I didn't think I'd need to lead with that encylopedia, that everybody would jump directly to the worst possible assumptions about a new poster.

As Jan said, you wouldn't believe some of the comments and questions we get from people who think they can build a 3500 square foot house DIY for under $100,000. When we ask them what experience they have, it's either none, or they once helped their BIL put sheetrock up.

In fact in the 8+ years i've been here, I can remember maybe 2 or 3 who knew what they were doing when it came to them DIY building.

In the meantime, welcome and I look forward to watching your build.

thanks @cpartist.

It is a luxury to have that cash at hand to get it rolling, and also to have a really lax schedule that will allow me to do the work as much as possible. I am just about retired and can take a week or two at a time to go knock out the excavation, form the rat slab and footings, pour, form stems, pour, build pony walls and start framing.

I intend to have a really tall crawlspace with slab. I am tired of crawling around if I need to do anything down there, and want to put all the infrastructure down there. I do not want to go as deep as an unfinished basement and have to buck out windows and put in wells and pay for that potential Sq. Ft.

A little extra excavation and mud in the stemwall is just the kind of luxury I am down for. I have a stack of 1" MDO I salvaged from a bridge job for forming.

I will dig for geothermal at the first excavation and get the loops brought up into the crawlspace.

The property slopes enough that it would be a semi-daylight so I can put pony walls in for two sides on top of shorter stems.

Thanks. I'm checking it out over there too. I'm not against getting a designer or architect to work with. I just haven't found one yet and want to get this idea on paper.

Neither my wife or I care for the free standing soaking tubs that seem to dominate the master bath designs. This morning I came up with a plan to address that, because I don't want every little personal pet peeve of ours to detract from resale values.

I'll rough in for it, then put some seating in that bay and the next folks can put the tub of their dreams in there. It will have the requisite garden view out a nice low window and we will enjoy that.

The house will have wide doorways and a master bedroom exterior door out to that garden area so getting a tub in there would be trivial. That door was not a thing so much, until I looked at some other plans.

I have been looking at other threads and posts and taking heed at some of the many design issues that others have posted up here.

IMO what the experience you have is great but in no way does it makee you an architect or designer. I love the old style MCM ranch interiors and exteriors they were built for living in the real world . I have a 1956 MCM ranch it is 75' long and 25' deep hge overhangs to block the summer heat and still allow the sun to heat the house in the winter. These are thie things that are important when an architect gets involved the site IMO drives the design. Our hose faces south with a very low pitched roof no gables to add to confusion on the exterior . The spaces inside are great , we did exchange the old kitchen and DR to give us a bigger kitchen I run a catering biz from home so that was a must. The LR is huge , we have a walkout basement with a ton of windows and we have a media room , work out space and offices in that space. My advice sit down and make a list of all the must haves for a home and that is what you take to the architect .

That might work fine if I find the right architect.

The right architect is out there and in the long run will save you lots of grief and most likely lots of time too.

I would like to know more about your objectives and requirements.

How long you plan on living in the home? Where is the balance between optimal functionality for you and your family vs resale value? Have you developed a detailed list of requirements for the home? Have you documented both the what and the why and set a level of priority for each requirement? Have you defined and evaluated the risk vs savings of DIY for each stage of the design and build process? Have you evaluated the spend vs cost and priority of other life goals to determine the appropriate budget for the project?

You seem to have a great deal of experience in the trades and doing much of the work yourself is a great way to save money, but you may not have the expertise in design or deep understanding of the real estate market and buyer expectations to optimize your plan.

Coming to a forum like Houzz may improve your outcome, but the advice you will be given will be based on assumptions if you don't provide adequate information to elicit sound advice.

1) 20 years

The rest of those questions we have considered in some form or another, but not on those templates.

I know what drove our remodel designs, and also know what we would change in our current house if we had a clean slate.

I do know what I like and also what we don't.

I'm working on a design that will check the boxes for us.

I can use it as a tool to graphically provide our requirements and priorities, and they can come back with a clean slate design of their own.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and how you do so I wish I had the DIY exoerience you have. - or at leat half of that!

My 2 cents…

Savings are almost always created in the design phase. Too many people get anxious to see progress and defer decisions and details to the construction phase, which too often leads to surprises.

A complete picture of your home will increase efficiency of the build while reducing costs. A home well designed for your needs will also save costs in the long run.

This may not apply to the OP, but I don’t think people need a long list of DIY skills to successfully manage an owner/builder project. Anyone with good project management skills can likely have some success with an owner/builder project.

I've looked at and thought about ICF, and now I'm leaning towards a full unfinished basement and ICF's.

To slab or not to slab, that is the question.
I would like to pour the footings as thickened edges and just pour out the whole slab and have a nice place to work from.
I see it done the other way, footings, stemwalls and then the slab pour.
Can I do it? Should I do it?

@Kelly M You have probably already read through the Building-a-home threads that get started at the beginning of each month. Current one: HERE

Several of us there are DIYers (AKA Owner builders) too. We often linger longer than the other owner-posters who are working with builders, since owner building is a slower process, even the permitting takes longer. It's been a supportive group that rotates as folks begin the process and eventually reach their CO, with varying levels of knowledge and experience. (We tend to be more positive than sarcastic--the usual suspects prefer fresher meat, I guess.) There have been a few ICF people there in the last few years, if you go back through. (DiOspyros is one, I believe if you see their posts.) Most of us use the building thread for overall reports and advice, but when we need something specialized or specific, we create a separate discussion thread. Hope we see you there soon.

Thanks, I read the December 22 thread, somebody linked me to it up there somewhere. I felt that I was not far enough along with it to participate. I got the answer I should go with on the pours, I will do the 3 pour method so I can cover the inside cold joint at the base of the ICF wall.

You don't always need a architect. A home designer and a engineer can serve the same end. I often found a architect to call out too expensive alternatives

Hi Kelly M Wow that is a deep CV for DIY, enviable skills! I am in the same place design wise with a pending whole house and property remodel. I am going to live on site by building a shop this summer and putting my trailer inside it. I can afford to rent somewhere but I want to be here every day and it will be nice to have a place to get dry, use the facilities and grab a cuppa etc.... Then tear apart the house. I have the $ & lots of ideas just looking to get them on paper and flesh out the realities and restraints my site will have. I live in the PNW as well (Cascades) and look forward to following along here, lurking... lol and seeing what solutions you come up with for stuff. Keep in mind aging in place design so you can relax there for many many years. Good luck and thanks for posting pics of your site, it is a very lovely spot.

That's a big plus to be able to build a shop first. I am in the city and they won't allow the shop to start until I get occupancy, and they really are not keen on somebody RV living on the property.

We started out looking in the county and then this property came up, and we realized that the proximity of services and easy biking to whatever I wanted, no need to get on the freeway, the view, all those things were not easy to find in the county.

Proximity to services is a nice feature. Another nice feature for you will be access to materials, trades folk etc, it is hard to get stuff out here at times. For 2023 I’m praying for a lovely mild spring and another loooong summer like we had this year for you! What are the neighbors like? Maybe one of them has an ADU or is out of country for the year :). always nice to get to know the neighborhood anyway. I brought zucchini bread and my card to my neighbors as an introduction and an apology if my dog barked etc… we have all been friends since. I guess I’ll have to think of something to give them now that I am going to start banging and clanging every day… maybe earplugs!

I've met a couple of the neighbors. The property borders on two undeveloped parcels, and the closest houses are 75 yards from the house location. I have 3 neighbors that will hopefully keep an eye on things for me.

Put up some cameras too for your peace of mind. I have a light and camera I can control from my phone at my gate … it has come in handy a few times for deliveries and wayward teenagers.. lol

My first draft had a dramatic entry with the stairs wrapping around 3 sides, appended off the south side. It would have great light, and then I realized you're not on your stairs that much, and I would be wasting some of that south side exposure and adding too much depth. Darker room beyond to the north. The entry will still go on the south but not dominate the natural light, rather admit and use it.

Now I see a staircase as more of a hallway to a destination, and putting it in the core makes more sense to me.

I am reading critiques of plans and amending mine all the time. This site has been great and an eye opener. Some of my ideas have been confirmed, some are getting left behind on the cutting room corner of my brain.

My view to the south is of my closest neighbors sitting 25' above our house, with some high angle peek-a-boo views of the Olympic mountains. It is the least desirable view IMO.

We are tucking in behind those trees and placing them between us and the neighbors. It will reduce the light, but I rather appreciate the privacy more in this setting. Our south views will be a close garden of sorts. The morning sun will be unimpeded by the trees in this placement, so we get the benefit of some shading in the afternoon.

The views are all to the east-northeast through the west.

Thanks to all for the information and ideas, especially the things NOT to do :)

Read The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. It was a great help in planning my house, even though mine is not small for 2 people. All her books are good besides that one.

There is also a thread on here that lists some excellent books to read.

Thank you! I am listening to "the not so big life" right now from my local library.

She has a couple of other books that talk about things like light that I liked even more once I got started reading.

my library system has the remodel book and I will see what they can get from other libraries.

We currently live in less than 1300SF of manufactured home, that I have remodeled extensively over the years. I have done both bathrooms, gutting the master to the ground and making a roll-in shower in '13.

We had replaced flooring at that time, and when I did the kitchen in 15 ( which started by demoing and repositioning the little walk in master closet ), I stayed with the footprint of a peninsula to avoid flooring changes. I'll post up some pictures of the cabinets that I designed and built to land on that footprint.

I look at the rooms I have, and imagine how many feet I would like to add. That keeps us pretty small in the design. I don't want to build wasted space.

I have been cooking on the plan for a few weeks now, and have something to get down on virtual paper. Thank you all for your suggestions and comments, and for the links to some of the problems with design that crop up here.

It has been a journey to get to this point. I have made the living room and kitchen destinations and not pathways. It is open and the flows are through the dining table area in every direction. That space is large enough to shift the table around quite a bit with the leaves out, altering the flow and feel.

The two downstairs bedrooms are yet to be firmed up, but I know what I have to work with.

The basic design will prevent those things like having a noisy common room wall or neighboring toilet against a sleeping space. Thanks again for that.

Same thing goes for the upstairs, it is still gelling.

Kelly, I'm sure you've seen this but this list is a good starting point as to some best practices. Of course you probably won't be able to do all of them, but the idea is if you can't, know why and have a good reason.

For example, in my upstairs guest room, I have a closet on our south wall. I know. HORRORS. However the other half of the wall is a wonderful window seat. I couldn't put a window where the closet is because of how the roof comes up from the first floor.

Or in our master suite, DH's reach in closet is on the outside wall. Again, HORRORS, but in this case, living in hot SW FL, the best place to put it was on the west wall since I would never willingly put a window there.

Here's the list:

The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling

The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped.

The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case.

The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.)

The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls.

The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls

The best houses do not have diagonal interior walls making for odd spaces.

The best houses keep public and private spaces separate.

The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room.

The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen.

The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms.

The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or public areas.

The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside.

The best houses have separation, such as closets, between bedrooms and between bedrooms and public rooms.

The best houses do not have roofs that are overly large, and dominate the exterior of the house.

The best houses do not have stick on exterior materials only on the front façade.

The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense. Meaning they don’t have meandering circulation paths.

Following!!

@cpartist I have indeed looked around and found your post with those goals, and it has helped me get to where I am. I spent the last two weeks looking at that and digging into the whys. Thank you :)

I can check off almost all of those items with a yes, except my design is a rectangle (So Far!)

I could poke out a wall in the bedroom wing and have a short L. That is not a bad idea at all.

So far I have avoided project creep that keeps making things larger and larger. The main level is ~1600 SF and contains all the infrastructure needed. The public space is 960 how I have it now.

It's funny about the organizing spine, in this design it is the "spining room" LOL!

A rectangle could be considered an I shape. :)

Creep happened :) the footprint grew to ~1730 SF

I have some gridded paper and have the main floor done to a great extent on paper. My draftsman friend suggested starting on paper in case you have an impossibility in your head, and sure enough I did. That saves a ton of time rather than dump a bunch of hours and learning curve into CAD.

My impossibility was some unsupportable joist tails, and the fix was quick and easy. I had contemplated a U-stair around the elevator shaft before so I returned to that idea.

Similar to this photo below.

I will have an open shaft looking through to stairs beyond and a high window in that area for natural light on the stairs from the west. I like stairs that don't always need a light turned on.

Is this how it goes on this website, people compete to see who can be the biggest Aouzz?

Often, yes; though, in all fairness you did not list your rather extensive credentials, which make you better prepared than most to DIY.

I just looked and there was a furnished 2 bed 2 bath for $2300, 6 month occupancy. I'm not ready for that but it would do nicely. It is ~2 miles from the build.

Wow, rentals are expensive. Admittedly, I've only had one mortgage in my life and that was something like $750/month.
I can also get an RV spot and park our travel trailer nearby. City zoning prevents us from parking on the property while we build, which is common.

An RV, while not as nice as a 2/2 rental, is attractive because 1) you can resell it and (hopefully) break even on your temporary housing; 2) being less comfortable will push you to work faster on your DIY.

I have a forklift to leave at a secure storage area, and will rent a class 8 for the framing and roofing portion of the build. What the local building supply can't keep for us I will store myself off site and truck in just as needed to mitigate theft.

Would you be open to building your garage first /using it as storage?
I am going two stories, but one of my pet peeves is that humongously wasteful overlook from 2 down to 1 that seems to be so popular. Good luck changing THAT lightbulb, let alone the paint.

The beauty of building is that you can skip all your pet peeves.

I just changed a light bulb in my kitchen today and asked myself, "WHY do people insist up on high ceilings?" I'm only 4'11" and changing light bulbs isn't easy with standard ceilings!

I don't care for all the fancy notchy footings and short wall sections that I see. I plan on building some simple rectangles with shed roofs, and rely on fits and finishes to break up any boxiness in appearance. Using metal and other modern sidings and getting help from a pro will go a long way in the external appearance. I find that mixing up the siding treatments goes a long way, personally. Modern is certainly not for everyone.
Bottom line I want it to work and flow, have plenty of circulation room, decent sized rooms.
Passive solar design with proper porches to block summer sun and allow the low angle winter sun in.

This all sounds very good.

I see that 8' porch depth across the whole south wall, except for an entry structure in the middle.
Decks on the north will be for outdoor living and deeper, at least 12' and possible 14' to allow for easy circulation around outdoor dining tables.

To be argumentative, your Southern light is best, and a porch will block it from entering your windows. The Northern exposure, where you're planning your outdoor living is less desireable.

Neither my wife or I care for the free standing soaking tubs that seem to dominate the master bath designs. This morning I came up with a plan to address that, because I don't want every little personal pet peeve of ours to detract from resale values.

I'll rough in for it, then put some seating in that bay and the next folks can put the tub of their dreams in there. It will have the requisite garden view out a nice low window and we will enjoy that.

Honestly, I don't think buyers would find an empty spot for a tub appealing; buyers typically don't want to source the tub and arrange the installation. Good thought on wide doorways; when I had my hall bathtub removed /changed to a walk-in shower, they had to cut the tub in half to remove it from the house. Be sure also that a new tub wouldn't need to "make a turn" down a difficult hallway.

You'll find that this site is split on whether to put a tub into the master bath, but these thoughts are fairly universally accepted on this site:

- You need a tub somewhere in the house. It need not be in the master bath.

- Assuming you want a separate tub and shower in the master, do not sacrifice shower size to get in a tub.

- If you go with a shower only in the master, it should be large and luxurious.

Savings are almost always created in the design phase.

I believe that, and keeping it simple will result in savings.

My first draft had a dramatic entry with the stairs wrapping around 3 sides, appended off the south side. It would have great light, and then I realized you're not on your stairs that much, and I would be wasting some of that south side exposure and adding too much depth. Darker room beyond to the north. The entry will still go on the south but not dominate the natural light, rather admit and use it.
Now I see a staircase as more of a hallway to a destination, and putting it in the core makes more sense to me.

What I'm hearing: Your plans are becoming more practical as they evolve.

I have made the living room and kitchen destinations and not pathways.

I do like that.

For example, in my upstairs guest room, I have a closet on our south wall. I know. HORRORS.

My question is, Why is the guest room getting the best light? Why not give that to the master?

check your quotes. That was not me with the last quote.

The site is on a north slope with my favorite trees to the south, which provide privacy from the closest neighbors.

The second floor has a 24' x 24' open sundeck out to the east, over the carport. I expect to do quite a bit of entertaining out there when the weather permits.

The south porch has been deleted to just an entry cover. My wife gets the south and east exposure for her craft room. it is sized like a family room and she uses that natural light for her sewing and quilting.

I currently do have the downstairs guest room on the SW corner. The views and privacy to the north will go to the master bedroom, but don't fret about the light. The master gets south facing clerestory windows.

For example, in my upstairs guest room, I have a closet on our south wall. I know. HORRORS.

My question is, Why is the guest room getting the best light? Why not give that to the master?

That was me and my master does get the best light since my master is downstairs and the guest bedroom is upstairs.

The upstairs main bedroom is getting the SE corner. It will have it's own door onto the sundeck for egress.

The upstairs guest room is kitty corner at the NW corner, and I will run a 5' walkout deck along the north side to give it a door out too. Both will have interior doors, but those personal entrances are a nice touch and also cover the fire egress requirements.

There will be a 3rd door onto that deck from the common entertaining area.

It was OK to lay out the downstairs, it was somewhat fun. This upstairs is going to be a blast in comparison. I have ~1000 SF to make a 2 bed 2 bath apartment.

I have had two lengthy conversations with the building inspector over my rough drafts and worked through a whole bunch of structural questions and design considerations. Things are moving right along and the drafts are getting smoother.

I had some issues with the clerestory window plan. The ceilings were too high just to go get some light. It did not feel right, and after our first convo I thought it would also be a stumbling block to the 12' wall height restriction. I hammered out a different solution with a shed roofed cupola.

He called me to tell me that first roof plan was not good, and I was able to tell him it was already on the cutting room floor.

I can and have put in skylights with standing seam metal. These cupolas are better and allow a whole lot more light, and have none of those issues that skylight installations can develop over time.

I grew up in an MCM home with 8' ceilings and clerestory windows. A bit confused why 12' wall height and clerestory windows would cause a stumbling block.

the 12' height was essentially the bottom of the clerestory windows and that made the highest ceilings closer to 15'.

I was not happy with that and worked out a better solution. I hope to get some work done on the elevation drawings in the next few days. Tomorrow we are heading to the home site to stake out the footprint and shoot some grades, figure out the finish floor elevation.

I will balance out the excavated material on site, and this will allow for a partial daylight basement with two distinct yard levels.

When I get engineering done on the basement foundation, I will get engineering done on two retaining walls to define those areas as they wrap around the home.

I will know at end of day if my visions are working regarding the grading plan. If it works out I will have an ADA ramp out of the basement that won't be too long.

Growing up in a home with clerestory windows I didn't appreciate the increased natural daylight until I lived in a few homes without clerestory windows. When I was debating building vs buying one of my top priorities if building was to have clerestory windows, Those windows filled our home with light without impacting privacy or needing window treatments or leaking like skylights so often do..

They were not tall - maybe 15" high, but did the job.

The windows I'm thinking about are about a foot tall too.

We made a trip to the property two weeks ago with tape measure and stakes, and the property spoke to us. We will rotate the house ~30 degrees clockwise.

I established an arbitrary Finished Floor (FF) level 18" above the highest corner of the existing grade, and will fill with material from the excavation as detailed above.

When I took that grade out to the opposite lowest corner, the grade was already at 6'6" below FF.

The basement floor is FF -9

The grade keeps dropping and catches the FF -9 elevation only ~20 feet to the NW of that corner.

We will have a walkout with free drainage on the whole west end of the basement if we desire, or some iteration of that. It is far better than a daylight basement!

I can back my pickup right up to the basement doors. I am not fond of french or double doors but this is going to be an exception I can't pass up.

That is not the coolest part. I can put in some stepped retaining walls to the west of the entry, and expose ~24' of the south wall of the basement and install (4) 4'x3' south facing windows there. I had not envisioned south windows and light there. I needed the laser to really see what was possible.

The same goes on the north side of the basement, with egress windows for most of the basement for a future owner to use.

I will install one window well egress along the front walk, but the rest are just windows ~8" above the grade outside. The future remodel potential is great.

I can rough in a bathroom and auto wash down there while we are plumbing, and it will have a trunk line through the length of the basement that a future owner could cut into as desired.

Today we are going back with laser and staking and firming up the plot plan dimensions for submittal for permits.

Do you have any drawings or sketches of your ideas?

Several iterations and we are getting closer on the main floor.

Here are some elevations. Note the shed roof cupolas as a compromise on a full skillion roofline and clerestory windows.

Cantilevered walk out to the sun deck over the carport.

main floor

The staircase wraps around the open elevator shaft. I will build to spec for a residential elevator, but most likely put in a platform lift.

There is a west window over the stairs that will lets some light in and through the open shaft.

2nd floor is mostly for guests but could be used as an alternate main bedroom.

The common area and sun room could be converted to bedrooms for a big family, but there is a full unfinished basement below with plenty of south windows and egress windows for that too.

The idea is for our guests to be comfortable and could come and go to the private entrances and use the carport stairs.

I can bring this up to vellum and dimension it, provide some framing and foundation detail sheets and submit them. I will probably get somebody with CAD skills to migrate them to digital.

You'll need an electrical plan too. Good task lighting is very important in the kitchen.

Yes I have the plumbing and HVAC plans in my head too.

One thing I want to do is a minimal battery backup for basics. I want a core set of lights on one circuit. I see some lighting in the great room/dining paths that provide enough to navigate by, and then that task lighting in the kitchen on other circuits.

My eyes like quite a bit of light now so I won't be skimping on that.