#building101 Archives - Forever.Six.Acres

Building 101 – Framing

Framing 101

Framing is pretty straight forward in the building processes. It goes up quickly, so that’s why I plan to also include other topics in this post as well. I’ll be touching on some of the other things that happen within the walls of your home before the sheetrock goes up, such as water lines, electrical lines, and insulation.

It is always so exciting to drive up to your home and see the framing. It starts to make things feel so real! You no longer have that feeling or illusion of your concrete slab feeling too small! It starts to help you really visualize the dimensions of each space of your home.

A couple things to mention about the framing part of building! It goes by fast and always double check and measure things! I feel like I keep saying that in each building 101 post, but it’s important! I’d rather catch a mistake early on, then later when it’s harder to fix! Also, now is the time to adjust or change things if you don’t like the way something is. For example, we didn’t like the size of the kitchen window above the sink, so we made it larger!

Once the frame base is built, they will wrap the exterior with plywood, and a moisture barrier. Then the exterior will start to go up, but we will talk about that on another post! 😉 So lets move on to the interior things that need to get done before sheetrock!

Electrical during framing

I’m not 100% sure if electrical or plumbing happens first, or maybe they happened together at the same time? Regardless, they both have to happened before insulation! Before the electrical is run, you should do a walk through with your builder, and electrician. You want to make sure that all light switches, outlets and such are exactly where you want them. Go through each room and describe the lighting you plan to put in that room, and were you want the switch to be.

Deciding on where to put switches and outlets

Before insulation, electrical will be run to all outlet boxes, and all lighting. The most important thing to think about during this step is about how you do daily routines. This helps determine were the best place for outlets to go. In our great room, I didn’t want a switch that would turn on the living room light in the kitchen.

When you do your walk through, pretend you are waking up in the morning and you come out of your room. Where do you want the switch to be when you walk into the next room. Does the switch make sense right there when you are closing up the house for the night? Do you want the can light switch first, then light fixture, then fan? Think about if you want any hidden outlets in drawers or cabinets, so they aren’t above the vanities, or countertops. Do you want outlets in your pantry, laundry room, or broom closet? How about outlets outside? Do you want them on either side of your doors for christmas lights?

PRO TIP: Pretend you are waking up in the morning and you come out of your room. Where do you want the switch to be when you walk into the next room. Does the switch make sense right there when you are closing up the house for the night?

Places we put outlets and switches

We put a few outlets in our home that we had the electrician add on to the plan. We had them installed on either side of our front and back doors, and we also put outlets with timers on them in our soffits for the christmas lights on the roof! A few places we hid some outlets are under my vanity, and in one of Jeremy’s drawers under his vanity. We also have an outlet with two USB plugs on our island (makes it easy for kids to plug in electronics). I also included an outlet in our pantry since we have a countertop in the pantry. This has made it easy to plug in small appliances and keep them hidden, like the toaster, air fryer, or crockpots!

Plumbing during framing

Just like the electrical, the plumbing will be run within the walls during framing, and then the electrician will come back later to install switches, lighting and such. Plumbing pipes should be run from under the concrete slab, and through the walls to wherever you plan to have water run to, washer dryer, sinks, fridges, pot-fillers, dishwashers, showers, tubs, and any other things. Which, I know that seems silly to even mention, but sometimes when you are stressed and worried about building and all things life, it’s easy to overlook something!! We chose last minute while the plumber was there to have him run water for a pot filler.

Hot Water Heater

We also have our hot water heater in our attic. This is because we don’t have to create small closet for it in our floor plans, which allowed us to use that square footage for something else. I have a few things from Amazon that I linked. Including our Rianni Tankless Hot Water Heater. The benefit of the tankless hot water heater, is that it saves you energy by only using the hot water when you turn on the hot water. Which this also saves your money, but the only downfall is that it takes about 18 seconds to get hot water. Verses a regular hot water heater tank constantly heats your water weather you are using it or not. Which yes, you have instant hot water, but it costs you more money in the long run!

Also, before I wrap up this section, I’ve got another tip for you! Be sure to take photos of your electrical and plumbing before the insulation and sheetrock are put up. This will come in handy later when you need to know where wires and pipes are in the walls. We have looked back at these photos a few times now!

Pro tip: Take photos of your electrical and plumbing before the insulation and sheetrock are put up. This will come in handy later when you need to know where wires and pipes are in the walls. We have looked back at these photos a few times now!

Insulation

So there are a several different types of insulation options to choose from. Check out Energy.gov, it goes over all the different types of insulation. I know that it is easy to go with the cheaper choice in the beginning to save money, but the more efficient spray foam insulation will save you money in the long run, and keep you cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter!

We chose spray foam insulation because it is the most energy efficient for us, especially when it gets so hot in the Texas summer heat! You can see Liam really enjoyed the fact we chose spray foam! He had so much fun throwing it up in the air like he was in a snowball! 🙂

We had all exterior walls sprayed, and parts of the attic so we could keep part of it temperature controlled. At the last minute, we decided insulate the garage as well. Just to help the heat stay out in the summer time! We eventually plan to build a large shop, with game room up top, which we will also insulate that as well! It really helps keep the electric bill down!

What’s next for Building101?

Next on the list to cover is windows, doors, and trim work! The topics are starting to cover the fun things! So many different options and ways to save coming up soon! Thanks for reading and if you are new here, sign up for emails, so you won’t miss a building101 post! I promise the only emails you get from me, are when there is a new blog post!

Categories: #building101

#Building101 – Foundation

Hey y’all! Foundations are a huge step in the building process! It feels like it’s finally happening. Be aware that once the foundation is laid out, it might feel really small! It’s just an illusion! Don’t worry, it gets better once the framing is put up!

Types of Foundations

There are several ways to create stable foundations for whatever type of structure you are building. I don’t know much about any of the other ones, but I have linked a website that goes over details of all the different main types of foundations. There you can get more information about what type of foundation is good to build a solid support structure for your home!

Isolated Column Footing
Basement Foundation
Slab Foundation (what we have)
Wall Footing Foundation
Pile Foundation

You can find more information on the other foundations on this Civicconcepts.com! Finding a foundation that is best for you depends on your location and type of soil you have.

Slab Foundation

We have a concrete slab foundation. Many people are so surprised to hear that we don’t have a basement! Basements in Texas are not common, or recommended. The ground shifts too much and will cause major foundation problems! We also don’t have freezing weather, so our ground does not freeze and thaw our causing cracks in the foundation. Another benefit to having a slab, is that with the warmer weather we have, having a solid concrete slab, helps keep out the bugs! Houses down in Texas are built with a solid concrete slab to help support the house from caving in the basement, help prevent serious cracks, and keep out the bugs!

I’m not a 100% sure, but I would think that a solid concrete foundation would be less expensive, then having a whole other story below ground level. I could be wrong?? Some of you might ask, where we store everything? Well since we don’t have basements here, many people try to create a lot of attic space by building taller roof pitches.

Areas We Have Attic Storage

The spaces we have for attic storage are above our garage, kitchen, and master suite area. We have roughly about 900 square foot of attic space! We would have the entire square footage of our home, but we can’t really get to the other side of the house because of the vaulted ceilings in the dining room and living area. So we don’t have attic space above the dining, living, playroom, or boys rooms. But what we have now, is PLENTY of storage space! It is the most we have ever had!

Things to Know Before a Slab Foundation is Poured

There are a few things that will need to be discussed with your builder before your concrete slab is poured. If you want any type of electrical run to somewhere in your house that is not connected to an outside wall. For example, we had floor outlets added to our living room floors if we ever needed to use them for lamps, or christmas trees. We strategically planned them out to be under our couches. This meant we needed to have our living room furniture placement figured out before the concrete slab was poured. We put in them in areas though, that if we moved our furniture, the rug would be able to cover them.

Double Check and Measure!

Another thing that needs to be done before the slab is poured, is to run the plumbing that will go throughout the house. You will want to double check all measurements for plumbing. We had to move our bathtub drain over 5 inches after the foundation was done and tile was installed, because it was too close to the wall. So to save yourself some setbacks later on, measure things out to double check your plumber, and contractor. Double check and get it right, or you will do it twice! 🙂 I linked some 100 ft tape measures above, so you can measure the long distances from wall to wall, or measure the plumbing and electrical in the middle of the home.

Any Special Flooring?

Another thing to discuss with your builder before you pour, is the type of flooring you want to have, and if you want anything special, like brick floors. We used full sized bricks for our entire front patio, and used full bricks around the outline of our back patio. These need to be noted before the pour, because those area’s need to be recessed in according to the thickness of the brick you chose. You can see on the image above towards the middle right side, that our front patio is recessed several inches compared to the rest of our slab. This allows the brick to sit flush with the rest of the slab once it is laid.

Process of How the Slab is Created

Concrete slabs are created from the outside, in. They first put up wood forms to create the perimeter of the house. Next, they completely level the ground making it compacted and flat as possible. They will use lasers to make sure it’s completely level. They dig trenches for where the plumbing and electrical will be run to areas of the house that are not connected to an outside wall. The trenches also help the slab foundation from moving or tipping as the weather changes the soil throughout the year. They also help support the load bearing walls. These trenches have a big role in the stability of your home!

Next is what you call “tamping” the ground. Which is when the soil that was not trenched is compacted very tight to create solid stable ground area. Then they cover those areas with black tarps to help even more as a moisture barrier. The rebar is installed as a floating reinforcement. It helps support the solid part of the concrete, as well as the footers.

Concrete Pouring

After the rebars are installed, pouring the concrete comes next! This step happens pretty quick! Slab pours are done in one day and take about 1 to 2 days to dry! If you want to do handprints or write your name in the concrete then you should try to get that done a few hours after it was poured so it’s semi-set!

After the concrete is poured, your slab might feel really, really small. It is like an optical illusion. There are several stages in the building process that will make your house feel big, and small, then big again.

Next Up

Next up for your build is framing! This happens fast, so I will probably include HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, and Insulation as well! I hope you found some informational insight about the type of foundation you need, and learned a couple things about how a slab foundation works.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to the next building101 topic!

Categories: #building101, Lifestyle

Landscape

Hey Y’all! This post has been in the making for a while! The end of the school year is always so crazy busy! But I’m not here for excuses, I’m here to share what I know about landscape! Which isn’t too much, but I’ve learned a few things over the years about deciding what to plant, how to design landscape, and ways to save money. I included this post under the categories Lifestyle and Building101 since this topic applies to both areas!

Let me start off by saying that we did not include our irrigation system and landscaping into our loan. We decided that we would rather do these things ourselves and put that saved money into the house design. So we moved in to a house with no trees, and a lot of mud! You can see the pretty house surrounded by dirt and weeds below. 🙂 We waited about 4 months or so before we decided to hire a local business to do the irrigation system first. Before they put in the water lines and sprinkler heads, they needed a general layout of the landscape design so they knew where to place things. So our the first part of this post will cover how to go about designing your landscape!

Designing Your Landscape

When you start to design you landscape, or really anything, first thing you have to do is research. You can find ideas on Google, Pinterest, Blogs, Instagram, and even looking at houses around your town. Getting ideas from other people is were your inspiration spark comes from! Once you see something you love, then screenshot, save, or take a photo of it so you can reference back to it when you start drawing it out!

Once you have collected your own inspiration, the next step of designing, is to create some sketches on paper, or a computer app if you have something that will work for this. Here’s what I did, I took a copy of our house plans and traced the perimeter of our entire home (driveway, and patios included) onto a piece of blank copy paper. I did this a couple of times because I had a couple ideas I wanted to draw out and see which one we liked best.

Once you have your perimeter of your house traced, you can start sketching ideas on how you want to wrap your landscaping around your home. Do you want it just in the front elevation? Do you want it to go on the sides? How about some spots in the backyard? Are you going to plant trees and put edging and mulch around them? Where do you want those to go? Do you want your edging to be curved and flow, or do you want the more modern look with straight edges? There are lots of questions to consider when designing.

We first added edging around the house to make sure we liked it! Then staked it in the ground.

What We Did for our Landscape

I decided to do a mix of curved edging and straight edging. The front of our home has curved edging around the front elevation. The curve straightens off to a straight edge along the side of the house with the garage. The other side of the house has a large curved out area because of the septic system. Jeremy didn’t want to have to worry about mowing and weeding around that area, so we included in the landscape for that reason and so we could plant plants around it to hide it. The back elevation has curved edges except were we extended the patio concrete pad out. We have straight edging with 90 degree corners to frame that space nicely.

When designing your landscape, also think about the process of upkeep. If making an area have small curves or corners makes mowing or weeding harder, then choose to do something different in that space. It is recommended to have a minimum of 4 ft. of landscape area from the distance of the house to the edging. This is allow plants to have room to grow, and you can layer the plants. You don’t want the plants to grow too close to the house, this can speed up the wear and tear process of your exterior.

Another thing we did before we started was we made our drains into french drains. You can see these black flex pipes that pop out of the ground. This is because those pipes connect to our downspout gutters, so the water doesn’t flood the landscaping area, and the puddles stay away from the foundation area. We eventually cut those black pipes, and put drain lids on top of them. They are flush with the grass now, and you can’t even see them!

What to Buy for your Landscape Areas

Plants

The number one thing to make sure you look into for plants is finding out what zone you live in. Finding out the correct plant hardiness zone will allow your plants to flourish and be as healthy as possible! It also saves you money, because you’re plants will most likely not die due to weather conditions. You can find your plant hardiness zone here on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map! Once you are there, you can simply locate your area to find out what zone you are in. I am in zone 8A! Then you can research what plants are best in your zone. This helps you narrow down what plants you have to choose from, and it helps you know which plants are right for your landscaping!

If you are a local Texan in my area, or are located in a Zone 8a, then here is a list of plants that seem to do really well for us!

Ligustrums A.K.A Sunshine plant (these are the very bright yellow green shrubs around our home!)
Lantana
Crepe Myrtle
Kaleidoscope Abelia (this shrub changes colors throughout the year, and has small white blooms on it during summer)
Texas Sage (This can get very large, has a lighter green color to it, and small purple flowers)
Mexican Heather (small shrub with purple flowers on it all through spring and summer)
Hydrangeas (these do well in areas that only get morning sun for about 4 -6 hours. Any more that than, or afternoon heat will burn the leaves, and flowers will not bloom. I had to transplant one of mine to a different location this year because it was getting too much sun. It is now blooming like crazy and none of the leaves are burnt!)
Rosemary
Mint
Fountain Grass

landscape plants before weed barrier and mulch

Edging

There are several different ways you can edge your landscaping. You can chose the metal edging, stone, brick, wood, cement blocks, or even no edging. We chose to do the black metal edging, for a few reasons, one because it matched the house, and two because it’s definitely a cheaper option that doesn’t have maintenance. It’s easy to flex and flow for how you want your landscape designed to be laid out.

Tip: Use spray paint to outline where you want the edging to go to help you get a better visual of how the landscape design will flow with the exterior elevation of your house.

Weed Barrier and Mulch

Weed barriers aren’t necessary, but they are great to have if you hate pulling weeds! They aren’t perfect by any means, but oh my gosh they make a HUGE difference! I have linked the ones above in the Amazon favorites ad so you can see the ones we purchased! There are tons of great reviews out of thousands! You will also have to get some weed barrier metal U shaped stakes to keep it down flat. Then you will use a box cutter to cut a big X on the barrier to have the plant come through. Try to push weed barrier back up around the bottom of the plant around the roots. This will help prevent weeds from growing right next to the plant.

Once the weed barrier is down, and the plants are planted, then it’s time for mulch! There are several different kinds of mulch to choose from. I originally wanted the black rubber tire mulch to match the house, but my parents ( who are AMAZING green thumbs) said that the black mulch will get too hot in the Texas heat and kill the plants. Which made complete sense to me, but it wasn’t what I wanted to hear! So we went with Cedar mulch to go with the cedar posts. Although it does fade over time, mulch is usually something that has to be freshened up each year anyway!

Ways to Save on Landscaping

There are several ways we tried to save on our landscaping. We did this all cash a few months after we moved in, so we had time to save money and plan it all out. We still needed to try to save as much as possible. It is definitely expensive purchasing all the landscape for the first time, but after that, it’s not too bad!

One way we saved is doing it ourselves! It took a couple of weekends to get it done, but it was so cheaper than paying someone else to do it! Having someone else do it would have been much easier, but it also would have cost us a several thousand dollars!

Another way we saved is purchasing the mulch by the truck bed load. We have a local place that we found that will give us a trailer or truck bed full of mulch for a fraction of the price of purchasing it bag by bag! To get our landscape started, we needed quite a few truck loads! This year we used about two truck bead loads, but we have a lot of landscape area!

Mulch truck load — Mulch by the trailer load

Purchasing perennial plants instead of annual plants is another way to save money. Perennial plants will come back each year, and annual plants will only last the season. This will help save money in the long run, because you won’t have to replace a lot of plants next spring. I only purchased perennial when we first put in our landscape, and this year I added a few annuals for some color in the front and back, but it wasn’t expensive since most of my landscape came back from last year! You can also purchase a smaller size of the plant you want, it might not be big when you plant it, but it will grow!

We also grew most of our grass by seed. We bought a pallet or two of sod to put in the front right along the sidewalk, and in the backyard right right around our landscaping. The sod in the front by the sidewalk helped keep the sidewalk clean from all dirt and mud from rain. For the back yard, we put a small area of sod grass to let the boys play in this area. This allowed the boys to have some grassy areas to go play in without getting muddy or ruining their clothes every time. They were actually really good about staying on the patio or grass only areas! It also gave our little baby grass seed have a chance to grow instead of being trampled on constantly!! 🙂

Planting Tips

A few points to mention when planting!

Purchase smaller plants that will grow bigger. Maybe purchase the 1 or 3 gallon, instead of the 5 gallon.
Organize your plants from what will grow to be the tallest in the back, to medium in the middle, and shortest in the front.
Don’t plant too close to the exterior.
Dig a large hole, and fill with some soil from a bag to help the plant’s roots settle in.
Put weed barrier up as close as possible to the bottom of the plant.
Mound the base of the plant with mulch. It will settle down once the rain has moved it around or washed it away. It also helps keep moisture around the plant.
Try to create patterns or group together specific styles of plants to create an aesthetically pleasing design that suits your personality and design of your home!
Grow grass from seed. It takes a while, but it is MUCH cheaper! If you need grass in some small areas for kiddos to play in, then you can purchase some sod for those areas, but then let the other areas have grass grow by seed!
Use gardening plant tape and tape taller trees or shrubs to a bamboo stick, or metal T-post so the plant will grow straight up until it’s trunk and roots get strong enough on its own.

Let it Grow

I hope you found some helpful tips or information in this post! Just remember that the plants will grow and it takes time! Let it grow along with you and your family as you live life in your home!

I also posted a reel on my Instagram that shows good before and afters of our landscape! Check out my highlight on my Instagram over our landscaping from last year! It’s called Building101 Landscaping! It talks about each plant we bought, and shows you where exactly we planted everything around the house!

If you have any landscape tips to add to the post, comment them below so others can read about your tips too! Thanks for reading friends, and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog posts! I promise, you only get emails when there is a new post or a special event!

Categories: #building101, Uncategorized

#Building101 – Choosing a Builder

Choosing the right builder can be one of the first big decisions you have to make when starting the building process. If you are building a spec home, normally there is one builder that builds up the houses in that community. Which has it’s advantages and disadvantages. It makes the process of finding a builder easier, but you might not like that particular builder. Choosing a builder for building a custom home is a little more complicated. So I wanted to create a blog post specific to this topic!

Shopping Around when Choosing a Builder

When you start shopping around for a builder, there are many things to consider. Two of the major choices to consider are if that builder is within your budget, and if they are someone you can work with for the next 9 months or so.

Let’s start with how to go about looking for builders around your area. Personally, I think the best way to find a good builder is to ask others that have recently built with that builder. Word of mouth is a great way to really get good feedback about builders. Of course, if they have any type of website, or social media is another good way. But authentic and informative feedback comes best from personal experience. Most websites or social media accounts for builders want positive feedback to display.

When talking to someone who just built with that builder will be able to give you insight on what it was really like to build with that person. It is a good way to get an idea on what you will be working with throughout your building process. You might get some negative feedback, which is also valuable to you, because then you know what to avoid!

Questions to Ask

Listing some good questions you might want to consider asking your builders!

Do they work with a specific architect, or are they open using anyone?
Have they built a home similar to the style and design of home you want?
What is your price per sq. ft. and how do you determine that price to make it as accurate as possible?
How long does it take for you to create your estimated bid?
How long does it take to build a home like we want?
If we have a sub contractor we want to use that is different from yours, would you be okay with that?
Do you have a one year fix and touch ups warranty?
Will it be only you we are working with, or is there an assistant we will be working with too?
What is the best way to keep everyone involved and communicating? We don’t want any miscommunications.
Will there be regular meetings scheduled, or will they only be done upon request?
How do you determine the builders fee? Is it a fixed fee, or is it a cost plus fee?

Comparing Builders to Builders

Now, it’s important to compare a few different builders. Try not to go for the first one you meet! They might be a good fit, but it is always a good idea to check out other builders to see if there might be a better fit! When comparing builders to builders you want to keep in mind that you are going to get what you pay for. You can chose the best builder in the city, but you are most likely going to pay some of the top prices.

You will want to meet with each builder face to face, or at least zoom, so you can get a good first impression of each builder you meet with. This will help you get a feel for them as a builder, information about the subcontractors they work with, building processes, estimated time frame, and if you feel like they would be a good communicator. Communication is KEY when you are building! Not only between you and your builder, but also you and your spouse!

It is also nice to actually see your builders work! Ask if you can see a current project they are working on and a recent completed home they built. This is almost like a “portfolio” if you think about it. It gives you an true visual of their work!

How do you Know if a Builder is Within your Budget?

Builders usually give estimates of their price per square foot. The price per square foot varies depending on your location. Our home is probably worth twice as much, or more if we built it in California. It’s good to get quotes from different builders to see the price range of several builders.

Calculating your budget is simple. Take your square footage on your house plans, and then you multiply it by the price per square foot. This gives you a good estimate of what it would cost to build a house.

To make sure your builder can give you an accurate price per sq. ft. then it’s a good idea to have a general outline of your house plan, that includes the square footage. Also try to give him some of the big design or features you want to include in your home.

We let our builder know that we wanted to have about 2,300- 2,400 sq. footage to give him a good estimate of what we plan to build. We also told him the major things that make cost differences, like we originally wanted brick on the lower part of the house (we decided to just do board and batten), and board and batten everywhere else. I let him know I wanted vaulted ceilings in the living & dining area, and that I wanted wood beams. There would be lots of brick accents, and shiplap throughout the house. We also told him we wanted LVP flooring and solid wood double doors. All these details helped him give us a better sq. ft. price.

Farmhouse interior with vaulted ceilings and wood beams — Wooden beams, shiplap shiplap accent walls, brick fireplace, and LVP floors.

I could tell you what it cost to build our house, or I what the builder told us the price per square foot was estimated to be, but in all honesty, that won’t help you! The economy is completely different now, then it was when we were building. Lumber prices have almost gone up 80% since we built! Not only that, but builders prices vary all around the united states. They can even vary with in local areas. The prices around my small town varied from $115- $145. Now I’m sure the prices vary from $130-$175 per sq. ft.

Builders Gotta get Paid, too!

There are different ways that builders determine how they get paid to build. Our builder had a set, or fixed, fee of what he was going to get paid. It was about $25,000. My parents recently built and they used a different builder. His fee was based on a percentage of the overall cost to build the home, and I think their builders fee was about $50,000-$60,000. Of course their house cost more to build than ours, but if we would have used the same builder as them, our builders fee would have been more that that set fee we paid. So keep in mind that builders get paid differently and you want to see if they will work with you on that!

Choosing a Builder that is Not too Hot, Not too Cold, but Just Right!

Yes, I just compared choosing the right builder to Goldie Locks and the Three Bears but it’s kind of true though! You will find builders that are too over the top, and only want to do things their way. You will find builders that don’t get involved much, and scoot by each house barely meeting the needs of their clients. Eventually, you will find a builder that is just right for you!

Hoping this covers questions you might have about deciding on how to chose the right builder! After you chose your builder, you are just one step closer to creating your dream home! As always, leave a comment below if you have any questions! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog emails, so you don’t miss out on any upcoming posts! I also talked a little about this on my Instagram #building 101 series. I talked about this a while ago, but you can find it saved on my highlights!

Categories: #building101

Building 101 – Staying Organized

Building can be stressful in so many ways, but one way that helped our process smoother was staying organized throughout the process! I’ve been working on creating a list of ways to help keep you organized throughout your build! I’ll be going over tips on staying organized with your builder, ways to use Pinterest and Instagram, creating a building binder, and using the financial template I created!

Staying Organized with Your Builder

Double Checking

First, I want to mention the fact that your builder is going to do a lot of work, but you should still double check his work! Staying on top of everything that is going on at the house that day. Try to visit the house everyday to check things, or have someone you trust go out to the house. We are all people, and mistakes happen! So it’s best to find the mistakes early on, so it’s not a big stress later down the road.

All builders are different, some are perfect, some get the job done, and others are not so great. More information on how to select the right builder for you will be on my next post! A few ways to make sure everything was communicated and we didn’t misunderstand any conversations was by making lists, taking notes when we met, and recording possible tough conversations.

When we had meetings with out builder, we would create a list of things to talk about with him. We started the list several days before we would meet with him, and add to the list as we thought of things. This would ensure that we didn’t forget anything, and we also wrote down notes or answers he had for those questions. I also dated the list that way if there was ever an issue with that topic, we can refer back to the notes to check what the answer was for that question. This could be something you never reference back to, but there might be a time where you wish you would have done this!

Many of you know that Jeremy travels out of town, so some of the meetings were with just me and the builder. To make sure I didn’t forget to tell Jeremy, I would record the conversations on my phone. Basically just another form of note taking, but without all the writing!

Color Coding House Plans

This is probably the teacher in me, but our house plans were color coded with Flair pens! This helped me so I could easily see a visual of things. I used pink for the walls I wanted brick, orange for where we wanted shiplap on the walls. To quickly find things, I outlined the windows in green, and pocket doors in blue. Something that isn’t super necessary, but it was helpful for me!

I also made a key at the bottom, so Jeremy or our contractor knew what each color meant, if I wasn’t there to explain! Our builder actually really loved this idea, and took a picture of the color coding so it was easier for him to remember where I wanted everything.

Staying Organized with Pinterest and Instagram

Pinterest is a search engine like Google. You can search and save your favorite photos, or links into boards you have created. It’s good to create boards based on room, rather then a general “home” board. This will help you find inspirational images to show your builder quickly!

Instagram is really good at staying up to date with other social media platforms. There are images, links, IGTV videos, short reel videos, stories, highlights, saved folders, and the recent new feature, Guides. The saved folders is what you can really use here to help you keep organized with your home inspiration. This is JUST like a Pinterest boards. I created folders by master bedroom, living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen, pantry, laundry/mudroom, boys rooms, playroom/office, front/back porch, exterior, and even a seasonal decor folder!

If you aren’t sure how to save a post on Instagram, there is a little pendant flag below the photo on the right. Click that flag and then you can save it to a specific folder. Then you can easily find it again!

Building Binder

Our building binder is what really kept our heads straight. If you only take one thing away from this post, let it be the binder! Remember all those teachers that helped you set up your binder at the beginning of the year so you can keep all your subjects separated and all your work had it’s own place to go. Well, here is a teacher, giving you tips on how to organize your building binder! Haha!

Staying Organized with a Building Binder- Shopping list

Let’s start with the shopping list of things to get your building binder set up! I have linked very similar things to what I used for my binder. The binder should be at least 2 inches. It fills up fast, and you want it to last you the through the entire build. Nothing worse than having to transfer everything over to a bigger binder!

Next on the list are binder dividers! These dividers I have linked are sheet protector dividers. Any type of divider with labels will work, but I linked these specially because I have a little surprise for you at the end of this post! 🙂

Below you will also find a binder pencil pouch, so you always have a pen or pencil on hand. Linked my favorite Flair pens, and my favorite brand of pencils, too!

You might have noticed that I have sheet protectors, and I have a 3 hole punch. Really only one or the other is needed. I personally just used the three hole punch because I already had one at home, and I didn’t have to mess with a ton of sheet protectors. I also included some binder pockets. Again, these are necessary, but helpful if you are in a hurry, and need to just slip it in here! The binder I linked, and most binders you pick up from a store will have front and back pockets though!

Organizing It!

You can stay organized by putting your dividers in an order that works best for you. For me, I put the most used divider tabs in the front of the binder, and least used towards the back. I’ll go through the order of my dividers and what worked for me. Then I’m going to break down what I kept in each section.

House Plans
Draws
Receipts
Interior Details
Exterior Details
Contracts

House Plans

The first divider was house plans, and that was for a reason! It is something we referenced all the time throughout the build. We kept a printed copy of our house plans, so we could quickly reference it. I also kept all my grid drawing papers in there. I had grid drawings of my kitchen, fireplace and built ins, master bath, pantry, closet, and mudroom drop zone. This is also were I kept either printed photos of inspiration, or pictures I ripped out of magazines. My photo inspiration consisted of my brick, beams, mudroom, and fireplace.

built in shelves for Living room — Build in shelves drawing

Draws

This one speaks for itself. Here is were we kept all our draws! A draw is what the builder gives you, like an invoice, of everything he is going to purchase, or already has. Then you know how much to write a check for him from your loan account.

Each latest draw was always in the front of this section! Even though we input the draws on our building financial template, we still had the hard copies in our binder. I also wrote draw numbers on each one, so If they ever got out of order, they could easily be put back in order without having to search for dates.

Receipts

This one also speaks for itself. Here we put receipts for everything we paid for out of pocket like our major appliances, tub, lighting, furniture, door hardware, and cabinet hardware. You don’t have to pay for anything out of pocket, but we did to help keep our monthly mortgage payment down. More on this later when I post the #Building101 Finances!

Interior Details & Exterior Details

This is were I kept samples, or photos of things we purchased for our home. I just had two sections to help find interior and exterior details. Think of it as a mini mood board but in binder form! I only put things in this section that we had finalized and purchased. I kept small paint swatches, printed photos of purchases, and things like that. Again, these were all final choices, but any inspirational photos were under the House Plans section.

Contracts

The contract section is in the back because it is not one you will reference often, but it’s always good to have on hand. We kept the land survey there, our land deed restrictions, builder contracts, and any warranty paperwork.

Building Financial Template

My parents built their forever home about a year before we did. It was helpful to learn from their build and find out what works, and what didn’t. My dad actually created this building budget financial template for their build,so I can’t take all the credit for this! Thanks Dad! 🙂 He shared it with me, and I made it my own, and added some extra sheets that were helpful during our build.

This building financial template is easily accessible from your phone, tablet, or desktop! It’s created in Google Sheets (which is just like Microsoft Excel), so it is a live document so that you and your partner can both work on the document at the same time from different devices! It also automatically saves your work, so you don’t have to worry about loosing any information!

The first sheet of this template has a formula on it to double check your numbers. It compares the break down of each draw with your allowance from your builder. Once the numbers are pulled in, it will automatically start calculation if you are over or under budget according to the bid from your builder! This also helps you find any mistakes on billing. You don’t want to charged double for something accidentally. This sheet will help you catch those mishaps!

Click the link below to get more details on what this template has to offer you! Trust me, it’s worth the $15.00! You could make something like this yourself (if you’re tech savvy!), but building is stressful! Save yourself the hassle and get it in a few clicks below!

Building Financial Template

$15.00

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Benefits of Staying Organized from the Beginning

There are many benefits to staying organized throughout your build. One you can always find whatever you need quickly. If you want your build to move fast, you don’t want people to have to wait on you. You should always be waiting on them. The having your inspiration organized, helps keep you prepared, in the know, and helps keep a plan in place. Might even keep you sane! 🙂

It might seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it. It’s better than digging through a million manilla folders, or having to go home to look through paperwork. Keep your binder up to date, and keep it in your car so it’s always easily accessible! I still reference my binder for materials we used, and where we purchased them from!

So to help you get started, stay organized, and a way to say thanks from me to you, I have created a FREE download of binder insert to organized your building binder! Add Binder inserts to cart, and your check out will be free! Don’t forget to create an account so you can get emails, and updates on other helpful building information!

Free Binder Inserts

$0.00

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Other Staying Organized tips

I hope these tips on staying organized throughout your build has helped relieve stress and given you ideas to start implementing! Do you have any tips to share with others on staying organized while building? I’d love to hear! Comment below!

Don’t forget to like, and share this post on other platforms to help spread ways on staying organized throughout your build! Thanks for reading and if you’re new here, subscribed to my emails to get the #building101 sent straight to your email!

Categories: #building101

#Building101- House Plans

house plans feature image — Building101 house plans

I have included a few pictures of my original drawings. As many of you know, I am working on getting legal rights in order to sell our house plans. We may have designed the layout, but we had an architect draw them up correctly. This way we could get accurate blue prints to give to our contractor. Please take note that many of the photos I have included are not accurate to our current house plans. These were all original drawings to help show you the process of creating house plans to fit your needs.

Our Thoughts on Designing Our Custom House Plans

House plans are one of the most stressful things you have to decide on when you first decide to build. You can search websites for different layouts for days and they all start to look so similar. Then, you don’t remember which ones you actually liked or not!

I’m going to start by talking about how we created our custom house plans. I was stressed and overwhelmed because I couldn’t find a house plan that was perfect for our family. We knew that after purchasing our land (purchased 13 acres with my sister and split it down the middle), it was going to be the place we lived forever. Deciding on our forever home. No pressure, right!?

We needed our house to be flexible as our family changed overtime. It needed to have at least 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a large living area, large master bath, a large patio area, boys room had a jack and Jill bathroom, and possible office/playroom. I found house plans that checked off all these boxes, but the layouts were not working for me. They didn’t flow right, or I didn’t like where something was placed.

I knew then, after researching house plans for a month or so that I would have to do something different. Once the builder we were going with told me that I could draw up my ideas, and take it to an architect. He would create the blue prints with accurate dimensions. I was so PUMPED! I went home and started looking at a few house plans I saved. Then, I got to work!

Started with the Great Room, and Worked My Way Around.

I started with the main living area because I knew that was the area that would be used the most by our family and for entertaining. I found a house plan on the Architectural Designs website that has the layout of the open great room. So I drew up how I wanted this room to flow within all one big area; the kitchen, to dining room, to living area. I wanted my front doors to open right up to my dining table. I also wanted my back doors to match the front doors. So you can see straight through my front doors to the back doors.

house plan drawings — Drawing of house plans- first draft of many!

The great room was originally 19.5 x 49, we eventually cut back some of the length. Then added a foot to the width to create more walkway space. Sooooo glad we did this! So our great room size we ended up with is 20X 47! It’s the perfect length, and has lots of walkway space without feeling crowed between rooms. We also added in a small pop out area for a small foyer. That way it didn’t feel like you were going to walk into a table when you came in. Our entrance foyer area is 3.5X12.

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Then I looked at other house plans that I liked the bedrooms and bathroom set ups. I wanted our boys rooms to be on the opposite side of the garage, laundry room, and the master room. So if the laundry was going or we opened the garage doors, we didn’t have to worry about them waking up from the noise. I also wanted them to have a jack and jill (technically a jack and jack since they are both boys) because I didn’t want our guests using their bathroom. #boymomlife

Liam and Blaine’s room are exactly the same size and so are their closets. Their bathroom is small, but I figured they are boys and they don’t need a lot of space to get ready. Their jack and jack bathroom is small. Really, I don’t think it’s considered a true jack and Jill bathroom because they only have one sink. It may be small, but it is perfect for them!

We also wanted to make sure we had minimal hallway space. Jeremy felt like it was wasted square footage. So I kept searching and redrawing how I could create minimal hallway space with identical bedrooms and bathroom between the rooms.

Next, I moved on to our master area. In the master bathroom we wanted double vanities and a tub that would be center with our bathroom doors. Then, I figured out a large closet and worked my way to the laundry room and half bath for guests.

The playroom/office area was added right off the living room and next to the boys rooms. I wanted it to be close to the living room, to make them feel like they are still part of what’s going on in the main room. Also, hoping that they would keep their toys in there. Which has worked out pretty well for the most part! This space will eventually turn in to a hang out area for teenagers, and later become an office.

Garage and Outdoor Spaces

Jeremy decided most of what in what he wanted for the garage since that was more his space. We have a space for our fridge that is cut into the wall so it doesn’t stick out, a garage sink, and a storage closet for his gun safe and an extra washer. Jeremy works on printing presses all over the U.S. so his uniforms are really dirty and we wash them separately.

Our front porch is smaller, and our back porch is large. I knew we would spend more time on the back porch with our boys and when we entertain, so we wanted this area big. Our back porch is the same length as our great room and it’s about 13 ft wide. We actually ended up adding a uncovered concrete patio area at the end of our build and we love this choice!!

After Drawing a Rough Draft

After I drew out a really rough draft of our home, I needed to figure out if the dimensions were correct. I may be a teacher, but I am the WORST at math! So there is this website that helped me create a digital copy of my house plans that had accurate dimensions. I needed to know accurate dimensions, because I wanted to make sure that we were staying around 2,300-2,400 square foot. This website has a 7 day trial, so I signed up for the trial, and worked hard to get things in the right place, and right size before the trial was up. Check out Smart Draw to try this for yourself!

Digital house plans — House plans I created on Smart Draw

Remember, that this layout is NOT what we went with, but it was one of many of the drafts we did before we finalized our plans. This layout works so well for our family. Hopefully, you can find a house plan that is already created! It would make this process much faster! This was a long process and we even made some simple changes along the way. If you chose to go custom think about what would work best for your family and include the top must haves for your build.

Tips on Creating Your Own Custom House Plans to Fit Your Needs.

You can find pre made house plans on Pinterest, and on the Architectural Designs website , or even E Plans website. They both have very similar plans, but their are small adjustments. These sites let you chose house plans by rooms, bedrooms, square footage and even exterior styles.

If you find a house plan you like, but it doesn’t have the exterior you like, you can always change it up to the a different style of home. I liked a lot of the farmhouse craftsman type homes, but my exterior is definitely more modern farmhouse.

Things to think about when designing your home, is think out in your head your everyday things that you do. Will it work best if your room is close to your kids rooms, or do you want them on different ends of the house? Would a open floor plan work for you, or something that is sectioned off a little more? Do you really need a dining room, and a kitchen eating area?

It is also a good idea to go over your house plans with a family member, or even your builder. Sometimes others will catch mistakes, or a way that a certain space can flow better.

Helpful Tools to Have While Creating House Plans and Throughout the Build

Purchase a spiral of graphing paper. You will use for drawing out your house plans, but also drawing up other layout designs of your home. I used mine for the kitchen, bathrooms, closets, pantry, and living room built ins. I also used an architectural ruler, which is to scale with your blue prints. This helps you quickly tell you the measurements of your plans without having to do math! I think I carried my house plans, my house binder (more on that soon) and my architectural ruler in my car with me where ever I went.

I linked some for you below so you can easily shop them from Amazon!

Just Remember

Just remember, that this process is long, and it’s okay to take a while for this process because it’s going to be the house you live in and the place you call home! It’s also okay to make changes while building.

If you have any helpful tips for creating custom house plans that you used, or questions about the process of creating your own house plans, please comment below!

Also, be sure to subscribe below to get new post updates for the #Building101 series!

Categories: #building101

#Building101- Where to Start

Where to start – questions to think about.

So you want to build, but you have no idea where to start. Well, lets start with a basic list of things to consider.

Have you sold your home yet, or are you currently living in a rental, or apartment?
Do you have money saved?
Are you going to build on land, or in a community?
Do you want to build a completely custom home, or a spec home?
Are you going to hire a builder to help you through the build, or are you going to self contract to save money?

SOO many questions and you haven’t even started yet! Haha! Welcome to the adventures of wanting to build! It can be stressful, but I hope to share with you all the different things that might come up from start to finish! It can be stressful, believe me, I just finished building my house in April 2020 during the start of the pandemic!

So lets break down each of these questions to help you figure out what works best for you and your family.

Have you sold your home yet, or are you currently living in a rental, or apartment?

We sold our home (for sale by owner so we didn’t have to pay realtor fees) when the market was good. This gave us money in our bank so we could pay for things out of pocket for our home, and this also gave us money to put a downpayment on our loan (Building101 Finances will be coming soon). We then rented a small home for a year while we were building. Which is pictured above. It was the cutest little cottage style home!

rent house — Our house we rented while building

If you are living in a rental home already, or an apartment, the good news is you don’t have to wait on selling a home and you can stay where you are until your home is build. The bad news is that you need to save a lot of money to be able to put a down payment on your loan. That downpayment amount all depends on your bank, your loan amount, and how much you want your monthly mortgage to be. Which this kinda leads into our next question.

Do you have money saved?

So I have included reasons above on why it’s important to save money if you are renting, or living in an apartment. But it’s still important to save money even if you sold your home. You will always have surprise expenses when building. Prices have gone up for lumber about 80% since the pandemic. That is CRAZY! If you have extra money at the end of your build, then save it for things you can add on later, or maybe purchase new furniture!

Are you going to build on land, or in a community?

My sister and I bought 13 acres together and split it down the middle! We had the land surveyed before we purchased the land so we could purchase the land individually. We started building right aways, so we were able to close on our land and construction loan at one time. My sister is just starting to build, so she had to pay for closing costs on the land last year, and she had to pay for closing costs on her construction loan this year. So if you can try to close on both loans at the same time, it will save you a couple thousand dollars!!!

If you are building in a community, there are a couple of things I would consider. I would look around the neighborhood and figure out if the community. Is family friendly, or is it geared more towards older couples? Is it located near stores you will shop at, and do you like the schools located in that zone?

Do you want to build a custom home, or a spec home?

Since we built in the country, we built a completely custom home. We knew that this would be our forever home, so we wanted to make sure it was exactly what we wanted and it would grow with our family over the years. Although we knew building a custom home can get pricey, we worked really hard to stay within our budget. I’ll share more on saving and budgeting on a #building101 post soon! If you decide to build a spec home in a community, there will probably be restrictions. Also, anything you want will probably be extra money for any type of upgrade. There isn’t anything wrong with spec homes. They are definitely easier and less stressful to build than a custom home. Just keep those things in mind when deciding!

Are you going to hire a builder to help you through the build, or are you going to self contract to save money?

If you decide to go custom, then you have to decide if you are going to hire a builder, or if you are going to self contract. There are benefits and stress to both options, which is probably something you don’t want to hear!

So if you decide to go with a builder, you have to decide on a builder that would be a good fit for you. Remember, you will be working with them for the next 9 months or so. I’ve heard stories of home builders having horrible experiences with their builders. Some have even lead to suing their builders. That can be extra stress added on.

If you decide to self contract your build, then the positive side of this is that you can save some money because you won’t have any builder fees. But you will have the extra stress of finding and hiring workers. It could also take longer to build.

So these are all decisions you need to decide before even starting to build. Our next topic for #building101 is house plans! I’ll touch on how we created out own house plans house ideas. I will also link other websites to reference different house plans. Make sure to subscribe to emails so you can be notified of new posts!

Do you have any tips for where to start when building a new home for others reading? If so, comment them below!