[Greenbuilding] Smart house designs

[Bobbi Chukran]

Hi again, Ian (future neighbor)!

Before we bought our new fixer-upper, we were going to build a 
smaller house out here next door.  I spent hours and hours (weeks, 
even) online looking for affordable, simple, logical house plans, and 
found very few.  I studied modular designs, build-it-on-your-own lot 
designs, even Katrina cottage and Habitat for Humanity designs.  Most 
of them relied on lots and lots of insulation and a honkin' big air 
conditioner for our climate.

I did run across several resources that might help you.

This book has some cost-cutting ideas, but from what I remember, all 
the houses were two-story, and we were looking for a one story plan:

http://www.buildingaffordable.com/

I see now that they have plans to go with it, so you might check 
those out.  Supposedly, these can be built for $45-55 a square foot. 
When we talked to a builder/neighbor about that, he snorted and said 
"More like $150 a square foot."  So who knows?

Also check out the other links on that site.

There is another book, Green by Design, that has some inspirational 
photos in it.  I believe the Cedar Park Library has it.

As I mentioned to you before, the septic systems and foundation work 
in our area really add to the cost of a house.  One quote we got for 
a septic was around $22,000, and that was an ugly mound system (based 
on a 1,500 square foot house) where they would have to truck in 200 
loads of soil to build it.  The issue is that the county forces you 
to over-build a system based on the number of persons that could 
possibly live in your house.  You can legally use things like 
composting toilets, but they don't take that into effect with the 
septics.

Having said that, we do have a neighbor who put in his own system at 
a reduced cost, but a lot of labor on his part.   Most of the systems 
now are aerobic, and those are high-maintenance.  don't let the 
septic thing scare you away, but just know it's a hassle to work 
around.

I also drew up lots of our own plans, but was never satisfied with 
them.  We were trying to avoid a foundation that was five feet high, 
too.

Good luck.......

bobbi c.
In Leander




>In my spare time I have been pretending to be an architect (just
>call me Art Vandelay), trying to come up with an intelligent
>house design.