It’s an exciting journey to design and build a home of lasting beauty that produces all the energy it uses. A home with exceptional comfort, health, durability, and energy security baked in. But where to begin?
By asking these six questions and being led by the answers the journey makes sense. These questions provide a structure and give shape to a path that you can confidently follow.
CHOOSING TO BUILD A NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE HOME BEGINS AN EXCITING CHAPTER IN YOUR LIFE
It is important to be able to tell the compelling story of why you are building. Why do you want to design and build a new home rather than purchase (and perhaps remodel) an existing one? Why now? Why does high performance matter? Asking and answering questions about your motivations, expectations, and commitment will reveal the path and its possibilities – and constraints.
Wolfworks design process always begins with Why? and gains traction by listening carefully to the answers.
WHO WILL YOU NEED TO INVOLVE IN THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING AND BUILDING YOUR NEW HOME
Unless you are either qualified (or naively confident) in playing any of these roles, you will benefit from engaging professionals to locate and purchase land, plan the site, develop the house design, produce a reliable budget, engineer the site and structure, prepare the site, manage construction, and finance the project. You may also choose to engage interior and landscape design professionals or other specialists. Identifying these collaborators and establishing good working relationships with them is essential.
Wolfworks plays the design and construction role, as well as guiding collaboration with the others.
LOCATING LAND TO BUILD ON TAKES TIME
It is useful to meet with a realtor who can keep an eye out for prospects aligned with your goals and resources in locations that appeal to you. You will need to balance options within a range of locations, features, and costs. Attention should be given to house siting on the property, optimization to solar resources, zoning and site condition constraints, and what will be required to develop the site and provide utility infrastructure.
Wolfworks collaborates with you and your realtor to assess these options and variables.
THE THRILL AND THE CHALLENGE BEGIN WITH “WHAT SHOULD WE BUILD?”
and it’s essential cousin, “What’s possible at what cost?” The page is not exactly blank if you have a building site, a clear understanding of why you have chosen to build a new home, an aspiration for high performance with the option of net zero energy use, and a reasonable understanding of what you can afford. Collecting and sharing imagery of house styles and materials is always useful. From this raw material design options are developed, presented, reviewed and revised. “Reality Check” budgets for initial schemes should guide what follows. Design is an iterative process that proceeds over time from the general to the specific. By the time you are ready to build you should feel confident about what and why.
Establishing confidence about what to build is where Wolfworks lives!
DESIGNING AND BUILDING A NEW HOME IS A JOURNEY THAT UNFOLDS IN A SEQUENCE OF PHASES OVER TIME
With milestones, checkpoints, and inevitably a couple layovers as challenges are faced and resolved. Once committed to the journey time will be spent getting oriented, forging relationships, locating and purchasing land, developing the design, getting regulatory approvals, breaking ground, constructing the home, and finally settling in and taking a shakedown cruise. The design process takes 3-6 months depending on complexity and decision making. Construction is likely to take 6-9 months depending on site requirements.
Wolfworks is an experienced and methodical guide on this journey.
THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING AND BUILDING A NEW HOME BEGINS BY ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES
both literally on the land and usefully in terms of project aspirations expectations, and budget, as well as abiding by regulatory constraints. This requires due diligence in defining these boundaries, then developing design options to evaluate and approve as they are developed and refined. The design should be architecturally and personally satisfying, while remaining practical and buildable. Good design equips you to make smart choices. Success in construction follows from thoughtful planning and clear documentation.
Wolfworks builds what we design so this transition is seamless.
Wolfworks custom designs and carefully crafts homes of lasting beauty that produce as much energy as they use. With exceptional health, comfort, durability, and energy security baked in. These homes are not just built different. They’re built better.