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[ccassaday]

So excited. We are very close to signing on with a builder and starting the process of building our house. We have meetings with two of the builders this week. Then we will be going back to the one my sister works for. We will then be ready to pick one. Wish us luck. I can't wait for the process to start. My parents feel conflicted in a way. They want to go with the one my sister works for. But one of the other builders is more of s custom builder and we will get more for our money. They don't want to let my sister down. She has done a lot of work doing our plans. I told my mom they will need to get her something very nice if we don't pick her company. How would you guys handle this?

[sweetee2]

Advice from a builder.1 Check for valid contractors  licence. 2. Basic insurance and workman's comp.3. Ask for 3 or more references and phone # and call them.  Good luck.

[ccassaday]

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@sweetee2 wrote:

Advice from a builder.1 Check for valid contractors  licence. 2. Basic insurance and workman's comp.3. Ask for 3 or more references and phone # and call them.  Good luck.

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Thanks. All three builders are well known and respected companies in the area. The one my sister works for does a lot of homes. That's one of the downsides. The other one only does about ten per year. So we would have all his attention during the process. So chances of being in by thanksgiving are greater. The one that only does ten per year has told my parents he can get the house within our budget. He says he wants to do our house. He hasn't stopped being in communication with my dad since they had the first meeting.  So it's all really up to the company my sister works for. The bid came in to high and they have already made most of the changes to get the price down some.  We can get it down another 15k if we do a partial basement instead of a full basement. But if we can get a full basement for same price we will probably go with the other builder. My parents will have a netting with my sisters company and he will go over if there are any changes to get the price down.

[godi]

You are in between a rock and a hard place here. Go with the builder you want, if you go with your sisters and it is not a good experience it will come between you. If you go with your choice she will feel slighted and it might come between you. When you decide take her to lunch and explain you don't want hard feelings but this is a wonderful time in your life and you want her to share in your happiness. Good luck. Building a new home is wonderful, we moved into ours last May.  A bit of advice if you have a basement get a lot of plugs.  Check everyday what is done, we caught so many things they had to fix. Better to catch it while being built then after. Enjoy your experience and your new home. 

[gardenman]

An easy way to knock down the cost of a house is to reduce the number of corners. Architects like to bump out a wall a foot here, a foot there, and those little bump-outs tend to add a lot to the cost of building a house. A more basic square or rectangular footprint is the most efficient way to enclose the square footage. 

If you look at a 1600 sq ft house and you make it a square design with four 40' walls enclosing the space you're buying 160 linear feet of footing, foundation, and exterior wall. If you stretch that out into a rectangular shape of 25' X64' you're now building 178' of of footing foundation and exxterior wall to enclose that same space. Any little bump-out in a wall adds substantially to the cost of a house as it complicates the foundation construction and also the roof construction plus adding more exterior wall surface.

Exterior walls are expensive in that they have lots of extra costs associated with them. They have to be insulated, have a vapor barrier installed, have to be weather proof on the exterior, have exterior finish and trim. If you add up the total cost per linear foot of exterior walls you'll find that you're paying a premium for every extra foot of exterior wall. If you can enclose the square footage you want in a house in as close to a square footprint as possible, you can significantly reduce the cost of a house. 

[Just Bling]

So this is not your house but a house for your parents and you?

[ccassaday]

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@Just Bling wrote:

So this is not your house but a house for your parents and you?

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I am a disabled adult and live with my parents.

[ccassaday]

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@godi wrote:

You are in between a rock and a hard place here. Go with the builder you want, if you go with your sisters and it is not a good experience it will come between you. If you go with your choice she will feel slighted and it might come between you. When you decide take her to lunch and explain you don't want hard feelings but this is a wonderful time in your life and you want her to share in your happiness. Good luck. Building a new home is wonderful, we moved into ours last May.  A bit of advice if you have a basement get a lot of plugs.  Check everyday what is done, we caught so many things they had to fix. Better to catch it while being built then after. Enjoy your experience and your new home. 

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Some very good points here. My sister has said its their house and they need to pick the one their comfortable with. My dad can be very stubborn so she may be relieved she doesn't have to worry about getting into any arguments if we pick the other one.  It was a long road getting the blue prints done and my dad getting it the way he wanted. She saved them a couple grand by being able to do them on her own time and not having to have paid the builder to do it.

[Mominohio]

I know it will be hard to let your sister down, but if she is truly concerned for your situation and that of your parents, whom I assume are aging, then she will want you to pick the plans/builder that will work best for your rather unique situations.

Best of luck in this process. In our area, there are many headaches with building a house. Mostly it is quality of materials (they just don't make any building materials the way they did many years ago), and watching the process all the way through, as all builders try to cut corners, even the high end ones. 

[stevieb]

@ccassaday... Even under the best of circumstances, building a house can become, at times, a complicated mess. My reaction is not to involve a family member because there are more than likely potentially going to be times when she will feel squeezed between her employer and her family. Moreover, building a house requires lots of business decisions that are complicated enough and will be further complicated when family dynamics are invovled. It's too late now, but it's almost unfortunate that your sister's firm was invovled in this at all. The bottom line too, assuming the builders are essentially of the same calibre, is you go with the one who offers you most of what you want for the best price. If you have to cut corners to make your sister's firm competitive, then there will always be some level of questioning as to what you might have gotten had you gone with another builder.