Building Your Home? Learn from my Experience
By Walter Rodriguez, B.S.C.E., M. Arch. Ph.D., P.E.
“To build a house. It is one of those nearly universal dreams, like falling in love. And like falling in love it is fraught with complication.” (Tracy Kidder)
For several years, I dreamed of designing and building a lovely, small but spacious house (or "Casita") near the beach in Naples, Florida, as a "relaxing, thinking, reading, and writing open space." That is a flexible living space, off-the-gate (not yet off-the-grid) near the beach for weekend retreats or intense writing days.
But first, I needed to find the correct lot and, most importantly, build a design-construction team!
With a limited budget, I set out on the almost impossible task of finding the ideal lot near Naples beaches. As expected, virtually every available lot near a Naples beach was selling for a budget-busting amount. Nevertheless, after a constant search, I settled for a small, narrow, and complex lot along the periphery of Naples Park subdivision near Delnor-Wigging Pass—one of the most pristine stretches of beach in the world.
Since it was a challenging site (lot) on a busy route to the beach, I purchased the lot for just under one-third to one-half of the price of similar lots in Naples. In addition, the lot was located in a flood zone and slightly topographically depressed in the middle (i.e., "sporadically flooded.”) I half-jokingly said: "I am buying a small pond by the beach. With a place to park my car." I had to employ a soil testing company to ensure it wasn't a sinkhole! Auspiciously, the Subsurface Soil Exploration Analysis indicated that it was adequate to allow the use of a shallow footing foundation system with slab-on-grade for supporting residence, as typical in the area.
To further complicate construction, the lot faced a busy East-West seasonal-traffic route for thousands of beachgoers and boaters. And the site fronted a churchyard with a view of non-descriptive buildings. Further, building on the entire site (rather than in the back third portion) would have required stopping or rerouting traffic due to the lot space constraints. A random thought came to mind: "Build a tiny house way in the back of the small deep-narrow lot and place two sets of front double doors facing a Spanish-style 'interior' garden as a natural noise pollution buffer.”
Nevertheless, the most complicated pre-planning activity was building the design-construction team. That is, finding contractors willing to build a small house in Naples---given the lack of large-profit-margin incentive governed by building huge and expensive residences in Naples.
After contacting several realtors, builders, and subcontractors in the area and multiple failed attempts at reaching a design-build contractual agreement, I finally decided to partner with a small builder that knew many subcontractors. The subcontractors were incredibly knowledgeable and familiar with the Naples Park area. And surprisingly, very interested in collaborating and working on building a unique, minimalistic modern home, where we would meet to anticipate costs and profit accurately. Although I had built small concrete (hurricane-proof) houses and high-rise buildings in my early 30s, I was unfamiliar with the Naples building culture (i.e., building codes and, more importantly, didn't have a network of reliable subcontractors in the area. So contracting experienced, trustworthy subcontractors was both sensible and sensical after my previous experiences with other contracting firms.
Before signing a design-build contract for the stipulated budget (less than half the average housing cost in Naples), subcontractors and I became a collaborative design-build effort: exchanging e-mails and phone calls with contractors before breakfast and late evenings and weekends. I served as the project manager and supervisor. I was making a daily visit to the site, stirring the team in the right direction, and getting lots of advice from the main contractor.
The tight schedule called for concurrent engineering (i.e., designing and building simultaneously) in a very challenging lot during the hurricane season. That could be completed before the snowbirds arrived in Naples, Florida. During construction, the building site was hit by the devastating Irma hurricane---stopping the job for several weeks and bringing brand-new complications besides the original ones mentioned earlier.
It was complicated to entice subcontractors to work on a small project. Fortunately, the team had created long-term relationships among themselves and suppliers that smoothened the challenge.
Ultimately, the multiple budgetary and logistical challenges became tremendous opportunities to design and build the desired home. Here are some of the options I saw: the Naples Park ordinances allowed building a minimum of 800 square-feet houses in the small lots, but the County fees were significant. So, building a small (1000 square feet house) was no problem. Nonetheless, the budget had to be revised due to the county’s high impact fees for new construction.
Further, the seasonal traffic would have complicated the building process. It would have been challenging to build without disrupting traffic. So building the house to the back of the site (lot) allowed construction equipment to be placed in the front without disrupting traffic. There were a few additional complications during construction, including an issue with the mezzanine. Specifically, the architectural and structural plans called for different heights in the elevations, causing the wood framer to build the mezzanine too high. Fortuitously, the framers offered to fix the problem reasonably innovatively. Building a cohesive team helped us deal with this and other situations. Using an improvised system of pulleys, they lowered the mezzanine platform to the desired high.
The house was completed on time and within budget.
In closing, I am now incorporating smart-home technologies into the house, such as an intelligent thermostat; security monitoring cameras and sensors; Amazon key for deliveries; Lighthouse A.I. virtual assistant; and Cherry home to spot emergencies, among others.
I learned that a house might be considered a living organism or system that should sense and respond, continuously growing and adapting to the inhabitants' needs and wants. And it must be maintained and nurtured. For now, I am boosting it with lush vegetation—planting environmentally-friendly ornamentals, fruit trees, and a garden of edible plants. Shortly, I will be installing solar collectors and a, perhaps, Tesla battery before the next wave of hurricanes arrives with the anticipated electrical outages and flooding. So is the sometimes-easy life in paradise and sunny Florida, unless you are building.
The biggest lesson: To build your home, first, you must build a cohesive, responsible team.