We were told before we started this effort to build our own house that obtaining the permits would be more difficult and take longer than actually constructing the house. That it could take two years to design the house and then route it through all the necessary departments and jurisdictions such as the city, county, and coastal commission.
We are happy to write, that was not the case! We have some lessons learned and advice to share as well as a cost breakdown of our design and permitting process.
Hire an architect!
Hire one that is familiar with the city in which you are going to build and has experience in the style of home that you want to build. If the architect has not worked in the city and has no examples of the particular style, in our case, prairie style, then I would recommend that you pass and keep looking for the architect that fits that criteria.
The architect will be the captain of the team during the design process and help you with decisions that could dramatically alter the time line and the cost of the project. The architect will navigate the best route through the various paths that you can take as you plan your house.
An example of that in our case was the decision to reuse 1700 sq. ft. (including garage) of existing house and add on 3300 sq. ft., rather than convert the existing portion to an accessory unit and build a new single family house on the property.
One path would have been over 18 months in planning and review, approx 85k in design and permitting and would result in the accessory unit being a maximum of 680 sq. ft. total including garage. It would have also required a discretionary process involving the city Planning Commission and perhaps the Coastal Commission, as part of a new single family residential permit.
The other path, the one we took, was to keep the existing single family residence, modify and add on to the residence. Granted the modifications are considerable and the addition of 3300 sq. ft. is double the size of existing, but it still qualifies as a residential remodel. On that path, the planning and permitting was 7 months and cost 55k and the permitting was administrative rather than discretionary (no Planning Commission or Coastal Commission)
This direction was reached on advice from our architect based on his knowledge.
We began the planning and design of the house in January and August 8th we received our permits to construct Heron's House.
Below are in general our cost associated with design and permitting
Architect $25,000
Geo-technical Engineer $ 3,000
Structural Engineer $10,000
Energy Engineer $ 500
Landscape Architect $ 3,000
School Fees $ 8,000
Building Permit Fees $ 4,500
Total $54,000
Thank you to our architect, Bart Smith of DZN Partners, for getting us over the first hurdle. It was a very pleasant and smooth experience designing our own house.
Thank you to the city of Carlsbad. The permitting process was six weeks and the building, planning and engineering staff were very helpful, professional and prompt. It was a great experience.
This sounds awkward, but we were happy to write our checks for the school fees and the building fees for such a great school district and city.
It's time to build Heron's House :)