Anyone else ever build before? My wife and I recently started the process. Any advice?

Don't go too big

Don't be afraid to push back on anything that they said they would do but don't. Fight it to the top if need be.


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Yeah. Good luck. Ours ran over 17 grand... mostly on his low estimates. And he was a prick to deal with. Would not build with him again.
He was heavily recommended to us too.

Dont go too small

We built a couple years ago and loved being able to pick all the finishes

Set time lines for completing aspect of the build with paymen, meet with the inspectors so you know what has been done correctly / wrong you don't pay for wrong make sure it is corrected at contractors expense and time. Make a visit daily and photo record progress. This as protects you from fraud and claims on insurance in case anything is claimed to have been stolen hahaha... Demand quality work and material never go cheap.....

take the workers lunch a few times they work better knowing you respect their efforts.

You get what you pay for.

Take pictures and document them for each room before dry wall. This comes in extremely helpful if you ever decide to redo a room or have problems with plumbing, electric, or hvac. Stay out of the way. If you hire a good contractor let him do his thing. Things will get done correctly and in a timely manner. Make sure you are set on what you want. There is nothing worse then someone changing their minds fifteen times on what fixtures they want. Remember if you add things or change things, that will raise the cost. Its not cheap to change things once it is already done. Spray foam insulation and geothermal heating/cooling will pay for themselves pretty fast. Most metal roofs have 100 year warranties so that might also be something to look into. Good luck with your build.

1_beast;1811406 wrote:Dont go too small

I've never heard of anyone doing that

Belly35;1811439 wrote:Set time lines for completing aspect of the build with paymen, meet with the inspectors so you know what has been done correctly / wrong you don't pay for wrong make sure it is corrected at contractors expense and time. Make a visit daily and photo record progress. This as protects you from fraud and claims on insurance in case anything is claimed to have been stolen hahaha... Demand quality work and material never go cheap.....

take the workers lunch a few times they work better knowing you respect their efforts.

I like the visit everyday and taking to lunch but too much of that other stuff could piss off the workers. Keep a close eye and do what is necessary to fix/correct errors but don't be an ass about it unless necessary.

mcburg93;1811448 wrote:Take pictures and document them for each room before dry wall. This comes in extremely helpful if you ever decide to redo a room or have problems with plumbing, electric, or hvac. Stay out of the way. If you hire a good contractor let him do his thing. Things will get done correctly and in a timely manner. Make sure you are set on what you want. There is nothing worse then someone changing their minds fifteen times on what fixtures they want. Remember if you add things or change things, that will raise the cost. Its not cheap to change things once it is already done. Spray foam insulation and geothermal heating/cooling will pay for themselves pretty fast. Most metal roofs have 100 year warranties so that might also be something to look into. Good luck with your build.

I'll be interested to see how the metal roofs hold their color as the years pass...but they are a great option even though they don't look right on all types of homes.

Ironman92;1811458 wrote:I'll be interested to see how the metal roofs hold their color as the years pass...but they are a great option even though they don't look right on all types of homes.

I have wondered how much it will fade. I know we had ours installed 12 years ago and it still looks good. I wish I would have kept a piece of the metal to compare the colors as the years pass.

it's probably too late, but make absolutely sure you and your wife have a gameplan and stick to it. It's incredibly easy to "yeah, I guess." yourself into a 25k upgrade bill. We haven't built yet, but watched 2 couples build the houses on either side of us and both ended up in divorce within 2 years of the house being finished. 1 for sure was because the house was like 20% over their budget and money got tight. the others i don't know for sure, but suspect it was about the house finishing later than expected, and having a bunch of repairs needed within the first few months of them moving in (including 2 toilets, which i thought was weird).

So I wasn't overly clear, but this isn't a total build from ground up with us involved. This builder buys land, puts together blue print and lists home for sale. If no one ends up buying they start to make decisions. So the later a buyer comes along, the fewer choices they have (if any).

my wife and I saw the house listed for sale and met with them on a few occasions to see layout to make sure it met our needs and to understand what options were included in price of the house to make sure we would t feel the need to do upgrades everywhere

we had a 3 hr selection meeting this past week and made every choice for the house because we jumped on it within two weeks of being listed for sale (only the basement hole had been dug out). Our only change order was related to interior paint which was an additional 200 bucks and all other choices were within the list price options for the house.

Only other possible change order might come when we go to do electrical (excessive outlets or outside light could cost more)

I have known some people that do fully custom homes where they buy their own land and have to go shopping around for all their selections where they are given allowances to work with, and I never heard many good things...I'm glad we went this way with ours...not as custom, but don't have to really deal with any crazy overages

Ironman92;1811457 wrote:I like the visit everyday and taking to lunch but too much of that other stuff could piss off the workers. Keep a close eye and do what is necessary to fix/correct errors but don't be an ass about it unless necessary.

agree there is a fine line between asshole and interested progress...................

slingshot4ever;1811701 wrote:I have known some people that do fully custom homes where they buy their own land and have to go shopping around for all their selections where they are given allowances to work with, and I never heard many good things...I'm glad we went this way with ours...not as custom, but don't have to really deal with any crazy overages

You're getting a new house so that's a plus. As long as you're happy with what you're getting then I don't see anything wrong.

Another vote for visiting the job site every day. When we built a home in 1983, I went by every day after work and a day on the weekend. Always did this after the workers were gone for the day, so never had that issue.

It was a good thing that I did stop by every day.....there was a mix up with the builder and they started building the wrong floorplan! I went one evening and did not understand why there was plumbing laid in the basement to go into my dining room. Caught it early enough (before basement floor was poured) so that it was not an issue to have them change.

Also caught some other little things along the way.....

I'll echo the taking pictures before drywall up and even when it is roughed in before painted. I'm not super handy, but it has helped immensely when looking for studs and other similar things. I know a stud finder is just as good, but in some spots the stud finder I had access to wouldn't work very good due to shiplap on top or whatever else.

If you want to hang a tv, have them build all of that stuff in before, with extra studs for stability. I never lived in a new house until now, so I'm not sure if this is pretty standard or not. We bought a foreplan home, but got to pick all of the finishes, and everything else. We were too late to add surround sound in the living room, but it's not a huge deal. The best upgrades we chose were spraying the entire house a color other than contractor white (only $500 for whole house).

We just got done building our house. We went the route of not actually building one, though.

I think we went the other way with options. Our regret is not adding a couple more options to the house. If we could go back we would have put hardwood floors and tile in right away. We did fully upgrade our kitchen and master bath but now every day my wife wants hardwood floor and tile and I have to convince her to atleast get use out of the carpet we have for now.