Building Home

Hello all,

I have a dream. Never done this before, but would love to build a small home and do most of the work. The great hope: To build a small/cozy 1,000sq. ft.(+ -) with 3 bedromms and 1.5 baths for under 50k. Some details: A village lot that I own and there is municipal water and sewer lines going through the front yard. There is natural gas and electric in front too. If anyone on this forum has any cost saving suggestions at all, I would be very grateful. I'm looking for ideas from the overall-design, to the style of foundation, to the types of water supply lines, and plumbing-heating design that I should use. I will be grateful for any support.
Also, Can I even do this for under 50k?

Thanks,
Molo

50k

Probably not if you are doing it yourself. For one thing, you will be constantly changing and upgrading as you go along, and you are not going to get contractor's prices for the materials you buy.

Maybe if you buy all used material, when you can, and do all the labor your self but it may take a few years in your spare time.

Check out Taunton Press (publishers of Fine Homebuilding). They have a book on small homes that might give you some great inspiration.

i'd be wary of kits. Complete houses you buy as a build-it-yourself kit. They are many man-years of work. Even though they have made many of the design decisions, as well as measuring and cutting lots of wood, they still leave you with lots of unanswered questions and new decision-making to do.

If I was not going to live on site and be there 100% while building, I'd look at several major steps that I could have done with highly skilled suppliers for each step. I'd look at insulated forms for concrete (ICF's) and I'd look into using concrete to go higher up the walls than just stop at the basement. I'd look at insulated structural panels (SIP's) and other methods to get major components like roof trusses done totally properly somewhere off-site and then delivered and installed.

This would build a shell first, an insulated basement, insulated walls, and a roof. And then I'd take a break, and do the next few big steps another year. I'd make sure the building envelope was tight before moving into the "finishing".

david

Hello All,

Does anyone have any recommendations for affordable heating systems, that are affordable to operate? I want to build a 1000-1200 sq. ft. home, one story, three bedrooms and 1.5 baths. on a crawl space. I am considering a forced air-furnace, is this a good/bad idea?

Thanks,
Molo

Insulation is always a key factor for affordable heating. So, build with much attention to insulating everything well, including the underside of the floor above the crawl space.

The newest forced-air gas furnaces are exhausted through PVC pipe -- no heat up a chimney -- but their high-tech components can make them more expensive to maintain/repair.

Hydronic heating in the floor can be versatile as to actual heat source, and the house water heater could actually be that source ... but then the water heater would have to be electric to keep from sending heat up a chimney.

Oh, and you can easily heat the bathroom with a toasty-warm tile floor!

My sister took a course at a communitiy college about building houses ( a non-credit course). In that, they discussed ICFs (insulated concrete forms - i.e., foam blocks). One reference was a gymnasium built in one of the northern states, I think it was Wisconsin...it cost them $100/year to heat the thing. The huge thermal mass insulated well tempers the heat changes such that it takes about 3-days to feel the change. Build it all the way to the eaves, use panels for the ceiling (you can get them with drywall already installed, but you have to tape it) and have the structure enclosed in no time. No floors, but walls, insulation, and roof. Either do that, or use the factory panels to also make the walls. Very solid, very little air infiltration. WIth the ICF's, a VERY quiet house, too.