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The Pretty Good House

prettygoodhouse.org

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Re: The Pretty Good House

#31

Post by mansoon »

KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #15

This is one of the areas that ML robotics companies should look into. Prefabs for whatever reason do not seem to work for the American market. Enough is enough, time to start throwing ML robotics models at zoning and building code regulations, instead of those silly game environments that DeepMind use for their RL demos. Replace those overpriced and incompetent tradespeople and builders. They do not have enough real…

Jesus fucking christ and I thought I was a narcissist who was spoiled by my social class.

Thank you kind stranger for showing me what real indifference and ignorance looks like.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#32

Post by trgn »

poutine wrote: post #17
carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

You might have trouble finding good builders for such a small job. Depends on the market I suppose. Also you'll run in to restrictions on some land, some areas will not let you build really small places that are out of proportion to the neighbourhood. Depends how fancy you're talking. But doing a really nice small space is a great strategy for saving money. You can use nice materials since you dont have a lot. Doing…

Small but bespoke. It's the only way. Stuff, the actual materials things, they have their own designs. Better to shape them in your image, than have them shape you in theirs.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#33

Post by constGard »

1270018080 wrote: post #13

Who is the target audience for this book? Not people who want to get build their own custom home one day?

It seems like a series of guiding concepts and examples for builders or clients. Custom home building seems to be the main venue for this at the moment, but a layperson like myself can use this to try and recognize a good house or think about how I might retrofit my own. It's all too expensive at the moment where I live, but I can dream and save my pennies.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#34

Post by bruce511 »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #22
carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

1000 square feet is so small there isn't much to do and only so many ways to design it. IMHO you could easily find a small bungalow of that size, have the interior ripped out and taken down to studs, then totally rebuilt to exactly the layout you want and still be way under the cost of commissioning an architect to design something from scratch.

I'm intrigued to see that you consider 1000 sq feet (100 sq m) to be "so small". It's twice the size of the first house I owned (which was also 2 bed, and pretty typical starter size here) [1]

To me 1000 sq feet for 2 bedrooms sounds fantastic. So many ways you can use that space creatively. So many different layout options and shapes.

My recommendation would be to start with an architect. Given a good budget and defined parameters you should get something really good. And (at least here, don't know about there) architects like to be project manager as well to make sure their baby is executed well.

[1] starter apartments here can be under 200 sq feet. Not sure who wants that (they are typically quite expensive) but someone is buying them.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#35

Post by pilingual »

carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

Sometimes the builders are also the carpenters. I would go with one of those because they will do arguably the most important part right, and they will likely have worked with the foundation team before. Electricians and plumbers often have to be certified so there is less concern there.

Getting educated so you can ask questions and observe that they properly seal the house for air and moisture is a good idea. PGH is a good resource and so is Matt Risingers channel (Build Show).

Consider tapping networks. If you find an architect you like they may know a good builder and vice versa.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#36

Post by poutine »

bruce511 wrote: post #34
qbasic_forever wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1000 square feet is so small there isn't much to do and only so many ways to design it. IMHO you could easily find a small bungalow of that size, have the interior ripped out and taken down to studs, then totally rebuilt to exactly the layout you want and still be way under the cost of commissioning an architect to design something from scratch.

I'm intrigued to see that you consider 1000 sq feet (100 sq m) to be "so small". It's twice the size of the first house I owned (which was also 2 bed, and pretty typical starter size here) [1] To me 1000 sq feet for 2 bedrooms sounds fantastic. So many ways you can use that space creatively. So many different layout options and shapes. My recommendation would be to start with an architect. Given a good budget and def…

If you built a 1000sf detached home in North America you'd have a hell of a time selling it later on outside of some very specific conditions as it'll not be much cheaper than a 1500-2000sf home.

Home costs do not scale proportionately with their square footage. For example you still have one refrigerator in most homes regardless of size, one front door, pay base flat fees for services and trades just to show up, permitting fees, etc.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#37

Post by greggman3 »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #22
carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

1000 square feet is so small there isn't much to do and only so many ways to design it. IMHO you could easily find a small bungalow of that size, have the interior ripped out and taken down to studs, then totally rebuilt to exactly the layout you want and still be way under the cost of commissioning an architect to design something from scratch.

1000 square feet is only small in the USA. 1000 sqft is the average size of a home in Japan. 50% are smaller. There's plenty of creative ways to use 1000 sqft

Re: The Pretty Good House

#38

Post by trgn »

8bitsrule wrote: post #21

Time to throw in a mention for the homes of Lloyd Kahn. https://www.shelterpub.com/ There's plenty to discuss about houses (if you've got time on your hands), but give me a pretty good home. Green? Where I grew up you could drive around in the woods and see old abandoned log houses turning back into land and a few rocks, all on their own. A worthy goal to work towards. Lloyd's still kicking and blogging. https://www.…

He's great.

Sidetracking a little, I wish someone(s) could develop a complementary vision for the urban context. This escape to the woods ethos does not scale. Yet, it's the only one that - at least in my impression - has crystalized in some truly homely aspirational bitesize aesthetics, that seems in reach, if only one would just commit.

The closest thing I can think of was maybe "the loft", you know, think 80s cool. But they kinda suck in hindsight. The townhouse maybe, but so dependent on if the actual surroundings are tolerable, a little too large to have broad demographic appeal. Maybe the shotgun. They definitely have that cutesy thing going. Can be spacious, small, simple layouts, lot's of room for craftmanship... Just spitballing now.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#39

Post by langsoul-com »

alanwreath wrote: post #27

Love this new resource. I've been geeking out over what seems to be some near term changes on what it means to build a home. For the longest time it seemed to mean (in the US at least): - wood - waste - lifelong high expense - manual and with the sudden explosion of - 3D printed houses (https://communityimpact.com/austin/georgetown/housing-real-estate/2022/11/17/3d-printed-homes-in-georgetown-offer-new-approach-to-bu…

In Australia, homes tend to be more an investment.

The home part just needs to be good enough, the land is the real value. A shit rundown place can be worth millions, just because of the land. The house itself gets knocked down for an apartment complex.

Re: The Pretty Good House

#40

Post by nextos »

galenko wrote: post #16
carabiner wrote: post #11

I'm looking at building a home as a first time home owner in the next few years. One thing I'm wondering is how many headaches can I avoid if I just choose an expensive builder and not try to haggle or save a buck at every turn? I just want a 2-bedroom, 1,000 sq ft bungalow and am willing to pay 60-70% more than the average $/sqft in my city if they do a good job. I'd rather have a nice small place rather than a huge…

No. That’s still a lottery and you are basically saying I’m paying more, so I expect a better service. This does not guarantee results. At all. What you want is a third party. Someone who understands the trade and the codes and will check in on the building site daily and will make sure everything is being done correctly. And if it’s not, will stop work and put everyone in their place. I frankly have no idea what the…

Why not trying a high-end factory-made house, such as https://www.huf-haus.com/en-uk

In a nutshell, they are manufactured into standard components and assembled onsite. The number of defects is small.

The level of quality is incredibly better than what most builders can produce.

They are not cheap, though. There are several alternative manufacturers. They are a great option for a bungalow.

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