The Walls Go Up and the Pool Takes Shape

After doing a lot of research, we decided to build an ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) home.  There are many advantages to building with ICF especially in coastal areas.  The walls will be about 12 inches thick and are actually concrete.  The forms are put together and with rebar in them and then concrete is poured inside.  Some of the advantages of an ICF home are:  Energy efficiency, 32% less energy required for cooling and 42% less for heating.   This also means the HVAC units can be sized smaller.   Protection during storms, both tornadoes and hurricanes.  This is a big plus when building on a bay in the Florida Panhandle.  Insect resistance Termites don't like to eat concrete.  Fire resistance,   Concrete doesn't burn.  All of these features also help to reduce insurance costs.  From what we hear, ICF homes are also really quiet. 

Materials are delivered.  These are the ICF Blocks made by Fox Blocks

The wood is for framing around window and door openings

Assembling the walls reminds me of putting Legos together

View from the driveway of the walls going up.

The gunite (a concrete mixture) gets sprayed on layer by layer to construct the pool.  They are working on the spa in this picture.

The pool will be finished when the house is near completion.

Choosing a Builder and Lot Clearing

We didn't know any builders in the Destin area so we asked everyone that we thought might know a builder and then checked them out.  Our architect also had a few recommendations and we interviewed them plus others that we had heard about or who seemed to have a good reputation in the area.  One of the things that surprised us is that homeowners were very happy to open their homes and let us look.  The builders were always eager to show us homes that they had built and ones that were under construction so we got a tour of many beautiful homes.

We ended up choosing three builders to give us a proposal.  Since our home is a cost plus fixed fee contract, we knew that cost was not the only consideration.  The cost will largely depend on the choices that we make so we wanted a builder that we liked,  had a good relationship with the clients that we met, was financially strong,  had great finish work, would be on the job a lot and solicited bids from multiple sub-contractors.

We signed a contract with Frank Janssen Construction Management.  Frank is a retired Air Force Officer and has been building homes for about ten years.  The homes that he showed us were beautiful, we like him, and he will park an office trailer on our lot and be on site every day.

Frank wasted no time getting started.  He has applied for building permits which can take up to six weeks to be issued and has started preparing the lot for building.  We were sad that some trees had to be removed but the tree survey showed 82 trees bigger that 12 inches in diameter so we still have lots left and we needed a spot to build our home.

The company that is clearing the lot has been working a week and made great progress.

The lot after it was bush hogged.

 Removing trees

 Some trees were really big

 The dump trucks haul away the downed trees

 Several large tree roots were too big for dump trucks and had to

be removed with a flat bed truck.

 The house will set here

From the street the drive curves between the trees.

Thanks for stopping by.

Starting the New Home Building Process

For us, the process of building our dream home started with finding a lot that we love.  We found and purchased a 1.6 acre lot that is bay front and has many large Live Oak trees.   The header picture is our view looking toward the West and down the shore.  The Pelicans seem to like the pilings from an old pier.  This is what it looked like when we bought it.   

 Looking from the bay toward the street.

Looking toward the bay.

The next step in the process was to find an architect.  We knew that we wanted to build a Mediterranean house so wanted to find an architect whose portfolio included some Mediterranean homes that he/she had designed.  Most local architects that we interviewed seemed to design the Florida Cottage style. We decided to use B Designs of Destin because he had designed many homes in the style we wanted to build.  Eric was great at capturing the things that we wanted in a new home.  The design process took many months and several tweaks but we now have plans that we are excited about.