The Feasibility and Design Phases

The next step in the journey to fulfill my dream was the Feasibility Study.  This entailed a visit by the architect to Half Moon Bay where he met with the HMB Planning Department to get a handle on all the local building requirements and to see the building site first hand, after which he provided me with a report with all the information he obtained, as well as the projected costs and time frame.  Most noteworthy was that he said "It is the easiest site we have ever had to deal with!!"  And we could “leapfrog” over the second part of the Feasibility Study. 

The projected time frame for a completed house was 10-16 months.  That was September 2015.  Unfortunately, things are taking longer than expected.  It is now December 2016 and we have yet to get a building permit or break ground.  In hindsight the biggest mistake I have made so far was not starting the process sooner.  After I bought the house and lot, I was in no hurry to get the new house built.  Since I plan to sell the old house when the new one is built, I wanted to stay in it for 2 years for the tax benefits.  And because I thought a prefab house could go up in a year or less, I didn’t see a need to start the process immediately.  I spent the first year doing some research, but mainly fixing up the old house. 

What we did accomplished in the last year was the Design Phase.  This began by tweaking the house plans and deciding where to place the house and garage on the lot.   Peter and I met to discuss my wishes and to look at an assortment of possible site plans he had created.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I can have pretty strong opinions on some things—and how I imagined the house would sit on the lot was no exception.  Having lived next to the lot for a year I had given considerable thought to it and had played with numerous layouts on Sketchup.  So, not surprisingly, none of Peter’s renderings were anything like what I envisioned.  As in the Half Moon Bay Design Guidelines, he wanted to put the house in the front of the lot and the garage in the rear.  While this does look more attractive from the street, in my opinion, it has some serious drawbacks, the main one being the long driveway.  But I had other concerns as well.  On the existing house the kitchen is in the front behind the garage.  It faces east and gets the lovely morning sun (when we have any).  If the new house was in the front of the lot, it would block the sun and the view out the kitchen window.  Even though I plan to sell the existing house, I didn’t want the new owners to have to look at a big wall.  My solution was to put the house in the rear of the lot and the garage in the front, which would make for a nice courtyard in between.  Also, all the big windows on the new house will face south, toward the street.  If the house was in the front, there wouldn’t be much privacy.  My way, the windows will face the private courtyard.  

The other challenge was how to add an accessory dwelling.  Half Moon Bay recently changed the zoning rules to encourage homeowners to add additional living units to help with the housing shortage.  It is also a way for seniors to downsize by moving into the smaller unit and renting the main house.  Logical Homes has several small house designs made from single containers.  Using Sketchup, I tried placing one of these on the lot along with the house and garage.  I had trouble finding an arrangement I liked, given the narrow lot and the setbacks.  The only other option was to put it on top of the garage.  We tried a number of different designs ending up with a 320 square foot studio apartment above the garage made from two 20’ containers placed side by side.

I made a few other changes, as well.  For one I was worried that 2 bedrooms was not enough.  While it would work fine for me, I won't always be the one living in the house.  I decided to add another 20' shipping container to the side of the house which will contain a third bedroom and bath.  It could be used for an office or a bedroom for someone unable to go up the stairs.  The roof of the container now becomes a deck off the master bedroom.  I also made some changes to the kitchen layout.

During this design phase, I made numerous visits to the HMB Planning Department.  They were extremely helpful and encouraging from the beginning.  Having never done this before, I had lots of questions and they walked me through everything.  By the time we were ready to submit the design review application on May 16^th, 2016, it went right through.  The public hearing, a normal part of the process, was then scheduled for August 17^th.  A notice is mailed to the neighbors and published in the paper so any interested parties can voice their opinions of the project.  Peter was more worried than I was about the hearing.  He has experienced a mix of reactions to his container projects due to this unconventional building technique.  In order to be fully prepared for any negative comments, he had his assistant, Andrew, build a model of the new house and they brought it to the meeting.  Not only did Andrew make an amazing model of the new house, he also did a less detailed model of  the existing house which made it easy to see how they would look together.

As I expected, the meeting couldn't have gone any better.  Only 2 interested parties showed up and they were friends and neighbors expressing their support.  The Planning Department officials were also totally supportive.  They commended my efforts to build a sustainable house and were open to the innovative and modern design.  Needless to say, Peter was surprised and amazed.  After the 10 day comment period expired, the design was approved and we were ready to move on to the next step--finalizing the plans for the building permit!!

Getting started

I’ve begun my dream to build a house, a very “green” house.  Because of the interest I’ve encountered in my project, I’ve decided to try to document the process with a blog.  For those of you who like to read the ending of a book first, here is a hint at what my house will look like.   It will be built from 7 shipping containers.  In the front is the garage with a studio apartment above.  In the rear is the main house.

Street view

Aerial view

So now let’s go back to the beginning to see how the dream began.  BTW, it is not only a daydream.  I have dreams at night about houses—ones with secret rooms, large gardens and ocean views—and sometimes nightmares about houses in terrible states of disrepair.

My desire to build a house goes all the way back to my childhood.    I guess you can say it is in my blood.  I was born near the end of WW II.  After my father got out of the army, he knew he did not want to go back to doing office work so he went to work as a carpenter for a friend he met in the army.   It wasn’t long after that that he purchased a building lot and a kit house from Sears.   Several nights a week, after he got off work, he would work on building our house, then sleep on a cot in the yard before going back to work the next day.   We (my mother, father, baby sister and I)  lived in that cute little house for several years.  Then my parents bought another lot and built a bigger house, this one from scratch.  I can even remember my mother helping to nail down the subfloor.  Sometime after we settled into that house, my brother was born and my father got his contractor’s license.  After that, he built us one more house, but mostly built homes for other people.  The last house he built was his dream house in the mountains where my parents retired. 

So I grew up with the assumption that everyone built their own house.  Well, not necessarily pounded the nails, but at least helped to design a house and contract with someone to build it.  It was something I just expected I would do some day.  Then one day, when I was about 65, I thought to myself, “I have never built a house.  Time to get to it!!”

The first step was to find a building lot.  I have always been interested in real estate.  I used to drag my husband all over the state looking at properties.  Actually, I didn’t have to drag him because he was happy for any excuse to travel and explore new places.  Unfortunately, he had no interest in actually purchasing a property or building a house.  He said we were too old to do that.  So we eventually parted company.

No sooner was the divorce final when a house came on the market that had an adjoining, buildable, vacant lot, in a great neighborhood in Half Moon Bay, blocks from the beach and town and close to my grandkids.  It was just what I wanted!

Once the purchase was finalized, I started thinking about what kind of house I wanted to build.  As an avid environmentalist (something else I inherited from my parents), it had to be “green”.  It is sad to have to say that, because I think all houses should be “green.“ There is no reason why any new house these days should be built without taking sustainability, energy efficiency and other green principles into consideration.  Fortunately building codes are moving in that direction.

I didn’t want to start from scratch and design it from the ground up….maybe another time.  For this house I wanted to experience the process and make it as simple as possible—kind of like our first kit house from Sears.  When I started looking at house designs, I immediately thought of prefab houses.  They are supposed to have reduced construction time and cost, have less construction material waste, and can actually be better built that houses built on site, after all they have to be able to be hauled many miles on the back of a truck without coming apart.

The next step was to find a company that made green prefabs.  I started searching online.   There are actually quite a few companies claiming to do this.  I eliminated the ones that were not on the west coast, trying to find something as close as possible.  Then I looked at their plans to find ones I liked and would work on my lot.  My lot is what is known as an infill lot, a vacant lot surrounded my existing structures.  It is 45’ wide and 150’ deep, pretty standard for my neighborhood.  I went to the city and talked with the planners about the building restrictions.  The setbacks are 5’ on the sides so the house could be a maximum of 35’ wide.  The front and rear setbacks were less of a concern because the lot is quite deep. I really wanted a 2 story house, thinking that it is more efficient to build (less roof, etc) and would leave more land for a nice yard and garden.  Unfortunately, in addition to setbacks and height restrictions, there is something called the “building envelope” to account for the “daylight plane.”  It is basically to keep you from building too high near the property line and shading your neighbor’s property.

I looked at numerous websites and numerous plans and kept coming back to the Kara1512 design at Logicalhomes.com.  I loved all the windows and that they would be facing south since my lot is on the north side of the street.  The house has a wonderful open floor plan with living, dining and kitchen downstairs and bedrooms upstairs, which I was looking for.  I find myself drawn to modern designs for their simplicity.  And did I happen to mention that it is built from shipping containers?  One of the greenest principles is to reuse materials.  Shipping containers are piling up in storage yards because of our trade deficit (more containers are coming into our country than going out) so people are starting to think of other ways to use them. This house is made from 4 shipping containers.  

  

Of course, nothing is ever perfect.  My main concern with this design was would it fit inside my building envelope?   To find out I had to talk with the architect, Peter DeMaria, because the height of the building was not specified on the website plans.  He was charming and very helpful.  The house as seen here, would not fit, but by lowering the house and removing the overhangs, he determined that he could make it work.  So I was hooked--on Peter and on the design, concept and building material.