looking for foundation suggestions...

[akemt]

Hello folks! It has been a while since I have posted.

Background: My husband and I are adding on to our current stick-built home ourselves in an effort to raise the equity of our home significantly before selling. We'll be taking our log-builders course after we sell (and have a number of friends who are interested as well!) and getting started on living mortgage-free! We've just jumped all the borough's hoops for permitting, including getting a varriance (at the price of $400 - they gave us a deal) for a garage that was built before either of us were born. LOL Ugh - pirates! So, we are now ready to start the building process.

Current issue: We've never worked with foundations before. I just got an estimate back for $6,500-8,500 to have the foundation contracted out, and that isn't over-the-top for our area. At most, going with another contractor will save us $1,000. Yes, that is alot of money, but it still doesn't make it more affordable for us.

So...Any suggestions on a book, video, etc that could help us to have the knowledge we need to do this on our own? We would LOVE to take the course now, but we can't afford the trip ($600+ in just airfare, then add hotel stay, class tuition, rental car, meals and babysitting) on our budget AND get our addition. I should add that we have to have a crawlspace foundation in our area because of moisture. We could have handled a flat pad, I'm sure! ;)

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I don't want to mess up our addition by not doing it right, nor do I want to go even farther in debt in our efforts to get OUT of debt.

Thanks a bunch!

Catherine in Alaska

[dbtoo]

Is the addition in recommendation by a realtor? My neighbors spent about $7K on upgrading their back yard a month before they sold. They could have dumped 24 tons of rock on it for about $1K and pocketed the $6K (and it would have looked nicer than it does now!)
They had decided to do that on their own, before listing with a realtor. The realtor should have had better advice on how to spend their money in order to maximize profit.

[akemt]

Thanks for the response. Yes, the addition itself is worthwhile. We'll be making a two bedroom one bath without a dining room into a three bedroom two bath with a family/great room and adding, according to the realtor, $95/sq foot (new construction is more expensive here, that is resale value of new construction - it'll be roughly $60,000) in value with the addition. It'll change it from a "starter" home to a "family" home. And it is worthwhile for us as well because we are in the adoption process and need the bedroom space before we can actually adopt a child. Not to mention I hate not having a dining room table! :o LOL

Anyone heard of this company? http://www.shbshome.com/id11.html We're considering buying their DVD course for the reasons in the original post.

Thanks again,
Catherine

[akemt]

It has been a long time since I've posted, yet again. We're getting closer and closer to mortgage-free living!

Our addition is up but not yet finished. We did the majority of the dry-in, financing and labor (minus foundation - yah, we spent a boatload to have someone else do it) ourselves. Then we got an appraisal, which just came back this week, so that we could take out a small home equity loan for the finish materials, electrical, and plumbing. (We aren't too worried about taking out the home equity loan since it brings our total money owed on the house back to the original buying price, pre-addition. A pain to get a loan and spend more money that way, but needful if we want to sell sometime before retirement) Our home value has already gone up $50,000. Part of that is inflation since we bought the house, but that is still unreal! The market is great here right now so we're hoping that with the loan coming back in the next few weeks, we'll be able to get to work with electrical, insulation, drywally, plumbing, and a big deck to seal the deal. Then, "FOR SALE" time! Hopefully we'll be able to take that homebuilders class this year???

If you'd like to see the house, feel free to visit our blog (sorry, it hasn't been updated for a while): http://brownfamilyhome.blogspot.com

Here's a question: Can my husband and I pay our membership fees but take the class at a later date? We wouldn't be able to attend untill atleast later this fall if not next year.

[wood bug]

Hi akemt, what I have done in the past is hire a mature concrete labourer, he should know the in's and out's and will like the extra cash, you supply the backbone. You can save alot this way if you find the right guy. good luck