At present we're building a detached, 2 car garage with a full second floor. We have a low lot and that limited site locations, as did rather strict town set-backs.

For me, personally, the worst part of the project was seeing all the lovely trees and understory plants erased in preparation for the site work. Gone are the spring ephemerals, many ferns, and all the plant life that blocked our home from what is a very popular tourist drive. I actually cried when I saw the snapping turtle smashed in the road (it's not like they race out in front of you, afterall).

Now, I'm "over it", but still long for the shady, cool corner of the property that was home to all sorts of wildlife. It will get better as the building is erected and we've had time to assess the sun/shade patterns and are able to plant a mixed shrub border to block the road.

The worst part of our project was dealing with our propane supplier. With him, it's one bungle after another. He is scheduled to show, and doesn't. He vents the propane through the front of our roof. He muddles the sizes of the tank we've agreed upon. He is basically a moron.

Everything else is fine with us. Unlike the poster above, we made a conscious decision to keep our trees and brush area. We chose the location of our house on the lot, based entirely on where we could put it and still keep our large oaks & the palmetto clusters under them. There's so much construction that I really feel for the wildlife - they're the victims in this scenario.

Cheers!
Heather W

Here is a link that might be useful: Our ICF Home Construction Journal

Heather was lucky, we DIDN'T have the luxury of keeping the vegatation referenced above.

:(

The worst part was going over $3500.00 for escavation the very first day of building. We thought this would happen every step of the way. Thankfully, everything else has been on/under budget except for a few upgrades that we chose to do along the way.

Let's see...worst, worser, worsest. That's how it seemed to go at the outset of our build.

We thought the worst was dealing with the seller of the old ranch-on-an-acre, back when we thought we would remodel. That took two years.

It got still worse when we realized the seller had bamboozled us (and a HI): Ranch had an addition that had sunk an inch. (Here's where the "teardown and build" began.)

First architect turned out to be non-LICENSED as well as a recluse. Write off that money and hire a new one (much better and responsive).

No fun dealing with about eight GCs to finally get three to come up with bids. Ours was too-small a project for some. One that we'd liked suffered a mysterious life-threatening illness and was in a coma for a month! Lots of money for blueprints all around. Lots of angst trying to get call-backs. Finally chose an experienced local GC. (GC and architect were wonderful, enduring and aiding us in what was to come in dealing with the City.)

Next came mysterious dealings with City Hall where we learned that it isn't what's in code or permits that counts -- it's clout. Got our teardown permit and building permit after agonizing grilling by the BRB only to be shut down the first day when anonymous citizens (2) claimed we had just obliterated a "Historic House". (Never mind that the City had already stated during permitting that the house was NOT historic and that every near neighbor was estatic to see an eyesore gone. Never mind that it is now G-O-N-E save the foundation and a chimney.) Nonetheless, now we must wait two months for the next meeting of the Building Review Board so that one complainant, a 4th generation citizen, can tongue-lash us in a meeting broadcast on local TV. We never learned who the second complainant was. That accomplished, all can proceed as if nothing happened. (I'm still expecting the BRB to come and insist I rip out the daffs I planted instead of tulips. They were very nearly that petty, and it would be typically contrary since we have deer that eat tulips.)

Next hurdle: While waiting for the BRB the foundation of the house took enough water so that when we were into framing we discoverd MOLD. I think we were one of the last policyholders to be covered for this -- $1K from us and $15K from State Farm for remediation by men in moonsuits -- and a week lost to building.

All of the above delayed our build just long enough so that instead of one move we had to make two -- living in a rental for four months was another endurance test.

After all that I guess we were pretty "softened up". Nothing THAT major went wrong. Or if it did, we haven't discovered it yet, nor did the City building inspector, but he had other things on his mind since he reported to jail for fraud a month after our final inspection.

Falling in the foundation hole, landing on the concrete footer, and ending up in the hospital for a week with a drug-resistant staph infection that left permanent scars.

Just so you don't think I'm a complete moron, I fell because someone filled a small hole near the hole edge with hay. Once we had a few inches of show it looked regular ground. I stepped in it, one foot went down a feet feet and I pitched forward, and into the hole I went.

We also has a slew of issues with subs, the normal stuff. Fired an electrician because he never saw a code he didn't like to ignore, had major issues with the plumber (he kept sending unlicensed people who screwed things up), drywall guy (unauthorized additive caused the ceilings to all crackle), wood floor supplier (sent select rather than clear), wood floor installer (used lacquer instead of poly, had to pay floor guy #2 mucho bucks to strip it all off and redo it), granite installer (generally crappy job, which he was completely blind to), etc. If I heard, "we always do it this way" one more time I honestly think I would have smacked someone.

Worst part? The waiting, by far. Waiting when we had permit delays. Waiting when there was a tornado in town and all the carpenters left our job to do repairs. Waiting while the engineers figured out to do with four trusses that were four inches too long (Hell, I knew what to do but it took them a week). Waiting for this and waiting for that.

What could I have done to make it better? Not much, probably. Maybe gone into this with more realistic expectations but having never built before, I really had no idea. I have grown in patience and fortitude since the beginning. I know there are people on this forum who have waited 3 years or more to get their house complete so my 12 months will be nothing compared to them when done.

chelone, I feel for you having to take out trees to build. We only had to cut one down because Hurricane Frances knocked down the rest that were in the way but that would be the worst part. Rebuild as much garden as you can and in the long run it will ease the burden.

When we built 12 years ago ignorance was bliss. Being the tree hugger that I am, I ran the bulldozer off the lot and convinced DH to buy a tractor so we could clear all 7 acres by hand. Since DH had to also keep his full time attorney job to pay for the nice, new house, I enlisted the help of our 2 university student children. Of course, they both immediately became totally involved in their education. But, as a side note, they did bring home lots of A's that semester. By the time the lot was cleared the architect had completed his job of totally screwing up our plans. After paying him many $$$, we tossed the plan, and forced our architect student son, who by now is staight A, to complete the plan in 3 days while seated at dining room table. With beautiful plans in hand, I approached many, many GC's none of whom could string together 5 words without inserting "We don't do it that way here." I convinced DH I should take off from teaching kindergarten and be the GC. (It's okay to laugh at this point) But, lo and behold, aside from the 80 days of rain during the framing stage, there were no more disasters! We have loved this home and the acres surrounding it. In a perfect world we would never build again. But, unfortunately, the world is not quite perfect. We grow older. Now is our time to downsize.
I won't be the GC for our new home. I only succeeded 12 years ago because we lucked up with some awesome subs. Am still working with the architect. In case anyone is still reading, no, the son changed majors after the 3 days spent at the dining room table.
But, I'm still the tree hugger. And I'm struggling with the placement of the new house on the adjoining one acre lot. I'm finally convinced I can't wiggle the house between the beautiful native magnolia and white oak I nursed back to health after Katrina. So, for now, this is the hard part. One cherished tree must go.

I agree about the waiting! Patience is definitely a good trait to have for building a home. It also applies when things first go up. Give it a few days for your eyes to adjust to the new feature before flipping out! LOL!

Did I tell everyone who had followed my cabinet thread how much I LOVE them now! tee hee

Lindy

I think it is decisons are the worst.

1. Making it at the right time to meet deadlines.
2. Making it to met your budget
3. Making it again when the item you first chose is not available.
4. Making it when it is a group decision

emmachas -- Loved your story! Especially the hands-on educational guidance parts. LOL!

One of the reasons we fought so hard to buy our lot was because of the privacy, mature trees, a creek to the east and a conservancy to the south.

The visual of emmachas standing over DS with rolling pin in hand (okay, so I put that part in!) is priceless. ;)

chisue, I had no idea you had so much trouble during your build and sue36, I have never heard about your accident either!

For me, the worst part was seeing the For Sale sign put in the front yard of a home I loved dearly and raised three children in over twenty years. Funny thing is, once I saw the home was going to a young couple with two year old twins who loved it as much as we did, it wasn't so hard to leave...although I will never drive by again after seeing the new owner had cut my wild hydrangeas in half. :(

My wife's answer was more generic. "Waiting for people".

My most frustrating part was the title company. I did the loan through our local lender. I allowed them to use the title company they recommended, which turned out to be 100 miles away and dealt with via telephone only. Long story short, I should have used the local title company of my choosing, where I could easily visit as needed. I eventually got used to dealing on the phone with them, even with the repeated illness of my contact.

Framers (nuff said).

Our building manager (he also did the concrete/block/frame part of the build) has made some pretty costly mistakes that we are having to eat. Started off with the lumber for frame. He used another company's takeoff (which was later found to be incorrect and way short) and sent it to his lumber supply for their bid. They came in lower so we went with them. Well what turned out to be a $9500 bid cost us over $21000. He also told the plumber where to put the tankless hotwater hookups. Turns out they have to be moved and now plumber is trying to bill us. We think it's a code issue and are investigating this. He also lost our original plans, had us get another stamped copy from the city, then found ours but not willing to pay for that. A few of the roof trusses were done wrong, not his fault, but we are being billed 36 hours at $45/hour to fix. We are contacting the truss company to pay up since they made the mistake and rather than sending out new trusses, advised him how to correct.

All in all, it's been fairly smooth but we don't feel as if we should pay for someone else's mistake (except the lumber as it was all needed for the build). We'll see how this turns out.

I should mention that he is a builder/GC by trade. We chose not to use him in this capacity as we are not using any of his money, we pay suppliers and subs directly and we also pulled our own permits. This saved us a bundle. Plus we get his builder discount for supplies. When it's all said and done, we will come out ahead but we've just encountered a few hurdles along the way.

The rain, I forgot about the rain. I was hooked on the weather channel while escavation, framing, brick laying and roofing where happening.

waiting for it to be finished and watch hubby struggle to work full time and build the house.

I completely agree with you, chelone; it seems unlikely that anything will be harder than witnessing the devastation. And nobody's careful! a big beautiful berm of ferns apparently looks like a cushy spot to dump an excavator bucket full of rocks. I've spoken out and roped off everything I can, but I'm living for the moment I see the last big truck. It's really making me a difficult person to live with, although DH is giving me all the understanding he can.

allison -- Sue36 in Maine had the accident, not me. Ouch! (Our morning paper's front page headline is about the huge staph problem in US hospitals.)

bj -- I hear you about building before you "age out". I am grateful I was strong throughout our build. Now I wonder how I lugged all those tile samples, etc. around and walked all over creation on big box stores' concrete floors. Gee, maybe that's why I needed a hip replacement a couple years after we moved in!

I have her name in there - you must be speed reading this morning! ;)

bj

You haven't gotten to the worst part yet. RIght now - you can still walk away from the project. Once you sign the deal - your financial life is in the hands of the builder. That is when things can get a little stressful.

If you can - get a schedule from the builder that starts from gound break for the foundation. Know what the normal timeframe is for hitting the big milestones. If you see that milestones are not being hit within reason (account for weather delays and normal crap happens) have a conversation with the builder.

The worst thing for me was not knowing that the schedule was being blown because I was unaware of what needed to be done and when. It absolutely sucks when you think you are going to be done in Month X, and then you find out it is Month X + 2.

Cost overruns have also been a big sore spot. Have plenty of reserve cash to deal with the oopsesthat will occur , no matter how much advanced planning you do. But for us - it has been the schedule slips that have been the worst part of this experience. I cannot wait until we are done, out of our rental, and moved in.

allison -- Oh, sure, NOW I see it! (It's not the speed-reading, it's...old age.)

chisue, your lot sounds incredible! With the importance of clout with parish (county) government and the building inspector's jail term, you could be building in Louisiana too!!!

chelone and happykate, I feel your pain. I had so much yellow tape draped around the lot that it looked like a crime scene. The adjoining lot we're building on now, I had totally landscaped as part of our current yard. Lowe's probably can't supply enough yellow tape!

allison0704, I grieved for months when we sold the house of 17 years where we raised our children. It was the most imperfect house, but it was home to so many wonderful memories. But one day you'll fill your new home with wonderful memories of grandchildren!

bj, I'm crushed to learn there is an aging out! If so, I've surely done it! Could be a plus. If I delay the cataract surgery, I could be blissfully ignorant of the many mistakes to surely follow!

But, after reading your post,sue 36, I'd better move that surgery up!

And, charliedawg, yes, the rain! DH swears I'll bring an end to our 7 year drought by simply getting to the framing stage.
We're gonna all survive this. Right, ladies??? Love this thread. It's therapeutic!

Rain.
Going over details with contractors, only to have them decide and do it how they think is best.
My tired little ones and a tired mommy.

emmachas - LOL I bet you're right about getting the rain when you don't want it. Yesterday was suppose to be our day to clean up our yard so the grading could start. Guess what it did Sat and Sun...you guessed it, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. After weeks/months of no rain we get it when we need to work outside.

Our lot is solid red clay. When it rains that stuff is like glue. You just can't walk in it for 2-3 days or you just might get stuck. I had to have my car pulled out with a chain early on because I sunk down in the muck.

Rain, rain go away - don't be mucking up my clay. :)

Thanks, all. I'm fully prepared now to suffer. Here's my handy-dandy summary, in generalities, of the worst and how to minimize it:

1) Acts of nature. Exs: rain; unknowable bedrock. (Prevention: no control, unless have a direct line to God & he has nothing more important to do than make sure my little building goes to suit me.)

2) Acts/nonacts of other people. Exs: failure to stay on schedule; incompetent work; thievery in various forms. (Prevention: little control except where we get to choose and can get enough info. to choose more wisely.)

3) Having to choose. Exs: to do this in the first place; which doorknobs to use. (Prevention: use of Ouija board/casting runes/flipping coin. Telling builder to "just do what you usually do and I'll live with it and grouse.")

4) Living with the results of our own choices. Ex: will have to endure the build; will curse the pretty but non-ergonomic doorknobs everyday; have to leave home we love. (Prevention: buy a Builder's special instead of building our own special; research doorknobs even more until family can no longer stand us; prepare oneself to leave home and make scrapbook ahead of time with photos/memorabilia.)

That's about all I can see. Pretty much covers life (at least in a free country) in general, doesn't it?!

Very good assessment! Remember that you can choose to suffer or choose to enjoy it anyway. Again, just like real life. Best of luck.

So far (we've only been building for 2 mos and are in the framing stage) the biggest disappointment has been my appreciation of the reality of room sizes and my ignorance of the fact that the blueprints show the EXTERIOR room dimensions, not the interior! EX) At 4' X 4' I thought I'd have a decent walk-in pantry but you lose about 8" in the walls and it's only a "reach in." Fortunately, I realized this b/f my custom cabinet maker had finalized his plans, as he's now building a nice large pantry with pull-outs to go beside the "reach in." Had we not done this, I'm not sure we'd have much "pantry" space. I hope this helps keep someone else from making the same mistake!

I know I'm going to like our house, but I sure was not very good at visualizing how things would look when put together. So far the carpet, tile, stucco are all surprises. Have to see if my accessories will pull it together.

Worst day? Gee, where do I start? So that this post won't be a total whine-fest, I'm going to do it in a bad-news-good-news format.

Bad day: The day that we walked into our den, the showpiece of our home, and saw that a steel beam for the deck had been placed directly across and in front of all of the transom windows.

Good day: The day the steel framing company came back and fixed it.

Bad day: The day the steel fabricator informed me that they had not been paid by the GC. The GC had sent them faulty drawings (he made a change, at his initiative, to change the floor elevations, and then he forgot to update the deck draiwngs to match).

Good day: The day, about a month before that, when the deadline for the steel fabricator to file a lien passed. (We're still going to try to compensate them, if we succeed in getting it out of the builder in court.)

Bad day: The day my DW cried and stated that she hated the house and wanted to sell it as is just to be rid of it. This was the day that we came in and found that the stairs had not been constructed anywhere remotely resembling the plans. The GC's explanation: "Well, that wasn't going to work, so I changed it."

Good day: The day a couple of weeks ago when we finally finished painting and cleaning the stairwell, after thousands of dollars to have a master carpenter re-do the railing supports and re-cut the trim, and months of fixing the cruddy drywall and refinishing all the trim.

Bad day: The day that I had to call the police to get rid of the GC's employee who was busy face-nailing all of the T&G bamboo in the kitchen.

Good day: The day that my brother-in-law, who does that kind of work, finished installing the last of the T&G bamboo (most of the house). And he did a great job.

Bad day: The day that I did some exploratory digging and found that (1) the water service had never been connected to the house entrace, and (2) a sewer line in the back yard that had been damaged was simply covered over without being fixed.

Good day: The day that the plumber, the one really good craftsman that the GC had, agreed to work for me directly and finish the job. He did great work and his rates were really reasonable too.

Bad day: The day I went to the site and found that the GC had removed the building permit, and that there were piles of trash and debris piled up all over the lot.

Good day: The day I finished burning the last of the contruction debris (they still allow that here).

Even better day: The day that I convinced the city to take the permit away from the builder and give it to me.

Bad day: The day after taking over the job, when I looked in the electrical panels and found that not one of the circuits was labeled, and of the few that had been hooked up in the panel, most of them had to be re-done because the work wasn't to code.

Even worse day: The day that, while tracing all of the circuits, I discovered that two 3-way light circuits had been crossed between the den and the dining room. It looked like we were going to have to rip out the drywall to fix it.

Good day: The day that I figured out how to put in a jumper between the two boxes (on different areas of the same wall). I managed to get a long drill bit to drill through studs in between, through the opening in the wall where the box was, and with my DW's help we got some Romex threaded through without having to tear out anything. And the circuit worked properly once I got everything hooked up.

Bad day: The day I discovered that the GC had gone ahead with the drywall without ever passing the framing inspection -- he failed it twice.

Good day: The day, way back at the beginning, when I decided I was going to take lots of photos of everything. I had the framing extensively photo documented. And with that, our architect was able to convince the city to sign off on the framing without requiring that any drywall be removed.

Bad day: The day I had to go tell the city's chief inspector that the GC had used a sub who did not have a business license and had not paid his use taxes.

Good day: That same day, when the chief inspector, after giving me a hint that they had had a lot of trouble on other jobs with this GC, waived the unpaid taxes and signed off on our C.O. We moved in to the house that evening and we were out of our apartment the next day.