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Ok, bet piece of graph paper with 1/4 inch squares. Mark off two rectangles 28 feet x 70 feet (squares). One of these is the basement, one the main floor. Draw two light inner lines 12 feet inside from each long dimension. Then start off marking 14 foot sections down the length. Pick one to be the master bedroom and one for master bath. Across the "hall" created by the center lines label the first square kid 1, then kid's bath, then kid 2. Pick one more square and draw in stairs down. Put the laundry behind the stairs. Use the rest of the space for kitchen, dining, etc.
Copy this into the basement. Now take all this to an architect to tweak the details, add closets, etc and you're done.
Or go down to the local modular lot, pick one you like and have them put it on a basement. House is done and you can finish the basement as you wish.
We just bought 25 acres and are trying to find a house plan so we can start the building process. We never imagined it would be so difficult. We have scoured books, websites, etc all to no avail. Everytime I find one I think is good, the hubby says no, it would cost too much to build.
Does anyone know where to find a house plan like the following:
Ranch w/full walkout basement (prefer 4 BR on main floor incl. master)
NO attic, must have vaulted/cathedral ceilings only
Must have a rectangle/square shape to keep costs down - "none of that fancy stuff jutting out".
Main floor under 2000sf.
We need a 5BR house. We have 2 teenagers and a toddler. None of them can share a room. We want the master & laundry on the main. We don't care about a garage. Finding that perfect rectangle shape is really what is causing the problem. I don't know how to search for a plan like that. Basically we are looking for a "shoe box" house plan lol. Only difference is the "lid" would be vaulted. If that makes sense.
My husband will be doing a lot of the work himself, but we will also have a contractor.
I never thought finding a house plan could be so terribly stressful. I'm about to give up.
TIA.
I have a few questions and would like to share a few things to consider about your proposed house plan.
1- Do you mind if I ask why vaulted ceilings are so essential. In addition to costing more to build than a 9ft or 10ft ceiling, they also increase your heating and cooling costs. If you are looking for the most economical plan that fits your space needs, I'm making the assumption that you would also want to build one that will be economical to heat and cool....correct?
2- If vaulted ceilings are essential, are you expecting all rooms on the main floor to have them? The most common room with vaulted ceilings on a house plan is the family/great room, followed by the master bedroom. If you're expected all bedrooms to have vaulted ceilings, a custom house plan (from an architect may be your only option).
3- I would encourage you and your husband to think about how long you plan to live in the home. Will you want to downsize when the kids are grown? Or when you retire? If so, I feel obligated to tell you that a 'plain jane' box-shaped house will not be easy to sell. I worked for a real-estate magazine for four years and a homebuilder for almost five years after that in the 2000s (until late 2008, when the bottom fell out of the market, so to speak). The builder that I worked for specialized in building lower-cost homes with relatively simple designs. Roughly 65% of our homes were 4-bedroom, about 10% were 5-bedroom or more and the remaining 25% were 3-bedroom. We tried to offer the most space at the lowest prices and there were few frills or unnecessary features.
Our primary customers were younger couples and single moms with (or planning on) three or more children. When I first started with the company, we had two house plans that were literally rectangular two-story boxes with 4-bedrooms. We closed between 250-300 houses per month (3000+ per year across four different cities- Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte and Phoenix). We built less than 50 of the 'box' houses and only four of them sold as quickly as the other houses in their respective neighborhoods. The others sat for many months, even years, before they finally sold and none of them were sold at a profit. A few of them were sold for sold for more than $100k off the original price. If you plan to live in that house for the rest of your life, then it may not be an issue. But even so, circumstances can change those plans and it might be wise to at least compare building costs between a 'box' and a plan with that is slightly more complex and visually appealing. Even the addition of what we referred to as an extended gable (which was either a bedroom or the garage) made those almost-impossible-to-sell plans into some of our most popular plans. Using rock or brick veneer on the front wall covered by the extended gable also made the houses look much nicer but only added $1200-$1500 to our cost and we charged $4k for it.
It sounds like an L-shaped ranch could also meet your needs, would still be economical to build and would have a much more appealing exterior (and usually a more open floorplan for the common areas (kitchen/dining/family rooms). I helped my step-dad build my grandmother a 3-bedroom L-shaped ranch back in 2002. My parents gave her the land, but we built the house for $72k with a full (unfinished) basement. We did the HVAC, electrical and plumbing ourselves (with the help of friends and family with experience in those fields), but we subcontracted the rest. It was 1352 square feet with another 1352 square feet in the unfinished daylight (walkout) basement. It also had a 448 square foot 2-car attached garage. So that's a lot of house for $72k (and I forgot to mention that $11k of that cost was for installing the septic tank and drilling a well plus the well pump...it's in rural North Georgia and there is no county sewer or water service). The basement was also stubbed (had the drains installed) for a future full bath.
You probably already know this, but I will still mention it just in case you don't - all basement bedrooms will need to have at least one window (fire code in almost every state requires it). The good thing is that you have a lot more flexibility with the layout of the basement that the main floor. So you can position the bedrooms where a window will be possible. If the slope of the lot makes it impossible to have a window in both bedrooms (or if you want to place the bedrooms in an area of the basement without an exposed wall for a window), there is another option. It's usually called an Egress Windows, Safety Egress Window, Basement Egress Window or something similar. Basically, it is a window with a tunnel excavated and lined (often with a ladder) to act as an emergency escape. They are a PAIN and often problematic (leaky) when installed after the house is built, but they are usually problem-free when installed during construction.
One final thought about the basement just came to me. Even though it will cost a little more, I strongly (emphatically) encourage you to use real (sheetrock/drywall) ceilings in the basement rather than 'drop' ceiling tiles. It makes the rooms look and feel much more 'homey' and will pay for itself exponentially in resale value. My parents have a 2218 square foot 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath ranch with a finished basement that is approximately 1900 square feet. The basement is smaller because of the mechanical closets housing the furnace, water heater and the filtering equipment for their well water. Almost 200sf of the main floor is built on the garage slab so there's no basement underneath it. They have 2-bedrooms and 2-bathrooms, a living room/den, a huge rec room with a full-sized pool table and a full-sized eat-in kitchen in the basement. They have 8.5' finished ceilings in the basement and 10' on the main floor.
I've been scouring the internet for the last two months trying to find the "perfect" house for my parents to build as their retirement home. My step-dad is retiring in six months and mom is already retired, they just closed on the land where they're going to build it, we just have to find it (and I have six possibilities, if I can just get my mom to settle on one and hope my step-dad agrees....if he doesn't, she'll still get the one she wants, it will just take a little longer for her to bend him to her will! =) Their parameters aren't quite as stringent as yours, but they want a master bedroom that is at least 15'x16', his and hers walk-in closets, a large double vanity master bath and a screened porch integrated into the back of the house. It also has to be on a full daylight basement (we have a few tornado warnings every year in North Georgia and we've had friends whose homes were obliterated by tornadoes, they all survived because they were huddled in an underground corner of their basements).
The reason I told you that was to say that I'll take a look at the sites I know for anything that might meet your specs. I'm still looking for any other potential plans for my parents (and, this sounds awful, but the house will be mine someday, so I may have slight ulterior motives in searching so extensively....I'll find the one I like best and convince my mom that it's her favorite also!...just kidding, sorta!)... =)
A Ranch house is single story. You need to be looking for house plans with a basement. Those are two-story.
I would disagree, A basement is usually not considered a story. You should be looking for plans to build just the main level. Then you can easily adapt it to meet your needs on the lower level. If you are working with a builder he should be able to do this easily.
If you are trying to save, you need to rethink the requirement to not have an attic per se. If you use scissor trusses you can still have vaulted ceilings, and a truss system home is about the cheapest you can build given the needs for attic insulation etc. You will have a "attic" it just isn't usable.
We have been talking to builders, a couple of them. So far, one of them has just told us to go online and look at house plans. The other I am waiting to hear back from. We are going to be using a construction loan & builder and my husband will do as much of the work as he can. He finished an upstairs addition on our first home, and finished the walkout basement we had in our last house and it was just studs when we bought it. We will definitely be done within the time allowed by the bank, if we have to use the builder to quickly finish it then we will. :-)
You sound like a problem client, and if I were a builder/GC I would definitely find some other person to work for.
You are trying to save money in strange ways. You are avoiding the services of an architect that could design a house for you. Maximizing your cost psf by building a rectangle is contradicted by your need for vaulted ceilings, which are expensive. Having your husband do some unspecified amount of finish work is a setup for construction delays and resulting cost overruns.
Sorry to be harsh, I am simply trying to explain why the first builder gave you the brushoff and #2 is, so far, ignoring you.
I would disagree, A basement is usually not considered a story. You should be looking for plans to build just the main level. Then you can easily adapt it to meet your needs on the lower level. If you are working with a builder he should be able to do this easily.
If you are trying to save, you need to rethink the requirement to not have an attic per se. If you use scissor trusses you can still have vaulted ceilings, and a truss system home is about the cheapest you can build given the needs for attic insulation etc. You will have a "attic" it just isn't usable.
A 'ranch' home can be built on any type of foundation (slab, crawl-space, basement or daylight/walk-out basement. In general, a ranch-style home is significantly wider than its length (more of a long rectangle than a square, although some are L-shaped and occasionally U-shaped) and has a low-profile roof. There is also a variation called a ‘raised ranch’ (sometimes called a split-level) where the basement walls can be seen (partially) from the exterior. A raised ranch usually has an entrance (and often garage) in the basement along with finished living space. The main living space is still on the main level, which is reached by stairs.
To the OP- Finding a house plan with 4-bedrooms, vaulted ceilings, a simple square or rectangular design and under 2000 square feet will be next to impossible. The ideal solution would be to have an architect draw out the plans to meet the specs, but the other option could be finding a plan that most closely meets the requirements and having it modified. I also have never seen a home with vaulted ceilings in EVERY room. Vaulted ceilings in the bathrooms (except possibly the master bath) and most other smaller rooms would be difficult, if not impossible.
Out of curiosity, I did a search to see if I could find any plans remotely close. The closest I could find is the following-
It’s 1,941 square feet, 5-bedroom (or 4-bedroom with a study), vaulted ceilings in the master bedroom, great room and dining room and 3-bathrooms. The front gables could be eliminated to simplify the design (although I think a wide sloped dormer would look great there) and the bay-type window in the dining room could be scrapped. The master bath extends out slightly from the right side, but that could be eliminated (although it would make the walk-in closet smaller to allow space for the master bath). The plan shows a garden tub and shower stall in the master, so an oversized shower or shower/tub combo could help to save space. On the back, the breakfast nook/area extends a few feet from the rest of the house and has a small gable over it. It could also be eliminated and still be usable as a breakfast nook (albeit a small one). The 2-car garage is in the basement, but could be eliminated if no garage is wanted.
It’s actually uses space very efficiently. The master bedroom is 14’4”, two other bedrooms are 11’x11’ and the other two are 10’x11’7”. The kitchen is 10’8”x11’ and dining room is 11’4”x10’. The master bedroom is on the far right side of the house while the other bedrooms are on the left side, with the kitchen, breakfast room, great room and dining room separating them.
A Ranch house is single story. You need to be looking for house plans with a basement. Those are two-story.
I have your house, but it isn't a Ranch. It looks like a Ranch house from the road, but the land slopes down, and the basement and garage is built into the hill. Three bedrooms are upstairs, and the basement is finished with a full kitchen and bathroom, so it's like an apartment. And the house does have an attic; it's above the bedrooms. The kitchen & living room has vaulted ceilings. The top level is about 1700 sqft and the bottom is about 700 sqft. If you also want a pool and a place on a lake, you can have it for $200k.
It's called a SPLIT-LEVEL Ranch and Ranch style can be two stories but usually that is called Split-level Ranch. There is other attributes that defines a Ranch style. Often an assymmetrical floor plan that is typically a "rambling" form. Additionally, some types are a U shape forming a court-yard.
In recent statistical estimations, I would be looking at a project cost (not including land acquisition but construction cost including contractor O&P of around 25% RSMeans standards and Architect/engineer/designer design services fee being around 10% of construction cost which is the materials and labor estimates and general fees being around $160/sq.ft. to $175/sq.ft. in the west coast states and other places with seismic code and special wind requirements. In the cheaper places of the nation, it might be $10-25 per sq.ft. lower. This is with modest interior finishes not fancy by any measure.
If the figures a drastically lower than I would have concerns with excessive underbidding quotes by the contractor.
160x3000 sq.ft. would be around $480K. $175/sq.ft. x 3000 sq.ft. would be around $525K in the western coastal states like California, Oregon and Washington.
The cheapest places to build in the U.S. will probably be $405K. So any quote substantially lower than $400K is probably a red flag raised.
From a budgetting point of view, a client should not have a construction project budget less than these figures and in fact should have an additional 20-25% contingency at the very least. I usually recommend a 50% contingency at this point and for design in order to compensate for SNAFUs to happen if they do. In other words, I recommend never designing a solution that would have an estimated project cost exceeding 2/3 (but never ever over 3/4) the total available project funds appropriated for the project. I would add about 3% to 5% inflation adjustment for every year.
However, none of this replaces detailed cost estimation and cost controls for design handled properly by a design professional.
People often do not have any clue to the understanding of construction costs. A lot of people think that construction costs a project costs for new home would be the same as that of an existing house of the same size and comparable design. It doesn't work that way. It's kind of like automobiles. Existing homes are like used cars. They have a depreciation because it is used and years have passed by in the life cycle of the house. While some houses are more expensive than others even though they are the same size because of a number of factors. That maybe because of elaborate architectural finishes or because of someone famous lived in the house or because of view or other real estate value factors. However, they tend to lose value over time but since houses can be around for a very long time, it can be worth more than its original construction cost such as 19th century homes.
New construction like a new home is like a brand new car. It typically costs a bit more than say a 15 or 20 or 25 year old house of the same size and general kind.
You can't magically get a new home designed and built for you for the prices of a lot of existing homes in the buyers market of homes that we experienced during the recession.
It isn't something you are going to get done for just $150K. It just can't be done (and be code compliant) for a house that is 3000 sq.ft. You would be living in a death trap that WILL collapse as a matter of time not a matter of if.
No design professional is going to risk it all and the liability for do such. The OP really needs to reassess their financial capacity to design a 3000 sq.ft. building and have it built.
Our design fees are only a very small portion of the total cost.
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