Building a house

[Mdnerd]

There was a time when having a $1.2M home was considered being rich. Although still expensive it’s becoming more of the norm now (pending where you live). Heck, a brand new 2 story basic tract home is over $600k now. We built our home for around $750k about 4 years ago (5000sq feet with all the fixings) and it’s worth around $1.4 now since I completed the basement. I have zero clue how younger folks without a lot of funds can afford a home especially with these interest rates. If we were in the market no way am I getting a loan at these prices now.

It’s blown us away. We bought our current house 6 years ago, and back then 800k got you a darn mansion in this area. Now it’s barely better than a starter home. The home we are building, while nice, is no where close to what one would expect for that price. It’s a standard looking 5k sq ft home with an oversized 3 car garage. Going so far over budget is doable because our current home has doubled in value over the last few years.

We don’t currently have a pool and use the Swimply app to rent pools until we get to the new neighborhood. The house we rent from is HUGE with all of the amenities. It was 1.3 mil 4 years ago. The home we are building is not in the same universe.

 

[Ron Mehico]

Reading part of this thread, all I can say is be happy you started in 2021. We are breaking ground on our dream home within a few weeks, and the sticker shock is astounding. Haven’t paid close attention to real estate the last few years and planned on spending in the 7 to 800 range, which was extremely reasonable not even 5 years ago. We are up to 1.2 mil and had to sacrifice a few wants in the process. It’s absolutely crazy.

Fingers crossed the build goes well…

Good luck my man. It’s hilarious looking back at this from April 2021. I thought I was going to be done at that 2nd meeting 😂. I had like 10 meetings and we didn’t finalize the design until September NINE months later. We literally picked out where each electrical outlet went - like to the INCH. My wife is psychotic she even had the finishes picked out. She had inspiration pics of every finish. We have had ZERO change orders - which is crazy from what I hear. Not ONE. Our build still went 20% over budget. Oh you wanted to stain the wood on your staircase? Well that’s an overage. Oh you wanted wood flooring that wasn’t dark red or grey? Oh that’s an overage. Just stupid shit over and over.

 

[Ron Mehico]

Last Friday we went to house and were pleasantly shocked to see them starting to lay down the hardwood flooring. They did about half the living room and I haven’t seen them since. I scheduled a walk through with our builder this morning in order to basically try and put the pressure on to get things done/yell at him to get more people working on the house. Well before I could even complain about the guys not coming back to keep laying the floor he informed me that his guy laying it wasn’t happy with the quality. They felt they were defective and the pieces weren’t coming together well resulting in little gaps between the boards. It was something me and my wife noticed but weren’t sure if there was still finishing to do.

I’ve picked as much American made stuff as I’ve been able to with the build and the hardwood was from Shaw in Georgia. Anyway the builder ordered more, they saw it had same issues, went back to Shaw and Shaw told them they felt it was fine. My builder disagreed so we had the representative from the flooring company there today to choose hardwood from a different company (Mohawk - also in Georgia). It is very slightly darker - which is a shame as I love our hardwood color - but it was close enough. Nice thing is it’s even wider plank and has an oxidized surface with a 50 year warranty so it’s actually an upgrade I don’t have to pay for. It’s yet another basically 2 week delay in everything but I can’t really complain too much about this one.

 

[Ron Mehico]

It’s getting there folks. Getting the HVAC and plumbing inspections this week. Carpet almost all in. Most appliances in. Driveway and landscaping 99% done. Almost at the finish line. Cmon baby!!

@DanCat17 you all moved in brother?

 

[AIChatGPT]

Engineered hardwood or prefinished hardwood?

Carpet? :-/

 

[Ron Mehico]

Engineered hardwood. Carpet upstairs with all the bedrooms and runners for stairs. Amazing how quick they do some of that stuff - took like 4 days total for all the hardwood and carpet. Took like 6 weeks for the tile

 

[DanCat17]

It’s getting there folks. Getting the HVAC and plumbing inspections this week. Carpet almost all in. Most appliances in. Driveway and landscaping 99% done. Almost at the finish line. Cmon baby!!

@DanCat17 you all moved in brother?

Sounds like you are really close!

Unfortunately, Not yet. But feels like we should be. Inside of the house is basically finished. Our builder has been holding off on pouring our driveway as we have had some heavy machinery in the backyard working on pool. I think all that is done now and I’m hoping he will get his sub over to get the driveway poured in the next week or so.

Feels like things are dragging again since there is not very much to do on the inside. I have zero idea how all this works, but I assumed we could move in even if landscaping is not done. So hoping we don’t have to wait for that. Just ready to get the hell in the house.

I’m planning to pry a date out of my builder this week. Honestly feels a bit ridiculous as this point in the build that he has not given us a date to shoot for. I think that could also help him get the last bit of stuff finished. But on our end, we got shit to do once this house is done. I’m anxious to get our current place on the market. So a date would really help us plan the need couple of steps that will be required on our end.

 

[Ron Mehico]

I’m planning to pry a date out of my builder this week. Honestly feels a bit ridiculous as this point in the build that he has not given us a date to shoot for. I think that could also help him get the last bit of stuff finished. But on our end, we got shit to do once this house is done. I’m anxious to get our current place on the market. So a date would really help us plan the need couple of steps that will be required on our end.

I wouldn’t wait if you want to list your house. It takes a couple weeks to get it ready to list anyway, most closings are 60 days, and it’s a way to put pressure on the builder to get things done (what I did to get my builder moving - I told him October 10th by the latest due to buyer moving into my house and he’s been on it). September is still a good time to list, November - January you get worst prices for your home so I would get it listed if I were you. Sounds like you should be done soon anyway.

 

[DanCat17]

I wouldn’t wait if you want to list your house. It takes a couple weeks to get it ready to list anyway, most closings are 60 days, and it’s a way to put pressure on the builder to get things done (what I did to get my builder moving - I told him October 10th by the latest due to buyer moving into my house and he’s been on it). September is still a good time to list, November - January you get worst prices for your home so I would get it listed if I were you. Sounds like you should be done soon anyway.

I believe you are definitely right. Had a coworker literally just tell me this 30 minutes ago when he asked about the house. Said same thing you said. List the house and tell the builder to get in gear.

 

[DanCat17]

Well, I think we have light at the end of the tunnel.

We should have a driveway poured by weeks end. And inside of house is complete minus some drywall fixes and stuff that will be called out on the final punch list.

Wife and I are going out of town this Friday-Wednesday. When we get back, I will be scheduling a inspection and walk through. I told our builder once we complete walk through, we are happy to move in before any fixes requested from walk through are finished. Figure if movers ding any walls, that can be fixed while other touch ups are being done.

Been a long ass road that felt like we would never get to the end of at times. But I am confident we will be ready to move in by months end-first week of November. Just in time for the holidays, which is exciting. We already have two parties planned. So builder better stay motivated

 

[Ron Mehico]

Glad to hear Dancat, hope it finishes for you soon.

We actually had our final walkthrough yesterday/ went over final punch out. Some furniture will be delivered this Friday and official move in date with our movers is October 13th. Somewhat surreal, but we finally made it.

 

[DanCat17]

Glad to hear Dancat, hope it finishes for you soon.

We actually had our final walkthrough yesterday/ went over final punch out. Some furniture will be delivered this Friday and official move in date with our movers is October 13th. Somewhat surreal, but we finally made it.

Hell yeah! Happy to hear that! How did your final walk through go? What was majority of things you asked to be fixed?

 

[Ron Mehico]

Hell yeah! Happy to hear that! How did your final walk through go? What was majority of things you asked to be fixed?

All super minor stuff - repaint this - clean that. Couple of doors with hinges that made them squeaky or not close right. Some areas in the lawn with dead spots or a dead plant. A couple of areas outside where I want him to fix the brick. But overall really minor things. He’s scheduled to do them before the 13th and then he’ll get the rest of his final 15k. He tried to get me to pay everything during walkthrough but I told him I’ll keep the 15k until he completes punch out. Figured it’ll never get done if he has all his money lol

 

[AIChatGPT]

Moving in on Friday the 13th…what could go wrong?

 

[DreadLox]

We went through the build process 30 years ago. On the one hand, I went from being vaguely middle aged to that's-a-rough middle age in the 6 months of the process. On the plus size, we're still here.. We went from being the young folks on the street to the old folks on the street,

A word of caution: there's a 5-10 year new house span where house maintenance will consist of changing the filters on the furnace, but at around the 10 year mark, that will change. My folks moved so much that the recurring necessity of maintenance was a surprise. (My wife's an army brat so it was a surprise to her as well.) Make a house account that you add to regularly. And like that Albert Brooks movie: don't touch the nest egg.

We got spoiled along the way. A good friend was a jack-of-all-trades. He was good, prompt, sober, and reasonable. But he was our age and has retired. I wish I could conjure up another 45 year old equivalent.

 

[DanCat17]

All super minor stuff - repaint this - clean that. Couple of doors with hinges that made them squeaky or not close right. Some areas in the lawn with dead spots or a dead plant. A couple of areas outside where I want him to fix the brick. But overall really minor things. He’s scheduled to do them before the 13th and then he’ll get the rest of his final 15k. He tried to get me to pay everything during walkthrough but I told him I’ll keep the 15k until he completes punch out. Figured it’ll never get done if he has all his money lol

Good stuff. That’s most of the stuff I figure we will find as well.

but yes, does he think you’re dumb? Lol no way he is getting that until it’s 100%

 

[DanCat17]

Glad to hear Dancat, hope it finishes for you soon.

We actually had our final walkthrough yesterday/ went over final punch out. Some furniture will be delivered this Friday and official move in date with our movers is October 13th. Somewhat surreal, but we finally made it.

Ron, how did your move go?

We are set for walk through this weekend and then moving in the weekend of the 4th next month.

 

[ukalumni00]

All super minor stuff - repaint this - clean that. Couple of doors with hinges that made them squeaky or not close right. Some areas in the lawn with dead spots or a dead plant. A couple of areas outside where I want him to fix the brick. But overall really minor things. He’s scheduled to do them before the 13th and then he’ll get the rest of his final 15k. He tried to get me to pay everything during walkthrough but I told him I’ll keep the 15k until he completes punch out. Figured it’ll never get done if he has all his money lol

Good call. Contractors only pay special attention to one thing and that is money. Think I mentioned in the past I threatened mine with a lawsuit when I went to check on things and saw that they had not touched the house in several weeks and we were closing in less than 2 weeks. He busted his butt and got most things done before closing and wanted all his money at closing and I told him he will not get the rest until everything was done. What do you know, he had it done that week. Once you pay a contractor all their money you better pray they come back because most will not or drag their feet as long as possible. Never ever give them full payment until the job is completed.

 

[Ron Mehico]

Ron, how did your move go?

We are set for walk through this weekend and then moving in the weekend of the 4th next month.

It was something! We moved in the 13th, however the inspector wasn’t working that day (of course no one knew that) so we were allowed to move in but our builder told us it had to seem like we didnt live there 🫠. So we stayed Sunday night at my parents house for the inspector Monday seeing as how I have a 6,4, and 2 year old and they’re a tornado. Inspector didn’t show Monday so same thing Monday night then came at 4PM Tuesday and it passed so we moved in moved in Tuesday night! It’s been a lot with 3 kids and it being a random work and school week. Out of town this weekend for my SILs wedding so it’ll be a while till I actually have time to settle in. Was going to post about it but honestly I’ve been so obscenely busy haven’t had time. Our builder also posted a walkthrough video of our house too but not sure anyone would be interested to see it. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to post a big update when I have time. Good luck with your move!

 

[DanCat17]

It was something! We moved in the 13th, however the inspector wasn’t working that day (of course no one knew that) so we were allowed to move in but our builder told us it had to seem like we didnt live there 🫠. So we stayed Sunday night at my parents house for the inspector Monday seeing as how I have a 6,4, and 2 year old and they’re a tornado. Inspector didn’t show Monday so same thing Monday night then came at 4PM Tuesday and it passed so we moved in moved in Tuesday night! It’s been a lot with 3 kids and it being a random work and school week. Out of town this weekend for my SILs wedding so it’ll be a while till I actually have time to settle in. Was going to post about it but honestly I’ve been so obscenely busy haven’t had time. Our builder also posted a walkthrough video of our house too but not sure anyone would be interested to see it. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to post a big update when I have time. Good luck with your move!

Would love to see the video if you’re comfortable sharing! Glad to hear you all are in. Was it the occupancy inspection you were waiting on?

 

[Ron Mehico]

Would love to see the video if you’re comfortable sharing! Glad to hear you all are in. Was it the occupancy inspection you were waiting on?

Yup, final occupancy inspection from our county.

 

[Hank Camacho]

Yup, final occupancy inspection from our county.

Did the health inspector have to certify it was hoof and mouth disease free?

 

[Ron Mehico]

Did the health inspector have to certify it was hoof and mouth disease free?

That would have delayed us quite a while Hank