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My husband and I are seriously looking into moving back to Hilo (preferably Kaumana area). We are currently looking for a vacant lot and plan to build the Kekaha HPM model on the property.
If you built an HPM home, did you have HPM put out the plans to a few contractors for bid? Or did you find your own contractor? Did the total cost equal two or three times the cost of the package? Were you happy with the contractor? I have received HPM info , and it does show what is NOT included.
I would love to hear from those who used HPM or the other home kit packages. Any advice?
We need to sell our home here in Clermont, FL, before building. In the meantime, we hope to buy vacant property on a contract and then sell our home, pay it off, and get a construction loan.
We were on a similar path as you but discovered it was a lot more money to buy a lot and build a home on it than it was to just buy a pre-existing home. This was several years ago but now lumber prices are a lot higher now than they were 3 years ago so I imagine it's even worse now. Home prices did increase after the Leilani eruption but I don't know if that is still true in the Kaumana area.
The reason we decided to build is because most homes are so old, nothing appealing about them, and outrageous prices. The cost of the older homes plus all the funds to remodel and/or repairs would cost more in the long run. The home we want is just a 2-br/2-ba home.
We live in an HPM home (we didn't build it) and are happy enough with it. Definitely a cookie cutter "mainland" style build. Honestly it's a home that we "settled" for because it was the only one that was for sale in our price range that met all our requirements on the market at the time. One of my biggest complaints is lack of closets/storage, maybe that is something that you could correct during the design phase. The independent engineer we hired that inspected our place prior to purchase gave the design/construction high marks.
As far as the building part is concerned, from what I've heard you will need patience. There was already a building boom going on before the eruption and since then a lot of contractors have stopped returning phone calls etc. Things may have recently improved. I wish you luck and I hope you share your story here.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
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I too have an HPM home (lauhala). Happy with the design and construction. Though we didn't build it so can't really give much input in that regards.
As Terracore mentioned, construction is booming and contractors/tradesmen (and women) are booked and can be choosy about their projects.
If you are looking to build in one of the more remote areas, you can ask around for recommendations on any contractors living local.
My husband and I are seriously looking into moving back to Hilo (preferably Kaumana area). We are currently looking for a vacant lot and plan to build the Kekaha HPM model on the property.
If you built an HPM home, did you have HPM put out the plans to a few contractors for bid? Or did you find your own contractor? Did the total cost equal two or three times the cost of the package? Were you happy with the contractor? I have received HPM info , and it does show what is NOT included.
I would love to hear from those who used HPM or the other home kit packages. Any advice?
We need to sell our home here in Clermont, FL, before building. In the meantime, we hope to buy vacant property on a contract and then sell our home, pay it off, and get a construction loan.
Mahalo
Judy (aka iuki)
Aloha Judy,
Does HPM even put out the plans to contractors? They have engineer stamped plans and run them through the building dept for the permit, but I didn't know they did any more than that. Not that I keep track of HPM plans. HPM & Argus both have the stamped plans/building dept. routing services, I think.
Generally, I believe a "kit home" is the design/engineer stamp & run through the building department along with the materials to build the house itself. I don't think it includes the concrete foundation (if it's on concrete), the septic system, the electric, plumbing, grading, grubbing, driveway, etc. The materials are generally 'contractor grade' meaning they aren't the best, but they should be adequate. At least for a few years and then you may want to upgrade. For things like doors and windows, the installation replacement costs may make it worthwhile to specify a better grade. Contractors get a big discount on supplies but they have to pay people to install them. So for a contractor built home, things like nail on windows, prehung doors and not many built ins will be the most common unless it's a higher end house where they don't care about contractor costs. Usually those houses are architect designed and architects sometimes get paid on a percentage of the finished cost of the build so they have zero interest in keeping costs down.
An alternative to HPM/Argus plans is to find a draftsperson and have them draw up your plans. That would get you a house specific to what you want, but contractors may prefer to build an HPM/Argus plan since they've probably done them before. You can get changes made to an HPM set of plans, especially if it's something small like increasing closet space.
I don't suppose you can move over and rent somewhere in the area while it's being built? It's always good to oversee house construction if possible.
Here's my critique on the Kekaha:
First thing I'd change on the Kekaha plans would be to make the master bedroom sliding glass door into a window that matches the dining room window and put the door on the other wall and add a small lanai on that side. Seems odd to have a door to a bedroom - especially a big glass sliding door accessing the front porch.
Move the sliding glass door to the other wall and add a window there, too. The bed would then most likely end up against the wall between the living room and the bedroom. That wall should have sound insulation. IMHO, the master bedroom is huge, but YMMV.
The master bath door should be a pocket door. It also doesn't have much storage in it. Maybe take a bit of the left side of the master bedroom closet and make that accessible from the 'hallway' inside the bath room for more bath storage.
The inside laundry area seems to take up a lot of valuable real estate. If it were my house, I'd put the second bedroom in that corner since cross ventilation really helps keep things cool and a laundry doesn't care about cross ventilation or views. Bedroom in the corner, stack the second bath & laundry where the second bedroom is now.
Swing the front doors outwards, make the front lanai about two feet wider (folks spend a lot of time on the lanai, especially if there's a pool or garden on the other side of it) and whoever offset the kitchen sink from the window should be shot.
It doesn't show any upper kitchen cabinets in the kitchen. I wonder if the furniture is to scale in that drawing? Some of them seem bigger or smaller than expected. There's a lot of square footage that seems not well used. But, don't mind me, I'd not be living in it, it's your house.
FWIW, I am a draftsperson, so looking at plans is something that I end up doing a lot. The Kekaha does have nice curb appeal, but for me, the laundry in the corner would be a deal breaker for a house I'd build for myself.
Mahalo to all of you for your responses and suggestions.
Unless HPM no longer sends out bids, in 1998, I drew a floor plan and had a draftsman draw up the prints. It so happened that a contractor was there when I picked up the final plans. I had two other bids and he happened to be the third one and the one I selected.
The way it’s done, you go to HPM and select your sinks, faucets, plumbing & electric fixtures, tub/shower, all doors, etc., and HPM would send out bids with a submit date deadline. This way, all contractors bid comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges.
Love reading all of your informative posts! We've been dreaming about the BI for
8 years now and we still have 10 to go.
Regarding your Kekaha critique, where would you put the laundry room? Do you think a garage location is better? Also, in your opinion, are carports safe? We're concerned about high winds. We were staying in Waikoloa Village once when there was a strong storm/wind event and it was howling outside!
Well, it's locally called 'Waikablowa' for a reason!
The new building code now has a lot of hardware now holding down the corners of roofs. The roof is then tied to all that hardware buried in the concrete foundation. There's a huge improvement on 'portal' openings such as carports. Since Iniki (a hurricane in the '80s) the building codes have been getting more and more stringent in hopes of keeping roofs on. Foundations are completely different and the old post and pier is pretty much extinct. Depending on when the house you stayed in while you were in Waikaloa, it may or may not have been built to the current codes so it may have danced a bit in the wind.
In the Kekaha set of plans, the second bedroom should go in the corner behind the kitchen. That would then relocate the second bathroom between the relocated second bedroom and the master bath. The bathroom should go on the outer wall to get ventilation. That leaves a lot of room on the hallway end of that space to do all sorts of things with.
Part of it could become more closet for the master bedroom. Which would then allow a washer/dryer to be put into that somewhat odd walkway to the master bath along the other edge of the closet. Hmm, washer dryer on the outside wall, then the short hallway alongside the closet to the master bath and then extend the master closet past the wall in to the area freed up by relocating the second bedroom into the corner. Probably room for another hall closet in there, too, or more storage for the second bath.
Or, just put the washer & dryer outside in the carport where everyone else does. Providing there's not a set of stairs to get between the house and the carport, carrying laundry up and down stairs is not fun.
These current HPM plans are a huge step up from the ones they had previously. The old plans were some of the easiest to build houses around. Not overly attractive, IMHO, but adequate, one supposes.
Hicks Homes did a whole lot better on having a nice-to-live-in floor plan. Not sure if their houses were easier to build, though, if you were coming into them without any experience building them, but they had a whole 'Hicks Home' crew who did nothing but build Hicks Homes.
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Laundry room location
