House-Design Notes

This house is bilaterally symmetrical and as such can easily be turned into 2 separate apartments with some simple mods. Nevertheless, it can also function as two semiprivate suites given its separate levels, 2 bathrooms and sliding walls. It also has a usable attic that is also bilaterally-divideable and accessible.

If the house is to be shared, then its fluidity-of-space lends itself well to that as well, and its upper levels and extra bathroom to some semblance of private retreat. All this in a ~22'x13' footprint.

The house uses a shed rooftop which creates the shape of the house, which allows for maximum window exposure to the sun and maximum roof exposure against the prevailing winds. This house may also lend itself well to a sloped site.

The kitchen is essentially a workstation-in-a-hallway (which may consist of a modern "Hoosier" design), but could open up quite large, given that it opens via sliding doors to two rooms.

The modern de-clawed standalone bathtub that echoes the clawfoot tubs of old still has some sharp edges to be cautious of when getting in and out, but it looks cool*. ;)

Below are some test renders:

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Lighting is adhoc for now, but I have some models of some industrial spotlights that I'll be trying out, so next renders should include those as well as any additions.

*Plumbing not included ;D
Reply to
Warm Worm
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The word *easily* in the first sentence undermined everything that came after it. Really.

Also, there is no such thing as sliding walls. If it moves, it ain't a wall. If its one unit you won't be able to build it in a multi family area and if its 2 units you won't be able to build it in a single family area. This is all basic design criteria which MUST be dealt with before pencil ever touches paper, or mouse to pixel, as it were. You're spinning your wheels all over the place and not getting anywhere Richard. My best advice is to find someone knowledgeable in this stuff, close by, and learn from him directly. You can't learn the important stuff in this regard on the web no matter how hard you try. Lastly, the thing in the pix would cost well over $500k to build and the maintenance issues are astronomical not to mention the insurance, taxes and utilites costs. But its nice to dream I suppose.....

Reply to
creative1986

I'll just touch on some of the most basic design concerns. Zoning rules the world so it must be determined if a single family residence is to be designed or a multi-family structure. If it will be multi-family, these things must be taken into consideration.

  1. A minimal 1 hour rated firewall will be constructed between the units, from the underside of the floor framing to the underside of the roof sheathing to include all soffit areas. Over a certain size, maybe
2500 sf, attic spaces must be sub-divided.
  1. Will there be 2 electrical panels?
  2. Will there be 2 supply water systems?
  3. Will there be 2 waste water systems?
5, Will there be 2 HVAC systems?
  1. Will there be 2 driveways, parking areas?
  2. Will fire sprinkler systems with a dedicated water supply be required?
  3. Will elevators be required?
  4. What about handicap issues?
  5. Will there be two separate addresses?

When a building permit is applied for (yes, you have to have permission to build your own stuff on your own land) the plans examiner will want to see on paper what exactly is going to be built. When the building is completed a Certificate of Occupancy must be acquired before the building can be moved into and the inspector will verify that the completed building meets the design criteria and any additional change orders, and may require *as built* drawings for their records.

Construction after the fact is prohibited unless building permits are applied for indicating the scope of the intended construction. Licensed contractors will not work on a building without a permit. Unlicensed contractors will void the homeowners insurance contract.

There are probably other issues that are escaping me at the moment but those are just a few off the top O' my skall.

A single family residence is a huge expense no matter how you look at it and a multi-family application is far more than doubly expensive as you can see.

Thats why it is imperative to do some initial legwork BEFORE pencil ever even goes in the same room as the paper.

However, if you're going to dream, dream BIG, don't dik around with silly little bullshit. I mean, BIG dreams cost just as much as teeny ones.

I dream everyday (and sometimes get paid for it), little bullshit dreams that fly in one side and out the other and varying degrees of BIG dreams all the way up to the great grand daddy of all - if I hit the lotto. If that ever comes to fruition then my BIG dream will be to create a development named "Whysper Moon" and will consist of 12 custom homes around a lake and each will have a completely different design, designed and built by me, to live on in perpetuity after I'm gone. I got the know how and I got the experience to make it happen all I'm missing is the capital. But tonight is lotto night and my ticket is right here on my desk.....

Reply to
creative1986

Google says there are. Some things have blurry distinctions.

Ya, I've read stories of people pulling teeth to get what they want despite antiquated codes.

Just wait until you see my plumbing. ;)

Good advice thanks, and that's also what I might be doing. Hey if you can do 7000 projects, I can at least do a few. (Each item in the house counts as one project; each render, yet another. ;) But in a sense, you're right; I'm approaching this in a learn-as-you- go kind of way, as a bidirectional feedback/demo of what I've learned and what has to be learned (ie, plumbing/foundation) for natural residential architecture and ACAD, and for possible practical application for a client. As you may recall, I learned ACAD 12 and never used it after, so now I've come back to it. I already know 2D; hatches, trims, fillets, blocks, text, xrefs, etc.. I also know 3D but had limited experience in that specifically in ACAD. So I think this house thing is *one part* of a good way to go.

500k US?! Where are you getting that figure? If that's the figure for a house like that, there's something seriously wrong with the economy then, like maybe a runaway greedhouse effect? I mean, what's the average salary in the US these days? How much/long to pay a house like that off? Heard of anyone who recently lost their home? Sure, we all have.

It's supposed to be a predominantly locally-sourced fairly small post and beam timberframe/straw-bale/"cob-plaster" house on an old-style local-stone foundation, and based on my research so far, it should be relatively inexpensive, especially with some sweat equity added. Chinese drywall? Ya right.

I know that there will be additional costs in some areas, though, but overall, it should be "cost-competitive". That's one goal of the design.

Reply to
Warm Worm

Thanks for the elaboration. I have yet to read some of it, so I'll do so and get back to you.

Reply to
Warm Worm

Yes, when you rely on abstractions for reference.

For at least 10 years, in this group, I've been arguing against all codes and YOU have consistently brought up silly nonsense about "What if your neighbor wants to put a hog rendering plant on his property". Seems you're in the group that won't listen to reason from people that have trod the path and must learn it first hand. You have no idea what you are dealing with, at all. A fellow designer, after having repeated frustrations with the building dept., said to me way back in 1983 "Some terrorists with Uzi's need to apply for a building permit".

Include only projects that sold to clients.

People that learn autocad without the required prerequisits have learned nothing at all except how to waste time.

Duh, Richard. Again, you haven't been paying attention. I have lamented on this sort of thing for more than a decade and you still just don't get it. Try this for an example: Go to Lowes.com and find a window, look at the cost. Now take that cost x 3 for labor. Add the window cost to the labor cost and then take that number times the number of windows in your house. Shocked?

EVERYTHING is waaaay too expensive and its not just in the building industry. This is a consequence of the gov't fiat money, inflation and enormous amount of bureaucracy all up and down the line from start to finish. My dad built a beautiful 2000 sf home from ground to roof peak for $25k in 1972.

30 years later I built the same thing for $150k, 6 times as much. Same house, inflated cost. Why?

Guess what? If things continue as they are that same house will cost, 6 times as much, or $900k, in 30 more years, or even more.

like maybe a runaway greedhouse effect? I mean, what's the

OK, you've read some stuff lately. But this stuff has been going on for a very long time.

All of the stuff in that last paragraph are fluff words. Stuff that tumbles all over feel-good websites pumped full of hot air by ninnies out of touch with reality. Locally sourced. Yeah right. Try to find a kitchen sink that was made in your neighborhood. Maybe your neighbor has a manuf. facility in his backyard. LOL

No, thats not one goal of your design. In fact you went in completely the opposite direction, with that post and beam stuff and I told you that in the beginning. But no, you won't listen to fact, you prefer the fluff from google cause it tells you what you want to hear rather than fact. I also told you that if you want to see a home of your own that you built with your own hands you better start NOW with smaller projects and get your hands dirty and your mind prepared. You scoffed, you see no value in such nonsense.

Post & Bean, hay bales, adobe.....bah.....silliness.

Reply to
creative1986

When I built my house in 2002 I first bought the land, for even in a cookie cutter place like Cape Coral there are slight variances in the individual properties that MUST be taken into consideration to create a proper design. There is considerable legwork that must transpire BEFORE a design is ever embarked upon and all of it is jurisprudent upon the land. Way back in school we were encouraged to dream on paper, then when I hit the road running I found out all those dreams were basically worthless in the real world.

Reply to
creative1986

i've also said that much needs to be taken in context. You can go overboard both ways and lose sight of original or honourable intents. The terrorists pull out Uzi's and then what?

I would rather fish, swim, lie on the beach and be in touch with a healthy community. We need hardly anything and any effort at all to live extremely comfortably. Fortunately, I realize I'm in the matrix and what it is, but I can't get out. HELP! ;) Many are beginning to realize it too, though, and unplugging.

But, anyway, there're some hard/fast rules to learn things, but after that? You add your own spin, to ACAD, architecture, etc..

Well of course duh.

Then the house is not really $500k then is it. I think I get it only too well. Maybe you just don't get that I get it. Or that I just don't get that you get that I just don't get it.

I'll wager you agree that it's along similar lines as some commentary on here before concerning taxing someone beyond their entire income.

I think people are catching on, but what are we doing about it? Well a few things as I'm gleaning. Times they are a-changin'. Hold onto your hat.

Coincidentally, I'm listening to an electronic tune called Detached Reality as I type this.

I've just unplugged from the Matrix and like Neo, am now stumbling around getting my new bearings. Here's a quote: Morpheus: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

My #1 film. It's probably predominantly an allegory for our real world. The (un)reality we're in.

Way back to kings and serfdom and earlier. Egyptian slavery?

A wooden sink; a round rock with a nice depression in the middle; a copper pot with a hole on the bottom; hell, a *clean* local stream. (You have a lathe, right? Well I'll bet you could lathe a decent kitchen sink.) Of course we don't have clean rivers because they are not as important as the products that we use to pollute them with.

Ya, it's called honest work.

We already discussed this and I still stand by my contentions. Industry as it is now seems to f*ck up everything it touches.

We also discussed this, and I have already made inquiries for just such experience. I also recall offering my labor to your own hands-on project one summer-- the patio I think.

Who's scoffing?

Reply to
Warm Worm

Single-family, but because there are 2 washrooms; the walls move; and the kitchen can have a movable wall in the middle, etc., it could feel and function a little like a multifamily dwelling, although the idea is that the people on each side know each other relatively well.

I'm unsure that 2 of any of those would be necessary in this context.

The house is devised where the first floor would be all that's needed-- "self-contained".

Since it's a first-floor deal and an open-concept design, with an extra can, handicap issues should be easily accommodated.

No.

Cool.

That never stopped many. But there's really nothing upstairs, just a loft area, balcony, storage-space and sliding walls.

Thanks for the reality check.

It's a single family residence.

That's what consultants are paid for. My house if it is ever built will be built to withstand the test of time.

What's the difference if one's big dream is another's small.

What kind of lottery? Because I once heard something to the effect that some lotteries are voluntary taxes and that you have more chances of getting hit by lightning than winning. You who loves taxes so much.

Reply to
Warm Worm

Well yeah, when you set it up that way. But I live in the world of *real* words and what you said is invalid. There is no such thing as voluntary tax, just as there is no voluntary theft. Anyway, I buy a lottery ticket every now and then, the Hoosier Lottery. Sometimes they lay here on my desk for weeks or months before I look them up.

I've heard your chances of winning the lottery are about the same whether you buy a ticket or not......

Reply to
creative1986

Ok, maybe it was George Carlin talking about what lotteries were.

Is that the state lottery?

Reply to
Warm Worm

Yeah I guess so. They have the powerball lottery too and a whole mess of other stuff but I just keep it simple. Business expense, ya know. I've heard that most people that win big lotteries are back to being broke again in 3 to 5 years. Seems their mismanagement of money precludes them - keeps them poor.

"You can lead a person to wisdom but you can't make them think."

--gs,2010

Reply to
creative1986

What do you think wisdom means?

Reply to
Warm Worm

The ability to think comprehensively over a broad range of ideas and concepts tempered by long term experience.

These days anybody and everybody can be task trained and even multi- task trained but take away their crutches and they all fall down flat. They lack the necessary internal structural support that is required for independence.

Reply to
creative1986

Can you really lead someone to wisdom though?

Fair enough. In my case, I don't feel very independent with or without a job. I feel my graphics skills are practically useless from a natural-world standpoint. That's changing as we speak. If our culture wants us to specialize, in a way it owes us more of a living than it appears to be giving us-- slipping on its end of the contract, the deal, the bargain. What do we do when clients f*ck around with the contract?

Reply to
Warm Worm

Knowing when to shut up. Knowing how to listen. Knowing how to learn from people that know more, and less, than you. Giving people the benefit of the doubt. Believing that there are positive forces at work, and acting like it.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

We're not too dissimilar. I'm pretty certain much of what I've done for most of my adult life was a result of force rather than choice. People didn't hire me because they wanted to but rather because they had to. True, they didn't have to hire *me* but they did have to hire someone that could do what I could do. A few hired me for my design skills, maybe 20%, but 80% hired me because I could do something they could not and the monopoly on force required this of them.

In the old days I used to get mad when I'd see a contractor changing the building from what I designed. I was wrong. It isn't my building.

Now, I live in a place where anyone can build whatever they want and nobody else gets to say anything about it, and that's the way it should be. When other people get to dictate the parameters of your property, property rights become meaningless. What is property but extensions of ones self. To live, one must own things like air, water, food and shelter, but when its not possible to own these things then it's not possible to live. Or, when everyone owns everyone else, no one owns anything at all, and when no one can own anything we all die.

Most of us produce nothing, but we consume plenty. There is a deficit in that.

Reply to
creative1986

I'd be inclined to change 'own' to 'have' and restrict what some entities, like private corporations or even individuals can 'have'. I'm ok with comfortable survival/living for everyone, but dead set against grabbing up far more than is needed at different forms of loss to everyone and everything (nature) else. I am reminded here of the expression, honest pay for honest work. IOW, you shouldn't get to make, say, $50 000 000 working no harder than, say, someone doing nursing or carpentry or drafting, and/or to buy with it vast tracts of land and resources out from under everyone/ thing else's feet. That seems wrong any way you slice it and yet our cultures both seem to support it.

Reply to
Warm Worm

There is so much wrong with the above that I'm not even going to attempt it. I'll just put it like this: You have no sense of self Richard. You seem to live at the whims of others, most unfortunate, and unnecessary.

Reply to
creative1986

I doubt that you can eat or drink money (or at least expect to survive on it, alone), especially if it barely represents anything and is created out of nothing.

If everyone quit their jobs tomorrow, I suspect that there'd be none of your "govmonks" (failing forceful/violent land grabs) because there'd be no labour available for money for taxes drawn for their salaries.

Play is free.

Reply to
Warm Worm

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