Has anyone, ever, had a good experience building a home?

[Japhy_Ryder]

I and all my neighbors just can't believe how bad all of our builders are. One guy can't find his builder listed anywhere, and thinks they changed their name. My builder half-assed everything, and then doesn't show up for appointments to fix stuff. And another paid for 10k worth of upgrades that his builder (oops!) forgot to do!

Unfortunately they are all different builders, so we're contacting lawyers on our own. If it was so infurating pinning these people down to actually do their jobs, it would be funny how incompetent they are!

[RobertSeattle]

1. I had a friend who used the "poster" tactic

He bought one of the first houses in a subdivision and when the builder balked at fixing some punch list item, he threatend putting up a sign on his property detailing the failures by the builder. As long as the information was accurate and on personal property, there was nothing wrong in doing so and the builder couldn't stop him. Since any propspective buyers would see this, the build quickly fixed the punchlist items...

[watercolors]

2. DOES ANTONE EVER?

Ours was a nightmare from hell! We finally fired the contractor and took over ourselves, it was a lot of hard work, but less stress. Found out later the supervisor on our house had no license and use to be a hairdresser, plus was buying supplies, billing them to our contractor and using them for a house he was building! It ended up the contractor owed us money after we settle everything. This was our dream retirement home, we finally got it all together now !

[Japhy_Ryder]

3. Really? That's legal?

I've seriously considered it. The place next door is still for sale and it's the same builder. I'd enjoy it. I recently sent them an invoice for the hour of work I missed waiting for an appointment they didn't show for.

[RobertSeattle]

5. I'm no lawyer

But as long as you stick to the facts (you aren't malicious and use incorrect information), the last time I checked, most of the 1st Amendment was still intact!

:)

[newyawker99]

13. Congrats Japhy_Ryder!! 300 posts

:toast:

[TrogL]

4. No

Every time I've contemplated building a home my entire life became unmanageable.

[BiggJawn]

6. No, nor remodeling, either...

Remodeling is a huge freakin' headache, too...

There's GOT to be a reputable builder/contracter out there SOMEPLACE...Tommy can't be the only one!

"But Steve, what about the BUDGET????"

[BlueJazz]

7. Yes...I built my dream cottage...

...Here's a picture:

[radwriter0555]

11. That went really well, I think!!!

Looks real nice!

[VOX]

18. The tire by the front door is the perfect finishing touch...

This is a look that could catch on!

:toast:

[Robb]

8. I had a great experience

A little background...

After high school, I got "deferred acceptance" (read: "skin of your teeth") to college. My dad, realizing I would probably not become the third generation plumber (and plenty happy about that) had the great idea that I needed to "learn how to do something" before I went to college.

His great idea was for me to build a house.

The way it worked, was he "supervised" me doing it. This meant mostly just using his credit for the loans, and of course lots and lots of standing back and letting me screw up.

Took about nine months from scraping the ground to painting the interior. Dad's other great idea had to do with me (a) learning quite a bit and (b) getting the contractors to listen to an 18 year old kid. The deal with the subs was, whoever I gave the contract to, had to hire me back as labor. This meant the bulldozer guy, the foundation crew, carpenters, electricians, roofers, and so on all had the experience of watching me hump heavy stuff around the site, dig holes, cut things wrong -- all the while I learned a great deal about what they did, and they mostly showed up on time (or seemed genuinely apologetic when they didn't). Because I was there every single day.

Even the bumpy stuff was a learning experience. For example, the sheetrocker who I really thought was a good guy, and gave a bunch of money up-front to. Dad, of course, let it be my call. And one day the guy ruined a bunch of sheetrock (by putting it up poorly) and vanished. Yet another lesson!

...Notice I didn't mention the plumbers. That's because my dad had me plumb the entire house while he watched and told me stuff.

The end result, I built a spec home from start to finish. Sold it, repaid my father, and got my butt through college with the money -- to say nothing of knowing that if I actually didn't learn anything in school, there were a bunch of jobs I knew how to do, if I had to. And I knew from experience, I'd rather not. ;)

Years and years and years later, I'm pretty freakin' handy around the house. No fear of that kind of stuff at all. Which made for a relatively bump-free kitchen remodel.

[kmla]

9. Wow. Cool story.

Your father seems like he actually had some idea that people CAN and DO learn from experience.

Not very common anymore, sad to say...

[newyawker99]

14. Congrats kmla!! 400 posts

:toast:

[chemenger]

10. Is your father's name Solomon by any chance?

Sounds like he's a very wise man.

[baldguy]

12. My sister and her husband

got divorced as a direct result of bulding a home.

[Japhy_Ryder]

16. Fortunately

the wife and I are on the same page with everything. If anything, it's banded us together against our common foe, Steve.

[Lars39]

15. After reading/hearing some of the horror stories.....

I think we were fortunate in our experience. We had a contractor get the house to the shelled-in point, then we took over. The contractor we chose was a friend we had known for about 10 yrs. Very honest guy.
We contracted out the rest of the house in steps ourselves. Kinda risky, but we did get exactly what we wanted, cheaper. We did some of the work ourselves, and "helped" for a discount in some things. The more you involve yourself in the process, though, the longer it seems to take. We moved in before the house was truly "done". We're still painting walls and trim, and finishing closets, etc, but we're IN! :)

Lars

[MaineDem]

19. We moved in early, too

We had nightmares over this house. At one point we went to look at it and one corner post was entirely off the foundation. Seems they poured the concrete foundation out of square and then built the house square. The building inspector became our best friend. He ordered the entire thing torn down and rebuilt. We had told the contractor not to use that particular cement guy. Then they billed us for both foundations. I don't think so! This same guy put in the septic system, also, and finally went bankrupt before we got the bill straightened out. :evilgrin: A bit of justice.

We moved in pretty much as soon as we could. My husband and I (mostly him) finished all the inside work that we could. We both learned a lot. And we had just gotten married, too. Twenty nine years and three houses later (we didn't build them) we still talk about building our "retirement" home. We've learned a lot.

[Lars39]

20. Golly!!!! I would have been pulling somebody's hair out!

We're talking about building a retirement home, too. When you build a house together, you either strengthen your communication skills, or you wind up divorced or worse. :)

[amazona]

17. they say if you want to experience hell

...build your own home.

No thanks, the re-construction from my Tropical Storm damage was enough excitement for me.