Jim, that was just material and all sub payments. Everything but my time and beer cost. The equity I have now is called sweat equity and that is my time. I figured my labor cost around 60k, but it was well worth it to have exactly the house I want with all the custom finishes and wood work I wanted.

Sled...

 

I would go with a GC. For one, they know much more about it than the typical person(I don't know whther or not you're typical). Second, They may charge 10-15% on top of all of their subcontractors, but they generally have discouts with certain subs and suppliers, so it's not as much as you may think. Finally, they usually offer some sort of warranty on their work. Therefore if something's not right during the first year or so, the should fix it for little or no cost. And finally, and this is just my opinion, I've worked for building GC's and now work for a highway GC, and I still would hire someone else to do it. It's like buying a house. You can look through classifieds and find one and do all the paperwork yourself, or you can get a realtor to do all the leg work for you.

 

Ah, yes, family and friends. I had my brother help me the most, second was my best friend, third was my dad, and other various friends. Hiring the carpenter counts as well. There were only a few weeks out of the 10 months I could remember that I was there by myself, seemed liked someone was always there giving me a hand. Having free labor or doing some sort of barter with someone makes a HUGE difference. Of course, now I owe my brother the same help when he builds his house, my best friend is remodeling, so guess where I'm going to be, and my parents are on there third set of house plans from me. Sounds like the GC route isn't that bad of an idea. Good luck with the GC, it'll certainly be easier and less stressful that way.

 

Hey if you are going to draw up your own floor plans, send me a copy and ill help ya out. We just got done building an all concrete house and have another one to build this spring. Pretty sweet up here where it is very cold or very hot. Excelent for heating cost and cooling. Dont hear any noise from outside. Its like basements that have styrofoam forms, well the upper part is the same thing. Then set rafters on top of this. I think this will be a thing of the future with lumber prices going up. But if you need any advice with anything email me and ill give you my advice if ya want it.

 

Hey, trytokeepup, which concrete form system did you use? I built my house out of the Arxx Concrete Forms (used to be Blue Maxx). Man, talk about quick, my first floor went up within 2 1/2 weeks, then my second floor went up in a week. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska where it gets 40 to 50 below zero, and you're right, they handle great in the cold, it's like being in a great big coleman cooler! I'm seeing alot more of these houses going up in Fairbanks, I'm sure they've gotta be popping up everywhere else.

 

No problem man. Yeh its deff. not an easy task but it can be done.Honestly im not to sure I would do it for my own house. But we'll see when that day comes. Good luck man, and let us know how things work out. Maybe we could have the first, F150 annual BBQ at your place and all help you build it.

 

Actually having a GC could save you money…

How? Well unless you know the going rate for all the sub-contractors and know or have a very good idea of what they should actually be charging you and what to expect in return you could really be taking for a ride by not one, but many of your sub-contractors.

As was mentioned, you will be in for one hell of a headache, not just during the building process but could very likely have a huge headache for many years to come should a few of the sub-contractors not complete their jobs correctly.

The GC, as was mentioned, you’re POC, not just during the build but after should you run into any issues with your new home a year, or few years later…

Your thinking short term, and yes in the short term you might save some money but there is a real possibility any money saved will soon be gone sooner rather then later. You should really think long and hard about it before you make a decision and don’t let money be the major factor…

 

We used Lite-Form product. Actually the stuff we used is called Fold-Form because instead of assembling the plastic ties to the foam planks they are all pre-assembled and much faster but a bit more costly. Corners are premade as well. The regular lite form you have to assemble yourself. The stuff we use is the pink color. The basement walls are 12'' thick(2'' foam, 8'' concrete then 2'' foam) The uppers are 2'' and 4" of concrete then 2'' foam. Not sure if you are familiar with it beings the main production is where i live. This spring we are building another one and looking at using a different product possible. I believe its called Ice-Box. Instead of having plastic ties to screw sheet rock and siding into they have a metal strip that runs the full length so you dont have to strip the outside out for siding.

This is way energy efficient. The guy we just got done building for also put on heated floors in the basement and garage and he also put in a geothermal heat system where the earth actually cools and heats his house. His cost will run around 200-300 a year to heat and cool the house.

 

We work on too many jobs where the homeowner is the GC. Were are doing a rehab right now where the owner is the GC. This guy is changing his mind every day. We bust our a$$ to get our inspection when he wants it then he wants to change everything. Please, for the sake of the sub-contractors at least, get a GC. And have a plan.

There are other ways to save money. If you can do some things try to work out a deal where the GC gets almost everything done and you assume responsability for things like the trim molding, painting, landscaping and things like that. You could even be moved into the house before these things are done. It migh be more of a pain but it can be done.

We had one new house a few years ago. I think it was a million dollar house (not all that much if you know what houses are going for around here, well except my house). The guy is a doctor and worked a ton of hours. He was still there working on the house. His wife and kids spent a ton of time working on it too. They did their own painting, wallpaper, trim molding (fancy stuff too!), ceramic tile and a bunch of the nitty gritty stuff. I'd guess they saved a fortune, and they really didn't have to. They were good to work with too. They understood what all the subs had to do and were very professional in the work that they were doing. I believe they had a GC for the basics and then took over. It worked on that one.

What ever you end up doing, good luck!

 

my buddy marc built his whole house in colebrook with NO PRINTS!!! just came out of his head..he still needed town approved septic and a shallow well dug..but in n.h. you can bacially"do what you want" as long as it passes inspection...zap!