Tiny signs of progress and the power of CAD

Yes, that is our building permit posted proudly on our new property.  We returned from an outstanding trip to Idaho to visit our daughter to find this evidence of progress.  It seems like a long and dusty trail to get to this point.

We met with our future builder at the urging of our real estate agent.  We came prepared to discuss all of the specifics of our project (NOT !!).  Actually we had some vague ideas of what we wanted in a house.

It was our intention from the beginning, in fact well before the beginning, to build a nice little ranch to grow old in.  The allure of one floor living is especially acute when I descend the stairs early in the morning looking for that first caffeine score.  I feel like roadkill, really old roadkill.  And the idea of carrying the laundry from the second floor to the basement and then back up again when it's done seems ludicrous.  Seriously, who came up with that idea?  So a ranch made perfect sense.

Unless you're building it.  There's a good reason why you don't see a lot of ranches built these days.  Our builder explained it well.  Everything is bigger.  The foundation is the entire square footage of the house.  More excavation, more concrete, more roof.  The cost per square foot is close to 40% more than  a two story cape.  So I guess I'll be sucking it up and dealing with stairs for a few more years.  One welcome exception, the laundry room is on the second floor.

Our builder was incredibly patient dealing with our changes, hence the beauty of computer aided design.  He would forward a set of floor plans to us, and we would each make changes, often conflicting changes.  I would suggest moving a wall here, adding a closet there, and Stephanie would be doing the same thing from her office.  Our builder just clicked a few times and new plans would magically appear in our email.

What room required the most changes you ask?  You would think it would be something key, like the kitchen or perhaps the main living area.  Not even close.  The closet in the master bedroom required the most discussion.  We messed with the size and the adjoining closet and the door at least fifteen times.  Our builder would number the plans each time he made a change.  I believe the final plan was called "Taylor Ferrisburgh 19".  To our credit, he told us the record was 28 different iterations.  Good thing there wasn't another closet in our plans!!

At the first meeting with our builder, he introduced us to two levels of home efficiency.  The energy star home or the silver standard is considered to be a very good quality home, according to Efficiency Vermont.  The ceiling insulation must be R-49, walls must be R-20, appliances must be all energy star rated, the list goes on and on.  A sliver standard home is considered to be a very efficient home.

But why opt for silver when you can have gold?  The gold standard as rated by Efficiency Vermont includes ceiling insulation to R-80, walls are R-40, appliances are all CEE Tier 1, 2 or 3.  I don't even know what half of this all means, but it does sound impressive!!  Plan on spending 15% more for a High Performance home than you would for an energy star home.

First Floor

After much discussion, soul searching and sleepless nights, we decided to go for the gold standard.  It makes me feel like I'm doing something positive for the environment, we'll be lowering our carbon footprint and best of all, I'll be able to heat this puppy with a Bic lighter.

Second Floor

So here are the sorta final plans as well as an elevation for the front.  At the time of writing this, we are the proud owners of a very rocky driveway, a hole in the ground and several huge piles of dirt.  Next time I'll share some of our experiences with the bank and the joy of finally making some headway.

Stay tuned - film at 11…

Our home, someday!

A lot with a view...

This is the view that originally sucked us into this property.  Not sucked in a bad way, but more like an undertow that you were not aware of until you realized you were a little further from shore than you were accustomed to.  



We have had some relatively successful real estate transactions, starting with the house we bought in 1983.  This was the house that was never finished.  We started fixing up the property on the day we closed, and stopped when we handed the keys to the new owner in 2008.  We did manage to sell just before the real estate bubble burst, and well before IBM decided they didn't want to play anymore, and walked away with a nice, tangible example of the value of sweat equity.  

Most recently we sold our little condo in the south end of Burlington (Vermont for you out-of-towners), and began looking for property a little further south to more equally distribute our commutes to work.  That statement fairly accurately describes the order of things as our condo sold much more quickly than we expected and we found ourselves soon to be homeless, but also mortgage-less, which does have some appeal.

We looked at several properties in southern Chittenden and Addison counties, but just like the TV show, could not find exactly what we wanted.  Either the location wasn't ideal, or the layout was un-workable (there are some bad-ass DIY designers out there that should definitely NOT quit their day jobs!!), or smelled funky.  I think our real estate agent started calculating how much energy and gasoline he was spending on us, and he may have been the one to suggest we look into building.  

Frankly, it was an easy sell.  I have always loved the idea of a brand new house, with walls that were plumb and rooms that were square and level.  When I was younger, I always imagined I would be the one swinging the hammer, or the pneumatic nailer.  I am now older and wiser, thank you very much.  The pros will be doing this job.

So we settled on this property.  A little more than two acres with a gentle westerly slope and a jaw-dropping view of the Adirondacks.  We'll be building a high efficiency, two story home with about 2,400 square feet of finished space.  I'll share a little more about the plans and the process as well as some of the many cool things that go into an energy efficient structure in future posts.