Foundation - part 1

In our Hawaii building code, there must be no "cinders" under the concrete foundation - this is in effect whether you are on post and pier or slab on grade. Cinders will continue to compact as time goes on. This will affect the stability of your home. Use base course or 3/4"- to dress the house pad. Compact it with a plate compactor. A plate compactor looks like a lawn mower with a flat plate on the bottom. You can rent one for under $75.

If you are doing a slab on grade, try to get the house pad to within 1"+/- of level. This will save you quite a bit on labor and concrete. Do not think you can "eyeball" it. Use a transit. Grade can be very deceiving.

If you are on post and pier, your foundation will consist of shear wall corner footings and possibly 24" x 24" footings or pier block footings. If you are on slab, your foottings will be incorporated into the slab - they will be 16" x 18" and 4" of slab. Rebar is cheap insurance on a slab. It keeps moving in one peice if we have an earthquake. Also use a PSI of 3000 of more helps keep the footings secure. This is not a place to skimp.

Painting - Buy good primer paint

First and foremost: Buy good primer and paint. Do not skimp. It will not save you money. If you are hiring someone to do your painting, hire someone whom you have actually seen their work. Look down the walls. Do you see striping? (May have been caused but uneven application of primer). Check their edge lines? Is it acceptable to you? Do they show up and do what they say? Timely?

Now if you decide to do it yourself - again buy good primer and paint. Buy a good roller and cut brush. Do not save money on these items. You will save money on yor good roller. Lambswool is nice and about $15 a piece. Yes a piece. About the cost of a box of Coronas. It will lay paint on evenly - saving you money and work. Wash it out well and resuse. That will save you money, too. My SO has one he has had for about 3-4 years. I have probably spent $100 on rollers in the last 3-4 years.

Here's where we skip backwards:
If you are DIY'ing your home, take the time to paint a termite resistance substance - like Terminex - on all the cut ends of the foundation posts. Paint the posts before they go up will save you time and effort - use a good primer and a good paint. This is something that typically only a owner builder would do because it is labor intensive.

To prevent rust from coming through paint - make sure nails are in all the way. Use a nail set if they arent, and tap them down. A good coat of primer and paint over a well set nail will keep you from having those rust lines on your home.

Buying versus Buidling part 2

Recently on a punaweb topic the discussion again come up about buying versus building. At this time, it is a really hard question to answer. Much will depend on what you want to do, and how you want to accomplish it. A few years ago as pricing for homes was skyrocketing, building in Puna made the most sense.

Some of the questions to ask yourself when trying to decide are:

Is this an investment property that you will rent out for a number of years, then sell?
Is this some where you might eventually live in but not right now?
Or is this going to be your dream house?
Can you afford to build at $125/SF or more? This SF price should include all space, not just living spaces.
Can you buy lot, then start building as you have cash and when done have no mortgage?
Do you intend to participate in the building? Do you have the skills necessary?

Lets take at one item: an investment property to sell at a later date. You may find in the current market a great deal on some else's loss. Can it be rented for the market rate? What will be your return then after PITI, and maintenance, tax deductions? If you build, is a kit house that goes up quick with "builder" grade appointments in the rental market range? The market wont bear many $2500 a month rentals in Puna. Look at the classifieds - what is the median rental range right now? What time frame can a builder put up the house in? (In this case, time really is money - the longer it takes to build, the longer you wont have tenants in it.) But if you are paying totally cash as you build, you also when done wont have a mortgage to worry about and then wont worry as much about vacancy.

On the other hand, if this is your dream house, do you have the patience and money to see it through while building? Is your marriage good enough to withstand the stress and strain of building together? This is a big cause of divorces right behind death of a parent or child, and moving but if you think about it, building your dream house is moving. Again, based on the current real estate market, is there a home that is "almost" your dream home that remodeling may be cheaper?

This debate continues to be the chicken and the egg argument - which comes first? It really depends a lot on you, and your family, your finances, and most importantly your level of patience.

Remodel or Build?

Building a new house, even an eco friendly house will require tearing up land to get an adequate house pad site for even the most eco-friendly house along with a large price tag.

It might be better to remodel your existing home if you have put a lot of time and energy into your current house. It takes usually fewer resources to upgrade and you can do your project in phases.

Are your kids already in a school they like? Do your parents live nearby? Is your social network there. As you move further away for eco house, you may be leaving a bigger footprint by having to drive to visit friends and family.

Infrastructure is in place! Your wastewater system is in, your water system is there, again distrubing the land is kept to a minimum.

What about neighborhood revitalization?

Waste Water System Referrals

Please email me for the PDF file as I am a newbie to Blogging and I cant get it to insert! I have a list of wastewater installers that was given to me by Ron Nickels, a civil engineer who does a goo dportion of the systems here in the Puna district.

Designing your dream House - part 2 - Your lot

What does your lot look like? Not what do you fantasize it will look like - does but what does it really look like. This is the design equivalent of taking off all your clothes and looking at your naked body realistically. Okay. Whew. Now that we have looked at the features on your lot realistically, do you see any thing that just stands out?

Good or bad, let’s look at those features and how it will affect your design. An example is a tumulus on the lot. You can 1) incorporate it into the future foundation 2) bulldoze it flat 3) move your footprint over so you can look out your lanai at the orchids you will plant in the future. I am a big fan of trying to use the features so that your view will be spectacular as you landscape in the future.

Okay so your are now going to face your lanai (deck/patio) towards it which may affect other items in your floor plan that you wrote on a cocktail napkin when you and your wife took that trip to Hawaii and where drinking mai tai’s on the deck at sunset. (You know you all have them!!!)

So here are some good links to design sites: www.bonadesign.com – Daniel is innovative and has 20+ years experience designing in Hawaii. He has a master’s in architecture and more importantly he built he own home! Robert Latenser is a talented architect who resides in Puna and has done some incredible. There is also Matt Iseger and Erin Rose, both located in Puna, who are capable drafts people. Robert Smelker, AIA stamps plans for them.

When talking with anyone of the above, please take into consideration their advice. All of them are familiar with the terrain, the climate and the basic design errors that many people make. They all will try to steer you in a design that not only will be pleasing but also functional.

Here are the questions you will need to answer (from www.naturalhome.com ) before the design process begins:

What climate are you in? A house in Mountain View as opposed to Kona will deal with rainfall more than the necessity of trade winds. A house in Waimea will require a heat source of some type.

What materials do you like and what is available on the Big Island? How will transporting materials long distances to your site versus using local products?

Who has expertise using your favored materials? Learning curves are steep.
What is your site like? Consider slope; sun and shade; vegetation; wind; rainfall and drainage; noise; views; privacy; and the local culture.

Designing your dream House - part 1

Okay I have a new client so we are going to go step by step with them!

The first part of the process once you have a lot is to think about your design and what you want to accomplish. Is this a vacation home or is a full time residence for you?

How often do your friends and family visit? What are your hobbies? Do you like to BBQ often?

Spend a week writing down what you do every day of this will be a full time residence. You will begin to see a pattern for what your rooms will need to be. Think about what features your current residence has that you like.

Then the big one - think about your realistic budget. At this point, don't think about square feet. Think big picture. Do you have $100,000 to spend? $500K - a million or $50,000?

Find that number that you will be comfortable with, whatever it may be. Do not over extend yourself at this point. Be conservative! You will have plenty of opportunity to be broke later on!

Now take that number and divide it by 1.33 - yes 1 and 1/3. This is the real budget. So on $100K = $75,000. there is your real budget. Dont worry we arent throwing $25,000 - that is for the changes you will make, your siginificant other saying "oh but it is only a $200 difference ...." etc.

Okay so now you have $75K as your budget - okay take that # and divide it by 150. That number - 500 - is the total square footage you can afford if you have $100,000 to spend. Yes that is right 500 square feet and this includes decks, lanais, carports, garages. No wif you say I am going to do alot of the work myself (How many times have I heard this???) drop it down to 125 so 600 square feet. I dont want to hear "oh but a deck is cheaper".... not by much. In Puna, where we have average 60+" in Kapoho to 160" in Glenwood, you need a covered deck. So now you have foundation, wall structure to hold roof up, roof structure. More than 70% of the structure even in a deck. So just count the sqaure footage straight up. See above where you will end up spending the money.

Okay so now we have 600 square feet because you are going to do lots of work yourself. So you need a kitchen, a bed and bathrooms, and a lanai? Remember small is not comfortable. The bedroom at the minimum should be 12 x 12 and the deck should be at least 12' wide so now you have a 24 x 25 square so using part of your 30% above, lets right off the bat bump that up to 24 x 30 ft.... (see we are using the 33% and material hasnt even left the lumber yard yet!)

For anyone who is doing the gable kit house roof - check out fib0nnocci principle and adjust your length appropriately.

Okay enough for today! I will try to follow this process so that I can help you make your dream house into a reality.

Urban Homesteading

Just a little link www.pathtofreedom.com

Clients that will never be happy!

So it has come time to let all the builders out there in on some secrets! Today it will be clients to avoid. Yes I know there are some people who can be turned around but there are some who can't. So far - the draftsperson, and the window guy who are two of the best have also been disgusted with their attitudes! Here is today's selection of someone who is just never happy : Susan wrote the following in her blog -

We have decided NOT to use our concrete contractor to complete the concrete columns. As a result, we leaped into the unknown to complete the task ourselves.

That isnt the half of this!

The forms provided by the contractor were crude at best...

Because the blueprints specified "structural" not architectural grade. The columns were to be stucco or finished in other methods. The boxes were your basic form lumber - 3/4" ply built again specifically for structural grade.

and we tried to smooth the surfaces. However, the poor box surfaces contributed to some of the mediocre results we achieved.

Because as inexperienced home owners, you did not use form oil, or form release on the forms.

Bottom Picture: The resulting image on the concrete column. The whale image looks pretty good, but the surrounding concrete has more flaws then we would like, most likely from the wet concrete and the fact that the concrete did not release from the flawed boxes.

See above!