Has Anyone Contracted Building Their Home?

[kbarrett]

Almost did it 8 years ago. A friend of mine was looking at the same program (now defunct Miles Homes - essentially an owner builder program etc.) and went for it. My deal fell through, his didn't.

Many friends and family members pitched-in to get this thing done. We barely made the six-month construction loan deadline with not a whole lot of time to spare. Most everything but the drywall, electrical and carpeting were done ourselves.

What an experience!

It was such an experience that I decided to have someone else do my home (no it isn't hassle free either).

Both routes have their strengths and weaknesses. My suggestion is to go with someone reputable that will give you many references.

Your time and sanity are worth something. As mentioned before, this can be quite stressful. My friend's family went through quite a bit throughout the whole process.

I felt bad for them, and pitched in as much as I could. I learned a few new skills to boot.

I don't think he'd do it again that way. I don't want to discourage you from giving it a try considering your recent experiences.

I'm sure that there are those on this forum that have had much better success with this approach.

 

[Argee]

I am a contractor. We moved to a new area and I built it myself. Sublet the concrete and block work, the plumbing, heating, and site work. Being a contractor helped some, but still, being new to the area at the time, I didn't know the reputations of some of the subs. Got burned a little a couple of times. So it doesn't matter what your background, you need to research your subs. Go to some of their finished jobs and ask the owners what it was like. Were they timely?...Did they come in on budget?.....Did they clean up after themselves?....Was their work up to standards?...

Another thing, make sure their licensed. It gives you legal recourse through the licensing agency. Make sure all work to be performed is spelled out in the contract. If it isn't in the contract they're under no obligation to do it.

 

[hwp]

In the fall of 1996 we unexpectedly found ourselves the new owners of a partially completed house. The root cause of this was that I wanted a bigger garage to play with the toys. My wife spent the summer scouting for something suitable but didn't find anything we liked - that is until one Sunday afternoon we were out toodling around and happened to see a "For Sale" that we hadn't seen before. So we went exploring. We didn't like what we saw but there was a property for sale across the street. It looked awful but we thought we would investigate ( see attached). Well that is now our house.

I used to be a construction engineer, so I know a thing or two about construction, and I am reasonably handy. So is my wife. The house was finished on the outside but there was no interior finishing - not even drywall, just insulation and vapour barrier. The building had been started several years earlier but the previous owner go interested in other things - mostly drugs. I have a friend who is a retired carpenter (mid 50s) and he and I did all the carpentry work except the framing of the second floor addition. The key to making it work was having one sub that I really felt I could trust. I my case it happened to be the heating contractor- he had worked on our previous house repairing the after effects of a fire. Anyway, through him, I met his plumber friend. A long chain developed from one contractor to the next. I didn't have a bad experience with any of them. They all knew each other and weren't about to let each other down. Everything was done for cash. We ended up with a home we would never have dreamed of - and I got my garage to boot. Three months from the day we took possession we were living in the house. We have no intention of building another house, but if we were younger I would do it again.

 

[hwp]

This is what it looks like now.

 

[JoeR]

I used a GC, and it took him 140 days to build my house 2,900 sq ft. My neighbor is a Carpenter and it took him 18 months to build his house; therefore, he paid far more than I did on his construction loan. Whatever he saved, he probably paid half in the form of interest.

This is a person with many contacts in the construction trade, and he has built enough houses to have good judgement. So, I asked him why it took so long to build his house. One main reason, is that he will not be repeat business for the subcontractors, and the subs do not rush to his project. They fit his project in, whenever they had a slow period. If the area you are in booming and a GC is too busy to contact you, then the subs are probably busy too.

Another problem he had was having to babysit the subs. Constantly checking their work and calling them back to fix problems also caused the project to go slowly.

Overall, my neighbor said he would rather pay the extra 20K not to deal with all the hassles and headaches.

I guess it all depends on how much your personal time is worth.


Good luck,

Joe

 

[Dozernut]

Nice job , you should be proud!

 

[Rodneyd]

I'm acting as my own GC right now on a SMALL weekend house. It's in a small town. I am new to the area and don't live there. I started by asking a neighbor who built a small addition to his house. It looked good. As someone else mentions, it led from there. He gave me the name of the framer who gave me the name of the slab person, who gave me the name of a plumber. Also as also mentioned, the local lumber supplier is a good source. If they are honest, they won't give out a bad name, especially if they want your repeat business. If this was a large project, I would probably think twice. I have found out the secret is getting into the "sub's loop of contacts". They generally aren't listed in the yellow pages. Get references, and go look at their work. Also, when buying materials, go look at the lumber in the yard. I compared two suppliers. One was several hundred $ less but was going to provide finger-jointed studs ! ! ! ! NOT ! ! !

Rod

 

[Argee]

Rodneyd..Finger jointed studs aren't a bad idea when you think about it. Most studs end up twisting as soon as the house starts drying out. Finger jointed studs are the same as stacking lumber (top and bottom plates, etc.). All the bearing weight is down the length of the stud. It would limit if not eliminate nail pops in the drywall that happens when the lumber starts drying out and twisting. It's a good way to maximize a precious resource by eliminating a lot of wasted by-product and turning it in to something useful.

Just my two cents worth!!! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[DVerbarg]

<font color=blue>Overall, my neighbor said he would rather pay the extra 20K not to deal with all the hassles and headaches.</font color=blue>

Joe

If it were only 20K in the Chicago area where Webmeister lives. My guess is that he may be looking at 3 to 5 times that number! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif (Which would be my guess as to why he is considering doing this GC work himself)

 

[DVerbarg]

<font color=blue>There is another very important consideration that no one mentioned... Just how strong is your marriage? Not kidding! Can you work together in crisis mode spending large sums of money, constantly making important decisions then having to compromise and replan because something out of your control went bad? Do BOTH of you have the discipline to decide who is going to decide and then NOT have the other meddle or second guess?</font color=blue>

Just want to second Patrick's comments. We came through building a custom home fine but it did add stresses, and we had a GC. We know of people whose marriages eventually ended up in shambles because of hurts from the building process that Patrick described.

If we were to build again we would seriously consider doing the GC work ourselves. It can take longer, as others mentioned, because the homeowner GC is a one-time deal and not a long term relationship that will provide revenue for years.