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Small Cabin First...Bigger House Later
#21
Rob, do you have a website, or is there a website that I can refer to to check out castle block in general? I finally got my sister to agree to winter here with me. But if she stays with me, we'll kill each other. She bought a lot a few lots down and wants concrete but not cmu's like mine. And the Kukui sounds big enough for her, but small enough to keep her kids and grandkids from hanging out too long...argh!
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#22
Stick-in-the-mud, Dan, you got me thinking....why build a 400sf, (which is pretty tight and no room for a guest), cabin with plans to build a bigger one in the future...when we could just build one 800sf and be done. 800sf is all we need. And in the realm of costs, not that much more than 400sf in a simple, conventional stick built kind of building. Then there would be no worries of having to remove the kitchen from the first or the other loops necessary to go through to be legal. I think we really may go back to planning the 800sf and be done. So thanks for being the ol stick in the mud guy!

Rob, good points on planning for any future building, thats for sure!
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#23
My website is: www.castleblock.com

The pricing on the house packages is from 2006 and is currently subject to a 20% fuel surcharge.

Mahalo
Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator
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#24
quote:
Originally posted by Nancy Fryhover......why build a 400sf, (which is pretty tight and no room for a guest), cabin with plans to build a bigger one in the future...when we could just build one 800sf and be done. 800sf is all we need. And in the realm of costs, not that much more than 400sf...


You are exactly right. The costs do not increase at the same rate for an increase of SF. A 400 SF vs 800 SF goes (simplistically) like this: you take a 20 x 20 = 400 SF, and make it 40 x 20 for 800 SF. You are only adding 40 lf of exterior walls, although adding 400 SF of roof and floor. So the cost per SF drops in theory.

And if you can try to stay within the 8,10,12,16,20,24 board lengths - you waste less. So a gable roof with a 4/12 pitch that is 20 ft is uses 10 ft + pitch + overhang per side... its good if that isnt 14 1/2 ft!

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#25
Nancy is this what you are talking about?

http://www.hpmhawaii.com/images/content_...Kamole.pdf

Start off building the Ohana unit first... But include that in your over all plan. Seems like it's something that you are trying to accomplish and would be easy to cheaply make that first and just add the rest later.
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#26
That is a very interesting plan, Eric. It would be a lot more sq footage than we plan to end up with. I am really thinking now of just doing about 800sf to start.
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#27
We looked at a house similar to the one eric shared. We thought it's be great if we had a teenage or mother-in-law we wanted to isolate from the rest of the civilized household, but for just us, we wondered how much of a pain it would seem to cross the carport (dodging cars and creepy crawlies) every time we wanted a midnight snack. In the end, it seemed too disjointed for us.

I think you're better off building your full-sized house in one swoop, rather than building a "make do" and adding on. Why go through all the hassle of construction twice (not to mention the additional expense). Will you really be happy after you finish the small first phase? To me it seems like how I feel when I replace an oven or put in a new hot water heater - I've spent a whole lot of money and made a lot of mess, but what do I have to show for it?

Another consideration...if you go small and your circumstances change before Phase II is done, how easily will it be to sell the lot with sub-normal housing? If it were me and I had the resources to do it all and be done with it, that's what I would do.
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#28
Try a 28x32 footprint. 28' has always been a magic number for me in the process of designing modest homes for my clients.

Couldn't resist, Dan
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#29
Well thats close, Dan, to what would seem to work for us...a 24x36
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#30
We did a Castleblock shell package for a house about that size for about $36k early this year. No wood products involved. Insulated in the walls and roof at R-20.
Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator
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