Who here has had a home built recently? I need a little help regaining my sanity, we are in the process of building a pretty nice house, and I am losing my mind. I hired a builder who came highly recommended from several people I know. He built them houses over the last couple of years, he does nice work, true custom homes, not cookie cutter tract homes. However it has been an experience from the get go, first off we were trying to save as much of the existing grass on the acre lot we are building on. So the builder and I both told the dirt guy to use only the area where we were planning a driveway for his entry, and to try to keep his equipment within about 10 ft of the pad area. However when I went to check the pad I found he had destroyed about half my front yard with a dump truck and other equipment. Call builder and he says the dirt guy must have had a "good reason" but he'll see what we can do, I haven't heard anything back yet, keep in mind that saving the grass was the builders idea originally. I really think that he or the dirt guy should be responsible for repairing the yard, and not myself. Am I out of line? Also the builder was supposed to rope off the off limits parts after dirt work was done, this wasn't done and since then several contractors have finished off my front yard, the only place that still has grass is-get this-the area where the driveway is going . Next we went to pick out fixtures and appliances and the consultant tried to take me for a ride, gave her my budget for fixtures and she overshoots by almost 2K, called back and she says I'll see what I can do. I put together a quote on my own from home depot and if she can't get close to that I'm going to supply my own fixtures, appliances was a similar story. Told her we wanted a double oven range and she tells me she can get a double wall oven and separate cook top for less, that was joke, almost $500 more her way, must be that new math. Sorry for the long post just needed to rant and see if I am being unreasonable with some things. This is also just a drop in the bucket right now, builder was sick all last week and not returning calls for anyone from what I understand. Just a little frustrated as I only have about a 120 day window to get in and I'm getting a little anxious.

 

For the yard, give it some time and see how it plays out. The front yard always gets torn up, more so if there was good grass there before the house was built. Worse case is you get a bag of grass seed and feed it really well. I highly recommend these folks, Zamzow's, for your lawn if you end up needing to fix it up yourself.

As for the consultant, give her a specific list of the items you want installed. Never get the stuff they want you to get. My wife and I bought our home in December and the first thing I did was remove the appliances. They always use "their people", which is generally warehouse direct sales so they're buying this stuff at wholesale and make their money on how they mark it up .... and then they turn around and nail you for the "consultant fees". If she won't put in the stuff you want, ask the builder if you can put in some of this on your own or if he's got a guy that can to do it.



Kris

 

Ok, I'm all better now, talked with my builder this am, and he took care of things, we are supplying our appliances ourselves and giving her another shot on the plumbing. As for the yard, the builder said he'd take care of things, I understand that it'll get torn up in the process, but it was supposed to be kept to a minimum and as he said his contractors sometimes let stuff go right out the other ear. He said he's gonna reseed it and see how it does and if it's not coming back good then he'll spring for a couple pallets of grass and lay it for me. I think I was just wound up due to not hearing anything back from him for a week and then the mess with the consultant, but overall I'm pretty happy with my builder and now with how stuff is going. Thanks for the advice.

 

Welcome to the home building club, only i was the builder/ owner so who ever screwed it up i let them know and fired a few subs along the way..

Remember they could care a less about your home its a paycheck to them on friday,

stay on everyone you are the end user who cares about hurt feelings its your money..

 

We built a house 3 years ago. We were our own contractor. The yard will get torn up. It just happens. You can get a tractor out & grade it for new grass later. Buy your appliances yourself. You get what you want, and pay less. I found Lowes to be cheaper on light fixtures, but Home Depot was cheaper on the cieling fans. There are a thousand decisions to make building a home. Just try to stay in a budget. We tried to put any extra money where it would do the most good, and in places that couldn't be upgraded easy later on.

 

It's all part of building a house. The yard is going to get destoryed some. Remember the more restrictions you try and put the harder and longer the project is going to take. Grass isn't a whole lot of money, altough it isn't the cheapest thing in the world. I think if you just let them do thier thing and keep an eye on wasteful spending or corners being cut then you should step in. Other wise let them do thier work.

 

Oh Boy.....I'm in the early stages now of building. Haven't decided if I'm going to contract it asll myself or get someone to sup. the whole thing.
Just in the drawing stage right now and I'm thinkin we're really too big right now. 2 story with a one and 3 car garage and we're totaling 6000sq'.

I really wanted a single garage setup up with a lift or oil change bay and deep enough to park my 19.5' Bass boat in it with room to walk around the back and front. I think our current drawing has it at 12' wide and 30' deep.
We may or may not have to can that extra garage.
Not sure I can or want to afford a house that big.

 

Just finished having a house built.
(approx 2400sq/ft up, 1100 sq/ft bsmt)

When folks told me "If your marriage can survive building a house, it can survive ANYTHING" I thought they were just blowing smoke.

They were absolutely CORRECT.

We have had more arguments in the past year and a half about the construction than in the previous 16 years we were together.

The yard WILL get torn up.
The trick is to get the top soil they scrape off piled up where you can spread it back out when they're finished to avoid having to buy more.
The contractor left my yard consisiting of clay and rocks when he left.

Lucky for me that I have enough property that I could scrape up a couple of truckloads of topsoil where it won't be missed to get a lawn established.

 

If you do need new grass, use seed, it will last better in the end over sod.

 

Ok house update. I thought all was well with the builder, I had forgiven last weeks indiscretions and moved on, they were gonna pour our slab this week and hopefully start framing also, and I scheduled a meeting with him for thursday morning at 9 a.m. to finish our selections (flooring, cabinets, countertops, texture, paint, etc.) Talked to him monday morning to set all that up. Called on wed. afternoon and left message to confirm and give 2 more methods of contact in case he couldn't get me on my cell for whatever reason. Fast forward to Thurs morning, we had a babysitter for the kids, I took half a day off from the ranch (my PT job) and we drove to his office. 9:30 rolls around and no builder, so I call and his message says he's gonna be outta the office most of the day (this was his cell phone.) Call the office and same story. I left messages both places, left a note in the mailbox to call when he got it and we waited until almost 10. Went to run other errands, drove by his house to see if maybe he overslept-no one home there. Called a few more times and drove to my home site, good news was the concrete guys were pouring the slab, but they also hadn't heard from him that morning either. Went back to work and called a couple times throughout the day and left several messages with no call returned. Today I called about 3 times and left messages and still haven't heard anything. I am needless to say a little hot right now. If he couldn't make the meeting then he should have at least called to let me know, or even emailed or had his wife/secretary call to let me know, but nothing. I know he has at least 2 very big remodel jobs going also and I feel like maybe I'm being blown off here because while rather pricey my house doesn't compare to what he's making off the remodels. If this were the first time that something like this had happened I would be inclined to write it off as accidental, but this isn't the first time I've not gotten a return call for an entire week, or the first meeting that he hasn't made, although the other one he canceled about 5 minutes before I had to leave to make it. What do you guys think I should do here, I'm inclined to have a long talk with him about how he's gonna handle this build, and give him 1 more shot and if something like this happens again then let him go and find another builder. I already have a friend who is a builder that has said he'd love to build my house, and tried to get me to go with him when we started, but at that time I was afraid to go with a close friend for a builder due to not really liking to do business with friends. Sorry for the long post, but it's been another bad week and I needed to vent. Thanks for bearing with me.

 

politely inform him that you do not like the fact that he doesn't return your calls and that he his technically working for you and that if he doesnt want to operate that way then you can and will find someone else to finish the job.

 

Bingo!! I could not have said it better than this. The builder is working for YOU and the lack of basic courtesy is unacceptable.






Have you thought of building a stand alone garage/workshop instead? This will really cut down on the pad size for the house, and the wife won't have to hear you working on stuff as much.


Kris

 

Be careful........did you take out the permit or did he......if he did, and you only have a 120 day window, how long does it take for a permit it your area? If he took out the permit, it is his. Also, I assume you had the slab inspected per the new TX laws. I hope you didn't put any money down. Do you own the lot, or does he? Banks sometimes make the builder own the deed to the lot. Something else.....will the bank even let you be your own builder? My S-I-L an d her husband (he is retired Navy and is an airline pilot) have excellent credit and were not allowed to be their own builder. I had to get licensed for the County in CO. where they are going to build, send my resume, send six references, send financial statements and tax records for my business,and provide proof of both general liability and workers comp. insurance before the bank would approve me.

 

Did you include any clean up stipulation in the contract for when the job is done? If so, that might help you lean on him correcting the yard since he didn't want to monitor the subcontractor. I don't know what you plan for insulation in Texas, but for northerners, check the installation before the drywall goes up. I had to correct some "bigtime" problems I caught in time luckily. Told him if they run over their time, I was gonna charge him labor since he didn't check his employees work prior to the drywaller showing up. I was up most of the night before and had to stay one step ahead of the drywaller, fixing gaps and tucking around electrical properly. ALso, try to have somebody experienced check behind your drywaller. My folks had to have them comeback a couple times for cracking from the drunk not installing correctly in the vaulted cielings.

 

This is why Texas requires 3 inspections by a licensed inspector during the building process. As for your threat to charge the contractor for your time........unless you stipulated that in a contract, you were just blowing smoke.