limited buildable land, advice needed.

[Yuhjn]

Was hoping for some advice and opinions on this:

The land I've got has limited building space at the top of a hill. So to increase my usable land I'm considering several options.

The first option is figuring out if I can plane down the top of the hill. But there is a lot of granite in the bedrock and I'm afraid this might be difficult/expensive (I dont know anything about excavation).

My other though was a natural light or walk out basement. This would allow me to move my house to the edge of the buildable land, giving me more room for other structures and the like. It would also allow me to do more passive solar for heating.

My main question is, how much complexity does this add to the construction? Obviously the foundation is more complicated and requires more materials, but what other issues will I have? I know Skip says keep it simple and I'm endevoring to do so, but if it's not that much extra complication, I might be open to it.

And what about the excavation idea? Am I totally off base here or is this feasable?

Thoughts?

[Timber]

Well if your in a freeze zone, your footings or whatever foundation type you use will need to be below the freeze line. If you need to get x-tra footage a basement is well advised & cheapest square footage you can get. But you still might have problems if it's on granite. Because they will charge you more-I plan on doing a basement -but home will look like 1 story cause i am on a ridge with a 15% slope-so i will do a walk-out basement.(if all goes to plan)
I read that a home looks well planed if you build either on the front of slope or back-instead of on top. I have plenty of room to build flat but dont think i will.Also a circle driveway also is a well designed driveway-if you have the room. Get some estimates-they should be free-dont mention the granite though.

Ron

[Timber]

http://www.countryplans.com/landkit/tips.htm gives you some good ideas. I really think design is where it is at. We can build it-but where you set it lay out of outbuilding etc.-all important. It might be worth consulting a person (developer might help) on what goes where. I will have several buildings as I will have horses also. Basements are worth the extra cost in return value-plus you can always finish it later. I don't think I will go 2 stories-I like the look of a one story log home-maybe 1200 feet and same area basement-plenty big. It will look like 1 story from the road.

[rckclmbr428]

If you are wanting advice about where to layout your building consult an LA, believe it or not, LA's dont plant shrubs in people yards and mow grass, they (we, I are one) are architects of the land, and can figure out every part, from where the buildings go, to which way they should face, what the finished floor elevation should be, how to grade the land for proper drainage, and the best way to mow the stripey things in your grass! ok, maybe not the last one, but LA's are very similiar to Civil Engineers when it comes to land issues, I had a friend in CE who never believed me, despite my best efforts, until he graduated, went to an Engineering firm and guess who his boss is?? a Landscape Architect!!

[Yuhjn]

Thx for the advice guys, that helps a lot.

So what will consulting with a LA cost me? Obviously I'm out of my depth on this and these early decisions are going to have a major impact on my process later on, so I want to make the right choices. Consultintg a professional is the obvious best-move for me.

Now all I'm wondering is what that's going to cost me.

[Yuhjn]

So I called a couple local LA's and told them my tale. They all told me that I wanted to talk to a civil engineer.

So I called a couple of those and one is looking into my situation. His first move is to dig up any existing information created during the initial development. He also charges like $100/hr which appears to be pretty standard for CE design work. Salty, but it seems to be my only viable option.

[Timber]

get a guesstamite on around about how many hours-and if he can give you a couple of different layouts/ideas

Ron