All Forum Posts by: Nick Coonis

Status Update:

Sorry BP, but I've been epic failing on updating this diary. It's been so crazy but I'm glad to say the house is done (yeah right) and we've moved in! Here are some follow up pics. There were a few obstacles that we had to overcome, but in the end it was nothing to devastating and we got it done. We officially moved in on August 1st and got the kids in school, soccer, etc. Since then we've been focusing 100% of our time on landscaping. We had a house, but that's all, so we've been going after it for almost two months now. By the way, if you ever budget a home and then throw in some money for landscaping as an after thought, DON'T! It very expensive. I threw in a couple thousand into our budget which we got for the home loan, but we've had to pull probably almost double that out of our pockets, and do all the work ourselves. 

Here's another shot of the two halves ready to be rolled together.

All together now, ready to be closed up. We couldn't wait to get inside at this point.

What a mess! Now the close up process begins. The contractors ran all the ducts under the house, connected the utility lines, finished the siding, painted the exterior and patched the drywall that cracked and painted the interior as well. This took another 2 months.

During this time, I started making my flooring. For some reason I had the bright Idea of making my own flooring. I wanted a wide plank, barn siding looking floor, and couldn't find one that I liked or could afford. So I bought some 3/4" tongue and groove plain white pine, distressed it with nails and hammers and chains and saw, my kids loved this part. Then I stained it grey, which looked blue, so I went over it again with a dark brown stain and it came out pretty cool.

@Rick Jones

Thanks Rick! No it doesn't have to do with the distance, the neighbors on my street, well 9 of the neighbors, all chipped in and paid for a water pipe to be ran down the street. I think their wells were drying up. Since it's a private road, and those 9 neighbors paid for the pipe, they "owe" the pipe, divided into 9 shares. For me to hook up to the pipe, I had to buy in with them, as the 10th owner. That's what the $26,000 was. The rest of the water fees are just the standard fees around here. The waterworks fee was for a 3/4" meter, had I needed a 1" meter (which I had to prove in writing and drawings that I didn't) the fee would have been double!

The fee for the hot tap into the main was just connecting to the main, running the pipe about 10' to the edge of my property and installing the meter. It's funny, I called about 7 or 8 companies to get a quote for that, and every quote was completely different, ranging from $8,000+ to $2800 and everything in between. I know cheaper isn't always better, but I went with the cheapest bid because a county inspector had to stand over him all day and make sure he did it correctly anyway, so I figured he couldn't really screw it up. Which he didn't, he did a great job.

Status Update: 

House has been delivered! They have been closing it up all weekend, we are going back out this afternoon to finally walk through the home, in it's entirety. Can't wait!

@Karen Margrave @Manolo D. @Matt C. @Andrew Fielder

Sorry!! I've been super busy with everything, and I'm way overdue for an update. By the way, the house is getting delivered tomorrow! Ok, here it is. 

Status Update:

Foundation is complete and ready for the house! We decided to change it up the last minute and forgo the vented crawl space idea, and go with a completely sealed and insulated craw space with an exhaust fan installed. I've read to many bad things about crawl space vents actually promoting mold and moisture, not to mention rodents, etc.

We also went and saw the house at the factory while it was being built! Crazy how quick they get it done. We loved it, very exciting to finally see it for reals.

Kitchen counter with corian. Sink is kinda basic, but we can deal with that later.

Front dormer over the entry door. The color came out nice, kind of a mossy green/grey with a tan trim.

Side of the house. All that siding gets finished onsite, after the home is closed up and sealed. So you won't see the center seam. Same with the roof ridge cap.

Status Update:

Foundation stem wall is in! They are going to start filling the walls with concrete

today. Just confirmed with the home builder that the home will be ready to deliver April 12th! Can't believe it's coming so soon. 

@Matt C. @Karen Margrave @Andrew Fielder @Steve Haight @Manolo D.

Here's the link.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/522/topics/28...

@Henry W. My foundation is almost done! We're very excited! Check out my diary I created on BP.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/522/topics/284495-new-construction-sfr---los-angeles-county

@Henry W. No. The engineer doesn't care about the perc rate, unless he's designing your septic system. The engineer needs to know your soil classification, hardiness and load calcs and all that so he can design your footing sizes, depth, and your foundation. I paid $3500 for the soils test report, perc test, and septic design.

@Coriene Barnett I'd love to. PM me your email address and I'll send you a Dropbox link. I had mine stamped by a structural engineer. I used Antelope Valley Engineering. Basically, I hired Joe to look through my plans, he drew up a packet of structural notes and drawings, I had to draw his notes and drawings onto my plans and submit them back to him for his approval. Once he liked them, he stamped them.  When the building department sees the structural engineer stamp they ask less questions.

As for how I drew my plans, I basically researched LA County building code intensively, looked at other peoples plans I found online for formatting and plotting, and came up with a professional looking set. Once you submit to the county, they will give them back to you with "red marks" and a list of corrections, and you then start working your way through that. I had 3 resubmitals I believe before they stamped them. Here's a list of other agencies/plans you'll need to draw:

1. Building Department - full set of plans including floor plan, elevations, foundation, etc. as well as structurals, spec sheet, soils engineering, truss design and calcs.

2. Planning Department - site plan

3. Health Department - septic plan (my soils engineer drew mine as part of his soils report, I used Bruin GSI out of Palmdale).

4. Fire Department - site plan, elevations, floor plan 

5. Forestry Department - Fuel Modification Plan, Irrigation Plan, Landscaping Plan

6. Drainage Department - Grading and Drainage Plan (might not need grading plan, if you move less than 1 cubit foot of dirt I believe. I didn't need it. Just drainage)

7. Fire Sprinkler Division - fire sprinkler plan

I think that's it, it can get very overwhelming! The rest of the agencies like school, library, etc you just pay a fee. No plan submital.

@Andrew Fielder yes that includes everything except the loan costs. We actually tried to build a site built home originally, I even drew all the plans myself and got them passed and approved by the Building and Planning departments, but it ended up being MUCH too expensive for us to build. Our problem was/is site costs. To tap into the water pipe alone was $26,000, plus $10,000 in fees to the water works district, plus $3000 to hot tap into the water main and install the meter. So almost $40k just for water. Edison was another $7500 in fees, which also didn't include any actual work, plus another $4000 to trench the under ground power and run the conduit.

All those costs would have stayed the same with a site built, but the house would have been more expensive. We only paid $155,000 for the actual home which includes everything from lighting fixtures to appliances to window blinds. Plus, they have the home ready to deliver in 5 weeks, can't beat that right?