Part 1 – Engineers, Architects, Contractors…and Spare Time
There’s often a disconnect or bias between engineers, architects, and contractors; some contractors believe designers don’t know how to apply real life to paper and some designers think that contractors can’t read or follow plans (and that’s not even getting into the differences in opinion between engineers and architects). This is especially true for building a mountain home.
My name is Brian Welch; I’m an engineer, I’m a house builder, and I like to think I provide a unique blend of the characteristics from both trades. I am the Director of Civil Engineering at EVstudio and recently built a home in the Foothills of Colorado. My latest challenge for myself was to complete the entire building process on my own, from Permitting through the Certificate of Occupancy (and yes, I mean everything). It was an extremely rewarding process but was a great reminder of how complicated at times but simple at others the process could be and that you don’t always need a gym membership to stay in shape! I’ve taken a quick breather after we received our Certificate of Occupancy but will be putting a series of blogs together about the process and my experience.
I think there’s a tremendous amount of value in General Contractors, Engineers, and Architects for most projects but hope that this story can give you a good overview of how all the pieces work together. My goal is to cover the entire process for building a mountain home from Land Selection to Permitting, Construction to Move-In Day with a little humor mixed in. Hopefully, it’s an entertaining read and something that can help you on your journey although I would not suggest doing exactly as we did unless you have an extremely patient wife and an endless amount of energy. After all, we did get a house constructed and livable in 9 months and 8 days, 16 days before our first child, more on this later!
Today (January 10, 2019) marks 1 year from the date that we received our permit and this is the first of 12 posts, one each week will follow as we go through the entire process; hopefully you enjoy the journey and light reading.
