Nobody finds the perfect plan
Find one that is eighty percent right and change the rest. Here is how to narrow it down, and how to check the result is actually buildable on your budget.
A builder once told me you have to build the same home plan four times to get it exactly right in every aspect. If you have ever built a new house you have probably said, at some point, if I built this again I would do that differently.
Over the years I have learned one important lesson: you cannot pick a plan for someone else.
Given a list of criteria, square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, garage size, rooflines, I can select thirty plans that meet every single one of them, and they often turn out not to be what the client wanted at all. Something that was never on the list mattered more than everything that was.
You know best what you want. Do not be afraid to ask for it.
Find a plan that is eighty percent right. Change the other twenty.
There are websites carrying thirty thousand plans and most of us still would not find the exact one we want. There will always be modifications. So stop looking for the plan that is perfect and look for the one that already has a good portion of what you are after. Then adjust the rest until it suits you.
We work with plans clients bring us, and we also help turn an idea into a working drawing. Our own plans are a starting point on exactly this basis: more than 95% of the homes we build are changed before manufacturing begins.
Check the size against the budget
This takes two minutes and it keeps you looking at plans you can realistically build. Do it before you start browsing rather than after.
Get the rate from contractors in the area where you intend to build. It varies a great deal from one region to another, and it depends heavily on specification: roofing, windows, doors, siding and finishing all move it. A number from somewhere else, or from a few years ago, will put you badly out.
The part people miss. That total has to cover garages, carports, sundecks and covered porches as well as the house. If you want those, the house itself will come out considerably smaller than the number the calculation gives you. Leave a contingency on top of all of it.
These are ballpark figures and they behave like ballpark figures. Champagne taste on a hamburger budget will get you off target faster than any arithmetic error. What a custom home actually costs breaks the components down properly.
If it is built of wood, we can prefabricate it.
We supply packages for every kind of project and a wide range of budgets. The most basic homes, super energy homes, green building projects, unusual designs, commercial buildings, or the house on the hill you have been drawing on napkins for a decade.
Remote locations are not a problem, and building code requirements are met and frequently exceeded. It all starts with a plan.
Choosing a plan
You almost certainly will not find one that is exactly right, even on a site carrying thirty thousand plans. Use the 80/20 rule instead: find a plan that already has a good portion of what you want, then change the rest. Starting from something eighty percent right is far quicker than starting from nothing, and every plan gets modified anyway.
Ask general contractors in the area where you intend to build what they are currently charging per square foot, then divide your budget by that figure to get a maximum size. Rates vary considerably by region and by specification, so a local current number is the only one worth using. Remember that garages, carports, sundecks and covered porches come out of the same budget, so the house itself will be smaller than the total the calculation gives you.
Yes. We work with plans clients bring us and we also help develop an idea into a working drawing. Because we manufacture components rather than finished rooms, there is no size or shape limitation on what can be prefabricated. If it is built of wood, we can prefabricate it.
No, and this is worth saying plainly. Given a list of criteria, a representative can select thirty plans that meet every one of them and still miss what the client actually wanted. You know best what you want. Ask for it rather than waiting to be shown it.
Send us the plan you nearly like.
Ours, someone else's, or a sketch. Tell us what is wrong with it and we will work through the other twenty percent. Design, estimating and engineering are included in the package rather than billed separately.