How To Design A House You Can Actually Afford

I can open Instagram at any moment and find a video telling me some new system built a house in a day. 3D printed. Snaps together like Lego. Recycled plastic blocks. I've designed and built three of my own houses now, and here is what I keep running into: most of what gets sold as innovative is just novel. Novel is the part you end up paying for. I start with the question I get most, which is whether you need to own the land before you start designing. My answer is no, and I explain why doing it the other way around is what protects your budget. Then what new construction actually runs per square foot out here, and why fewer than 5% of the homes built in America have direct involvement from an architect. Hiring a really good architect is the best way to get a house designed. Hiring a chef to cook for you is also the best way to get dinner. Most of us are not doing either one, so I walk through where the other 95% of houses actually come from: production builders, stock plans you can buy online, a draftsperson plus a structural engineer's stamp. In California that stamp is usually all you need for a residential project, and knowing that changes what your design budget has to be. Then their are soft costs. Your survey, your drawings, your engineering, Title 24 energy compliance, permit fees. That is real money spent before you have anything to stand in. And Title 24 is the one that gets people, because a non compliant report can send you back through drawings you already paid for. I also get into where I actually DIY and where I don't (short version: find a clean separation near the end of the project, never in the middle of your contractor's critical path), how I think about what a material really costs once you add the labor to install it, and why my shed roof ended up with trusses instead of the TJIs I originally specced. I have a new series coming that I will announce shortly, where we design, permit and build a house in California from scratch , stay tuned feel free to ask questions in the comments! CHAPTERS 00:00 Three houses, three very different budgets 01:18 Do you need the land before you design? 02:09 What new construction costs per square foot out here 03:31 Why almost nobody hires an architect 04:11 Where house plans actually come from 06:03 Who stamps your drawings, and why it matters 06:37 Surveys: the first money in, and the safest 08:16 Soft costs vs hard costs 08:55 Title 24 and the ripple effect that gets people 10:35 Septic, HVAC and off grid design fees 11:27 Is any of this "innovative" building actually cheaper? 14:35 What to DIY, and what will cost you more than it saves 17:12 Reading a material's real cost 20:32 Climate, frost lines, seismic and what they do to your foundation 23:04 Designing around the labor you can actually afford 25:18 $17,000 to engineer 700 square feet 28:08 Overrated / Underrated 38:31 What we are building next #buildingahouse #ownerbuilder #homedesign #constructioncost #joshuatree #diyhome #architecture #buildonabudget