TH asked about the benefits and burdens of building a home, and Ale mentioned yesterday that the custom homes featured here have been entertaining. Thanks to both of you for your thoughts, and yes, the homes featured here are meant to inspire those who hope to build their own house some day, myself included.
Because you can see the typical Mediterranean neo-taco Spanish stucco boxes at every new-home tract, here at bubbleinfo we’ll present the alternatives to fill out the selection card.
Here’s a do-it-youselfer in Laurel Canyon with a similar vision:
New design talent Michael Parks is pleased to announce the completion of the dramatic remodeling of the Parks House, a modern and innovative three-bedroom, three-bath hillside home located in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills. The creative ingenuity behind the year and a half transformation of the Parks House is made all the more intriguing because Parks, the owner, had no formal architectural/design education. Yet he designed and spearheaded the project himself — an architectural metamorphosis through which Parks himself found a new career and a passion for creating ground-breaking modern design.
“After an architect presented us with a set of plans (no similarities to Parks’) that were over three times our budget, I decided to explore the possibility of using my love of architecture and my creative, budgeting and project management skills from TV and film producing to try and do it myself,” Parks said. “It all came together in a very LA story. While getting my haircut, a stylist told me that he had a contractor/business partner ‘who was the best.’ The contractor turned out to be his brother, but after meeting him I realized he was our man and I could do the project for under our limited budget.”
Parks faced countless challenges when he purchased the house: severe dry rot and termite damage to every area of the wood, post and beam-built house; windows that did not connect with their frames; a poor floor plan with little worthwhile useable space and only one proper bedroom; a kitchen where Parks actually put his foot through the rotted floor; poor ventilation with no insulation and an oddly shaped lot coupled with difficult hillside conditions. But Parks looked past the dwelling’s numerous issues and instead saw incredible, unrealized potential.
With a contractor on board and with the housing market going bust, Parks had no choice but to dive in. Never one to take the easy road, Parks immersed himself totally into the project and was hands-on from day one, tackling all the architecture, design, budgeting, permit and inspection approvals, as well as complex landscaping issues. In fact, many days Parks could be seen dangling 40ft. in the air staining wood — an undertaking befitting Parks — a man whose vision, drive and spirit of adventure led him to ascend the treacherous slopes of Mt. Everest in 2000. “With this house, the learning curve and the difficult lot were both steep to say the least,” Parks said, “the only way to accomplish this was to make it a full time job.”
Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of this project is that the creation of the Parks House, borne from a love of architecture and design, has turned into a new career for Parks, who, mid-way through construction, began taking technical architecture courses at night at UCLA. Parks said, “I remodeled the house and the house remodeled me.
“I heard a quote once: ‘There’s how we live and that is food, clothing and shelter. And then there is why we live… and that’s called art.’ The goal was to create a house in which we were surrounded, inside and out, by warm, modern architecture that is art, but could be lived in comfortably.”
His website wasn’t easily available, but here’s his email: michaelparks@me.com
Truly awesome! People like Parks remind me that true American Ingenuity still exists.
The pioneer spirit is gone in CA especially.the biggest hurdles when building your own home are trying to get permits.they will rkae you over the coals for the priviledge to have a roof over your head.
I am currently living in the USVI for work. I am planning on building a small villa (most houses are mansions down here- forget that!)
All the houses are on huge cisterns- you live on rain water collection. You have back up generators. You need to build to withstand hurricanes. Eathquakes as well. Mini sewer treatment plants in your septic tank. It is really amazing the topography they can build on- and the resulting driveways!
Maybe I will do a simply blog of all the progress (if i decide to build)
You guys would get a kick out of it.
Here is a sample of what I would like to build.
http://windspree.com/home.php/40/Villa%20Madeline%20
The fees and permits are large. We got into the planning stages of building a second dwelling on our property. Adding up the things we were told that we’d have to pay, schools fee, transit offset fee, water hookup fee, fire protection fee, drainage fee, on and on, we were near 50k just in payments to all the districts and agencies.
And this was before we even tried to get past the environmental approval. My neighbor wanted to split his lot, he had to pay for a pair of guys to live in a tent for two weeks and catalog all the animals that they saw on the land and then he had to buy undeveloped land in the desert which promised never to disturb before he was given approval.
jakob, what area are you building in?
Lakeside, Unincorporated SD County
Before buying any land to build your own house one must check with local planning deparment first. You want to find the worst case scenario like can you even build there. Are there protected animals and plants ?In California there could be a 6 ” deep dry creek going through the property that might make your land totally unbuildable.
Jim, I hope Californians will get over the Neo Taco style soon. Over here at OC , Irvine Company are now putting up a bunch of Revival Cheesy Tuscany style with fake deep arches and faux thick walls. May be we should have some Kong Pao Chinese style soon. 🙂
On the topic of building, here’s my story: My late husband was a contractor/finish carpenter, and we built two homes. We were lucky to build our very first home in Hawaii. An awesome real estate agent told us he couldn’t in good conscience sell us a home with all my husband’s experience! So we bought an ocean-view lot for $50K, built a simple 3/2 home (w/ carport) for $70K, and sold it four years later for $245K.
The two-story 2,100 sf home in Bend, OR –designed by my husband–was on a steep lot on the west side, but had a beautiful view of Pilot Butte. The steep lot made for a more difficult foundation, and we also included radiant floor heating. The majority of sub contractors had worked with my husband previously so they were very conscientious. The only surprise during the build was that lumber prices spiked 10% from our previous estimate. It was the only overage we had.
Building your own home is not for the faint-of-heart, but the sweat equity is what’s really sweet. We bought the lot in Hawaii for $50K, had a $100K mortgage at 10 1/2% and sold it four years later for $245K.
We bought the Bend, OR lot for $50K, had a $157K mortgage @ 7% and sold it two years later for $316K. (Three years later, it sold at the top of the bubble for $500K, and again a few months ago for $395K.) The only reason we sold the Bend home so quickly was my husband’s cancer diagnosis. We moved to the Santa Barbara area because we had a large group of friends we had known for decades, and wanted the support. We/I rented for over 8 1/2 years.
Here’s my two cents–if you decide to build: Remember the quote: “You can’t call it an adventure, unless something goes wrong.” And building is always an adventure…
LM, I’d love to follow your blog if you decide to have one. Anyone have any good ones they are following?
We’re currently waiting on the planning department on “engineering difficulties” with the property we are looking at. Compared to other homes on much steeper lots in the area, it doesn’t look that difficult. But it would explain why it was never developed…
Building is generally a bad idea unless you don’t mind paying more to build than the property will be worth. Especially now. We spent easily $80K in permits/fees, $80K in architect charges, and then another $30K in engineering (soil and structural). Then there’s the actual soil/grading work, etc.
I have kept a journal of our process (we’re about 70% built). I started it thinking I’d have 10 or 20 pages. I’m at 70, of 9 pt font and narrow margins…..
Hi Jim,
I saw that you like minimalist looking villas. If you have never visited this site, have a look: http://www.colorfullhome.com/
Thanks for your videos!