I just bought my first home and put 75% cash down. Its 2200 SQ feet and the garage is 600 SQ 2 car on .27 acre of land. Its nice but I found out the water around here is hard and I hate all the white spots hard water leaves everywhere. Has anyone had thier home custom built with thier own blueprints?

 

Congrats on your new home!!!

I've purchased a condo, but never a house. However, I will be breaking ground in April and building my own home next year. The specs are:

Basement: 33X50 feet
First Floor: 33X50 feet
Garage (level with first floor): 33X25 feet (2 doors)
Top Floor: 33X75 feet (above garage and First Floor)
Total square footage= 6600.

I have a 1.14 acre lot that I purchased 8 years ago ready to build on and the excavators are scheduled for the second week of April, weather dependant. We are hoping to be done by Christmas. We are building all of the exterior walls with ARXX forms, which I have already bought and stored for the winter. The front of the house has a 15 foot wide turet that extends out about 5 feet, but the rest of the house is a pretty basic design. Lots of open rooms and two story ceilings throughout the interior though. My wife and I designed the entire house.

 

I'm shooting for 2008 at the latest to buy a house. Congratulations on yours.

 

i bought my house in '94 for 104.5k

its now worth 400k

private lakefront

location location location

...zap!

 

well my taxes actually went down because the town voted to let a power plant in...

and the taxes are figgerd into the mortgage payment every month...
(i dont even look at that bill...just forward it)

and it will NEVER loose value

there is only so much lakefront land on the planet

and i own a chunk

lets see...10 more yrs and the mortgage is paid!!

then i semi retire

yahoo

...zap!

 

Buy, build...um, lemme rephrase, I'm looking to get a house no later than 2008. I'd really like a few acres of land to build on, but I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there.

 

[QUOTE=inurok]I found out the water around here is hard and I hate all the white spots hard water leaves everywhere. QUOTE]

Hi. our house is a custom job, although we didnt build it, bought it in Nov from a couple who couldnt maintain it anymore.

We had hard water also (20 grains of hardness), so I had Culligan come in and install their best softener, an RO unit for drinking, as well as a charcoal filter to remove the slight and intermittent sulpher smell (hot water)

The water is perfect now, hardness lvl is 1 (city water is 8).
I just got back my analysis from the private lab, and everything is perfect.
I even had them install one of the "point of use" water coolers.
It's plumbed in under the cabinets directly from the RO unit, so you never have to carry bottles and lug them home. The cooler is always full of fresh cold water.

If you don't mind spending a few bucks, you can fix your water easy.

Good luck with your new house.

 

[QUOTE=Habibi]


wow another country read from....whats happening bro?

...zap!

 

In my late teens I roomed with a guy who had a water softener. I absolutely hated it. Combined with his 'water saving' shower head, I was absolutely unable to rinse soap off of my body or shampoo out of my hair. I used to have to turn on the tub spigot and get on my hands and knees to get the shampoo out of my hair. He used to sing the praises of his water softener but there is no way I'd ever have one. If I got soap in my eyes I like being able to turn my head under the water and have it gone. With a water softener it ain't gonna happen, soap lasts forever and won't rinse away.

 

I designed and built my own home, it is 2000 sp ft ranch on fifteen acres.

It cost me 110K to build, and was just appraised at 192K.

I did all work execpt the flat work and furnace install. I custom designed everything including the plumbing. I have a water softner from Auqa Pure, with a filtration system before and after. We have really hard water here and this has done a good job of making the water softer. Still have some spotting issues with the salt, but it is the price you pay for living in the sticks.

I also have a seperate filtration system using carbon filters dedicated for washing the vehicles and it helps eliminate the spots. I am going to be trying Ionized filters come spring.

Here is a pic of the double filtration system, pretty simple, I have three off these set up in the system. It has a bypass so filters can be changed even when the water is being used.


I also designed a loop sytem for my plumbing, you can run every faucet, tiolet , and washer and never flutuations in temp and very little in pressure.

If you can, building new it is the way to go, make sure you have imput on the design.

My hardwood (maple)floors, trim, cabinets, and other wood work was all custom made either by myself of ordered.

Sled...

 

Depends on where you live.

 

Ditto, I live in Cleveland, and the midwest in general is just cheep. Basically people who can afford to get out of the area have so land value, while on the rise is at 1/4 the pace of other areas.

Im in the process of buying a house. I found one I liked, almost signed on it, then found that the foundation was basically shot. Not a huge deal comming from a family of contractors, but they would not come down in the price even after knowing it needed $10k in foundation work.


Now I found another house I like. Its a old 1.5 floor, roughly 1800 sq house with a 2 car detached garage on about a 2 acre lot. Hopefully things go well and I can close on it. If I do, I plan to tear down the detached and add about 20 feet to the house then add a 3 car attached. In time, a nice shop will be built out back.

This should keep me happy for 10 years, then I plan to build in the country.

 

CrAz3D, sorry man, I have to beg to differ here. I know it may not be the biggest drop, but the demand for Housing dropped 11% in Dec. Also, there are about 6 or more house's in my area that 6 months ago wouldn't have lasted a day, but now, they have been on the market 2 months. Supply is up and demand is down. It's a cycle that happens every so often and now is the time. I'd say buy now, and be picky, you can get more of what you want instead of just settling.

Then again, maybe it's just my neighborhood........

 

[QUOTE=Habibi]How much about did that run you and how long ago? I may go that route. I plan on living here for at least 10 years so it will be worth the expense.

 

Bought mine a little over a year ago... prices are crazy around here these days.