Bealeton, VA - New Construction with in-law suite
Hi everyone,
I am building a 2800 sq. ft., 4 br/3.5 ba home with a 1600 sq. ft. unfinished basement on my 13 acre farm in Bealeton, VA. Although this is not a spec house or custom build for a client, I am using this opportunity to prepare for starting an energy efficient home design/building company. I am keeping good records to see what my costs are. I am trying to do about 70% of the work, while subcontracting out for things like metal roof, solar panels, drywall finish, electrical, and ductless minisplit installation. Some of the challenging work I will be taking on is double stud framing, window installation, hydronic radiant heating, air-sealing, dense-packed insulation, plumbing, kitchen, bath, and siding (cement fiberboard and cedar). Two years ago, I built a smaller home on my property that is a 700 square foot apartment over garage, where we currently live. The cost of that house came in at around $80/square foot, but the price includes the cost of well, septic, drainfield, and a lot of clearing and excavation. This current house that I am building will share the same well, septic, and driveway as the previous house so I am saving on those costs. I hope to build this current house for $80/square foot. The other house will then become a rental property, most likely via Airbnb.
Originally, for this current house, I wanted to do a slab on grade, but putting in a basement cost only $25/square foot and makes it easier for me to do plumbing, ventilation, and other utilities. In comparison, slab on grade would have cost me around $12.50/square foot. Also, a basement is a good place to shelter during a hurricane or tornado, phenomenon that are uncommon in my area, but with climate change anything looks possible. A basement is also good for resale. Although, this is a house I hope to keep until I am old, I still have to strike a balance between what I want and what a buyer might want just in case I have to sell.
The house includes a 700 square foot in-law suite for my parents to stay in for most of the year. I'm still wondering how they are going to downsize from their current 3400 square foot house. Ebay and Craigslist will be our friends when we try to sell all their stuff. The in-law suite has some universal access design features including an open dining, kitchen, and living area as well as a curbless shower that I had to plan for during the framing stage. The in-law suite provides me an opportunity to explore home design for the elderly as this is an area in which I am interested. With our population getting older and nursing homes not an attractive option for some, I think smaller, single story, custom built homes for the elderly is a good market. I will also be putting in hydronic radiant heating for my parents' section to keep them nice and cozy during the winter.
My wife and I have 2100 square foot of the house and direct access to the 1600 square foot unfinished basement, which will become my workshop for my beekeeping business. The house is very open concept without a formal living room or dining room. Some people prefer these rooms, but I feel they are a waste of space. We included a 5 foot bumpout for a nice lounging/daybed area and upstairs the bumpout will be used for an office. All together, we will have 37 strategically placed windows to allow for lots of light. We will have a mudroom/utility room, carport, and 360 square foot porch that we will share with my parents. Naturally, we will have separate keyed entrances.
In terms of energy efficiency, we are installing triple pane Intus windows with a U-factor averaging 0.18. Our double stud walls will have a true R-value of 36 with minimal thermal briding through the studs. Attic insulation will be R-72 throughout thanks to 20" raised heel trusses. Air-sealing will be accomplished through tapes, caulk, gaskets, and spray foam. Heating and cooling will be accomplished through wood stoves (we have 5.5 acres of woods), ductless minisplits, and hydronic radiant heating. The house is designed with generous overhangs to take advantage of passive solar heating during the winter and shading during the summer. Our metal roof is the color bone white and has a high solar reflectivity rating to help keep the attic cooler and reduce our cooling loads. I don't think the savings will be dramatic from the white metal roof, but I really just like the color. Ventilation will most likely come in the form of an HRV from Zehnder. It is expensive, but a necessity for air-tight homes to get the right amount of fresh air exchange in the house. Unfortunately, our house does not have access to natural gas so we are all electric. Energy use modeling estimates that we will use 934 kwh every month. In our area this equates to about $150/month. An 8 kw solar panel array will take care of 90% of this cost and with the federal tax credit, we should recoup the upfront costs in 12 years.
We started construction on this house in September 2015 and finally got under roof before the snowstorm in January 2016. I hope to have the Certificate of Occupancy (CO) by January 2017. Obviously, this is not a good timeline for spec homes or custom homes, but I can only work on the house on weekends and my crew consists of my dad and I and sometimes my wife, who is now pregnant! In the meantime, I am going to get my Class A Residential Builder's License this year and start the LLC. Some of my friends have expressed interest in me building a house for them so if everything works out I'll be building some custom homes in 2017. I just hope the banks and my clients value energy efficiency and universal access design as much as I do. But in the end, it's what the client wants and that they will get and more.
West view of house. House is oriented directly south. Notice the beginnings of the double stud wall on the first floor. We will complete the second floor double stud soon.
East view of house shows my parents' 700 square foot section with shed roof. The shed roof allows us to place more windows higher up on the front wall to allow in more light. We may incorporate a loft for my parents' guests since we the 14ft. front walls allows more headroom.
Possible color scheme.
Early hand sketch of first floor. Some things have changed over the course of the design, but this will give you a good idea of how we wanted everything laid out. In-law suite is on the right side. The bedrooms for our section are upstairs.