Many people receive recommendations about home inspectors from friends, family members, and real estate professionals, while others use consumer websites like Angie’s List, Yelp, Merchant Circle, Kudzu, and Google Local to find the right home inspector.

Regardless of how you find your home inspector, you must be sure to vet them properly before you give them the task of

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inspecting your home. Here are some important qualifications to look for once you have found someone to consider.

1. Formal education and training. While many states require home inspectors to have a bachelors degree in a related field, not all states have this requirement. Colorado home inspectors, for example, do not need any sort of training whatsoever. Literally anyone can hang a shingle and call themselves a home inspector. Therefore, before you hire an inspector, you are entitled to request a resume from them that describes their education and training. If they don’t have a degree in Engineering – or some specific home inspection training – you may want to keep looking.

2. Experience. Although experienced home inspectors can be slightly more expensive in some cases, they are usually worth price. New home inspectors that have only been working for a few years may have the formal education, but not the experience that really solidifies their knowledge. Try to find a home inspector that has 10 or more years of experience in the field. They will have a better idea of what to really look for, not to mention the fact that bad inspectors don’t tend to stay in business over the long haul.

3. License and insurance. Depending on the state, home inspectors may or may not need to be licensed. In states that require licensing, the inspector should be able to demonstrate that their license is current. Always check this and never take their word for it because there are some unscrupulous home inspectors that operate without the proper licenses.

Also, just as important, make sure your home inspector is insured. Insurance is a sign of a company that takes their business seriously – fly by night inspectors are much less likely to invest in insurance coverage.

4. Price. Never select a home inspector just because they are cheap. Instead, look at the entire package and consider their experience, credentials, and referrals before you hire them. Most of the time you will have to pay a little bit more to get an experienced home inspector, but they are usually well worth the cost because they can really pay off in the end. Think about it this way – paying an extra $200 for a home inspection represents one tenth of one percent of the cost of a $200,000 home. It’s a small price to pay when you’re making such a major investment.

5. Detailed reports. Any respectable home inspector will provide you with a detailed written report that outlines all of the maintenance and repair issues with the home. It should not be a simple checklist sheet (a checklist is only part of an inspection) – you should be able to receive a complete overview of the house just by reading the inspector’s report.

Finding the right home inspector can be difficult at times, but it is certainly worthwhile. A conscientious inspector can literally put money into your pocket – don’t cut corners by hiring the cheapest inspector you can find.

Author Jason Lancaster works with Home Inspection Engineers, Inc., a Denver-area home inspection service that has been in business since 1965.

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

as planned, and the degree of separation between the designer and builder becomes a problem.

It is sometimes not possible to translate the architect’s vision to actual bricks and mortar and still stay within the budget. It falls to the client to go back to the architect and have him make the changes to the overall plan. There is no guarantee that the changes will be what are needed. The design-build contracting method corrects this inefficiency.

The design-build process incorporates both the design and the build phases under one roof. Design-build contractors employ architects and builders. This streamlines the process. It is no longer the client’s responsibility to act as intermediary between an architect and builder. The builder simply walks down the hall and brings any issues directly to the architect. This level of interaction allows problems to be spotted before they cause work to grind to halt. This can lead to savings in cost of construction that are passed on to the client. If a builder realizes that a certain type of material not used in the original plan can be found at a discount, he can confer directly with architect about possibly altering the plans to include this material.

There are many benefits to choosing a design-build contractor.

Single Point of Contact

In the design-build method, the client is actually the client. He is not a go-between. They deal directly with the contractor, and that is it. This method removes a tremendous amount of stress from the entire process.

Workable and Accurate Budget

When the builder and the architect work together, it is much easier to stay within the proscribed budget. Communication

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Fast Response to Changes

Work can slow to a halt if changes to the overall plan and budget are necessary. In the design-build method, these potential issues are often spotted before they become a problem. Needed changes are made before progress can be negatively affected.

Speed of Construction

This method is, quite frankly, faster. An entire phase — the bid phase between designing and building — of the traditional method is eliminated. In addition, construction can begin before the design process is even complete.

Quality Control

When one firm handles the entire process, egos are left at the door. The entire focus is on quality for the client.

The design-build process is appropriate for construction projects of all sizes. It can be effectively utilized for a project as small as adding a sun room onto a home or as massive as erecting a large industrial complex. Incorporating the entire process under one umbrella improves efficiency and reduces the overall cost of the project.

This article’s author is Holly Adams, who writes for Coupon Croc. Building and furnishing your home on a budget? Save when you shop with John Lewis discounts on everything including: household appliances, electronics, decor and more.

Architects and interior designers who can provide unusual and unique looks for their clients are often in demand. This demand allows them to charge high fees for their services, limiting the availability to certain individuals who can afford to pay for it. Consider yourself lucky if you can get a designer and your home for less than $100,000.

These days, more and more talented individuals are sharing their skills at a lesser price. As more designers are willing to push the envelope on what makes home designs stand out, more people are able to get dream homes into reality. More designers are also experimenting on building techniques allowing flexibility when it comes to creating unique homes on a budget.

Here are our top five choices for uniquely designed homes that didn’t break the bank.

1. House of Straw by Carolyn Roberts

The first pig brother built a straw house that was immediately blown away by the big bad wolf due to its lack of support and strength. That’s not the case with Carolyn Roberts’ house. Located in the middle of the Tucson desert, it still stands after eight years. There’s a whole community of straw house builders, and Carolyn was able to get their help in building her house. The house was designed by Wayne Bingham, who continues to design straw bale houses that meet the building codes implemented by various states and counties.

The house is 880 square feet, but the interior measures only 640 square feet. It has a sleeping loft and glass sun room on the house’s south side that allows passive solar heat to enter the house during the winter season. The straw walls act as an insulator from the summer heat, and the earthen plasters allow it to maintain an even temperature. Carolyn collects about 500 gallons of rainwater from half an inch of rainfall and a handmade solar water heater heats it up. Discounting the cost of the land, she spent a little over US$50,000 for the house. Friends and neighbors pitched in during the building, helping keep the cost of labor down.

With proper planning, research and support of people who knew how to build a straw house, Carolyn was able to build one that even the strongest huffing and puffing can’t bring down.

2. Alchemy’s weeHouse

The weeHouse is Alchemy’s line of prefabricated, single module homes that can be dropped off any site. The city, a forest, the desert, by the lake and even a rooftop are just some places where the weeHouse can stand. A basic unit is made of steel frame and wood, with bamboo floors and storage from Ikea. They also offer “Not so wee houses”, which involves stackable modules and the addition of various elements like porches and stairwells. This results in bigger prefabricated homes that often occupy a larger space and can go beyond one storey.

The starting price of a weeHouse is at US$125 per square foot. While Alchemy already has a stock of weeHouse plans and designs, you can customize your own weeHouse.

3. Low Impact Woodland Home by Simon Dale

This house built by Simon Dale and his father-in-law in Wales is straight out of the Lord of the Rings. It looks exactly like what houses at the Shire would look like. Like the majority of unique low-cost homes, Dale wanted to build one that had a small amount of carbon footprint; used little fossil fuels and was “considerate” of the environment around it. They wanted to have a house that was easily accessible as they worked in ecological woodland management in the area surrounding their house. Not to mention that it had to be low-cost, as the couple’s finances were not exactly overflowing.

Dale had but one experience in building a similar house. That, along with much trial and error resulted in this cozy and eco-friendly abode. With the help of family, friends and the occasional passersby and using natural materials and tools like the chisel, a chain saw and a hammer, they were able to cut back on the costs and finish building it in four months. The cost? $5000.

4. The Storybook House by Dan Phillips

Having seen his family go through the Great Depression, Phillips grew up learning to value whatever he had on hand. He learned how to build things from scraps, and has never stopped. He went on to become an architect, and today he designs homes that are 75% made out of recycled material.

The Storybook House was inspired by everything Phillips knew about fairy tale houses. From the outside, it may not seem like much, but the Normandy-style house catches your eye with its striped roof and wooden doors decorated with glass bottle ends, giving it a stained glass effect. Inside is as cozy and comfortable as any storybook house.

5. Tumbleweed Homes
Jay Shafer designs houses that measure 89 to 100 square feet. He’s been building Tumbleweed Houses since 1997, inspired by the need to decrease his carbon footprint yet still live comfortably. Tumbleweed Houses are prefabricated homes much like the weeHouse, yet the latter looks like little dollhouses with wheels (for easy re-location should you wish to, er, move). Tumbleweed houses can be purchased already constructed, or you can buy plans if you want to try and build your own. Each house comes complete with a kitchen, a living area, a bathroom and a sleeping loft.

With a little ingenuity, it’s easy enough to own a lovely home but still be under a small budget. You don’t have to be a Hollywood star to have a unique home you can be proud to call your own.

Ally is part of the team that manages Budgeting Spreadsheet and How To Save Money, which are personal finance guides, based in Sydney, Australia. Before joining the team, she was a Media Planner with McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Inc., with award-winning executions, including the Levi’s 501 “Live Unbuttoned” global campaign.

Once a child comes into the house which will make the number of children exceed the available rooms, we become aware

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of this problem. Certainly, young children can share a bedroom for a while but in most first-world countries this becomes a little weird after a certain age. At the very minimum you want the child to have their own room before puberty arrives.  So, with these obvious social norms in mind, we must decide how we are going to expand our family home.

Not Clearing Land and Scarring the Earth

One option could be to build a new house or move in to an existing house. From an environmental standpoint, building a new house is a fairly dramatic activity. Firstly, we’re settling land by clearing it of vegetation and possibly (certainly) displacing animals from their homes. Remember that the settled portion of the land overall will have a large impact on the balance of nature. Those asking how this could be a factor could perhaps look at Google Earth to see satellite imagery of the world, or even just near where they live. Developed land looks substantially different to untouched land. From the satellite image it looks like scarring, and there’s a lot of it. It’s hard to argue that this is not of significant impact to the planet.

Moving into an Existing House?

On this note, we could simply ask if it would be less of an environmental impact to move into an existing house. Well, not really. The only time this would be less of an impact is if a family would be moving into a house that was underutilized, and the occupants of the larger house were moving to a smaller existing house (such as the one the family had moved away from). This is a less common case however, as how often do we see empty nesters (the most likely candidate for a downsizing of their house) living in the same house they raised their children in until they are physically incapable of living there. As a general rule moving to a new and larger house is forcing the construction of a new house somewhere else.

Renovation as an option

This brings us to the consideration which is renovation. By renovating a house to give it extra bedrooms we are effectively increasing housing density and combating urban sprawl. Timber, bricks, concrete and other building materials are still used in a renovation, but the material cost of building extra rooms is still significantly lower than the construction of a new house.

A final consideration and a great one, is an attic conversion. Your attic can be converted into a living and luxurious space, that could fix your accommodation needs. There is minimal construction work required compared to the construction of new rooms, and adds significant value to your home. It’s also much better for the environment and better for your wallet. It’s another great case where environmentally friendly is also wallet friendly, and a win for everyone.

This article promoting environmental awareness is brought to you by the team at www.attix.com.au, a leading Australian provider of attic conversions. If you enjoyed this article you may also want to read The Top 5 Green Reasons we should all be living in high density housing.

Licensing

Licensing is an important issue but one that can be a bit tricky in certain situations. Depending on the state and type of

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Insurance

Insurance is arguably as important or even more so than licensing. Virtually all contractors are insured. Ask the contractor about what kind of insurance policies they have and the level of coverage. They should carry at least two types of insurance: liability insurance and workers’ compensation insurance.  Liability insurance will cover damage if the contractor has an accident or an error of their fault causes damage to your property or a neighbor’s property.  Workers’ Comp is an insurance that will protect you in case a contractor’s employee is injured while on the job at your premises.  In general, the more insurance and greater coverage the better the safety net will be for you.  Again, you can ask to see proof of the contractor’s insurance or ask for a Certificate of Insurance. You can even call the insurance company to make sure that the contractor’s policy is still active.

Verifying Reputation

There are some simple ways to inquire into the reputation of a contractor. First of all, you can ask him or her for references. They should be happy to give you a fairly extensive list of references to call and talk to directly. You can also check with the Better Business Bureau.  Being a member of the BBB is in itself a good sign. If the contractor is a Better Business Bureau member, any complaints about the contractor will be available to those inquiring into his or her background.

Professional Associations

Ask if the contractor is a member of any professional construction associations. While not absolutely necessary, this is another sign that the contractor practices his trade ethically and is well regarded. Also that he or she is knowledgeable about the latest techniques, since these organizations often offer continuing education and review courses of various sorts as well.

For Lower Priced Contractors

Though it’s not necessarily wrong to use less expensive contractors, you should find out why they are so cheap.  Ask lower priced contractors the following questions to get a sense of the reasons they may offer lower prices:

•            Why are you able to offer cheaper rates?

•            Are their hired help legally employed?

•            Do they cut costs on materials?

•            How long have they been in business?

There is no foolproof method in picking the right contractor but you can reduce your chances of a negative outcome by using prudent methods and common sense.  If they should too good to be true…may the buyer (that’s you) beware!

This guest post is brought to you by DIY Home Center, an online retailer specializing in Deckorators and FastenMaster home building products and accessories.

Initially used for barns as a method of protecting animals and farming resources, metal buildings and construction methods

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in the past highlight the ease of use in addition to the durability associated with the material. In contrast with barns formerly made of wood, metal provided farmers and workers with peace of mind that their property and resources would be protected during disasters, weather and destruction. Following the use of metal materials for barns, other types of businesses soon adopted the use steel buildings.  While you may associate metal buildings with simplicity or bare construction, metal has grown into something that can be flexible and provide the durability desired while providing a modern, stylish appeal.

Despite the popularity of wood, brick and other materials that may be more traditional options for building your home, you may seek the use of a more durable material that can provide an entirely different aesthetic appeal for your space along with safety and security for your family and belongings. Metal buildings have transformed from something better suited for your outdoor space into a strong, yet creative way to comprise a home, provoking diverse shapes and styles that can satisfy your taste for design and desire for protection. Depending on your

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personal style and that of your family, you can identify a variety of home designs that fit with who you are but are made entirely from metal. Your metal home doesn’t have to embody the cold metal it is made of. Instead, a metal home can be just as warm and inviting as the more traditionally made homes you are more familiar with.

Seeking the aid of a professional may be one hurdle that you come upon when looking for metal home designs and architects. Despite the many benefits of building your home with metal materials, there may not be experienced professionals or architects in your area who are familiar with metal constructed home. Searching for an architect that has the expertise to build a metal home may be a difficult task but is not impossible to accomplish. When choosing a builder, selecting plans and picking an architect, make sure you look over your options and select professionals and planners that are familiar with steel construction.

Jim has been in the construction industry for over 20 years and currently works for a company that manufactures steel buildings. Visit his website for more information on the benefits of building with steel.

Keeping in tune with the economic downturn and the need to build more sustainable homes, the Street of Affordable Homes in Portland, Oregon offers consumers a balance of energy efficiency and luxury with a fairly reasonable price tag. Consider the size of the homes, which range from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet, and the solar power that allows home owners to heat these open spaces for about $1,000 a year.

The 2011 SolarWorld/LiveLight Energy Street of Affordable Homes featured five homes built with the latest trends in energy efficiency. These solar homes, located in the beautiful Tigard community of Bull Run, were built to Earth Advantage Silver specifications that saved new homeowners energy and money through a variety of tax credits and energy efficient modifications in construction.

There were five homes built for this Street of Affordable Homes, all for sale aside from one that had been recently purchased. The exteriors and interiors of each home exemplified elegance and comfort through professional Portland home staging, illustrating just how beautiful energy efficiency can be.

Open Living Spaces

The main gathering place for each home centered around the kitchen, eating nook and a place to sit back and relax.

Luxury That Doesn’t Waste Water

Part of being energy efficient is installing measures that will save water, both good for the wallet and the planet. This bathroom illustrates that you don’t need to trade one for the other.

Sleeping in Style

Making the most of space, the large master suite and bedroom fit for a princess will provide many nights of sweet and comfortable dreams.

The 2011 SolarWorld/Live Light Energy Tour of Affordable Homes runs from July 7th through July 31st. Hours are limited to Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. with a reasonably priced admission.

Pictures courtesy of Tiffany Home Design, owned an operated by professional interior designer and Portland home stager Brittainy Tiffany.

Architects take the general ideas of their clients, and incorporating mathematical and scientific principles, design buildings, houses and other structures. Integral to this process is coordination among others who provide materials and services that make up the construction project.

Photo by FrontDoor

It is important to realize that one of the prime considerations for the design of structures is their function. This is considered a leading characteristic of the modern architecture movement, which is the overarching term for the structure and design of buildings beginning of the 20th century.

Leading the way in modern architecture were architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, among others.

Fortunately, the proud traditions of these masters continue today with architects who embrace not only the lessons taught by them, but by incorporating modern materials as well as the demands of the 21st century.

Variations of modern architecture have been taken by architects to places around the world where they have expressed their own stylistic changes and additions to already accepted methods. Examples of these include the Sydney Opera House in Australia, and the Atomium in Brussels.

Modern architecture has endured considerable criticism over the years, but architects anxious to fully evolve the style have continued some modern elements to include more eclectic designs. One motivation of this movement has been the need for urban renewal, which gave architects new canvase3s for their creations.

By the 1980s, architects changed the approach that was generally accepted at the time back towards more modern styles, literally thinking “outside the box,” a movement that continues to this day.

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Throughout this evolution, architects have led the way, from continuing the responsibilities of building lasting structures to incorporate today’s popular green movement, with not only function but sustainability as a major purpose in design and execution.

Most recently, preservation of modern architectural marvels has come to dominate not only the focus of the profession, but the landscape. An example of this is the rebuilding efforts of those responsible for not only the preservation of existing structures in major metropolitan areas, but in areas that have endured the devastating effects of natural disasters such as New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina and the east coast after the recent tornados. Even the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroyed in the events of 9/11, will enjoy the benefits of the efforts of some of the most creative architects on the planet when they enjoy their renewal.

Regardless of the goals, architects have always and will always lead the way in building structures that stand for not only structural integrity but the exploration of even more efficient methods to create buildings for the future.

If you are looking for a Architects perth who can work creatively and efficiently on your project, contact Cameron Chisholm & Nicol for an architecture company with expertise in retail, hospitality, offices, education and residential projects.

Professional Advice

There are companies out there that pride themselves on their work as custom home builders. These professionals are invaluable for helping you plan your home, and work with contractors to implement the plans. There are many different levels of service, but unless you are highly proficient and experienced in the home-building business, you’ll want to seek at least some level of professional advice. Don’t even think of skimping on something as important as the structural engineering of your home! If you are going to choose one area to really spend money, it would be here to make sure your home is safe, solid, and sound, and will remain so for years to come.

Make the Plan

Once you have found the right professionals to help walk you through the process of planning your new home, you can make a plan that suits both what your desires for your new home are as well as fitting into structural limitations, zoning and so forth.

Finding Contractors

If you hire a company specializing in custom home building, they are likely to have connections with quality contractors they have collaborated with before. If you don’t have this kind of information already at hand, take the time to do the

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Odds and Ends

Once the basics are in place, you may want to at least think about interior design, and how all of the décor and details will come together in the end. It can help with the entire design process if you have a clear picture of what you want in both the basic structure and the interior of the home. Matching these ideas in the beginning can help you build a home that will look truly fabulous, and as if every piece of furniture was meant to be exactly where it is!

Photo by CSLP

Facts about Metal Retrofit Roofs

If your roof deck is rusted, or worse, starting to leak, you might be compromising the watertight integrity of your residential or commercial building. Metal retrofit roofing protects buildings from changes in temperature, corrosion, ice build-up, interior drips, rain, rust and more. This is why many people turn to metal retrofit roofs, particularly for their places of business. A metal retrofit roof can offer many benefits, including:

• Visual appeal
• Cost-effectiveness
• They’re leak-proof
• They’re maintenance-free
• They’re a single-ply roofing solution
• They can be installed directly over existing metal roof

Photo by Scottbb

How to Find the Right Metal Retrofit Roof for Your Building

• Check the Roofing Products MSDS: If you want to make sure the flat metal roofing system you’re thinking of installing is safe, you’ll want to check the Roofing Products MSDS. This is the Material Safety Data Sheet that is published by the manufacturer with all the pertinent information you need.
• Consider the Costs: When you think about the cost of a new roofing system, don’t just factor in the cost to install it. Also think about whether this roof will save you money with energy efficiency, whether it will require a lot of maintenance and when you will likely need to replace it. A more durable roof always costs less in the end.
• Remember the Environment: Always make sure to consider the environmental impact of a new roof as well. If it isn’t recyclable or reusable and the materials are harmful to the environment, it’s bad for all of us.

Photo by pabear26

After evaluating the cost, durability and environmental impact, you can make a more informed decision about your new roofing system. If you are considering a flat metal roof, you will need to evaluate all the leading products on the market before making your final decision. Then you can begin looking for a certified roofing contractor to make your sustainable roofing goals a reality.

Jessica writes about a wide variety of topics.  She especially enjoys writing about home improvement. You can learn more about Flat Roofs at http://www.duro-last.com/

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Factor in Climate

The ideal energy efficient home must suit the climate in which it will be located. The first step that new homeowners should take before building their homes is learning about the surrounding area and its weather trends. For example, if your home will be built in an area that is windy or sunny ensure that the materials used in the construction of the home will either reduce the effects of the area’s climate or put them to good use. Take for instance, if you are looking to capitalize on the sun’s rays in your area you should consider building a home with large windows and heat absorbent

Photo by Hammer and Hand

walls. The large windows will allow a greater amount of the sun’s energy to pass through, while the absorbent walls will collect the excess energy and later use it to heat the home. Obviously, this type of home is not ideal if you are living in an area that receives constant bombardment from the sun.

Location for Maximum Savings

The next factor to consider is position. The home should be located in an area that will allow it to use its resources appropriately. Positioning your energy efficient home can save you thousands of dollars on future heating and cooling. If you live in a cold area, place your new home in a location that receives maximum sunlight so you can spend less money on heating. On the other hand, if you live in a warm area avoiding the sun will cut down on your cooling expenses.

Use the Latest in Building Materials

When it comes to having an eco friendly home it is not enough to have a good building position or adequate knowledge

Photo by Green Home Design Architect

of the environment, as it is about having the right materials. Save money by building a reasonably sized home that will require less material. Furthermore, such materials should not require a lot of energy usage to maintain. Consider items such as insulating form when purchasing materials. This will regulate the temperature inside and outside the home. Also, add energy efficient windows to your shopping list. Such windows will not allow energy to easily escape the home. For your electronics and plumbing installations, although you will not perform such work yourself, ensure that the contractor is onboard with your plan and urge him to install items such as energy efficient refrigerators, water heaters, air conditioners and the like.

The initial cost of building an energy friendly home may seem daunting to some, but consider the money that will be saved on energy bills and water bills in the long run. A normal home may be beautiful at first, but if you only focus on the superficial aspects of that home it will lead to additional spending in the future.

Author Byline: Haliyma Barrow is a professional journalist and writer based in New York.  Haliyma loves to contribute guides on home improvement and home security, such as tips on choosing wireless home security system.

Beautiful Bungalow

Since the turn of the last century, these cozy homes—cousins to the renowned craftsman home plan—have been a Southern California staple. Light fills the spacious rooms, and with few hallways these homes are often the pinnacle of airiness and openness. The bungalow is also characterized by a low roof (don’t worry, exposed rafters make the roof feel higher than it is). A large, welcoming porch, is the perfect touch for the entertainers’ lifestyle—often adding essentially another room to your home.

Family Farmhouse

On a farm, the house is where everyone comes together after having spent the day hard at work in different places across the property. Because farm families are traditionally large, these homes feature large, light-filled common rooms, especially the kitchen. The dining room is often designed specifically to accommodate a long wooden dining table essential for big, country-style family dinners.

New American

In the booming economy of the 1990’s, these enormous, majestic houses become popular in suburban areas across the country. Huge, sometimes story-tall, windows will often face the front yard. The forward façade is asymmetrical, lending the house an almost castle-like feel. Because of the size of these houses, they are very adaptable; the interior can be designed to accommodate almost anything a builder desires.

Spanish Style

Many American house styles are re-makes of imports from across the pond, but this one is particularly noteworthy for the emphasis it places on creating beautiful, livable outdoor spaces. Popular in areas like the Southwest or South where weather is frequently inviting, the backyards of these homes generally feature covered walkways, fountains and patios that seem to beckon you to an afternoon lounge.

Christine Cooney blogs for TheHouseDesigners.com about architectural home design, floor plans, blueprints, and more. If you would like to find out more about the various house plans available online we welcome you to stop by our site.

Living on the coast presents the utter beauty of living by the beach and experiencing rich sunrises and sunsets against constantly moving waves. The design that goes into the home should accommodate that same look and atmosphere.

Budget

Figuring out your budget is a great way to start. Work out what you need, what you don’t need, and what you can do with what you already have.

Hiring a general contractor can be a big help if you’re struggling with budgeting issues. It’s a general contractor’s job to figure out the budget, taking into account any materials, equipment, and labor that goes into the job.

Design

Now that you have your basic budget down, you can start working out your design. Remember to take into account all the innate attributes that come with having a home near the coast.

• Angled windows can take advantage of the sun and give your living room the maximum of amount of natural light. Latches could open these windows and let in the cool breeze, saving you the need for an air conditioner.

• Make sure you choose materials that are durable and will last in the salty sea air. Cedar is great for your patio as it is resistant to both water and pests. Choose wisely and do your research on different materials.

• Landscaping may be quite important to a coastal home. Trees can provide shade for those hot summer days. Some flowers and trees can instantly make your house feel like a home.

If you’re having trouble figuring out a design that works for you, a home design professional should be able to help you work things out.

Build

Now it’s time to build, but don’t rush anything. Hire a builder who has the experience and knows coastal homes. They’ll know the specifics of building homes on the coast and have the right contacts, including subcontractors and vendors. You’ll be getting the best materials and talking to the best people for the job.

Home builders throughout the county are familiar with coastal homes and everything that might go into building one.

When building your home, don’t be cheap. Choosing materials that can stand up to the elements might be a bit pricey, but buying durable materials will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. Your builder can help you with your decisions.

Enjoy your new coastal home and the beautiful view that it offers.

Erick D. Smith blogs for a San Diego general contractor about home construction and remodeling. If you live in Southern California and would like to know more about San Diego home design then contact Murray Lampert Construction.

Photo Credit: Image: EA / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For many people, having the home of their dreams is something they feel is “out of reach.” Too often, families settle for a home they “like” instead of a home they really love.

Before Buying a Home

When it comes time to purchase a home, many questions abound:

• How long will we live here?
• What are our needs from the home today?
• What will our needs from the home be in 10 years?
• Is this house located where we want it (e.g. near schools, close to shopping, etc)?

There are a number of ways to go about purchasing a home: work with a realtor, find a friend with a home for sale, lease-to-buy option, peruse the classified section of a local media outlet or seek out people selling “by owner”. While all of these options will give you access to homes in your area that you can look at, none of them will truly give you the flexibility and ability to get what you really want.

When it comes time to seek out your next home, consider working with a custom home builder to get what you are truly looking for in your next home. If this sounds overwhelming to you and sounds like something you can’t tackle, think again. Many home builders throughout the country are skilled in walking you through the entire building process, from A to Z.

Why Build Your Own Home?

So why should you consider building a home and having it designed to your liking? Because this is a sure fire way to address the points outlined above. You can have your builder produce a home that provides you a viable living space, both for today and into the future. You can develop a home that helps your family live a more comfortable life. You can setup and design a home that caters to your lifestyle. Why settle for a home that simply meets your needs? Why not create your family’s memories in a home that exceeds your every expectation.

At the end of the day, a custom built home affords you a number of great luxuries:

• The home is a true reflection of your personality
• The home is built to suit your needs, your lifestyle and future growth of your family
• Every detail of the home is chosen by you and your family
• You get to build the home where you want
• No need to remodel an existing home to get what you want
• You control the quality of the materials used in constructing the home
• There is no compromising

A number of families may choose to simply purchase a “spec house”, a home constructed by a builder that is sold new. While this purchase would give you a new house to work with, it will still require tweaks to get it exactly as you want it. These homes also are traditionally constructed of “builder grade” materials which can be inferior to the quality you demand for your family. When only the best will do, and when you want to ensure your family’s happiness, there is no better guaranteed way to do so than to pick the products yourself.

Begin the Process of Building Your Own Home

Start the process by finding a reputable local builder that specializes in custom home building. This type of builder should have architects, engineers and construction experts on staff. This will allow them to help you with the entire process of building a custom home. Ask them for references of their work so that you can speak with their previous clients. Make sure they have a contractor’s license in your state (if required), possess proper insurance to cover their work, offer a warranty on their construction and meet your budget.

Once you’ve done your homework, you’ll see that a custom built home is your best option for the future. Don’t settle for second best; build a home that you’re proud of and don’t look back!

About the Author:

Shea Whitmire is the President of Whitmire Homes, a home builder in Georgia. The Whitmire family has been building custom homes for more than 30 years and has a proven track record of helping people find a way to make their dream home a reality.

Well, eighteen months later, I moved into my new home. But it was worth every bit of the headache, sore muscles and time spent. Nothing could be more fulfilling than living in a home you helped build with you own hands! Ideally, every day is either sunny or partly cloudy with no chance of rain, and seventy degrees. But that never happens.

Suppliers may ship your entire order when you order it and subcontractors run into delays on other job sites. So, you have to be prepared to handle setbacks and manage chaos. There’s pretty much a set order of how things are done. The primary reason is due to codes and permits that apply across the country.

Another reason is cost; proven methods used to build homes help to produce reliable housing quickly, and at a relatively low cost. While I can’t prevent your own panic attacks about never being finished with your home, I can give some ideas and a guideline of what to expect and when.

Site Preparation and Foundation

The first crew on the site does grading and site preparation. Often, site prep and the foundation will be done by the same contractor.

The most common foundations for building a home include slab-on-grade, basements and perimeter foundations with crawl spaces. This is a major decision to make when working with your architect and will be based on your home’s design, local codes and conventions, and potentially by your home’s building site.

Framing and Roof Trusses

The framing crew will be next up. They start with the floor, unless you are using a slab foundation.

The floor starts with a sill-plate made of pressure-treated lumber in direct contact with the bricks of the crawl space wall. Once the floor framing is complete, it is covered with 1/2-inch or 5/8-inch plywood or OSB (oriented strand board).

Next, the framing crew next starts framing the walls, which are assembled on the floor and then raised into place.

Sheathing is typically put on using either OSB or plywood, giving the walls exceptional rigidity. This negates the need for diagonal reinforcement used in older homes built prior to the availability of these products. Plywood or OSB sheathing is much stronger.

Pre-fabricated trusses are a good way to go for roof framing. These Triangular wood-framed structures support your roof. Another alternative is to build a frame for your roof using 2×8 and 2×10 boards, which is substantially more time consuming.

Trusses are popular and have several main benefits:

• Trusses provide superior strength
• They are also cheaper, since they can be manufactured using short lengths of 2×4 lumber
• Custom ordering trusses allows unique architectural features like cathedral ceilings without breaking your budget
• Trusses are good for long spans, since they transfer all of the weight to exterior walls. This allows greater flexibility for placement of interior walls, since they are not load-bearing
• Trusses are installed very quickly, helping accelerate your project
• As a homeowner, the only real disadvantage is that your home has attic space

Doors and Windows

After the roof trusses come doors and windows, which should be ordered and scheduled to arrive as a single shipment, so that they can all be installed at one time and prior to roofing. This is because adding the weight of roofing materials will cause settling, so you want to install door and window frames first.

Roofing and Siding

Roofing comes next, with tar paper being laid down and your roofing materials. This process varies somewhat, depending on whether you have chosen shakes, composite shingles, tile roofing, metal roofing, etc.

Then comes siding; one good choice is to use vinyl siding, which is less expensive than many alternatives. Cedar is also a common natural material used for siding. Stucco is also popular, especially in the Southwest, where its insulating qualities make it extremely desirable.

Plumbing and Electrical

Next comes rough plumbing, when your plumbing contractor runs water supply and sewer lines. Bathtubs and shower pans are typically installed during rough plumbing since one-piece shower-and-tub units are so large and not easily maneuvered into place later.

Tubs are also notorious for being delivered slightly different than the size ordered, which makes installation very hard later in construction. A full tub is also heavy, so by installing and filling it, you help the frame settle more quickly, preventing wall and tile cracking once the tub is put into use.

Rough plumbing will normally include water supply lines for all fixtures and installation of sewer lines and vents.

Electrical rough in typically follows rough plumbing. Your electrical contractor will also install hardware such as electrical panels, lighting brackets, electrical outlets and junction boxes at this stage, leaving only the “finish” pieces such as cover plates, lighting fixtures and switches until the finishing phase.

Insulation and Drywall

Next is insulation, which can include many types and installation methods. One typical type of insulation for walls is fiberglass rolls that are cut to length and installed between wall studs. You may also use spray-in cellulose insulation. These options should be determined ahead of time during planning so that the correct sequence can be determined.

From the exterior, your house now appears nearly complete! However, inside things are still pretty rough. Next up is drywall and then its time to begin finishing.

Drywall, also called sheetrock, is the most common type of interior wall product used in most homes. Although drywall sheets are only 1/2-inch thick, because they are made from gypsum, backed with paper, they are quite heavy and solid.

You can do drywall yourself if you have a strong back and a hoist! However, it is probably best to hire a professional crew since they can easily do the entire home in a day or two, depending on square footage and the complexity of your interior.

Congratulations! You have now completed rough construction and all that remains is the finishing phase.

Finishing Phase Steps:

• Underlayment – Plywood sub-flooring is laid during initial framing and covered with tar paper or a vapor barrier (4-mil-thick plastic) and 5/8-inch particle board for most areas, or concrete wonderboard in areas like bathrooms where tile will be installed. Complete any remaining underlayment or subfloor work required before finish work begins.
• HVAC – Your HVAC contractor will return to install heating and air conditioning equipment, vents and ductwork. In a home built on a slab foundation or in a two-story home, some of the ductwork needs to be installed between floors and inside walls. In a single-story home with a basement or crawl space, HVAC equipment and ductwork can be installed late in the project since it will be under the home.
• Finish electrical – The electrician will return and install all light fixtures, wall outlets, switches and cover plates.
• Kitchen and bathroom cabinets and counter tops – The cabinet installers must be scheduled to install all cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. These will be aligned in place on walls and attached to wall studs with screws and then the counter tops screwed on top.
• Finish plumbing – After cabinet installation, schedule your plumbing contractor to do finish work, installing remaining fixtures like sinks, toilets and faucets, as well as your water heater if it wasn’t part of the rough plumbing phase.



• Water and sewer hookups – Your home will need to be connected to municipal water and sewer lines. Usually this is done by your municipality or else your plumbing contractor. If public water and sewage lines are not available, you will need a private well and septic system. In this case you need to hire a well-drilling subcontractor and a septic-tank subcontractor.
• Wall trim – Once the cabinets are in, the interior doors are installed and the molding around the doors, windows and baseboards goes in.
• Paint – Once the molding is on, it is time to paint and wallpaper the interior of the house.
• Carpeting, flooring and tile – Once the paint is done, carpet, wood flooring and tile can be installed. With some flooring products, you will want to install baseboard trim after rather than before the flooring.
• The final punch list – At this point, the builder (in this case you!) inspects the house, noting any problems. All problems are tabulated on a punch list. The various contractors return to fix all of the problems. Be warned; this is typically an iterative process. Also, final inspection by your municipality’s building inspection department needs to be scheduled. Once the punch list is done, it’s time to move in!

Southern living home designs have a natural charm, elegance and historical tie that few other regions can parallel.

These beautiful design elements of southern living home plans often include alluring double porches, verandas, decorative shuttered windows, arched casement windows, and stylish dormers, which lend the southern living home style to a nostalgia and long lasting appeal.

Why Southern Style is So Popular

Southern Living homes are a popular home-style choice along the Louisiana Creole, low country of South Carolina and other Southeastern communities. Southern house plans styles more often feature metal roofs, giving them a distinctive appearance common to their area.

Large plantation and similar southern estate southern home plans can also be found in this category. Southern style homes have remained a popular choice for individuals that live in such beautiful warm southern places.
Similar to a country home, the southern living house derives its appearance from elegant wrap around porches and an outward facade soft in color and beautifully crafted, like a fine piece of furniture.

Another great favorite are Southern Colonial Homes, the kind of homes that you may have seen in historical movies that depicted the south during the civil war era.

Southern Colonial Home Style

Some look like mansions from the days of wealthy plantation owners. In fact, some of these homes are just that, historical architecture left over from the days of the old south. These southern classics are identifiable by a large double porch that frames the entryway of the home and is normally supported by columns.

The front hall was the public face of the typical Southern home in the Antebellum era. Reflecting the social standing of the family, the entryway was designed to make an instant impression. Typically located in the center of the home just behind the front door, it followed the symmetrical design of typical Southern homes of the pre-war period.

Functional Floor Plan in Antebellum Homes

In larger homes Antebellum style homes, the center hall typically spans the length of the house, with doors at the front and the rear, and may have even been used as a parlor. Other public rooms such as the library, dining room, and parlor are located next to the entryway. For families with smaller means, such an expansive layout would not have been possible in the average 19th century home.

A more common layout has a front hall that extends half the length of the floor plan with work rooms, such as the kitchen, scullery, and laundry behind it. Other typical features, depending on the size and proportion of the home, might include fireplaces, grand staircases, and the best furnishings in the home.

Staircases are the crown jewel of the center hall in the majority of Southern living home designs. Curving elliptical and spiral staircases provide instant aesthetic appeal to anyone entering the home. Next to white pillars, a circular staircase was traditionally the most coveted feature of a plantation owner’s home.

Southern Antebellum Style Balconies

Balconies are a common architectural feature of Southern Antebellum homes. Often tied to a specific home style, balconies adorn many types of Southern homes including Georgian, Italianate, and Classic Revival Styles. Balconies are typically supported by decorative corbels or brackets, or by columns that framed a lower covered porch or portico.

The overall design of the home determines the specific look of the balcony, but usually classic details are favored. Railings are constructed of wood and typically incorporate turned balusters.

Most of the balconies in Southern living home designs serve little functional use for members of the household. However, one practical aspect of the balcony is that it allows for greater movement of air inside the upper story of a home, as the doors that append to it are often louvered.

The sweltering heat of the summer months would have made this a welcome feature. Regardless, the primary purpose of a balcony on a Southern Antebellum home is for aesthetic appeal and showmanship.

Porches Play an Important Role in Southern Living

The hot and muggy conditions of the South, especially during the summer months, almost always make the outdoors more comfortable than a home’s interior. Porches provide shade and places from which one might hope to catch a cool breeze. During the other nine months of the year, when the climate is more temperate, porches offer a great place to spend their leisure time either swaying on a swing, reading, or sewing.

Porches may have been used historically to socialize with neighbors, but only on a limited scale. In the pre-war Antebellum years, few cities existed in the South. Small farms and plantations dominated the landscape, so connecting with the larger community was not always possible.

Southern living house architecture offers classic style, comfort and practical features that make this design motif a great choice for any new custom home or if you are looking for a classic home to renovate and restore to its original splendor and southern charm.

Planning Your Screened Porch

It is necessary to plan the porch. You should make sure that your screened porch permits and meets all the side and rear yard setbacks and every other aspect of the zoning code. Be sure you get proper building permits before starting any major building project. An architect can then be called. Make sure the architect is experienced and well versed in the subject. Make sure that the size of the finished room suits your needs. Put all the furniture you want to use in the patio.

Building a screen porch requires an understanding of some basic elements like climate and construction. Evaluate and explore various options. Take into consideration various styles and accordingly plan the basics of the building. Screen porch can be square or rectangular in shape. The flooring can be hard wood or laminated.

Cost Estimation

It is important that you do the costing as it will save further headache. This can be accomplished by doing a material take-off. This is a simple list that shows the type, quality and quantity of material required for the project.

The Foundation

The deck of the porch is very important. The piers of the deck should be properly dug. For this first build the deck outline. After the corners are established you can easily find the centre of your piers. Dig the post holes with the post hole digger down to the frost level.

Pour approximately 8 inch thick layer of concrete in the bottom hole. The next day, insert the treated lumber post that has an attachment for the joists. Around the post fill about 6 inch of gravel and finally 6 inches of concrete. This way it is easy to replace the post should it become necessary.

Decking and Walls

The deck or the floor is important. You can use treated lumber. Do not put any spacing between your decking boards or else they will shrink.
Seal the deck boards before nailing. Get your electrical wires installed and possibly a gas line for your grill. Plan for these things beforehand as to how they reach the porch from the house.

The walls are simply screened panels that fit between the posts that support the roof structure. Put the panels of the walls at the end.
Screening is available in a wide range of materials including rust-proof bronze, copper or aluminum, as well as anodized aluminum with a baked on finish, and even vinyl.

Corner/Support Posts

This is important as the beams rest upon them. The beams span over the posts and are connected with special post and beam galvanized hardware. The lumber used should be untreated as treated ones will twist as they dry out. Use the lower grade as it has tight knots.

Roofing

The roof adds to the overall look of the porch. If your house has a hip roof use the same for the porch. These are very strong and help to lock the walls together. It can be made up of any material including translucent sheeting or solid roofing material,

You can find clear, colored or translucent fiberglass panels for roofing your porch. Fiberglass panels provide shade and protection from the elements. You can have more or less shade depending on which type and how much translucence the panels have.

Light weight fiberglass roof panels are available, which are durable and resist impact well in case of hail, high winds and other inclement weather. The material will not shatter, shrink or expand significantly over time and is easy to install.

Electric Requirements

One should always plan for the electric requirements in advance. You may need outlets for radio, lamps or TV’s, fans etc.

Painting or Finishing

This is very important as it adds to the overall effect. Wooden screened porches require maintenance. This can be minimized by pre-painting or finishing the wood before installing.

This also reduces the damage due to water. Paint the screen panels before installing the screens. You can also paint the roof rafters and underside of the roof plywood before installing them.

The home is always looked upon as a place of refuge where one should feel safe and sound. But did you know that according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly 75% of all crimes committed in US are crimes on property?

In 2003 alone, there were roughly 14 million thefts, and in 83% of these thefts, the burglars entered the house or building to steal personal property. Burglary can happen to anyone, whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural area. You could live within a mile of a police station, and you could still be burgled – there have been similar cases before.

Experiencing a burglary is very upsetting. Not only are you facing the cost of the lost items, you will not be able to feel secure in your house for a time. It’s as if you lose your peace of mind because you’ll always think that your house was robbed once, and it could happen again.

What Are the Chances?

So the question is this;  will you wait for a burglary to happen in your own home before you do something about it?

The problem is that people usually trust too much in their door locks, but these can be picked by skilled people easily. In addition to this, thieves are also increasingly more resourceful and creative in finding ways to enter a house unnoticed. They sometimes do so under the guise of being repair or maintenance crews, or furniture delivery companies, and enter your house in broad daylight when everybody is at work or school.

People sometimes trust too much in neighbor watches as well. However, come to think of it, what neighbor will spend every minute watching your house? The best solution to prevent burglary is installing a home alarm system. The security company you hire can readily install sensors in various areas of your house.

Home Alarm System Remote Monitoring

Once a sensor is triggered, the security company will immediately call to verify whether there is indeed an emergency or an accident triggered the alarm (which happens fairly often). If they can’t get you on the phone, they will immediately alert the proper authorities to request for assistance. 

You may also have surveillance cameras installed as part of your home alarm system. These are very useful to check unsupervised people you hire around the house such as house cleaners and babysitters. If an attempted break-in happens, these are also useful in identifying the potential thieves.

As an added feature for your home alarm system, you may also request the security company to hook up your smoke alarm to the house alarm system. If the smoke alarm goes off, the company will automatically contact the fire department. This is useful especially during the night, or when you leave your pets or children at home alone for a period of time.

Your home alarm system comes with strategically-placed panic buttons. You will appreciate the importance of panic buttons if you are trapped at home during a break-in or when there is a medical emergency.

Home Alarms Can Reduce Insurance Premiums

Besides all these benefits, once you have a home alarm system in place, you can usually get a discount in your house insurance policy (depending on your insurance company of course). This is because they recognize that the risk of having burglary in your house is significantly minimized when you have a home alarm system.

Any home alarm system comes with a very visible lawn sign to announce that your home is being protected by an alarm system. This is a great deterrent as thieves will always choose to break in a house without a home alarm system as opposed to a house that has one.

Now that you have seen the benefits, let’s look at the costs involved in a home alarm system. Getting a home alarm system can usually be afforded by the typical American family. However, you have to remember that aside from purchasing the home alarm system, you also need to pay a fixed monthly fee to your security company to provide you with 24-hour home monitoring.

Do some Internet research and ask around to find the best security company so that you can get the best value for your money. Remember though that the benefits of getting a home alarm system surely outweigh the costs.

Plastic foams, rock wool, cellulose and even cotton insulation are readily available. Insulation materials come in many forms. They are sprayed, stapled, blown, nailed or simply laid in place.

The choices can be difficult to sort through, but cellulose insulation is one of the most energy efficient and green solutions available for insulation.

Cellulose is “green.” It’s made of 80% post-consumer recycled newsprint. The fiber is chemically treated with non-toxic borate compounds (20% by weight) to resist fire, insects and mold.

The Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association (CIMA) claims that insulating a 1500 ft2 house with cellulose will recycle as much newspaper as an individual will consume in 40 years.

If all new homes were insulated with cellulose this would remove 3.2 million tons of newsprint from the nation’s waste stream each year. There’s room to grow. Fewer than 10% of the homes built today use cellulose.

Cellulose earns “green” points because it requires less energy than fiberglass to manufacture. Disciples claim 200 times less petro-energy than fiberglass. More realistically, Environmental Building News reports that fiberglass requires approximately 8 times more energy to make when adjusted to reflect energy cost per installed R-value unit.

Choosing the right insulation material is important. However, the quality of the installation is critical. Efficient insulation systems need thoughtful preparation.

Armed with a trusty caulk gun and spray container of insulating foam, seal all penetrations in the structural envelope prior to insulation.

Seal all gaps in the wall sheathing and framing. Fill narrowly spaced studs and headers. Seal around window, electrical, and plumbing penetrations. Once all leakage points are sealed you are ready to install the cellulose insulation.

Blown Cellulose

Blown cellulose can be installed in new or existing structures. It is popular in retrofit applications because existing wall finishes are not removed to install the insulation. It is favored in attic applications because you can blow unrestricted depths of fiber to achieve deep coverage with very little labor.

Blown cellulose is shredded newsprint that is installed with special equipment. Construction-savvy homeowners should be able to install blown cellulose in open attics; not walls or cathedral roofs, which should be left to serious DIY homeowners or professional insulation specialists.

You can use blowing machines from rental centers and building material dealers that sell cellulose insulation. But in general, this is a job for pros.

On paper the application is simple. Dry cellulose fiber is blown through a hose into open attics or into enclosed wall, floor or cathedral-roof framing cavities.

Two people are required to run the equipment. One person feeds dry fiber into a hopper; breaking up clumps of cellulose as it is passes into the blowing system.

The hopper and blower can be located inside or outside the house. The other person operates a hose that is attached to the blower and extends to the locations where insulation will be deposited.

The ratio of air to fiber is adjustable and with some experimentation the right balance is struck. A 3-inch diameter flexible hose is typically used to blow fiber into open attics.

If an attic floor is already installed, remove some of the boards or drill holes at strategic locations to fill the floor cavities with insulation. If the floor cavities are already filled, blow an additional layer of cellulose directly over the floor sheathing to improve the level of protection. The job is dusty and wearing a mask is required.

Blowing fiber into enclosed wall and cathedral framing cavities is different. Here a smaller 1- or 2-inch diameter fill tube is attached to the end of the larger hose. The fill tube is inserted into enclosed cavities through a series of strategically placed holes.

The general idea is to drill a series of 2-inch holes horizontally across the structural surface so that the holes are centered in each framing cavity. One or more holes per framing bay are required depending on the length of the framing cavity and the applicator’s fill technique.

Filling walls and cathedral roofs from the outside is the typical practice. Pieces of siding or roofing are removed, holes drilled and insulation fill tubes inserted. Air pressure is cranked up for cavity-fill applications to provide a more densely packed injection called dense-pack cellulose.

The narrow fill tube is inserted into the holes and pushed to within a foot of the far end of the enclosed cavity as the blowing begins. When the packed insulation becomes dense enough to stall the blower, the hose is backed out a bit. The blower gears up and filling resumes.

The process is repeated until the framing cavity is filled. Then jump over to the hole(s) in the adjacent cavity. The injected fiber compacts tightly around wires, plumbing, and other penetrations providing an airtight insulating blanket with a slightly elevated R-value approaching R-4 per inch. The holes are plugged and the siding and roof covering is patched or reinstalled when the blowing is completed.

Cellulose can be blown into wall or cathedral roof cavities from the inside as well. Remove interior trim, drill – or simply drill holes through the interior drywall surface – and blow.

Replace trim and patch the holes after the cavities are filled. In new construction, walls must be enclosed with fiber-reinforced plastic sheeting or drywall before cellulose can be blown into the framing. The plastic sheeting doubles as a vapor barrier. Choose whichever strategy makes the most sense for your situation.

If you have a home that was insulated years ago with inadequate levels of insulation, you are not out of luck. Skilled cellulose professionals can snake fill tubes into a wall already filled with fiberglass batting.

The installer fills the cavities with dense-pack cellulose in a way that crushes the existing insulation without balling up the batts, achieving a full uniform application of the new cellulose fiber. The goal on any application is to assure complete coverage that is installed at a density that will not settle over time.

Concrete forms offer the same wind and fire resistance, but also offer an additional built in layers of foam insulation.

Homes built with insulated concrete forms offer homeowners greater energy efficiency and less noise pollution from outside.

An insulated concrete form is basically a form for poured concrete walls that stays in place as a permanent part of the wall assembly.

The forms, made of foam insulation or other insulating material, are either pre-formed interlocking blocks or separate panels connected with plastic or metal ties.

The left-in-place forms not only provide a continuous insulation and sound barrier, but also provides a backing for drywall on the inside, and stucco, lap siding or brick on the outside.

Within these two basic ICF types, individual systems can vary in their design:

• "Flat" systems yield a continuous thickness of concrete, like a conventionally poured wall.
• The wall produced by "grid" systems has a waffle pattern where the concrete is thicker at some points than others.
• "Post and beam" systems have just that – discrete horizontal and vertical columns of concrete that are completely encapsulated in foam insulation.

Whatever their differences, all Insulated concrete form systems are engineer-designed, code-accepted and field-proven.

Energy savings and comfort are built into every ICF system. ICF’s start with a high R-Value. Four inches of ASTM C 578 polystyrene foam insulation, combine with a five inch concrete wall a typical ICF system – are rated above R-17 at 75o mean test temperature. Other insulating form configurations and materials also exhibit high R-values.

The concrete walls of an ICF home have high thermal mass, which buffers the interior of a home from the extremes of outdoor temperature during every 24-hour cycle. This reduces both peak and total heating and cooling loads.

This combination of high R-values and high thermal mass is believed to account for the amazing 25% to 50% energy savings of ICF versus wood or steel-framed homes.

In sound transmission tests, ICF walls allowed less than one-third as much sound to pass through as do ordinary frame walls filled with fiberglass. With double-glazed windows in ICF walls and beefed-up roof insulation, you will rarely hear street noises or airport traffic.

The high-mass walls of an ICF home not only give it a remarkably solid feel, but they also make it safer for the family. And make it a remarkably solid and secure investment, too. Concrete homes have a proven track record of withstanding the ravages of hurricanes, tornadoes and fires, when all the stick-build houses around them are in ruins.

In fire wall tests, ICFs stood exposure to intense flame without structural failure longer than did common frame walls. The polystyrene foam used in most ICF forms is treated so it will not support combustion. Also, tests show that its tendency to transmit an outside flame source is less than that of most wood products.

A Healthier Home & Environment

Building with ICFs is healthier for the environment in a number of ways: by minimizing the number of different building products involved in construction, by reducing the amount of waste generated on the construction site, and by lowering energy requirements for heating and cooling.

ICF homes provide a healthy indoor environment, too. Nothing held within or ordinarily emitted by an ICF wall is toxic. The measurement of the air contents of actual ICF houses shows an almost complete absence of any emissions.

This means that the El Dorado County Building Department is finished with us, and that I should be expecting a tax re-assessment soon.

It does not, however, mean that T.B. is finished. He is still completing the exterior trim, and has a few odds and ends to complete.

The interior is finished, however, I’ve moved in, and I had a housewarming party October 21st to celebrate.

The bump-out for the kitchen windows was designed by T.B. to add some character to the front. It is finished with cedar to match the soffit coverings and entry, and vertical strips of redwood left and right. A stone ledge runs along the bottom.

As you enter the house, you look to the south through the great room, over the back porch, through the willows to the river. A pair of French doors on the left provides access to the porch.

On the right a pair of casement windows surround a picture window. The television is tucked into a corner just to the right of this picture. You may want to refer to the floor plan if you find yourself getting lost.

One change from the floor plan — I decided not to install the wood stove. There were three reasons: money, space, and lack of perceived need. The chimney is in place, however, so that I can add it later if I change my mind.

The window tops are 8 feet from the ground; the ceiling starts at approximately 10 feet on the north and south walls and peaks at around 14 feet. Note the six skylights in the porch roof; in the winter they bring sunlight into the great room almost to the center.

The next two photo shows the great room. The entry door is trimmed in plum; the green trim marks closets and bookcasees. The blue doors in the left photo lead to the guest bedroom (northwest corner of the house) and guest bath.

I had a lot of fun picking trim colors. Originally we were going to use stain-grade trim, but it was just too expensive and we were already over budget. I’d also planned to paint a couple of walls, but was a bit chicken and had trouble coming up with colors.

When T.B. suggested burgundy or hunter green for all the baseboards and door trim, I balked. It seemed way to formal — even boring! So I came up with the idea of painting the various pieces of trim in random colors.

I asked my artist friend Michelle for advice, and she suggested a palette of five colors. I chose green, blue, gold, plum and a salmony color named "chili pepper." The painter pointed out that random color changes added time and expense, so I settled on green for baseboards, closets and the vertical bookshelf.

The bedroom and bath doors are trimmed in blue; the office and utility room door in chili pepper, the entry in plum, and all the kitchen stuff in gold. In some rooms we painted wall sconces to match the trim — $10 each at Home Depot and they look pretty spiffy with the paint!

Continuing to move to the right, you will next see the kitchen and dining areas. I’ll come back to the kitchen later. For now I’ll just point out the wonderful high bookcase above the counter, and the hanging shelf for plates and such — painted in gold and chili pepper.

In the photo below, you can see the full ceiling height at the ridge. This gable window faces east; there is another at the west end. They are delightful additions to the room.

The two beams that run the length of the room are the purlins; they support the roof. They’re gluelam beams, and have been sanded and finished with a clear coat. The ceiling fan can be used in the summer to draw the warm air up and out through the two ridge skylights, or in the winter to push warm air back down into the room.

One of the design rules when using structural insulated panels to form the roof is that one is not supposed to mount light fixtures in the ceiling — it eats into the insulation of the house. Hence the light soffits that run along the north and south sides of the house, and the track lights that you can just barely see attached to the purlins.

There are additional light soffits in the kitchen and master bedroom, and track lights in the office, kitchen and utility rooms. This turned out to look and function very nicely, but added an unexpectedly large amount of money — consider it a hidden cost of using the roof panels.

The porch on the south side is made of concrete. T.B. is still finishing the trim out there so the photos will have to wait another week at least. Suffice it to say that when the sun hits the concrete, it warms up the porch nicely. In the summer time the sun is higher in the sky so the oven effect isn’t a problem.

In general, heating and cooling have worked pretty much as advertised. The house is so well-insulated that it doesn’t heat up much during summer days. Of course, this means it doesn’t cool down that much at night either!

So the cooling system requires a lot of human activity — opening all the windows and skylights in the evening, and turning on fans, then closing the house up in the morning. This is not a problem for me now, but I do wonder sometimes how it will work out if I ever break a leg or find myself in a wheelchair in my 80s!

The heating system has only been in use the past couple of weeks. The radiant floors are GREAT! It took a bit of time to calibrate them — I tended to set the thermostat too high and to come on too early. But I must say I’m very happy with the quality of the warmth. Haven’t enough data to comment on the efficiency but I expect that my propane bills will be quite reasonable.

Finally we get to the office, in the southwest corner of the house. The photo above shows the entrance to the office in all its chili pepper splendor. As you can see, I have my computer set up so that I have a view to the river on my left, and into the trees on my right. (Of course today the view is T.B. on a ladder finishing the porch trim!)

The office door opens onto the porch over looking the river. The trim should have been painted chili pepper instead of gold, but this door was done before the plan was fully established so it’s a bit of a rebel. That bland box to the left of my chair is a lateral file cabinet. I’m thinking of painting it too, maybe with a mural, or perhaps putting a poster on the back.

The kitchen windows face to the north, to the driveway, so that I can see whether my guests are arriving for dinner. The bump-out gives me a slightly deeper countertop near the windows, providing space for some plants.

The concrete countertop is by far my favorite part of the kitchen. T.B. built forms on the lower cabinets and poured the concrete in place. We added a coloring powder to the concrete before pouring, which gave it a nice brown color.

After the concrete had cured, T.B. spent a couple of days polishing the surface so that it is silky-smooth, and then sealed it with several coats of acrylic. It is not quite bulletproof, but not at all delicate either. It has the seamless feel of Corian or granite, but has a wonderfully earthy, organic look to it.

The materials are less expensive, of course, but the overall the cost is in the same range as these other materials, because of the intensive labor required for building the forms, pouring and working the concrete, and polishing and finishing it.

The cabinets are made by Kraft-Maid, sold through Home Depot. They have a clear maple finish, and shaker style moldings. The original plan called for an additional maple cabinet at the end of the peninsula, but when we placed it on the counter the effect was awful. It blocked too much of the view to the river, separated the kitchen from the great room, and took up a substantial chunk of counter space.

I didn’t want to completely eliminate that cabinet, however, as I needed a place for plates and bowls — and I wanted it to be convenient to the counter, the dishwasher and the dining room table. In trying to come up with a more open cabinet, I remembered what T.B. had done in my storage shed, using threaded rods to hang shelves. So we adapted the threaded rods notion for the kitchen.

The shelves are MDF, painted to match the other interior trim colors. The threaded rods are secured inside the soffit at the top, then go through holes in the shelves. Sections of painted metal pipe separate the shelves from each other and also camouflage the rods. Nuts at the bottom hold it together. As it happens, I have been collecting plates and other serving pieces in various bright colors for almost 30 years, so this also gives me a fun way to enjoy them.

There is another special cabinet. It’s built into the soffit over the peninsula, and is the perfect place for the turkey roaster, giant serving bowl, crock pot, waffle iron and other items that I don’t use very often. I have a small oak stepladder that allows me to reach up there.

The range is made by Dacor. It has a gas (propane) cooktop and an electric convection oven. It has many of the features of commercial-style ranges at a much more reasonable price, and has so far been wonderful to use. The cooktop is remarkably simple and easy to clean up after a spill, which is important for a wild and crazy cook like myself!

There is a lot of lighting. The photos show the lights in the soffits and under the counters, but there is also a large skylight and a track light on the ceiling. I never need to turn them all on, but it is nice to focus light on the task at hand.

My sincere apologies to anyone who has been faithfully checking the site for current information! Why so long?

Well, I’ve been kept pretty busy, between the house, the business, and the challenges of life in a tiny trailer.

A lot has been done in this three months, though of course there’s lots more left to do. I haven’t been doing much carpenter work myself. I injured my back shortly after the last update, and by the time I was able to do physical labor again it was time for me to be shopping. I’ve spent lots of money, probably too much of course!

The list includes cabinets for the kitchen, laundry, and master bath, plumbing fixtures, a wood stove, kitchen appliances, colors for the exterior stucco and trim, roofing material, and concrete stain.

As of the last report we had just finished installing the roof panels, and the windows had been delivered. T.B. had me start preparing to installing windows, and over the next months we installed a few windows each week, almost as a break from other jobs.

The first step was to prepare the window openings. I cut strips of 30-lb. roofing felt (paper saturated with tar) to fit the window opening. The side and top strips are 8" wide, the bottom 16" wide.

I used a chisel to remove any wads of glue in the corners of the window opening, and then attached the felt to the exterior wall with a staple gun. The bottom strip went on first, then the sides, finally the top, so that the raindrops would run down the overlapping felt strips and not find their way into the house.

After I’d felted a few windows, T.B. would stop his work and run a bead of glue along the edge of the felt, while I unpacked the window. They are beautiful windows, a clear Douglas fir with sage green aluminum cladding on the outside. The wood interiors will be clear-coated; in the meantime we’ve been very careful to avoid getting fingerprints on the wood.

Next T.B. would carry the window to the outside of the house and set it into the opening. I stayed on the inside and held the window in place, levering it up or shimming it while he made sure that it was level and square in all directions and nailed it in place.

The next step was to open and close the window to verify that it worked smoothly. Finally, T.B. applied a smear of glue on the outside of the window frame to cover the nails and ensure a final waterproofing.

T.B. and Don spent most of last week finishing infrastructure, installing hip rafters, and straightening walls, and then put up the first roof panel last Friday, August 20.

The roof panels are supported on the outer end by the walls, and on the inner end by a ledger board attached to the gable walls. At the corners, the hip rafters run on a diagonal to support the roof.

The hip rafters and ledger boards will all be visible elements of the inside of the home, so we are trying to figure out how to finish them.

T.B. has suggested several options. I’m leaning toward the simplest, which is just to round the corners, sand them smooth, and clear coat. With the concrete floors, every little bit of wood trim in the home is welcome.

Inside, I’m now able to see how the hip roof will feel. The outer walls of the "hip rooms" will be 8′ tall, and the inner walls will go to 10’8".

There are skylights in the bathrooms, kitchens, and master bedroom closet (it has no windows.) The photo below was taken from the master bedroom, looking down through the closet and bathroom. The second, larger skylight will be over the shower and tub.

Working with the roof panels is a challenge (photo below), as they are pretty heavy and awkward. On a larger project T.B. would have brought in a crane, but it would have added a lot of cost. Since this is a relatively small, one-story home, we are using muscle power and leverage instead.

Metal straps fastened to the panel faces give us something to grip, as the OSB can be slippery. When walking on the roof, we have to avoid stepping on nails, cords, or sawdust, as they could act as ball bearings and send us sliding down.

There are billions of nails to drive into the roof panels to hold them together, so I’ve kept busy the past few mornings. I bought a new hammer last week. My old hammer is all metal, so the handle weighs as much as the head does, and it transmits a lot of shock through to my wrist. The new one has a lightweight graphite handle and a 20 oz. metal head.

Besides putting all the weight in the head, the graphite acts as a shock absorber for my wrist. I’d probably be better off with an 18 oz. or even 16 oz. head, but this model didn’t come in a lighter weight. And after hefting all the hammers at Home Depot, it was the clear winner in just plain feeling good. It makes driving the nails SO much easier and faster than with the old mallet.

For the underside of the panels, T.B. will let me use the nail gun. The disadvantage of the nail gun is that it has a tendency to smash right through the OSB. T.B. will set it to its lowest compression, which should help but will mean that sometimes I have to finish the nail off with my hammer.

As before with the walls, adding the roof brings me closer to an understanding of how the house will look when it is done. I like it more and more every day.

It’s taken almost exactly two weeks to put up all the roof panels. Some of that time was spent straightening walls and installing the ledger boards and rafters on which the roof panels rest.

A bit too much of the time was spent planing the roof panels, many of which were cut too long. Half an inch or even a quarter of an inch might not seem like a large amount but it might as well be a foot when it comes to fitting the panels in place.

I’m still working on the job site regularly. Usually I’m driving those previously-mentioned billions of nails into the roof panels to hold them together, and also backfilling some of the places on the walls that were skipped or needed some beefing up. The new hammer is working out great, and I’m getting a little better with the nail gun.

I don’t know why it should be so hard to fire the nail gun properly. You have to press the tip of the gun hard against the spot where you want the nail, and then pull the trigger very briefly. If you’re not holding the tip hard and steady, it misfires or only goes in halfway. If you pull the trigger for longer than a fraction of a second, it fires two nails instead of one. And the thing weighs 50 pounds (just kidding). At first I needed to hold it with two hands. Now I can fire it with one hand sometimes, but still need the second hand to steady it if I’m holding it at an awkward angle or reaching out to a spot.

Theoretically you can just propel yourself (and the scaffolding) by pulling on the purlins (the beams up near the ridge). But in fact this is just another of T.B.’s myths. It assumes that one has a hand that can grip a six-inch wide beam and pull hard enough to roll a couple hundred pounds of scaffold, equipment, and worker along. My hand is perfectly adequate for most tasks, but not this one. I was able to pull from the skylights or push off the walls and move a few feet, but the rest of the journey required me to climb down and push from the floor.

Because the roof panels define the ceiling lines as well as the roof lines, I can for the first time feel how spacious the rooms will be. The great room feels much "greater" than before. It’s hard to capture on film; you’ll just have to trust me that it’s beautiful, or come see for yourself.

The other excitement last week was the arrival of the windows, French doors, and skylights. The windows and doors are made by Loewen, a Canadian firm, from vertical-grain Douglas Fir, clad on the exterior with sage-green aluminum. Because the wood is so beautiful, we will clear-coat the insides. The aluminum-clad outside should last a long time with minimal upkeep. They are "low-E", double-pane filled with argon gas to minimize heat transfer.

We should be able to begin installing skylights this week. Once I finish nailing all the exterior panels together (and T.B. finishes a couple of small jobs as well), we can call for an exterior nailing inspection and then start installing the windows. I guess that means I’d better sign off and get some sleep so that I can be nailing bright and early tomorrow!

If you want to know more about our home’s roof panels, you can learn more about roofing and roofing materials over at Roofing Articles website.

You can get some idea of how it works from the Whole House Building Supply web page.

The sales that weekend were an "estate" home in Atherton and a more modest home in Palo Alto.

The sales were well-organized. All the items in the homes were numbered, and a handout listed asking prices for each item.

Electricity and water had been turned off. Some items were easily removed, like bathroom mirrors and light fixtures. Others, like flooring or fireplace mantles, were going to call for a lot more work. We had come prepared with a Sawzall, but it wouldn’t have done us any good — one of the rules is that only licensed and insured contractors are allowed to use power tools for removing items. (They didn’t complain about our using my Makita cordless drill for removing screws, however.)

My first modest score was a dozen hooks for hanging brooms and other handled tools. $3.00 for the dozen, with a bicycle hook thrown in for good measure. We were off to a good start.

But the best find was a like-new Modern Day central vacuum unit at the Atherton home, complete with hoses, attachments, and replacement bags. We had already put the conduit for central vacuum into the slab, but the vacuum itself wasn’t quite in the budget. For $70 we found this 2-year-old system. There will still be some cost for installation, but it should save at least $600 compared to buying it new.

In Palo Alto, Ray fell in love with this built-in cabinet unit, left. But of course we couldn’t figure out how to get it out of its house, and it wouldn’t fit on the truck, and for that matter it wouldn’t fit in Ray’s garage either. Ah well, some pieces of furniture are meant to be adored from afar.

The Palo Alto house also provided me with an electrical sub-panel and a dozen breakers, all for $10. This wasn’t as good a deal as the others, since my electrician tells me that the 15-amp breakers are of a design that doesn’t work very well. But still there are several good 20-amp breakers in the panel, and it will work well in the garage or shed, saving me at least $10-20.

My friend Paul, with whom I’ve worked at five different companies over the past 16 years, lives a few blocks away from our Palo Alto salvage site. So he came to visit and help us analyze the workmanship of the old home. Part of the home was older than the rest.

We could tell because it used true 2" x 4" framing lumber instead of the dimensional lumber used today. Some of the framing showed the creativity of the crew, as in this rolling "hill and valley" line, right.

After we were finished for the day, we had dinner in Atherton with Randy and Joan, two other long-time good friends. Between the booty and getting to see folks I hadn’t seen in a while, it was definitely worth a trip to the Bay Area.

Each of the sales had around 6-12 other folks looking around at any given time. We were pleased with what we found, but several people told us that this was not a great weekend — they felt that there are usually a lot more interesting and useable items available. It’s a great way to recycle older homes and potentially save some money in the process.

Besides the Whole House Building Supply web page, you may find the following to be of interest:

• Internet Resale Directory lists secondhand, surplus and salvage businesses around the country
• The California Materials Exchange, a service of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, has a searchable data base of all kinds of materials one might use in construction or other ventures.
• Recycler’s World has a section on used home renovation materials, but currently only a few listings, midwest and east coast.

Next week we’ll start putting the roof panels in place.

My friend Tom came over to see the house on Tuesday the 11th, and boy were we glad to see him!

We needed to set a 28-foot gluelam in place as a header for the north side of the great room, and it was going to be tough. Tom allowed himself to be volunteered to help, which made a huge difference.

With that success under our collective belts, T.B. decided we could tackle placing the 18-foot header panel (with 6×8" header beam inside it) on the south wall of the great room.

Again, using the scaffolding as our only real tool, we managed to get this hefty panel up. (Understand of course that I’m the weakest member of this team but I want at least 10% of the credit!)

T.B. makes quick work of nailing down the top plate — he just climbs onto the wall and hammers from above (photo below). He claims it’s easier because you don’t have to hold up the hammer, and that I should try it, but I say that his balance is a lot better than mine and that I’m more comfortable on the ladder or scaffolding.

The scaffolding is a great place to work as long as you remember that it doesn’t extend the full length of the wall — I almost walked off the end of it a couple of times!

Under this header we will install (from left to right) a pair of French doors, a 30" wide window behind the wood stove, and a casement set totalling 8′ of glass.

At first I was worried that putting all the walls up would take away from the beauty of the site — making it feel too closed in. But instead each window now acts as a picture frame, and somehow each view becomes more special. Another day I’ll drop in some photos of the framed pictures made by each of the windows.

In order to put the gable walls up, T.B. and Don had to build a couple of interior walls. Whereas most interior walls would be 4" thick, these walls are 6" thick so that they can support the panels. The gables will be at each end of the great room, and the view of the trees through the high gable windows is already a pleasure.

Now that the walls are up I’m starting to get a feeling for the shape of the house. The floor plan is thoroughly embedded in my brain, but I’ve never been able to visualize the final 3-D structure. T.B. and the architect, David Wright, are both able to visualize what the final house will look like — I’m not sure how much of that ability is learned and how much is native talent.

At any rate, the good news is that the more I see of the final shape of the house the more I like it. It still doesn’t feel completely real to me, though. I may have to move in before I completely accept that it is a real house and not just an elaborate fantasy.

This weekend my friend Ray and I are going to the Bay Area to see what we can salvage from some homes that are being demolished.

You can get some idea of what we’re up to from the Driftwood Salvage web page, though for some reason they haven’t updated it with this weekend’s sales. Wish us luck! I’ll let you know next week whether we find anything interesting.