Just know that the prices will vary during the planning process and something could jump up and change the entire plan. Example, our home started out with hand drawn plans that I made myself. I had the configuration of each room upstairs and downstairs (stack your plumbing wherever possible, it's cheaper) right on down to the square footage and it was supposed to be a nice log home using 12 inch logs. Right? Right?Some Schmo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:19 pmYeah, I've got to second this. I've been considering building a house, so I appreciate the great information.Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:30 pmThis is so cool. It gives you a great reality check on the extensive coordination and costs required to get a home built.
I suspect there's some regional variance in the prices, but the breakdown is what's great here. Thanks for this, dantana.
Yeah right.
By the time the blueprints were drawn up (took 3 revisions because the architect kept putting in stuff I never asked for) and we started pricing it out, some darn thing happened in the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest concerning an owl or some such thing, and drove up the cost to the point where we couldn't use the 12 inch logs so we bagged the idea and went for rustic cedar siding.
We also had to make certain trade offs in design to bring the cost of the house into range so that we could cash flow the whole build. Example: We were supposed to have a detached garage. We compromised to bring down the cost by attaching the garage and thus eliminating one exterior wall which costs more than interior walls. We also had to toss the idea of the JennAir range which was very popular at the time. The one thing I never traded off the plan was the floor to ceiling rock fireplace though I did learn that manufactured stone is less expensive than authentic stone, puts less stress on the construction, and so I went with that.
We didn't anticipate delays. They dug the hole in September. That September we started getting monsoon rains that kept filling up the hole. They had to pump the hole in order to pour the foundation. We ended up moving into the house during a December blizzard.
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Someone mentioned slopes and retaining walls. I picked out the placement of the house based on the removal of as few trees as possible. We live in a forest on what they call here a "cold lot" because it was heavily treed so I wanted the house built towards the back where there was one of two clearings. On account of that, we built on a slope. Yes, there is a retaining wall, but the good thing is that we squeezed a garden level basement out of the deal so that the basement is well lit.
If you are building (and I'm writing this for anyone who might be going through this thread, not Schmo in particular) be sure to visit the construction site at least weekly. Here comes another story. Remember the rustic cedar siding? I went out to the house by myself one day and when I walked around the back I noticed that the sub contractor's crew had started PAINTING THE SIDING DARK BROWN when the plan called for semi transparent redwood naturaltone off in the future after the first summer.
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I called the realtor first because (remember this is Jersey whose life is like Murphy's Law in action) our Gen Con was out of town. He had gone home to Oregon because his Dad was crushed and killed by a tree he was cutting down. (This is true, I am not making this up). So the realtor went out to look at it and said it was a "nice buffy brown" where upon I raised hell and he directed the subcontractor to remove the paint, the siding if needed, and give me what I signed off on because I had the specs right in my hot little hand and I was going to get what I planned and paid for.
The most stressful part of the whole process was the day I picked out all of the interior design stuff. The exterior and interior lights, the light switches, light switch covers, the floor coverings, the cabinets, the showers, the sinks, the tubs, the---->on and on and on and on and on...until your mind starts to fuzz over and I had to do it in one four hour meeting. But I did it! Just look at the home you are living in right now and go through one room...notice all the small things like sinks, faucets, overhead lighting, all the switches and covers and then consider the whole home and how many of those items are in the whole house. Basically strip down the whole room down to dry wall and then start adding back all those small things...that is what you end up doing when you build or at least what we ended up doing with the interior design place. Looking back I don't know why we had to pick out the plumbing fixtures and light fixtures with the interior designer but I think that was to determine the interior design budget and keep it in line with the overall budget.
In spite of all the things I mentioned and what I haven't mentioned, I loved seeing our home go from sketch pad to reality. If I could have my way, I would design and build a new home every month and never get tired of it.