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Show Notes:
You will learn how to navigate the crucial early stages of building a custom panelized home, starting with thorough land evaluation to ensure your lot is buildable and cost-effective. You will discover how simple napkin sketches can be transformed into precise, permit-ready blueprints while avoiding costly architectural errors. You will also learn how to accurately budget for hidden structural elements, such as footers, plumbing layouts, and energy-efficient HVAC systems, rather than focusing solely on decorative finishes. Additionally, you will discover the benefits of off-grid and multi-generational “heirloom home” designs, aging-in-place features, and alternative builds like barndominiums or shop-living combinations. Finally, you will understand the immense value of receiving continuous, no-cost expert coaching and engineering support throughout your entire building journey.Key Q&A Highlights from Episode 90
Q: How do you know if a piece of land is buildable before buying it?
A: Determining land buildability requires checking zoning classifications, property line setbacks, soil conditions, and utility locations. You must confirm whether water, electricity, cable, and sewage connections are readily available at the front of your lot rather than a block away, and whether special requirements like geotechnical soil reports or flood plain elevation certificates apply.
Q: How do you convert a rough napkin sketch into actual permit-ready blueprints?
A: Converting a rough visual concept or napkin sketch into a buildable home starts with refining the layout’s dimensions, room sizes, and rooflines against local zoning limits. Experienced designers then translate these concepts into formalized floor plans, structural framing drawings, and site plans so local subcontractors can price out specific trade bids.
Q: What hidden building expenses are often left out of initial custom home estimates?
A: Essential structural “guts” are frequently overlooked during early planning, including foundation footers, rebar, electrical wiring layouts, plumbing runs, and heating or cooling systems. Evaluating these non-decorative structural components upfront during the blueprint design phase prevents budget overruns and ensures accurate subcontractor quotes.
Q: What does it mean when a new custom home framing shell is dried-in?
A: A home is considered dried-in when the complete exterior framing shell is assembled, the roof deck is installed, windows and doors are secured, and a moisture barrier surrounds the structure. Once dried-in, the home’s interior is fully protected from rain and snow, allowing interior trades and framing crews to continue work regardless of weather conditions.
Q: What is an heirloom home design, and how does it support multi-generational living?
A: An heirloom home is designed to accommodate a family’s changing lifestyle needs across multiple decades or generations. These floor plans incorporate flexible spaces like walkout basements, convertible dens, guest suites over garages, and accessible “aging-in-place” features—such as wider doorways and zero-threshold roll-in showers—allowing families to remain in one equity-rich home long-term.
Transcript:
Steve Tuma: So a lot of our customers really enjoy the process and they appreciate the help that we add on top of it to make it easier for them to move along.
Host: How you doing everybody and welcome to Episode 90 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me today as usual is the President and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and even around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going, my friend?
Steve Tuma: It’s going great. You know, here we are doing another podcast and I think we got some good topics and good stories to tell people about the excitement and challenges and interesting things in building their own home. Which is really cool. People always want to know, can I do it? Can I build my own home? How do I know I can do it? Where can I do it? So think it’s a good topic.
Host: With you and Landmark at their side, they can do anything.
Steve Tuma: You know what’s interesting about that is you say that and it’s actually a lot of customers will come through and say, Steve, I came to Landmark Home and Land Company to buy a panelized home package, but it’s the support, the help, the navigating it, how does land work, how do we make my house fit on there, how do I budget, how do I do this. That’s almost just as important or more important than the actual panelized home because it’s the understanding of what it takes to build a home that people also need help with. It’s kind of cool. We’re able to help all the way around.
Host: If anybody be able to help it’s you. And just in case you let that pass over your head, we are pushing toward that one hundredth episode. Pretty quick actually.
Steve Tuma: Well hey, let’s get these questions going. What kind of stuff do you have here?
Host: Well I thought we’d continue with another of our top 10 lists of homeowner builder discussion topics which we found on the internet. And these are highly searched questions and inquiries about panelized prefab home building. So if you’re ready to go, why don’t we just jump into our pseudo list here.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, let’s do it.
Host: What’s the first one? All right, so first off, let’s go through the ins and outs of vetting your land because a lot of people are inquiring about the actual building process and how it begins. And how do you go about from the beginning choosing a plot of land in the first place to suit your needs?
Steve Tuma: Well that’s an interesting process because that’s the angle of where does your family want to live, but it’s also the secondary part of how buildable is the piece of land. So, you know, generally what people will do is they’ll find a neighborhood they like, a community they like, maybe schools, access to work or whatever it may be, and they narrow it down from there, but then finding the kind of mechanics of it of hey, is it reasonable and easy to build on the piece of land.
And generally most pieces of land you can build on, it’s just really how can you control the costs. So in general if you’re on a flat piece of land, it’s less expensive and easier to build on than if you’re on the side of a hill. But in some communities we work with a lot of customers in the mountain ranges, along the east coast, northeast the Rockies, the Sierras, the Cascades, you know whatever it may be. There just isn’t flat land in mountain ranges. So sometimes it’s you got to figure out the best of what’s available. So there’s a lot of things to consider on land.
And you know, this is a topic that can get pretty deep. But what I consider to be one of the most important things is just find out the buildability of it. So there’s a zoning department which will say, hey, it’s zoned for a single family home or duplex or whatever it is, you got to make sure it’s there. Then there’s generally setbacks, make sure the house that you want will fit on the land. So that’s one place is the zoning, but then there’s also the actual buildability of it. You know what are the soils like? Can you put a foundation there? Is there access to water? Is it a municipal water service or is it your own private well? Is there sewage? Are there utilities, you know cable, electric, different things like that that service the property. And one thing which I always tell people is someone might be selling you a piece of property and say something’s available. Well that’s nice. Where is it available? Is it at the front of your lot or is it available a block away? Kind of important.
Host: Yeah, and that’s the thing of just kind of do your due diligence and just kind of understand the situation with your land. So, and then also flood plain situations. Now a lot of this stuff is readily available, it might take a little bit of work and research you know to find the right department that will give you that information, but the important thing about this is it’s kind of a deep subject. It’s not something where you can just have your checklist like shopping. Hey, get a gallon of milk, get a pound of cheese. You know, one question can lead to another question and that’s why you know we’re always available.
Steve Tuma: If a customer serious and moving forward, we’ll spend a lot of time with them, you know helping them through the nuances of each situation like how do you know if the house will fit on the land. So if you’ve got a lot that’s 50 feet wide and there’s 5 foot side setbacks that gives you 40 feet to build on. So you know, 50 feet wide, 5 feet setbacks each side times two is 10, 50 less 10 is 40 feet wide. Well there’ll be a front and back and then we could see if the footprint can work there.
So that’s the main thing that I would look at when people are looking at the land is initially if they can just find out what utilities are there, you know is it a well, septic, water, different situation like that. And then we can help them through the deeper processes of you know what the soils are like. If they have questions exactly maybe how zoning works with their house or how to position the house on their land or where to set a grade or do different things. Will they need a grading plan, will they need a geotechnical report? We can help them through that as we get deeper in discussions. But that’s the key element. I think is find a place where you want to live you know that works in the budget range that you are and then make sure in general that it’s buildable and we can help people through the deeper points.
Because sometimes people come to us and say I want this house. I need to make it fit. Other times people say hey I want a ranch that’s three bedrooms two bath, should it be wide or should it be skinny and deep or can it be more square, how do we make this work. So what we can do is work with people to come up with a design that makes sense and then more help them target the budget as well. Which is a key thing. So there’s a lot of variables that go on into it and sometimes it can get pretty deep depending on the nature of the land and the building department’s requirements for the land.
So I wish I could give like the easy 1 2 3 list of how to know your land works. But I think I could give the initial point so that people start selecting something that makes sense. And then we can work deep with them on the deeper points to make sure that the house fits on their property properly and it’s a sensible build. There’s always a way to make it work. So if someone already has a piece of land, you know we can work with that and we’d go through the same process to make sure that the house fits on the land. And works with the land as well. That’s actually one of the more important things that we need to take care of in the preliminary parts of the design just to make sure that you know we’re starting off on the right step.
Host: Yeah and it’s like people shouldn’t be afraid to ask you questions. That’s why they’re calling you. And I think it starts with the land and if I bought a piece of land right now I’d instantly have a thousand questions on how buildable is that land. Makes sense to me.
Steve Tuma: Right. And the thing about it I’m sure you’re joking a little on the thousand questions, but we’ll have a thousand answers that might lead to another 20 questions that really help in doing it. So the situation that comes up is we could have a great conversation understanding and helping people understand the process of building. Our customers aren’t just people that say hey get me a house I need a place for my car and my dog. They’re like no I want to do this, it’s something I’ve wanted to do, I want to learn, I want to know where my budget’s going, I want to know the details of my house. So a lot of our customers really enjoy the process and they appreciate the help that we add on top of it to make it easier for them to move along.
Host: After somebody’s picked their land, there’s still the planning phase. I mean that’s next, you know, and how do you take a let’s say I had an idea and I sketched it out on a napkin. I showed that to you. So how does a rough idea or a napkin idea become well supplied engineered drawings and how much can you push a design before the costs balloons. So my napkin sketch all of a sudden starts looking like a house in real plans, but you know how far can I push that napkin sketch into a real design?
Steve Tuma: Well what’s interesting about that is that situation has literally happened where people have been out, you know, they’re out by themselves having dinner, they sketched something up, and they’re like, Steve, how do I get it to you? And I’m like, take a picture and text it to me.
Host: Right.
Steve Tuma: So literally that situation has happened where people just take a napkin sketch, put it together, or they see different pictures or they’re going down the street and say, Steve, I like this house, I want this roof, I want this porch. And then we put it together. So what we’re able to do based on our knowledge, our ability to design and sort things out and kind of project where the project is going, is kind of refine that down to something that we can review with the customer verbally to review to say, hey, what you’ve shown me is a 1500 square foot ranch home or a 3000 square foot two story home, and this is how we can do it. And then we would take those ideas and once they start working with us, we would draw the plans out to get it more of a formalized drawing. So that we can go through and they can see the exact footprint of the house, the sizes of the rooms, where windows and doors are, ceiling heights, the exterior look of the home, and the roof. And that’s how we do it to go through and work on it. And during these phases, they can then review the costs to make sure that it’s a sensible project for them.
So a lot of people will say, hey, I went online, you know, AI is the big cool thing now, which it is an amazing technology, but there is some hallucinating there. So you don’t necessarily want to go to AI and say, how much is it to build a house in Los Angeles? I’ve done it myself and the answers you get are sometimes completely wrong, mainly completely wrong. So what you want to do is make sure that when you’re working on getting a budget together, you convey to your contractors and suppliers what you’re building. Which is the purpose for the preliminary plan set. We draw them up so that people understand themselves what they want to build. We’ve gone back and forth and tuned it. And then they can take it to their contractors and say, hey, how much is electric, how much is drywall, and then develop their budget. So that’s kind of the process.
And we work with a lot of owner builders and developers where we’re able to help them navigate the product that makes sense for them. The product being their end home. So a lot of this is in the design phase and this is part of our service. We’re not like architects and lawyers where hey it’s so much an hour to talk to us. This is just part of the service that when a customer signs up with us, we’ll work with them to design the home, fine tune things to make sure that it works. And what’s interesting about this is a lot of people, they might come in with a more modest budget and be embarrassed about it saying, oh gee I wish I was rich. Well we’ve done mega million dollar houses, and those people watch the dollars just like anyone else. So whether someone’s doing an ADU at a lower cost, a more mid-range home or an extremely high end home, it’s the same thing of navigating the design to make sure it works with the land, the family’s desires, the building departments, and then also the budget. And that I think is where people really find value in us is that we will take the time to help them and guide them through the level of help that they need to make their process going. We’re not like other panel companies where we’re just a supplier saying, hey, we’ll send you something. We’re like, hey, let’s help you understand what you’re doing so you can build your house, better control the budget, understand what’s going on and get the quality home you want.
So, yeah, take taking the their rough idea from a napkin sketch, a visual concept, where we work with them to get a complete set of buildable plans, that’s what we do every day. It’s it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s really interesting.
Host: You know, these questions bounce around a little bit, but I didn’t put them in any kind of category because mostly they’re not, they’re just kind of all over the map, but I think people are, these are things that people are searching online and that’s the reason I came up with this list. So, forgive me if it bounces around a little bit, but you did mention budgeting just a second ago. People are interested and curious about the budgeting for the stuff that nobody quotes them prices for. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s like there’s a, there’s a lot of budgeting that’s going on that isn’t exactly in your overall budget, but it’s, they can, they can run into overcosts if you’re not care, careful. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well, this is an interesting thing, because, you know, when a lot of people are designing their home, um, some people will look at the complete project, other people look at the what I’ll call, the fun stuff. The guy’s like, hey, I want my garage, I want my workshop here, you know, the family might be like, hey, we need a kitchen like this, we want a big island for when the family’s getting together and playing a game or, you know, watching a show or just laughing about the day’s events. So, there’s always those kind of cool, fun things, you know, the man cave, the, the theater, the, the family room, the basement, the master suite, the primary suite, I guess they’re called now. But primary suites, all these different things.
But, that’s all kind of the glitzy, kind of cool stuff that people talk about. What about the super exciting stuff like your foundation footer? You know, your electrical wire, your heating and cooling systems, you know, your, your plumbing? You know, and those are the things that sometimes people aren’t as up to speed with. Uh, just because it’s, it’s not something that you typically talk about. If you’re, if you’re getting together with your friends talking about your house, you know, guys might be like, oh, man, I got this great recreation room, I’m going to put a pool table down there, or hey, I got a garage where I’m going to work on the cars with my kids, you know, or hey, the wife may see, hey, we, we got a kitchen or we got a family room for everyone to get together on the holidays and enjoy family time. But how many people sit there and go, you know, my rebar is just the coolest thing in my house? Like, you’ve never heard that.
But that’s, that’s actually an important part of, of understanding that. That, by going through the plan phases with people, we bring that out to say, hey, this, here’s your foundation design, here’s a plumbing layout, here’s an electrical layout, now you have something solid to talk about when you’re approaching your contractors. So, that, those are the things that we work with.
Now, amazingly, all customers know that they have to do this, it just have they emphasized it or have they gotten to that point. So, we can help people, like if they say, hey, you know, what do I need to show an electrical contractor? We can show them, we can develop an electrical layout for their house plans for them to review with their electrical contractor. We can develop the plumbing layout, you know, we, we can develop, uh, details for HVAC design, so that when they’re going, they’re in a knowledge position to understand what they need so they can talk intelligently with their contractors, or if they need, the contractors can call us, and we’ll, we’ll walk through it with them.
But, um, you know, so that, that’s the thing. There’s always the glitzy fun things, oh, I got this great front door, hey, we have this back porch overlooking the yard, but what about the internal guts that maybe aren’t as flashy or sexy, like, hey, what type of insulation are we putting in our house? You know, and those are the things that we can work through people, or work with people, and the important thing is we’ll give them the, on our plans, the details that are there, we’ll review it with them so they understand, so that when they’re working with a subcontractor or contractor, they actually have a direction of what’s actually going to be made and built into the home.
And the cool thing about this is that when you have a real set of plans with real details, these contractors take them seriously. If you call a contractor up and say, how much is it to heat a 3000 square foot home, the contractor’s probably sitting there going, and like I joke with people, that’s like calling a grocery store and saying, how much is a bag of groceries? So, what we do is we give them the details to say, hey, here’s the plan, here’s the electrical layout, here’s the plumbing layout, you know, they can figure out the amount of siding, the amount of roofing, the amount of windows, so then they can work intelligently with their, uh, their suppliers and get it done.
So, um, they may, to answer your question, how do people budget for the things that people don’t quote or don’t completely understand, well, we’ll help them through the process so that they do understand it, so that they’re in position to, to work with the best contractors at the right price.
Host: Well, that makes sense. Um, a lot of, a lot of funny things where people are just not sure about the, uh, the terminology, they don’t have the lingo when it comes to building a house and, uh, and the construction and all that, that’s involved with that. And there’s, uh, a phrase that goes around the internet I’ve noticed called a, “a dry in day.” Explain what that is, what it actually looks like, and, uh, what’s involved in the dry in day.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, there’s a little bit of variation in what people might perceive as dry in, but in general, it’s where the wood structure is up, the roof is on, windows and doors are in, and maybe a moisture barrier around it. So, it’s dried in, so if it rains, the structure and the inside aren’t getting soaked. Got it. That, that’s, that’s basically what it is, and it’s, it’s kind of considered to be like a milestone in building of, hey, it’s dried in, maybe you still have to put the exterior siding, but then you could work inside, um, you know, on, you know, when, without the, the effects of weather.
What’s really cool, if, if I can digress a little, is this is also a situation of people that choose to build through winter, you know, in areas where, you know, the weather’s bad in winter, um, where, where they can go through and then get their pick of contractors, because generally in winter, the contractors slow down. So, we have a lot of customers that want to get their house framed in late fall so that in winter, they can work in when the house is dried in. Right.
So, um, but, yeah, dried in is basically where you could go inside the house and if it rains or snows or whatever, you’re, you’re protected from the elements. The windows are on, the doors are on, you know, everything’s lockable, um, and the roof is on. The interpretation I’ve had, some people say dry in is when the moisture barrier’s on, other people say when the siding’s on, you know, so that it’s, it’s fully, you know, weatherproofed.
Host: And I, you know, you don’t think about it, but like say California or Florida, your, your building season as, as it may be called, is, uh, is a lot longer than in other places, so that seems like an important, uh, aspect to have that dry in day.
Steve Tuma: Well, well, it is, but what, what’s interesting, parts of California that we work in, you know, we’ve done projects in like Joshua Tree in the deserts, it gets hot, and people don’t want to work when it’s 120 degrees, so, so, hey, or northern Minnesota, they’re freezing, you know, 1500, 1800 miles away, they’re cooking. So, that, that, our understanding of, of, you know, different parts of the country and how, um, you know, the effect of dry in or certain schedule is, is, is very important.
There are parts of the country where they have moratoriums on building during rainy seasons, you know, and we have to work around it or, or, uh, you know, just, you know, what, what’s reasonable. There are some more temperate parts of the country where they kind of go year round, like South Florida, sometimes it just gets really hot and people don’t want to work there, you know, it’s hot and humid, so.
Host: And the deserts, you might be praying for a wet in day then as opposed to a dry in day.
Steve Tuma: Right, right, right, so.
Host: Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about building off grid, that’s a big thing now. Everybody’s going from building little vans that they live in and travel around into to building houses in the middle of nowhere that with using a lot of solar and, and propane and, you know, putting in access roads where there’s no city hookups at the property line. Uh, let me talk about building remote or off grid, and what, are there pros and cons to that, and what’s your opinion on overall on that?
Steve Tuma: I think people should build where they want to, where it makes sense, you know, they should follow the rules, you know, sometimes there’s reasons you don’t want to build in certain areas like in swamps. But, but the, the point is, you know, building remote and off grid could be two different things. Remote could be you still have access to electric and, you know, you can get a well and a, you know, maybe some type of a septic, but maybe there’s still a road. And then there’s like off grid where you have no utilities. You’re, you’re working off solar, battery systems, maybe bringing water in and people fill up tanks or whatever types of, you know, uh, sewage systems they have.
But the concept is, is kind of the same. It’s really access to utilities. So, the, the idea of saying, hey, I want to go build and, you know, where my, my closest neighbor’s 70 miles away, the concept is still the same as if you were building in places that might be more populated, just more the, you know, what are you going to rely on for power.
And then also some places, um, zoning, like certain areas, you know, if, if you went in the middle of a populated city and say, I want to be total solar with compost toilets and stuff like that, their codes may not allow it, so there are areas that do allow off-grid building, generally more in the west, the western states where you can literally be off grid and have a, a self-contained home.
But the process for us is very similar. It’s the design, what house do you want, um, what type of foundation, what type of insulation, um, you know, different details on the structure. But what we’ve found on the remote properties or the off-grid properties, the people kind of start sliding into organic design. Because with off grid, there’s limited power, okay? So, with the solar systems, now there’s a lot of power, but they, they want to be, you know, conserve it, so they might have lot bigger overhangs to keep sun out in the heat of the day. They might have the orientation of the house advantageous to, you know, warm in winter, cool in summer.
So, there, there’s a lot more thinking of what, where you’re going to put the house and the design of the home. Generally people that are doing off-grid homes are not doing the same design of the house in, in a suburb. You know, it’s just different, you know, they’re, they’re doing something that might be a little more modern design with different roof pitches, different glass to, to uh, allow for uh, the use of natural energy, but also keep, you know, the heat or the cool out.
So, we’re, we’re completely capable of, of working with people on this, this uh, the whole process, um, you know, whether it’s in a highly populated area with, you know, lot line, you know, building setbacks that are zero right on the lot line, or if it’s off grid where, you know, people can see for miles and miles and not see a neighbor. So, the process is the same. It’s more the understanding of, of, of energy where whether it’s solar, you know, they’re gaining solar or they’re protecting the house from solar heating the house, so there could be different types of roof systems, roof designs, roof coverings, windows, orientation, um, and also sometimes drainage systems like, do people want to keep the gray water for the yard?
So, we’re, we’re fully capable of, of helping people like that, and it’s, those projects are really, really interesting. The people that want to do it have generally researched things and have an idea, they just need someone to, to put it together, and, and even though some of these might be off grid, um, most of them are still under some type of control on the building permit, and we’re able to, to help the people uh, um, navigate that. And if they’re in an area that doesn’t need or has very limited building department uh, access, you know, we’re, we’re still there to help them make sure it’s built right, just because, you know, the building department isn’t there doesn’t mean you still, you don’t want to build cheap, you, you want to build it right. There’s, you still want the protection from snow loads and wind loads and different things like that, so, we’re able, we’re able to help someone uh, through, through that process, and some of those projects are, you know, really dazzling. They, they may not be huge mega-dollar houses, but the achievement of the design and the minimization of reliance on power, you know, grid power is, is pretty amazing. So, it’s uh, it’s pretty cool.
Host: You know, I’ve been, I’ve been seeing a lot of people in a lot of these search engines, uh, people who are thinking of building a house, they’re talking about multi-generational house building, um, and I didn’t even think about it until I started seeing this, and it’s uh, you know, people are, are used to be a lot of, you know, build a house and turn it over and then build another house and turn it around, but now people are designing their homes for the long haul, they, they, they’re expecting their, their kids and their grandkids to be in these same houses. What, what are your thoughts on that uh, multi-generational uh, build, building uh, design?
Steve Tuma: Well, I, I think it’s pretty interesting, because sometimes it’s multi-generational in that, you know, three generations can live there, but then it’s also, you know, as someone passes through the generations, you know, okay, they, they started as a kid, then they, then they get married, they have kids, then maybe they’re the, the grandparents, and where do they live? So, I think that, that cuts into some of this affordability detail, the reasonableness of the cost of living, but also the support of living, because, you know, cost of housing’s getting higher, we’re able to help people control the cost to something that works with them, but if someone’s going to work with uh, you know, a certain pay scale, how can they afford child care?
So, it’s kind of cool they have the grandparents or, you know, kids there.
Host: Well, yeah, it’s to me it’s definitely pro-family for sure, but it’s like, you know, if your kid grows up and he gets married, in the past it was like, well, this house is too small for two wives and you got the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law and they’re not getting along, but now it looks like people are looking to build for having multiple families live in one house and then the younger generation takes over from the older generation, but maybe the olders stay around and they, and they are taken care of in the same house and it keeps people from having to be moved into homes and things like that. I like it.
Steve Tuma: That, that’s what we’re seeing more and more of is, is taking care of mom and dad or the, the in-laws or something like that. So, what we’re seeing is the desire for people to maintain a quality of life. Um, so sometimes it’s the financial thing of hey, if, if you lived in Los Angeles where you can afford houses are ridiculous, but hey, if you go out a little and have a multi-generational home, your family can live in a more affordable place closer to work. So, that’s one sense of multi-generational, and then the other sense is, I got to take care of mom and dad or brother and sister or, or whoever, whoever it, it may be. We’ve, we’ve had families that have autistic, uh, family members, so, they’ll, they’ll have like a separate unit in the house, whether it’s a big bonus room, an ADU, or a separate room, and that in a sense acts as the same thing as if it were a grandparent or a, a younger family member that, that needed help moving along with, with life.
So, we’re seeing a lot of that. Sometimes it’s in the form of uh, a home with a walkout basement where the walkout basement is made to be very livable. Sometimes it’s a big bonus room over the garage that in a sense becomes its own apartment. Sometimes it’s its own separate actual ADU, casita, granny flat, whatever you may call it, where it’s literally a, a set, a separate building, and then we’ve also had people do things to design things for what may happen in the future, the aging in place situations, where sometimes people say, hey, I’m going to build a four-car garage because I know in 10 years someone’s going to need help and part of that garage is going to become a separate apartment, or they’ve done it for, for, for rental or short-term rentals that then maybe a family member would move into.
So, there’s that sense, but then there’s also aging in place on just the consideration of the width of doorways, kind of an ADA-type thing of hey, have, have easily accessible uh, bathrooms, you know, turnaround space, space to go there. We’re having more and more people doing the sunken showers, so instead of, you know, walking into a, a bathroom with a flat floor, you know, then stepping over a ridge to get into a shower, it’s literally a, a no, no, no difference in elevation where they can roll into a shower.
So, there’s a lot of people that are considering this, and I think what’s happening is they’re using their home to gain massive equity and wealth over time, and what they’re finding is if they build a quality home now when they’re 20, 30, 40, 50, whatever it may be, when they’re at the 60, 70, 80 range, they have a huge equity position and a house that makes sense for them. Right. You know, so they’re, they’re, they’re not saying, hey, I’m going to live in this house for five years and move, um, they’re saying, hey, I’m going to be here for 30 years, let’s, let’s look about where I may or may not be in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and sometimes people uh, do that for, you know, any health concerns or maneuverability issues, but sometimes they also do it to say, hey, you know, this, this is kind of going down a separate path to say, hey, I could build this house and then later I could call Landmark and we could add this other wing on. You know, so, sometimes there’s, there’s, there’s long range plans and how to do it.
And here, here’s another thing which is kind of a, a deeper spin on aging in place. I’ll call it what I’ve determined is the, the kind of heirloom home where people are like, hey, I’ve got a few families doing this now, it’s like, I’m a grandparent now, I want to see my family. So, they’re developing houses where the family can come in and live, convertible spaces, a den that becomes an extra bedroom, you know, a walkout basement that’s a, a rec room that could easily be a suite for a, a family with a few kids.
So, a lot of people are going back to the, hey, let’s keep my family together, let’s know who we are. We’re, we’re living in this digital age where everyone’s connected, but less and less people know each other. So, there, there’s a, there’s a concern of people to say, hey, when the family’s here for the holidays, birthdays, any other special events, let’s make sure everyone’s comfortable. So, sometimes a lot of people think aging in place is the simplification, other people say, hey, I want to keep my family together, you know, whether someone needs to come back for whatever reasons or whether, hey, we want to make sure that we do the, the big holidays together so our family knows each other.
Um, we’ve actually had houses, um, you know, 1200 square foot ranches where walls and doors were put together so that people can open up a walkout basement or main living room and have 30 people over for the holidays. In a, in a relatively modest home, so, it just takes a little bit of thinking and design time and we get it taken care of, and that, that’s the cool thing about it is not just helping someone build a home, but helping someone build a home for what makes sense in their life today, tomorrow, and a little bit down the road. I guess that’s the long answer about aging in place.
Host: I really like that phrase, that turn of phrase, heirloom home, that’s really nice, pro-family.
Steve Tuma: Well, we, we’ve got a lot of people doing that, it’s like, you know, I’ve dreamed about this in my, my whole life, I’m leaving this to my kids so they have a place to get together. We did a, a big house in Northern Michigan, we have one in, uh, West Virginia where the guy had a vision when he’s 15 that he wants to retire in a certain place and have his family there, he found 300 acres, contiguous acres, and he’s, he’s putting a house up, uh, couple in New Mexico that we’re doing, like Angel Fire, New Mexico in the mountains, Santa Fe area, where people are, uh, are having these kind of spots to say, hey, we’re, we’re getting together.
What’s interesting is some of these are new land purchases, but what’s really cool is sometimes grandpa bought it 70 years ago and then no one’s built on it, and the family’s coming together. Right. So, there, there’s something really, really cool there. So, you know, I’m a guy that wants to be as healthy as I can, and when you see aging in place, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re degrading, it maybe it means that everyone’s coming together, you got the kitchen for everyone to make their food, the garage for people to tinker, the backyard for people to run around and barbecue or whatever it is, so. It’s, uh, it, it’s, it’s pretty cool.
Um, someone out there saying, hey, how do you deal with that if there’s 20 family members? How do you deal with that to design a home? Generally, they, they appoint one or two people and then we work with them to, to get the design. So,
Host: You know, that all of that leads into another, uh, sort of inquiry that people are making online, and that’s, uh, non-traditional builds, and people are, you know, using phrases like barndominiums and, of course, the, uh, ADUs and guest cottages, and, and, in most interesting to me is people building sort of shops with, uh, with living quarters above them or attached to them as panelized projects, that’s a, that’s interesting. How much of that are you guys doing now? Do you find it’s, it’s, it’s higher than it used to be, or what do you think?
Steve Tuma: Well, what I’m finding is all of those processes as far as our internal process, we can take care of all of those. Sometimes there’s just, you know, the phrase of the year, you know, a while back after the economic crash, it was tiny homes. Everyone was tiny homing it. Now people are saying barndominiums, you know, someone came up with that little rage, and there’s TV shows and a whole bunch of stuff about it.
There’s nothing different about it that we can’t do, because it’s still you’re designing a home for a particular customer’s need. You’re engineering it, supplying all the details so that they can go build it. So whether someone says big boxy home with tall ceilings or barndominiums, it’s kind of the same thing. Barndominiums just has a certain bite to it or certain pizzazz where I think it is.
But yeah, we’ve done a bunch of barndominiums. I would just call them just big, space-efficient, large homes. But what they are is it’s sometimes a support of a lifestyle. We helped a family in Colorado do it on land that they’ve owned, that’s been in the family, and as a family goes out, they don’t have as much time, but this family was all centered in motorhomes. So they had the grandparents with this, the center family this, the younger family had a smaller one. So what they did on this land that someone bought 60 or 70 years ago, is they built a house—big barndominium, big open living room with a view of the mountain range, tall ceilings—and then a variety of suites in it. And then in the back was a big garage where you could put three or four motorhomes. So they can put them in there, maybe have to live in them if there’s extra guests there, but they can maintain them, clean them, get them all set up, and then open the door and hit the road.
So, yeah, barndominiums to me has been a buzzword that someone developed up here, but they’re not true barns. I mean, it might be that look. I think eventually where that came from is there’s probably a barn that someone said, “Hey, we can make it in a living space,” or use barn-type construction, which a lot of places will not allow, so it’s become a buzzword. But before barndominiums came up, they were just big houses with huge attached garages and big wrap-around porches.
Host: I’ve noticed that most of the people inquiring about barndominiums are artist types—people who are living upstairs, but they’ve got an open space below to create, to build a gallery, a paint studio, or welding artists, things like that.
Steve Tuma: The ones we’ve worked on have been kind of tied to a lifestyle, whether it’s equestrians—you know, horses—ranching, being in nature, big family get-togethers, whatever it may be. So that’s what I look at.
But yeah, you brought up ADUs, guest cottages, kind of the same thing. ADU, additional dwelling unit. In some places with high populations, that’s to make more affordable housing. There’s incentives or things that make it easier for people to build it so that you could put up a little house, say in a place that’s more expensive to live in, so that a variety of people can live in the community. That in a sense could be a guest cottage, so it could be a 400, 500, 600, 700 square-foot home that in a sense is self-contained. It’s maybe two bedrooms, a bath, bath and a half, kitchen, living room, maybe its own garage, so that people can live individually.
And then the other thing is the shops with living quarters above. We have a lot of people doing that. Sometimes on bigger projects, if someone’s like, “Hey, this is my house, I’ve got to do this for whatever reasons—financials, personal life situations, whatever—I want to build my first one as a house with a garage under it,” living space, the old-time coach house someone might say, where there was space for the vehicles below and then living space above, and then down the road, they’re going to go put their big house behind it. So sometimes it’s a stepping stone. Other times, in today’s work-from-home situations or self-employment, artists, or whatever it may be, or hobbyists, people want to have a shop there with additional living space for guests, themselves, whatever it is.
But the thing about it is, this was labeled non-traditional builds or different, or the buzzwords of tiny homes, barndominiums. We have a very flexible process. If someone wants to design a 200 square-foot home, we could do it. If someone wants to design a 20,000 square-foot home, we can do it. Whether you call it a house, a barndominium, an ADU, whatever it is, the process for us is there. So, yes, Landmark can do barndominiums, ADUs, mansions, tiny homes, homes with airplane hangars on them. We can do homes with big man caves, she-sheds, whatever it is, because it’s really just the designing of a structure around a particular use.
We’ve had people where their concern was the kitchen. Just give me three bedrooms, but this is my kitchen, and they’re going to detail it out to the nth degree. We have some families that have airplanes, so they want their airplane in a hangar under the house or to the side of the house. We have people that build houses by water areas where they want a boat house there. We have people that are into car restoration or antique cars. We have people that are artists that have their own shops, studios there. We have people in audio-visual that have their own little places there where they can run a business, and sometimes it’s hobby and sometimes it’s business.
So we’re able to do this. The concept of, “Hey, we can’t do a barndominium”—well, barndominium is just a word for a certain design. So if someone wants to come to us and do an 1880s Victorian, we can do it. If they want to do a ’50s mid-century modern, we can do it. If they want to do the after-the-war affordable house, we can do it. We’ve done stuff like this. We did some in Leadville, Colorado, where it’s a mining town, where the miners had designs of a certain way, certain simple worker cottage designs. We’ve had people do that, and then we’ve done some extreme modern designs and very custom designs.
The key to it is we have a full design team where people can come up with the idea, we can draw it so that they can understand it, and we work together to fine-tune it and do it. So whether it’s called a guest house, a mansion, a tiny home, a barndominium, or whatever word someone comes up with next year for a house, we can do it because we’re designing a living space using the efficiency of the panelized system and our ability to make sure it’s energy-efficient and structurally sound. So it’s very flexible.
Host: Well, if you’re good to go, we’ve got one more question in our top 10 online inquiries list here, so let me throw that at you. That’s people are wondering about the importance of reading the fine print of any panelized home package or basically any kind of a build package. I guess you at Landmark do a lot of coaching?
Steve Tuma: Well, what we do is we work with people. What you’re getting at there is how do you know that your house is getting designed right? How do you know you’re going to get what you want? Because a lot of people look at panelized homes like a gallon of milk. They think that they’re all the same: just go get it, get a cheap price, and hope it shows up. But the reality of it is they’re not all the same.
You could say a 2×6 is a 2×6. To a certain degree that’s right; there’s different grades, different species, but how is it used? So, not specifically on just the 2×6, but the overall design of the house. All of us have been in houses where it’s like, “Yeah, it’s a nice house,” and then all of us have been in homes where you go, “You know, this is just comfortable. It flows well, the windows are cool, the kitchen works, the bathroom works.” That’s because someone designed it right.
So that could be for the enjoyment of being in the home, but it can also be for the actual efficiency—energy efficiency, the flow of it, the use of materials, hitting the budget right. And that’s one of those things that people will go through and say, “I got the best this, I got the best that.” Well, sometimes that’s a result of experience, recommendations, or reviews.
And I think what someone has to do if they’re looking around saying, “How do I know on a panelized home package, how do I know I’m getting taken care of?” What’s interesting is people will call me, they’ll talk to us and say, “Hey, Steve, we really like your panel package here, this and that.” This just happened to me where a person came and said, “Hey, this other company is a little cheaper.” It was like 2% cheaper on a very expensive home. At first, I was like, what’s the point? Pick the company that’ll take care of you, but with the amount of money it was, this 2% was a reasonable amount of money, and we went through and said, “Hey, who’s designing it? What about this? What about this? Your floor system’s missing.”
So you’ve got to have an understanding of what it is that you need, and it’s not necessarily just the panel package as itself, it’s the design, the support, making sure someone’s paying attention to the design as it applies for your family’s need and the location that you’re building. Because there’s always ways to brush through and say, “Oh, that’s good enough,” and then there’s ways to say, “Hey, let’s sit back, let’s take a look at this, and make sure that it’s right for what this family wants.”
We had a situation just today on a person building in New York where they wanted a heated floor system on a house. They’re building kind of a barndominium-type of a home. There’s living space to the side, it’s two stories, it’s all on a slab, and then there’s a garage area that’s about 1,400 square feet. He’s got his collector cars and a big motorhome there. Something came up on the energy calculations that just the nature of the design, it wasn’t working with the energy calculations. So we could have done something to make it pass—it would have been very expensive for the customer, but it would have passed. Instead, we’re like, “Hey, wait a second. Let’s work with the different types of insulation on the slab, the type of heating and cooling systems, the different types of roof structures so that we could put better insulation in certain places, insulate the walls.” So we were able to have the house pass the energy efficiency standards, but still keep it in a price range that was sensible.
So what I’m trying to differentiate is when people say, “Hey, my house is energy efficient,” compared to “It was designed right so it’s not just energy efficient, it’s affordable, and it makes sense today, tomorrow, and in the future.” So those are the things that nine out of ten customers don’t ask us; we bring it up, because it’s not just a matter of saying, “Hey, give me a kitchen, give me a window, give me a garage.” It’s like, “Hey, let me put this together.”
Now, we don’t go so deep that it’s analysis paralysis, but we do go to a point of saying, “Hey, this is sensible. If we can take a little time to go through and do things a certain way, we can.” So in this particular case I was bringing up about the project in New York, we probably spent an extra couple hours working with the energy calculations, some structural design, some insulation details, and my estimation is it probably saved the customer about $10,000. We didn’t charge extra for it. No, $10,000 no matter what your budget is is appreciated, and so people can put it into something—you know, they can save the money or they can put it into something that really adds a little extra to their home.
And I think that’s the point that not all people understand is panelized homes are not all the same. It’s not like a gallon of milk. These are all different homes. It’s how you design it, it’s how you use it. Is the consideration of energy efficiency there? Is the consideration of ease of building there? Is the consideration of overall reasonableness in construction and affordability?
So that I think is where we really stand out—is we’re able to get deep into the design to explain to people, “Hey, you want this type of a roof rafter.” I’m going through that right now. Again, this project is in New York. This is a different one than I just spoke about, but there’s a big, sweeping roofline. Well, do you do that sweeping roofline with a 2×12, an I-joist, or a parallel chord roof truss? So in the process, we’re working with the truss designers, the I-joist designers, the structural engineers, the architectural designers, and the energy code people to see which the best balance is to make sure the design is met, the structure’s met, but also the energy efficiencies met.
It’s pretty neat to see this all come together, and because we have these resources and experience and knowledge, and most importantly, desire to do it this way, the customer ends up with a better home at a great price. And they understand it, they see the value of it, and it’s a home that they designed with our help.
Host: Back to my original observation though, you guys do a lot of coaching for your customers. Some people say, “Well, you know, I’ve got my Uncle Bob, he’s been a contractor for years, he knows how to build,” but most people don’t have that readily available, and I think it’s cool that Landmark provides as just a no-cost extra service. You guys are really good at coaching people through a building process.
Steve Tuma: Well, it’s also just our passion and desire. It’s the type of people we are to help our customers go through, because I’m not the type of person—all of us have had it where someone says, “Just do it, it’s the right thing.” Well, who’s determined it’s the right thing? So I’d rather spend the time to go, “Hey, customers, we have these options, this is what I’m thinking, this is what makes sense, does it work for you?” And invariably, they always say, “Yeah, thanks for taking the time to do this, we didn’t even think about it.”
Because who thinks about it? When you talk to your friends about building a home, it’s always, “Oh, we got this great kitchen,” or “My garage is this,” or “We got a rec room in the basement.” Whoever sat there and said, “You know, the structure of my roof is optimized for energy efficiency in my budget?” No one. But that’s the business we’re in—to help people take care of things like that. So, yeah, it’s coaching, but it’s also just good old basic do the right thing. That’s the cool thing about it.
Host: What I’m getting to is that when people buy from Landmark, they’re not on a meter. You know, the clock’s not running.
Steve Tuma: That’s a reflection of the passion about it. It’s like, take a little time now to work through all those things so that when the customer’s in the house, they appreciate it.
Did I tell you that we got a—this happened last summer. It was like a Saturday afternoon, I was just relaxing, and I’m like, “Oh, I’ll check emails, see if anyone needs something,” and I got an email from a customer we helped about 20 years ago. They said, “Steve, you may not remember us”—and I did, because I’ve worked with every single customer in 32 years. I remember their project. They said, “We built with you 20 years ago. Friends came here and we’re still bragging about our house. It’s been hit by three hurricanes and a tornado went by where the town steeple was blown away. I think they said two miles away they found the steeple of the church. And they said, ‘It’s a beautiful home. You always told us it’s a good home, but after what we’ve experienced, we are now really appreciative of all the work that you did, and we wanted to reach out.'”
You know what that feels like after 20 years for someone to contact you out of nowhere and say thank you?
Host: It’s got to be a good feeling.
Steve Tuma: That’s the ultimate thing, and when that happens, it’s like, hey, I want to make sure that happens 20 years from now. Let’s get better every day and help people work on their design so that they understand what’s going on and that they’re building a viable home. There’s a lot of places to sort out how to build a house, but are you doing it right? Is it right for now, the long term? Are people working with you to get the house that you want if your budget’s tight, which pretty much everyone’s is? What’s being done to navigate it to get you the most of what’s available for the house that’s there so that you spend your money on a house that you’re proud of? My belief is you should drive up to your house after a hard day’s work and go, “Yeah, this is it, this is cool.” That’s what’s amazing about it. We’re here to help people and have a lot of fun.
Host: And that’s what it’s all about. That’s going to about wrap it up for today’s edition, Episode 90 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But before we let you go, Steve, as we usually like to do, let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys are doing over there.
Steve Tuma: Well, the best thing to do is check us out on our website at LHLC.com. The company name is Landmark Home and Land Company, but LHLC.com, they can find it. On our website, there’s discussions of what we do, there’s pictures, there’s videos, there’s these podcasts. I think we have 6,000 plans—it only says 1,600 or something, but we have 6,000 plans where people can go through, pick a plan out, and then send an inquiry and say, “Hey, I want to build this house. My name’s Joe Smith, I want to build in Las Cruces, New Mexico,” or wherever it may be, and then we’ll get back with them and work with them.
They can also call 800-830-9788, and Mike will answer the phone. We’re very good at answering phones. If you do get voicemail, leave a message; we will call you back right away. Mike will initially work with customers up front, just sorting out the details, what needs to be done, kind of getting a feel, hey, do they have land, where is it, what type of design, and then at a certain point, I’ll start working with them to finalize the details and really get the plans going and make their project happen.
So that’s the best thing to do, and then we’re also on social medias—all the main outlets: X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. So people can check us out there, but I think the most important thing is check out the website and then give us a call, and then we could have a one-on-one conversation of exactly what it is that they want to build and how it applies to them. That’s what we want to do—is get specific on this family, this house, this piece of land, and what they’re trying to achieve.
And then people are always welcome to call me. My direct cell phone is 708-205-2043, and it’d be fun to talk to people, see how they like the podcasts, see what we can do to help them. Whether someone wants to start building today or it’s a project a year or two or longer out, we’re here to help them. We’ll be here. We’ve been here 33 years; we’re looking forward to the next 33.
Host: Not going anywhere. That’s a good thing.
Steve Tuma: We’re having too much fun. There’s too many cool houses and great people out there to help.
Host: Yeah, and there’s so much on that website too, LHLC.com, including many, many more archived versions of these episodes of this podcast, and a lot of cool videos and stuff, too, so I encourage everybody to check out the website.
Steve Tuma: Yes. Well, hey, this was a really interesting one, a lot of little twists and turns in the conversation, but I hope a lot of important, valuable information that people think about, but don’t necessarily always—you know, it’s not always the forefront of conversation.
Host: Yeah, well, we bounced around a lot, but I really appreciate the fact that you have so much knowledge that you’re able to field questions coming from all over the place and make them listener-friendly, which is great.
Steve Tuma: Well, we’re coming from a point of real-life experience, too, so we’ve helped so many people in different situations that if we haven’t seen it, it’ll be a surprise, but I think we can help almost anyone, so we’d love them to contact us. Thanks.
Host: There you go. Thanks again, Steve, and thanks to all of you for listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. So for Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead, and we will see you next time. Thanks, Steve.
Steve Tuma: Thank you. Bye.
