quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Kook:
We moved into our home in January. We started construction last April. We had biught the land a couple years ago.

I drew the plans and wrote the specs(engineer).

Our builder was decent. We did a cost+ arrangement where his fee was a fixed percentage. Prior to signing we obtained bids for all the major items and the builder provided costs for the minor ones. The house is built to my specs. I picked the HVAC, plumbing, lights, windows, etc. We had one change order - a couple windows were originally too small. In the end we were about 3% over budget.

The project ran longer than originally intended. That's my one and only complaint with my builder. The process was still an emotional roller coaster, especially at the end.

My advice: Get a general contractor. Talk it over with him. Go over the project onsite and explain your goal. If the GC won't give you an itemized cost breakdown or requires you to use his preferred products for windows or HVAC, etc. then find another builder. I called over two dozen and interviewed 7 before finding the one who built my house.

Plan on being onsite at least weekly at first and then almost daily towards the end. Ask the subcontractors for advice about how they would do their own house. The subs will give you very good advice within their specialties.

Focus on building a relationship with your GC and with the really important subs. Get to know the installing contractor for your HVAC.

Do not go with builder grade windows, HVAC, plumbing, or paint.

Take tons and tons of photos. Take photos of every wall in every room after electrical and plumbing are roughed in. The photos will help if you ever need to know how something is routed.

Plan for a big mechanical room. If you're doing well water plan room for the pressure tank and filtration system.

Ask for 1" pex minimum for your water trunk lines.

Plan on buying a tractor and a ton of yard tools. When you own enough land to be called land you need a whole different level of tools than city folk require.