🏡 Better Homes The "Custom House Build" Thread
- Thread starter FirstWorldProblems
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I'm incredibly happy with this guy, it's a night and day difference from the developer. Very similar to working with my friend except this guy has more experience, and I don't have the conflict with it being a friendship. His price is slightly higher but he's just as easy to deal with.
I don't like doing business with friends, but I'd have made an exception in this case. I think it worked out just like it was supposed to though.
We met our builder at the lot last week and he says "you have a 6' sliding basement door in the print....with an 11' ceiling. Do you want me to change that to an 8' door so it doesn't look out of place? Of course I do, i just hadn't noticed it. It wasn't in the contract, therefore i'm not paying any more, he just brought it up and ordered it. The first guy would have never brought it up, and if I'd have noticed it, he would have charged me for a change order plus every penny that the door cost over a 6 footer. Just an example
Thats good having the builder catch little things like that before they get put in and ordered. Glad you get a better vibe with him.
The vibe you get working with a certain contractor can make all the difference in the world in the experience you have with their work, I dont know if all contractors understand that though and come off as abrasive or douchey.
My current builder is kind of the "mentee" of the developer, and he just said that it's because we met him at the point in his career when he's just done with it all. You can tell his patience for customers, subs, materials etc is just totally gone.
I'm actually surprised he spent so much time working with me on the prints rather than just referring me out early. Yeah I bought the lot from him, but he really didn't get a penny for all the hours he spent reviewing & marking up prints, talking with an engineer to make the garage work without a column, etc.
I'm actually surprised he spent so much time working with me on the prints rather than just referring me out early. Yeah I bought the lot from him, but he really didn't get a penny for all the hours he spent reviewing & marking up prints, talking with an engineer to make the garage work without a column, etc.
Also the "default" materials varied significantly between the two of them. The developer only does 24" OC and mediocre subfloors (i forget the name). You literally can't even pay him to do 16" on center. I'm doing advantech floors, 16" OC and 2x6 lumber, which is what my guy prefers to do. Told him if my house creaks i'll lose my mind lol.
I added a LOT of options and increased budgets after the first quote, the equivalent of about $50k worth of materials, and even with that, both subsequent quotes (from my friend and from the guy we went with) came in lower than the original quote with the lower budgets/cheaper materials.
I added a LOT of options and increased budgets after the first quote, the equivalent of about $50k worth of materials, and even with that, both subsequent quotes (from my friend and from the guy we went with) came in lower than the original quote with the lower budgets/cheaper materials.
What kind of span are you in the basement? It looks like theyre pouring pads for a beam, just trying to get an idea of what kind of span there is....
Are you going with high end insulation like a spray foam, or just doing 6" worth of batt or roxul or something like that?
I'm honestly not sure what the span will be between columns in the basement. I know in the garage it was over 26' so we ended up adding LVL's to avoid columns
Insulation info below
Insulation:
-Foundation insulation R-10 foam boards below grade around foundation perimeter
-Garage Walls R- 13 Batts
-Exterior House wall R- 19 Batts
-Ceilings Blown R-49 blown fiber House Attic
You said the basement will be unfinished to start right? Just need to figure out where to place the rough-ins for bathrooms?
Laundry room on the main floor?
Sorry for all the questions. This is why I dont think I could ever build a custom home, my total would be a million dollars just in materials. 
This is another thing. If you design a custom home, good luck finding a good fucking architect. The developer said they're not really architects, most of them are just artists. Lol. They had the prints set up with beams and shit everywhere with the caveat "verify with contractor" on every single one. He had to draw up the garage himself to get them to make it workable. And mind you, they were not cheap.
Is there like a one stop shop kinda place with mechanical and structural engineers with the architects or do you have to discuss the plans with a million different people?
Are there any restrictions in the subdivision you bought the land in? Like can someone buy the lot next to you and put up a shack, or what kind of limitations are there when you buy the land and go to have something built?
Correct, unfinished basement, trying to figure out rough-ins now. The bathroom is pretty easy but wet-bar, not sure where I want that yet.
And yes laundry room on the main floor, right off the garage
Architect and developer was all I needed, but the developer did say he had an engineer help with the garage. A good architect should be able to do it all, but mine was not good. I used them because they owned the rights to the original prints, but with all the work we put in to it I probably could have started from scratch with a good architect for the same $$ and got it done faster.
The HOA here is cheap/unintrusive but the building requirements are strict, understandably so. No bi levels, no external buildings (pole barns, etc), all builds are subject to HOA board approval. They don't want anyone putting up an ugly house, which I'm glad about.
I keep thinking about doing it in my yard just because I hate it when it goes dormant in the middle of summer..... Wouldnt take too many sprinkler heads for my yard I wouldnt think....
I'll do irrigation in the front and maybe sides, not the back. Most of the people in here cut their own grass it looks like. I know I will be.
That's one of the reasons I made the garage extra big, plus made it 11' ceilings with side-mount openers so I can add a lift if I ever wanted to
I'll do irrigation in the front and maybe sides, not the back. Most of the people in here cut their own grass it looks like. I know I will be.
That's one of the reasons I made the garage extra big, plus made it 11' ceilings with side-mount openers so I can add a lift if I ever wanted to
if you're doing any do it all id say... it's so fucking sweet.
Don't worry I don't think anyone on Tour ratted you out for having the surf and turf for dinner.
Alex when it's time to go car shopping because his DD has been totaled twice, looks like a barn inside, the wheels are falling off, and it burns a quart every 500 miles
Alex when it's time to pay the mortgage
Alex when it's time to buy gas
Alex on a saturday, eating out at a restaurant for the 3rd time that week, when he sees the $70 special and knows the dinner will be $200+ for him and baedeez
Alex anytime someone mentions mexico or disney
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