House Design

There are innumerable books on this subject and thousands of pre-drawn plans. We started by deciding the number and size of the rooms based on our current house. Some rooms needed to be larger, others smaller. Next we arranged the rooms in the layout that made sense according to the views, exposures, and preference. We tried to organize it as tightly as possible. And then we came up with some general layouts where things fitted together. We ended up with about a dozen layouts, each with pluses and minuses. Most of the layouts were similar, and each was based on practical construction considerations. Then we settled on the best one and built a scale model. The model had a removable roof so we could look inside and imagine walking around which gave us a feel for the new building. I made the model out of plywood, but cardboard or foam would have worked just as well. The model gave us some more ideas so there were further refinements. Up to this point all the drawing had been done on a drafting table with an articulated square. But home computers were becoming more capable so we switched to CAD. There are many inexpensive programs for home design and I would highly recommend you take advantage of the technology if you want to design a true custom home. It was especially helpful to be able to quickly put minor stuff on paper in the morning before cutting wood. The exercise of drawing it out sometimes prevented mistakes.

I should mention that many experts advise against beginners designing their own homes. The argument is that money spent on an architect will often save on building costs. It's a valid point, although I've seen wacky ideas from beginners and seasoned architects alike. If you aren't confident that you understand your requirements, as a compromise you might consider modifying an existing, proven design.

There’s nothing really special about our building, its most important feature is that it meets our needs. We were much more concerned with livability than we were with outside appearance so we concentrated on making the interior of the living space interesting, yet keep the construction costs as low as possible. The house has lots of glass to take advantage of the views. It's very open in feel and has no hallways. The workshop is attached but impedes the views only slightly. The most difficult element of the workshop was the 36-foot-wide hangar door. It was hard to provide for this without having that part of the building tower over the living space too much. Floor area totals about 4000 square feet, evenly split between the house and the shop.

Building Permits

Our location is outside the built-up part of the county that gets the full building-permit treatment. We only had to provide a site plan to show that we were farther than the minimum distance from the lot lines. This was a bit of a joke since the proposed building was about a half a mile from every border. But before the county would even accept our application they had to make sure that we weren't on a flood plain. This was also pretty funny since the lot is on the side of a mountain. Nevertheless, two dutiful county employees drove out to verify the obvious. Our only other requirement was to get a septic-system permit. The details can get complicated, but the main purpose is usually to verify that the effluent will leach into the soil. We had to hire an engineer to come out and do a percolation test. In our case we had already dug most of the septic trench, so the guy dug two holes at different levels at the bottom of the trench. He filled these with water and timed the drainage. Based on the results he certified that the length of trench we had planned was adequate. So the septic-system design and construction was pretty simple for us, but don't let that fool you into taking the requirements lightly. Your soil may drain more slowly, meaning that your system will have to be much larger. Which could really drive up the cost, especially if the ground is rocky and the digging slow. In extreme cases you may even have to install an elaborate alternative to the usual leach lines. Such systems can cost more than some properties are worth. Talk to local septic-system installers, they should know the score.

Others would be fortunate to build in an area that has so few permit requirements as ours did. Our previous two buildings were in fully regulated areas, and even though we were building everything to code, the inspectors tested our patience. Just ask any contractor if you want to hear horror stories. If you’re in such an area, just go with the flow and leave some slack in the schedule to account for the inevitable bureaucratic delays. But if you’re shopping for property and some of it is in an unregulated area, then that’s worth something. Not a deal-breaker one way or the other, but worth taking into account.

Trailer Living

Our trailer was not designed for permanent living. If we had known that we'd be in it for over three years we would have added a proper out-building right from the start. But the construction schedule dragged on so we made the best of the situation. Most trailers, like this one, have little or no insulation. They get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. They’re usually cramped and all of the appliances are kiddy sized. We had the biggest thing that we could haul up to our site, but it was pretty tight even for two people. By the time we moved out of it we had two dogs and two cats as well. But we didn’t suffer too much. With a little ingenuity we were fairly comfortable. We put up a crappy lean-to, and kept as much stuff as possible in that. We installed a satellite TV system so we weren’t limited to the snowy local channels. We gave up on trying to keep the trailer warm overnight in the winter, using an electric blanket instead. By the way, there ought to be a statue erected in honor of whoever invented those blankets. Once the lights were out and we were under the blanket, we could close our eyes and almost believe we were in a real house. Reality hit hard though if we sat up in bed without thinking, since the bedroom ceiling was about four feet lower than normal.

All in all, trailer living is a viable way to live on-site during construction. It can be preferable to paying rent on a second place and commuting to the job site. If you want to do it this way, get the biggest and best you can manage, and try to stay flexible. If you know that the project will drag on as ours did, consider building a garage or some other out-building first, it will make everything easier in the long run.

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