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jdebree
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Posts:38
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| 06/29/2009 3:00 PM |
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Lots of good advice, there, Eric. My original house design was a cross gable design, which accomplishes a lot of things I like, but it's not very efficient, and it's a lot more complicated to build. The reasoning for it was to have windows on 3 sides of my primary rooms, which let's in a lot of light, and good cross ventilation. Unless it's very cold or very hot, we prefer to acclimate to the seasons, so our windows will be open a lot. The downside is 12 corners versus 4, and 4 valleys in the roof. Also, the foundation and exterior walls are some 20% longer for the same square footage. As our budget shrinks, I'm leaning away from all kinds of aesthetic niceties, and back to basic cheap shelter.
I'll go 9'+ in the basement. Having a basement pretty much requires a staircase, so I can't get away from that. Stairs are really hard to fit into a small house! Due to the slope of our land, it's a natural for a walk-out basement, and it's relatively cheap added square footage. I think it makes more sense to finish the basement rather than go to a second story. For one, in SC, a basement has a very moderate temperature year-round.
The wife will never go for a single bathroom. I agree; I like to have a bath strictly for us, and a powder room for guests. I also want the utility room on the main floor. We are already in our mid 50's, so I'm keeping an eye towards that day when stairs are no longer practical.
I plan on 10' ceilings on the main floor, both for aesthetics, and to give the hot air somewhere to go in the summer. I don't care for cathedral ceilings much; we have mostly antiques, so I want to house to look as though it could be 100 years old (in a good way). I had already planned for casement windows, and we are big into ceiling fans, having 6 in our current home. We also use a whole house fan during times of the year when the days are hot, but the evenings are cool.
Very good idea about using more weather resistant materials for a DIY build. Not only will it take longer, but there are always unforeseen circumstances that could slow things. It would be a shame to be idled with an injury for a couple months, and come back to ruined building materials. I like the idea of multiple weather layers anyhow- Zip panels, and house wrap, and using firring strips to create a drainage plane for the siding.
Thanks for your input!
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eric anderson
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Posts:47
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| 07/01/2009 9:54 AM |
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Having gone through a similar design process, the cold light of day makes you reconsider many options. I made a list of everything I needed, and then wanted and prioritized.
You are right, stairs in a small house chew up a lot of space. When you are laying out stairs into the basement, remember the ICF walls are much thicker so the basement is ~6” narrower then the ground floor. IF possible, make the stairs go the same way as the floor joists because it really simplifies floor framing
Going to 10 ft walls instead of a scissor truss is just as good in my opinion with one exception. You will need shading on the south facing windows in the summer and with a 10 ft wall it takes a very big overhang to do this, or overhangs above each window. I would still truss the roof because it is faster and usually less expensive. The other advantage is that you can leave out all interior walls until the roof is on and shingled. You can concentrate on drying in the house without other complications.
As far as timing goes, for my own house It took me 6 weeks to dry in my own house working evenings and weekends with 1-3 friends. I used Advantec flooring and zip roofing and wall panels. The tape and panels were quite waterproof.
I think the other thing you should consider is insulating the hell out of the house and at the same time cutting down on the things in the house that generate heat ie incandescent lighting, etc. I would plan on a secondary outdoor kitchen because this goes a long way towards eliminating summer heat gain.
Lastly, if you want a house to age in, study the info on universal design carefully. Make all doorways 36” wide and set the bathroom and kitchen up so that they can be easily modified to be accessible to those with limited mobility. Even if you don’t build the bathroom to be handicap accessible, make it big enough that it can be modified by just changing the vanity and adding handholds near the toilet and shower.
One other thought, in a small house, try to make every room/area serve multiple functions ie guest room/study stairwell/overhead storage/privacy noise divider, livingroom/library/ woodstove. |
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jdebree
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Posts:38
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| 07/01/2009 2:49 PM |
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You and I must think alike. All of my designs already incorporate universal design. My SIL was trapped on the first floor of their lovely 3 story custom home when she had to have knee replacement surgery. It can happen to anyone at any age.
If I don't have an upstairs, I'll definitely go with trusses. I've worked with them before, and they are remarkably inexpensive and quick. The first time I ever built a roof, I used trusses, and we had the whole roof up and braced in 4 hours. No one on the crew had any experience with construction.
I'm planning fairly big overhangs- probably 24". Out land is heavily wooded, and although there won't be any trees directly over the house (ice storm country) It will be a fairly shady environment, with trees further away blocking the sun as it sets lower in the sky. Also, very little of the living space of the house faces south, so windows on that side will be minimal. If I do an attached garage, it will be on the south side as well, which pretty much eliminates south-facing windows. Our view is a mountain range to the NNE, so that's where many of the windows will be. In a colder climate, this would be a no-no. but SC has pretty mild winters. I'm not planning huge expanses of glass anyhow- too expensive!
I'll be working full time, 6 days a week on the house once I start. I'll have one full-time helper, at least during the big stuff, and I can round up more help for things like the trusses.
The outdoor kitchen is already planned! I grill out year-round, and want to have a nice and efficient set-up at our new house. I'll pour a concrete slab, then put up a metal roof with the eaves 12' off the ground, and a cupola to vent smoke. I'll have a charcoal grill (my favorite) and a gas grill, as well as a sink, counter, and maybe a small fridge. The sink water can be shut off for the winter. Due to the walk-out basement, every trip to the grill will involve a flight of stairs, so I want to be able to take the meal from start to finish without added trips. On nice days, we'll eat right there in the gazebo. Can you tell I've ben thinking about all of this for a while?? |
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ICFconstruction
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Advanced Member
Posts:638
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| 07/01/2009 5:21 PM |
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| Large eves are good they protect the house siding, windows, doors and so on. 24" should be a minimum. |
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Brad Kvanbek - ICFconstruction.net |
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