if you built your home NOT in a 'plan'- question for you

Re: if you built your home NOT in a 'plan'- question for you

• BethieB member

  

  January 2014

  Just food for thought that both S&A Homes (who we used, but in a plan) and Heartland Homes will built on your lot.  Good luck!

  Report0 Reply
• billiburrows member

  

  January 2014

  did you like s&A?

  Report0 Reply
• 4EvR&4AlWz member

  

  January 2014

  Post hopping:  We have an S&A house and have really liked it.  It's 7 years old now.  Great engineered I-beams, overall good quality workmanship and designs.  I would've changed the basement layout a little bit (ours was finished when we bought it) and I would've added an attic above our garage (we created that space ourselves).  

  
  

  We are doing a custom build for this house because we want a lot of automation, electronics.

  ourblackandgoldworld.blogspot.com

  Report0 Reply
• BethieB member

  

  January 2014

  LOVE S&A - really great communication from before we comitted to buying through the end (and afterwards), solidly built, and liked all the choices we had. They were also open to a few ideas we had for things.

  Report0 Reply
• amyjoy18 member

  

  January 2014

  We built with Khovnanian, and despite them coming highly recommended from several friends and acquaintances, we did not have a good experience. 
  
  I did anticipate that it would likely take longer than we were told (3-4 months) I didn't anticipate that the timeline would more than double.  I also didn't anticipate that nearly every subcontractor would have to come back and re-do their work. 
  
  To top it off, a plumbing mistake flooded our master bath and into our kitchen and basement a few days before we were scheduled to close. 
  
  Since moving in (end of July) we've had additional plumbing problems pop up, the fireplace is pulling away from the wall, and we have a ridiculous number of nail pops in the drywall as well as areas where the drywall is bubbling.  Our warranty includes a 1 time drywall "fix" for those sort of things, but they will literally have to fix the drywall in every single room in our house.  As well as the livingroom ceiling which has terrible lines in it where the drywall connects. 
  
  In our search, we also looked into Schumacher homes, Wayne homes, and a few true custom builders.
  
  For us, the biggest expenses in building on our own lot were sewage and waterline extensions. 
  

  a>

  Report0 Reply
• billiburrows member

  

  January 2014

  oh gosh! so sorry to hear of all the trouble you've had. i guess i'll stay away from them!!!

  
  

  i contacted S&A just to get an idea of prices as a start.  the 'base price' is sooo cheap it seems do-able.  of course you have to buy land but even still...

  
  

  how much over the base price did all of you folks that built your homes go?  

  Report0 Reply
• 4EvR&4AlWz member

  

  January 2014 edited January 2014

  We are building a custom home on a 4+ acre estate lot (essentially it's like finding your own lot as we are an estate lot so we don't have to do a ton of the stuff that the other homes in our plan have since ours is in a different category).  We are building a Kaclik home and even though we had to use him (he built half of Treesdale and love so many of his homes and they are great quality that even if we found our own lot, we still would've used him to build our house.

  
  

  While it's not like an S&A house in that you start with a base price and added this extra feature (fireplace, hardwoods, breakfast room, etc), we also felt that if we used an S&A or Heartland that we couldn't do some of the things we wanted to do.  We are putting in a great Home Automation system, speakers in every room, geothermal heating, custom room sizes and additions such as a loft in my daughter's room, etc.  

  
  

  You also need to know how much sewage/water, etc will be to run.  You'll be surprised how, on your own lot, these things ad $10,000++++ to your cost due to distance, supplies, etc.

  
  

  Just make sure you know everything that's included from your trim to your door types to your budgets (we tried our hardest to stay within budget for everything; our categories are Lighting, Electrical, Flooring, Cabinetry/Appliances, Trim, Hardware, Paint).  We are over on our budget for the house by 3% but that does not include anything with our home automation/speakers/electrical.

    Nor does it include any outdoor landscaping.

  
  

  Make sure you also know how much it costs if you are doing anything on your own outside of the builder.  I know that if we built a Heartland House, we could not bring in our own vendor or do any of our own work at all.  We also could not make any changes to the plans unless it was one of their special items (or rather, it was ridiculously expensive to change the location of the window because literally your entire house comes dropped on a flatbed ready to go up so if anything needed to be changed, something had to be done by hand as a custom work)

  
  

  Think also about putting your $$ where there are things you can never change such as 9ft ceilings or door frames or excavated garage.

  
  

  If you are building a house, consider excavating your garage.  It's awesome.  We have a huge space for ANYTHING.  We are planning to have the kids ride bikes there or even put in a fake ice surface and have ice hockey in that space.  It's the best $$ we could have ever spent and you can never go back and do it again.

  
  

  Feel free to email if you have more questions on building.  Will I ever do this again:  oh hell no!  I have better things to do than sort through 3 foot high stack of books on plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, etc.  I'm estimating that I've spent >150 hours just on house stuff since May.

  ourblackandgoldworld.blogspot.com

  Report0 Reply
• BethieB member

  

  January 2014

  I honestly don't remember how much we spent over the base price. But that is the hard part - having limited money. LIke Kristin said, you want to think about the things you won't be able to do yourself. I'd rather invent $ in a 9 foot ceiling than granite countertops. The countertops I can do myself down the line; I won't be able to raise the ceiling height.

  Also, 2 foot & 4 foot bump outs don't sound like much, but can really make a big difference in space.

  Beware of the costs of those popular morning rooms / sun rooms. You usually have to excavate under them and add at least a window or door for fire code, and then that extra square footage will need hard wood or tile or carpet, plus windows, etc. For us back in 2010, a sun room would have cost us an extra $30K!!

  Also, if you want to be able to store stuff in the attic, let them know ahead of time because it will require different (stronger) beams and a change in insulation. We didn't think this was a big deal, and while on our plans it showed an attic, it isn't a usable attic. We mentioned it after the house was framed, which at that point, was too late.

  If you want any specifics, feel free to email me at bethannesprague at yahoo dot com

  Report0 Reply