Updated April 29, 2008
At the end of this project I will review all the sub contractors and the main contractors, I will grade them on a scale of 1-10 in different categories and mention good parts if any and bad parts if any for each.
We have lived in Our house for 9 Years and finally decided it was time to build a new one. the only reason it didn't happen sooner was money. Our house was 900 Sq. Ft. and we have a daughter and a dog so thing were getting kind of tight and it was no fun not being able to have people over. We could of just sold it and bought a new house but we had a 1 acre lot, loved the location, loved the school district and not to mention I build my dream garage just 3 years ago on the lot so are plans were set in stone, tear down the house and build a new one. On December 24, 2006 I told Cindy we were building a new house, she was very happy and never thought the day would come. Almost immediately Cindy and me started looking at other houses to see what we liked and didn't like. Soon we kind of had a idea on what our ideal house would be like. We wanted our master bedroom to be on the first floor but we also didn't want to be far away from our daughter Lucy but in the end we decided on a 3800 Sq ft. 1.5 story house. we figured Lucy wouldn't be a child forever so the master on the first floor wouldn't be that bad in the long run.
This is our old house;
January and February 2007:
We just looked at houses and I made some basic designs myself before I found a architect.
March 2007:
I started talking to some architects and found one that I liked his name was Larry Spraul. we meet and I showed him my ideas and then he started making basic drawing and we went back in forth with changes for about 1 month.
May 2007:
Once we where set on the design the architect made them into blue prints. Once I received the finally blueprints I started talking to some builders and meet one that I work with named Mike Bozich www.bozichconstruction.com , He is a custom home builder that builds about 10 to 15 homes a year. the company I work for ( www.sfistone.com ) supplies him with the granite and marble for his houses.
June 2007:
I give Bozich Construction the plans to get a price to build. about 3 weeks later I meet with him to go over the cost and then I went over it with Cindy. The Plan is that Bozich builds it to drywall and then me and Cindy do the floors, kitchen and bath design and build. So me and Cindy started working the numbers and to build the house to the level of finish we wanted was going to cost more than we thought. It was doable but we didn't want to become house poor where we couldn't do anything else.
The level of construction and finish makes a huge differences in cost of building a house. you can build the same house with different levels of construction and finishes that it could go from 400,000 to 600,000 for the same house.
Me and Cindy Started thinking "what do we really want in a house" Since we may live here for a long time we really need to think about this. Our first house designed was a classic colonial Georgian style home, we started seeing craftsman style home that we really liked but most craftsman houses where ranches. So out of the blue we started talking ranches because we always liked ranches and hated the thought of going up and down stairs for the next 20 years. but the cost is alot more expensive per square foot than a 1.5 or 2 story house since you have a lot more roof and concrete in a ranch. So after spending $5,500 on our first set of plans we went back to the drawing board and drew up a 3 bedroom 2,800 Sq. Ft. craftsman style ranch. The nice part about the ranch is that you get a huge basement to finish, can do interesting ceiling details and in the end total living space is just a little less than the 3,800 1.5 story that we designed first because of the big basement. Also the taxes are less since the tax is more based on the above ground sq. footage.
So another $4,500 was spent on new plans and I went back to Bozich to get new bids. In the end the ranch was about the same price as the 1.5 story but we just loved the look and always wanted a ranch.
The first step is to get water, gas and electric permits to destroy. the picture above is the water main pipe at the street and the 3/4" line going to our house, they just turn the valve off and cut the line. in the end a completely new 1 3/4 line will be used. we will use 1 3/4" line because water pressure is low for most of this part of st. louis. The gas had to be destroyed by the gas company, and we where able to keep electric going to the garage since when I built the garage in 2003 I moved all the electric and phone to go to the garage first and then to the house. that will be key later when we will need electric and a temporary electrical service cost a good amount of money.
Nov. 29 2007
Here are many pictures of the demolition, it only took about 1 hour to tear it down then about 2 days to dig it all out and haul away.
Dec. 19 2007
The one part we where waiting (plot plan) for was submitted to St. Louis County, the plot plan is just a very detail survey of the property and shows exactly how the house is going to sit on the property. The front of the house will be almost exactly where the old front was.
Jan. 7 2008
We started to dig the new foundation, lots of dirt had to come out. It took 2 days to dig the hole and then they do a soil sample to check the condition of the soil.
Jan, 12 2008
Today Me and Cindy went to Boardwalk Hardwood Floors http://www.boardwalkhardwood.com/ to look at hardwood flooring. they have a great selection and we really like the more exotic woods from South America and Indonesia. The types we like for our main rooms are Kempas and Ipe. the dinning room will have a black hickory which is from America.
Jan 15-17 2008
The footing got poured and the foundation wall where poured the next day. Metro Materials Supplied the concrete and pump truck. If you are pouring a deep wall foundation always use a pump truck, If you just back up the concrete truck and dump it in the walls the aggregate will settle mostly at the bottom leaving the top of the walls weaker.
Thing are going very fast, which is great as I know "time is money" but on the other hand things are going a little to fast. You need to be ready with your selection of products as the carpenters are not going to wait around for you.. This is a house that I could be in for the rest of my life so it is very important to me that detail are carefully considered especially since you can't change it later.
Jan 19, 2008
They started bringing in gravel to cover the drain tile. Drain tile is the pipe that you see going around the foundation wall on the outside and sometimes on the inside, This house has a different type of system on the inside of the foundation so we only have pipe drain tile on the outside. the pipe is perforated to allow water in. the pipe is covered with a long sock which keeps mud from getting into the pipe and clogging it up.
1/26/2008
The wood for the floor has been delivered, the joist are 11 7/8 tall WI40 series spaced 16" on center. the defection rating is L 480 which will give use a nice solid floor they are made by George Pacific here is a link http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pid=1390
The decking for the floor is Advantech made by Huber Wood. http://huberwood.com/main.aspx?pagename=advantechflooring
It is a engineered wood sheet as opposed to Plywood type wood. I used to be opposed to using engineered types of wood but after studying them I like them better than plywood, they are far more dimensionally stable and moisture does not affect them near as much as plywood.
The floor will be glued and nailed down then I will come back afterwards and screw it down.
The porch will now be made into a small room in the basement since it already had a full depth foundation pour we though lets just cut a hole in the wall and make it a small office.
1 / 28-29 2008
Today the steel I beams and floor joist were installed, the next day the decking was put on.
1/30/2008
today they started putting up some walls, I made some design changes to make the flow of the house better.
the above picture shows the 3" underground electrical conduit
2/5/2008
Walls went up, I would have to say that this was the first time I have ever shoveled snow out of my living room
2/14/2008
Plumbing was started
3/22/2008
it has been over a month since my last update, lots of little things have been done, most of the plumbing is finished. Speaking of plumbing I had the choice of either copper pipe or PEX tubing for the main water lines. Copper as we all know has been used in house for the last 50 years. it is very durable, easy to fix, easy to find parts, the down side to copper is the flow rate is very slow due to the 90 degree bends that slow the water down, it does not hold the hot water temp long and it can bust. PEX cross-linked polyethylene http://www.ppfahome.org/pex/faqpex.html has been used in Europe for a long time. it flows 3 times faster than copper, does not corrode like copper does. it can freeze without busting and holds hot water temp for a long time. even if you use PEX you still need to use some copper in the system. do not confuse PEX with PVC water lines that are glued together. I would not put that system in a house. PEX uses all mechanical joints so no glue is used.
After studying both systems and talking to many people in the industry I decided to use PEX. you can see it in the pictures as the tubing is blue and red.
All of the bathroom plumbing valves and fixtures are made by Grohe they are a German company that makes high end fixtures. All of the plumbing was purchased from the company I work for SFI and Henrys Plumbing . there is a big difference in bathroom fixtures. you would be amazed at how quiet these fixtures are.
We also used a porcelain tub as I never liked the feel of a fiberglass unit. also a fiberglass unit would not be able to support the stone that will be on the walls.
The front door was bought from Southern Stained Glass in Huston Texas, it is solid red mahogany and I prepped and stained it myself with a combo of dark mahogany stain and onyx stain then put on 2 coats of clear.
The roof is on. We used GAF Timberline weathered wood shingles.
The Brick is from Richards Brick it was easy to pick the brick we liked the Closure size brick since it is bigger than the normal brick and we liked the Soulard brick color
We also added some stone accents above the windows, the stone is edan from Earthworks
The Insulation is now in and we used the Certainteed blanket system on the exterior walls. this gives you R-23 as opposed to
normal insulations R-19 with 2x6 walls. it is a blow in system so every inch of space gets filled.
we also insulated all the interior bedroom walls to help reduce the noise levels in the house.
above is the master bathroom, Permabase is a cement board that the stone will be attached to.
4/29/2008
