Anyone have your own house built?

[jpiniero]

Plus the area I’m now looking in is under an hour away from both current jobs.

Don't know enough about traffic in Boston, but I've heard it's really bad. Or was... you might be underestimating how long it would take if/when volume fully returns.

 

[repoman0]

Don't know enough about traffic in Boston, but I've heard it's really bad. Or was... you might be underestimating how long it would take if/when volume fully returns.

It’s garbage during commuting hours from and to that direction. I already work 6-2ish from home and that won’t be any different on rare days I go in. Early enough both ways that it’s quick.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I can't fathom having to drive an hour to get to work. That would be insane.

 

[repoman0]

I can't fathom having to drive an hour to get to work. That would be insane.

Good thing I'll be walking to my office in the house and not driving an hour to work then!

 

[Greenman]

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.

That's done with one question, "is it an improved lot?". If yes, utility's are at the property line, if no, you have to pay to have them brought in. That price will vary from modest to absurd. I once considered buying an absolutely breathtaking 5 acre lot in the Sierra's, national forest on three sides. Getting power to it would have been four times the price of the land.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's done with one question, "is it an improved lot?". If yes, utility's are at the property line, if no, you have to pay to have them brought in. That price will vary from modest to absurd. I once considered buying an absolutely breathtaking 5 acre lot in the Sierra's, national forest on three sides. Getting power to it would have been four times the price of the land.

Why would you not just do solar or wind? Or was it in a place where it's not allowed?

 

[Kaido]

Don't know enough about traffic in Boston, but I've heard it's really bad. Or was... you might be underestimating how long it would take if/when volume fully returns.

My friend just bought a house for $500k in the Boston area. It's like 1,600 square feet & looks like a house you'd see featured on an episode of Cops. I know house pricing is relative to the area it's in, but dang...I thought you'd be getting the Home Alone house for that kind of money lol.

 

[Kaido]

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?

It's on my list of things to do! Just been super busy for the last 10 years or so lol. The good news is, houses are a LOT easier to build these days. You have ICF blocks, you have really nice veneer materials, everyone has CAD with great visualization these days, etc. You can even pre-visualize your house in VR & walk around it virtually now!

Enscape - Real-Time Rendering and Virtual Reality | Chaos

Enscape - 3D rendering for Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, ArchiCAD & Vectorworks. With just one click!

enscape3d.com

I'd start off with Quad-Lock ICF floors, walls, ceilings, and roofs: (I'd do chaseways with access panels for the utilities & PEX for plumbing)

Insulated Concrete Forms for Amazing Buildings

Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for Amazing Buildings: Cozy, peaceful, safe & durable at LOWER total cost of ownership than traditional construction methods

www.quadlock.com

I'm a huge fan of Eldorado's indoor/outdoor stone veneer:

Eldorado Stone - Stone Veneer, Architectural Stone and Brick Products

Explore our wide collection of pre-cast architectural brick and stone veneer, fireplace surrounds, and outdoor living solutions.

www.eldoradostone.com

For roofing, I'd either do Tesla Solar tiles or go with Boral stone-coated steel roofing:

Inspiration - Boral Roofing

www.boralroof.com

Dekton for all countertops: (kitchen, bathrooms, etc. - it's basically Quartz 2.0, half the size & double the strength!)

What is Dekton - Cosentino USA

Dekton is Cosentino's innovative, ultra-compact and high-performance surface that offers endless design possibilities for outdoor and indoor spaces.

www.dekton.com

PTG impact-resistant windows & doors:

Home

PGT® custom hurricane and impact resistant windows & doors serving Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, Naples, Tampa, Sarasota, all of Florida and the Gulf Coast.

www.pgtwindows.com

Read through this thread (8 pages) for more ideas:

Modern home materials & technologies discussion thread

I worked for a custom home builder for a number of years back in college & got exposed to a lot of neat classic & modern residential building technologies. I got interested in the idea of building my own home & thought I'd share some of the notes I've collected over the years here. I don't...

forums.anandtech.com

If you're building from scratch, my suggestions would be:

1. Pick good stuff
2. Don't make it so weird you can't sell it

I used to work for a homebuilder & you'd be amazed at how cheaply (material & skill-wise) million-dollar homes are made! I thought they'd have some next-level materials & skilled experts, and while that is the case sometimes, shortcuts are still taken, deadlines still need to be met, etc. So going the build-your-own-house route can really help you design a really nice home that perfectly fits your needs & doesn't have hidden little nightmares all over the place. I rented a farmhouse a few years back & while I really loved it, the maintenance was...not so much fun, lol. So it's not just about having a modern home, but one that is well-designed & that uses good materials, because a lot of new homes are NOT well-designed & often use cheap or sub-par materials.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

I just want to say this: good for you OP. Most people don't have the balls to do this let alone demand and get remote work - you only live once and do it how you want, especially if you're in the right line of work. And by most people, I mean the drones who obey this:

The moment the Rona "ends", companies will be pushing people back into the office ASAP

...even though they know it's mostly a pointless waste of time and energy. The 9 to 5 + commute is one of the most inefficient, most burdensome ways anyone can choose to spend their lives.

 

[MrSquished]

I just want to say this: good for you OP. Most people don't have the balls to do this let alone demand and get remote work - you only live once and do it how you want, especially if you're in the right line of work. And by most people, I mean the drones who obey this:



...even though they know it's mostly a pointless waste of time and energy. The 9 to 5 + commute is one of the most inefficient, most burdensome ways anyone can choose to spend their lives.

Yeah unfortunately for reality, working in an office together is going to end up better for a variety of positions and companies when this is over. I mean look at how much apple spent on their headquarters, deliberately designed to foster personal interactions between employees. these types of interactions make things happen and companies aren't just going to let them disappear.

There should be changes to the workweek, improvements to mass transit and other such infrastructure to make commutes more efficient. The pandemic will turn some jobs remote for good, and some of those will get outsourced - you are literally proving your job just overcame one hurdle to being outsourced by doing that unfortunately. And then the rest will go back to being in office with some having the option for a partial wfh schedule.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would love if remote work became more the norm, but my union steward did have a good point about that and said be careful what you wish for. When companies realize you can easily do things remotely, why not just outsource everything to India. A lot of companies already do this, but perhaps there are certain positions that they never considered doing it with until now. Even at my position they insist someone needs to be in the office, but there has been some times where the office was left empty as whoever was scheduled to be in may have had symptoms or what not so they let them stay home. Quick way to find out you don't REALLY need someone in the office when the whole shift goes without issue.

So it's really a catch 22. If we moved towards a world where all work is done remote, you are now competing with India and good luck with that if you want to be able to own a home or property and live in it alone, because people from India don't care being 20 people in the same house. That lowers the standard for everyone else when they are willing to work for cheaper.

 

[bbhaag]

Never had the desire to do it but I helped my folks build a house back in '98. It was an interesting experience to say the least not just for them but also for me my bother and my sister.

 

[repoman0]

I’ve been driving up and looking at a bunch of plots, and met with builder yesterday. We saw two very different ones with him .. one that I preferred and one that the other half preferred

1. 2.5 acres, open but private due to trees around edge, a few beautiful mature oaks, town water, old house on lot already demoed, 5-15 min closer to town and civilization

2. 3 acres in dense forest, well water, needs 500 ft driveway, 70% of the price but making it viable probably eats the difference

We are going to go with the first pretty soon if we can make it work with this guy. I liked him.

 

[Brainonska511]

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.

It really depends on what is being done. I have a remote job that has a modest amount of client interaction via phone, and requires coordination between people. It would be quite difficult to ship this kind of work overseas and maintain the same responsiveness to client needs.

 

[repoman0]

^yep, and it depends on the quality of the company too. Good ones know they get what they pay for. Neither of our jobs outsource anything, and it’s not very common in tech in this area. Both have plans to support flex and remote schedules in the future, since they’ve taken surveys and that’s what their workforce expects. They’re here for the university talent, not to pay a lot of money for real estate to hire people elsewhere.

The builder said we are far from the first. New construction demand in southern NH is through the roof, and land is typically $50-$100k more expensive than this time last year, at least in the town we’ve chosen. Good timing