I Didn’t Hire an Architect or Engineer and It Saved Me $400k
By Isaac French
I built Live Oak Lake for a total cost, including land, of $2,356,457.43 Ok, actually I made that number up—I won’t claim to know what I spent to the penny:)
But it was pretty close to that number
Now to some, that may seem like a whole lot for only 7 tiny cabins, but actually it’s a steal. The whole 5.16 acre property is meticulously designed. Every corner. All the little details. And if I’d have hired a traditional design team, I would’ve spent another $300k-$1M.
Now I’m NOT suggesting that every single one of you should do what I did. Almost all of you shouldn’t. I wouldn’t do it again exactly the same, myself. But that’s partly because I learned so much by doing it once that I could hire a great team for the most essential parts and buy back a lot of my time.
Yes, I had some construction experience. But I wasn’t some studied designer. Just passionate about learning, and being an intentional observer, as my friend Hans Lorei talks about. (By the way, if you’re not already, you’ve GOT to give him a follow and subscribe to his weekly newsletter. He’s a phenomenally gifted designer and teacher. He’s great at simplifying.
A key part of my design workflow during that crazy 9.5 months of building Live Oak Lake from scratch was using an app called Procreate and my trusty iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. This is an amazing tool that is easy to learn and use, and incredibly useful for anyone involved in taking an idea and turning it into reality.
It goes something like this. I’d have this idea for, let’s say the front gate. I’d whip out my iPad and start sketching something up. And, 15 min later, voila!—
The sketch I made for the front gate at Live Oak Lake
This drawing was good enough to give to the machine shop that welded up the frame, and then the woodshop that cladded it in cedar just as I’d drawn. And guess what? It’s actually really easy to draw in Procreate. It makes all my squiggly lines straight, and I can import graphics, like the one here on the gate.
What about the utilities for the site? Hire a civil engineer?
Nope!
Power, data, sewer and water at Live Oak Lake
This is the flat drawing, but the Procreate version includes layers for each of the types of utilities. So I can easily zoom way in, isolate any one of them and draw exactly what we needed. And as in this picture, I was able to simply snap a quick drone photo, open in Procreate and mark it up.
These are my as-built drawings as well.
Landscape design? No problem. I simply walked the site with my landscape contractor who has a good eye for design, and we brainstormed the look we wanted together. We were a sounding board for each other (which is another pro-tip speaking of design in general: GET YOURSELF A GOOD SOUNDING BOARD!)
Then, after our walkthrough, I took another drone photo and marked up the plan.
The landscape plan at Live Oak Lake
Wearing all the hats — GC, interior, exterior and landscape design, even some engineering — was a great experience. Yes, I got away with a whole lot that wouldn’t typically fly in terms of permits, stamping, plan review, etc. And as I said, most of you shouldn’t “try this at home,” but maybe some should, and I hope this newsletter encourages you!
And for all of you who don’t already, I recommend you get an iPad, pencil and a sketching app like Procreate. Even for simple photo markups, it’s soo worth it.
Besides, it’s never too late for anyone to learn some basic sketching skills:)
That’s the newsletter. Forgive me for being a day late. As always, thanks for reading!! Don’t forget to share the newsletter with anyone who might be interested. Use the link in the footer below to earn rewards as you do. Means the world.
Have a great Tuesday!
—Isaac