The House Plan
Open Floor Plan
The gourmet kitchen boasts a large raised bar top with an expansive seating area. The kitchen/family room is open to allow for entertaining and large family gatherings .
Tall Ceilings
One of the most cost effective ways to make a space feel bigger is to add a foot to the standard wall height. Not only is this nine foot ceiling cost effective to build, but it also saves energy compared to volume ceilings.
Luxury Finishes
Stainless steel appliances, seamless quartz countertops, built in wine fridge, master bedroom walk-in closet - things you're not used to seeing in the average starter home come standard for you to enjoy, day one!
Easy Expansion
The lower level in the plan is designed for future finish. Including:
- 9 foot tall foundation walls
- Rough in plumbing for bath
- Escape windows for bedrooms
- Special waterproofing, drainage, and insulation
Did Someone Say Storage?
The attic trusses have an open design to allow for serious storage. Over 580 square feet of attic floor space is great for
storage and is equivalent to a 2.5 car garage in terms of floor space.
Owner-Builder Friendly
This house plan was designed to make it easier to build. Forget about complicated roof angles, jogs in walls, or multi-step siding applications. Here we've simplified the structure and materials used to minimize potential problems.
Doing What's Never Been Done
An Open Book Build
In pursuit of the most affordable, quality designer home in America, home building veteran designs and builds the ultimate starter home and shares all proprietary information from the build. Open Book Build shares the designer house plan, complete as-built budget, automated schedule, detailed material lists used, and the full contracting kit...all of the tailored pieces used to build this quality home at cost. No secrets...it's an open book.
Major Benefits
About half the work required to build a new home gets done prior to any dirt being moved on site - finalizing the house plan, creating a detailed budget, organizing the schedule, determining material takeoffs, developing scopes of work and specifications - Open Book Build shares all of this work with customers to give them a serious "jumpstart" in the house building process. Whether customers hand this package to their chosen builder or they go the owner-builder route, Open Book Build can save customers both time and money.
The house plan itself focuses on quality with a designer's touch. It has been value engineered for maximum build efficiency to make room in the budget for quality finishes. A simple, affordable home that lives large, this home is designed for easy expansion as the homeowner's family and budget grows.
For folks choosing to go the owner-builder route, we're creating a complete online course showing how this home was built from start to finish including daily video shot on the job site of all the quality checks performed.
Online Course
Curriculum Details
For those wanting detailed instruction on how the Open Book Build prototype home was built, the online curriculum will provide all the details. From creating the budget to the daily quality checks, this course will Include:
- Video shot daily on the jobsite
- Detailed written instruction
- Forum for asking questions
The main topics covered in the course include...
Budgeting
This section of the online course shows how we created a detailed budget to ensure all costs were included from the start. The success of any new home build comes down to a careful review of all costs.
Hiring Subcontractors
It's hard to find good quality trades people these days. Here we show the best methods used to find, screen, and hire the folks that get a quality job done on time.
In this class we provide a complete overview of the contracting kit used in the Open Book Build and explain how it's used to get the best price for each building activity.
Scheduling the Build
This learning module shows how the Open Book Build Excel schedule template was used to build this home in 100 days. The template has all the formulas to automate this task...here we show how we use the tool to get a home built efficiently.
Daily General Contracting Guide
Pro builders complete specific tasks each day throughout the building of a home to keep the project on schedule and per budget. We share the detailed tasks we used in building the Open Book Build prototype home.
Lot Selection
There are many things to review prior to spending hard earned money on a lot to build your dream home. Here we go through each item and show how a little upfront work can make the build process much easier. We also take a trip out to a couple lots to show how to apply the concepts in real life.
Still have questions?
Meet the Builder
Michael Luckado has helped countless owner builders achieve the American dream since launching Armchair Builder in 2011. There he provides pro builder resources to folks that want to build their own custom home. Open Book Build takes this one step further by offering a specific designer house plan while providing customers access to the complete professional package used to build it.