a lot of subs that give you the bogus prices - that no one in the right mind would pay. You need to have a good and reliable team - performance oriented to get your project done.

Is Florida really a low risk location? I feel like every other hurricane hits one side, the other side, or both sides of the state. Or is the news overblowing things, and there are areas that don't get walloped and/or flooded by storms? (I know you said that you're not on the flood plain ... 200' doesn't sound very far to me, though, but I have no idea - I mean, I know how far 200' is, but I don't have any idea of what is considered close and far from a flood plain.)

"medicrnOriginal Author

26 minutes ago

Looks like it's time for the Internet Losers Chorus!"

That's what he called me in the comment he deleted, "Internet Loser"; I knew I could get it out of him, he can't help himself.

BT, there's very little I'll need any help with, other than a little general labor. I'm not doing anything I don't already have tools for. This is just a little house and I have months over which to build it. I'm not doing anything (like stucco) that requires a skill I don't have. I'm not using subs for anything. I may have someone tape and finish the drywall, but that's about it. I have good friends with family in construction, so if I need it, I can get help quickly. But I'm living in my current house while I'm building the new one, so it's not like I'm under that much time pressure, other than getting it dried in. I'm not going to work at my profession again until 2023, so I got time galore. It's my summer in the sun doing construction :).

Blueberry, once you get off the coast of Florida, the risk drops substantially. I'm out of the 100 year flood plain, though that means less in these times of crazy weather. But it would take a LOT of water, several times more than has been here since they've kept records, to actually threaten my new home. What happens in a hurricane is water damage, primarily near the coasts. Yes, it gets windy here, we get a lot of rain, a few oak trees fall over, power gets knocked out for a few days. No threat at all to structures. Coming inland takes the punch out of a hurricane quickly. The perception of risk far exceeds the reality. Now if you live on the coast and get a direct hit, your luck has run out.

Ignorant - ignorant, illiterate, unlettered, untutored, unlearned mean not having knowledge. ignorant may imply a general condition or it may apply to lack of knowledge or awareness of a particular thing.

When you can't abide by the rules here the moderators remove the post from the public view. This means only you can still see your rule-breaking posts. So none of us can see it.

So, let's practice with a sentence... In an ironic demonstration of his ignorance about how the site works, Mike called Mark ignorant and blind.

Yes, that's the game! Whine to the mods like a 3 year old.

As soon as I find my Leader Dog I will have him bite you!

Well, this is quickly becoming an exercise in uselessness. Thanks to all who attempted to have serious discussion. To the others? Cry a river to the mods! You poor delicate things! I give up on this board altogether. Fiverrr beats this to pieces. Enjoy your cicle jerk!

Call your mommy too Mark!

My previous comment worth repeating:

"Your unconventional approach to house construction with a poor preconception of a house plan all fueled with a 'facetious' attitude, does not lend itself to the free furnishing of beneficial information. My fascination is seeing someone becoming their own worst enemy."

If you do end up building, try to treat the workers with common decency and respect. If they give you advice or recommendations, do not respond with aggression or facetious responses; practice maturity.

@medicrn - and you seriously called other people ignorant? The site doesn't need people reporting posts, it has an automod that flags some posts for review and others it automatically removes. I strongly suspect this thread has been flagged for review by the automod several times now and the moderators have simply decided what to leave up and take down.

@medicrn said, "I will wind up doing all my own work. That's really all there is to it. Doesn't matter how you like it or don't like it."

I have said several things about your crappy attitude but have not said a single negative thing about your plan, or your design or anything like it. I simply noted that a viable option is to get the lumber yard to stamp the plans. That is fairly common practice and a viable alternative to engaging an architect or engineer to stamp the plans. Which is oddly similar to your plan...

All I did was answer your question. I didn't comment on design and I didn't comment on your plan to build it yourself as that was not the question you asked. However, since I am being accused let me offer this... I suspect the only punishment worse than designing a house with you is living in it after it is finished.