The “007 house” by Rob Paulus Architect is a bit large at 1,600 square feet to be a perfect model for the 100k house but it really captures the simplicity of layout and materials used that will need to be incorporated into the 100k house. The key is that it simplifies without sacrificing quality of design which is the common theme with all of the homes we will be posting that have been inspiration for the 100k house.
I found this house on one of my favorite blogs - materialicious. There is never a shortage of cool architecture or materials at this blog. It’s worth a peruse if you haven’t visited before. Here is the original post where I first ran across the 007 house. I also skimmed through the comments on the post again and found a reference to another great house that is 1,200 square feet and built for $120K. That’s hitting our $100/ sq ft target and very close to the overall goal of $100K. The house is the “Burnette House” and can be found at Wendell Burnette Architects.
6 comments ↓
Don’t forget that the Burnette house number does not include sweat equity.
Sweat is a great way to bring first cost down - it brings to mind practices in Sweden where houses often come unpainted so the new home owners can invest that labor themselves - painting is an easy task that almost anybody can put into their house. In Sweden they also have other practices where by bathroom fixtures are less often built in, and treated more like appliances that the home owner can bring and install easily. That kind of mechanism is harder to establish here as it does not jive with our codes, but it extends the scope of what an owner can easily achieve without becoming their own contractor.
Good point. I have considered making fixtures out of common plumbing that may be able to pass code and save costs while enabling the client to easily change out for their own fixtures once in the house.
Not painting is an interesting idea that we’ll have to weight against its impact on saleability. We could always try to start a trend. I can just imagine walking into a drywalled home with all of the spackle from the joints and screws exposed! Our realtor would kill us…
I am also personally thinking of donating some of my own sweat equity for things like painting and installing organizational features in the bath, laundry and kitchen areas to make the home very livable from day one without a dozen trips to ikea… This is something we could separate in the budget numbers to illustrate how people can save money in a similar project.
Its hard to adopt these things, and your realtor may balk, but remember - your target audience for a compact green home may understand these things perfectly.
You make a good point. The whole idea of the design is that many people would prefer a stripped down house that focuses on the quality of design and the vital bones of the house. They would gladly forgo the expensive “upgrades” in finishes that are forced on them by most developers. Your ideas take this theory to the extreme which I like.
In a slow market where houses are being staged with designer furniture and custom multi-color paint jobs are thrown in for free it would really be something else to sell a house without any paint whatsoever.
I’ll give it some hard thought. FYI - My realtor is also my wife which makes these types of discussions all the more interesting.
Maybe you could consider community involvement in the building/finishing process. Sort of a habitat for humanity type program. This could certianly reduce costs and would attract those who would like this sort of positive change in their community. The East Kensington community is a great location for innovative and responsible green buildings. Our access to public transportation is a perfect complement to green housing. I have long thought that the area could be transformed into a model for this type of development. Cheers to you and I look forward to your project.
Re: not painting
the house in the suburbs that my parents bought in 1976 was a cookie-cutter option house, but the upstairs (except for the bathrooms) came as just primer over dry wall. It’s not a new or foreign concept.
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