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Originally Posted by 3RRL After all those threads about our camp life on our rural property and the solar shed project, http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/p...olar-shed.html
and then building the solar power system itself http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/p...d-project.html
we finally got started in April this year on our home and barn up there.
I'd like to share some of the highlights with you.
I will bring you up to date about the construction of our home in Three Rivers since last April.
In another thread I had told you about firing the first General Contractor and also how we decided to switch to building a log cabin home instead of the elaborate house we had designed. That meant hiring another contractor and throwing away the already designed architectural drawings. We had gone as far as to pull permits on that other house. The cost for the drawings is down the drain but part of the fees are salvageable such as school fees etc. It cost us a lot to do that, but the price of the new log cabin home with the new contractor is substantially less. We have a really good feeling about this man and his company.
Here is a picture of what our log cabin will look like. It will be very similar to this one he built.
It is a view type home and has the look and feeling of a small resort lodge.  |
Sounds familiar. I planned to be my own GC on the new stick-built house here in the North Valley in 2005. Bought a set of drawings, made mods, had the drawings checked by the Building Dept and was ready to pay the fees and pull the building permit.
I had to do some shopping in Chico CA and while there noticed some nice manufactured homes on one of the lots. Got real interested in that technology and, to make a long story short, decided that I could get the same square footage and the same construction features at a lower cost going with the manufactured option. So instead of a 2-year construction project with me as GC, I was in my new house on a permanent concrete foundation in about 7 months after signing the contract.
I ate the cost of the drawings and the fee for an energy analysis on the stick built design, but figure I still am way ahead by avoiding both the inevitable mistakes I would have made during construction and the many headaches I would have faced being my own GC.