THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 23, 1995 TAG: 9512210282
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
The last time I wrote about my house-in-progress, the headline read ``Slow going.'' Let's get one thing straight: Any reference to ``slow'' was a statement about my frame of mind in approaching all the decisions I needed to make about my house, not a complaint about my builder.
The timetable for my house was six months, from contract signing to occupancy permit. Up-front delays in closing on the construction loan and getting the necessary permits chewed up nearly six weeks. Even so, the house is progressing on schedule.
While my builder has his job under control, I'm still struggling with decisions. And I'm at the point of no easy return now: What I decide gets translated into wood, glass, vinyl siding and other building materials within days. It was more fun when the consequences of my decisions weren't so permanent.
Windows have been my biggest problem. Their placement and sizing accounted for most revisions to my house plans to date. I can read blueprints; I can visualize space and dimension; I just can't picture the relationship of transparent glass to solid wall.
I told my builder that I wanted plenty of natural light. I wanted big windows, walls of glass that took maximum advantage of my private, wooded lot. But what I envisioned, and what the designer of my house drew, weren't always the same.
I moved almost every window at least once. I made the windows shorter; had second thoughts and made them taller again. I added windows. I took windows out. I shortened some windows a second time and made others even taller than they'd been in the original drawings.
During this window frenzy, my builder pointed out three potential problems.
First, I was spending an excessive amount of my budget on windows, which typically cost two times more than equivalent wall space.
Second, I needed wall space for furniture. When rooms are large enough to group furniture away from walls, floor-to-ceiling windows make sense. My house is small enough so that furniture will have to be placed against the walls. What's the point in covering up $300 worth of window with a couch? my builder asked. And, of course, he had a good point.
His third concern was meeting North Carolina Power's Energy Saver Plus energy efficiency standards. He'd have to compensate for large window areas with extra insulation in other areas. ``We can do it,'' he said. ``But it will cost more.''
To help me put my window dilemma into proper perspective, I ordered a three-dimensional house kit and began constructing a 1/4'' scale model of my house. I hate to build models and, I admit, I never finished it. But I got the floors laid out and the exterior walls finished. Seeing the windows from inside and out, to scale, was worth every hour I spent cutting, gluing and cursing the maker of graph paper.
What I learned from the model resulted in changes to the windows one last time, on the Friday before the Monday that framers were scheduled to start building walls. When the walls went up with the window spaces framed out, what I got was what I wanted. Whew.
Another factor in being able to get what I wanted was my contractor's ability to design my house and produce working drawings in-house. When the framers went to work that Monday, they had clean, up-to-date drawings to work from. I'd hate to see what they would have built from the scratched-out, scribbled-on drawings we had in hand on Friday.
Computer technology can be a great thing. Before long (but too late for my benefit), my builder's customers will be able to ``walk'' through their houses' interiors and around the exteriors, eliminating any need for a real model.
This technology is not brand new. At least two local cabinet companies have been using it for several years to design kitchens. My cabinet maker produced wonderful perspective drawings of my new kitchen from several angles so that I felt as if I knew the room long before a single wall stud was nailed in place.
Implementation of this technology is creating a new class of ``design-build'' general contractor that may become the industry standard in custom-home markets like the Outer Banks.
Design-build contractors offer in-house, proprietary, custom house plans. They can make structural and design changes to these plans, adjust cost estimates, generate materials lists, and more with just a few keystrokes.
Maybe such ease encourages changes. Maybe not. All I know for sure is that my builder predicted he'd redraw my plans 18 times before the job was done and I haven't even hit No. 12 yet. It's a good thing he's got a powerful computer. MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959. by CNB