It has been a busy house week, and the pace is beginning to pick up now! Here is a quick summary:
We saw a first draft of the plans for the second floor. Here is a schematic, with some suggested edits by us (can you guess which one will be our daughter's room?). This part sits over the first floor leaving the rear sections (part of the kitchen and the family room) without a second floor. So we are getting very close!
However, the total sq ft is a little higher than our target. We discussed the connection between sq ft and cost with our builder, Michael Strong -
www.greenhausbuilders.com - he explained that different areas of the house have different costs, depending on plumbing, built ins, materials. Kitchen and bathrooms are expensive. Bedrooms are relatively cheap. In any case, our architects - Kathleen Reardon and John Dazey -
www.rdarc.com - are looking at squeezing some sq ft out. One possibility is combining the library and family rooms.
We had a meeting with Michael Strong about a variety of things - which we are getting busy on:
1) First up is an Elevation Certificate, to see how high we need to build to get us well positioned for future floods. We have ordered the survey for this for next week.
2) Then we learned that we need to hire an engineer, who will primarily focus on the foundation. Apparently in our situation we have a choice between pier and beam and slab, with no strong factors tilting us either way. Of course, a solid foundation is going to be critical. We do have a significant amount of ground movement here, and although we have not had any catastrophic foundation damage, you can see our concrete behind the house cracking pretty nicely.
3) We discussed HERS as well - Home Energy Rating System - which is a measurement of how energy efficient the house is. It takes into consideration everything from insulation to the kinds of systems you have, such as air conditioning. It is calibrated so that the average house is 100, and one that is off the grid is 0. You need to get to 85 or below to be an energy star house. While not directly connected to LEED, there is clearly an overlap in factors that are considered. We are going to find a HERS professional to help us make the assessment, once the plans are complete.
4) We are beginning to talk to
trades too - the many subcontractors in the business. I met with
Aveon this week -
www.aveon.com - they do home system integration for security, control, entertainment. I learned that pre-wiring, especially for the ground floor, is a very good idea. If you think you may need it, it is better to put it in during construction, rather than try to do it after. On our current house the brought the cable into the front room by drilling through the outside wall... Anyway, Aveon sell the Control 4 system - this is all new to me - but it is pretty amazing. Killer: you can control your a/c and tv from your iPhone. Seriously, I'd love a system where we can listen to music in various places, have good control of the temperature and good security too.
We are also going to talk to a A/C contractor. This is Houston, after all, so that is a top priority.
5) Selection List - the big piece of homework heading our way is the selection list. This is a multi-tab spreadsheet of all the things that go into the house, and we will be heavily involved in making these decisions. And of course, budget is always part of the picture.
We also touched on the timeline of the whole project with Michael - we still hope to break ground by January and complete the building next year! So we are probably 14 months out, from moving in.
