mrshalf - google is best search: mrshalf + gardenweb and search that way.

We are doing C. It is a full time job and dh works full time and I part time. And I feel D with said headache wishing for blanket. :)

No time to elaborate. Basically learning curve-YES, is it AWFUL-sometimes, will it be worth it-I think so. :) We are currently at drywall...... The question everyone asks - when do you expect to be in? Who knows when you owner/build and DIY a lot of the end stuff. LOL!

We did something that would be a C.5
We designed the plans for the acreage, only because we couldn't find any that fit us/land. We are our own GC, and are DIYing parts. After designing the plans we took them to a lumber co, to price and figure beam spans etc. they did this for free and we in turn used them to purchase our lumber. We priced out each component, parts/labor and decided we would have the excavation/water, concrete work, framing roofing, insulation, and drywall done for us. We are doing the siding, porches, flooring, cabinet installations, tile, counters, painting and trim. And the final price comes in under the C version you have listed above. We currently live on the property but would still have done this version had we not lived on the property. Hard... Yes. Full time-sometimes feels that way. Rewarding...yes!

At the bottom of the building a home forum there is a small search box. Search there by whatever you want.

Jen

This post was edited by jennybc on Mon, Jan 20, 14 at 19:33

mrshalf - you are making me laugh - we are doing C also. We both work full-time. We live in a small town and know have the subs we are using and were able to talk to them and get bids before we ever got a construction loan. We were also able to get a builder who has built so many houses that he himself should be a GC so he is helping give us lots of guidance with building inspectors and timing of subs etc. I would describe it as chaos with a smile.

A savings of 33% from A option to C option is not realistic at all in my opinion unless you physically do a bunch of the work yourself.

I recently finished our home as the owner/builder and my savings were kind of hard to nail down as I used "savings" and upgraded many, many items

We are doing most of the stuff ourselves.

Excavation, footings, framing, insulation, painting, cabinets, flooring, roofing, landscaping will all be done by us.

We're hiring out the basement (walls), electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and drywall.

On our floor plan, we designed it completely ourselves, drew it in CAD ourselves, which is nice because we'll have the house layout we want & we have only ourselves to blame if we don't like something.

We haven't broken ground yet, in the process of going through bids, comparing numbers and references and trying to get all that stuff decided here in the next couple of weeks.

I work full-time, wife is a stay-at-home-mom (also full time job) so it's going to be a long 6-9 months as we go through this whole project. I've wanted to resort to option D several times, but I'm so ready to be out of apartments it's silly. I will have 8 weeks off here starting the end of May so it's going to be pedal to the metal from about now until the house is done. Our goal is to have it 100% done by Thanksgiving, we'll see.

ryan_33 - good point. I think having kids does make things more complex. It really is all house all the time from start to finish and sometimes it's hard for them to understand as we chose this, they did not. They just have to live with the temporary sacrifices.

Sometimes I wish we could have afforded to do the turn key thing BUT - we'd have had to give up a lot and we do enjoy DIYing. There is a sense of satisfaction in that and that we have built x,y,z together. We are kind of weird like that though.

I affectionately refer to it as our big adventure. :)

mrshalf, We are doing mostly B (for some stuff we are doing C). We both work full time and DH works almost 60 hours every week. So with the work schedules we are feeling the stress. I wish we could have done A but would have cost us 20 to 25% more to go that route.

I have a 8 year old and he is feeling the stress and is getting tired of all the leg work we are doing. I am hoping when it is all done we will enjoy the house and forget all the stress.

If I had to do this again I would do it when I could take a few months of work or do design build.

This post was edited by akshars_mom on Tue, Jan 21, 14 at 0:19

Jennybc...you wrote...
"We priced out each component, parts/labor and decided we would have the excavation/water, concrete work, framing roofing, insulation, and drywall done for us."

Would you say you're basically having someone put it under roof and you're doing the rest?
I'm curious about this option as its one we are looking at doing. Would we be able to still get a construction loan?

WE did C with a UBuildIt franchise. Much time. Much, MUCH time. WEekends, evenings, days off....I'm so glad it's over. We did save money but now that we have moved in, we are still working on things that the subs don't want to be responsible for (oh, that's not our job, that's x's job---they all say that!). Would I do it again? Not sure. I know I don't ever want to build again. I do love our home now that we are done.

We took a stock plan from Frank Betz and heavily modified it to meet our needs and I love it. It works for our life because of all the personalization we put into it and we certainly couldn't have gotten that if we had bought.

Good luck!

ok, you wrote
"We did C with a UBuildIt franchise. "

What is this? Never heard of a UBuildIt franchise...

I did almost everything myself (except excavation, slabs and critical electrical).

Two stories concrete structure + basement.

It'll be move in ready (not finished) just shy of 4 years into the project. I worked almost all weekend and evenings (did not use a contiguous vacation block) but I view it as my hobby and still enjoy it. I would not DIY a regular wood frame house with the objective to save money.

Doing this in 6-9 months would be extremely ambitious and brutal on the body. I always felt like Mondays in the office were a nice way to physically recover.

I'd watch a Renovation Realities marathon before comitting to a tight schedule because everything takes 3x longer than expected.

There are several companys that help individuals build their own homes. We are looking at working with Built Green. You pay them a fee and they help you with all the steps of building. We are in the process of working with one of their architects. From there they help you get through the process of bids. They have many different contractors and suppliers that you can work with or you can go out and find your own or do the work yourself. Supposedly because they have so many people using their services they have special deals with many suppliers that can help you save money. We have not reached that stage so I don't know if that is really true.

We have talked to several people that have used them and the majority have had positive comments. A few said they felt like it cost them more and would never do it again. I think it depends on how much you are willing to do and the finishes you choose.

We have also talked to several people that have built on their own and have struggled with finding good contractors. We have been told that when you are only building one house that the framers, etc. don't consider you a priority since they won't be getting more work from you. If you use a company like Built Green or UBuildIt they have to do a good job or the companys won't keep them on their list. Like I said, we are not to that point so I'm going by what others have told me.

I loved your post and it made me laugh and cry. I have been at D for awhile and my husband has pulled me to C kicking and screaming (still clutching my check book).

We will be building in a small town outside of Houston, Texas. We are retired and have time to spend all day at the job site. My husband is planning on doing all the electrical and plumbing and then paying someone to check the work and sign off on it since he is not licensed. We will also do the painting and floors. He would like to build the cabinets but you have to have that done to close. So we will probably do what has to be done and then finish later.

It is my understanding that you can get a construction loan but you have to convert it to a mortgage in 12 months. So if you can get it finished on your own in that time frame it shouldn't be a problem. Again, we are not there and I am repeating what we have been told. I have also been told that it is difficult to get a construction loan in Texas if you are an individual. One of our new neighbors told us that he created a construction company to get his construction loan. He then became his own GC. He has had a lot of problems finding subs to do a good job.

I also agree with what someone else said. You can save money if you don't keep upgrading. We meet someone that build in Houston through Built Green and it cost them $87 per sq. ft. The house was nice but they used cabinets from IKEA and the upstairs floors were sanded and stained deck boards. It is cheaper to build a 2 story.

We meet another couple that also built with Built Green. They built a one story very large home with a lot of upgrades. The wife had found some really great bargains on light fixtures and appliances that saved a lot of money. They had sight built cabinets that were painted not stained. Big difference in price. They also had a whole home generator. Their home was $105 per sq. ft. Both of these were finished in 2013.

The $ per sq. ft. price does not include the lot but does include wells and septic if needed.

Hope this helps. We still have a lot of questions and I will be posting plans soon to ask for help since there are so many talented designers here.

One more thing - Built Green offers free classes on the process of building. We missed the first class. The other classes cover site work and foundations, framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, finishes, etc. It has been very informative.

Since we have not gone through the process I am not recommending Built Green. I just wanted to answer your question.

FYI, credit for the OP's quoted comments above goes to Live_wire_oak who wrote it back in 2010.

The first stop to make if you are thinking about doing an owner build is your bank. Most quit playing that game during the downturn without either a significant cash investment from the homeowner, or at a much higher interest rate than available with a professional heading up the build. That right there might determine your route. 3% vs 8% can make up quite a bit of ground over the next 10 years.

The second thing on your assessment list is to figure out where the time to do all of this will come from. Figure on your build taking longer, and with a lot more in person on site involvement than you think it will. You either have to be a stay at home parent with a flexible baby sitter available at a moment's notice, or a work at home telecommuter who has a very understanding company to work for.

Oh, and it's VERY true that you will encounter a lot of difficulty finding good quality subs. Good subs like working for a good GC who has his ducks in a row, pays them on time, and will give them repeat business. Most good subs won't even put in a bid on an OB project without charging you a PIA fee built in. That's to cover the scheduling snafus, standaround and waits, and other issues that will inevitably arise with someone inexperienced doing the GC job. And, good subs laugh at companies who purport to help OB's with connections. They don't want anything to do with those companies. It's just too small of a percentage of the possible business out there to ever want to deal with the headaches it causes them.

Yeah, it's a great sense of accomplishment to be able to overcome all of the odds to be able to do it, but do not ever underestimate the length and difficulty of traveling down that road. And never do it for the "savings". You will be in over your head for that unless you can also bring a LOT of DIY ability to the worksite as well. Mother Nature has a way of filling the void of ignorance with teaching moments that cost you more than you save.

Here is a link that might be useful: LWO's original post.

mrshalf-we are doing the jennybc route also. We had it framed, roofed, plumbed, electrical and hvac, drywall. The rest we are handling. So once it's mudded we pretty much take over with trim, doors, cabinets, paint and flooring (except carpet).

As for issues getting a loan and banking. They will not do owner/build here anymore (West MI) after the fall out, even with a hefty down payment. My bil is a builder so we are using him and he did frame it but we are doing all of the gcing with subs and I am handling all of the bank draws, bill paying, sworn statement that he signs off on. If we didn't have him we couldn't have done it. All of the area builders don't want to do pieces of it and give up the gcing portion. We are fortunate that we could and it has saved money.

I can tell you that for draws 1 and 2 - a breeze as they were our money. Now that we are on draw 3 and it's their money they take much longer and are being a pain in the neck. :)

Mrs half,
So when we priced it out component wise we also had it bid for someone to "dry it in" as well, just to see if that was a viable option (it would have been easier than acting completely as our own GC). The "dried in" quote was about 25-30k more than the alternative: us being our own gc and subbing out all parts to get dried in except electrical and plumbing. We are very DIY. I helped my parents build and we remodeled our farmhouse we currently live in among many other major projects. My dad does electrical/plumbing. So to save the extra 25-30k ALONG WITH savings from siding, porches, painting, reusing cabinets, laying our own hardwood flooring etc...it was well worth the time/energy spent. We are going through this with two girls (3, 6) and it has been trying at times. But our new house is turning out fantastic and beyond our wildest expectations. Worth it... YES.

Jen

UBuildIt is ideally supposed to work as described above. Ours did not work that way. Some of our subs were wonderful. Some were awful (and those were some that were supposed to be "highly recommended".) Part of our problem is that we live in a rural area (2 hours away from the nearest city) and not a lot of subs wanted to come out here to work.

okpokesfan,

I read your earlier post and you have touched on some of my concerns. We will be about 1 hour out of Houston. Built Green assures us that the subs would be willing to travel that far because they are used to traveling that far just to get anywhere in Houston especially in traffic. They made it sound like they would prefer to travel to a small town (I'm not buying it).

You also talked about the time involved. We are retired and my husband is looking forward to having a project like this. I am extremely nervous about all the time and decisions that have to be made. He is very detail oriented and understands building so I think it would be good for him and keep him busy...LOL.

I know you don't ever want to build again but do you think if you were retired and had time it would have been better or was getting good subs more than you would want to have to deal with again.

BTW - GO POKES!!! My daughter attended OSU

yes, go Pokes! :) I'm not sure if I would do it again. We've only lived in the house for 2 months and are still working on little things. That is one of my biggest gripes about owner/builder arrangements. You are responsible for all the little things.

And frankly, you get tired of dealing with people who don't return your calls, don't show up when they say they will, etc. My husband is a perfectionist and does a better job than most of the "professionals" did. We did use some local people. They were a mixed bag as well. Getting good subs is the most difficult part of the job in my opinion.

We both work full time (he probably words 60+ hours a week actually) and have two kids, ages 10 and 12. Being retired would make a big difference in the time.

Our UBuildIt didn't do all the things they were supposed to do. Our "budget" was supposed to be an average of three bids for every sub/material. It ended up being their budget persons "estimate". If you are going to do it, I would make sure that the budget was made up of actual bids before proceeding. THat was a big mistake on our part.

It also seems that (at least here) builders/subs will tell you whatever they think will make them sound good/will get your business. This was not true of all of them of course, but a large percentage.

Good luck!