building in phases

[12-23-2012]

Has anyone done any breakdowns of the how to build in affordable phases, and what exactly the phases should be.
loans are out of the question

[Ula Oh]

I have thought about this my self.
I'm not an expert, so if an expert does reply, take the expert's word over mine.

Having said that I suppose it is all about what you and your family wants and needs, and I suppose your climate. Every one needs a toilet, a clothing storage and changing area, a bathing area, a place to sleep, and a place to prepair meals and consume them. If you live in a warm area you can put most of these things out side until that part of the house is completed. You can also buy a used (notice I said USED) trailer, live in it durring the construction and sell it when you are through. I've heard of people making a profit on the trailer, but I wouldn't count on it. Another option that many people who do this is to build the garage first, put in a 3/4 bath and a kitchenette and live there durring consruction.

The final design must be taken into account, if you're building only one shell you can put in the rough pluming and electrical, pour the foundation (or just the ring), construct the shell (with window and door auguments, in-shell electrical work) put in the windows and doors, and finish out the interior as funds alow.

If your building multiple domes then you can do each dome one at a time, or build the foundations one at a time, the shells one at a time, and do the finish work one dome at a time.

Things like permit stipulations and hiring contracters (if any) should be taken in to accout. Some permits specify the amount of time that you have to work on a project. If you're hiring a contracter for the construction of the shell you might want to do only one shell, or get all the shells of your multi dome home completed at one time.

I would say that building a little at a time should be more well planned than normal building because it takes so very long and I know from experience that living in a construciton zone isn't fun, especialy when tools and materials are not put out of the way for normal living.

When I finaly decide how we will do it I'll let you know.

[Cloud Hidden]

What the Rothscholdts (sp?) did in VA makes the most sense to me. Use a design that allows the addition of shells as funds become available. That's better than building a big shell and living in a constant state of non-completion (to say nothing of most municipalities frowning on incomplete structures). Build a central shell that houses all essential functions, and then expand on that over time with more bedrooms, a family room, additional bathrooms, etc. And who knows, you might find out you can get by just fine smaller and don't need to expand.

[Rosholdt]

We successfully attached an additional two domes onto our first. We planned ahead for an addition dome to be attached where our original front doorway was. The additional dome was just inflated against the first's doorway and all spraying was done around it. We cut the airform out to reveal a new/old doored passage to another. There was a large void between the two on the roof. We had three pound foam sprayed into the void to fill up to a point where I trimed into a presentable staddle shape. The foamed exterior staddle was coated with elastomeric paint layers. We encountered no problems or leaks when completed. Our MDI story is at: http://static.monolithic.com/gallery/ho ... index.html

[BWARDEN]

One thing that you should consider in staged building is the multiple mobilization costs of the shell builder which are not small. You also have to get on the builder's schedule each time, which most likely won't coincide with your schedule due to his long stays at each project. Builder Ray Ansel has schedules out to a year or two, with occasional gaps here and there. There are some material price discounts and lower delivery fees for buying larger volumes at one time. Material and labor pricing will also increase over time. If you can tolerate all that, the time value of money spread over the staged time frame may compensate for some of those additional costs. Or, the various cost increases over the staging time may out strip the cost of borrowing interest to get it all done at once. Just realize that there is a price to be paid for not doing all of the shell at one time.

[Zelma]

Like Cloud Hidden mentioned, depends on location.
As BWarden pointed out, time is money; materials and labor go up in price.

If you are building in city limits, I doubt they will allow you to live in a structure that hasn't passed the CO inspection (certification of occupancy). Our city's CO requires that everything on the blueprints be complete in order to pass. We can mark a section unfinished space, if we want to finish it later. We are allowed to live in a trailer on site for up to 6 months while building. Technically, we have to pay for another permit with engineered plans just to finish a closet. Talk to the city where you are thinking of building.

If you are building where no one cares if your house is a hazard, and if you get yourself killed, and you earn yourself a Darwin award, then it may work out. If permits are only $100.00 or so, and you are doing the building yourself, then time and labor is not as important.

As I mentioned in another post, we have been buying fixer uppers, fixing them up, and living in them a few years, and reselling them to save enough money to build the shell. Then we are hoping to get a refinance, equity loan, or something in order to finish the interior. It's important to live in it at least two years so you can claim it as a primary property and avoid the 15% capital gains tax.
We are almost there, just one more fixer upper to go.

[Ula Oh]

As I mentioned in another post, we have been buying fixer uppers, fixing them up, and living in them a few years, and reselling them to save enough money to build the shell. Then we are hoping to get a refinance, equity loan, or something in order to finish the interior. It's important to live in it at least two years so you can claim it as a primary property and avoid the 15% capital gains tax.
We are almost there, just one more fixer upper to go.

Congratulations!

I'm sure all your hard work and perseverance will pay off!!!

[kingroly]

Like Cloud Hidden mentioned, depends on location.
As BWarden pointed out, time is money; materials and labor go up in price.

If you are building in city limits, I doubt they will allow you to live in a structure that hasn't passed the CO inspection (certification of occupancy). Our city's CO requires that everything on the blueprints be complete in order to pass. We can mark a section unfinished space, if we want to finish it later. We are allowed to live in a trailer on site for up to 6 months while building. Technically, we have to pay for another permit with engineered plans just to finish a closet. Talk to the city where you are thinking of building.

If you are building where no one cares if your house is a hazard, and if you get yourself killed, and you earn yourself a Darwin award, then it may work out. If permits are only $100.00 or so, and you are doing the building yourself, then time and labor is not as important.

As I mentioned in another post, we have been buying fixer uppers, fixing them up, and living in them a few years, and reselling them to save enough money to build the shell. Then we are hoping to get a refinance, equity loan, or something in order to finish the interior. It's important to live in it at least two years so you can claim it as a primary property and avoid the 15% capital gains tax.
We are almost there, just one more fixer upper to go.

this a pretty good opportunity, just think for the sake of job, keep up hard working you can do it..


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tax problems