Week 20

The transit arrived and my son Tom and I went t the property to correct the original driveway path.

Found out that we were off quite a bit, so we began correcting it.

The southern neighbor complained that we crossed the line about 100'. We met with him and he showed us the surveyor string he ran from the front property marker to the rear marker. I didn't realize that a survey had ever been done - found no mention of it in the county's iMap database. But the markers were clearly in place. Could have save much trouble and work had I known. We had indeed crossed into his property. He's rightly upset, so I need to try and make it right with him.

Moral of the story; when buying land insist that the seller provide a survey with boundary markers, especially along the critical areas!

Week 19

Christmas week - not much to report.

Trying to figure out exactly on property where driveway will run. Have been clearing a walking path along the driveway. Original path appeared to be off line - it should be running parallel to south property line, but it appears to be getting too close to the line. I need to buy a transit and work out the exact location.

Week 18

The UBuildIt guys and I met at the property last week to check out my driveway and building site ideas. I found that there's a better, flatter, area if I move the building site west and slightly north. It gets me a little close to the well circle (100' restricted area) but there is still a decent 75' buffer to the start of the circle. I'm looking for ways to reduce the excavation costs - they're estimated by UBuildIt to be $92K, which I think is steep. At this point we're trading off driveway costs - more driveway sqft, more cost - for excavation costs. In particular trying to limit the size and number of retaining walls.

UBuildIt brought a small hand level, like this one, to measure elevations. I'm not convinced it's very accurate. The elevations they were calling out didn't jive with my guesses. But they could be right. I need to do a good job of mapping the driveway and creating site topologies, so I've ordered an AmScope 32x Automatic Level Transit - this is what I ordered. I'll spend a few days at the site and verify the county's elevations and create a fairly accurate topo map of the building site. Later, I will hire a surveyor to do an official topo and to identify locations for driveway, building site and well.

To make sure the price estimates are not way out of line I'm going to get quotes from contractors on septic, water well, driveway and excavation. These are some major expense items, so if there are any savings this is where they'll be found.

The architect sent me revision 3 (R3) of the floor plans, and they look great. So we're moving forward with the next step - getting the exterior elevations and roof worked out. We've decided to postpone the spa and pool - it's over $100K savings alone! But, we will build the house with the pool room under the roof, but open to the outside so that later (2-3 years) we can add them without a major re-model of the house. We will not put in the outside walls, but instead we will add columns to support the roof - this way we can get a bobcat or backhoe in there to add the pool.

Here's the latest site layout. I think this is the final one until an official survey!

Week 17

Some of the problem with the cost estimate being so out of line, as I mentioned last week, was that I was not considering the 1100 sqft of space of the pool room. When you take this into account the "heated space" is around 4100 sqft. In my calcs I had factored out the pool, so am basing my analysis on a 3000 sqft home but I did not fully factor out the structure cost associated with the extra 4100 sqft. UBuildIt generated a new OPC for me that does remove these structure and related costs. The new Dev & Structure costs are $811,579 which includes their fee and state sales tax. When you add land you get $1,111,579, and this divided by 3000 sqft gives a value of $371/sqft which is $93/sqft over average or $278,092 over average. We continue to fine tune the analysis.

One area that sticks out to me is the nearly $100K in excavation costs that UBuildIt thinks it will cost to do things like cut down the trees, bulldoze the stumps, dig the utility and drainage trenches, and construct the retaining walls. I thinks this is high, by about double. The only way to get an accurate estimate is to have excavators come and quote the job. This is what I'm working on now - get in a position so that quotes can be made. My friend Ray Lyle and I have cut a path through the brush along the driveway route and up in the building site area. This makes it easy now to walk the land and see the exact topography. Until now we've only relied on the county topography maps for the area. They are in 5' intervals, but turn out to be way off. According to the county topo maps the property gains 100' elevation as you move east to west on the property. But I now know it's more around 50'. And where I want to place the building site it's around 35'. Fortunately the building site is fairly flat up in the area I want to place the house. I don't think we'll need any retaining walls - in the OPC that UBuildIt created, they estimate we'd have to excavate out a 100' x 100' building pad which would require a 4' H x 100' L retaining wall at the western edge and another one that size at the eastern edge. Hopefully I'm right, and we can now avoid the major part of that expense.

In general, I think the UBuildIt estimates are about 20% high - we'll fine tune this in the weeks ahead.

Unless we can get the Development and Structure costs down to around $650K I won't be able to build - can't afford it. At this point it seems likely that the pool and spa will have to go because that's over $100K alone. That would be a shame, it was going to be a central component of the home.

Week 16

I met with my UBuildIt consultant last Thursday to go over the Opinion of Probable Cost.

In this blog, back in July, I discussed the Site Review done by the consultant. Then the estimate ("opinion") of what it would cost to build the house was about $24/sqft for land development and $118/sqft for structure - or $142/sqft total. This was reasonable and in line with what a market analysis of properties in our area shows to be the average values. Our house being 2731 sqft (back then, but now 3000 sqft) would then cost around $388K to develop the land and build the house. This doesn't include price of land - in my case $300K. So add on the UBuildIt fees and state sales tax which both amount to $63K. This gets you to $751K. If you divide that $751K by 2731 sqft you get $275/sqft - this is almost exactly what the "better" but not "opulent" home values are around here.

Fast forward now to December. The house size increased to 3000 sqft - 269 sqft increase. The OPC shows the land development is now estimated to be $196,625 and the construction costs $715,173 - or $911,798 total. Add on the land and you're at $1,211,798, and then add on the fees and sales tax and you are at $1,327,195. Divide this by 3000 sqft and you get $442/sqft. The average in this area is $278/sqft - that's what the average "better" quality home sells for. I'd be $165/sqft above the average; do you think anyone would ever buy a house that far above the average? This obviously would not be a good investment; the day I took occupancy I'd be about $494K behind.

So, what's wrong - that's the question. I meet with UBuildIt again tomorrow to go over the comparable analysis that I created and sent to them showing it was a poor investment, and didn't make sense. I will report back next week what I learn. You can see my analysis here (totally created by me, not UBuildIt)- I've taken out the UBuildIt details because they don't like that shared with people.

Last week I also started the barn design process. I sent Uncle Howard's Barns a $1000 deposit to get it started. I got into AutoCAD and drew up the main floor plan and the loft plan. They will draw up the plans showing placement of stairs, doors and windows and the exterior elevations. My floor plan designs are so they take into account how I eventually plan to build it out - of course it's subject to change, but knowing where I'd place walls will keep them from doing things like putting a window in the wrong place. You can see my layout here.

I also started working with Puget Sound Energy Construction department so that they can determine how best to run the power service to the property and what my cost would be. There's a transformer at the property edge, so they will have to run a line only about 90'.

Week 15

I met with the architect to explain the changes we want made to the reproducible design. He said he would get started as soon as he returns from an AutoCAD (Revit) class during 1st week in December. Looks like we're running about one month behind where I was hoping we'd be. I don't expect the floor plans and exterior elevation to be done before end of year. Then the details will have to be done - foundation, roof, electrical, etc. I'm hoping now that architecture package will be done by end of January. We'll see.

I also met with the UBuildIt PM last week. I made a copy of the 14 sheet reproducible design for him to start working up the project costs. Even though the design is only 75% complete he can still use it to come up with a fairly accurate estimate. Once the architect is done a true estimate can be made.

I emailed the North Bend City Water dept to find out about the lifting of the new connection moratorium. I also asked him if it were lifted at end of December, as hoped, when the most likely date that a new connection could be made. He told me no sooner than June 08 because they need to improve the infrastructure first. Well, that pretty much makes the well vs city water decision; we'll have to go with a well because we can't get a, and building permit without running water and June is too late to wait. He also said the connection and fees would run around $5K.

But, I think I will go ahead and add a PVC water line to the utilities trench that runs from the street to the home site, that way we could tie into the city water someday fairly inexpensively if we had to.

So, now I have to add the expense of a well pump, storage tanks, filters, well house, concrete slab to the project, as well as a utility trench and electrical supply from the house to the well house.

I found out that the electric company for the property is PSE. I called to get the costs for running service to the utility pad I'm planning to build down at the front of property. I designed, in AutoCAD, all the utility trenches. The main trench, running from street is 530' long and will be 4' Wide x 4' Deep. It will carry electric, propane, telco and water (for future use; as explained above). I also have a trench running from house to barn carrying electric, propane, telco and water. Plus a trench running from barn to septic, and then the trench running from well to house - it will carry electric from house to well and water from well to house. The electric company had me fill out a service application so that their engineering dept could get the costs for me. They needed a list of the electric requirements, so I put together a spreadsheet containing what I estimate the needs will be - you can see the Excel doc here.

I found out from architect that we have to keep the impermeable surfaces (which is anything but dirt, like asphalt, concrete, gravel - for house foundations, driveways, etc) to under 10000 sqft. Otherwise we have to design and build an elaborate drainage system involving retention ponds and drainage trenches. We have to do the drainage trenches regardless, but the retention ponds would involve some major engineering that would be prohibitively expensive. So, I redesigned the parking area (the driveway portion that is up by house) to be much simpler than the elaborate design I showed a few weeks ago. I got the design down to about 6500 sqft, which leaves around 3500 sqft for house and barn foundations. You can see the new design - including parking, driveway and utility trenches - here.

Week 14

The reproducible design arrived - 14 sheets. The original architect is Jim Zirkel, Principal with Home Design Services, Inc in Florida. They have many high-end designs, and their stock plans service is fairly extensive. I looked up our design, HDS-2731, and found a photo of the home built from the design. It helps to see a finished design; it looks great and gives us some ideas on what we'll do.

After reviewing the reproducible design we've decided that it is very close to what we really want - more so than some of the changes we had instituted. So, the two revisions we had the architect do now have to be redone slightly. Basically, we like the Master Bath of the original, so we're putting it back. The original kitchen is much better than what we came up with, so we're essentially going back to it with the exception of a few of the changes we had come up with. You can see the list of changes that we have asked our architect to do here. Once we have the new, revised, floor plans available electronically (AutoCAD) I will post them. Hopefully, the architect will get this next revision (R3) out within next couple of weeks so that we can move on to the exterior elevations. I wish we would have of bought the reproducible design from the outset - it would have saved much time and I think we'd be further along. Although, I will admit that going through the two revisions we did was beneficial because it made us really think about the design elements that were important to us - maybe we would not have done some of the changes we're keeping, like moving the front and back walls out 3 feet, had we not worked through the design exercise.

I don't think we'll have the house design fully finished by end of year now - in fact I'm sure of it. I suspect this moves out our ground-breaking date of March 1st; should know more in the weeks ahead.

I meet with the UBuildIt project manager on Tuesday this coming week. I will give him a set of the reproducibles so that we can get started on the project cost estimate - which is called Opinion of Probable Cost (OPC). I'd say the reproducible design represents about 60% of the house design, but some major elements need to be generated, such as the Foundation Plan, and the Roofing Plan before real costs can be locked down.

I found an important omission on the septic design - I had failed to tell the septic designer that the barn is to be plumbed - it's at least one of the five bedrooms in the design - so he drew a septic line coming from the barn and tying into the septic system where the house system exits the structure. It was simple change, but had it not been caught at this stage would have resulted in a major revision (and slow down) once the septic approval process starts - which will be sent to county around Nov 26th. Glad I took the time (a couple weeks) to carefully review the design!

I got another, hopefully final, quote from HH Windows and Doors for the Fold & Slide Pool Room doors. I decided that rough openings of 180" W x 95.5" H left and right of the center post would be used. This reduced the design from 6 panels to 5 panels; reducing price by about $3K, so the cost for both doors now is about $20K. This is closer to budget.

No word from the pool concrete guy (Swanson Brothers Concrete) this past week. I left vmail, but no call back yet. I hope they turn out to be reliable because their work quality appears good.

Week 13

The architect sent R2 of the floor designs this week - as mentioned last week, floor 2 was fine but floor 1 needed some work. Floor 1 is almost perfect now (see below), but does need some minor fixes that were overlooked by the architect. The main thing, he forgot the door between the master bedroom and master bath - without the door, people sitting around the pool would have a straight shot view into the master tub & shower. The master bedroom was suppose to have a slider leading to the pool room not french doors. We also agreed that the stairs leading up to the bonus room would have built-in bookcases. About the only addition we made that wasn't agreed to earlier was that the guest bath would be a shower and not a tub.

I paid for the reproducible design rights with ePlans.com this week. I bought the original study print a few months back from homeplans.com for $99. They were going to credit this on a full purchase which costs $973 plus tax and shipping. I thought I'd try to negotiate with eplans to get a better price from them - they wanted $1065 plus shipping but no tax. This strategy worked, they met homeplans price and saved me the $77 tax. Hey, every little bit saved adds up! The plans should arrive this coming week. One nice thing, they provide the contact info of the original architect, this might be useful if/when we have questions about how certain things were planned.

I also paid the septic design bill, but still need to go over the design with the UBuildIt consultant before submitting to the county. Will do so soon.

Look for final floor plans next week, and then the architect will start the exterior elevations.

Here's R2 from architect (we almost like it):

Here's our changes:

Here's floor 2:

Week 12

This past week we received the first draft of the floor plan from the architect. The main floor was not what we expected (see below). He was trying to not infringe on the copyright of the original architect, so he introduced changes that would make it a new design. Problem is, we really like the original design, so we drew it essentially back to the way it was (see below). He said he could make it like the original if we purchase the reproduction rights, so that is what we will do - cost around $900 but it gets us what we want. The 2nd floor design was exactly what we wanted, so we have no changes to it. He will fix and get us the 2nd draft this coming week, then he'll start on the exterior design.

The septic design also arrived this week - it's exactly what we wanted! It provides for a drainfield placement that works completely with our home site placement at the property center. I will send them a check for the balance ($2000) plus a check for the county's fee ($500). He said the county was processing septic reviews much quicker than the 4 months that they had been doing - but he didn't say how much quicker. We're still on track for a early March ground-breaking. You can see the septic design here. I'm glad I bought ProgeCAD and did the Site Layout. Huard used it and I was able to get the perfect septic design. One thing I learned, though, is to have the contractors (septic, etc) provide a separate DWG and reference it in my own CAD project. This works much better than having them add their stuff directly to the CAD project.

HH Windows & Doors sent the quote for fold & slide doors. 2 sets, 6 - 30" panels each will cost around $23K. I think I can negotiate them down to $20K - we'll see. Nana Doors (they apparently invented the fold & slide doors) wants $27K!

The AquaQuip sales guy recommended a concrete company - Swanson Brothers - for the pool room concrete. I spoke with JC and he seems to know what he's talking about. I sent him our floor plan sketch (US Mail - email isn't working yet; disgusting!) and am waiting for him to get back to me with a rough quote.

I've given up on the local Hawaiian Pool rep getting me a quote; I sent him email and he took my contact info at the home show, but have heard nothing. Must not need the business.

First Floor - Architect's Idea



First Floor - Our Idea (similar to original)


Second Floor - Architect's Idea (we like it)

Week 11

Not much happened this past week with the architect or the septic designer. I expected to get a review PDF of the house design from the architect, but it never arrived. We are meeting with him on Wednesday at 4pm to go over the design - hopefully we'll get the PDF before that so we can spend some time studying it. I'm surprised I didn't hear from the septic designer, two weeks ago he was asking for help to get the AutoCAD file opened.

I heard from the Cahan European Door company, they sent the quote I requested for the fold & slide doors I'd like to use in the pool room. As expected, the price was outrageous - around $20K to cover 24' of the 32' wall. I sent them email saying thanks, but way over budget.

I did find another fold & slide door company - HH Windows, in Seattle. They are actually a better choice than Cahan because they can go up to 20' wide (see below). I'm thinking that a 6x6 column at mid-span of that pool room outer wall would work well. That would require two sets of fold & slide, each having 6 panels of approx 30". Five of the panels would fold & slide, the end panel would be independent and swing inward. So, using two sets we'd place them so the independent doors meet at the center and the fold & slide panels would travel left and right. When the doors are open there would be approx 14' of opening on each side. Using that 6x6 post the rough opening would be 189.25" W x 95.50" H. I haven't worked this out with the architect yet, but will do so on Wednesday. I hope the HH doors are reasonably priced.

I received a magazine from the AquaQuip Pool Company - called Oasis. It's a good resource because it introduces you to a variety of pool equipment suppliers. One thing I want to employ is laminar flow water fountains (see below) with fiber optic lighting. These fountains are supposedly silent, engineered to make the water enter the pool at an angle and speed that make it silent. Another fountain I'll add is the FyreFly Jet. It sprays a number of streams into the pool, and is not silent. The fountain supplier is Water Crystal Fountains, and the lighting supplier is FiberStars. I'll also put some LED lighting in the pool and spa. A good supplier is O'Ryan Industries, especially their StarBurst series lights. I think the lighting will be very dramatic when the room lights are out.

The pool decking I'd like to use is Acrylic coating over concrete. One supplier is Kover Krete Systems. The materials come white; color can be added if wanted - I want it bright white.

Week 10

Attended the Seattle Home Show last Sunday. Walked around for about 5 hours. There were a couple hundred exhibitors. I went primarily with an agenda to visit suppliers of Swimming Pools, Spas, HVAC, Windows, Floors, Counters, Roofs.

I complained to one of the AquaQuip guys at their booth that the rep I was dealing with hasn't contacted me in a few weeks. I said he was suppose to get me a quote on a Pool and Spa, but nothing yet. He took my contact information and said he'd look into it. I received the quote by noon the next day. It was about what I was expecting, $63K for everything but the concrete work, so I am giving it some serious consideration.

I met the Hawaiian Pool rep - Bruce Anderson with Hydro-Tek Pools. I was surprised that Hawaiian had a rep in this area, when I did a search on their website using my zipcode nothing came up. It's good to have a competitor for the pool & spa! I sent Bruce email on Monday asking for a quote, but have not heard anything yet.

One important feature of the Pool Room is that its Eastern wall (which faces mountains) open up as much as possible. I've heard about accordian style doors for patios from a couple architects, so was on the look out for them while there. A local area firm - Cahan European Window Company, in Bellevue - produces Fold & Slide doors, and had them on display. They would work great. They only come in widths up to 12 feet, so at least two sets would be needed across the 30 foot Eastern wall. They offer a variety of wood species - see website - and have about a 14 week lead time from time order is placed. This long of wall would require a vertical post about mid-span of the opening; regardless if we go with the Cahan doors or Andersen's Slider we'll need a post. That probably works better from a structural standpoint anyway. I have relayed this info to the Architect, asking him to place a post there.

I did send email to Cahan on Monday asking for a quote, but no reply yet. I guess the exhibitors are really busy with all the leads they acquired while at the show - hopefully I'll be hearing from them all soon.

Bev and I found a couple of stone veneer suppliers - one we like best (so far) is Eldorado Stone. Their local rep is West Coast Masonry Supply. The veneer we have agreed on is called Monarch in Northwestern Canyon Gray - you can see it on their website. We would install it using the "Dry-Stack" technique. One thing I have to look into with the veneers is how they are used on gate posts - we intend to have a double swing gate across the driveway entrance - so can you apply the veneer under the gate mounts?; they seem heavy and likely to crack a veneer. Stone mason can probably answer this. I intend to build the gates posts myself - some of my sweat equity. BTW: Stone will be placed around the house in what I'm told is called a belly skirt, and around the posts for the porte cochere. Probably same stone will be used for the two fireplaces. I haven't decided yet if I'll be doing the belly skirt myself; Eldorado has a helpful video that makes it seem easy. I like doing tile floors, so this type of masonry should be similar.

Speaking of fireplaces, Bev decided she's OK with a gas unit in the Master Bdrm - she was debating whether to use wood or gas. We saw some nice examples at the show.

We saw a couple different HVAC systems. A water boiler type seemed interesting, it's produced by Conematic Heating Systems, Inc. It's a gas-fired unit that doesn't take up much space in garage, and provides hot water for heating as well as for plumbing. They claim that the majority of heating cost is in plumbing hot water, rather than heating. The Conematic costs about 15% more than a typical heat pump system. I'm leading towards a Trane furnace - Trane's quality is legendary, and their units tend to be good at energy conservation. I've considered a heat pump, over a furnace, but we just don't need the cooling around here. Spending around $12K for a HP, when you can get a furnace for around $8K seems wasteful.

Another big decision to be made is the type of roof. I like the look of a tile roof, but they can be a lot of trouble for maintenance (crack easily). Wood shake doesn't seem right for our style house. I guess a composite using the Presidential TL in the Yosemite color (dark charcoal) would be best. We used Versatile Roof a couple years ago to replace the cedar shakes on our current home, and will probably use them for this house - fair price and great service. I'd like to use a gutter-less design, that lets the rain drop onto a concrete splash barrier on the ground. This may be too expensive, but I'll have it price quoted by a concrete curbing company.

We looked at Granite Counter and Wood Floor exhibitors - didn't come away with much other than brochures because these are fairly standard items and we'll pick the suppliers when the time comes. Our friend, Jim Houtrouw, owns Sammamish Floor in Bellevue. His guys did a great job when we remodelled a couple years ago, so we probably will use them for this house. One thing we do agree on is the type of wood floors we'd like - Brazillian Cherry!

That's it for the major things we came away with from the show.

I heard from Huard Septic on Friday. Dave Huard emailed saying he couldn't open the AutoCAD file I had on my server, so I put 2000 and 2004 versions out there. He's suppose to get back with me Monday letting me know if either of them could be opened. I went ahead and bought ProgeCAD from ICAD Sales (I spoke about this great, low cost AutoCAD compliant software a few weeks back). I bought the $375 Pro version - I might need 3D CAD again someday, and since it was only an extra $125 over the Std 2D version, I figured it was money well spent. I hope Huard can add their septic design to my DWG project file - same with the architect and other suppliers that come on board.

Week 9

Boring week - accomplished very little.

Met with Dave Huard the septic designer at the site and walked the land with him and his asst Leah. They marked off the areas that Leah will bring the backhoe to and dig the perk holes. He said we should be able to place the septic in the area that we want - below the home site in center of property. He also said he would use the AutoCAD drawing I started, and add the septic design to it.

It's been 3 weeks now and I haven't heard back from Jim Bergstrom, the AquaQuip outside sales guy. He was suppose to get me a quote - how long does it take! He hasn't been very responsive - can't email him because it always bounces back (he didn't seem too concerned when I told him this a month ago; I also contacted AquaQuip's IT group by email, but no answer). You'd think he'd call a hot prospect for a $60K sale - business must be really good for him. We're going to the Seattle Home show Sunday. There are several pool companies on the exhibitor's list - we'll see if we can find a better vendor.

I'll report on the Home Show next week.

Week 8

This makes two months since we officially started - time flies; feels like we're crawling!

Met with architect on Tuesday for a couple hours. We showed him markups of the floor plan to show him the changes we would like to make. Biggest change is kitchen - we are removing the island and and moving the counter inward a few feet to tighten the layout up. We want a larger pantry, so we are removing the small closet in the utility room and using that space to add to the pantry in the kitchen. We also wanted more cabinet space in kitchen, so we are removing the desk and adding a built-in hutch with a food prep area.

Another thing Bev wants is a window seat in the Adult Conversation Room. So, the architect is adding a window on the side wall that looks out on porch, next to the existing window (90 deg opposed) and adding a built-in window seat. He will also move the outside wall, which faces front of house, out about 4 feet.

The dining room won't have any changes - maybe the window will be smaller so that pool room ducting can be installed on both sides.

The Master Bath will see much change. The architect said he has some ideas on improving the space, so the next time we meet with him (2 weeks) he should be able to show us something interesting. One thing we want is a fireplace in the bedroom - Bev wants a wood burning fp, but I think a gas unit would be more practical.

We are also adding a coat closet to the wall outside the Home Office, on the angled space that appears in orig design to have a statuary place - we're not statuary people.

We talked about the Bonus Room also. We'll have the bath moved over to the stairs side, so that the room could someday be split into two rooms.

One thing we want to keep from the original design is all the windows that look out over the pool area. All the first floor rooms have a view of the pool from various angles, which makes it seem like you are on a large body of water.

Huard Septic got started this week. They didn't accomplish much, mainly visited the property and looked around. They said there appeared to be a recent survey and asked if I could get a copy. I'm not sure what they were talking about, the current owners had a survey done in the 80's, but nothing since. I suspect they saw the markers for an adjacent property and assumed it was my property. I am meeting them at the site next Tuesday morning to walk around with them.

Week 7

This week we decided on an architect - CW Design in Renton WA. We like the ideas that the architect, Bill Bertch, had for some of the things we face such as the bonus room (move bath room closer to stairs so that the room could be easily converted to 2 rooms). His price was reasonable at $1.25/sqft. We meet with Bill next Tuesday to discuss the project.

I talked with the AquaQuip pool guy - Jim Bergstrom - about the pool room. He said that a wood floor would not be best; most people use concrete due to durability and the easier contouring for water drainage. So, we're back to a concrete slab.

He also said that the pool and spa sizes, and their clearances, would be fine in the room. He explained how the pool is constructed: It's first thing installed on a new home site; ground is excavated, pool and spa positioned, leveled and backfilled with sand; water is added and allowed to sit for two weeks to settle the units; concrete pump slab of 4' x 9' is poured (pump can be upto 70 feet from pool); concrete slab in pool room is poured and contoured using a concrete contractor that has specific knowledge of pool installation; pool plumbing and electrical is installed.

The water that is originally put in pool for leveling is what remains even when we move in and start using it! It's about 12,000 gallons and is added over the course of two days using a garden hose. It gives the well pump a good work-out! The framing contractor has to work around the pool, so he usually will place plywood cover over it. After construction the pool company comes out and cleans out the debris and cleans the pool and water.

Our pool room layout, and its tight quarters, doesn't allow for an automatic rail cover system. I don't think we want a cover, anyway, because the pool is meant to be a focal point of the house - why cover it up. Supposed to be energy efficient. I guess if we have $1000/mo energy bills I have to rethink it. He said there are floating covers available, and some sort of liquid cover that helps retain the heat. This is a decision that's made after move-in!

I also talked to Jim about the ducting. He said most people use ceiling suspended tubular duct work. So I emailed the dehumidifier engineer (Mitch with Dehumidifier Corp) about HVAC ducting. He said that suspended ducting around the full perimeter makes sense as long as air blows over the glass surfaces. He said that a novel product to consider is DuctSox because it is lightweight and offers excellent air dispersal. So I started talking with the local DuctSox rep. He said sox, which is a fabric covered plastic bag like material, was better than sheet metal because it does great for full room dispersal, but also that it doesn't promote mold growth. One drawback I learned, though, is that when air isn't running through the sox it droops; not sure I want to be looking at a droopy bag hanging from the ceiling! Anyway, sox is expensive at around $25/linear foot for a 14" diameter tube. For my 30' x 35' room (130 feet) that's around $3200 plus installation. I think we'll be using standard tubular sheet metal ducting. I need to call an HVAC company and get an approximate cost for ducting.

Jim is working up a proposal for the pool & spa - I'll need to be sitting down when that one arrives!

I heard from Huard Septic, they will be starting the septic design next Tuesday. I told them about the pool because it needs to be taken into account when designing the drainfield - there's a setback requirement. I also sent them the Site Layout that I put together, this will help them in placement of the drainfield - I hope that the land supports a drainfield that is down below the property center, since I want to position the house above the center.

Week 6

Again, not much to report. Met with two more architects, one in Bothell WA the other in Renton. They both seem very qualified, and come recommended by my UBuildIt team. The one in Bothell (JM Consulting) was able to get me a proposal back in just a few short hours. He prices his work at $2.50/sqft - which comes to around $8000. The other (CW Design) is preparing a proposal and will have it ready next week.

Not entirely sure which way I'll go - I do know I can't afford the $30K that the premiere firm in Seattle wants. With the UBuildIt guys help I feel confident that I can get a good design and permits package put together by either firm. I'm leaning towards the Renton firm because they are located more conveniently to my home, work and new house - I expect we'll be meeting about six times and the architect will likely visit the site a couple times during the process.

I spoke with AquaQuip Pool salesman yesterday. I sent him the current iteration of the main floor plan showing pool and spa. He's going to get back to me next week to discuss any problems or concerns he sees in what I've drawn up.

I was thinking about the floor material to use in the pool room. The architects have asked me what material I was planning on and I said concrete, but I'm now thinking it will be cheaper to use traditional wood framing, with a sturdy plywood subfloor and waterproof backer-board, overlaid with ceramic tile. The HVAC and pool/spa plumbing should be an easier install as well. I'm thinking the pool people can help with this decision.

Week 5

Not much activity this week. I got cost proposal from Architect (Eric). As expected the price is very high - $30,200!. I was expecting around $20,000, which is about $5000 over what I was told would be normal for a project like this. I thought that since the quality of his work is high that he'd charge a premium, and I was willing to pay a reasonable premium. But I didn't really expect it to be so high. Last time he and I spoke he said he'd probably have to run the project through his firm (AKS Architecture Design) because it would take too long as a part-time project for him. This fact alone was going to raise the price. The firm does excellent work, based on their portfolio, but I can't really afford $30K for architecture.

I have appointments with two smaller firms this coming week, so I hope the price will go down without sacrificing quality.

Week 4

We received the county's CAO Letter last Saturday, showing the critical area on the land. In fact, the land turns out to have only a small seasonal stream in the Northern most corner. It is a Class N stream - which I think is the lowest rating - and has a 65' buffer on either side of the center line that cannot be excavated or developed. That's fine with me because it's in an area of the property that is far from where we'd build the home.

I want to say that the King County Dept of Development and Environmental Services really surprised me. It only took three weeks to do the review and get the letter to me. I was told they were running about six weeks. Plus, it was effortless on my part - sent in app and fee and before I knew it they were finished. You can see the CAO Letter by clicking here.

Now that I have the CAO Letter I can get the septic design underway. I hired Huard Septic Design for this - sent them a $750 deposit and a completed application form. They say they are taking about three weeks to do a design. They will prepare and submit the septic design to the county - which is taking about four months to review a permit request - wow!

We met with the architect last Saturday - Eric Brooks. For three hours we discussed the house we want to build and some of the important items - view, pool, barn. He is going to work up a proposal that describes the services he can provide and their costs. We should be getting that from him sometime this coming week. The stock plans we found are about what we want, but will take some major work. Things like coming up with a kitchen that we like, and a pool room that accommodates the pool and spa. Eric likes the idea of us sharing an AutoCAD project file - I've already sent him what I have and he verified he can open it and see all the images (floor plans, maps, etc) that I've inserted.

I spent many hours last weekend working up the Site Layout which shows placement of house and barn, plus the driveway and parking area. It also shows the excavation area - it should be about 2 acres. Of course, all of this is subject to change as the realities of the septic design and costs to do things like run water, etc, come in. But, you have to start somewhere. I show the current iteration of the site below. One of many to come, I'm sure.

I've also started thinking about the pool room, and the layout of the pool and spa. I show the current layout below. We're going to use fiberglass pool and spa rather than concrete. I think fiberglass components are easier to work with, and probably have lower maintenance. The company whose products I like most, so far, is San Juan Pools. For pool I've select the Catalina model, and for spa the Isle model. I like the curved designs better than rectangular designs, plus I think they'll work with the room size we have. I don't want to be changing the pool room size, it can get expensive. I haven't spoken with the local San Juan Pools vendor around here yet, so I'm not sure I have allowed enough spacing between pool and walls. There could be building codes, etc, that I'm unaware of that will dictate what we can do.

One thing important in a pool room design is ventilation. The pool and spa release a lot of water vapor into the air. I found what appears to be a good vendor for dehumidifiers - Dehumidifier Corporation of America (DCA). I filled out their online quote request and within 24 hours I had a full quote for a system - dehumidifier, heater, remote condenser, controls, etc - that should work well for us. The price is around $9500. Their website is full of information to help you select the unit best for your needs.

Current plan is to use a propane fired heat pump for the house (this may change as we get further into it). The air handler for the unit would be in the garage, and its condenser would be outside against the garage. The dehumidifier's air handler would also go in garage, and its condenser outside next to the heat pump condenser.

This coming week, I hope, I can meet with a pool designer and get some information that helps us understand how to design the pool room for proper pool placement and ventilation ducting - supply and return.

Here's the Site Layout:

Here's the Main Floor Showing Pool Room Layout:

Week 3

We've chosen a house design which we like (see below). It's basically a one level house with a big bonus room above the garage. It has a 70' x 70' footprint. It'll be about 2800 sqft of living space. The thing we like most is the open floor plan, it allows easy access between the kitchen, family room and patio area. The design is called Southern Country, but some call it a bungalow.

The house has a swimming pool, which the primary living space centers around - the master suite, family room, kitchen and dining room. We'll enclose the pool under the roof so that it can be used year round, but will use accordian style glass doors that open to the outside so that you can make it sort of an in-door/out-door pool.

We intend to orient the house so that the rear has the mountain views. This results in a north-east exposure. It will get some morning sun, but by noon in the summer the pool area will be in the shade - and thus cooler.

We're hiring an architect to do the design. You can't just buy stock plans - like I show below - and build it. Each state and county has its own building requirements. One thing especially important around here is that it be engineered to somewhat handle earthquake motion. So, our architect will use the stock plans as a starting point of what we want, take our ideas and design and engineer a house that is totally unique for us and meets Washington state code.

Another important aspect of the property is the pole barn we'll be building. We've selected the Great Western design by Uncle Howard's Barns - see below. It's a 32' x 48' footprint. It has an upper loft which we will turn into a 1600 sqft living space someday - our son Tom has shown an interest in living there. The lower area is a large workshop area for me and Tom to work on cars and build an airplane in (the airplane build will be another blog someday :-) ). The back section of the lower level is where Bev will have her arts and crafts studio. The barn will be oriented so that the loft - which has a terrace on one end - has the mountain views like the rear of the house.

You can learn about the barn here.

Last weekend I downloaded a great CAD program called progeCAD Pro - it's derived from the famous IntelliCAD application. It appears to be fully AutoCAD 2008 compatible and from what I've seen so far it is. It even uses the ACAD menus. As a former AutoCAD user (R14) back in the mid-90's, I found the app completely familiar. It only took me about 4 hours of playing around to be back up to speed. It's not free - it costs $350, which is less than half the price of AutoCAD LT!

I intend to do all the design work - excavation plan, site plan, building design, engineering design, etc - in an ACAD dwg file. I've already started - I went to the county's iMap site (as I discussed last week) and copied the aerial image of my property then inserted it into the dwg file. I carefully scaled it so that it's easy to see the correct relationships between the house, barn and adjacent properties. See the ACAD plot below, it shows the Home Site and Driveway in black; the Excavation Area in red. The cyan arrow shows the direction to Mt. Si.

Here's a PDF that shows some more information about the property and house.

Week 2

A few months back we had decided to use the UBuildIt System to build our house. It essentially allows you to be your own General Contractor. Although it costs around $30K, it's half the cost of a typical GC. And since you have to spend a lot of time at the building site and meeting with subs anyway, you might as well be your own GC. To use UBuildIt you choose one of its national franchises - we chose UBuildIt-Issaquah.

Our Project Manager (to be referred to as alpha1) met with us on June 26th at our lot - before we knew it was our lot - and walked the land with us. He was taking notes to be used in a project review, if we decided to buy it. Within a couple days we had decided to make an offer. The land was raw, meaning no documentation or permits on it, so making an offer means not only deciding on price but also on contingencies such as it being buildable (to our requirements) and things like septic and water permits can be acquired. So our real estate agent - and personal friend - Stuart Heath of Elliott Bay Real Estate wrote up an excellent Offer (he's also an attorney). The offer made sure that we were protected in case the land was not fully buildable to our requirements, which basically means the house can be placed in an area that provides great mountain views. This will be determined as part of the county's CAD review, as I mentioned last week.

It took the sellers from June 28th until August 8th to come to agreement with us on the terms. We were able to get the 5.11 acres for $320K - $10K under asking, and only with $1K earnest money. Since it's raw land we're responsible for paying for all the applications and inspections to determine its buildability. This can amount to, maybe, $6K - money we'd loose if we decide not to go through with the purchase. We're a couple weeks into it now. I called the county on Monday to make sure they received our CAD Application, and that it was in the system - it was, and has been assigned reference number L07SA450.

So, we met with alpha1 on Wednesday and he gave us the Site Review Report that he wrote. It describes the property, and discusses the steps that need to be accomplished in the months ahead to determine the feasibility of building the land. It also contains a rough breakdown of what he thinks the costs will be to develop the land. The range he came up with is $105K - $195K! This is at least $50K more than I expected. One of the big shockers is what permits cost - upto $35K. The county really screws the taxpayer!

Here's a google map showing the property location:













Here's an image from King County's iMap site showing the property boundaries:















If you want to see the actual google map, click here - the map is to the property directly north of ours; ours doesn't have an address yet. Be sure to switch to Satellite image and zoom out so you can see the proximity to Mt. Si and the Cascades.

If you want to see the property in iMap, click here then click "Start iMap" on the page that comes up and then click the "Property Search" button and enter the property's parcel number (1623089136).

I found out from Bill Lasby, King County Drinking Water Program, that since we have over five acres we do have the option of drilling our own well or, if the moratorium is lifted we could connect to North Bend City Water. We haven't decided which way to go yet - it will depend on cost. If there's enough water pressure from the city we might go that route; could be cheaper. We do know that we'll be required to have a fire sprinkler system - they're becoming common around here for residential - thanks insurance companies - and cost around $8K.

Next week I'll talk about the house we have decided to build.

Week 1

We're just getting started on our house build project. Last Friday we obtained mutual acceptance on an offer for a 5.11 acre lot in North Bend, Washington. The lot is heavily treed, mostly with mature Alders, but there are also some very nice Maples. We'll probably harvest the Alders - they're commercial grade - to help pay for some of the excavation costs. We wish it had more Douglas Fir and/or Cedar trees.

The lot has magnificent views of Mt. Si and the Cascades. The county - King County - requires that a Critical Areas Designation (CAD) review of the property be conducted before permits can be issued. The CAD process is controversial in these parts because it essentially allows the county to identify areas (wetlands, etc) to control where you can build. It restricts you to only clearing a max of 35% of your land - of course you get to pay full taxes on it!

I sent the CAD application and the $770 deposit to have a county environmental scientist walk the land and produce a CAO Letter which tells me if and where I can build on the property. They bill their "scientists" at $140/hour - what a money maker for the county! I estimate they'll suck around $2000 from me before they issue the CAO Letter. If they find too many critical areas on the lot, preventing me from building in an area that gives me the best mountain views, I'll back out of the purchase and look for a different lot.

I found out a couple days ago that there's North Bend City water available to the lot (it's not in the city boundaries though - just in the water service area). Problem is, though, there's a moratorium on new connections. It might get lifted at end of the year, in which case I can connect for $2760 - there's also an ordinance in the works to charge an additional $2450. It'd be nice if the moratorium was lifted and I got in before the new ordinance kicks in - not likely!

I am trying to find out if they will let me drill a private well, even though city water is available - I'd like to have the option because then I'd be sure to have water available. You can't get a building permit without running water.

I'll start scanning photos of the land plat, house plans etc and post them next week.