I've been learning so much about the process of home building following this forum. My wife and I were prepared to start construction two years ago but got diverted by several circumstances as follows:
1. could we be our own general contractor?
2. the local contractors' bids seemed high because they weren't familiar with insulated concrete forms ( ICF ).
3. the plans we had drawn by a draghtsman ( good quality but he was not an architect ) were inaccurate on the cross sections where the ICF had a brickledge on the inside for floor trusses to sit on. He had never drawn for an entire house made with ICF.
4. We had our third child in less than five years the summer we would have broken ground [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] .
For these reasons, we shopped around and found a house five minutes away from our acreage and we're content. However, as material prices seem to be increasing and interest rates will likely soon climb I'm feeling compelled to get busy trying to get our home built out in the country where we want the kids to grow up.
We've pulled out the old plans and now we've changed our minds about some pretty big parts of the plan (ie more bedrooms, a walkout basement, and move the garage from the north side to the east side ) which were drawn inaccurately anyway [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] .
So we're back to the drawing board - literally. Because of our experience and questions so far, I've decided we should start with an architect who's familiar with home building and ICF. I've asked everyone I know who has built a home, but none have used an architect; they've either bought plans out of a book or the general contractor has done the drawings themselves. I have several good GC to choose from, but none have built with ICF ( and don't seem too excited to vary from their standard practice ) and my wife and I haven't found anything even close to what we want for out acreage on the internet or in a book.
I'm 90% sure which ICF I'll use, but haven't approached them yet because I don't even have a drawing to show them.
I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and time is ticking away. Tomorrow I'm going to just open the phone book and start making some calls. Many on the this forum have built custom homes with ICF : How do you get started? Any advice on choosing an architect for a 2500 sq ft ranch with a walkout basement? Does anybody know of a good architect in the Des Moines Iowa area [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] ?
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