Ken Tighe has sent the following question in the ask experts series. My wife will be 65 on April 5, 2017 and I was 65 on 2/4/2015. We currently own our home but want to build a new home on a lot we own that will better accommodate us in our advanced age. We have the cash to build the new home but can a reverse mortgage be used to pay off the construction loan…
Buying new construction is a bit different from buying a previously-owned home. For one, because there is no previous homeowner, you don t have to deal with a seller s emotional tie to the property, which typically influences the negotiating process. Whether you re designing and building a custom home or buying a home that s built on spec in a new subdivision…
9:40 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Chuck Goodrich. Thank you for putting on a tie. (Laughter.) Thanks for that wonderful introduction and for your friendship of so many years. And I m just so proud of Chuck Goodrich and his leadership role in this great organization. From one Hoosier to another, thank you for your leadership, my friend. And thank you for…
Students rally for fairer funding of charter schools during National School Choice Week in Texas. JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN The General Assembly approved House Bill 430 last night, which assists charter schools in finding and funding facilities and buildings. According to the AJC: Legislation to ease access to buildings and money for charter schools was…
Gerry and Karol French of Madison are building a new home using wood from their own land. They own 20 acres of land near Wautoma, half is a mix of red and white pine - 45 years old. The log home will be built on a hillside site South of Cross Plains, WI. Alex Greene - Red Beard Lumber is doing the logging and woodworking with his WoodMizer sawmill. The logs were…
While there s a fair bit of information out there regarding traditional home loans and mortgage options, it s not as easy to find information about new construction loans. Construction loans are a different beast from their traditional mortgage counterparts. With a traditional home loan, the existing home is the bank s collateral; you skip out on the loan, and…
MILWAUKEE - Police are investigating after a car slammed into a building on the city s north side early Thursday morning, May 25th. It was a rude awakening for one man, who stepped out of his bedroom to find the vehicle in his living room! It happened around 5:00 a.m. near and Capitol Drive and Green Bay Avenue. According to police, the vehicle was headed westbound…
Each piece of cut sod is two feet long, one foot wide and four inches thick. The door and window frames are open boxes the depth of the walls and were set in place so the walls could be built up around the frames. The door and glass windows will be put in place in the spring. Beaver-downed trees were retrieved from the woods and used to support the roof made…
Residential construction costs are not that complicated unless you really want to make them that way. There are some general broad stroke pieces of information that if you know them, you will not be surprised when it comes time to planning your budget. I get asked these questions all the time, it makes me wonder if doctors get asked to look down people’s throats…
Red House is an award-winning custom design-build remodeling and construction firm specializing in custom-built home additions and full-house renovations. Our services include residential design, new construction, historic restoration, and kitchen, bathroom, and master suite remodels. We also provide design, construction, and installation of custom cabinets and…
“Can you see me now?” I yell, through the floor. I’m pantomiming a sexy grandma taking a shower, in front of the tub. The overhead lighting isn’t doing me any favours. Why do people keep putting fluorescent lights in bathrooms? “Oh hey! There you are! My husband Scott waves from the bottom of a built-in step stool, positioned in front of the bathroom sink. When…
A real estate developer wanted to increase affordable housing in Denver, trying to make fiscal sense out of a plan to build rental apartments for people making only 30 percent of the area s median income—the kind of housing America desperately needs. He discovered that, no matter what lever he moved or compromise he made, he was going to need some money from…
Sketch the Framing Eric Brownstone/E+/Getty Images Start by doing a sketch of the building to be framed including the roof. It is important to identify the location of doors and windows and any other vent opening. Having the right dimensions or working with standard measurements will provide additional savings at a later stage, as waste material will be minimized…
Not everyone wants to live in a planned development, so if you are one of those homebuyers, our Build on Your Land building program was designed with you in mind. We are often approached about building one of our homes on a customer s own lot or by those who want to build a home with their own plans. Others do not own land yet and would appreciate help in locating…
Life consists of the choices we make and is built by the things we do, every single day. But how do you know if the life you’re building is secure? How do you know that your world isn’t just going to fall to pieces when the going gets rough? “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the…
Before building an accessory dwelling unit on your property, consider these legal, design and financial implications. Those tiny, often very cute homes that people are adding on their properties seem to be popping up everywhere these days. The tiny buildings can provide extra rental income, offer a less-expensive housing option or provide a home for a relative…
1. Don’t Chuck Plots Away Year after year there are potential self builders who drive past plots they have rejected and see that somebody else has taken up the opportunity. There are very few perfect self build plots out there. All of them have some drawback or other. Learn to look past what’s in front of your eyes and think about what the plot can be and what…
If I were building my own house, my requirements would probably be simple: I want hallways about 50% bigger than you would think you would need and doorways a couple inches wider. One look at my current walls would tell you I’m a really bad driver of my own wheelchair. That and automatic doors would be nice. I do look at Pinterest, though, and I’m sure many of…
In an effort to conserve space and energy for the homeowner, we choose a tankless water heater (sometimes called an on-demand water heater, an inline water heater or an instant water heater ). What is a Tankless Water Heater? A tankless water heater operates by heating water as it passes through, on it s way to the shower, faucet, laundry or other point of…
I picked a neighborhood at random – eeny-meeny-miney-moe – and rented the first listing on Craigslist. I struck gold. I moved two blocks from Atlanta’s most beautiful park, a rolling greenscape with spectacular skyline views. It hosts huge outdoor concerts, festivals and farmer’s markets, and it’s less than a 5 minute walk from our front door. I immediately thought:…
I am a sophomore at Western Washington University. When I enrolled at WWU, I was undecided on what major I would like to pursue. During my Freshman year I took mostly math and physics classes because I those are my strongest subjects and I was fairly confident that I would end up deciding to pursue a major relating to one of those two fields. Recently I have…
All gardens have paths, planned or otherwise. A well-designed one keeps your feet dry and provides safe, easy access to your house. A great one does more. Whether it directs you and your guests under an archway of jasmine or around a bend to a reflecting pool, a path that works makes the garden more inviting. A successful path also shapes and defines garden areas…
Make a plan. How big? How many rooms? What services do you want? Where are the windows and doors going to go? Draw up the floor plan. On your diagram, you should roughly sketch the room layouts and locate the drain lines precisely (for concrete slab) where the shower, bathtub and toilet drain connections will be (wood floors with a crawl space allows easier changes…
Of course, it helps that Piers is an architect by training, a former design fellow of Cambridge university and currently co-presenter of the BBC series, The House that £100k built, but many of the jobs were as new to him as to any budding self-builder. “My steep learning curve is reflected in this building, ” he says, “and the flaws in it are the things which…
