Anyone have your own house built?

[repoman0]

I’m thinking harder about staying fully or nearly fully remote for work, ditching my house in Boston and moving to western MA. It looks hard to find the house we want though without going overboard .. we want an in-law suite, 3-4 car garage / workshop, two offices, but otherwise modest-ish living space. A new house would be very welcome too, built in the style of nice old school New England construction .. I had a 1915 place before my current 1930 one and there’s always unwelcome surprises, usually electrical.

Anyone here do it? How did the architect, construction loan process, etc go? What else did you have to watch out for compared to buying an existing place?

 

[Zanovar]

My mates dad bought a piece of land, and built a house on it.I think he got the land for peanuts.The construction of the house probaly cost a hell of lot more.Nice pad.Smallish still nice though

 

[jmagg]

We GC'd our home in 96. Being in the masonry trade I did everything I could do myself, and subbed the excavation, framing, sheet rock, taping. We used a stock plan from 84 lumber and had an Architect do changes and additions and stamp it, which saved some coin. We took a home equity loan on our existing house, got the structure up with a roof, then got a loan to finish. I'd say pay careful attention to drainage and foundation waterproofing as well as sewer offsets.

 

[JimKiler]

I used a builder to build our house, is that what you are asking or you want to be the builder and hire all the contractors? It is not clear but i presume the latter.

FWIW, my house was build post the housing bubble from 2007-2008 and the builder put the load in our name so it was our liability. This was smart for 2 reasons, 1, it make their accounting books look better and 2. if the builder were to go out of business we could then take over and pay the contractors. I know tons of people who got stuck when the bubble started to burst and could not get their houses finished because banks were taking back all their housing builder loans.

 

[Midwayman]

If you're doing a fully custom place there are just a ton of decisions to be made. I didn't do it myself, but my folks have done it a couple time, my uncle has done it a couple times too. Someone has to choose every single finish in the house. It can be fun or overwhelming depending on your view. If you're the sort of person who has analysis paralysis over minor decisions you might find it simpler to go see a model home and just modify the stuff you don't like.

 

[skyking]

those are all good bits of advice above. I have not built a house but did my own garage, outbuildings, porches, and have helped my brother on a scratch custom build and a big remodel/addition. I do the utilities work as a trade, but also do my own carpentry, cabinets, tile, flooring etc.
To add to Jmagg's post, I would also be sure to put in sleeves everywhere you think you might want one. These are inexpensive pipes across the end of the driveway at the property line, at the front of the garage(s), under sidewalks, across developed areas. You mark the ends of them with a buried 2x4 and a map of as-built locations.
You might spend a few hundred in pipe and machine time when the dirt contractor is out there, but if you use just 1 of them it is priceless.

analysis paralysis

Great advice !

 

[repoman0]

I would almost certainly want to hire a builder. I can do a small project here and there and know just enough to know that I am not competent enough to be the builder. I was assuming the loan would be in our name and we’d just carry our current place alongside until the house is done so good to know that’s at least somewhat normal. I haven’t even met with anyone yet or looked at land (beyond Zillow listings) and definitely need to do more research.

I guess the main thing I’m really out of my element about is the land purchase and dealing with new utility connections. There are plenty of nice big wooded lots but I need to learn how to evaluate them and determine if I can get basic things like water, electricity and internet hooked up. I trust myself to deal competently with a builder once I have that other stuff set.

 

[Viper GTS]

I have been thinking about it lately. I turned a 120 year old house into something reasonably efficient with air sealing, insulation, an existing PV installation, and geothermal heat pump.

Seeing the results that all that got me I want to build something from scratch to be stupid efficient. I'd probably rent this place and use the garage as off-site car storage.

Specifically I want to play with stuff like AeroBarrier that would be difficult in an occupied home.

Viper GTS

 

[skyking]

I would almost certainly want to hire a builder. I can do a small project here and there and know just enough to know that I am not competent enough to be the builder. I was assuming the loan would be in our name and we’d just carry our current place alongside until the house is done so good to know that’s at least somewhat normal. I haven’t even met with anyone yet or looked at land (beyond Zillow listings) and definitely need to do more research.

I guess the main thing I’m really out of my element about is the land purchase and dealing with new utility connections. There are plenty of nice big wooded lots but I need to learn how to evaluate them and determine if I can get basic things like water, electricity and internet hooked up. I trust myself to deal competently with a builder once I have that other stuff set.

The utilities will help you out with those cost estimates.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd like to eventually do it myself but looking for land in an unorganized township as it's just better due to less government overreach. No permits or anything needed so less red tape and headaches and less costs. I can put the money I save towards making the house better. My main goal would be thermal efficiency, something most houses lack. That and just overall efficiency, like automating things, optimizing it for renewable energy etc. Would be fully off grid with backup propane generator, but ideally it would never be needed. Winter is tricky though but trick is to grossly oversize the PV system and do wind as well. Thermal storage is also big key.

First I need to find land though... and then money and time will be the main factor that will slow me down. Will probably take me a good decade to get it built. Goal would be to retire there, and retire early as my costs of living would be super low.

 

[DigDog]

My mates dad bought a piece of land, and built a house on it.I think he got the land for peanuts.The construction of the house probaly cost a hell of lot more.Nice pad.Smallish still nice though

what this guy said.

you not gonna find many 4-car garage, 2 offices etc, in rural massachusetts; that's not modest living by any strech.
We had a royal estates agency and we'd build our own houses years ago, you can get the same done for a very reasonable price, compared to pre-built, but it's going to be a challenge finding a spot of land where it's still possible to commute.

having said that, i would give my right arm to be back in boston so i think you must have hit your head, but, whatever.

 

[Spacehead]

I guess the main thing I’m really out of my element about is the land purchase and dealing with new utility connections. There are plenty of nice big wooded lots but I need to learn how to evaluate them and determine if I can get basic things like water, electricity and internet hooked up. I trust myself to deal competently with a builder once I have that other stuff set.

Once you find a location you like(or a couple as backups) it should be easy enough to find out about utilities. Depending on how far out you are you might need a well & septic system if there are no water/sewer hookups. Just find out who services the area as far as electric & phone/internet. If you go thru a real estate agent for the land they should be able to help you out there too.
Start looking around for land prices early too. Do whatever online searches you can to see what has sold recently & for what price even if it's not in the exact area you'd like to build.

 

[snoopy7548]

I live in central MA and I have also considered going further out west (really though, no further than Hubbardston or Ashburnham) as real estate out there is certainly a bit cheaper, but it is getting into podunk country, though I do like those small towns. I feel like central MA is where it's at - close to NH, less than an hour from Boston, and home prices aren't completely ridiculous, but prices skyrocket once you start heading east.

At some point I will seriously considering building my own house. I'm hoping that before I hit my mid-40s, I'll have enough saved that I can buy a piece of land in cash and enough equity in my home to cover the majority of the building costs.

 

[Scarpozzi]

The biggest issues I had was dealing with the codes office. Price it out. Most builds will cost around $150 sq ft or more.

 

[jmagg]

Google Earth and Web Soil Survey are two great resources when shopping for land. WSS is especially useful and quite amazing regarding soil composition, drainage characteristics and other data.

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

 

[Scarpozzi]

Google Earth and Web Soil Survey are two great resources when shopping for land. WSS is especially useful and quite amazing regarding soil composition, drainage characteristics and other data.

https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

All the times I've purchased a home, I always look at the lay of the land around the street too. You'll see that streets often travel perpendicular to hills. That means you have a house on the upper slope above the road and one below the road. You rarely want the home below the road if the hill is steep. Water runoff down the hill is one thing, but water runoff from the road can be bad in monsoon weather or during snow melt. Consider those things and weather or not you should own an AWD vehicle to have more access to your own driveway if needed.

These days, a lot of contractors will build on slab and some of those homes can go up quick because some are even precut kits. My cousin bought a brand new home in 2010 that was only a few hundred thousand dollars for 2800 square feet. He had maybe 6 different variations he could choose. The only catch was that all the materials were bare bones cheap and it had a single 16' wide garage door for like a 20' wide garage....basically, they made a list of common features people want and checked them all off the cheapest way possible. Don't go that route unless you're willing to renovate everything again in 5-10 years.

 

[jmagg]

Sweat equity adds up. My final cost was about 65 pr foot with brick and stucco exterior and 6 inch framing, but that was in 96.

 

[jpiniero]

I’m thinking harder about staying fully or nearly fully remote for work, ditching my house in Boston and moving to western MA.

Bad idea. The moment the Rona "ends", companies will be pushing people back into the office ASAP, if only to get people to quit and save the company from laying them off and paying unemployment.

 

[dullard]

It seems that almost everyone's dream home is a new home that looks old. That either does not exist or does not come cheap. Old homes were built with labor intensive methods that just aren't used any more and that look can be nearly impossible to get within most budgets. You either get modern style or pay through the nose. I would suggest you forget that goal or forget getting a new house.

I have not built a house myself but have long thought about it. My parents did so while I was growing up. Their main problems:

1. A neighbor wanted to buy a portion of their land just before building. That took a long time to get the land properly divided.
2. Know your style. If two people bicker over every small detail, it will be very tedious.
3. Know how to inspect things yourself and inspect it regularly. Are walls straight? Is the plumbing actually welded or just dry-fit? Are the outlets where you actually want or are they installed in an impossible to reach location? Do pieces fit once parts of the design are all included (like the garage door rails going right through your staircase?
4. Watch for thieves and vandals while the house is unprotected.
5. It'll take far longer than you hope and want.

I'd add my personal thoughts:

1. Lights in the perimeter of the room, not the center. This avoids every single thing having glare and shadows at the same time. More lights than you think you need. In every room.
2. Lights around your mirrors not above, you don't want to look hideous every time you look at the mirror.
3. Add empty pipes to every room. First society added electricity, then phones, then cable, then ethernet. We don't know what is next. It is quite cheap to have a spare pathway for later without needing to tear down walls.
4. Bigger garage. Then bigger than that. Multiple single garage doors rather than one double door so that you have room to open the car doors. Taller garage doors than you currently need.
5. Don't skimp on the roof or anything that protects your house from the elements, especially water.
6. Check the angle of the driveway before building. Can you safely shovel snow and ice off of it?
7. Thicker walls and better insulation than is required.
8. Every protrusion out of the house is a radiator to your heating/cooling bills (in a bad way) and an attractant for bugs/water. No one wants a perfect cube, but try to think before you have every-single thing jutting out.
9. If it is multiple stories, one AC unit per story. Avoid the hassle of a hot upstairs and a cold downstairs.
10. Ceiling fans everywhere. Every bedroom/office. In the living room or at least the kitchen.
11. Don't put the smoke detectors in the path of the airflow from your kitchen.
12. One more bathroom than you think you need.
13. Wider doors than normal, if you expect to live there for a long time. It'll come in handy as you age.

 

[repoman0]

It seems that almost everyone's dream home is a new home that looks old. That either does not exist or does not come cheap. Old homes were built with labor intensive methods that just aren't used any more and that look can be nearly impossible to get within most budgets. You either get modern style or pay through the nose. I would suggest you forget that goal or forget getting a new house.

I have not built a house myself but have long thought about it. My parents did so while I was growing up. Their main problems:

1. A neighbor wanted to buy a portion of their land just before building. That took a long time to get the land properly divided.
2. Know your style. If two people bicker over every small detail, it will be very tedious.
3. Know how to inspect things yourself and inspect it regularly. Are walls straight? Is the plumbing actually welded or just dry-fit? Are the outlets where you actually want or are they installed in an impossible to reach location? Do pieces fit once parts of the design are all included (like the garage door rails going right through your staircase?
4. Watch for thieves and vandals while the house is unprotected.
5. It'll take far longer than you hope and want.

I'd add my personal thoughts:

1. Lights in the perimeter of the room, not the center. This avoids every single thing having glare and shadows at the same time. More lights than you think you need. In every room.
2. Lights around your mirrors not above, you don't want to look hideous every time you look at the mirror.
3. Add empty pipes to every room. First society added electricity, then phones, then cable, then ethernet. We don't know what is next. It is quite cheap to have a spare pathway for later without needing to tear down walls.
4. Bigger garage. Then bigger than that. Multiple single garage doors rather than one double door so that you have room to open the car doors. Taller garage doors than you currently need.
5. Don't skimp on the roof or anything that protects your house from the elements, especially water.
6. Check the angle of the driveway before building. Can you safely shovel snow and ice off of it?
7. Thicker walls and better insulation than is required.
8. Every protrusion out of the house is a radiator to your heating/cooling bills (in a bad way) and an attractant for bugs/water. No one wants a perfect cube, but try to think before you have every-single thing jutting out.
9. If it is multiple stories, one AC unit per story. Avoid the hassle of a hot upstairs and a cold downstairs.
10. Ceiling fans everywhere. Every bedroom/office. In the living room or at least the kitchen.
11. Don't put the smoke detectors in the path of the airflow from your kitchen.
12. One more bathroom than you think you need.
13. Wider doors than normal, if you expect to live there for a long time. It'll come in handy as you age.

Thank you for this reply. Think I found the first builder I’m going to speak with and this will all be good to keep in mind. Their specialty is new houses in old school New England farmhouse or colonial style — prevalent around here, but correct that it isn’t cheap. Luckily it’s looking like I’ll be able to basically trade my 1800sqft, 1 car garage on 0.1 acre built in 1930 for a place twice as big on 20 times as much land in southern NH, and maybe even make a few bucks in the end. Definitely ready to leave the city (even though a lot of actual city dwellers would consider my place the “suburbs”, driving a lot of the demand in this area)

 

[repoman0]

Bad idea. The moment the Rona "ends", companies will be pushing people back into the office ASAP, if only to get people to quit and save the company from laying them off and paying unemployment.

We’re young with in demand skills, not too worried about it. Fiancée works at a fancy tech company that has already moved to fully remote forever as an option. I work in a university research lab that will likely go significantly remote as an option too, and if they don’t I’ll just get another job. But anyway I’m looking at the towns near Manchester NH now instead which are under an hour away.

 

[MrSquished]

Bad idea. The moment the Rona "ends", companies will be pushing people back into the office ASAP, if only to get people to quit and save the company from laying them off and paying unemployment.

I suspect this will definitely happen in a decent amount of situations. WFH will become an option for a day or two a week but not full-time for many.

 

[BudAshes]

It seems that almost everyone's dream home is a new home that looks old. That either does not exist or does not come cheap. Old homes were built with labor intensive methods that just aren't used any more and that look can be nearly impossible to get within most budgets. You either get modern style or pay through the nose. I would suggest you forget that goal or forget getting a new house.

I have not built a house myself but have long thought about it. My parents did so while I was growing up. Their main problems:

1. A neighbor wanted to buy a portion of their land just before building. That took a long time to get the land properly divided.
2. Know your style. If two people bicker over every small detail, it will be very tedious.
3. Know how to inspect things yourself and inspect it regularly. Are walls straight? Is the plumbing actually welded or just dry-fit? Are the outlets where you actually want or are they installed in an impossible to reach location? Do pieces fit once parts of the design are all included (like the garage door rails going right through your staircase?
4. Watch for thieves and vandals while the house is unprotected.
5. It'll take far longer than you hope and want.

I'd add my personal thoughts:

1. Lights in the perimeter of the room, not the center. This avoids every single thing having glare and shadows at the same time. More lights than you think you need. In every room.
2. Lights around your mirrors not above, you don't want to look hideous every time you look at the mirror.
3. Add empty pipes to every room. First society added electricity, then phones, then cable, then ethernet. We don't know what is next. It is quite cheap to have a spare pathway for later without needing to tear down walls.
4. Bigger garage. Then bigger than that. Multiple single garage doors rather than one double door so that you have room to open the car doors. Taller garage doors than you currently need.
5. Don't skimp on the roof or anything that protects your house from the elements, especially water.
6. Check the angle of the driveway before building. Can you safely shovel snow and ice off of it?
7. Thicker walls and better insulation than is required.
8. Every protrusion out of the house is a radiator to your heating/cooling bills (in a bad way) and an attractant for bugs/water. No one wants a perfect cube, but try to think before you have every-single thing jutting out.
9. If it is multiple stories, one AC unit per story. Avoid the hassle of a hot upstairs and a cold downstairs.
10. Ceiling fans everywhere. Every bedroom/office. In the living room or at least the kitchen.
11. Don't put the smoke detectors in the path of the airflow from your kitchen.
12. One more bathroom than you think you need.
13. Wider doors than normal, if you expect to live there for a long time. It'll come in handy as you age.

This is some excellent advice.

 

[jpiniero]

We’re young with in demand skills, not too worried about it. Fiancée works at a fancy tech company that has already moved to fully remote forever as an option. I work in a university research lab that will likely go significantly remote as an option too, and if they don’t I’ll just get another job. But anyway I’m looking at the towns near Manchester NH now instead which are under an hour away.

Doesn't matter if it's "in demand".. real remote jobs that don't just end up overseas are extremely competitive. If you go there you might end up unemployed and be forced to move back.

 

[repoman0]

Doesn't matter if it's "in demand".. real remote jobs that don't just end up overseas are extremely competitive. If you go there you might end up unemployed and be forced to move back.

Luckily our skill sets and qualifications are both extremely competitive, and current jobs too for that matter. Ending up unemployed is pretty much the last thing I’m worried about. Plus the area I’m now looking in is under an hour away from both current jobs.