House Construction - Best value and working with a bulder/s???

[tkappeler]

... Cost to build the shell is one thing, but where you will spend more then you thought possible is in the finished product. Cabinets, flooring, counters, fixtures all add up real fast. Reason and discipline to the budget tend to fall apart when you find that light or doorknob you really want, but it's four times what the budget calls for. LOL

The most cost effective house is going to be a rectangle. Think of a mobile home. Nobody builds a house for less per square foot then a mobile home. Once you start modifying the rectangle shape of your house, the cost increases. How much can you afford, what do you have to have compared to what you want to have is what decides how much your house will cost more then anything else.

Well said, Eddie. I can attest to that. Upgrading materials adds up quick. In addition, ours drastically deviated from the basic rectangle shape and not only do the materials increase but the time increases drastically as well. We had 11 inside corners and 7 outside corners for siding alone!!

 

[JimRB]

Curly Dave mentioned some things I never thought of regarding concrete. When I had concrete done at my barn they did the whole slab in one plane. Sort of. Ideally the concrete at the barn doors would slope out of the barn so if the rain blew in it would flow back out instead of heading off to the stalls or the hay room.

I hire a GC but he did not do a lot for his fee. I did the tile, cabinets, trim, painting, electrical, and hardwood floors. The framing crew was a mishmash of a lead carpenter who knew what to do but helpers that did not and he did not teach them how to be efficient. They did a poor job installing sheathing. (I did not know as much as I should have). The helpers were slow. The framing took 2-3 weeks longer than it should have based on my past experience working as a helper on a framing crew with a few fellows from OK who had done production framing in subdivisions. The helpers did not seem to know the sight the stud bow trick. You know toss the badly bowed studs and get the walls to all bow the same direction.

We spent some time doing framing cleanup before I started the electrical work. One fellow from work who was quite handy and accurate, a helper and I spent 2 days to fix bowed and wiggly walls. Even then I had a few doors that were challenging to install as the openings were not in the same plane. Oops we missed that fix up. Actually the one door I had the most issues with had a number of things happening that getting it perfect was difficult if not impossible without spending another week fixing. I have no idea how you specify wall accuracy.

We also were not on the same page with window specs. I knew what I wanted and the builder and materials supplier had speced (unknown to me) builder grade double paned windows when I thought I had specified Low E. I was like many future home owners, under capitalized and had to drop my preferred windows because of the few thousand extra I did not have. That was one of a few oops moves that you pay for the rest of the life of the house.

I can live on one floor of the house but I do have 5 feet to get up. Maybe a wheelchair elevator 30 years from now.

 

[Pilot]

Construction was booming when we built our current house. Some contractors wouldn't even talk to me because we only wanted a 1,700 sq. ft. house. Some gave me quotes over the phone without even seeing the site or the plans, which of course were worthless quotes. I could imagine what problems I might run into.

When construction started (83 days ground breaking to move-in) I learned something about the business. I casually asked subs, "How do you like working with Dave?" They all said, "He's great. He pays us on time!" That's why the house went up fast--he never had to wait for sub. There was somebody there every day and most often, all day. And it says something about other contractors.