Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,381  
The landscaping realy looks nice, your mom has a nice home.

Dave
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,382  
Too many postings here emphasize why I like to do everything myself. (Sorry Eddie) I know there are good contractors out there, but good luck finding them. I found a couple decent ones, which has helped a ton, but the only way I found our framer (who has been great) was that our daughters were in elementary school together. No advertising, and just doesn't exist unless you know him. That is just dumb luck.. Angies List is hit or miss, especially if you are out of a major metro area or even on the fringes.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,383  
Too many postings here emphasize why I like to do everything myself.

That's been my attitude in the past, but I have so many projects at our new property that I have been running myself ragged, and I know it's taken a toll on my health. So my wife talked me into hiring out one job to a guy we trust, and it's been a relief to get that off my plate. My main problem is that I have a hard time paying for work I know how to do, but on the flip side, it does make me appreciate the cost of time/labor.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,384  
I was down your way a couple weeks ago, sure is pretty down in Nelson Co.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,385  
The house and landscaping look great.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,386  
.


Angies list is !@#$#%. Can't say what I want on a family web site. :mad:

The roofer that was rated tops on Angie and also had all the factory training, Master Elite Installer, etc turned out to be a total joke! $10K f****n' dollars down the drain.

And to top it all off, six months later when my (Angie) subscription ran out, they tried to renew it on my credit card WITHOUT my permission! Luckily, in the mean time, my credit card had expired and it didn't go through.



.
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,387  
.


Angies list is !@#$#%. Can't say what I want on a family web site. :mad:

The roofer that was rated tops on Angie and also had all the factory training, Master Elite Installer, etc turned out to be a total joke! $10K f****n' dollars down the drain.

And to top it all off, six months later when my (Angie) subscription ran out, they tried to renew it on my credit card WITHOUT my permission! Luckily, in the mean time, my credit card had expired and it didn't go through.



.

Agree on Angie's list here in MA, had some bad experiences myself, several of them with angie's list itself! (violating their do not call list rules).

The house looks really good and the landscaping came out great! Sorry to hear about the remaining issues, but at the end of the day if your mom is happy then mission accomplished!
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,388  
So Peter what was the final tally on this house? Did you get everything fixed?
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,389  
Here you go WCD
 
   / Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days #2,390  
Not sure how I stumbled upon this old thread but I took some time to blow through it. Certainly didn't read all the posts but I followed the OP's updates. Really great job of documenting everything. Got to say Peter is a very capable fellow with a ton of skills and tools available. The amount of things accomplished in that 6-month (or so) period is crazy, especially when he had a day job. You da man!

Sad to see how it started out with all the potential and great outlook and then fell down into lots of problems and issues with the builder. Having hired a builder to build a house in the past and being an 'active' home-buyer I can certainly relate to the aspect of monitoring the progress and being critical of things along the way and bugging the builder about them. I also ended up irritating the builder and apparently insulting him by pointing out issues. It was 20+ years ago but in today's terms it would have been a $300K+ house and I wanted things done right. The builder had a spectacular reputation going into it. I actually worked at the lumber yard that supplied him all materials at the time so knew a lot about his homes. I can't even recall all the issues now but there were a few and he didn't like hearing about them. When it was all done it turned out great and he made everything right. He sent a survey out which the (former) wife and I filled out. We were honest and frank in it. Didn't rip him on anything but did explain the issues that bothered us along with tons of compliments where deserved. It was more good feedback than negative. Apparently it was the "first and only negative survey I've received in 20+ years of home building". Huh. I guess most people just show up at the closing and accept what they get then??

It would be great to see Peter post a long-term update on this. Would like to see how the yard ended up, what the tree/view situation looks like now, and if any parts of the home that were problems during build turned into long-term issues.

One last comment... Another thing that struck me while reading through the thread is how many of the prolific (multi-thousand post) forum members that contributed are no longer active here at TBN. Weird that some folks with 5000, 10000, 20000 posts just dropped away.

Rob
 
 
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