Live Time! A house building adventure...
stryker
9 years ago
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stryker
5 years agostryker
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Build a Garage Apt to live in while building home?
Comments (22)Hi all, Just wanted to chime in on this thread. I am starting my 3rd self-built home project. (Yes, I need to have my head examined) I run a remodeling company so it's not completely insane. Previous comments about kitchens and baths being core expenses are right on the money--- so to speak. They are expensive. Building one in an apartment and then a new one in your finished house is really shooting yourself in the foot. Try this instead. Build with the foot print of a 3 car garage, say 38 x 25, but only utilize the space a two car garage would generally take up as garage space--- 25x25. Use the 25x10 part to put your permanent stair, a foyer and your permanent kitchen in. Now you can think of the space over the garage as a second story of your finished home. You can get 2-3 bed rooms and a bonus out of the space with a hall bath. Unless you really need an apartment this approach can save a bunch of cash. Someone was asking about standing seam metal roofing. If you use the commercial folks you see on TV expect to be asked to pay $65 a square foot. I had one come out and give me a quote just to check it out. It was a real manipulative "hard sell" with all these "bonuses" and "programs" available "if you sign today." Be very careful. No matter how you slice it it's a rip. Either HD or Lowes will special order metal roofing for you. Its's not hard to install. (Be careful, wear sneakers and don't bend down on your knees, it is really slick.) If this is your forever house, install 40 year architectural asphalt. It looks nice and will likely outlive me. Good Luck and Be careful out there! Bruce...See MoreFirst Time Home Building Through Production Builder
Comments (27)I wouldn't do the double sink in a secondary bath. Storage is more important. I wouldn't do the carpet pad. Too high priced for what you get. It's carpet. Go as cheap as possible. You'll end up upgrading or redoing it before you sell anyway. Extra $ is throwing that $ away. UC lighting would depend on what they plan. DIY LED tape lights might be a lot cheaper later if you have the outlets available. Same with the water softener. If this is a whole house system, builders typically do not do the proper testing to personalize the system to your local conditions and instead do a generic inadequate one. More info would be needed for that, including a 3rd party water test to determine if your water even needs treatment. You mention LVT and laminate upgrades but provide no information about the basic flooring material and what those upgrades would be. Both are typically associated with entry level homes, while many of your other choices on your list are more mid range. So you need to examine the neighborhood and its level. You will never get the value of these "upgrades" back if it pushes your build over the neighborhood norm in building. Bear that in mind in going into this build. The *neighborhood* determines your home value in a builder development, not anything that you choose to do to your home. I would rather have 20K off of the price than most of the upgrades. The exception would be the laundry move and addition of windows and electric outlets. Everything else can be done cheaper after the sale if you are even a little bit handy. If personalizing your home is important to you, you are dealing with the wrong type of builder. Production builds are more for those just starting out or ending their paths to home ownership. Newlyweds and seniors. For anyone in the middle, doing a more custom type build will have a greater value for the money spent on the overpriced "upgrades"....See MoreHow Many Times Have You Built a New Home (or had someone build it)?
Comments (33)The house we'll build next year will be our last house. I did look to buy instead of build but we really just want what we want--and don't want to compromise as much as we'd have to if we buy and remodel. Completely agree ... we also looked for something existing that we might update a bit, but found that the non-negotiable items on our list just couldn't be found in an existing home. So glad we built. We've been in the house for almost 3 months now and we're really happy with how it turned out and how it works for us. There are always some bumps in the road, but knowing our budget and what our priorities were (plus a really good contractor) helped to make this build a fairly smooth process. Hope things go well for you. It seems the consensus here is previous experience does make a big difference....See MoreFirst time home building
Comments (32)Leslie NE. Florida coast, zone 9A - I don't take it as anybody dumping on me, there's just plenty I don't have knowledge of! I completely agree that the little hallway going in is a waste of space, there's no need for it! I know one way or another, I can't rely on my square and rectangle placing to build the house for me. Absolutely need a professional opinion/help, I just hoped to have an idea going into it. I'll head back to the idea board! shead - I like a ranch style exterior! I just have no clue on cohesiveness as I like a modern kitchen style. I hope I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, I'll step back a bit and see what can come of going back to basics. All in all, I think I should take that step and contact somebody that gets paid for these designs! As I haven't found anybody that appears to be...reputable, does anybody have any recommendations online? Any specific things I should look for?...See Morestryker
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