Help Me Design a Texas Home

Sprintcyclist wrote:In your next property will you be designing the yard for the local fauna?
It took us 1 year to design our Butterfly Forest in the back yard.
After 4 years it has matured beautifully.

One real outspoken gruff 'blokey' mate that visited was a bit bemused when we invited them into the garden from the deck.
After a while in the forest he said 'I was quite happy sitting on the deck and wondered why you would want to come down here. Now ......... '
It's sort of a hard sentence to complete.

In The Forest you are no longer an observer, you are in it. You are of it.

I haven't given much thought to the yard yet.  I want heavily tree covered land.  I'm considering keeping bees for an agricultural property tax exemption. I don't know much about bees, but I would assume you need lots of flowers to keep them on your property.   I want fruit and nut trees and berry bushes.   I want gardenias and roses near the house.  I like the scent and they are low maintenance.   Tree covered land tends to have thick brush below.  Id like to clear that out gradually and use it as fuel for a wood burning stove in the winter or hanging around the fire pit outside. That will give me better access to the property and I might see more wildlife.

Crusader wrote:

Red Lily wrote:Polished concrete is really nice.   If I ever built again I'd like under floor heating.

If I lived in a colder climate I would love radiant floor heating.   I only turn the heat on about 3 months each year.  My focus will be on energy efficiency and cooling.  Thick insulation, energy efficient windows, big shaded porches on the South side of the house, and a very good AC system are my priorities.
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Thread Bump !   @Crusader
Hey Crusader,    Wha'cha' doin' on this ?  

I'm a semi-retired GC...   want more to think on !  

Start a new thread...  and let's build something !!

This is a really interesting thread...that I'm late to.

I have little to contribute at this point, except that I like the low-cost use of a pole-barn structure as the basic frame. Although I hope you can find some way of setting a foundation, other than the stick-in-the-concrete pole-barn standard walls.

A compromise shouldn't be that costly, but there'd be problems of rot and destruction, if you simply stick the studs into the wet concrete, or dig a post hole and pour footings for each. You could use steel for external side "studs" or you could go with a conventional slab, with wood bolted in the periphery and studs nailed into it.

Otherwise...I like. I wouldn't much like the black ceiling, though...at night it would be too dark inside. Maybe in lounge areas, have a suspended ceiling or some sort of overhead, above the furniture, to brighten it up.

It may well get hot in there, too, if you have no attic to close off the heat of the roof. Perhaps a whole-house ventilation system, to move enough air to keep things cool when the hot summer sun beats down? Air conditioning the whole setup, may not be affordable.

Just my thoughts.

I contacted a realtor on Friday to expedite my search for land.  Interest rates ate going up and I've waited too long already .  I'm thinking I can wait  a little to build.  When interest rates skyrocket construction should slow down and bring costs down with it.   I'm comfortable where I am for a few months .  I have enough cash on hand to begin building if I finance the land and my account is still growing.

Casey, I'm looking at a freestanding metal building on a concrete slab.  The interior will be framed in wood.  After the plumbing,  electrical   air conditioning,  internet,  and security have been installed I will have the metal shell sprayed with closed cell foam insulation.   I will paint the ceiling black,  have the walls sheetrocked, and get a working kitchen and bathroom.   At that point I can move in and use my dad's shop tools to build custom fixtures like cabinets,  counter tops, built ins, etc.....

I'm not comfortable erecting the metal building,  pouring the slab, or hanging the sheet rock.   I can frame with wood, run electrical, plumbing,  internet, security,  tile, and air conditioning.   That should help me keep costs down.   I have friends who are willing to help with professional experience in all of those trades.  Some of them are also building soon and I will also help and learn from their experiences.

Casey Jones wrote:This is a really interesting thread...that I'm late to.

I have little to contribute at this point, except that I like the low-cost use of a pole-barn structure as the basic frame.  Although I hope you can find some way of setting a foundation, other than the stick-in-the-concrete pole-barn standard walls.

A compromise shouldn't be that costly, but there'd be problems of rot and destruction, if you simply stick the studs into the wet concrete, or dig a post hole and pour footings for each.  You could use steel for external side "studs" or you could go with a conventional slab, with wood bolted in the periphery and studs nailed into it.

Otherwise...I like.  I wouldn't much like the black ceiling, though...at night it would be too dark inside.  Maybe in lounge areas, have a suspended ceiling or some sort of overhead, above the furniture, to brighten it up.

It may well get hot in there, too, if you have no attic to close off the heat of the roof.  Perhaps a whole-house ventilation system, to move enough air to keep things cool when the hot summer sun beats down?  Air conditioning the whole setup, may not be affordable.

Just my thoughts.

Specifically due to your concerns, most 'pole barns' are not strictly so anymore.

Steel has replaced wood and as with 'pole barns' follows Post and beam means and methods.

Following @Crusader .. his build should be an adventure in learning and thinking for many.... maybe vicarious fun and stress f Crusader decides to share his experiences.

:thumbsup2:

Crusader Today at 2:04 am
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I contacted a realtor on Friday to expedite my search for land.  Interest rates ate going up and I've waited too long already .  I'm thinking I can wait  a little to build.  When interest rates skyrocket construction should slow down and bring costs down with it.   I'm comfortable where I am for a few months .  I have enough cash on hand to begin building if I finance the land and my account is still growing.

Casey, I'm looking at a freestanding metal building on a concrete slab.  The interior will be framed in wood.  After the plumbing,  electrical   air conditioning,  internet,  and security have been installed I will have the metal shell sprayed with closed cell foam insulation.   I will paint the ceiling black,  have the walls sheetrocked, and get a working kitchen and bathroom.   At that point I can move in and use my dad's shop tools to build custom fixtures like cabinets,  counter tops, built ins, etc.....

I'm not comfortable erecting the metal building,  pouring the slab, or hanging the sheet rock.   I can frame with wood, run electrical, plumbing,  internet, security,  tile, and air conditioning.   That should help me keep costs down.   I have friends who are willing to help with professional experience in all of those trades.  Some of them are also building soon and I will also help and learn from their experiences.

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An overall GREAT plan.

Professionally experienced in what you are doing, I offer the following for your consideration; grist for your thought mill:

Things a Pro will look at...

Site acquisition:   Location

Topography and existing Flora, Watershed

Soil conditions (dictate foundation and septic)

Ground water availability

Longitude and Latitude (sun track)

Power and communication availability

Covenants and zoning.  

Hope this helps keep your confidence and enthusiasm
in high gear !

As long as you welcome it, this is only the beginning of me putting my business in your..  ???  no,   wait !  That's not the way that goes.  

Glad you're doing well, C :thumbsup2:

you might want to plan for a tornado, and hope it was in vain, rather than not planning, and looking at your valuables, crumpled about the pasture. metal buildings are not what you want. stay with 18"x18" and 12"x12" post and beam, 1 1/4" plywood, and 45degree bracing. if the twister runs very close to your house, the metal building will fail, horribly. your post and beam will loose its windows but itll be easier to repair, rather than peeling off the sheet metal from the trees by the creek.

Crusader wrote:I contacted a realtor on Friday to expedite my search for land.  Interest rates ate going up and I've waited too long already .  I'm thinking I can wait  a little to build.  When interest rates skyrocket construction should slow down and bring costs down with it.   I'm comfortable where I am for a few months .  I have enough cash on hand to begin building if I finance the land and my account is still growing.

Casey, I'm looking at a freestanding metal building on a concrete slab.  The interior will be framed in wood.  After the plumbing,  electrical   air conditioning,  internet,  and security have been installed I will have the metal shell sprayed with closed cell foam insulation.   I will paint the ceiling black,  have the walls sheetrocked, and get a working kitchen and bathroom.   At that point I can move in and use my dad's shop tools to build custom fixtures like cabinets,  counter tops, built ins, etc.....

I'm not comfortable erecting the metal building,  pouring the slab, or hanging the sheet rock.   I can frame with wood, run electrical, plumbing,  internet, security,  tile, and air conditioning.   That should help me keep costs down.   I have friends who are willing to help with professional experience in all of those trades.  Some of them are also building soon and I will also help and learn from their experiences.

I think I understand. I admire your skills, being able to do that.

And the courage to try.

My old man tried to do something similar, around about 1955. He was a couple of years out of college, and had landed what he thought would be his long-term job, with Standard Oil of Indiana (later Amoco, now BP America) in Gary, Indiana. He bought land in Hammond, Indiana, and started building his own home. By hand.

It was a modest, four-bedroom affair...cinder block, steel girders for the roof, flat roof - not sure why he chose a flat roof, unless he realized he was in over his head and short of time. But it was finished that way, as a commercial building would have the roof...I think it had a brick veneer on the street side. The fireplace, inside, was brick masonry and well done. He'd taken extensive photos of it - my older brother was a toddler then.

Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men...for whatever reason, opportunity or by need, he had to find another job. A petroleum engineer, he took a job with Humble Oil/Standard Oil of New Jersey. In New York City.

They'd just completed the house and moved in, and time to move out and sell. He never talked much about that house, which now I understand was because he was bitter about it. He did "build" a waterfront weekend retreat, 15 years later...us kids helping to some extent. My older brother was twelve and he essentially wired the place - but then he was always resourceful.

But he didn't build it from scratch. The house was a pre-cut wooden structure, and a crew set it up. The crew didn't read instructions well; they misused a lot of pieces; broke a few window panes; and he was ten years undoing those mistakes. Quite a job when the house wasn't a frame, but interlocking cedar 2x6 planks with a locking cut, with thin styrofoam insulation between the outer and inner layers.

So he built THAT, and then, found himself again having to move. He opted not to move the homestead, rather, living in motels for five years, and then taking an assignment for two years in Paris. And then, getting laid off - he wound up with the government-owned Synthetic Fuels Corporation, and was laid off in 1981. By then he was too old, too beat, too beset by health issues to enjoy his waterfront fishing camp.

He used it as a rental. The land that he bought dirt-cheap had exploded in value. My older brother still owns it, and still rents it - it's worth over a million dollars, now. Not bad for a $5000 outlay on the land, and about $8000 for the pre-cut house kit and assembly (1968 prices).

But, with his dream of building his home, neither his permanent castle in Indiana nor his retirement woods home, turned into anything he could really appreciate.

Hope it goes better for you. Fingers crossed...

I have started the preapproval process for a VA land loan with the Texas Veteran Land Board.  The 30 year fixed interest rate is 6.95%, but they only require 5% down and I can refinance after the house is built and interest rates come down in a couple of years.

I'm working with a realtor and I have found 5 1/2 acres just outside a town of about 5000 people.  They have several tracts available.  The cheapest is $108k, but I like the $123k lot because it is more secluded on a dead end road across the street from a cemetery.  The lot is triangularish in shape and is set up nicely for solar panels on the South side with my front entrance being on the West end.  The road frontage is only 92 ft and the rear lot line is about 400 ft or more.(I haven't checked the numbers yet, but it's a decent estimation.) The covered porch will be on the North and not visible from the street or any other houses.  It will take 3-4 months to get the financing approved and the deal done, but I should have a contract on the land within a couple of weeks and begin with the mandatory surveys and qualifying the land for VA financing.  As I understand, water and electric are available and I will need to pay for the installation of meters and supplying the utilities to the house.  I'm guessing about $10k for both.

Crusader wrote:I have started the preapproval process for a VA land loan with the Texas Veteran Land Board.  The 30 year fixed interest rate is 6.95%, but they only require 5% down and I can refinance after the house is built and interest rates come down in a couple of years.

I'm working with a realtor and I have found 5 1/2 acres just outside a town of about 5000 people.  They have several tracts available.  The cheapest is $108k, but I like the $123k lot because it is more secluded on a dead end road across the street from a cemetery.  The lot is triangularish in shape and is set up nicely for solar panels on the South side with my front entrance being on the West end.  The road frontage is only 92 ft and the rear lot line is about 400 ft or more.(I haven't checked the numbers yet, but it's a decent estimation.)  The covered porch will be on the North and not visible from the street or any other houses.  It will take 3-4 months to get the financing approved and the deal done, but I should have a contract on the land within a couple of weeks and begin with the mandatory surveys and qualifying the land for VA financing.  As I understand, water and electric are available and I will need to pay for the installation of meters and supplying the utilities to the house.  I'm guessing about $10k for both.

No way! ILol  I have electricity  off of an existing line run back here years ago where I had to give right of way for it to pass through my property..

When I moved here four years ago  and applied for electricity, they told me it would cost me $12.50 to hook up .

Oh shit, I said go ahead and make it so..