Oak Knoll Mom Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 There is a remote (and by remote I mean really remote) chance that we will build a house in a couple of years. I'd like to go ahead and start looking at house plans so that I will be prepared when (if) the time comes. Where are some of your favorite sites to look at house plans? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mull-berry-ish Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 My f&mil built their own house about 10 years ago. They bought a treed lot and designed the house so minimal trees would be cut down. I think they used various software and home plan books. The one mistake they made ... to save $$$ ... once they had the rough sketches of what they wanted, they hired a draftsman instead of an architect. While the draftsman did a wonderful job, he did not have the experience to look for potential problems at the blueprint stage. So, my inlaws encountered these problems when building ... read cost extra $$$ and headache. - the only room upstairs was a project room/guest bedroom with a bath. Their design left no room for the a/c-heat ducts to get up there. They had to rig something in the middle of building to fix. Result: the room is always too hot or too cold. - water heater placement in relation to kitchen resulted in a bunch of windy pipes that caused the kitchen sink to run for way too long before hot water would come out. Imagine the same for dishwasher. Frustrating for mil on a daily basis. - the guy who did the dozer work to clear the lot only knocked down specified trees, but he pushed the extra dirt up to the remaining trees leaving 1-2 feet of dirt on their roots. Even though it was a few weeks, the tree roots couldn't breathe, therefore, they lost more trees than planned. - the builder they bought the lot from is the same one they had build it. Even though they had reservation, they did it anyway. He turned out to be inexpensive but he made a lot of mistakes. He was more of a hobby builder. They ended up having to go by there everyday and re-measure, etc. One example, the tub/spa they wanted was mismeasured and a frame wall had to be moved. Lots and lots of "little" things that added $$. I hope this helps ... watching them build their home was an experience. I hope someone can learn from it. : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claire Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Do you already have the land? Many times house plans are dictated by the lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mull-berry-ish Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 This sounds like such a bad experience, I'd thought I'd add some things that they really like about their home. - South-facing garage - you get summer breeze and lots of sunshine in winter - One bedroom doubled as an office - they build a super big closet (wall to wall in back and about 4 feet wide) to hide filing cabinets, and have an air-conditioned storage. - their design did not have wasted space in the traditional "hallway to the bedrooms." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oak Knoll Mom Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 Do you already have the land? Many times house plans are dictated by the lot. We are looking at some land right now, but don't know a lot of details at this moment. I'm just dreaming right now.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineIN Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 No advice, just wanted to say good luck. We tossed around the idea of building last year, but decided with the cost and the housing market, it was more feasible to buy an existing home. It took us a few months, but we found pretty close to what we were looking for and couldn't be happier. Things that we didn't like can be changed (mainly we want hardwood floors in the dining/living area) the kitchen has a wall that we want to take out and we need to put in a few ceiling fans, but other than that, things are perfect! Kristine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 http://www.coolhouseplans.com/ I googled house plans and found several sites. This was one of our favorites--and the one we ended up using. We purchased the 'reproducible' set and we had our builder make a few minor changes (moved a fireplace and a wall) before the final set was printed. We DID pay an architect a small fee to review the changes we made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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