Back...As owner builder, can I choose to build any kind of home?
One of the benefits when you build your own home is that you get to make all the decisions of how it is built. Traditional wood construction or energy efficient ICF (insulated concrete form)? You, as owner builder, get to decide.
Owner Builder Texas offers thousands of free house plans to choose from, allowing for varying home size, property aspects, and type of building material. Our certified building professionals and architects can help you find the perfect marriage of beauty, energy efficiency, and functionality to fit your individual property’s character and your own style of living.
Whether you build traditional stick frame, block home, Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF), panelized, SIP or a rustic log cabin home, we can help all the pieces of your project come together.
Remember that housing style does tie closely to geography – where your house is going to be, the style of the neighborhood, the lay of the land, that sort of thing. While a Victorian can look amazing on a ranch or nestled in the woods, a farmhouse or log cabin may look out of place in a posh inner-loop neighborhood in the middle of Houston. Keeping in tone with the neighborhood may seem like something is holding you back from building what you want, but remember why you chose your property to begin with – you liked the location. Finding which elements drew you to the neighborhood and tying them into your home design will allow your new owner built home to melt into the surrounding landscape as if it always belonged.
Keep in mind that your property’s neighborhood may have an architectural review board, or homeowner’s association, that may have restrictions on which types and styles of home are allowed to be built on the lot you are planning to build on. Find out any restrictions and how to elicit approval of home plans and building plans before scheduling start of construction. Not adhering to HOA guidelines can hold up construction and cost you thousands in redesign and changes to your home plans if they are not approved from the beginning.
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