Anyone with good advice on building a house?

I was very surprised that when my house was built, the forms were only on for less than a day and a half. I had expected that it would be much longer than that, but everything turned out just fine.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

I was very surprised that when my house was built, the forms were only on for less than a day and a half. I had expected that it would be much longer than that, but everything turned out just fine.

What were the temps when you poured?

"danmarino wrote:

What were the temps when you poured?

Cool. It was March. I'd say the 50s or 60s probably.

So all of the basement walls have been poured and the backfill is nearly complete. The backside of the house still has a little bit to go in regards to backfill because we built up the house a little and the basement walls are 12' high. As you look at the house the right, back side is where the walkout will be so those back walls are lower. The 3 stall garage is on the left, the round part jutting out will be the kitchen nook. Again, this is the basement level, so the kitchen will be up higher and then there is a 2nd story that will go over the middle portion of the house.

The basement slab will be poured this Friday. And they will start framing any day now.

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Here are the front and rear elevation plans to better get an idea of what you're looking at:

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Pouring the basement floor this morning.

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Floor joists between the basement and 1st floor nearly finished!

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Is the area to the left of the flooring all garage? I'm envious. I was into plans with that general shape, and my wife won, lol. Not that I'm unhappy with what we ended up with at all.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

Is the area to the left of the flooring all garage? I'm envious. I was into plans with that general shape, and my wife won, lol. Not that I'm unhappy with what we ended up with at all.

Yep, that's the garage. And to the back and right will be stairs leading down into the basement so if a repairman needs to service a furnace etc they don't have to go through the entire house.

And my wife has won 99% of the things with this house too. Although, our tastes are extremely similar so not much disagreeing. The one thing I insisted on, and got, was a bar in the basement where I can watch TV, play pool, etc.

Now that you've been in the house for a bit do you wish you would have done anything differently?

"danmarino wrote:

Yep, that's the garage. And to the back and right will be stairs leading down into the basement so if a repairman needs to service a furnace etc they don't have to go through the entire house.

And my wife has won 99% of the things with this house too. Although, our tastes are extremely similar so not much disagreeing. The one thing I insisted on, and got, was a bar in the basement where I can watch TV, play pool, etc.

Now that you've been in the house for a bit do you wish you would have done anything differently?

My wife and I generally have about 80% overlap in our tastes as well, with almost everything in life. So its not often a big deal. The things that I would do differently were either ones that she "won" on, or else we didn't do due to added cost.

One would be having tile in the kitchen area of the greatroom, but she had it in her head that hardwood throughout was the way to go. I'm as convinced as ever that continuing the tile from the laundry room into the kitchen would have been better. both aesthetically and practically.

Our builder's standard practice was to make the window frames, doorways, doors and fireplace mantle all solid white. I would have strongly preferred stained wood, but the cost would have been insanely higher. At some point later, we may switch the fireplace framing out.

They also included one beige shade of paint in the whole house, and would have charged thousands extra to do different colors, so for now the interior is kind of drab. At some point, we will paint a lot of the rooms ourselves, but probably not the kitchen due to the cabinets and countertops, and I'm kinda sad about that.

Lucky! Congrats on the mod-ship!!

"danmarino wrote:

Lucky! Congrats on the mod-ship!!

Thanks man!

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

My wife and I generally have about 80% overlap in our tastes as well, with almost everything in life. So its not often a big deal. The things that I would do differently were either ones that she "won" on, or else we didn't do due to added cost.

One would be having tile in the kitchen area of the greatroom, but she had it in her head that hardwood throughout was the way to go. I'm as convinced as ever that continuing the tile from the laundry room into the kitchen would have been better. both aesthetically and practically.

Our builder's standard practice was to make the window frames, doorways, doors and fireplace mantle all solid white. I would have strongly preferred stained wood, but the cost would have been insanely higher. At some point later, we may switch the fireplace framing out.

They also included one beige shade of paint in the whole house, and would have charged thousands extra to do different colors, so for now the interior is kind of drab. At some point, we will paint a lot of the rooms ourselves, but probably not the kitchen due to the cabinets and countertops, and I'm kinda sad about that.

Sorry Lucky, I'm with your wife in regards to the hardwood. lol IMO, kitchens look and feel so much better with hard wood over tile. More warm and inviting. Although, we are going to have an hearth area with a fireplace, loveseat and 2 chairs in the kitchen so the hardwood, I think, is almost needed. Here's the main floor plan. The hearth area is in the red outlined area.

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Basement framing is done. 1st floor subfloor is done. Walls going up fast! :)

Good luck! I hope that the winter weather misses you.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

Good luck! I hope that the winter weather misses you.

Thanks dude..

We've been extremely lucky so far. It's been unseasonably warm with not really any snow. There have been 2-3 days missed due to rain believe it or not, but the carpenters make it up by working on the weekend. Which we are extremely grateful for. It's been cold (teens and 20's) the last couple of days so each morning I've been bringing out hot coffee and bagels for the crew. My wife brought them out some fried chicken and soup for lunch yesterday. Hopefully that helps keep them warm and motivated.

Well, the weather has become winter.

We have about 9" of snow on the ground currently. Expected to get around 7-10" tonight and tomorrow. Then, starting Monday night we will not get above 0F until Friday. Wednesday the high for the day will be -23...Yes, NEGATIVE 23 with the lows being -30. Wind chill is going to be around -50.

Needless to say, the framers will not be working much next week.

"danmarino wrote:

Well, the weather has become winter.

We have about 9" of snow on the ground currently. Expected to get around 7-10" tonight and tomorrow. Then, starting Monday night we will not get above 0F until Friday. Wednesday the high for the day will be -23...Yes, NEGATIVE 23 with the lows being -30. Wind chill is going to be around -50.

Needless to say, the framers will not be working much next week.

That's seriously cold! I've been complaining about 20's and 30's here....I guess I should put that in perspective. You're getting Antarctica-like temperatures and that's absolutely insane!

They have almost totally completed the last remaining issues that we had after moving in. The $500, 12 blade ceiling fan in the great room worked, but the lamp in it never turned on, and we eventually swapped it out for another one. Finally, light!

After months of having my contractor's guys here now and then, I've developed a good relationship with them. The one confessed to me that our house was the biggest, most complicated job that the contractor had ever taken on in around 30 years of building. That he wasn't sure that he should take the job, but made the choice to go for it. And that if and when he builds another one like ours, he's going to charge almost double what we paid.

I had to laugh, because I had talked to literally dozens of builders before he and I agreed on the project, trying to find one who would build the house we wanted at the price we were willing to pay. Some laughed at me, saying I was being unreasonable, but because I didn't give up, we seem to have sort of lucked into saving ourselves between 200-300k, which essentially gives us more money to work with every month for the rest of our lives.

"KeyFin wrote:

That's seriously cold! I've been complaining about 20's and 30's here....I guess I should put that in perspective. You're getting Antarctica-like temperatures and that's absolutely insane!

I read that we are going to be colder than the artic on Wednesday. lol

Updated weather...little temp fluctuation, but not much:

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"Unlucky 13 wrote:

They have almost totally completed the last remaining issues that we had after moving in. The $500, 12 blade ceiling fan in the great room worked, but the lamp in it never turned on, and we eventually swapped it out for another one. Finally, light!

After months of having my contractor's guys here now and then, I've developed a good relationship with them. The one confessed to me that our house was the biggest, most complicated job that the contractor had ever taken on in around 30 years of building. That he wasn't sure that he should take the job, but made the choice to go for it. And that if and when he builds another one like ours, he's going to charge almost double what we paid.

I had to laugh, because I had talked to literally dozens of builders before he and I agreed on the project, trying to find one who would build the house we wanted at the price we were willing to pay. Some laughed at me, saying I was being unreasonable, but because I didn't give up, we seem to have sort of lucked into saving ourselves between 200-300k, which essentially gives us more money to work with every month for the rest of our lives.

That's awesome! Must be karma. You save a life when you were younger? lol

My wife and I have decided that we want to make a change in the basement area. It's going to require taking down a wall (it's just studs right now), and spanning the area where the wall would be with steel beams because it's a load point. We want to open up the basement a little more and move the bar to a different area. It's hard to realize what something it going to look like on paper. Once we went down into the basement and saw it with some walls it was going to look really janky and cut up. The extra work will add an additional $10K to the house not only because we have to use steel, but also move some of the plumbing around for the bar. I think it will be worth it.

It sucks with this weather though. I doubt they can get anything done except maybe on Friday.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

They have almost totally completed the last remaining issues that we had after moving in. The $500, 12 blade ceiling fan in the great room worked, but the lamp in it never turned on, and we eventually swapped it out for another one. Finally, light!

After months of having my contractor's guys here now and then, I've developed a good relationship with them. The one confessed to me that our house was the biggest, most complicated job that the contractor had ever taken on in around 30 years of building. That he wasn't sure that he should take the job, but made the choice to go for it. And that if and when he builds another one like ours, he's going to charge almost double what we paid.

I had to laugh, because I had talked to literally dozens of builders before he and I agreed on the project, trying to find one who would build the house we wanted at the price we were willing to pay. Some laughed at me, saying I was being unreasonable, but because I didn't give up, we seem to have sort of lucked into saving ourselves between 200-300k, which essentially gives us more money to work with every month for the rest of our lives.

If you don't mind me asking, what was your completed price per square foot? It would be labor + materials / square footage.

"KeyFin wrote:

If you don't mind me asking, what was your completed price per square foot? It would be labor + materials / square footage.

If you include the partially finished basements square footage, then about 115/sq ft. If you dont, then more like 150/sq ft. That includes the four acres of land, and some of the costs included in preparing it.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

If you include the partially finished basements square footage, then about 115/sq ft. If you dont, then more like 150/sq ft. That includes the four acres of land, and some of the costs included in preparing it.

Wow, that's an incredible price! You got a steal!

"KeyFin wrote:

Wow, that's an incredible price! You got a steal!

Housing prices vary a lot depending where you live of course. In my home town in wv, you can buy a 2000 square ft house for 100k. The same place would cost 500k in some areas closer to where I live now.

My house and acerage would likely cost a million bucks just 20 miles from here in the city, but we paid less than 40% of that.