Nothing is constant but change

Everyone building a custom home can probably confirm that this old saying is more than true. Of course, we can confirm as well. As 2014 rolled from winter into spring, we made some adjustments to our plans. This also included minor floor plan changes.

For cost reason, we had to scale back to 8" walls (still > R30), but we stuck with the triple pane windows. The gas stove has been replaced with a pellet stove (no fossil fuel here!) and we changed the porch (12'x16' now) as well as deck design (with the exit on the south along the smaller porch). We got the final prints from our architect in May (see below).

And even those will most likely not be implemented exactly. Some updates we already know about, and I am asure that there will be more tweaks as we go along. But we spare you with all the minor modifications and present the "official" plans as we handed them to our builder:

Main (First) Floor

Ground Floor 

Elevations

Floorplan Evolution, August 2013

You may have read the May entry on the Floor plan Evolution topic. Well, this was a major stage in our own design. At that point, the architect we chose was involved already and there were many ideas going back and forth in early summer. Circular staircases, straight ones, around the corner stairs. Then different bathroom and walk-in closet designs, sauna locations an more. The only thing that seemed stable was the basic arrangement between kitchen, the dining room (corner bench on the southwest corner) and the living room (taking in the westerly views). Come to think of it, we have found this arrangement a while ago and stuck with it over the months. One example floor plan that inspired us was this:

Another milestone was reached in early August of 2013, after we had a meeting with architect and builder on our porch in Williston. The below floor plan is the architect's implementation of all the ideas and discussion so far.

In hindsight, this version proved to be very stable. I am actually writing this blog in January 2014 and we still use this exact floor plan. There will likely be more changes by the time we build, but overall, this is what our future home will look like!

Floorplan Main Floor (August 2013)

Floorplan Basement (August 2013)

Elevations (August 2013)

Floorplan Evolution, May 2013

Over the course of Fall 2012 to Summer 2013, there were countless iterations of our floor plan. Too many to list them all here. But I'd like to at least mention the major stages we went through.

One major concern was cost, of course. But besides that it was how a particular floor plan would work in terms of the thermal envelope. I already mentioned that we dropped the cathedral ceiling idea because of energy aspects, but there is more. One fundamental principle is to reduce wall space. From basic geometry, we know that the best perimeter to area ratio is offered by a circle. Since a round house is not  our preferred solution and it would be impractical to build, the next best thing is a square. Non-square rectangles are already less optimal, and every corner, every wing or addition makes a house less energy efficient due to the increased wall space. So a basic rectangular footprint (as close to square as possible) should be the target for any energy efficient house. External additions that are not in the thermal envelope like garages, porches etc. are OK though. When talking about the horizontal thermal insulation, window area (and window types) is another topic. But I will save that for later.

The next step is the in the thermal insulation towards the roof. While there are methods of properly insulating the roof itself (when using attic space or having a second floor like in a cape style house with at least partial slanted ceilings), it adds cost and the need for spray foam or other non-recycled material.
Avoiding the use of the attic all together allows for simply putting many inches of loosely packed cellulose on top of your (flat) ceiling of the main or upper floor. That is basically what we did in yet another evolution step: Instead of adding guest quarters and office space under the roof, we moved these rooms into the basement. After some cost discussions, we even decided against finishing the space under the roof in the future, so that a simple truss design can be used.

Here's the status of May 2013 (actually, one of the many options under investigation; this particular one was using s straight staircase to the lower floor):

Main Floor (May 2013) 

Basement (May 2013)

West Elevation (May 2013)

Redefining Priorities

After some back and forth between architect, the builder and us, it soon became
clear, that the cost for a house with many angles, nooks and crannies
(especially when it comes to energy efficient building techniques) was
going to exceed our budget.

So basically, we could build cheaper (meaning not as energy efficient)
or go to a simpler, maybe smaller design. It was a clear decision: No
compromises with respect to energy efficiency!

So we went back to the drawing board, spend the good part of a weekend
to figure out whether a simpler, rectangular design could work as well.
Circular stairs were being discussed, but basically shot down by our architect.
In the end, we kept the basic ideas of the main floor with a central
staircase, but were able to squeeze it into a 34x42 footprint (basically
~1200sf on main floor). Picking up on the concept of a South Farm house
in Hinesburg that we visited, we also moved the second
floor rooms into the basement, occupying about 50% of the space down
there. So we could save on finishing the whole 2nd floor as well as
using a simpler base shape.

Another cost factor was the detached garage: A separate structure with
connector to the main house would have been much more than an integrated
solution. We did not like the idea of building the garage later, as this
did not eliminate or reduce the total cost, only postponed them.

Initial Design Studies

We came a long way in terms of design ideas over the course of the years. When we first started looking for a lot in the 2004 timeframe, our plan was for a 2200+ sf house with cathedral ceiling, full 2nd floor and basement, in total having even more volume as the Williston house. This was based on a Timberframe plan book from the Garlinghouse company, mixed with some of our own ideas.

West Elevation of 2004 Design Idea

The more recent design ideas came from the Dakota plan of Timberblock, a Canadian company building R30 designs with wood beams having a foam core, the looks almost like log homes. It was still using an open, cathedral ceiling living room, but the scale was much smaller, already below 2000sf. Still too big for Doris who was more aiming for 1600sf.

Timberblock Dakota Model

Dakota 1st Floor

Dakota 2nd Floor

It all evolved from there. The first thing that everyone suggests when it comes to energy efficiency is to drop the cathedral ceiling. It was a hard decision, giving up on this grand living room design,  but a 9' ceiling with big windows should still feel roomy enough.

So we scaled down to a 1 1/2 floor design (using ~60% of the footprint in the upper floor for a 2nd bed/bathroom, office and sauna). That was the state at the end of 2012. It turned out that there would be many more updates in the coming months.

The Quest for the Perfect Lot

During my AirBnB activities, we met two very nice ladies in Warren, both real estate agents themselves. When we causally mentioned that we were looking for a building lot (not really serious at that point), they pointed us to a lot on the market along East Warren Road. This particular one did not work out for us, but it woke our interest to get more serious. Our ideal lot would be in the order of 5 acres, slightly sloping with some woods in the back and enable some southern or westerly views. We first explored the Mad River Valley area. We then ventured to Waterbury, Moretown, Ferrisburgh, etc. We saw some nice lots, but nothing really satisfied the both of us completely. But our agent said not to worry, we will know when we find the right lot because "our heart will sing". And she was right! 

By late summer 2012, we already convinced ourselves that we still have to commute to Essex Junction for a while. The Mad River Valley, as nice as the area is, was simply too far out. So we looked into Chittenden County again, first Bolton and Underhill, then further north. One day, I dug up some listings of land in Westford. We made an appointment with the listing agent on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012 to check out the available lots.

It was a sunny, but windy day and we walked around the whole parcel of this small development of five building lots. It turned out that we fell in love with one of the lots (the first lot was already under contract). It is a 5 acre piece of land, with some woods and open meadow, the main exposure is facing west, the land is slightly sloping and bordered by a river below. In addition, there is a lot of common land around. Perfect!

Walking the building lot for the first time

Despite some initial noise concerns we went ahead and made an offer for the building lot. A slightly adjusted offer was then accepted by the seller. Of course there were a few hickups along the way (nothing is as simple as it should be). But with the help of our attorney and real estate agent, we could get the legal aspects clarified and the contract to be acceptable to both parties.

So we closed on the lot in November of 2012. We decided to use the lower tax rate for a building completion within two years. Let's hope we make it!

The Story Begins

Designing and building a home has been a dream of ours for the longest time. Not just a house, but a home where we feel comfortable, a place that fits our lifestyle, matches our ideals and simply works for us, and not the other way around.

I am not sure exactly when this desire started, so it must have been a long, long time ago...

For example, we had looked at a building lot in Hinesburg already in 2004. For various reasons, this did not work out. We decided to wait and the timeline ALWAYS seemed to be 5 or 10 years out. 

Building Lot in Hinesburg, August 2004

But when I worked as a freelance photographer for AirBnB in summer of  2012 and had the chance to see many nice homes in beautiful country settings, waiting even a few more years was not satisfying any more. Something had to be done about it. Now!

Building a custom home from scratch sounded like an expensive process. So besides casually looking at building lots, we also considered pre-loved homes that were for sale. We were very picky and only selected a few listings that sounded like a perfect match for us on paper. But when we actually looked at them, nothing seemed good enough. Not even the 80-10-10 rule as proposed by an agent was working for us (80% matches your preferences, 10% can be adjusted and 10% you just have to live with). We soon realized that the custom home route was the only way that would satisfy us. And so the quest for a "building lot that made our heart sing" started...

Almost everyone was telling us that building a house is a most stressful process, filled with a lot of conflicts between owner, builder, architect and all the other contractors. Supposedly nothing turns out exactly the way you had planned and you will certainly exceed your budget big time. So much for the theory.

We decided to approach this with enough planning time, enthusiasm, positive attitude and a certain degree of flexibility and try to make the best of it. We'll see in the end how this turns out. Wish us the best for this adventure!

We started this blog to document the planning, design and building process to share the experience with family and friends. We hope that you will join us in this journey.