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. 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.
No remodel tear outs, no shared walls, no huge mortgage....just a NEW designer home at an amazing price. Why settle for a tiny home on a flat bed trailer when you can have a high quality, life size home with serious potential for built-in equity?
The house plan 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.
Why Do We Need Open Book Build?
Housing Shortage
There's a huge shortage of quality affordable homes in America today. Open Book Build provides a new solution to this ongoing problem.
Builders Aren't Interested
When it comes to affordable new homes, builders and developers are currently focused on apartments and condominiums and are offering very few entry level single family homes. Why? The margins are small due to increasing lot, labor and material costs. For the same amount of work, they'd rather focus on the move-up buyer.
Young Buyer Lifestyle
Today's newest homebuyers are choosing big experiences over big mortgages. They're not interested in overextending themselves just to have a big house. They want the house they want, but with money leftover to get out and live life.
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 larger 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.
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 550 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.
Easy to Use PDF
One of the easiest ways to share a house plan with vendors for bidding and building is with an Adobe PDF digital file. And wow, it's so simple to bring with you to the jobsite! Check out more Open Book Build house plan details!
Online Course
Curriculum Details
For those wanting detailed instruction on how the Open Book Build model 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 a 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 model 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.
The Launch Promotion
The House Plan
The Open Book Build house plan will be priced competitively with the stock house plan market. The plan includes a complete set of architectural drawings with elevations, floor plan, cabinet layouts, detail drawings, foundation plan and future finished basement layout, all in an easy to use pdf format.
The Open Book Build Kit will be FREE!
You read that right. Free. This is a package that an experienced builder takes weeks to create for a given home and would easily charge up to $10k and we are giving it away for free with the purchase of the house plan. Why? Because we want to help end the entry level housing crisis in America...it's that simple.
What's the Catch?
There's no catch. As always, the copyrighted house plan purchase is good for the building of one house only. Along with that limitation, we will only allow the Open Book Build Kit to be used once as well. We're not looking to create professional home builders. We just want folks to get into a quality home at an amazing price.
Opportunities
Phase 1: Building the Open Book Build Model Home - Groundbreaking for the Open Book Build model home is scheduled for September 2019 in Westlake, Ohio.
· We are currently identifying partners who are interested in this innovative entry level home solution in the U.S. market. Specifically, we are searching for the perfect supplier to provide the majority of the material required for each new home.
· In addition, the completed home will include designer finishes to showcase innovative products, quality features and the home's livability. We are therefore also identifying suitable suppliers of these types of products.
· Suppliers and products will be featured in the Open Book Build Model Home and highlighted during the media rollout.
· If you have a product or service that you think might be a fit for the Open Book Build Model Home, please contact us about sponsorship opportunities.
Phase 2: The Open Book Build Complete House Kit hits the market!
· After completing our first Model Home, the product (house) is ready to replicate via Open Book Build Complete House Kits with our supplier partners handling all of the material needs.
Media Rollout
Open Book Build a unique solution...we want to make sure we get the word out. Here are just a few of our plans for getting the message out to folks all across America.
- Press Releases - at the start of the project and at the end
- Model Open House - open the completed home to realtors and the media
- Publications - we will be reaching out to real estate and home and garden publications that seek newsworthy topics
- Professional video walk through will be created of the completed home hightlighting quality products and features
- Armchair Builder - we will be sharing Open Book Build with our current followers at ArmchairBuilder.com (20k+ visitors per month), and including our 20k followers at the Armchair Builder YouTube channel
- Professional photos shot daily on site and shared on social media
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 in that a specific designer house plan is offered and while giving customer's access to the complete professional package used to build it.