Thoughts on building a home.

Apologies in advance for the wall of text and any rambling.

Eventually I would like to build a home on my property. Material prices are nuts right now, and I've been foolish financially, so this is all hopes and dreams at this point. The best way to turn hopes and dreams into reality is to have a plan. That's the stage I'm in. Planning. This may never come to fruition, but it never hurts to get it lined out.

I have some rough ideas, and even some more specific ones, but zero experience in this stuff. Figured I'd ask those who have gone through the process and those that build homes for a living for some guidance. I'll try to be detailed and specific.


THE LOT

To start with here's a google map of my property. Approximately 1.33 Acres in total. Currently has a doublewide (yep, I'm trailer trash) with a deck on it.

The land and trailer are owned outright. The only utility is electric. No city water or sewage.

• Blue border is just outside my property and roughly follows the fences that you can see.
• Blue "X" is an old milk barn concrete foundation.
• Small Blue square is a pump house that was built over the well.
• Red Circle is a tree (Willow?) that cannot me damaged for sentimental reason.
• Two red "X"s are ground that is pretty swampy and basically useless, I think.
• Red lines above the "X"s is an irrigation ditch.
• After getting the area leveled/graded my hope would be to build the house behind (west) of where the doublewide is currently sitting.

The ground level is a mess, so I know I have to get that straightened out. Where the milk barn foundation sits is the highest point, and it's a pretty steep, almost straight, 18"-24" drop off the southern side of it. Ideal plan would be to bring the rest of the yard area back there up to it's level, or close to it, and gradually slope it to the tree out front.

• If I break up that old pad/foundation, can I use the chunks as part of the fill for the area southwest of it's current location, or would that present a stability issue with where I want to build?

THE HOUSE

Here is the link to the floor plan I have found to be closest to what I would like. 2 car garage with a bonus space and bathroom above it. Ranch style, as I don't like stairs. Crawlspace foundation so no lines or anything are buried in a slab. NO BASEMENT. They flood in this part of the state. I only plan to go through this process once, if at all, so this leaves room for a family should that ever be in the cards for me.

https://www.thehousedesigners.com/plan/pine-meadow-7218/?1=0&reverse=False#floor-plan-0

As stated, this floor plan is close to what I want. There are some things I would very much like to change, and the site with the plan says they do adjust plans for a fee. No idea how much that would cost, but their plans are supposed to be ready for submittal once you get them.

Orientation of the plan would have to rotate so the garage faced the road/existing driveway.

I'll reserve the next few posts so I can put it some floor plan pics and what I would like to change.

 

Here's the basic floor plan. Again, the orientation would be 180* rotation to have the dining and family room windows facing south. My best views are to the south.




Starting simple with the changes. The door from the dining room to the lanai would pose a problem. That side of the house will be facing South and the door would be pointed right toward the winds coming from the West.

Proposed solution would to have windows where the existing door is (blue line), and instead have a set of double French doors in the space where the south facing family room windows are (red butt cheeks) and have thin windows on either side of the doors. I would also not do the built in grill they show (green X).






More basic changes:

The Blue Square in the master would is a set of double doors that would be replaced by a sliding barn door. Possibly widen the door way to make the tub install easier as well.

Red Circles are two pocket doors that I would eliminate. I hate pocket doors. Terrible idea, and whatever genius came up with them should be kicked swiftly and repeatedly in the behind.
The pocket door nearest the mud room would be replaced with a sliding barn door in the hall.

The Red Line and Door indicates moving the access to the under stair storage space out to the garage. If the indicated location wasn't large enough for a door I would move the man door of the garage closer to the Mud Room and put the door in with a straight shot under the stairs.

The Blue Circle is another d@mn pocket door that would be eliminated. That would just become a solid wall. No need for two doors into a bathroom.





For the home builders and planners:

1. Is this a crazy challenge?
2. Hard to pull off?
3. Is it expensive or difficult to get plans redrawn/edited?

 

Now for some of the more significant changes. This is where builder advice and info would be appreciated.


The Master Bath

The Red Lines would be added walls.

The Puple/Pink Xs are on a sink and wall that would be removed.

The Blue Oval and lines near it represent the extended vanity with a second sink.

The Blue Butt Cheeks are the linen closet doors. This could be built in, or the cubby could be left open for a furniture piece or even open shelving.

The Aqua markings indicate the glass, door, shower heads and window for the relocated shower. Totally stealing the design ideas from @Boosted4runner in this thread. Also 100% stealing the kind of tub. I love it and I want it. Not sorry.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/building-a-new-home.28189/page-2#post-692043

 

The other end of the house, and more plumbing changes.

Forgive the image. This was something I did a long time ago in paint so I could visualize. Please ignore the stuff in the Master Bath on this one. It was just spit balling ideas to get a little bigger shower in.

Now, to the bedroom side of the house. I don't want clean that many toilets, so the two over there gotta go.

OPTION 1

I used brown to cover up the fixtures to help me imagine it.

The Red Lines indicate new walls.

The Blue Butt Cheeks are new double doors to access the closets.

The 2 Blue Dashes on the exterior of the upper bedroom would be the boundaries of a new window. This would carry through all the options, but I forgot to draw it on the others.





The primary goal of these changes would be to make the bedrooms a little bigger, and it give the Study/4th Bedroom a larger closet for storage. The doors for the 2 new closets could also be sliding barn doors to keep the floor space open.

The secondary goal (naïve hope) would be reducing cost by eliminating pluming and fixtures. I'm not sure how realistic this is, but it's nice to dream.

OPTION 2

Another option for this side of the house would be to just convert both baths into walk in closets, and still expanding the Study's closet.




This option would make the upper room quite a bit larger than the lower one. I'm not certain if the little closet walls in the upper room would bear any load because of the way they align with some walls on the other side of the house.


OPTION 3

This one is a little harder to illustrate. It is, again, inspired by @Boosted4runner's home. A single shower/toilet space separated from the 2 sinks. This way one person/kid can shower/tinkle while another is brushing teeth and such.

The Blue Shark Fins would be doors.

Red Line would be a wall.

The Aqua Square and Circle would be a new sink/vanity.

The Purple/Pink Xs indicate the removed items/wall sections. The toilet would be relocated to the X over the sink to give more space next to the tub/shower.





This option still reduces the fixtures and plumbing, but not as much. It also doesn't increase the room sizes or the closet for the Study. Still something to ponder.

 

For the area surrounding the foundation of your future home, the concrete should be fine for filler but not directly under the homes foundation. Are you planning on burying plumbing lines and tying into your cities water and sewer? You'll also want to extend the electrical underground and pop up at the panel that will be on the side of your new home. All of that will need to be submitted with your plans when you go to get permits or they will deny.

 

How wide is your property where you want to build? And is the drop off 18-24 feet or 18-24 inches? I assume it’s feet since you said it is a mess, but you mixed feet and inches in your original post.

 

If you build behind the double how far would your house be from your leach field and well and where are they in relation to each other? Is the leach field where you want to build? Would you have to relocate the leach field? If you would how close would the leach field be from the well? There are codes about how far a leach field has to be from a well and then there are leach tests. Putting a leach field near the swampy area could present some problems.

 

Good info on not putting it under the foundation. The ballpark build area for the house (not to scale) is the Green box. It may move a bit but you get the general idea.

Good catch. I meant inches. The Purple/Pink box is the drop of 18"-24" from the edge of the old barn foundation. It is less of a drop as you gradually move in the direction of the Purple/Pink Arrow.

Answering all these as best I can here.

No city utilities. I am miles out in the county, just like I like it. Currently the trailer is all electric, so that bites. Any gas would require a propane tank, and that's my plan. Neighbor's home runs on it, and does well.

Electrical is a drop wire to a pole north of the trailer (Red circle). Could stay or be moved as needed, I think.

Blue Square is the pump house and the X inside it is roughly where the well is. Small Red Box is where the septic tank is, and the arrow is the direction to the leech field. I'm not certain if it is under the first or second Red Box with a Question Mark.




I plan to do a plan/pic post for the land soon, but I am doing this between putting out fires at work. Patience is appreciated.

 

would be good to know where the septic tank and drain field are at…that will impact what you can do where, and also play into how you route drainage from the new house. And, as booney mentioned, there are minimum setbacks from a well to septic.

As for the garage - why not simply put the garage door on the end facing the driveway and keeping the house orientation as it is now? Unless you prefer the dining room to face south. That change would require some structural changes, but nothing drastic - it would likely eliminate the extra little bump out thing with the window and extra roof on the front, but the gable wall would actually be less load on the door header.

You can also consider getting the plan MIRRORED to put the garage on the high side of the property, which would also line up with the current driveway.

Your proposed door/window relocations aren’t difficult. No idea what that company charges for those sort of things though - you’d have to ask them. There’s nothing structurally changed by what you are proposing there because those areas would have been framed with headers either way.
You may also consider putting the house on the current mobile site. Obviously this displaces you during construction, but often you can buy a 5th wheel, live in it for the ~9 months of construction, and sell it for close to what you paid (assuming you don’t buy one brand new to start) when you are done. That may make utility hook-up easier, and may work best with the septic and drain field (if they are located in the area of the purposed new home site).

Also check on your setback requirements, then make sure the house will still fit the lot.

 

Based on the greener grass, I’m betting the drain field is your first red box.

With the demo and grading of the area where the milk house was, that does give you driveway access past the current house to work on the new one. Running new water from the well would be easy enough. The added distance to the septic tank (and required sloping) is something that needs to be considered…or dropping in a new three chamber tank and pumping to the existing drain field (provided you can locate the new tank far enough from the well).

Propane typically has setback requirements for the tank if it’s above a certain size. Here where I live, my 500gal track requires 25ft from any structure, and 10 from property lines. But your locale may have different codes.

 

Depending on how far out of the city you are check to see if you need a fire sprinkler system in the home.

 

Agreed, but I'm not certain.

When I get time I will put up a proposal/plan for the lot changes. One of my concerns is the slope from the new house to the tank because of the distance. The tank may need to be moved closer, and that would possible move the leech field. Either way, there should be room to accomodate.

Similar to the septic things, there is space enough to have the tank away from structures.

 

Completely outside all town jurisdictions and limits. Only County laws/rules apply.

 

Make sure you talk to your local Fire Marshall because they require them if you live a certain distance from a fire station, or they do in Colorado anyway. I see it happen all the time that the home owner gets the surprise that they need them and they call us in a panic. This is all I know about houses lol

 

Okay, guys, I'm trying to get the proposed changes compiled. I guess I should have had them all set up before I started the thread, but didn't expect all this activity so quickly. Really should have reserved more posts too!


Please, be patient. I'll try to respond to questions and such, but only after I've finished with my reserved posts. You may want to hold your questions, because they may be answered before you ask them.

 

Okay, I think I have all my proposed changes set up in the first few posts.

Now it's time to tag those who've been through the process and those who build them. If I miss anyone, please tag them! More experience is always worth evaluating.

People who have built:
@Medic343
@mdavis
@T-Rex266
He's been tagged before, but @Boosted4runner
Not sure if you went through the process or actually built it, but @RainMan_PNW

Builders:
@1UPPER
@Professional Hand Model
@Medic


Anyone I missed?

 

I’m going to live vicariously through you for a while because I have always wanted to build my own home and it’s not likely to ever happen.

 

My dads a home builder and I did electrical before I became the Popo, plus I'm planning a new build myself so If I can offer any advice I will do so

 

This might never happen, but it definitely won't if I don't try to plan for it. This is more likely just me being an optimistic fool.

 

And here's a final wish for the plan.

THE GARAGE

I'd love to extend the length of the garage by 3 feet. The base garage is 21'5"x21'5" and that should fit the Tundra. Not a lot of spare room, but it should be able to pull all the way in. If I could push the door out another 3 feet to 24'5" I wouldn't have to take my ball hitch out to park in the garage.

I wouldn't mind widening it to swallow that little bump out on the side either, or just knocking that part off the plan without widening the garage. Simpler roofs are less expensive, and this thing already has plenty that will cost me.




More space is always better in a garage/shop space, but I really don't know how feasible it is because of the slope of the roof. Looking at the render above I have my doubts, but I'm an idiot so I am asking our experts here!


Also, this is the side of the house that would face the road. Yes, the curb appeal is garbage, but I'm not ever planning on selling.

 

This is very timely for me. We are buying land now and hope to build soon. I am working on house plans but will be paying attention to this thread for ideas. Mine will be out in the county as well, with planned septic, well, and propane tank (even though there is a natural gas line that literally runs through my property, but with no access for me!) My main holdup now is materials costs. I am praying that those costs drop significantly over the next 6-12 months.

My only comment on yours right now is in regards to your planned orientation. Even if you're not planning to sell, you might want to consider the view from the road. If you're not yet married, I can almost guarantee that your future wife will have an issue with that. If you are, make sure to run that past her. Good luck with your process!

 

I’d run it by your builder designer and let them tell you what to do. Most anything is possible with $$$. Cool house design you have. Another idea to fit your truck is for someone to frame in a Niche such that your hitch would recess into it when backing in.

I remember suggesting that to someone here a few years ago after they brought their new truck home and it wouldn’t fit. Pretty cheap versus building/buying a new home after the fact. In your case messing up those roof lines may not be doable without going taller or slanting the bump out line weirdly.

 

Whoa. Slow down there Mister Handsy.

A builder is years out at best. The plans would be bought from this company with all feasible changes already in them. That finished plan would be presented to the builder for quotes. In the vein of your advice I could try to find a builder to go over this info with before submitting changes, so thank you for that.

I wouldn't be opposed to a bump out at the back of the garage if it went into a utility room or pantry, but on my floor plan it is actually impossible. The back of the garage is an exterior wall and the underside of the stairs for the room above. Impossible might be too string a word, but the bump out onto that porch would be awkward.

 

I’ll read your updated posts, but wanted to respond to this one directly.

Move the garage door to the gable wall and then push that wall out to swallow up that little bump-out thing and make the depth you want (I’d make it an even 25’ deep). That doesn’t gain you any width, but it does solve your length problem AND orients the “front” of the house to the road. Some day, someone will have to deal with curb appeal…even if you never sell.

And you are right, making the garage bigger in The direction the door is currently placed is difficult because it would require messing with the roof lines. On a complex roof, that gets tricky fast.

Side entry garages are all the “thing” but not always practical for the lot layout or the situation. Don’t lock yourself into that idea if it’s limiting other practical options.

My wife and I designed and built our house - “finished” and moved in November 2005. Still doing little things to it 15 years later. We self-contracted excavation, concrete, framing, roofing, electrical, HVAC, insulation, and drywall. We self-performed low voltage, plumbing, siding, paint, cabinets, trim, flooring. We handled all the permitting and scheduling and I did all the 3D design but we had a drafter do
the final plans to get them through permit.

 

If the stars aligned and i made way more money I'd be lucky to start this 5 or 6 years from now. You won't get much in the way of cool build pics like others have posted, but it will be fun to spitball.

I appreciate the input. I'm single, and likely to stay that way. The orientation has to be the way I have it planned because of the wind. Wyoming wind is often 40+ MPH and gusts hit hurricane force. Sometimes sustained at that level as well. No doors can face the West.
Plus, I want my view from the windows of the house to be of the mountains, not the road and empty field behind me.

 

I appreciate the ideas, but orientation isn't something that I'll change. I explained above my reasoning.

I do see the possible issues with extending the garage, and I think I agree with what I'm being advised on it. I guess I will have to pull my ball hitch out to park inside. Still beats the hell out of no garage at all!

 

I don’t see any issues here. It complicates your plumbing a little, but not much.

None of these are issues, and are all practical. The barn doors can be pricey, but you’re also eliminating doors and framing in other places.
The door under the stairs is also access to a set of basement stairs (if desired), but I assume you aren’t planning on putting a full basement under this house.

Typically, the tub is in rough position before the walls are all done so getting it in isn’t too much concern.

 

Sorry - I guess I read it that the reason for rotating was to face the garage at the driveway…that’s why I was suggesting putting the door in the gable end, but perhaps mirroring the plan.

Edit - re-read that post again, and I see you have the views to the south. Gotcha

 

No need to apologize. I appreciate the brainstorming and participation.