Can I Build It

Chances are if your considering building your own house you have been planning and dreaming about what you want for years.   There are several options for developing your house plans when building your own house.  There are endless sources for house plans online that come with just about everything you need to build a house.  The challenge is that you will inevitably want to make changes to these plans.   Some builders will do your plans even if they aren’t building the house for a fee.  I worked with a designer while building our house.

Plans for Building Your Own House

I’m happy to share the designer that I worked with if you contact me.  Your probably thinking that it would be to expensive to work with a designer but in many cases  its as affordable as buying a set of plans online.  This also gives you the opportunity to customize your plans with the help of a professional.  Trust me its worth every penny.

In my case my designer charged me $.50 per square foot so for the same price that it would cost to buy a construction ready set of house plans online I got a complete custom design that fit perfectly on my lot. Find someone locally to work with that seems like they will be patient.  You will go through several rounds of edits even if you have a clear idea of what you want.  Most likely the will start with the particulars of your lot including your setbacks etc.

Try your absolute best to get all your changes done during the planning stage.  It’s allot easier to make changes with your designer than with multiple sub contractors.  Even if you get to the point where its going to cost you to make revisions with your designer its worth every penny.  Making changes once you have multiple subcontractors involved will become very challenging.  Since much of what they do is interrelated it’s very important that they are all working from the same page.  It can also protect you from having to pay for redo’s that were a result of a change that wasn’t on your construction plans.  Never communicate a change to a subcontractor verbally.  Meet with them write it on their plans and have them initial and date the changes on your master set of plans.

Here are a few things to consider when creating your plans that you may find helpful that won’t add significant cost to your project:

• Limiting your west facing windows will help greatly with energy efficiency
• It’s hard to error on the side of adding to much light, add more than you think you need
• Same thing with electrical outlets add more than you think you need, especially in the garage and the kitchen
• Add a water faucet that is connected to your water softener in the front of your garage to wash your cars with (No Hardwater Spots!)
• Consider adding some outlets in the eves of your house if you do Holiday lighting every year with a switch inside the house
• If you plan on storing things in your attic make sure it can support the weight or it will sag after time