April 2020 Building a Home
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May 2020 Building a Home
Comments (391)@N Kay, here's the link to the Wi-fi bridge I'm planning to use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002K683V0/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3HCET3UGETZ2B&psc=1 @Trish Walter, we are also doing a woodburning fireplace and looked at the Heatilator Icons. We almost went with the Icon 80 but found another brand, Majestic, that offered identical specs but with a more ivory/tan interior in their Biltmore series. Ours is 42" wide. If a June thread hasn't been started, I'll start one :)...See MoreJune 2020 Building a Home
Comments (315)@K H Apparently there was a miscommunication between our realtors. Mine received the rejection of our counter offer but not their counter-counter which we did accept last Friday! It's not too bad for what's going on around here market-wise, less than we paid for this place 20 years ago, these guys are getting a good deal with the improvements we made. All we have to worry about now is the inspections, because it's a VA loan and those are notorious for falling through because they ask for the moon. Fingers crossed we can deal with whatever they don't like without breaking the bank. In the meantime, just in case it all works out, we're sorting and packing and moving things into storage that we won't need should the deal fail. If it all works out we have to be out of here before Labor day, and will be paying $50/day rent for every day past closing....See MoreAugust 2020 Building a Home Thread
Comments (495)@The_Lane_Duo no tv. I definitely need to and plan to move things around. I feel like I have all of my stuff all lined up on that wall and it’s terrible! Thanks for helping me see outside of the box. Btw everyone’s builds are looking amazing. @Trish Walter I am sure your husband will adjust :) @Buzz Solo in northeast MI Congrats! The chair and loveseat I like are super soft but the fabric sample they sent me home with shows they are close in color to the sectional but not exact. Maybe a leather chair would look better?...See MoreCustom home building - average $/sq ft cost in 2020?
Comments (72)Unless you have significant trade skills and will help to construct your own home, I think building a custom home is something for the rich who want what they want at a premium price. Most people cannot afford the premium in a custom home, and it certainly is a losing investment nine times out of 10. Reading your remarks, I think you are clearly the person who should be looking for a premium-built used home that is selling below its cost to build. Such homes can occasionally be purchased at steep discounts. I was toying with the idea of retiring to Nevada, and one home I saw had outrageous build quality. They had high-end stone masonry everywhere and things like custom arching beams. They spent about $375/square foot to build but because the neighborhood had homes with $150 to $200 build cost, the resale value of the home was $240/square foot. I would rather pay $250/square foot as an investment, and buying $375 for $250 is the way I would want to invest $250. I think the problem for people building a custom home with a tight budget is they can be easily fleeced on the home build quality without ever knowing what hit them. For example, to get costs lower the builder may switch to 2x4 framing on 16" centers instead of 2x6 framing on 24" centers. The 2x4 home will be much less insulated and will have very shallow window bays. It will feel cheaper. The odds are you would never ask about the framing. The homebuilder saves a ton of money on his material costs by switching to 2x4. You end up with a home that does not feel quite right and never know what hit you until much later down the road. Where custom home building really shines is in the ability to select high-end materials and building approaches that are never seen in tract homes. For example, when you do the framing you can use new stud designs that incorporate closed-cell foam into a truss design inside the studs. Normally a wood stud in the framing has very poor insulation and directly acts as a heat/cold sink that bypasses your home's insulation. The newer style studs (e.g., "T-Stud" is a brand) have an R-value of 20 (versus 6 for a normal stud) and have four times the strength because of the engineered design. Alternately, you can insulate the outside wall of the home and use SIP insulated panels on the roof, to directly overcome the insulation problems with normal studs. These things can greatly increase the comfort of the home, but they also increase build cost, and in any case, they are rarely done outside of a custom build environment. In a perfect world, in addition to an architect, it would be great to find a home builder that you could hire as a consultant - at an hourly rate - to help educate you about key variables in building a home, and that person could help you to understand budget impacts of various build choices, as well as help you specify things to the builder and architect. I wonder if there are retired home builders who do this on a consulting basis, even remotely....See MoreRelated Professionals
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