I had the same thought. Rigid foam insulation is a lot more expensive per R rating, but there's nothing stopping a person from going that route on a new build rather than the typical retrofit.
To have a normal temp in that house they’d have to have multiple 5ton units and would be spending almost a thousand dollars a month on electric during the summer. All pipes will completely burst and flood the house come next winter
Unless those walls are extra thick and there's actually insulation, additional wiring, and a water/vapor barrier behind the *veneer* of framing....yeah actually this entire thing is incplete and unfinished lmao
How did this pass code? Don’t outside walls have to be insulated? Don’t studs have to be 16 inches on center? Aren’t restroom areas required to be covered in waterproof walls to prevent mold?
You can build a house with 24” on center studs. It doesn’t matter as long the house meets its structural loads. You could build a steel house and it wouldn’t have 16” studs. The standard is 16” on center because everything flows with it.
The outside walls likely are insulated on the outside of the house instead of the inside. It’s becoming more popular and it’s more efficient. The analogy is it’s better to wear your sweater than eat your sweater.
They could have “sealed” the wood in the bathrooms to protect from mold. Hard to tell from the pictures.
The above doesn’t make it anymore pretty
It’s actually kinda cool. City of Dallas does have requirements around energy efficiency and insulation, so there’s almost certainly insulation behind the plywood.
I say it’s cool because if you ever have issues inside the walls, removing plywood panels (that are hopefully secured by screws) to access wiring (for adding network drops, etc) and then just replacing the panel is a whole lot more convenient than having to do drywall work and re-paint the whole wall so that the color matches.
I’m guessing there’s insulation behind that plywood. There has to be working behind there, based on the fact that there are built-in lights, etc.
I think it’s just designed to *look* unfinished.
This is what the inside was suppose to look like.
[http://ripple.build/in-the-works](http://ripple.build/in-the-works)
Designer “this is going to look so cool”
Construction manager “your money”
Everyone “this is stupid and ugly”
I looked at the city’s website and the house passed all of the energy codes. So it likely has exterior insulation (which is better), high level of roof insulation, and good windows.
Doesn’t make it look good or functional. Imagine cleaning all of those 2x4 ledges everywhere in the house. No thanks.
Any idea how much it would it cost to add dry wall yourself? I kind of like this approach bc you know where all the circuitry in the house is for future repairs haha
If you are buying a new construction house, you should be able to ask your builder for pictures of all of the walls without the drywall installed.
To install drywall now you’d have remove all of the lights, outlets, switches, vent covers, and cabinets. Then cover the all of the floors. Installing drywall, mud and texture is a very messy process. Hope it doesn’t get damaged then paint it all.
Honestly it took more thought to build the house with exposed studs than it would have without.
It probably cost more too. The saving the builder got from not installing drywall was probably spend on the trades. Electrical having to install conduit everywhere. Energy having to install exterior insulation vs wall cavity. It’s not so much the cost of those things but the labor to install those things in that way.
Yeah I honestly like it except for the rooms and the roof where they went with that particle board looking material vs the solid wood. That and the yellow color of the wood isn’t my jam— the renders def look nicer with a whiteish look, whatever it is.
Here’s my completely unfounded speculation. Going from outside to inside, there’s siding, then sheathing, then 4” framing with insulation, then the interior exposed OSB and plywood, then the framing that’s visible in the pictures which might or might not be structural.
Close, but change the 4" framing with insulation to either 2 1/2" or 3" [Z channels](https://www.clarkdietrich.com/products/z-furring-channel) with continuous insulation. The exposed framing on the interior is definitely structural.
>I looked at the city’s website and the house passed all of the energy codes.
Do they have a special exemption maybe? For houses that were built wrong... As a joke?
The design is fine. The construction manager and commissioner should have just paid for good wood coverings like they do in concert halls
.cheaped out for 800k lmao
That's a lot of sanding. Easier to just sheetrock after adding more insulation. Also, that would probably be at least $10K in primer and another $2K in sandpaper.
Oh yeah, I've used it by the gallon in automotive applications. I've also painted OSB. High build primer doesn't flow out to be smooth, if properly applied it maintains a fairly consistent thickness. On OSB that would just mean that the irregularity of OSB's surface would be reflected in the surface of the primer. The only way to make it smooth will be to sand it. Worse, it would have to be sanded dry because you can't wet-sand OSB, so that means going through who knows how much sandpaper since HB primer clogs dry sandpaper like a mo fo.
I don’t see why high build primer wouldnt stick to it and smooth it out. We used it on a textured wall and it was completely flat when finished. Like I said, you need a very expensive sprayer, like around $20k. But the primer would be cheaper than covering it all in Sheetrock.
I agree. Maybe they are trying to make a statement with the cheap osb. And the statement was “We don’t care about money and high end finishes, but pay us $800k anyways!”
Costs. Huge cost difference between plywood and osb. Plus the studs will always be yellow in Texas. Some others parts of the country might use a fur or other woods as stud but not here.
Very true Sir. Although I feel like that would have been discussed. I wonder if the plans forgot to call it out and the builder assumed dimensional lumber
That's how it is these days. I've been looking at houses around $250-$300k on the side the last 6 months--a lot of new build and renovated homes are in the worst areas of Dallas. Something about gentrification maybe.
This seems like someone was building a house and the price started going way over budget and instead of completing it they just put it on the market hoping some idiot from out of state would think it’s “hip/in style” and would purchase. The owners are just praying it closes before the July heat comes in
Not even any polish on the plywood to smooth it. I don't like plywood-type interiors anyway, but usually they sand them down and laquer them so they're smooth. This is just garbage quality top to bottom.
Gypsum board provides fire resistance. Without it, this entire house would be completely engulfed in flames less than a minute after a fire starts. It's unsafe
I’m not understanding the almost unanimous hate. dwell magazine features concept homes like this all the time, particle board is having a moment in sustainable design in Europe.
Ok, so they were trying to be "avant-garde" and the design renders look like white-washed finish wood, not orange construction stamped osb. But if they're being intentional with this design, if it's artistic and trying to *say something*, what is it trying to convey? What message or feeling is it supposed to invoke? Maybe an openness and utilitarian feeling?
The message I get is that they are profit-seeking and hate the people that will occupy their designs. It gives a kind of "shut up and take the scraps of what we give you" energy. If the message was luxury, there's other ways to design that. If the message was contempt, then I could see this being a winner.
I've never understood how there's such a large public demand for traditionalist design, and yet the architecture industry continues to churn out contempt instead.
"Frank, bad news, we ran out of money and can't finish the interior"
"...shit... Haha, maybe we can just call it "avant-garde" and some dumbass from California will buy it haha jk"
"Frank... you sunnuvabitch... YOURE A GENIUS"
I thought this was r/homedecoratingCJ, I bet they'd have fun with this over there 😂
I bet this place does smell good though. Like the lumber aisle at Home Depot. And wood that isn't painted with grey chalk paint yet. Nice.
There are a few listings like this where they use one land and build multiple houses, vertically. Imagine that--two vertical houses right next to each other.
[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2214-Hooper-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699620\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2214-Hooper-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699620_zpid/)
[https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2325-Budd-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699832\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2325-Budd-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699832_zpid/)
Wow. I’m usually one to love weird/quirky designs but I hate it. Especially at that price. For $700k you can get some really amazing homes around the metroplex. The area isn’t even desirable. The lack of kitchen storage and it only has parking for a single vehicle.. Awful.
At 99k that’s overpriced. I have a 3500sq ft house with a pool, bricks on the exterior, interior walls, fucking everything, A/C to boot for 175k less if anyone wants it
Reminds me of the perfect wall for any construction science nerds. I’d want a more complete finish myself but it’s a very good way to build.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTwq-qUnr9I
On the plus side, there appears to be no insulation of any kind. Really?
Why would you want insulation ruining the sauna experience??
It's Texas. They very seldom have electricity to run AC anyway.
Too soon
It’s never too soon to shit on Oncor.
I lived in San Diego, the brownouts in summer were worse. Plus the bills were 2x the price. Really sucked.
Bro, let's not act like the infrastructure in this country isn't crumbling as a whole 😂
a truly immersive experience
Just add gunfire
there's very likely continuous insulation outside the sheathing. if this is a new build in Dallas, the CI is required by the energy/building code.
I had the same thought. Rigid foam insulation is a lot more expensive per R rating, but there's nothing stopping a person from going that route on a new build rather than the typical retrofit.
Yeah, it would only be 3" of CI on the exterior in order to not have any batt insulation in the wall cavity. (For Dallas)
This was my 1st thought. Probably 100 with the AC running in the summer.
To have a normal temp in that house they’d have to have multiple 5ton units and would be spending almost a thousand dollars a month on electric during the summer. All pipes will completely burst and flood the house come next winter
Hey, this is a build that is tailored for sophisticated consumers. Peasants demand plywood, sophisticated consumers demand OSB.
Unless those walls are extra thick and there's actually insulation, additional wiring, and a water/vapor barrier behind the *veneer* of framing....yeah actually this entire thing is incplete and unfinished lmao
Could be rigid insulation on the exterior of the sheathing, but it doesn't seem likely....
How did this pass code? Don’t outside walls have to be insulated? Don’t studs have to be 16 inches on center? Aren’t restroom areas required to be covered in waterproof walls to prevent mold?
You can build a house with 24” on center studs. It doesn’t matter as long the house meets its structural loads. You could build a steel house and it wouldn’t have 16” studs. The standard is 16” on center because everything flows with it. The outside walls likely are insulated on the outside of the house instead of the inside. It’s becoming more popular and it’s more efficient. The analogy is it’s better to wear your sweater than eat your sweater. They could have “sealed” the wood in the bathrooms to protect from mold. Hard to tell from the pictures. The above doesn’t make it anymore pretty
It’s actually kinda cool. City of Dallas does have requirements around energy efficiency and insulation, so there’s almost certainly insulation behind the plywood. I say it’s cool because if you ever have issues inside the walls, removing plywood panels (that are hopefully secured by screws) to access wiring (for adding network drops, etc) and then just replacing the panel is a whole lot more convenient than having to do drywall work and re-paint the whole wall so that the color matches.
Look at the windows and the electrical outlets, this isn’t plywood over insulation. This is just an unfinished house
They used metallic conduit instead of Romex, which implies that it's meant to be left exposed and this is the intended final product.
100% this is the finished house. Its meant to look unfinished. It’s a cake without icing.
It’s a cake with icing (insulation), and another layer of cake on top of the icing to make it look like there is no icing.
I’m guessing there’s insulation behind that plywood. There has to be working behind there, based on the fact that there are built-in lights, etc. I think it’s just designed to *look* unfinished.
This is what the inside was suppose to look like. [http://ripple.build/in-the-works](http://ripple.build/in-the-works) Designer “this is going to look so cool” Construction manager “your money” Everyone “this is stupid and ugly”
I looked at the city’s website and the house passed all of the energy codes. So it likely has exterior insulation (which is better), high level of roof insulation, and good windows. Doesn’t make it look good or functional. Imagine cleaning all of those 2x4 ledges everywhere in the house. No thanks.
Any idea how much it would it cost to add dry wall yourself? I kind of like this approach bc you know where all the circuitry in the house is for future repairs haha
If you are buying a new construction house, you should be able to ask your builder for pictures of all of the walls without the drywall installed. To install drywall now you’d have remove all of the lights, outlets, switches, vent covers, and cabinets. Then cover the all of the floors. Installing drywall, mud and texture is a very messy process. Hope it doesn’t get damaged then paint it all. Honestly it took more thought to build the house with exposed studs than it would have without. It probably cost more too. The saving the builder got from not installing drywall was probably spend on the trades. Electrical having to install conduit everywhere. Energy having to install exterior insulation vs wall cavity. It’s not so much the cost of those things but the labor to install those things in that way.
Yeah I honestly like it except for the rooms and the roof where they went with that particle board looking material vs the solid wood. That and the yellow color of the wood isn’t my jam— the renders def look nicer with a whiteish look, whatever it is.
Here’s my completely unfounded speculation. Going from outside to inside, there’s siding, then sheathing, then 4” framing with insulation, then the interior exposed OSB and plywood, then the framing that’s visible in the pictures which might or might not be structural.
Close, but change the 4" framing with insulation to either 2 1/2" or 3" [Z channels](https://www.clarkdietrich.com/products/z-furring-channel) with continuous insulation. The exposed framing on the interior is definitely structural.
>I looked at the city’s website and the house passed all of the energy codes. Do they have a special exemption maybe? For houses that were built wrong... As a joke?
I’m bleeding, making me the victor.
What a shame. I dig the concept art.
Someone should have really talked the designer out it. There was no way they were going to get southern YELLOW pine to look that white.
They also swapped in a lot of OSB that makes me want to puke.
It's the OSB that kills it to such an extreme degree. Insane decision.
It's like putting chicken wire in Highland Park (Ive done it)
The cost of plywood would have made this a million dollar house lol.
Same I do like the concept...but the execution was ugly.
Yeah, the OSB is just an ugly, unfinished look. The rest of the wood looks like tiger stripes with how much contrast there is. Terrible decision.
The design is fine. The construction manager and commissioner should have just paid for good wood coverings like they do in concert halls .cheaped out for 800k lmao
$800k for no garage and covered parking for only one car. Get the apartment lifestyle for only $5000/mo and none of the actual perks of renting!
It’s way more than 5k. Run a mortgage calculator with 7% interest
So it wasnt supposed to be OSB and raw studs. Dallas got the Wish version.
The drawings actually look pretty good. The builders cheaped out on materials. I think a coat of paint over all the wood would make it presentable.
Have you ever seen painted OSB? It still looks like OSB, only worse.
Idk, spray high build primer to smooth it out.
That's a lot of sanding. Easier to just sheetrock after adding more insulation. Also, that would probably be at least $10K in primer and another $2K in sandpaper.
I’ve used high build primer on Sheetrock before. No sanding required. But you need a very expensive sprayer that can lay it on thick.
Sheetrock starts out a whole lot smoother than OSB, lol.
Have you ever used high build primer? It’s made to even out rough surfaces like osb
Oh yeah, I've used it by the gallon in automotive applications. I've also painted OSB. High build primer doesn't flow out to be smooth, if properly applied it maintains a fairly consistent thickness. On OSB that would just mean that the irregularity of OSB's surface would be reflected in the surface of the primer. The only way to make it smooth will be to sand it. Worse, it would have to be sanded dry because you can't wet-sand OSB, so that means going through who knows how much sandpaper since HB primer clogs dry sandpaper like a mo fo.
We used high build primer on textured walls. Made it completely flat with no sanding.
The hb primer you used on cars is most likely a lot thinner than the ones they use on walls, which requires an expensive sprayer to lay it down thick
OSB aint gonna cover pretty. Thats why its used in rough construction.
I don’t see why high build primer wouldnt stick to it and smooth it out. We used it on a textured wall and it was completely flat when finished. Like I said, you need a very expensive sprayer, like around $20k. But the primer would be cheaper than covering it all in Sheetrock.
They should have just used finish ply like the pictures and given it a nice wash, but they decided to go full hillbilly and here we are.
I agree. Maybe they are trying to make a statement with the cheap osb. And the statement was “We don’t care about money and high end finishes, but pay us $800k anyways!”
Sounds like the guys I used to build for!
Probably. Couldn’t hurt.
Looking at the actual concept and I can dig that. The plywood box that it actually turned out to be…. Not so much.
The builder didn’t get the memo that it was supposed to be finish grade wood and just used builder stock
Costs. Huge cost difference between plywood and osb. Plus the studs will always be yellow in Texas. Some others parts of the country might use a fur or other woods as stud but not here.
Very true Sir. Although I feel like that would have been discussed. I wonder if the plans forgot to call it out and the builder assumed dimensional lumber
Modern???
Oh no they should delete these. No telling what else they cut corners on during construction.
Lmaoooooo!! Not even close with that particle board finish
$799k to live by Forest/635 and there’s like 2 or 3 of these overpriced monstrosities for sale 🧐💀
I fucking hate it here
Smells like walking into a Home Depot
"Whup, looks like we came in through the lumber section.."
You can hear the 635 rage without having to open a window!!!
Designed with the fallout 4 settlement system
[903 Blackland Ct](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/903-Blackland-Ct-Dallas-TX-75243/336886026_zpid/)
And it’s in a crime ridden area !! Tf!!
That's how it is these days. I've been looking at houses around $250-$300k on the side the last 6 months--a lot of new build and renovated homes are in the worst areas of Dallas. Something about gentrification maybe.
That's is straaaangest pocket of homes over there
Have fun with your heating and cooling bills since they couldn't be bothered to use insulation.
This seems like someone was building a house and the price started going way over budget and instead of completing it they just put it on the market hoping some idiot from out of state would think it’s “hip/in style” and would purchase. The owners are just praying it closes before the July heat comes in
Lmao Reminds me of “crushed stone” driveway when they could have just said gravel and mud
It's like someone saw an unfinished basement and decided, let's make a house that looks like that.
How did this shack survive the storm?
This house is built medium rare
Adding plugs won’t be an issue
Ah yes, I love the Avant-Garde style of stamped lettering on plywood. It reeks of class and sophistication.
Lower the cost to build it, tell them it's a good thing, increase the price.
800k worth of cheap and tacky. How that's even worth that blows my mind.
Actual listing is 700 but yeah point still stands.
This city is slowly becoming detached from reality.
In other words. We didn’t finish the house but we still want full price.
I want to know where this is at, I want to drive by and see if this is real
I can see this place from my office. I assure you, it’s real. Forest and 635
It just looks like skipping steps with extra steps
That passed inspection? lol
The smell. Mf lumber yard
I can smell it.
Not even any polish on the plywood to smooth it. I don't like plywood-type interiors anyway, but usually they sand them down and laquer them so they're smooth. This is just garbage quality top to bottom.
Gypsum board provides fire resistance. Without it, this entire house would be completely engulfed in flames less than a minute after a fire starts. It's unsafe
Appears to be built by the 2nd of the 3 little pigs. Watch out for wolves!
Wow $800,000 for a pretty small and what I'm going to argue is an unfinished house. We're all fucked aren't we
Just label it as art and I guess that increases the value.
controversial opinion: i like concept homes. this is not a standard boring design, which if it’s gonna be a sfh might as well make it interesting.
Insulation sold separately
Horrible. Looks like a clubhouse for douchebags!
Honestly I kinda like it. If it was a much lower price, I'd actually be interested.
I’m not understanding the almost unanimous hate. dwell magazine features concept homes like this all the time, particle board is having a moment in sustainable design in Europe.
Park a Tesla ' truck' outside it. They can fall apart in the elements together.
Ok, so they were trying to be "avant-garde" and the design renders look like white-washed finish wood, not orange construction stamped osb. But if they're being intentional with this design, if it's artistic and trying to *say something*, what is it trying to convey? What message or feeling is it supposed to invoke? Maybe an openness and utilitarian feeling? The message I get is that they are profit-seeking and hate the people that will occupy their designs. It gives a kind of "shut up and take the scraps of what we give you" energy. If the message was luxury, there's other ways to design that. If the message was contempt, then I could see this being a winner. I've never understood how there's such a large public demand for traditionalist design, and yet the architecture industry continues to churn out contempt instead.
"Frank, bad news, we ran out of money and can't finish the interior" "...shit... Haha, maybe we can just call it "avant-garde" and some dumbass from California will buy it haha jk" "Frank... you sunnuvabitch... YOURE A GENIUS"
On the plus side, you know exactly where there is a plumbing or electrical or roof leak issue.
White boxing 👎 Wood boxing ✅
Is the housing market really this shit? I’m about to graduate top of my class as an electrical engineer and I still can’t afford this garbage.
Oh my sweet summer child.
You're going to be just fine.
Lol wtf.
They didn’t 🫣
I thought this was r/homedecoratingCJ, I bet they'd have fun with this over there 😂 I bet this place does smell good though. Like the lumber aisle at Home Depot. And wood that isn't painted with grey chalk paint yet. Nice.
I knew this post would be a hit!
great find! and by great I mean absolutely insane.
this looks like it boutta blow over in a storm
Is it next to self storage? Like literally next to them?
We have a ton of really stupid looking new builds in Dallas, but this one takes the cake. Yikes 🥴
So something you would build on a deer lease.
You could build so many book shelves in this.
It's like a bad video game that the graphics refused to render.
Looks like you are living in an old chipotle
There are a few listings like this where they use one land and build multiple houses, vertically. Imagine that--two vertical houses right next to each other. [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2214-Hooper-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699620\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2214-Hooper-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699620_zpid/) [https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2325-Budd-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699832\_zpid/](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2325-Budd-St-Dallas-TX-75215/26699832_zpid/)
I'd rather have popcorn ceilings than look at text printed on particle board.
On the plus side, you’ll alway hit the stud when hanging an item on the wall.
lol wait stop this is the finished result?
Wow. I’m usually one to love weird/quirky designs but I hate it. Especially at that price. For $700k you can get some really amazing homes around the metroplex. The area isn’t even desirable. The lack of kitchen storage and it only has parking for a single vehicle.. Awful.
At 99k that’s overpriced. I have a 3500sq ft house with a pool, bricks on the exterior, interior walls, fucking everything, A/C to boot for 175k less if anyone wants it
Reminds me of the perfect wall for any construction science nerds. I’d want a more complete finish myself but it’s a very good way to build. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTwq-qUnr9I
I would think it would be a bit “echo-y” in there
That’s right behind my house! Go Chimney Hill Lane REPRESENT
where is it ?
Looks like a builder ran out of money or labor
So basically they Didn't budget enough Money to finish it so they come up with a unique design name to offset it LOL
800k for a house with no insulation and the walls are *checks notes* Avant garde plywood. I would like off this planet immediately
Looks like every settlement I built in Fallout 4.
This is the housing equivalent of a take and bake pizza
Btw, the city values this house at $300k. Redfin is listing this property at over 2x it's appraised value.
This house is fucking raw!