Soils Engineer

Today we hired our soils engineer -- Jonathan Miller of Bay City Geology in Santa Monica. So now we have our Civil and Structural Engineer and our Soils Engineer. Hopefully we will be ready to have our preliminary plan check with the City of Los Angeles in about 4-6 weeks. I really need to start working on my take-offs.

Project Sketches and Layout

Here are some preliminary sketches and the final layout. Still adding final touches to elevations. But the house is essentially 2-story, single family residence. 3000 sf. 3 bedrooms w/ optional 4th. 3 bathrooms. family room, dining room. 2 home offices.

We plan on installing solar panels for electricity and water heating, recycled insulation, greywater system (when/if it becomes legal in California). We are taking advantage of sunlight and ocean breezes by strategically placing windows.

There will be a lanaii for entertaining, a vegetable garden, and decorative clothes line for air drying.

Our architect, Jamie Myer has been wonderful in designing a home that achieves our goals.

Books

Because this is a new endeavor for us, I am learning as much as i can as quickly as i can. I'm currently reading "Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies" by Eric Corey Freed and "The Complete Guide To Contracting Your Home" by Dave McGuerty & Kent Lester.

Any other recommended reading? Leave me a comment.

UPDATE

Okay, with thanks to our architect, Jamie Myer, we now have an approved layout/design of our new home -- 2-story, 2,653 sf. We just selected our civil and structural engineer - Vanik Abedian, P.E., S.E. of Kartez Engineering. We are now taking bids for our soils report. Also we are in the process of selecting a LEED FOR HOMES provider.