How To Design A House You Can Actually Afford

Comments · 32

• US

  @user-tv5dt3nm9y · 8 days ago

  Spend time in your current home taking note of the sq footage you have and how it is used and space there, but not utilized. Measure your most used spaces to determine what could be made smaller or needs more.

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• DE

  @deanna6042 · 3 hours ago

  I'm completely revitalizing a home built in 1900 with all new electrical, plumbing, roof and mechanical systems.    I don't want my finished home to look new, I want it to look loved, so I'm reusing everything I can. Deconstruction takes 25x's longer than demolition, but it's also 100% cheaper.

• FI

  @fish-eater-1 · 2 days ago

  That was some good advice on the over and underated section.

• LI

  @lisahwang1011 · 12 days ago

  In Joshua tree, we also need a perc test. I finished a 600sf ADU on my property last year on a budget and total cost was 160k without appliances.

  4

• EV

  @eveningstar1 · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  thank you for all this info.  did a carpentry apprenticeship in order to build my own place. Loved the video.

  12

• ST

  @StardustMonkey · 2 weeks ago

  In my area of SF bay area… we need a stamped civil grading and drainage plan, geotech samples with report and review letter, structural stamp and like 350 pages of calcs, fire suppression system plan, title 24, landscape plan and WELO water use plan, Solar mechanical plan, if you do not have power yet PG&E requires a $15k electrical engineering plan set… without architect it will cost about 40k in design and stamps costs minimum at the cheapest, then the city charges $75k in permits and impact fees… if the slope on your lot is over 10% you will need hillside review process and community meeting, if you want to remove trees there will be a community meeting and steep fees and mitigation of they are oak trees or redwoods... so yes people need to know what going to be charged before they buy.

  22

• CH

  @CharlieZenenour · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dMxe4LWN24&amp;t=123">2:03</a> you definitely need to know the land you’re building on in advance.<br><br>without knowing things like wind directions, positioning of sun light, humidity, soil type and so on…<br><br>you can easily build a house that looks good on paper but will be too stuffy, overheated by the sun, too dark inside or just no ventilation at all.<br><br>a well designed home is one where you’re not living with air circulation issues and natural light being scarce or too exposed to direct sunlight.<br><br>you cannot make a cookie cutter design for wall openings and shading and expect a decent experience living there without planning for the environment in that plot of land.

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• RU

  @rustart · 8 days ago

  Excellent in every way. Organized, understandable, pragmatic. Slam dunk. Subscribed.

  1

• GS

  @gsabic · 2 days ago

  what is you opinion on ICCF like &quot;the perfect block&quot; of EF block?

• MA

  @mayjones9324 · 10 days ago

  It&apos;s strange to me that so many architects and builders don&apos;t work with CEAs during design to avoid to costly and disappointing modifications. &nbsp;I am designing a house for myself in JT and I am incorporating title 24 part 6 requirements into the design.

• US

  @user-tv5dt3nm9y · 8 days ago

  To make a stick frame house better now than past, more expensive materials are required and more labor to install those materials are required. That doesn&apos;t sound like innovation to me. Innovation in this case would be a system that allows for improvement without relative increased material and labor cost.

  3

• LI

  @littlepotato2741 · 12 days ago (edited)

  Looking forward to finishing the video. I&apos;m currently designing my offgrid homestead. I don&apos;t have land yet. In fact, I&apos;m going to be saving up money for the next couple of years before I even start looking for land.<br><br>I&apos;m glad I started early with the design. I&apos;ve run into so many problems and fixes so far. To draw from an electrical comparison, I look at my design as logic planning and the physical layout will be determined by the land once I get it. I do have some physical relationships from my designs that the land will need to support. Such as needed true south access for solar panels. Such as needing some slope and height difference because I need some height difference to more easily set up a rainwater capture system (home + garage roofs -&gt; four 55gal low tech barrel filters -&gt; 15000gal of water storage.)<br><br>Another thing I&apos;ve knocked out early is addressing fire hardening. I live in an area where fires are a threat. My goal is that the building will survive with zero interaction by me. For example, this philosophy (and the cold winters) has led me to using a continuous external insulation of rockwool along with metal siding/roof. And an unvented roof.<br><br>And one more useful thing about preplanning... You don&apos;t think of everything at once. I&apos;ve added and removed buildings in my planning so far. Giving yourself a good amount of time to think about it or maybe even just hear a good idea that you decide you&apos;d like to add. The extra time allows to you build all of these as sleeves in your concrete foundation. For me, this keeps it nice in clean. and keeps things that could burn underground.<br><br>My build is a little easier because I&apos;m specifically targeting being in the county. Even then, the requirements for the certificate of occupancy is a little hefty for my financial abilities. It would be fine if I could have some &quot;temporary construction&quot; living onsite so I could funnel my current rent money in the house. Unfortunately, I may have to go to another state where I can live onsite while building. I don&apos;t mind setting up septic and getting an inspection to make sure that it is done right. Human waste management is important. But my current county requires a registered company do all the work which adds a lot of cost.<br><br><br>Edit: <br>The DIY split. Great point. I decided that I&apos;d put up the walls and the external plywood/wrb/insulation/siding/roofing. I&apos;ll contract out the concrete foundation. And I&apos;m going to get one of those prebuilt and engineered roof frames. This feels logical to me and two areas that outsourcing to professionals that help me make sure they are done correctly.