I would guess the time from when we found our builder and started building was at least two years. Might have been three.
I did the design and he built the design. I would not recommend this approach but I knew/know enough to do it and our builder was a PE to keep me out of trouble. But our house was not doing anything different structurally so it really was no big deal.
I would work up a design, at first detailed sketches and he would ball park guestimate the price. Once we figured out a price for the type of home we wanted I was able to discard ideas that made no money sense and finalize a design. That took time. But the builder was booked up so it worked out just fine.
We found our builder when looking at an energy efficient house kit. He was building the house from the kit. We went to the house site to meet the kit builder and look at the home. I pretty much knew going in that the kit did not make money sense and walking through the house and talking with the kit builder confirmed my decision. That walk through took less than an hour. We then spent a good two hours with the builder. And I went back to see him the next week for another talk.
When the wifey and I left that house site we looked at each other and knew we had found a builder.
We became friends with him and is family. Not many people will say that about your builder. :laughing:
We did ask around about him and we talked to people who had worked with our builder. We were very comfortable with him. And trusted him. I think that is VERY important.
There were GC's I have talked to over the years that were very good and I trusted them. Others I would not let build a chicken coop out of found materials. Trust your gut on this.
Also know the personality of your GC. Our builder was cheap. :laughing: I do not mean this in a negative sense. But what he found acceptable in a house was not something we wanted. For instance he was ok with cheap base board that would be painted while we wanted a different look which of course was more money. He was ok with having contractor grade faucets but we were were not. His house was built this way and he and his wife were happy. This is not to say we have an expense house with gold plated faucets but I want something that I do not have to turn with a pair of pliers to shut off the water. :laughing:
Our build gave us allowances on things such as trim, painting, kitchen stuff, bath stuff, windows, doors, etc. We knew his allowance was going to be a lot less than the cost of the materials we wanted. We picked and bought much of the materials in the house which kept him out of having to buy the materials and we got what we wanted. But we had to have his budget and our add on budget to get a final price. Not a big deal and it worked out well.
He also would not add on charges to the extra allowances. I cannot remember the percentage he had to build the house 15% maybe. Since our material were adding to the cost of the house he did not charge us on the extra. Which he should not have done in any case. Putting in cheap toilet is not more expense than putting in one that cost $100 more.
Buying the materials you want in the house is very time consuming. We had worked out a deal with HD such that we got 10% off what we bought from them. We spent hours and hours and house in HD buying house materials. The staff knew us.
Which is bad since it shows how much time we spent in the place. But it was worth the money savings and getting what we wanted.
Whatever you do, try to avoid making time your enemy. Having time as an enemy is going to cause problems. Take your time with this and do not rush. Do not put yourself into a position where you have to rush.
Later,
Dan
