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.