We were supposed to be in in mid November, then mid December. We didn't get in until mid February, and even then it wasn't finished.

I think it is par for the course, sad to say. I advise everyone to expect the unexpected, including delays in the move-in date. If you absolutely have to be in by a certain date, make sure you have a stiff penalty clause in your contract to hold the GC's feet to the fire. Even then, you may not make it.

If you get really mad, tell the GC he is an amateur. That is the ultimate insult.

Hang in there! At the time, it seems like each set back is the end of the world, at least, that's how it felt for us. But you will get there one day. Not sure if you have a pressing timeline to move in, but if you do, may be your GC could put in temporary items, e.g. doors, until the real ones come so that you can at least move in. We did this with some things, but the down side is that once you move in, then the work really slows down bc the GC doesn't have a sense of urgency to get things done since he already got you moved in. Good luck!

Do not move in until the house is DONE. I'm talking even minor stuff. Contractors HATE to do the diddly little stuff at the end.

What you describe is actually rather par for the course. Sorry. Better buy an economy size bottle of the tranquilizers. Everything takes 'longer'. You will meet some of the dumbest people in the world as you deal with suppliers. You will become a paranoid person, checking on everything three times -- and still things will go awry.

You will appreciate the GOOD subs and suppliers all the more, and eventually...you'll love living in your house!

I realized after I posted that the title was a little inaccurate - these aren't "big" things in comparison to real personal tragedy that is being experienced all over by people. It's just hard to have my life on hold for however much longer, and a lot of the length of this build has been because of the disorganization of the GC (tile could have been ordered months ago and stored - by us if necessary, painters could have been lined up). I am the kind of person who has my Christmas celebrations planned to the nth degree by August and it has been difficult to deal with my inability to MAKE him be organized. To be fair, I'd imagine that it has been difficult to deal with me too. Thanks for the comments!

He may be more organized than you realize and is just being careful about spending.

I don't have any idea what your contract looks like or how much the tile costs, but GCs don't like to order materials way ahead of time because it ties up their funds until they get paid for that part of the job. If the usage is expected to be months out, the supplier will expect to be paid long before the GC can expect to recover the money from his draw.

If the client is fronting the expenses, then it's a different story.

ditto what creek side said. What type of non standard door knobs do you have? They don't have the standard opening? If so, the pre-hung doors would've had to be special ordered because they come standard with the holes already cut.

The doorknobs are the kind that have a tiny one inch or so opening - they are historic size porcelain knobs. The knobs were specced that way and the doors were supposed to be special ordered and drilled on site - all in the specs. And our contract has us paying once a month for whatever costs have been incurred - so he could have preordered the whole house with no skin off his back.

kristinva, you don't need to qualify your frustrations (at least from my perspective). I am so with you. Building a home, especially with the details it sounds like you are putting into it, is a test of patience. Everybody has their perspectives, and from the homeowner perspective, I don't think you are unreasonable in your frustrations. Unfortunately, after being on this forum for over a year, and having built 3 homes, I have found that your experience is an all too common one. Our GC is pretty good, and yet, it's amazing how flakey he can be at times. In my job, if you don't show up when you say you will, there are consequences, and if you aren't going to show up, you at least call ahead of time, or at the very least, after the fact, to apologize for not showing up. Also, I'm expected to return phone calls and meet deadlines. Unfortunately, in my experience, the GC and the subs can miss deadlines, blow you off, etc., and there are no real consequences to that kind of unprofessionalism. All they get are frustrated homeowners. There may be reasons for not ordering tile months and months ahead of time, but part of their job is to plan and provide the materials in a timely fashion. If they decide not to order until the week before, they roll the dice in terms of having the materials ready on time. They need to balance that risk with whatever cost they are going to incur. Of course, there are unexpected delays, but many many of the delays, in my experience, could have been easily avoided. Of course, it's not in your best interest to piss off you GC or your subs, so, you inevitably take it bc you just want to get into your house. I know people talk about writing in financial penalties, etc. in your contract, but from a practical standpoint, it doesn't serve your best interest (unless you are at a point of parting ways) to go nuclear on your GC. Once you start invoking penalties, you get some unhappy people working on your house, and you don't want that. It's funny that you say that you think you have been difficult to work with. I shared that same feeling. But really, it's odd that you should feel like you are difficult just bc you demand that people do what they say they will do. For some reason, this standard seems harsh and unreasonable. But, in the end, you will move into your beautiful home and, like child birth, you will forget the pain it took to get there. The difference is that building a house doesn't have to be painful. People are just trained to expect and accept the pain and difficulties; so, there is no incentive to remove them.

Oh, gobruno, I wish you lived next door! (Not least because your house is so beautiful.) Thank you for saying all that - it is true, our house is very custom. Not much is in it that isn't custom. And I agree that there is nothing I can do short of pulling out the legal stops to get them in line (and I am a lawyer!), but I am overall pleased with the quality of the work they are doing and I don't want to make them mad. You are right - I think the most frustrated I am is that I would lose my job if I had work habits like those. I guess that is the beauty of being a GC - you are likely only to build one house for someone, and even if you build two, it's at least the devil you know.

My main concern isn't moving in - I am lucky to have a month-to-month rental. It is locking in the mortgage rates - my bank requires 45 days and wow, the rates are good right now.

Just thank your lucky stars that your contractor is apparently doing "quality work" despite his lack of planning ability.

You could have gotten one who, in addition to being unprofessionally disorganized, also turned out to also be flat out dishonest.

Trust me, your contractor's reaction to the improperly drilled holes in the doors is probably due to the fact that he is going to be eating the cost of those new doors. I doubt he is that concerned with how long it is going to take to get new doors in.

I'd ride his tail to make sure that the microwave cabinet is replaced in time for the cabinet finishing to go forward in August as planned. Otherwise there will be another delay while they fix the cabinet and then reschedule the cabinet finishing.

You might also talk to your contractor about a bonus if he finishes by a certain date. Or maybe you could talk to him about giving him a bonus based on the available interest rate on the date he finishes. (i.e., the lower the interest rate you can lock in, the more of a bonus he will get so it is in his interest to get your job finished.

BTW, I'm an atty too and my DH says instead of all the "lawyer jokes", there oughta be "contractor jokes" because contractors give lawyers a GOOD name. LOL!

And for the most part, based on hours actually worked, I think they earn more. sigh

Just to "add a little to the mix".....is there any way you can select an alternate cap for the tile? That alone would make me mad; I realize it is very custom but for him to wait until now to order something like that is kind of lazy! I don't blame you for being mad. I would try talking to him and asking "is there anything or any way we can avoid these mistakes?" "Do you have everything on order for the remainder of the build?" I'm like you, I like things organized and Dh and I were lucky to have an organized builder. When anything was delayed he told us up front and asked us if there was an alternate choice or did we want to wait. That only happened on a couple things but his expertise and character made it easier to handle.
Good Luck!

kristinva, it sounds like we have/had similar building experiences. I plan things ages in advance like you, and it amazes me how "fly by the seat of your pants" some people can be. We were in a month-to-month rental too, and were trying to time interest rates as well. Before we locked in, I interrogated our GC several times about the schedule and confirmed with him multiple times that we would be safe to lock in our rates. Well, it was a race to the finish. The last day, they were literally running around just getting things in to pass the bank inspection. It was complete madness. Our bank had failed us on completion 2 days before the closing and we were hurrying to satisfy them. Literally an hour before the 4:30 p.m. closing deadline, I was on the phone with the underwriter trying to work out the closing papers and escrow arrangment. Even the closing was chaos. They had the wrong address on all the papers, and we were crossing in and handwriting and initialing the correct address. I don't even want to go into all the other stress around that whole experience. At the end of the day, we got it done, but it was crazy. Anyway, by locking in interest rates, we basically set a drop dead date for our GC to get the house done. That was good and bad. It was good in that it motivated him to get the house done by that date, but at the same time, he was working toward getting it complete "for purposes of the inspection." That meant that he ignored a few details he knew weren't material to passing inspection. After we moved in (the day after the closing), finishing up the remaining issues went at a snail's pace. There is something that happens mentally once a homeowner moves in. Even though the GC knows that he has things to complete on the house, the fact that he knows that you are living in the house, takes away any sense of urgency to get the rest of it done. Anyway, from that whole experience (and we had a 60 day lock), I'd just allow ample time to assure that you get to a reasonable state of doneness. If your GC blows the deadline and your rate expires, it's going to really suck to get another rate/loan. Another thing that really surprised me was how time consuming and difficult the whole loan process was. After the whole credit/housing mess, lenders have really gone the other extreme and tightened up the loan process to such a degree where it is almost prohibitive to homebuying (IMHO). This is the 4th home we've bought in 10 years (and our last) and we needed the full 60 days to just get all our paper work in order and approved. Since we are so organized, we had everything ready, but the approvals and follow-up questions took forever. Anyway, I don't envy the next couple of months/weeks for you! Between finishing the build (which is the most stressful part of the build), moving, closing on your loan, etc. you have a lot on your plate, and not to be pessimistic, but a lot that can go wrong and stress you out! The worst part of it is that most of it is out of your hands, and you are at the mercy of your GC, you lender, etc. No matter how organized and prepared you are, there is nothing you can do about the other people that play a critical role in the next couple of weeks/months. Anyway, lots and lots of luck! Having just gone through all of that, I read your post and just wanted to let you know there is a light at the end of it all.

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