sdkdesigner

Thanks very much Gawdzira for the advice and leads. I'll be sure to check them out.

Thanks all, especially chiefhandle/Gary, for the helpful replies. My project is in the San Francisco bay area city of Pleasanton. I'm not your typical home owner being an electrical engineer and software developer, and for the last decade also a hobbyist woodworker. I've worked on multi year projects, both professionally and in my woodworking so I've learned patience! I'm not afraid to pay for quality work as I truly appreciate the skill and effort that requires. My outdoor room project has been delayed for nearly three years while we attempted to get a minor CC&R rule changed, to no avail. Now that I have a design that satisfies the HOA, city and my wife I'm looking forward to finally getting underway!

Thanks very much everyone for the helpful suggestions. I'll report back with what worked for me for future reference. I didn't realize I posted to the Chief forum rather than the HomeDesigner forum. Glad to get replies from the pros!

I have a preliminary design for an outdoor room that will be attached to my house. I recently upgraded to HomeDesigner Pro and see that it has the ability to generate materials lists for individual rooms. For my project one wall and a portion of another will be shared with the new structure. My question is how can I generate a materials list for just the new construction and not include materials for the shared walls? Do I have to manually adjust the outdoor room materials list to remove the existing structure or can I specify what walls should be omitted from the list before HomeDesigner does its computation?

I plan to build a relatively simple outdoor room attached to my home. It will have no heating, plumbing or insulation but will have minor electric and a gas line for a barbecue. The project has been approved by my HOA and the city planning department. I am toying with the idea of being my own general contractor. I've shown my plans to the building department and they are satisfied so far so I'm preparing to take the next steps. I have lined up a structural engineer. Besides that I'll need subcontractors for concrete, siding, roofing, trim carpentry and framing. Of those I'm having trouble finding residential framers because while the other trades are frequently hired by homeowners framers typically are not. What are good sources for finding qualified residential framers? I've asked at the local lumber yard and they gave referrals for two general contractors. I'll follow-up with them once I have my plans completed and approved by the city but in the meantime I'd like to see if I can find framers and trim carpenters on my own.