All Forum Posts by: Kinley Puzey

The first moment. They can help you determine what your buildable footprint/envelope is based off code, zoning, setbacks, city requirements. They can arrange or put you in touch with civil engineers, surveyors, geotechs. They can help you decide what you need spatially and how to fit it on the lot. They will coordinate/manage structural engineering and handle all construction drawings. Heck I've been brought on even before a lot is found to help determine what lot they should choose. They should be your right hand man through the whole process.

Congratulations! Hoping to do the same this year.

@Calvin Thomas I use Revit and SketchUp for 3D modeling. Revit it costly if you're not using it all the time. SketchUp has a free version you can download. However both platforms have a learning curve. Most people that try designing it themselves often spend more time learning the software than making progress on the project. 

Find a good architect or designer that has the software and know how and put them to work. It will be worth it as they can also point out issues along the way that you may not think of.

If it's only cabinetry then talk with a kitchen/bath installer. They often do designs for free if you use their products.

This is a multi part question. All thoughts are appreciated.

Background:

My wife and I would love to get into investing but right now with other financial obligations it makes it difficult. We are currently paying upwards of $700 a month towards student loan debts. Our goal is to get rid of these loans, free up money, and get in a better financial position for our growing family then invest. Not that we are struggling but we would be in a lot better place with $700 to invest if we could get these paid off.

We currently have a single family residence worth $260,000 - $265,000. We owe $180,000. We're trying/failing to understand what the BEST option is to getting to a better financial point.

scenario 1

Stay where we are at and continue paying on student loans for 5 -7 years until paid off.

scenario 2

Use the money in our existing HELOC to pay off student loans and stay where we are at.

scenario 3

Sell our primary residence, where we've lived for the past 7 years, and use the equity to pay off student loans. We would then rent for a year or two. Rent would be more than our current mortgage but because we could pay off student loans we could now put that money in saving or towards an investment property in future.

Would we have to pay taxes on our capitol gains if we sold and didn't put it towards a property?

scenario 4

Buy an older fixer upper. House payment would be less as we would use equity to put towards home. Our payment would be less so we could pay off loans faster. We would be gaining equity and then use that home as a rental once we decide to move on in 2 years.

I'm sure there are other options and items that we are overlooking. All comments are appreciated.

@Bradley Humphreys Designing with shipping containers is always fun but is not always as easy as it first appears. I've worked on a few projects where shipping containers were the starting point or were integrated into the design in some way. There are challenges that you will want to be aware of.

First insulation. Where are you going to put it? On the outside you loose the container feel, on the inside you lose sq.ft. There is a spray on ceramic coating that can be used on the outside. It's expensive but works well.

I would go with a 9' x 9' container to give you more room for insulation and systems. They are not as common as the 8'x8' but may serve you better.

Second, You will need to think about how and where your electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems are being ran. Where you won't have floor structure, like in a typical home, to run these systems they will need to be integrated some how.

Containers were designed to stack and connect through their corners. If you design something that is overhanging or not sitting corner to corner it distributes loads differently and can cause issues.

Containers were also not designed with holes in the sides. Any area where an opening is added you will need welded supports to make up for it.

I would highly recommend working with a structural engineer. They are pretty easy to work with and paying a bit up front will be worth it to get it engineered, detailed, and sized appropriately. Don't take a chance with sizing things yourself.

Hope that helps.

As an architect I use Sketchup for preliminary designs, presentation images, (Flythru's, client mtgs, etc.) 3D warehouse is a very useful tool to download components directly into SketchUp.
 

For a working set of drawings i use Revit. It's also a 3D platform. As mentioned above, It is more expensive and is most likely more involved than what you are looking for.  If you're looking for 2D. There's always AutoCAD. It's the standard for 2D work.

Every software package will take you time to learn in order to feel comfortable with it. Good luck

@Justin Hammond,

I just sent you a request. Thanks for reaching out.

@Jarod Hall Thanks for the offer. I would be interested in chatting more. I'll send you an message and let's get together.

@Jason Hsiao Thank you. I'll send you a request. I appreciate your offer!

@Drew Whitehead I graduated from the University of Utah in 2010. I've worked for a few firms in town but have been on my own for a number of years now.