As ambitious and exciting as this whole process started, there came a point when we almost scrapped the idea of building a house altogether. As I mentioned in my first post we bought the land and took some time to plan, design, and save for the new house. Then I began to realize we only had about a year and a half left before our oldest daughter would be starting kindergarten. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but I still have three good friends that I met in kindergarten so I wanted our kids to have the opportunity to forge the same life-long friendships I had.
So about a year before we were hoping to move into our new house I began my search for a contractor and partner to build it for us. In hindsight, if you are considering building and have big dreams and a limited budget, give yourself more time than we did. It takes time to work through everything. I know other parts of the country are different but in Ohio ‘custom home’ is a loose term. Many contractors claim to build custom homes but they are often really referring to a limited amount of pre-determined options you can pick and choose from. Through volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity I also realized many residential contractors are accustomed to doing things one particular way so all my high performance insulation ideas had the potential to be a deterrent as well. I began researching what options were available to make dream a reality. Being a commercial architect I started in my comfort zone talking to one of my favorite contractors who I knew got his start building houses. He offered a lot of great advice and even offered to build our home for us. It sounded like the perfect fit but like anything I wanted to weigh all the options. I also greatly respected his company and his time and didn’t want to take advantage of a great relationship. So I did some research and reached out to two residential contractors in my area that had come highly recommended.
Our initial decision of who to move forward with was pretty easy. One of the contractors gave us a cost range that was well over our budget without offering any path to move forward. The other contractor was genuinely excited about building a high-performance home and was eager to collaborate with us to make it happen. Up until we talked with him I was still considering either working with a commercial contractor or subcontracting the whole thing out myself…you know, in all my free time. But I was beyond relieved to have found not only a builder but a partner in the process in Darren Shultz with Shultz Design & Construction.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows after that though. Once we decided to move forward they began to reach out to subcontractors and suppliers to put a more firm price together. This process is another example of where the average person could greatly benefit from hiring an architect/designer. They can be someone to put the pricing into perspective, advocate for you, and come up with alternate options as needed. Because I’ve been through this on so many projects, I only slightly hyperventilated when we got some of the initial costs back. Needless to say, they were way over our budget.
The following months were filled with drawing revisions, number crunching, zillow searches, and many conversations about whether we should move forward at all. Each thing we cut out became more and more painful. It gave me a whole new perspective on how this must make our clients feel not only going through it personally but working through it with Joe who I love and respect so deeply. I also prayed a lot that we would make the right decision for our family. At one point I even tried re-designing all together. I was working on a new option that was more ‘traditional’ and ‘cost effective’ one Saturday when Bri, our 5 year old daughter, peered over my shoulder and said “I don’t like it, I like the other one better”. I’m not saying we let her make the decision but it was an unsolicited response and reminder that this decision was really about creating the best possible environment to raise our family in.
Value Engineering List (aka budget cuts)
- Eliminated heavy timber beams/columns. Substituted with a combination of LVL and steel beams/columns
- Roof construction changed from structural insulated panels on exposed heavy timber beams to I-joists with insulation between and drywall on underside.
- Siding changed from cement board to vinyl (ouch)
- Solar panels are ‘future’
- Reduced quantity and size of windows & doors.
- Revised garage to be as cost effective as possible
- Reduced the size of the house
- Number of interior material changes
It is now 7 months after I first ‘finished’ drawings and we are on version 4 or 5 of the house but I am happy to announce that we just closed on our loan and construction will be starting on Joe’s birthday!
Joe designed stickers with this abstract logo of the house and gave them to me as a Christmas gift.
I can’t wait to see the finished product. Your family is amazing.
Having a dream and not being able to stick with it stinks. That being said, I am still super excited for you
Oh Melinda , I sooo understand! Jeff & I were in your shoes over 32 yrs ago. My advice…. do what’s in your heart, be “sensible” & make new changes that can be “altered” later on but don’t compromise on certain dreams. Unless you take leaps of faith Dreams often always remain Dreams due to life’s sneaky way of interfering. Prayers are being lifted and we look forward to the “final walk through”.