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)