🏡 Better Homes The "Custom House Build" Thread

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FirstWorldProblems

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Big win. On the prints the master closet shows a 9’ ceiling. When we saw it in person, one section of the closet stepped up to an 11’ wall which I didn’t expect. Talked to the builder and they can bump the ceiling up in that area, just need to add a couple LVL’s, which is awesome. Obv well have to get creative in how we utilize storage space that high up but it’s totally doable


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FirstWorldProblems

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My vote is one of those old school ladders in library's with wheels on them. But I'm sure another 10 page discussion is coming about that.
Dude lol this is literally what I pictured when I saw that giant wall and I got all excited. I may end up doing something like that, we'll see though. My friend said there's plenty of pull-down storage options for closets that are tall but small, haven't researched it because at this moment I don't care. Give me the extra height and I'll figure out the rest later on.

I'll heed off the next 10 page discussion: I don't need help figuring out how to utilize closet space that's >8' tall, that's something I can figure out lol.
 
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FirstWorldProblems

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First floor is totally framed, 2nd floor joists are mostly in. It was good for my wife to see how the bulky fridge and stove will be tucked in to the corner up against the pantry (yes I kept them together, gfy).

I will say I'm legit jacked about the 11' ceilings in the closet, looks even better now that the joists are in.

Met with the cabinet lady again Tuesday and finalized everything except the countertops. We also got the island placement & size figured out, she had it 54" from each countertop in the below pic, way too far. Bringing it down to 48" gets it totally out of the walkway and also brings it further in from the pantry wall so there's no "tight" area there. By doing this we got to keep the 4'3" x 9' island which is great.

Need to drive way the fuck out to elk grove village to the countertop warehouse so we can be sure my wife will like the counters. Pain in my ass, would have taken me 20 mins to pick counters myself locally and instead it's a never-ending saga lol

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FirstWorldProblems

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Oh we picked appliances too. All black stainless kitchenaid FTW, including the stovetop hood. Gonna look awesome in a light kitchen.

Told the builder we want him to order them since they're backordered 3+ months. He knew we were over budget and said "just call them and pay your budget overage as the down payment to get them on order".

OK well that makes sense but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it, lol. We haven't gotten to use the lumber savings to cover any of our overages so far because we don't know what the lumber savings will be. At this point once that # is locked in I'm going to tell him to give me the cash instead of banking it for future overages
 

jason05gt

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Need to drive way the fuck out to elk grove village to the countertop warehouse so we can be sure my wife will like the counters. Pain in my ass, would have taken me 20 mins to pick counters myself locally and instead it's a never-ending saga lol

MSI?

My dad and brother just did their kitchens and the quartz was from there. My brother did waterfall edges which turned out very nice.
 
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FirstWorldProblems

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WTF? There are counter top places all over here. Hobart right on 30
And all of them get their counters from a giant warehouse like MSI. As much as I don't want to make the trip, a 12" sample is nothing compared to seeing the full slab

Find me a place like this in NWI, you won't

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FirstWorldProblems

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You have to go where the builder gets his kick back.
It's an allowance item so I see all the itemized invoices, and they price match (we're having them price match our counters with another local quote), so i'm really not concerned on this

Where I am concerned with kickbacks would be lumber. I see the itemized invoice but if they are shady they could totally mark it up 10%, cite "timing" as the reason it's not lower (lumber was sky-high when I signed the contract then started dropping fast), and split the extra with the builder. I figured out a number that I think lumber should have decreased by, and if we're not close to that I'll be asking questions. I'm pretty good with #'s so you bet your ass I'll be making them reconcile this if it doesn't make sense.
 

The Beast

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Connie where ever the builder is sending people they either get a check or envelope of cash every quarter or every year or every house they build but the builder gets something. It’s ok it what it is

Appliances, flooring, tile, stair cases, counter tops, kitchen cabinets or where ever else u go pick out best believe he is getting something. They also expect good service and it’s an easy sale for the retailer.
 

FirstWorldProblems

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Connie where ever the builder is sending people they either get a check or envelope of cash every quarter or every year or every house they build but the builder gets something. It’s ok it what it is

Appliances, flooring, tile, stair cases, counter tops, kitchen cabinets or where ever else u go pick out best believe he is getting something. They also expect good service and it’s an easy sale for the retailer.
That i'm fine with. What i'm not fine with is if the lumber place knows the details of the job and knows that their current price is 30% lower than their original quote, so they toss another 5% on because either the builder (if a fixed item) or homeowner (if an allowance item) is "saving money". The builder doesn't even have to be in on it for this to happen, but if he was it'd make it even easier for the distributor to do this.

That's why I've been benchmarking retail costs for OSB and 2x6's. Engineered stuff i'm not going to save anything on, but the bread and butter stuff has gotten a lot cheaper. It helps that my GC friend is framing two houses at basically the same time I'm doing mine, so I can see his invoices if I need to
 
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