There is so much to keep track of when building a house. So many notes and numbers in my head. In my computer. In a notebook. It all starts to jumble after awhile - even for an accountant. With the excess we are going to have to pay for HVAC and insulation (a total of $20,000 combined) I was about to go into "not think about it" shut down mode. Yesterday I got a bit of a break and decided to relook at our house cost breakdown numbers again. I have this spreadsheet done up last July or August. This number is what went to the bank. Then a few actual bids I went and got (flooring, cabinets and counter tops) came in right after that, as well as we adjusted a couple other lines (like we didn't need the $1000 for "sanican, dump fees, clean up". We are paying the monthly sanican bill ourselves and we have a dump trailer we own and DH is doing clean up as we go. Whatever he can fit into our regular garbage service he does, and he's been able to do most of it that way. Stuff that is wood scraps, we burn. So, I had forgotten we actually went into this house build with a $16,000 cushion for overages. Now I breathed easier yesterday. A couple other things a little higher and a couple a little lower, we are right now sitting at just being $5,000 over budget. That I can do with my income, by the time this is all done. Between what I have in savings set aside now and what I will have by the end of the year will be about $13,000. Not to mention, there is no way this house will be done by the end of the year anyway, so I'm going to add in January extra money from my paychecks, which should be an additional $3500. I think we'll be ok and we are both more relaxed now about it all.
The HVAC furnace system we are getting is Lennox brand, which I have heard good things about. This is being done by a guy we know through DH's friend. He just built his own new house last year and this is the system he put in, along with a heat pump too. Gotta figure what he would put in his own 5000 sq ft house is good, right? He said it's super efficient and heating that big house (they are on the same electricity coop as we are on) with 5 people living in their house, he said his last month electricity bill was under $100. Plus we feel really confident he knows his stuff.
Today the framers are trying to finish siding. They still have to finish the back patio, before the roofer can come back. It was supposed to be finished this week, so he could come Friday/weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen. The contractor's other son is here to pour some concrete. Apparently this is his last day of the year he's pouring slabs, it's too cold. They are pouring our front entrance slab, a slab in front of the tall shop door, as well as pouring slab for our shed floor. DH decided not to have the elk/mountain scene stamped into the front entrance. We are just going to have it wood plank with the slate border, like we did the back patio. I think it's going to look great with the timber frame portico.
I guess our neighbor quit his job. We were wondering why he's been home since last week. Figured maybe he just had some vacation time he was using up. I guess he wasn't too happy with the new head guy they brought in. It does sound like he's got another similar job lined up. Boy, I'd hate to lose a job around this area, there are hardly any jobs to begin with. Plus he's in his 60's, but not ready to retire yet. Last August the company his wife works at closed their office here in town, so now she has to drive into the city every day to work at one of the other offices.
So are you on the hook for the contractor's mistake regarding the insulation? I asked my husband (real estate lawyer) and his immediate reaction was too bad for the contractor. Again, this is all without knowing what your contract says, but what if he was wrong about everything? You end up paying twice as much for the house?
ReplyDeletecontractor is blaming it on us and saying we never said we wanted that type of insulation. We do have it in an email, we found the other day, where DH said exactly what he wanted (spray foam and blown in). Not to mention, why would we do our house with a lesser type of insulation than we did our shop?! He also said we didn't say we wanted the crawl space/foundation spray foamed...well, if we didn't (we did - DH told him he wanted it just like he did our friends house) and he thought it was going to be insulating blankets hung, then why didn't they put in the hangers when they were doing the foundation? It may come down to us consulting with an attorney, in the end. For now we are just going to get (and pay) for the insulation we want. Even his insulating guy said if he just only did batting, it would still have been more than builder's estimate. He isn't wrong about everything (thank god!). What he bid for framing, concrete, painting, finish work (because he and his boys do it) is right. We got our own bids on windows, doors, flooring, cabinets, countertop, appliances, gas fireplace, etc. We did get the plumber to bid and we are a little under budget there. The roofer is at budget. We got 3 electrical bids and are using a guy who was $1000 more than builders estimate. There isn't much else we don't have good numbers on. Drywall may come in at a little higher, but we've already kind of talked to the guy (same guy who did shop). The gutter guy just gave us an estimate that was almost $1000 lower than builder put in. We won't end up paying twice as much, but there will be some overage, which sounds pretty normal in house building. Someone told me to expect 20% in overages, but we won't even be close to that. It's just very frustrating to have the hvac and insulation be so far off his estimate, when we asked and asked him to make sure he had good numbers in there and we were specific in what we wanted. We thought electric was going to be way off too, but got a bid that was near what we needed it to be (the other two estimates for same job were almost twice as much!). All the subs are just in gouge mode, throw out big numbers and see if they get the job, because they are all so busy, they don't care if they get it or not.
DeleteYour finances sounds complex but at least you know where everything is. That is half the battle isn't it. I don't know how people manage who bury their heads in the sand and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteour finances really aren't too complicated, but all the details of what it cost to build a house, sure are! makes my head spin.
DeleteI have often read and heard the same thing about a 20% buffer when building/remodeling. Depending on overall anticipated costs (which obviously in your case would be a lot given the size of your project), that 20% variance can equate to some serious money. It's probably good that you've been able to cash flow so many things as it should significantly decrease what you ultimately end up needing to borrow. On a side note, the other night I watched a replay of a webinar on what one might expect to pay for a timber frame home. While I knew they were pricey, all I could say is OUCH! I can totally see why you went the route you did.
ReplyDeleteWe never even inquired to the price of a timber frame home, LOL. I can only imagine! Knew it was out of our budget. But I do like that our covered porches are timber frame and at least give the house some look of it.
ReplyDelete