Sorry about your trouble, bevangel.

Did you read any books about becoming an owner-builder? How did you find your subs? Have you purchased materials over the internet?

Good luck the rest of the way.

Hi bevangel, and I'm sorry to hear about all your misfortunes as well. Hoping for the best for your MIL and Father. It's been a rough couple of years for you. HUGS from another long-term home builder with lots of calamities!

We started March 2006, and I'm really wondering if there is anyone out there building longer than me??? LOL
Just about to celebrate 4 years, LOL.

We are doing everything ourselves though.....with no loans either so I guess it makes sense that it would take so long. DH figured 5 years.

We will hopefully be moving in this Spring, although it will be far from complete. But tough times require tough measures and we really need to sell our current home so we can put all the finishing touches on our new one.

Best of luck to all the long-timer's! Hope to see lots of completed homes this year. :)

We have been planning our house for 5 years...getting ready to dig out this month..The worst part is my hubby is the builder...you know what they say about the shoemaker's family...

Bevangel,
I have seen your prior posts and felt badly for what you have gone through, and while we have been at it the same length of time it is for different reasons. We broke ground end of May 2008, it looks like we will get our occupancy in the next couple of weeks and move in mid-April. While our build has gone pretty smoothly we have done most of the work ourselves since October 2008 which is when the drywall went up. We knew it would take us more time since we were doing so much ourselves but we could not have anticipated that it would take this long. It has worked in our favor in several ways so I am just trying to be patient these last weeks. I am wondering though...will the house feel "new"? I am looking forward to having it *clean*! Then after we move in it will be time to start on the outside projects... :) Here's hoping that everything goes well for you and the rest of the long-timers from here on out.
Lucky

I can empathize with you bevangel. We are doing a remodel/addition. We waited & waited for the right time to start the project (kids out of daycare, financially "comfortable"). But I guess no time is a good time. Our builder came in ready to go, full speed ahead. We chose him because we "knew" him and we wanted to help him since the economy has affected his income. He tore off my roof on Nov. 16th and I still don't have one. He had knee surgery & no one worked at the house for months. Our floors and insulation have to be removed, all drywall and insulation has to be removed. The stress of all of this makes me want to just put the roof back on and live in our tiny home. I've started the legal action as of this week. Now any areas we planned to upgrade will be as simple as we can handle. I'll be contracting the house, since we can't afford a GC fee after all of the money we lost (about 40k). My poor kids (11 & 8) said to me today they keep thinking it's a nightmare and they're going to wake up. My daughter 5 keeps asking if we're going to live where we used to. We are living with my father (mom died 3 years ago) in a town 30 min. away. My kids absolutely adore being here with him. He's a nut!!! Thank goodness we have a place to live, but I can't believe I may have to do this for another year. I blame myself sometimes. My family would have been fine in the home we had. Growing up, I lived in a tiny home with 2 older brothers and one bathroom, and I think I turned out pretty good. I wanted them to have more room, us to have more room & dad since he'll be moving in with us also.

It looks like we'll be doing much of the work ourselves, and looking for people we know to help us out. We ARE the charity case in our neighborhood unfortunately.

bevangel - as was asked above...can you give me any advice, books, etc. to prepare me for gc-ing this house? I've read one book, "What your Contractor Can't Tell You", which gave me lots of info. I think the management is huge. I am a full time teacher and so is my husband. My father is retired and he's a former carpenter, so he's at least familiar with the process. I'd love to find something that will give me a step by step, who do I contact & a timeline of sorts. I understand the process doesn't run that smoothly, but there's got to be something out there. I plan on using some subs from gc's that are now bidding on my home for just the framing. They have kindly offered their subs and to walk me through the process. Should I wait until the house is almost finished framing before I send out for bids on electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.? So many questions...maybe I should start a new thread!!

bevangel & those of you who are feeling the stress of the build, try to stay focused on what is to come. You can easily fall into a deep depression & really it's not helping anyone. I couldn't let my kids suffer. My builder already caused me such sadness, I'll do whatever I can to keep it from happening to my kids. Kids are so resilient. As long as they have a roof over their head (even if it is Pop Pop's roof) and a family that loves them they have everything they need. Thank goodness my marriage is strong and I love and respect my husband & family or as I keep telling myself...it could be worse.

Lori

All of this, and yet you've taken lots of time to help others with their house plans and other issues. You are a very generous soul to manage all of this!

Anne

Sorry to hear about the hassles, delays, and resulting stress, depression and loss of money. I can identify!!.

I thought we must have the record from the longest building project, ie, 4 yrs 4 months from filing of Notice of Intent to Build, to the final inspection and Certificate of Occupancy on our retirement house on the southwest Florida coast. Maybe not, from what I'm reading.
Fortunately, I think we made the right decisions along the way, and ended up with a beautiful, well constructed house where we are anxious to spend our retirement years ( and a lot of spare time till we can retire).

We acquired the land ( approximately one acre on a tidal creek with harbor, Gulf of Mexico direct access) in 1996 (when it was cheap) so we owned it outright. We weighed our options for financing a building project, and decided on an equity line of credit on our paid-off house in southeast Florida. This gave us the best control of the money, and the best interest rate.

We spent a number of years interviewing architects, realtors ( for building contractor recommendations)and touring innumerable model homes before we decided on a contractor who had a small family owned business and many years of building experience. We checked to make sure he was properly licensed and insured, and had no complaints against filed against him. We also saw he had good credit references, and we also interviewed some of the folks who worked for him (including independent subs), customers he'd built houses for, and we also checked some of the places he had built. We selected one of his model houses plans, made some changes we wanted, and signed a contract. I guess he asked for about 6-7% of the total amount at this time, and said he asked for money for each draw after the work was completed to our satisfaction.

We submitted the Notice of Intent in August 2004. One week later Hurricane Charley came through and decimated the place. Fortunately the only destruction to the property was the uprooting and splintering of about 6 live oak trees, although the lot clearing now involved removal of hurricane debris, including a derelict boat that had been blown onto the property!

Took a while to get the septic tank/well plans approved, and once we got those back, we realized the plans submitted were bass ackwards ( we wanted a mirror image of the plans) so these had to be resubmitted and that took another couple months for approval.

The construction (Concrete Block with Stucco)began in
January 2005, if I recall it took about a year to get to the point where the house was ready to be dried in, had the rough plumbing and electric in and inspected. Delays were due to the buildingboom in Florida due to destruction of property from the back to back hurricanes of 2004-2005, and the real estate/building boom at the time ( Florida being prime property for investor/flippers). This made it difficult to get materials and qualified workers. My DH repeatedly told the contractor we were not in a hurry for this house ( took me two years to get him to stop saying that), and with us controlling the finances, there was no bank schedule deadlines to meet. And the contractor was also building houses for people whose property had been destroyed in Hurricane Charley, so we went to the bottom of the priority list for completion of our house!

This contractor refused to use subcontractors or workers with whom he wasn't familiar, and supervised the work himself ( this was attested to by our neighbors who watched this construction for the four years it went on, and reported to us when we saw them. We live about 180 miles away so could only get there on weekends.) So the work was well done, although it progressed slowly. And we could see they weren't taking any shortcuts, or skimping on anything.

I think it was probably about mid 2007, right after the drywall went in, that we realized it was likely the contractor was in financial trouble over his head. Looked as though after that the work stopped, and we weren't able to get in touch with the contractor. He didn't respond to phone calls, emails, and even a registered letter to him came back unclaimed. We owed HIM money, as he had not asked for the drywall, etc draw, so it wasn't like he was trying to take us for a ride. This went on for months, so we began to think perhaps he had abandoned the project, so DH and I began to argue endlessly about how we should proceed to finish our house. We both felt that the completed work was good, that the contractor hadn't deliberately set out to take us for a ride ( especially since we owed him money and he still wasn't responding to our calls), but that perhaps he wasn't able to finish the job. Checks of the county's building and zoning website showed this contractor had renewed his own license and
liability insurance, and renewed the building permit on our house and others he was building as he needed to. And he responded to a warning letter from the county about the debris on the building site ( required to be enclosed in a container,not loose all over the site)by cleaning up the site and enclosing the building debris as required. We didn't figure from these actions that he intended to abandon the job, so we gave him some more time to respond before we fired him. We also figured that starting over with a new contractor would cost us more money, and wanted this guy to finish the house if he could.

Around Sept-October 2007, the contractor finally contacted us to let us know what was going on. He explained that he was essentially broke, having been stiffed by several customers who let him get close to finished with their houses, and insteas of paying the final draw ( about $60,000 to $100,000), fired him, got control of the permit, hired someone else to finish the little work that was left, paying the new guy a lot less money than they owed to the contractor. Apparently this is a south Florida trick because we had neighbors who did the same thing in Miami to contractors rebuilding their houses after Hurricane Andrew- and they bragged about it! The contractor also said he'd had several investors whose banks notified him that they would no longer fund his projects ( leaving him with half-built houses for which he had not been paid) since they believed the projects wouldn't bring the returns they expected.

Well, we reminded the guy that we owed him money, that we liked his work and wanted him to finish the house. We agreed to pay piecemeal for the remainder of the work, and to pay off the subs who had placed liens on the property ( I don't think we had paid the contractor for any of the materials or work the subs had done). The contractor was happy with this arrangement, we paid him what he asked for the materials and work, kept records of what we paid for liens, and we got release of liens for each sub we paid ( these also show in county courthouse records). We'd felt from the beginning that this contractor was honest, wasn't trying to rip anyone off, and that was certainly our experience with him. We noticed that he kept our pocket books in mind for the project- taking several bids for each project and choosing the one he felt was best. To us it looked like the work was done well, and with care, I'll never forget the 70 yr old retired roofer/contractor our contractor hired to do the work on the punchout list. This guy was meticulous, left nothing undone, and even took care of things he saw that needed fixing/adjusting/redone that weren't on the list.

I'm happy we used the equity line of credit ( which is the only "mortgage" we have on the two houses) to build our retirement house, as among other things it gave us control of the money for the project. I'm not sure how a bank would have handled the turn of events with the house we were building.

All in all, it was only time, and hassle that we lost with building our retirement house. I just hope our contractor will be able to get back on his feet, and is able to keep building. In my opinion, he's one of the good ones.

sorry but you have me beat, bevangel. we're at sixteen months. mostly weather related. i must also factor in dh's very relaxed attitude about it. he likes to hold onto the cash as long as humanly possible. i however have had enough and have insisted he fork it over.

scared him pretty good and he obliged. but then it started snowing. and snowing. and snowing yet again...

i walked through today and they did manage to deliver all the insulation before we got socked again so i'm hopeful they'll get that done next week.
but of course it's supposed to snow AGAIN.

and then spring will appear ...and it will RAIN.

We got driveway permit in Jan 2007, submitted house plans and got building permit in March, had foundation and septic in May, modular home set on foundation June, CO late August 2007 and moved in Labor Day that year. So seems like it moved quickly, but had the DR floor started cracking 10 days after we got it down, HD said material was defective so when we moved in we put the DR furniture in the LR, 3 mos later ripped it out b/c they said replacement stuff was in, that was checking in the box so refused delivery, we were stuck with splintered plywood on DR floor. Then a lot of sheetrock torn out and replaced and seams that were cracking fixed Dec 07- Feb 08, then repainted June 08, tile started coming loose, had about 60 sf reset in kitchen and 30 sf in foyer. Then got countertop on the kitchen island July 08. DR floor Sept 08, finally got LR and FR furniture downstairs after we were able to move the DR furniture into the DR. Got most of the trim upstairs done in 2009, the whole foyer had to be reset Aug 09, still waiting for baseboards b/c 2 months later the tile started coming loose again. I'm waiting another 3 months to see how much is loose this time and if we need to pull up all 500sf downstairs.

Still living with 1 bath (I tiled myself) upstairs and a toilet downstairs - no sink in powder room since we were going to have it plumbed (builder put in drain but no supply lines) when we did the master bath but we've been too busy to finish that. Maybe this year. Oh, and we still have a sliding glass door to nowhere b/c I can't even think about deck design right now. The downstairs ceilings are cracking again - I think if we have to tear out the tile, I might just tear off the back wall of the house to expand the FR rather than doing a deck, and fix the ceiling (maybe hide it with beadboard?) at the same time. We'll definitely do the master bath tile and tub, get the toilet set and get the sink in the PR at the same time we replace the tile in the downstairs.

mdfaac - There are a number of good books out there. Here are some of the ones I found most helpful:

"What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating" by Amy Johnston

"How to Be Your Own Contractor and Save Thousands" by Tanya R. Davis

"Tips & Traps When Building Your Home" by Robert Irwin

"Be Your Own House Contractor" by Carl Heldmann

As for ordering materials off the internet - yes, I ordered tons of stuff (all of my plumbing fixtures including two cast iron bath tubs, most of my lighting fixtures, hardwood flooring, interior doors (I needed 7' doors and could not find them locally), hardwood flooring, stair parts, and decking materials.) I had no problems except for one faucet that arrived scratched. Even then, the company just asked me to send them a digital photo showing the scratch. They then sent a replacement part and I didn't even have to send back the scratched piece. Before ordering from any internet company I did searches on the GW forums (especially kitchen, bath, and flooring forums as well as this one) for the company's name to see if anyone at GW had any any experiences with them. For the most part, things arrived BEFORE I expected them which occasionally resulted in storage issues (we wound up renting a 10x10 storage unit a couple of miles away) where we could stash stuff until we were ready for it. Less likelihood that things will get stolen than if they are laying around an only slightly secure building site. (Even if you have locks on every door, workmen are simply TERRIBLE about remembering to close and latch windows when they leave. Plus, after awhile it seems like have the county has the code to your key-box. We tried to change our code fairly regularly but still...

Mamabirrd - I cannot imagine going thru this for FOUR YEARS. But how wonderful that when you are done, you won't have a mortgage hanging over your head. Will keep my fingers crossed for you to make it in this spring as well!

robinson622 - I was sorry to hear about your situation. How any contractor would think they could take the roof off a house and not properly cover it with a SLOPING tarp is absolutely beyond me. Good luck with your legal action. Be aware tho that, with the wrong lawyer, a lawsuit can become just another money pit. Insist that you expect results and will only pay for things accomplished. In other words, if you get a bill that claims so many hours for "research", insist that you must be told specifically what was being researched and how that particular bit of information is going to help the lawyer bring your case to a successful resolution. If you get a bill for preparing a document of some sort, YOU should receive a copy of the document - and evidence that it was filed with the court or sent to the opposing party or whatever. If your attorney bills your for "reviewing" a document sent by the opposing side, insist that you want to get a copy of the document so you can review it as well. And, if your attorney bills you for "revising a document", demand a copy of both the original AND the revised version. You should NOT be billed for 2 hours work by the attorney's secretary and one hour by the attorney for a one sentence revision in a document - but I've seen attorneys who will do that!

jimandanne_mi - I don't know that I'm so much generous as it is that GW has been my lifeline throughout this whole horrible build! There have been many times when it felt like the only thing I COULD do halfway right was help someone here figure out how to tweak their plan so it would flow a little better! Since my computer is a desktop model and is downstairs - I couldn't figure out how log onto Gardenweb WHILE still staying in bed curled up in a fetal position. LOL!

ajsmama - ohmygosh, I think your situation is worse than mine in many ways. Who is the manufacturer of your modular home? Have you contacted them for assistance in resolving these issues? Was your tile installed in the winter by any chance. I recently learned that tile mortar won't set up correctly if the temperature is below something like 40 degrees F. Also, how could your builder have failed to put in supply lines????

kateskouros - I thought you started shortly after I did. I assume the house is dried in - as you can't very well install insulation and risk getting it wet - so I don't understand why snow would stop the workmen moving forward. (Unless of course you're in one of those areas that have been so snowed in that the subs can't even REACH your house!) Have faith, maybe after so much snow in your area, spring will be a bit dryer than normal.

bevangel - I wasn't trying to make this a contest. At least our house is livable. The modular factory did come back and fix the sheetrock in Feb 08 but only gave me 1 yr warranty on the repairs. That was after we went through an investigation (sending samples to foam manufacturer) to see if the foam adhesive used in the ceilings had been properly mixed/applied. The answer was yes, within tolerances, though I did ask to have them screw the sheetrock down in the downstairs ceilings (which were worse than upstairs) and not rely on the adhesive alone. The "2/10" house warranty only covers major (1/4") gaps, not annoying hairline cracks (that run for 10 ft on a seam in the ceiling, or from the corner of a door/window to the ceiling and keep coming back). They're saying these are just settling cracks. There were definitely issues with framing that weren't addressed just by floating new sheetrock - I've got bulges still, some like this one in DR under window weren't discovered til I tried to put baseboard up. Nothing I can do about this one though short of taking off baseboard, cutting out drywall, planing down high stud (or taking it out and replacing it, since it's just a short one under the window) and then patching/replacing everything. Not something I really want to do with new HW floor in place.

(ignore the valance stuffed on top of blind - you can see the bulge in the wall right where the baseboard is scarfed - the only way I could get it to lie flat but draws attention to the problem esp. with color and grain not matched - baseboard came cut and tacked loosely in place with joint right in front of stairs so I cut the long piece shorter and stole a longer piece from another room to run all the way to the front door)

I've done a lot of skimming (and repainting) of walls to try to get trim to lie flat. The tile was installed in August b4 A/C was working, but mainly the problem is that the installer didn't put thinset b/t the subfloor and the backer board so every spring as the humidity climbs after the dry winter the floor flexes enough (esp. n high traffic areas) to pop the tile. I don't have cracked tiles, I have entire tiles only being held together by the grout. I hired the tile guy so it's my problem - was going to sue him last year but lawyer said it would cost too much in legal fees and judges don't understand technical stuff like this so "try to work it out with him" so he came back and reset what I told him was loose, found a few more, and the night he left I found yet another 10sf so called him to come back next day - ended up being the entire middle of foyer except for sf by side of PR (just enough we could squeeze in). Now it's been 70sf of the kitchen (should have had him redo all from basement door to DR instead of just 10sf) high traffic area and all of the foyer/PR except those 2sf, and the coat closet.

(blue tape is around what he reset the 1st day last year, rest is stuff I started pulling up after he left b/c I found 1 loose one next to one he had just reset and then it just kept going!) The walls still look like this - skimmed out for baseboard, but haven't repainted or put up baseboard since who knows what is going to happen with floor this year -

Other end of hall (see no blue tape near PR pocket door)

Oh, and builder didn't put n supply lines I guess b/c they didn't know if we were putting vanity or pedestal sink in. Basement below so hopefully not a big deal, except I prefer them to come through wall and not floor. We were in a hurry to move in so I let a lot of things slide (like some light switch/outlet placement) that we're going to have to take care of now. Oh, and all the doors on the ground floor and in the upstairs bathrooms were placed 1" off the subfloor b/c the builder was worried about my radiant heat, even though I told him it only added 1/4" to the thickness of the floor. He said the doors were "cut for carpet" and asked what kind/how thick my flooring was going to be, I said give me an inch (clearance) b/c floors would be 3/4" HW or 3/4" - 7/8" tile with radiant, he set all the doors 1" high. I didn't know that prehung doors and pocket doors already had over 1" clearance built in when you set the jamb on the subfloor. Prehung doors weren't too hard to lower (though patching of sheetrock was a problem in some areas - we've bought wider trim for others like the cased openings), but the pocket door in the PR is a problem - may have to rip out wall and buy new track to do it right. In fact, I made a mistake putting pocket door on PR with kids - may switch it to coat closet that doesn't get used as much. Master bath pocket doors (and linen closet door) may stay 1" high and we'll just build up the floor, except that door into bath and door into hall are close together on adjacent walls and may look strange. Not as bad as hallway linen and bath 4" apart and 1" different in height did! He wouldn't lower them since "that's what asked for."

We too have been building for 4 years. Actually 5 if you count the summer of 2005 when we cleared the trees off our lot. We had the basement foundation poured in June of 2006. I thought that my DH would do some of the work and would contract the majority out. Wrong. He has done the majority of the work himself and I would not recommend this to anyone. He did sub out the basement foundation; laying the shingles, finishing the sheetrock and all of the rockwork (stone porch and rock foundation).

During this 5 year period we had 2 sons in college (that explains why we were on such a tight budget) and they helped occasionally with some of the work. My Brother in law helped for a couple of months when he lost his job. Aside from that he has done the work himself.

We anticipate that we will be moving in around June this year. The cabinets are in process but can't be delivered until we get the hardwood down. We just ordered the hardwood floors and they should arrive next Friday. We have completed tiling the bathrooms, laundry and mudroom floors. We still have some wall tile to do.

BTW- When I say we; I am mostly the gopher and shopper. I do help cut tile, grout, and paint. And sweep. Sweep, sweep, sweep. Anything that I can do to help him, I do. But he is the one that has really done the work and it has been not only tiring but stressful. At this stage we just want it to be done!

Reading all of the stories, I do realize that we have been very fortunate. We don't have any horror stories. We did have a few things stolen 1 time, but aside from that, we have been very blessed.

This site has been a tremendous help. I stumbled upon it a little over a year ago and truly wish that I had found it much sooner. Thanks to all of those that have shared their knowledge and experience.

ajsmama - I didn't mean to suggest you were "making it a contest." When I said your situation was worse than mine in many ways, that was just my way of expressing sympathy. I love what your floor medalions are SUPPOSED to look like. I do hope your tile guy can figure out a way to get the tile permanently adhered as it would be a shame to lose that tilework.

bevangel - well, we've been living with this mess and it's delayed finishing other things, but at least we're living here and I haven't had to sue anyone (yet). No liens and DH's job looks secure. I wish you luck with your build - hopefully the end is in sight and once you move in it will be over. Thanks for giving me the chance to vent.

As far as the floor - the one near the door looked weird b/c the hallway isn't in the center of the house. Since half of it had come loose anyway I just wanted him to replace it with solid green tile (I had just enough left). He refused, just replaced the pieces (1 cracked but I had a spare). So now I cover it with a rug. I had bought 30sf extra of the green tile so that we could expand the PR into a (small) full bath if we needed one on the first floor in the future. Now I don't have any spare tile left - I've already had to clean grout and thinset off kitchen tiles to reuse them, the edges get chipped and they look horrible (I touched up with white nail polish). Can't do that with the foyer tile. All my tile has been discontinued so if any more comes loose we're just going to pull it all up and put something else in (and sue the installer - his latest theory was ghosts - asked if we built on a cemetery or Indian burial ground).

We have been at this for 2+ years, and we haven't even broken ground yet! We found property we loved, did all of our due diligence, closed on the property and then went directly out to the property after the closing because we were so excited. While we were out there, a neighbor drove by and let us know that all of the property owners were getting sued! The adjacent neighborhood had sewer and the developer of our properties got an easement from somebody in the adjacent neighborhood to connect to the city sewer. The developer of the adjacent neighborhod was mad when they discovered it (competition for them) and claims the person who granted the easement for sewer did not get architectural review for the manhole! They are demanding that the sewer connection be removed. It is incredibly ridiculous, but the legal case has been dragging on for 2+ years. In the meantime, while waiting for trial, we did "perk" testing on our lot (didn't need to before as it had sewer service). It doesn't perk in any form --- even the soil scientists can't find a suitabe engineered system. So, while we don't think a judge would ever remove the sewer, it would be a big risk to build without some sort of back-up plan. Lots of other homes in our developent are already built (before the suit). Anyway, a judge heard the case in December and immediately ruled in our favor. We thought our troubles were over and I rounded up the builders and got so very excited....then they appealed....grrr....The filings in NC take months, and then the case has to go to Raleigh which can take about a year or so. Of course, every authority tells us the sewer will never get disconnected, but if it did get disconnected, the homes could be condemned!

So, while our building process has not been long so far, we haven't even gotten started! Yikes!

Bevangel, you're much more than an angel. You're a saint!! Can't believe you've taken the time to answer questions and help so many, me included, when you've had so much on your plate!! I'm glad the end is in sight for you. I pray that all goes well.
If you're looking for a winner, I'm sure we hold that dubious honor. I haven't even been able to finish the house plan we started 2007!! We're beyond ready to break ground. Gotta have a plan first!!

Late to the party but couldn't resist adding my horror story, greatly abbreviated to reduce my stress from reliving this hellish experience.
DH & I, retirees on a modest fixed income, sold our longtime house in 7/07 & bought a waterfront shack, intending to build a fairly humble retirement home within 18 or so months. Picked a local experienced waterfront builder who gave us a very affordable informal estimate; had our lot surveyed by JIM HART & ASSOCIATES of KIRKLAND, WA in 9/07, & commissioned the builder's in-house designer to plan our house at a cost of $13,600. Meanwhile, the city was busy putting further restrictions on building, so we had to rush our designer to get the plan submitted in time to avoid the new construction limitations - made the deadline by the skin of our teeth! So happy! Our builder, however, was not being too helpful & procrastinated, & we unfortunately followed his advice longer than we should have done - the upshot was that it took us until 7/09 to finally get our wft building permit - cue dancing in street! The builder then made a formal bid that was over twice what he'd estimated many months previously. We found a better qualified builder at a similar cost & were getting ready to excavate when we were informed by the city that our $13,500 building permit was rescinded because JIM HART's 2007 SURVEY WAS INACCURATE , per alert neighbor's report! Somehow the city overlooked a basic error, despite charging us $135/hr for MANY MONTHS of "expert review." JIM HART's survey incorrectly stated the ordinary high water mark. Our lot is small, & waterfront construction requirements are stringent, so this inaccurate survey meant our house design would not fit on the lot & was now useless, as we'd only be allowed to build a tiny hut if we simply modified the original building permit. We ended up forced to reapply for (& pay again for) a new building permit, get (& pay again for) a new house design, & engage an expensive architect to try to resolve with the city the problems related to JIM HART's INACCURATE SURVEY as expeditiously & inexpensively as possible (MASSIVE FAILURE!!) So now here we sit, in 11/2010, no new building permit YET, the city keeps requiring more info, & we unhappily anticipate our 4th Christmas in a rented storage unit-cum-2 bdrm apt! We thought we could at least recoup some of our expenses from JIM HART, KIRKLAND WA SURVEYOR, but unfortunately, back in the ignorant bliss of 9/07, JIM HART'S contract limited his liability to the cost of the survey only. We have lost over $45,000, EXCLUSIVE of our extended rental costs, lost our hard-won building permit & experienced over 1 year's construction delay solely due to JIM HART's BAD SURVEY! However, we know we are EXTREMELY lucky to have this type of problem - something to engage us in our Golden Years (lucky ol' DH, a former engineer, has even more diversion - he now works as an oncall security guard @ $13/hr on the overnight shift to keep us in dog food!)

contract limited his liability to the cost of the survey only.

Depending on the jurisdiction, consumer protection laws may override contracts. I hope you at least had your lawyer take a look at your situation.

we're now at 25 months. i'm so done. never again.

Worthy - This is very late, but thanks for the reply! Yes, we had several attorneys review the contract (after the fact, obviously!) but all said that it would be a difficult case & cost tons to pursue, & that we'd really be better off to file a complaint w/ state surveyor/civil engr licensing board & move on, which is what we've done. No justice except for the rich, apparently, while incompetents like SURVEYOR/CIVIL ENGR JIM HART of KIRKLAND/SEATTLE WA. go on their merry way...

Oh mimi89, my heart goes out to you.

The only good thing I see in your story is that at least you were advised that pursuing a claim would cost tons of money and probably never pay off. You could easily have managed to hire a shyster attorney who racked up loads of billable hours and finished bleeding you totally dry before finally telling you "well, I've done all I can do, the facts and law just weren't with us... please pay the rest of your bill before you leave."

If I could just win the lottery so I didn't NEED a regular paycheck, I swear, I would take up fighting for screwed- over homeowners on a permanent pro bono basis!

Our GC wasn't bad...just not wonderful. Our troubles were with a dishonest seller and our city. We'd planned to remodel the 1950's ranch we bought on 'the perfect lot' in 'the perfect neighborhood' (at full price).

The seller hid the sunken foundation on a large addition -- and probably bribed our home inspector, since nobody else we called in later missed the problem. Due to that and then considering the advantages of 'all new' over 'partly new', we decided to do a teardown, ripping out the sunken foundation but using the rest of the basement foundation, plus some bump-outs.

After many delays from our first (hack and unlicensed) architect, then having to pay for multiple 'little revisions' from our good, licenced architect for the city's Building Review Board, the city granted us our demolition permit and our building permit. We'd hired our GC and were finally going to get started. We'd owned the property for 14 months.

The day after the old house was bulldozed the city slapped a Stop Work Order on us. Someone (with clout) had complained that we'd torn down 'an important work by an important architect'. We were to wait for the next BRB meeting -- two months hence. The city had already written in our permit that the house was NOT of any importance; it just had the (strictly locally) 'important' name stamped on the plans. And, of course, we had the PERMITS!

"Nevermind," says the city. We can't tell you who has complained, but he is Somebody and he wants to make a noise. You can go along for your 'trip to the woodshed' at the BRB meeting or you can sue and spend a year waiting for the court to throw out the illegal Stop Work Order.

We withstood the public, *televised* 'whipping' from the dilettante Third Generation City Resident, then we could begin the *normal* hazards of building.

If anyone had really thought the house was important, they'd had five years to buy it while it was on the market, another 90 days to 'rescue' it after we contracted to buy it, and another six months while we were before the BRB getting our building permit. Besides, the house was GONE before the man complained! Exactly how this served him is still unclear to me.

We'd hoped to save the old house's nice wood floors, but they'd been ruined by exposure during our winter of Stop Work. As we started to build we discovered MOLD in the basement! Stop again while $17K goes to remediate the mold.

Thankfully, after that it was just 'regular' problems, the likes of which are posted here every day.

We love our house. I gained back enough of the 30 pounds I lost to have the hip surgery I required after lugging cases of building samples and reams of paperwork to the city. (LOL! I exagerate! I had to take so many steroids for asthma years ago that my bones are not robust. But the fetching didn't help matters.)

I think what rankles in too many of these posts are the INJUSTICES suffered, whether from GC's, subs, sellers, power-mad 'volunteer' BRB's, city building departments...whomever. Life sure ain't 'fair'.

thirty two freaking months.
looking to hire a hit man...