Our New House

- Preliminary & Final Construction Plans -

9007 S. Indian River Drive

- 18 May 2000 - 18 May 2000

During June 1999, after we'd "taken dad up" on his offer to redevelop on his place in Ankona. we exchanged a number of preliminary thoughts and sketches, some single story, some two story.  In "most" of these, we were attempting to fit a new 3/2 house of between 1500 to 2000 SF (conditioned) on his lot with the minimum (or no) loss to any of the big Oak trees in his existing front yard.

Prior to moving, we'd all pretty much settled on a 4/3, two story design from HOME PLANNERS, LLC and I ordered a set of study plans from them along with the rights to modify and revise them for construction, and referral into their network of design / drafters (one of which was located in Palm Bay, about 70 miles North of dad's place).  This design included 2 small "attic type" guest bedrooms, a bath, and a study loft area on the second floor ... with 2 BR/2Ba ,  kitchen, wash & storage room and a living/grand room and stairway (open above) with a full width screened porch in front on the first floor, similar to our B'ham house ... and it "fit around" the side Oak Tree on the lot.

After arriving at our "temporary" rental house in Vero Beach, we met with the HOME PLANNERS "network designer" in Palm Bay .... stopped and talked with John Blind (the builder - working on a new house on The Drive, North of Midway) about our plans for building, and specifically about the shop/storage building, and he turned us on to Paul Welch & Mike Mennard in Pt. St. Lucie as a "good and reasonable" engineer / drafter.  Got them to work up a plan sheet for this out building.  (Which plan was ultimately abandoned)

Meanwhile, the HOME PLANNERS network designer failed a number of times to return calls attempting to schedule a follow-up meeting to turn him on to make some minor revisions to the HP study set design and get it reviewed & sealed for construction permitting.  Gave these plans locally to Welsh / Mennard for preparation instead, visited with the Treasure Coast Home Builders Association to get some recommendations on custom home builders, and visited / interviewed four .... in this process, we became quite aware that, at least here in Florida, there is a considerable "cost premium" associated with a two story house plan, considerably more than I'd expected, and the drafting of these plans was also abandoned.

In the process of interviewing prospective building contractors, one of them (Peck Construction) had a pair of models which, in combination, we all liked ... it would "fit" on our narrow lot (with the loss of the big side Oak) and we worked with this builder for nearly a month trying to come to terms with him ... basically to combine his two model plans and come back with a quote.  Ultimately this builder backed out.

We then took Peck's plans (with his blessing, he gave us a set of plans) worked up a presentation reflecting our revision desires using 3D Home Architect, saved these as a DFX (AutoCad) file and delivered this as a package to Welch / Mennard for preparation of a construction set for bids.

Elevation Rendering - looking from the Southeast

Elevation Rendering - looking from the Southwest

Floor Plan, with exterior dimensions

Floor plan, with interior dimensions

Floor plan, with fixtures & furniture

We were impressed during our builder interview process with Mike DiFrancisco, felt most comfortable with him and when ready, delivered the plan set to him for a bid.  All of this was a long drawn out process ...... August to mid December 1999 ..... final bid preparation, and negotiations with Mike took another month and a half before we signed the contract to construct with DiFranciso Construction of OUR NEW HOUSE on January 21, 2000.  This started the final round of information gathering, final drawing revisions, application for permits and approvals, setting up and scheduling in subcontractors, and finally in about mid May 2000 construction has finally gotten under way............

House Const - Index

Relocation & Construction Progress - Diary

Construction Progress Photos - INDEX (Local Link)

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