Has Anyone Contracted Building Their Home?

ejb · Apr 10, 2002

>>My biggest complaint about soceity today is the lack of pride in workmanship. It does not take much longer to nail a board straight than it does to nail it crooked. If a craftsman gets in the habit of doing good work, he can do it just as quickly as someone doing shotty work and probably not have to go back and correct mistakes.

This is one of the reasons that I am probably not only going to GC my whole house remodel, but also do a lot of the work myself.

Sure you can pay someone to GC it for you and shell out the money to him, but unless he is *really* good, you are not necessariliy even going to get your moneys worth...its one thing if you shell out the bucks to a GC and get what you wanted...its another to shell out the $$ and still be disappointed and hassled.

All those subs that you have a hard time finding good ones? Guess what, finding a good GC is just as hard...and you may not know it until it is too late.

Just one question...if you don't mind my asking. You said you saved close to $100K by doing some work and being the GC...just curious what that percent was of the total project? If you saved $100K off a $750K house that would not be nearly as impressive as saving $100K on a $250K house (still $100K is $100K..just trying to get an idea what the potential savings will be for my own project).

Thanks.

TxSam · Apr 11, 2002

ejb,

No problem, but keep in mind that I said I figured I would have about 100K in sweat equity not necessarily savings. I still have some money to spend, so I'm not entirely sure what the final tally will be, but so far I am on track with my budget, a tad under actually.

Here are the details:

Land cost: 12.7 acres - $42k
Estimated cost to build - $174k (around $44/sq.ft.)
Estimated value after completion - $300k - $350k (This is totally a guess on my part, although trying to be an educated guess. I am considering values of homes in the area with comparable sq. ft, etc.)

I never considered hiring a GC or builder so I am not sure what my savings would be. But I am sure if you could have it built for $65/sq.ft. that would be considered cheap. Understand, too, that I have not really cut any corners on quality of materials. I had vinyl or metal siding installed anywhere outside that would require paint (i.e. gables ends, facia, soffit, etc.) so this is going to be a virtually maintenance free home, used double pane, thermally broken windows with low-e glass, used 16" 2x4 trusses for the 2nd sub floor with 3/4" T&G plywood screwed and glued. Stone on front, brick on sides and rear, dual zone heat and air, tiled or cultured marble surrounds in baths and showers, bla, bla, bla....

Here is a link to the home I am building http:// http://www.danze-davis.com/details.asp?Plan=2952. As you can see it is of substantial size, so as far as out and out cost of construction I am very pleased with my experience. When I get a chance, I'll try to get some photos scanned and post them. At this point the house is bricked, inside is painted and I'm working on getting cabinets, plumbing fixtures, tile, carpet, etc. Hope to be in by the middle or end of May.

Hope that helps! I'll try to share what I know if there are anymore questions.

webbmeister - re: 9' & 10' ceilings
Indoor sports sounds like a good reason, my oldest is 9, but I'm as much a kid as he is when it comes to playing sports in the house. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Of course, Mom doesn't always appreciate that... I wonder why? /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif Actually, didn't realize until late in the process that the ceilings were so high, we really liked the floor plan so we went ahead and used it. I thought about lowering the ceilings anyway, but didn't want to have to work with a plan that was designed fo 10' and try to convert everything to 8' & 9' and didn't want to pay the architect to redesign either. So I got what I got. The high ceilings do look impressive though. My dad, who was in construction for 20 years before becoming a pastor, always told me, 'Don't change the architects design or make alot of changes, he designed it that way for a reason!', so I took that to heart, and it is very true. Sometimes the smallest changes have a pretty big impact on the outcome of a later step in the project. There are structural, functional and aesthetic reasons architects design the way they do. I could have hired an architect to custom design something, but with the thousands of stock plans out there, I didn't want to pay the xtra money and went with a stock plan. Ordered it over the internet, BTW. I think I paid $800 for 12 copies.

Anyway, probably more info than you wanted /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif.

L8R!

DVerbarg · Apr 11, 2002

TxSam,

Wow! House plan looks great! And at that price, only $44/sq.ft!

Ours cost us over $107/sq.ft and we saved money by doing alot of work ourselves. Paid a GC but that cost ended up only being around $7/sq.ft

It sounds like everything in your home is being done with nice quality. How are you doing it so inexpensively? What is the norm cost in your area per sq.ft to build? Do you have a full basement? Crawlspace? Slab?

Our house is now 4,200 sq.ft. The plans were for 3,400 which included a bonus room. We added a floor above the dining area (which was supposed to be cathedral), added a third floor loft in this new room, removed the tray ceiling on the first floor MBedroom and put a room above it, enlarged the garage a few ft which made the bonus room above it larger and removed an unnecessary wall in the upstairs making the hall feel more spacious. We also adjusted closets and other small changes such as removing doorways and adding or enlarging others. Actually our house does not look too much like the canned plans we bought. Maybe that's why our costs went so high.... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

TxSam · Apr 12, 2002

DVerbarg,

I really don't know how it is costing so little /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif. We did part of the framing, but I still paid the one framer to finish up and have paid my dad some too. I happened to buy my lumber when it was at a low spot, I think its gone up a little now. Also, got pretty decent prices on lumber through my cousin who works for a large building supply in Dallas, but I don't think I paid any less than a builder would pay for it.

It is a slab foundation, I intentionally picked a plan that was two-story and had part of the living sq. ft over the garage. If you notice the slab is pretty much rectangular with all the building directly over it, roof is pretty simple design. I think these things helped keep my costs down. A lot of newer large homes have some pretty complex roof lines with a lot of pitch which adds to your construction and lumber costs. And as I said before, I still have some to go but I seriously doubt the cost will go over $50/ft max because I'm still slightly under my budget of $44/sq ft.

The price you quoted doesn't sound too far out of line for around here, again the complexity of the design has a lot to do with your costs. I have met a builder near where I am building who has been a great help to me. I beleive he charges $60-$70 sq. ft. I also know he does a lot of the work himself, so he saves on subs. But he builds high quality homes usually at least 2500 sq. ft, 2-story, 3 car garage, etc. He probably doesn't use the higher end carpets or fixtures, but he doesn't use the cheap stuff either.

Don't know for sure - I guess for me 'the lines have fallen in pleasant places.'

DVerbarg · Apr 12, 2002

TxSam,

If you could repeat that financial performance of building a home that inexpensively and if you enjoy doing it that could be a new career for you! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Good luck with with the finishing work and keep that budget in control /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.