Baltimore 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.
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.
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 built a home?
Has anyone here gone through the home-building process? DH and I are looking a few years into the future and it might be a possibility for us. Specifically, we would have the lot so we would just need to find the right contractor to build the house. I'm trying to look into it now and I'm so confused.....
I'm guessing there is a cost per square foot, and custom stuff would cost more. What about the cost of a well/septic, permits etc with the county....is this something the builder typically includes? Just wondering if anyone here has dealt with it.
Re: Has anyone built a home?
When my parents rennovated their house, they actually put a huge addition on, it pretty much doubled the size of the house, so it was kind of similar. They first hired an architect to create the plans and then hired a contractor. Their contractor did all the actual leg work when it came to applying for permits, scheduling inspections, etc, but my parents had to pay the fee's for all of these and I'm assuming the labor costs included this as well. Most contractors will give you a very detailed, itemized proposal, which most of the time would include all the materials needed. But some of it like the septic, would probably have to be sub-contracted out and they typically give you a range of what it would cost. Of course like any kind of home rennovation/construction, you would most likely go over budget anyways.
Also, because my parents were building outside of your typical neighborhood construction (where say you were given 3 different options for floor plans and maybe 5 or 6 different choices for various finishes, tiles, etc) my parents had to go out and do the leg work when it came to picking the materials like tile, cabinets, flooring, etc. I always thought I would love to have a custom built home, but it was a 2 year process from start to finish for my parents and it was exhausting. I helped my mom a lot, and we spent so much time just going to different stores to pick out materials and ordering.
We've been looking into building a house. Since you have the lot, you would be looking for a builder to build on your lot. Some builder are better than others about allowing customization. I would spend a lot of time looking at layouts to determine what you want because the better you can know that the easier it will be to have meetings with builders.
I also learned a lot by going to building seminars, in addition to reading and doing my own research.
My friend is building through Classic Homes (of Maryland). I was impressed by them from the seminars that I've gone to. They do allow customization and they help oversee everything from utilities to site work to permits and they have contractors that they are used to working with. My friend was interested in geothermal heat and they have been really helpful with doing things outside of the box. You can message me on facebook too if you want the names of some other builders that I've looked into. Even though you don't want to build in a builders community, I have found it helpful to go to open houses for new construction to get an idea of what we want. That way I can see layouts in person and discuss things with DH.