Jane, save your strength, you're only at the beginning!

Good luck to you in your build, and I hope you love your home as much as we do ours when you're finished.

susanka

Jane, I'm sure a lot of us here empathize. It always seems like a huge waiting game. When you finally do get started, it will go great for a week or so then there will be a week, or two, or more during the process when again, nothing happens. This is just good preparation for those times!

I will say though that to date, groundbreaking was the most exciting part of the project. Try to be there if you can, because it's a major milestone!

I feel you on the email thing. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. If a business is going to list an email address, they should USE it, REGULARLY. Otherwise don't bother publishing it.

We signed our contract May, 2005 and hoped to be in by Christmas (2005).

We moved in Aug, 2006.

Believe me, I understand your frustration. It rained all during framing. It was no fun at all to go walking through the framed house with umbrellas. Fortunately there are only a few things that rain will hold up (foundation comes to mind).

Also, you will get used to the fact that your urgency does not equate urgency on the part of designers, builders, subs or anyone else involved.

Try to relax or you will really be a nervous wreck before it's over - and don't plan on moving in by Christmas, 07 (08 maybe)

Good luck!

If you are weirding out to this extreme this early in the ball game, you are in for a long ride,friend.Take a deep breath and relax and concentrate your efforts on learning the steps in which they will proceed and then prepare yourself mentally for the many delays not only from ma nature, but ordering mistakes and delays from suppliers, subs being held up on other projects delaying getting to yours, miscommunications, etc.

When it rains, it puts people out of work, so you are not the only one bummed.

I don't know what size you are building, but your GC is crazy if he thinks he can get it done by Christmas. That is less than 3 months from now. If he could pull it off in 3 months, I would be leary of the construction.

Yes, it's Murphys law of building. It rains when the outside work needs to be done AND you have to deal with drought conditions and record heat when you lay your sod and plant your landscaping.

You might want to plan on being in your new home by Easter. That is a much more realistic goal. I would say it's dang near impossible to be in by Christmas but I'll cross my fingers for you anyway.

Good Luck!

Have a glass of wine and relax. I know it's easier said than done but it's the only way to survive the ride you've just gotten on. I am sorry to say that you most likely will not be in by the end of the year. The fastest I've seen a true custom home built here is 6 months. Ours was 7 months from pour and 9 months from signing the loan docs. As soon as we signed the rain began. It was 6 weeks before we could get the pad down and pour concrete.

You need to calm down, you're just starting out. If he can have that house finished by December I'd be afraid to live in it!! This advice comes from someone whose house has been being built for 2 years now. HA! That's because my husband is building it and we want to pay for it as we go so we can live our retirement years mortgage free. Believe me, you'll have a whole lot more to get upset about in the coming months so pick your episodes carefully. LOL

Calm down. You going to want to save that energy for when things actually get bad and you find the true meaning of frustration. Bad weather and no responses is the new normal you need to adjust to. Promises of delivery dates ... you have a better chance of winning the lottery on that date than getting actually delivery.

Your going to have to learn to adjust to a schedule that constantly changes. Remember this is your dream home but to them it is just a job. They have a family and a life beside building your home. To keep a good relationship with your GC and subs you need to pick your battles. Getting frustrated doesn't change the outcome only upsets you.

Sue Mother Nature! (I'm sure there's an attorney somewhere willing to take your case on contingency.)

yeah worthy that is the ticket, do you have her number I would love to have a little chat, I could arrange for a decent winter with good snow.

I just wanted to let off a little steam, I've been down this road before and know that this is the tip of in proverbial ice berg and that this is not unusual or unexpected. Just wanted to vent

WOW that is funny, Im in the exact same place. I just had my lot stake dand am waiting on the permit so they can start digging. Man I wanted to be in by Christmas also! Now Im crossing my fingers and hoping for maybe febuary! Good luck and lets hope both our builds go fast

I swear I posted on this last night.....anywho, we were told 5 months. Everyone told us to add another 4 months to that and I just laughed. This September 13 will be 5 months. GC told us it will be another 3-4 months. We were delayed almost 3 months on the foundation because of rain.

Take it from me, don't let this get to you!! LOL! It is a long road and lots of little things are going to pop up. Just try to stay calm and know that it will all be worth it in the end!

It kind of reminds me when I was pregnant. I said "my child won't EVER act that way". I had the same thoughts going into this. "OH, that will not happen to us! No way!" Yeah, I was wrong :-)

Good luck and once work starts happening you will feel so much better!

Kelly, it's funny you bring up pregnancy. My best girlfriend and I are referring to our build as that. About a month ago she said "now you're in your thrid trimester" and we joke about being ready to push:-)

Hang in there jea2007. I understand and empathize with your level of frustration. Breathe in, breathe out. Drink wine.

Amy

We poured footings and the day after it started raining for 3 months straight. Even without Mother Nature's help I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times our GC gave us a new and refined ETA. And, be in by Christmas? It took us 38 months and 3 missed Christmas' to build.

Like everyone here is saying (and if you've been through this before) then you have to realize that building a home in 15 weeks is pushing it. The quality may not be there.
Unless that is, it's a 400 sq foot home......

Stay calm, it'll happen :)

Yep...same story here. We got so much rain the foundation looked like an olympic size swimming pool. It put us back a bit but so did many other things. 7 month estimate and we ended up just over 9 months. Not bad considering some of the stories I've heard. Hang in there!

I guess this must have been a VERY wet late summer all across the country, since this same scenario is happening to me. We finally signed all the papers mid-July, and after they cleared out the property, the GC's son (who does the pinning for the house) went on vacation. Of course, it was dry and sunny that entire week. Upon his return, it set new records here with the rain-fall amount. After it finally stopped, the house was finally staked out, and they dug out for the foundation. But then it rained again, filling the holes up with water. They waited awhile for it to drain by itself, but when it didn't they finally pumped the rest of the water out. Horray! The concrete was finally poured last week, and the block layers started laying block. But my GC has told me all along that this house (almost 6000 s.f.) will take 12-14 months to construct. I really think it was unrealistic to think you'd be in by Xmas.

We're in Atlanta, GA and we've been in a 100-year DROUGHT. So, everyone envy us now. All our lawns and dogwood trees are dying because of the outdoor watering restrictions. Oh, and all-time record breaking temperatures went with that, just ended. 28 days of daytime highs above 90 (the average high for that period is 88 here). We were high and dry.

But the rain has started now. Normal pattern. And we're getting close to breaking ground--wouldn't you know! So our expectations are for a slower build than we would've had when we were high and dry.

Interesting factoid: due to the increased shipping demand by all retailers in the fall season leading up to Christmas, it's always slower getting building supplies from Sept. through Dec. Again, something for us to remember since we'll be starting in the fall.

Many factors affect all our builds and then there's the factors unique to each of our builds. Perhaps its an opportunity to work on our patience skills, since we basically have no choice but to wait.

We have so much to do ourselves that I don't know why we waste any energy fretting--which we do. We need to:

Start making needed repairs on our existing house to get it ready to sell.

Clean out our existing attic, garage, shed, closets.

Decide where in the new house the remaining stuff is going to go and make a note of that so the move-in doesn't kill us.

Start packing the stuff we never use and insist on moving anyway.

Finish selecting, and re-selecting (for cost-reduction) some things like plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, electrical gadgetry, etc. All requiring lots of research/shopping.

Finish up placing our existing furniture on the floorplan; decide what to discard. Try to find an antiques dealer to sell the china cabinet and grandmother's china.

Start shopping sales on closet fixtures, window treatments, occasional chairs, fabrics and stuffing to make new throw pillows.

Why are we (DH and I) fretting when we should be working???!!! And are we the only freaks who still have all this to put our energy into? I know that for me it's easier to focus on how slow those OTHER people are going than on all the things I need to be doing.