Our ultimate project

[MDNY]

blurrybill: It is exciting for so many of us to be in the process of building or getting ready to begin. My wife and I found some very similar issues as you did. We had started with a smaller family firm but found that they either were too new to the process or unwilling to share the detail I requested. After many months of frustration, I asked a co-worker about the builder he had mentioned months before.

I hadn't contacted him during my current process out of respect for his time (being in sales myself) and now that I was ready to move on and find someone we could work with we met with him. In about 10 days I had pricing on all aspects of the house (the other builder took over 2 months and still nothing in full). He is a craftsman by trade. He actually does custom interior mill and trim work as his primary business. He has been building for over 25 years, and has allot of glowing reviews by clients. He doesn't take on a ton of houses and his upgrades are a simple cost + x% versus the mysterious price. We actually have our house almost totally priced out, and will have a contract by Tuesday.

I guess we chose quality over anything else. He listened to what we wanted talked about the new technologies we have seen and he made his suggestions on what he has found to work.

The biggest thing was he listened, he is local and he builds a quality home. He doesn't look to get rich off of a project, but build a quality home he would live in himself. Nothing like meeting around a kitchen table to discuss your home.

 

[blurrybill]

Michael,

Sounds like things are falling in place for you; that's terrific! There are some commonalities among us, regardless of where we are on the planet. I notice from your profile that you are tractorless, as am I, to date. Shopping for the tractor is fun, isn't it? Now, if we just had unlimited funds....

Best of luck on your venture and hope to hear more about it. We are trying to find an architect now who will be willing to develop the schematic design already created. Getting the builder we trust is huge, though. My wife is beginning to get excited. She's a bit more concrete than me and feels better looking at something on paper. If your builder was nearby, I'd be calling him too.

By the way, I have been amazed at similarities between upstate NY and the midwest in terms of basic values, along with some of the lovely countryside there. Nice to hear from you.

Bill

 

[MossRoad]

Well, thanks for asking. At least the land is paid for. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif We've been through several plans and have probably settled on a two story. LR, DR, K, MBR and 1st floor laundry, 1.5 baths on first floor. Two BR and 1 full bath second floor. Full 10 foot deep (or deeper) walkout basement, maybe a home theatre in one corner. We are designing the floor plan ourselves. The hard part is making it look appealing from the outside. Form follows function, eh?

What I'd really like is a couple of huge picture windows in the walkout where I could put up some bird feeders and a microphone and camera so that we could here the birds from inside and record their calls. They have these at most state park nature centers and they are very relaxing.

Looking forward to your project.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, my dad was an architect too! And a construction specification writer. He could nail down the cost of anything from a yard barn to a hospital. He's the first one that told us we couldn't afford the house that we wanted /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Then he showed us why. And how to save some costs. And that we didn't really need the monster house that we were thinking of. The longer that we wait to build, the smaller the house gets. A 3600 sq. ft. house sounds great, until you realize that it takes you 20 minutes to vacuum your 1300 sq. ft. house now and 10 minutes to clean the bathroom. Multiply that sq. footage by 3 and your bathrooms by 4 and your vacuuming for an hour and spending 40 minutes cleaning toilets each week. That translates into 2 work weeks a year doing routine cleaning. No thanks /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

 

[Scott_F]

Bill,
My wife and I are getting ready to move into our new house - carpet and hardwood floor finished this week, move on Saturday. We too were very influence by Susanka's ideas - seems to make a lot of sense, and I've always thought those huge "trophy houses" are ugly. We ended up with a farmhouse look with lots of southern windows for solar gain. It also has a very open floor plan. I'll post some pics after the carpet goes in Tues. or Wed. The best advice I can offer at this point is to keep a very close eye on the cost of choices you make after you start building. Your builder will probably be asking you lots of questions in the form of choosing between one option or another. I always asked how much the different things would cost but, 1) I didn't keep very good track of them, and 2) I accepted the "it won't be much" answer too faithfully, too often. The final tally stung a little bit. However, the bottom line is that we have a house that we really like and the process wasn't too painfull all in all (we're still happily married /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif).

Enjoy,
Scott

 

[Golfgar4]

Good luck on your project. You didn't mention if this is the first house you've built, or you've done it before, so I'm going to assume it's your first. We've built 2 homes, and because of my wife's Interior Design business (she designs complete homes too!), we're always involved in someone who is building a house.

It sounds like you and your wife are going about it the right way. You're taking the time to research good builders and get a quality architect. I can't stress enough the importance of asking questions NOW. It might be too late once the hammers start flying. When we were building, my wife and I carried little notebooks with us wherever we went. You've probably already found out that the house is about all you're talking about with everyone. During those talks, you'll always be getting suggestions from others, or one of their comments will trigger an idea in you. Write it down right then and there. That way you'll have it to refer to. You may never use it, but at least you won't be saying "Boy, I thought about doing that but I forgot all about it!" I know - I've been there.

The other piece of information I'll give you is this. If you want to make any changes as the project goes along, no matter how trivial the change may be, make sure that a change order is completed with the builder. A reputable builder will insist on this anyway, but it keeps everyone clear on what's happening. Change orders can very costly. A good friend of mine was building a new home. One day his wife stops by the job site to look around, and notices all the little scraps of wood laying around. She comments to the carpenter what a shame it was to waste the wood, and wouldn't it be nice if the wood could be used to add some shelves in one of the closets. Yup, that little comment cost them about $300.00 in additional labor costs /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif! If you want to see a funny example of this, rent the movie Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Just remember, it's only a movie that's supposed to be funny! A little planning, and you won't have those problems.

Good luck on your project. It'll be well worth it!

 

[blurrybill]

MossRoad,

Sounds like you're comfortable with plans for the project. Sounds great. We too love the birds (more and more). Although only enjoying our property on the picnic table and tree swing I put up last year, we love just sitting near the feeders and watching the birds. Lots of deer too, although one buck decided to strip the Colorado Blue Spruce I planted last fall -- lots of Cedars to abuse, but NOOOOOOOOO....
I may try to save it, but not sure. Oh, well, we'll have to share the garden too -- to a point. Let's stay in touch on the homes. Best of luck.

Bill

 

[blurrybill]

Scott,

Nice to hear of someone who shares our design interests. As you can see, others do as well. Boy, would we like to be where you are in construction right now! Must be really exciting. Check out my profile and you'll see what I do for a living, but one can't offer therapy to oneself -- weathering the construction/planning ordeal still married in not necessarily a small feat! Congratulations to you both and please post lots of picts after carpet laying. My wife will be excited to see them as well.

Bill

 

[blurrybill]

Golfgar,

Thanks for chiming in... You're right, our first house from the ground up. That said, we have remodeled 2 others extensively, correcting prior mistakes in each case. In one, I put an inverted beam in the ceiling to open the space and moved the kitchen to another part of the house. Also, added windows, a deck, tore up the floor including subfloor and added lots of "cans" for lighting. Also added a Vt. Castings stove with brickwork up a wall and lined with oak. In any event, those experiences helped, but as you appropriately point out, new house construction is a different game altogether. The notebook idea is a good one; we come close to that, but need to have something stapled to our foreheads! We'll keep you posted.

Bill

 

[Scott_F]

Bill,
Better late than never? I got wrapped up with moving last week and didn't get pictures posted. Here's the house from outside.

Scott