Wisconsin Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Has anyone worked with one of these builders in MSN?
http://www.maba.org/findmember/category/423/
DH and I are starting the process of building a house but we need a builder first! I'd really like someone who has some "green" building techniques but I don't know anyone who's worked with these specific builders. Are there others that you've worked with that aren't on this list?
10.11.07 ~ 04.08.10 ~ 08.11.12
Re: Has anyone worked with one of these builders in MSN?
My sister just picked her builder in the madison area. I will talk to her. i will probably get back to you on FB though.
Congrats on making this move!!! I thought you were staying put for awhile. I am excited for you.
Well I haven't used any of these builders but I do have a some opinions. ; )
1.) Be very careful about using the word "green." Asking a builder to build you a "green" house will just increase your costs by 20-30% and because the vast majority of people don't know what a "green" building even is they'll cut even more corners than they usually do and charge you more for going "green." Instead I highly suggest you educate yourselves on what environmentally friendly features you want and specify you want those things instead of a blanket statement. I'd also suggest you look into sustainable & energy efficient features. I help design "green" buildings for a living so I know how broad that term can be. It's just a trendy word that builders/contractors use to overcharge people. Energy efficiency, sustainability, and environmentally friendly are not trends and are what you'll want to pay extra for. I'd also suggest you read the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) residential requirements to get ideas but don't waste the money to actually get your home certified (I'm studying to get LEED accredited right now actually).
2.) Why do you want to build? Do you already have land? Building is far, far less environmentally friendly than buying an existing home. Think of all the fuel that will be burnt to just to get all the building materials to your sight and to run the generators and machines needed to build the house. And that doesn't even include the materials themselves. There are thousands of homes for sale right now for great prices. Why not just buy and/or do some remodeling to get what you want? There are a ton of ways you can remodel a home to make it more environmentally friendly. Plus the solid construction on older homes doesn't even compare to the crap builders are putting out right now.
3.) If I was going to build I would personally look into a smaller private company to build. Large residential contractors make all their money on charging you for every little thing (like moving an outlet next to where you want your bed to be for your alarm clock and a reading light). Smaller companies are a lot less likely to do this and are more likely to take the time to build your home right (do your research on this of course). Of course you really need to educate yourselves on what good building practices are so that you can make sure they are building your home to your standard. For example if you don't want your floors to squeak over time you need to both glue and screw the plywood sub-floor together. You'll have to pay extra for that under a big contractor but a small contractor may build it that way to begin with. Either way though you should specifically ask them to do this to ensure that you won't have squeaky floors.
LOL, sorry for the long post I could go on and on. Can you tell I'm passionate about this? We just bought a fixer upper last year after deciding against building. Both my dad and my FIL are carpenters that have built many homes in their lifetime so we have a good idea on what really is quality construction. And my FIL offered to build our home but it was much, much cheaper for us to buy and remodel over time.
We just built an Energy Star home. We didn't work with a specific builder (skipped that $ cost) but our Construction Manager works for Verdian homes, so I learned about Verdian. If you would like more information you can page me on this page.
Hey!
Jason is still building and has been taking many classes in green building lately. Call him and at least meet with him to see what he can do for you!
835-9000 or jason@rudyrealty.com