As a homebuilder, I am much more interested in the "bones" of my house than the pretty coverings. Don't get me wrong, I made conscious decisions regarding finishes, but the much more interesting and important aspect of our house is now covered by sheetrock and trim. I have literally hundreds of pictures of the house as it was going up, to reference in the future if need be. Conversely, I haven't taken one picture lately, the camera just sits in the car! We wanted a house that was "overbuilt", if you know what I mean.

How nice of you to take the time to do this to help your gc! Good luck with the rest of your build.

Amy

I would like to see close-up detail pics.

"Our builder said that he thought that other potential homeowners would probably just be interested in seeing photos of the finished product, to see that he could make the final product look good."

If you have an experienced builder who knows how to market his work, then maybe he's right. My builder, who started out as a scientist and is interested in building systems, likes to overbuild (behind the walls stuff), says people won't pay for the better structural items; that they want fancy doorknobs. I would like to think that's changing, but he has many more years experience than I do.

Still, if your GC is marketing ICF homes and using yours as an example, I'd think some nice behind-the-walls pictures would help. Then, "and look how nice the finished product looks--just like a regular [!!] house."

Me, I'd want to see the exterior--that it does look nice and the ICFness doesn't show. Then, the all-important kitchen and master bath. Plus special features showcasing your builders usual talents: view windows, casings, stairs, fireplaces, tiling, flooring--wherever he shines.

I do think the average home owner doesn't care about "the bones" of their house. Those that do care, generally do because they've been convinced that it will result in lower heating/cooling costs, or a more comfortable (less drafty) house, or fewer repair hassles later, etc etc. But that's a rational response, not an emotional response, and building a house is certainly an emotional time for most of us.

My ex was quite typical, I think, of the mentality that doesn't want to think about "the bones". I built two semi-custom homes while married to her, and both times it was extremely difficult to reach agreement on spending more on better windows, better insulation, tighter structure, better HVAC, etc. This always struck her as either a waste of money ("over-building"), or some kind of strange "guy thing" akin to decorating with antlers. I tried to explain it as wanting to concentrate on doing the things that were hard to retrofit later (like going from 2x4 to 2x6" exterior walls), versus relatively easy to do later (interior decorating items like doorknobs and such). She always seemed to feel it was just a tactic on my part to get what "I wanted".

To some extent, I do understand how this happens. It doesn't take any experience or education to look at a doorknob and decide whether you like it or not.

Whereas, learning about the various HVAC options, and understanding whether spending 3x up-front will pay off for you in a time-frame that you care about, is harder.

Many (most?) people who build a new home are thinking about what it will look like when done, and about showing it off to friends & family. Kinda hard for them to imagine pointing at a ground-coupled heat-pump, and getting their friends to "ooooh" over the efficiency and ten-year payoff. :-/

--Steve

Great points - thank you for the suggestions. I think that what we'll probably do is have just a few pictures of the foam walls, and then the finished product exterior, to show just how "regular" our house looks :) We will then have some focusing on the interior touches. It's strange to me, because I know that things like our tile choices, cabinet choices, etc. are what are going to make the visual impact, but they were really entirely up to us. If we'd told our builder we wanted all particleboard cabinets, he wouldn't have been happy about it, but he would have done it.

There are some other details that we'll focus on, but, again, some of them are things that I don't think most people care about. For example, he was very proud of the way the corners of the rooms were sealed before being painted. Not terribly thrilling, but definitely a good example of solid craftsmanship.

Maybe it would help for us to have a kind of testimonial about our electricity bills, once we get those? For us, the energy efficiency was a big selling point with the ICF structure & white metal roof.

About our builder, he's got 20+ years in commercial construction, but this is only his 4th year with his own home construction business. He's not really very savvy, as far as what buyers want; he's just a good, honest, straightforward worker, which we really appreciate. He takes his time and takes a lot of pride in his finished products. He's primarily concerned that we are happy with our house, and he's spent some of his own budget to make that happen.

When we were deciding what kind of wood to use for the stairs, he told us that he thought maple would look best, since our cabinets are all maple. The maple was $1200 above our budgeted amount for stairs, and he said, "Well, I want you to have a house that you're happy with and that looks good, so maybe I just underpriced the stairs and I'll pay the extra out of my budget to get the maple." I couldn't believe it! We are coming in a good deal under on other areas, though, so we just took the extra money from there to make the stairs happen. I didn't want to make him spend his money on it; he's scrupulously honest, and I have to bend over backwards to make sure he's not cheating himself during our build. I don't think there are many builders in the world like that.

Thank you again!
Heather W

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

The framework is more important than the outer finishes.The outer finishes can be redone again but once there is any problem in the framework,the entire structure fails..
So better concentrate on framework..

Just tell me the details like width and height of the whole structure. So that I can show you my collection of photographs which I'm collecting on Frameworks.

Cheers.

Ask this question of 10 people and you will get 12 different answers. Bones? Likely if very custom. Fit and finish, absolutely! Style - sure.

For me it was all of these but when selecting the builder (and framer) I went to their jobs during framing particularly so I could inspect the "Bones". After that, I controlled the home's destiny. What caliber windows and doors, lighting, insulation, appliances, decor...it all just depended on how much I wanted to spend.

We are building ICF also. For those that are interested in ICF and have done their homework, they should be concerned about three things with an ICF build: are the walls absolutely straight, were the walls completely supported during the pour (I was amazed at the supports we had for the ICF walls) and was the concrete vibrated during the pour. You may want to have a few photos on these items.

Teresa

I just spent some time at your blog, read a lot of the main newest page, then checked out the previous. What I would be interested in, since I really know nothing about ICF would be the December 2nd, 2006 entries and newer, where the forms are going in.

From there, I would do a few entries with other things going in, not too involved, then the finished product.

I enjoyed reading about the wildlife..

I think well done, upgraded finish carpentry and a meticulous paint job are important too. A solidly built home with great moulding and millwork and a fabulous paint job makes me swoon.

Bones -absolutely. Most of the stuff I did building my house you will never see. All steel frame construction, all 5/8" sheetrock, dedicated a/c system w/ returns in each bedroom - study - wives closet etc variable speed air handlers 17.5 seer trane compressors, radiant heat w/ boiler, oversized plumbing lines -- go ahead and flush all 5 toilets and take 4 showers at once (5 counting double heads in master), sprayed in foam insulation, radiant barrier in attic, 3 electrical subpanels -- wife's vanity has 8 outlets on 2 separate 20 amp circuits, i beams cutting span in half on several floors, solid conrete columns front and back etc, etc....maybe it's a guy thing

msm859: We're building similar to you. I'm a chick and I started the research myself because I want a well-built, comfortable, and energy-efficient house. DH loves the stuff, too, and has helped a lot with the research.

But I think most builders know better than we do that what you can't see is really hard to sell to the "average" homeowner. Especially when it costs more. Especially if they have to divert $ from the finishes to put behind the walls, like we are.

Your builder wants to get business. I think the best thing you could do for him would be to COMMENT on how much you appreciated his work! He took on a project new to him and you are very happy with the result. That's what counts. I'd just show a photo of you standing in front of your house with big smiles, and the comments you posted here about the builder's honesty and integrity.

Thank you again for all the great suggestions. The web page is starting to come together in my head, but I'm going to wait until the house is all done, so that I can have some shots of the finishes, some of the actual construction (bones, small details), and probably a few quotes & comments.

Thanks again!
Heather W

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

I've been a licenced builder since '89, renovating since 1981, earlier if you count my own home. I was also a r/e broker for 17 years.

As I see it, two things count most: size and overall impression. Sadly, the attention to structural and mechanical details that the finicky sorts hanging here know so much about is under the radar for the vast majority of buyers.

Pinktoes, good for you. Worthy, I agree with you most people would care less about "how" I built my house but only how it looks--it does look nice. Fortunately, I was building it only for my wife and myself. No interest in marketability or maximizing profit, thus I can be a little eccentric since I plan on living here for a few years.