A couple of you said I should go ahead and post the story of how the construction of my spec house went, since so many things went wrong. Maybe it will serve as a “reality check” for some who are thinking about building their own house. So here ya go.
The story is roughly in chronological order, as best as I can remember.
Things started out innocently enough. Everybody thought that building a spec house was a great idea. Even the banker thought it sounded good. Anything you could slap in the ground seemed to be selling before the roof was on. DW was behind it, as was my Dad and other family members. We spent all summer getting all our debts paid off, and working on the plan and estimate.
The weather was a bit cold as we staked out the foundation just before Thanksgiving in November of 2000. The house fit the lot well, and the concrete guy was happy to have the work. I figured the winter was the ideal time to build a spec – It was typically slow for me, and I occasionally had to take unpaid time off anyway.
My first real setback came from my employer. After I had the foundation went in, he announced that I had to pay full price for everything. He generally let employees buy everything at cost plus 10%. But he decided that since I was building a spec house, I didn’t qualify. He didn’t bother to mention this during the 6 or 8 weeks that he had been helping me out with the estimate. This set me back about $5,000 on my material bid right off the bat.
The second setback came in December – The weather. December of 2000 was the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. Record cold temperatures, snow every 3 or 4 days, and high winds. Ended up with 3″ of ice on the basement floor.
I had planned to do most of the framing myself, but ended up hiring crews to help just to get it under roof. We had to take ice scrapers and scrape the ice off the top plates of the walls so we could lay the trusses out. And we had to shovel a path through the house just to be able to walk through it to hand boards up to the guys setting trusses.
Lots of friends and relatives said they’d help, but not many did. I don’t blame them – They all had meeting, soccer games, family functions, etc. going on. Why give that up just to help build someone else’s house in the miserable cold? And I also didn’t have as much time to spend on it as I had hoped. DW and I had plenty of other things going on that needed attention. Weddings, funerals, a kid in the hospital with pneumonia, and other assorted events sucked up a lot of time I thought I’d have to work on the house.
One of the contractors in town had been keeping an eye on things, and called to offer help to get the plywood on the roof deck. He showed up with 7 guys and got it all on in one day (along with the felt) on one of the better days. Of course – He wanted paid for that, to the tune of $1,500 or so.
Once the roof was on, we spent a day shoveling the snow out of the house so it wouldn’t melt and add to the ice in the basement. Then we broke up the ice in the basement and hauled it out in 5 gallon buckets. Turns out the ice had been hiding the fact that the slab had heaved and there were a bunch of cracks in it.
Once the weather sort of thawed out in February, I tried to put in a sump pump. Big mistake. The thing froze up, and I ended up with pinholes in the discharge hose once I got it thawed out. Has to stick buckets under the pinholes and empty them every night to try to keep the water out of the basement. This went on for quite some time. I kept pressuring the plumber to come out and hook up a permanent discharge line for the sump. But the weather was cold and wet, an he was really busy. He insisted that it was illegal to discharge the sump into the sewer, so we had to find a ditch or something. Trouble was, there isn?t one. After 3 months of emptying buckets every night, he finally hooked the thing into the sewer. (Like every other house in the subdivision)
When installing the windows, I found out the jamb extensions were wrong on the kitchen window. When I checked the order sheet, it said 5 9/16″ jambs. (For a 2X6 wall) When I questioned the lumberyard guy about it, he said he was pretty sure it was wrong, but didn’t say anything.
My boss was now pretty ticked off at me. Since he said I had to pay full price for everything, I had been buying a lot of the materials for the house at other lumberyards. Didn’t matter that the other yards had been customers of ours for years – he expected blind loyalty, and thought I should buy everything from his lumberyard regardless of the cost. This made things tense at work, as he and I had desks about 10′ apart.
The plumber started pressing me for the final bath layouts so he could start his rough in. I hadn’t really figured out exactly how I wanted them – Thought I could do that later. But it was a lot tougher than I thought. The master bath would’ve worked out a lot better if I’d just moved the window over a few inches. And the door should’ve been a few inches farther over. I should’ve known better, but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
Then one of the plumbers drilled a hole right through the middle of one of my floor trusses. Really ticked me off, as I had specifically told them NOT to do that. You don’t mess with a truss guy’s trusses.
Once we started putting up drywall, it became apparent that something was out of square. Upon checking, I found out the back wall was bowed in 1/2″ and the kitchen wall was also a bit off. Probably not a huge deal, but it ticked me off. I was trying to keep the thing as square as I could.
After the ground dried out, I got to working on hauling off the extra dirt from digging out the basement. Hadn’t really figured in the cost of doing that – Didn’t think I’d have that much left over. As it turned out, there were about 60 truckloads to haul off. Lots of people were willing to take it if I would load it and haul it to their place for free. But no one wanted to so much as split the hauling costs. Ended up giving it to an Uncle who helped with the hauling, and it cost about $500 or so.
Somewhere around this time, I had a guy I knew come out and measure for the kitchen cabinets. I knew the guy well and trusted him, so I didn’t even get bids on the cabinets. I tried to pick the best local guy for all the subs, and he was no exception. He had the cabinets built and ready to ship when the place burned to the ground mysteriously. Guess his employer was about bankrupt, and thought torching the place was a good way to collect some insurance money. (There were allegedly 9 “hot spots” where cardboard had been piled up in the buildings) I could always get the cabinets somewhere else, but I had put down $4,100 as a deposit when I ordered them. It’s been tied up in court for over a year, and I may never see a nickel of it.
When we put the garage door up, someone turned the adjustment nut the wrong way on the torsion tube. Stripped out the plastic teeth on the end, so it had to be replaced. Set me back about $110.
I had been nervously watching the basement, as it never had seemed to dry out completely. Even after 6 weeks or no rain and warm weather I had wet basement floors. Even tried running 2 dehumidifiers continuously with no success. When it finally did rain, I had water leaking around the form ties in places
Replies
Geez Boss, if there's more you'd be better off NOT remembering it. Hope things shake out soon, and what's with the RE taxes so high? What is the assessed value? Joe H
Joe -
The house we live in is an old one we bought for about $25,000 and have fixed up quite a bit.
The spec house will appraise for about $150,000, which is why the taxes are so high.
One thing I forgot - Had an Uncle helping set the floor trusses. He carried a floor truss and set it into place, then turned to head back for another. He stepped wrong and lost his balance. Ended up sliding down between 2 trusses and hitting the basement floor. Cut his forehead with his hook (Lost his right hand in a farming accident) and was bruised somewhat. Fortunately that was all.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
Boss Hog,
I agree that's a bitch of a story and while you didn't ask for it you have my sympathy. Sounds like one of my I'll just buy this, fix it up and.... stories.
All I can say is the lessons you learned won't do you much good in the future. The next set of circumstances will be just enough differant to require a whole new problem solving mindset.
I'm not just talking about wiether or not you ever do this again, I'm talking about life in general... As they say, Life's a beach and then you die.....
Hopefully the differance in your story and my do-it-yourself project is that I'm building my dream, my way. It doesn't matter how much time, what effort etc. To me this is fun. evan the tuff stuff. Putting roof decking on a27/12 pitch roof in 20 below weather with 20 MPH winds quailifies as tuff and the whole time I was doing it I had this kinda ship eating grin thinking about the story I could tell that no-body would believe (and if they did believe never have a real concept of what it's like).
Only got one piece of advice for ya',
That which does not kill you only serves to make you stronger.......
Don't see that you're asking for advice, but that's never stopped me yet. If there's any way you can move into it, do it. Don't know about the market in your area, so I may be off-base.
Rent your current house. To get the advantage of the new tax law a house has to be primary residence for 2 of the last five years. So, you can rent it for a while and make the decision later as to whether to sell it, continue to rent it, or move back into it.
Live in the new one, decorate it, landscape it and sell it in two years for no capital gains. It's been our experience that most people have no vision, no eye. We've had trouble selling them unlandscaped, much less unfinished.
And, I noticed in your pics that you did something that we used to do. It's very neutral. We used to do that too, trying not to put much of a personal stamp on it....because of resale. We finally realized that people are bored to death with that....but most of them have no taste and can't visualize what it could look like a different way. Now I do hot colors, wild tile and faux paint jobs. They love it.
If you decide to list it with another realtor, research well. Don't necessarily pick the top one. Often the ones who do the most business are so busy that they can't pay attention to you. They have "assistants" who do most of the grunt work.
Feel free to tell me to buzz off. It is nice to know that someone in the trades can have trouble too. Your story just reinforces why we keep hired help to the minimum. Takes forever, tho.
Shelley in NM
Don't see that you're asking for advice, but that's never stopped me yet.
I don't know you well enough to comment on that one, Shelly. (-:
Now I do hot colors, wild tile and faux paint jobs
I'm not against taking such risks - But I try to take risks on things I know something about. Like the sunken living room - It's the only one in town that I know of. I have no taste for colors - They all look the same to me. (Why are there 150 shades of "off white"???)DW also refuses to deal with colors, and can't make a decision to save her life. I actually had a friend pick out the paint, siding, roofing, carpet, and shutter colors.
Feel free to tell me to buzz off.
Naw - Not this time. Maybe if we talk about attic ventilation sometime.........(-:
I'm not 40-something. I'm $39.95, plus shipping and handling.
Gawd, I don't know why there are so many off-whites. Wasn't suggesting that you redo...only offering an observation. I was timid about color combos until I got an artist's color wheel and learned how to use it.
I've been where you are. Profit is in your labor and you see it melting away and in the bank's pocket. That's why so many small builders go belly up.
If you're building your dream as Frenchy is, doesn't matter. Gonna live in it forever so who cares how much and how long.
In RE you have three things. Price, condition and location. It's new, you can't move it. We've cut and run on a couple of them. If you do that, DW will probably be saying "I told you so" into the coffin at the wake. We do that....it's genetic :o)
That's why I passed on the melting adobe in the Woodshed.....even tho I want to do it really, really bad.
Shelley in NM
ya boss- you titled this thread well... and I thought I hit some problems on a renovation. I will remember your tale and realize that my problems are small in comparison to what could be. Hope for the best to you. sheesh- sounds like an obituary.
Boss,
I feel for you. My former boss had a similiar experience about 20 years ago. Finished his spec, just as mortgage rates hit about 20%. Nobody was buying anything. He was paying about a grand a month in interest. Had nothing left for principal. Put the spec & his own home up for sale, figuring on living in which ever was left. Finally sold the spec, but lost his### ! Anyway, hang in there, like was said, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" By the way he's very well off now. Maybe it's just one of the costs on the bumpy road to success. Years from now, you'll be able to scare off others from trying to build on spec, with your tale. It will probably save quite a few folks some grief. As for my $0.02. Look at what is selling in your market and compare to yours. Maybe some minor decorating can make the difference, without too much cost. Also, find yourself a hungry young realator. Have one on me! (make that a few)
Brudoggie
My advise would be the a person interested in building a spec house would be to build a couple of them in the 1500 square foot range before you build one that is 2500 + square feet.
The bigger the house the bigger the risk.. And for all you stick builders........ Look into panelized construction!
Larry -
Actually, my house WAS panelized. I worked for a truss manufacturer at the time - did my own wall panel layout and truss designs. It was kinda neat to do the thing on the computer and then help assemble the things I'd seen on the computer screen. I only get to see about one house in a thousand that I work on.
For the rest of you - I appreciate the expressions of sympathy, etc. But that's not really why I posted that story.
Seems to me when things go that bad, you have the freedom to chose your response. You can stress out over everything that goes wrong, or try to find some humor in it. While I've been stressed to some degree, I've tried to laugh about it. I hope you did to.
The other reason was that it might be a good story to link to when DIYers talk about being their own GC or building their own house. Some of the things wouldn't apply in that case, but some would. I've tried to tell people a time or 2 that building a house was harder than it might seem. Mostly I get that "Yeah, I know......" response. Now I have an example in writing.
It is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life threatening situation.
There ya go Boss,
Laugh and the world wonders what going on......or something.
Actually I knew better than believe that I could do this quickly and cheaply. I know myself (I have this defective gene that won't allow me to do something cheaply) and I've made money in the past on side jobs because others were just too lazy to have a pro do it. A pro could have done what I've done in a fraction of the time and for a lot less, but it would be a practical no nonsense house. (who wants that?)
Some day one of these pros will figure out that there is a whole untapped market if they just let people figure out what things cost. It's kinda like the self serve at the grocery store. If you want a couple of pieces of chicken you take a number and wait for some help. Then you pay more for it that if you bought the whole chicken off the self seve rack.
Pros are like that, they have their procedure before anyone gets a number and in giving the number they hope to obligate the owner to select them.. The trouble is anyone who goes through that procedure, will never just get one bid and suddenly they are working because they are the most reasonable rather than the best.
OOPS! sorry, got off the subject.....
This is a bit off base, but we learned something about colors doing our house. My wife hired a lady to help her with the decorating -- the wife of a long time builider in this area. She was very reasonable, cost-wise. We were having a hard time deciding on colors for ceilings. She said to pick the wall color, and then have them to a "half-tint" for the ceiling (they just put in half as much coloring agent). For our bathroom, visible from our bedroom, we just had them double the bedroom wall color. Works great.
Also, all the connected living spaces use the same wall color, except the dining room which will have a faux finish (will start with a darker base, will use the basic wall color as the 2nd coat, and will use a lighter color for the 3rd accent coat). "Harmony" is big right now -- all rooms visible at once should be in the same color family.
We're no experts, but it really has worked well for us.
Sorry to hear about all the problems, now I can sleep knowing that I'm not the only one involved in the spec home from hell routine. After being in construction for over 20 years working for others, then striking out on my own building gazebos, decks and anything else; I decided to try a spec home. It is, (currently still under construction) a good size home, over 2400 sq. ft. It's in a nicer area of where I live and the biggest problem I currently have is the homeowner's association president and the neighbors. The president has no problem walking into the house with out knocking or unannounced when I'm working, even though the doors are closed and I've told him 3 times he's trespassing, I don't want him in, I'll call the cops, etc. The guy doesn't take the hints and his head is as thick as a brick when it comes to building, even though he claims he works for a construction company that does multi-million dollar commercial projects. He's threatened me with a lien on my property for not cutting the grass of the vacant lot across the street, (I put my trusses there, the lift made grooves in the land, I had my excavator knock the ruts down, but the retired neighbor that does all the lawn mowing wants me to cut the grass to teach the "young punk a lesson about respect". I refused to cut the grass so we're probably going to court). The president has about 6 inches, 50 pounds and 10 years on me so he gets off on pushing his weight and perceived intelligence around. I've probably spent more time arguing with him as I've got in putting the roof on. (I really think some people think that someone working on the job has nothing better to do than shooting the S$#T with someone that really has nothing better to do). The people in "charge" here also like interpreting the association rules as they see fit; I was given the ok to put cultured stone on the front of the house by the president, and my next door neighbor, who is the vice president of the association, or whatever he's called 86's the idea. Tells me he didn't approve that plan and that "fake" cultured stone is not allowed in the subdivision because the rules state that only "natural brick" and stone are allowed. After I bought the stone. While the president is in Florida for 2 weeks. Threatening to put a lien on the property if I do it. Forcing me to return the stone costs me $500 in restock fees. I find out later from one of the neighbors that the guy doesn't like me because I bought the lot next to his and that was the real reason for scratching the idea and he thought it was pretty funny about making me return it. I've since made a pact with my dog. Since I'll have to live in the house until it's sold; I told the pooch to do her daily duties on the lot line of the idiot's house. Small payback, but he hates dogs and I've only just begun being the neighbor from hell with him. I've also had my construction trailer broken into and 10 years of tools taken. The insurance company said the loss was so large compared to the amount of premiums I've paid over the years so I'm uninsurable and will soon be going back to working for someone else again. I've also made the mistake of hiring a lifetime buddy, (union framing carpenter with over 20 yrs of experience) to frame the house. He's been laid off for 8 months and thought it would be a good way to have a steady stream of income. Since I was stupid enough to agree to pay him by the hour, he dragged out framing for close to 3 months, (with a 3 man crew) even though I told him speed in doing the job is just as important as quality. He and I had it out over the $7000 excess framing cost, (his reply to my arguments???? Well, you're going to make money on the house when you sell it so what's the problem?) and 35 years of friendship is down the toilet. Plenty more, but I'll leave you with this one. Subdivison president comes to visit me, walks into the house unannounced as usual and we get into it one more time about the grass being cut. I tell him that if people act like this at his age of 50; I want to stay at my present 40 for a life time and still refuse to cut the grass. His response was to fly off and start calling me every name in the book and then some for what seemed like 5 minutes. I ignore the verbal assault because I'm right in the middle of doing my stair railings, but tell him to grow up and act like a man. Bad thing to say as he starts screaming, absolutely screaming like a woman at me to cut the grass. He finally leaves when I walk towards him with a 34" spindle in my hands telling him I'm going to turn him into a Popsicle if he doesn't leave right now. He realizes I mean business and it was the first time I've ever seen anyone light up the tires on a top of the line Jeep. He comes back the next day and apoligizes for the way he acted and tells me the reason he got so mad. Ready for this one? He was so upset with me because he just came from his son's baseball game and they lost the game by 1 run.....
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Okay JHel...the only thing I like less than bullies is homeowner's associations. Me and the boys would be MORE than happy to stop by and talk to the "president". In any case, I think we all have horror stories of spec homes. The first one I did was just out and out, too big for my britches. Things are going much, much better at this point.
Either of you fellas (JHel... or Boss), thinking of another? I ask because NOW is the time to start thinking about lessons learned; what'd you do wrong, what should you have done, etc. We've all paid some pretty high prices to get our education...so what are we going to learn from it. From Boss' posts, I see two big mistakes that both he and I both made; #1...building spec houses is just like the X-Files; TRUST NO ONE. Every time someone says "yeah, that sounds like a good idea" or "Yeah, I want a piece of that action"...get it in writing. Friends, family, collegues, and partners disappear faster than a dropped quarter in a New York subway when it's August and the shingles need to be laid. #2; I have never built anything since that first spec, or even started, or even quoted, without a 100% fully specified spec sheet. I now know, to the exact paint tint, screw type, and cabinet knob what goes into a project. I can well remember building that house...saying "well, if we're going to have good cabinets, we had better have a good countertop". So there's the granite. "Well, if we're going to have a good countertop, then we better have a good sink..." and so on right down the line. I created probably the ####, most expensive, and most unsaleable kitchen in the entire county. It did look nice, though.
So...my question is...are you all done, fellas, or are you going to pick up, brush off, and continue on with the knowledge that you've so dearly paid for?
Either of you fellas (JHel... or Boss), thinking of another?"
I've sworn several times I'll never build another one as long as I live. But - Eivel Kneivil also said he'd never jump again after Snake river Canyon.................(-:
It's a little early to be able to answer that question, since the house is still on the market. I would probably feel a bit more inclined to do it again if we sold it and actually made some money on the thing.
So if I did it again, what would I do differently? First, I'd hire a real estate professional as a consultant. I tried to pick out the best remaining lot in the hottest subdivision in town. Tried to pick out a house plan that suited the lot well, and located it so it looked good. But maybe I didn't actually accomplish that. If I had a consultant like that, I'd have them pick out the lot and give them input on the prints.
I'd probably sub out more of the work instead of trying to do so much myself. Just took too much time.
The print would be more detailed, so I wouldn't have to pick out so much stuff/make so many decisions as the job was progressing.
Maybe my second Wife will be more supportive..............(-:
Let's let the anti-gun people fight the next war.
Boss, if you work that right wife #1 will have both houses and your truck. Joe H
"if you work that right wife #1 will have both houses and your truck."
DANG - Hadn't thought of that. She wouldn't want the truck, though - It's a stick shift.
Fat people are harder to kidnap.
Depends on how amicable the split and how soon the lawyers get involved. Worse case she will want the truck with the stick shift, your dog and man hood. Hate isn't the opposite of love, just another point on the continuum.
Wow!!!, were's that subdivision, don't want to move there.
Most neighborhoods are like that. I too have had the screaming match with my neighbors about grass/dogs /roperty lines and what I can or cannot do on my own propety with a building permit in one hand and a copy of the submitted plans in the other.
they are retired(semi) and feel it's their duty to act as police/ judge /and jury. The fact that I'm replacing a crappy house with a very nice one hasn't hit their brains yet. Once the value of their homes increase they will think it's the result of their work and if they didn't keep the "kid" in line things would be worse...
They'll probably be complaining, because you made their property taxes go up. Happened to me. And I live in the woods!
Brudoggie
I read the entire post and got up and walked off. I spent some time thinking, because this is what I do for the most part. Boss said he wanted the diys to think about it. I think "we" are thinking about it . Bosses audience is probably lurking , but it it us that are thinking this over. I dont want to take anything away from Boss. Hes a stand up guy in my book , and I have done worse in my lifetime several times. I will add, to who ever might be interrested in what I think.
I think its a risk to give money up front if the person isnt licensned and bonded. period .
Its allureing to start a spec house in January , for that is the time we are slow , prices have flattened, and April sales will be abound. Yes its tempting beyond imagination. But we all know the time delays that warp the lumber , buckle our floors, add to our loan amount . Yes if sh@t happens , it will happen in Jan or Feb.
I dont like giving a person like a plumber control. I want total control.
I think its almost impossible for a tradesman to compete with someone like a sharp realestate broker building specs. A trades man invaribly will put too much in it , thats the nature of the beast , like a dog barking . We are prone to do it better , especially if its our own. {exellence is its own reward}
Specs are built for the dollar , and nothing else considered a close second. That is investment law. Dont heed the law , and end up one who used to invest.
I have mentioned before that I like several different ways to make money. A rip cord , if you will. So, Im going to share my law ;
I build a rental that will sell.
I build a spec that will rent .
That adds another investor as a buyer, in addition to first time home buyers, teachers, and policemen who all get loans on cheap houses that will pass inspection. It is also in the range that a parent can help their child. A elderly person retireing on social security.
No, there is not a lot of money in that kind of house , but it has been a very steady paycheck. I hope this helps someone .
Tim Mooney
good advice , tim....
i built my last spec house in '76.. even got a HUD grant of $10K because it was solar heated .... still owned that house 7 years later...
none of the mistakes outlined above.. but it was too much house for the neighborhood... and it was a buyer's market instead of a seller's market...
renting it out saved us from going under... eventually we moved in for two years before building our current house.. naturally when we finally sold it ..for $160K... the comparable prices went to $280K within 6 months...timing is only second to location...
here's the deal i made with the devil... i won't build any more spec house if the gummint will just keep the economy pluggin along...Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Can someone tell me what a "spec house" is? Thanks
Its a special house
Ask Boss hog if ya don't trust me.
Be a special house
Namaste
AndyOne works on oneself, always. That's the greatest gift you can give to community because the more you extricate your mind from that which defines separateness, that defines community. The first thing is to become community. "Ram Dass"http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
It's a house built on speculation, in the anticipation that someone will come along and want to buy it, hopefully before it's done, but in any case soon after.
A spec house is one where you have to speculate when it will be built, how much it will cost and if it will last as long as the payments.
Gabe
A common variation on the speculative house usage, around here at least, is a house built to minimum specification, thus spec. Kind of overlaps a bit as speculative homes, at least the low end, can also use the cheapest possible materials and workmanship. Sometime to the point of being painful to look at. Not to mention, should the misfortune occur, have to work on.