<p>I’m an architect and I love old houses. Our first was 1914 and the current one 1923. Before we moved to the current one we refinished the hardwood floors, redid the wiring and replaced the windows. We are currently putting on a fairly sizable addition which includes gutting and enlarging the current kitchen so we are suffering the worst of remodeling and building from scratch! Noise and dust and occasional surprises. No vent in the basement bathroom which will now take more work to legalize. A weird beam location above the floor where we were planning to have a door from current bedroom to the new masterbath, but basically the original house is solid and in great shape. I’m not overly bothered by slightly uneven floors and don’t need things to look brand, brand new. </p>
<p>You can get surprises even on new houses, though there shouldn’t be as many of them. Around here the most likely ones are a higher water table than expected or rock ledge. There are quite a few houses with boulders in the basement because it was too much trouble to remove them. (A la the old Dick Van Dyke episode - where the rock appears around the 4 minute mark.) <a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>I designed a house for my parents and I’d say it was a good experience. They loved that house and it really was able to have all the things they wanted in it. I was living in Germany at the time so I had a local architect oversee the construction, and my parents remained good friends with the contractor even though he definitely did not finish on time. He did not go wildly over budget. </p>
<p>I think the hardest part of any kind of construction is all the decisions that need to be made. I still have done nothing about the decorative lighting for my current remodel. I have my eyes on some very pricey pendants, but can’t decide whether they are in my budget or not.</p>
<p>Architects…don’t read this! We bought our plans out of a home magazine. With the help of our builder, we did expand the footprint a bit to make larger LR, DR and the two bedrooms upstairs. The house design came with casement windows. We swapped those for double hung. We also rearranged both second floor bathrooms. </p>
<p>Neither of us had the time to be our own GC, but out builder was fine doing that. His subs were terrific! Thank goodness.</p>
<p>Re: kitchen cabinet knobs…we only needed 60. We don’t have any knobs at all, and I don’t miss them at all.</p>
<p>In our house, the biggest decision issues, and costs were with lighting…because it’s my husband’s business! We have over 20 recessed lights in various places. DH brought home a huge notebook of choices for recessed lights. I seriously didn’t care…but I will say, the variety he chose is very nice. </p>
<p>We also had issues with the hanging lights…hallways, breakfast room, DR, stairwell. Again…they had to be “perfect” and we went from showroom to showroom to find “perfect”. At the end, a vendor with whom DH worked said he would provide those…we gave him a list of criteria, and got really gorgeous decorative lights.</p>
<p>Outdoor lighting was an issue too. And it all is being replaced now. But it’s 20 years old.</p>
<p>I hope my next house is a lot smaller, and perhaps almost completely built. I wouldn’t mind making a few decisions (like the color of paint), but the rest of it… Nope.</p>
<p>We built our house and I would say it was a positive experience. We looked to move and realized that everything we looked at had pros and cons. We loved our site and did a tear down and entire rebuild. We had considered rebuilding several years earlier so we already had plans and just made a few changes.
We were in a rental for 11 months. The difference for us was that H is a general contractor. All the subs had worked for him before. We had no downtime between trades. This meant that I had to make decisions quickly and H did not want any change orders. Making all the decisions was difficult. I remember one of the hardest was choosing a roofing material. Our old house had been wood shake and we liked the look but are in a fire area and had to go with a synthetic. Driving around looking at different roofs. With having a H as contractor we know our house is well built and not going anywhere. We have strong fittings and over the top insulation. Lots of money in stuff that doesn’t show. I found one issue in that I made so many decisions early on that by the time it came to do the finishes I was decision making burnt out.
One thing my H did was tell me to limit my choices. Don’t look at every tile in every store. He had his tile designer put together some samples in our price point. From what I like and didn’t like she was able to bring me more samples until I found what I liked.
Go by everyday. The one week we decided to go out of town for a few days the painter started staining the open beamed ceiling. I walked in on Sunday night and about cried. I hated the color and it was in my dining room, living room and family room. Nothing could be done. Even with that I eventually got used to it.</p>
<p>Well those plans were probably at least overlooked by an architect. Although I’ve seen a lot of stupid things in plan books and the exterior proportions are often IMO really ugly. The trouble with builder plans is that they may not be the best choice for your site, or when you make changes you may do structural things you shouldn’t. Just as an example, thumper1, when you changed from casement to doublehung, did you make sure you still had egress sized openings in the bedrooms? </p>
<p>Oh, good point about going by every day! One time we walked in and they had gotten the orientation of a window wrong! It would have looked really dumb if we hadn’t caught the error in time.</p>
<p>My husband, the engineer, had all of the building code info. And yes…our windows have egress size openings. Actually ours pop out. We did have any plan changes reviewed by both an architect we know, and a structural engineer at my husband’s work. We didn’t want to have issues with structure! The windows we put in were actually larger than the casements…another reason to check the framing for structural integrity.</p>
<p>We actually tried to work with an architect. We had seen this particular houseplan in a magazine it was one of the first we liked. We took it to the architect and asked for something similar, but with a slightly different layout of rooms. At the end, we just bought the plans from the magazine and made the alterations. Like I said…the architect was a friend.</p>
<p>Also, it’s a pretty basic house…really a rectangle, two story colonial with a three car garage. Nothing particularly exotic or fancy.</p>
<p>We have built two, and would love to build another. This one is 5,000sf and probably too large for the eventual empty nesters. The key is to be there every day, look over everything every day, and make sure it is to your satisfaction, no matter how good of a builder you might have. I was at our site from 3 till 8 almost every day. I did many things myself, but caught all sorts of mistakes from the trades that could have been future catastrophes. The GC can’t be there all day, so you have to keep your eyes open as well. The current house is super efficient, being heated mostly by wood and sun, solar panels for electricity, spray foam insulation(R-35 walls, R-60 attic), all brick. I would go even more overboard efficient for the next one. I would suggest you jump right in, get ready to make a million decisions, and have fun!</p>
<p>We built 20 some years ago. The builder did a good job but wasn’t such a good businessman- he didn’t always pay subcontractors et al on time. We used B-in-law as the architect and with him and the builder we got quality features many spec homes lacked. So many decisions to be made, however. We renovated the interior if our current house. Again- so many decisions to be made. Who knew how many little things there are? With each you need to be on top of things. I have accumulated so much building knowledge that is otherwise useless.</p>
<p>The most important thing- find a good contractor. Aside from near liens we were lucky with both. Learn the prices of things- it adds up a lot. Think- $2 or $6 cabinet handles- but then multiply by dozens…</p>
<p>Remember what was told to me- no house is perfect.</p>
<p>It was pretty cool. Around here, it has always been difficult to find anything that was not a development. So, even when we could barely afford to, we found land and built a Timberpeg home. It was very wonderful really and we still love our house immensely, will never leave it unless we have to. We have a wood burning furnace, it was the first in the county and they sent the whole inspection team over because it was the first and so unusual. When we added on, we built a fireplace that house a thermal energy storage system for our great room. Our electric bill is $126 a month. We use our heat pump only during optimal outdoors temperatures. We also super-insulated when we built and have an air to air exchange. We chose our lot for it’s southern exposure for the back side and we have six big skylights across the back for solar gain in the winter. Our kitchen cabinets were handbuilt on the premises. Man, I love my house.</p>
<p>This is super-helpful, everyone! Keep the stories coming! Although, twenty-four hours after meeting with my friend, the enthusiasm is starting to wane. It’s probably an overlooked trait for potential architects, but the ability to sell others on your vision through sheer infectious enthusiasm seems like a useful trait for an architect! My friend has come quite close to persuading me, but the distraction of month upon month of decisions may be too much for me. I will soon be starting a new job that will require intense focus, and, as a naturally obsessive person, I am not good at dividing my attention. </p>
<p>Mr B wired part of our house because the builder trusted him more than he trusted the big bucks per hour Mr Shoddyjob electrician. :)</p>
<p>Things like that rebar that are not visible… Will become visible if they are not done correctly. Squeaky subfloors, rats sneaking into the house through the holes that should have been sealed… I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about new construction by reputable builders. It pays off to keep an eye on the project and know what the good job should look like. </p>
<p>I’d do it again but wouldn’t look forward to it. The best thing about building a new house is you get about 10 years of repair free living. Eventually I’d like to downsize and would prefer a ranch over a two story. We built 15 years ago and I would do things different if building today. Two story entryways and great rooms make changing light bulbs and cleaning windows difficult:(
2 years after we built we bought a cottage and gutted it for a total redo. I haven’t felt a need to relive those “fun” years anytime soon!</p>
<p>If the time ever comes to downsize, I would build again. Having what you want in a house makes living in it a joy.
You make a ton of decisions but most are not earth-shattering. The most important building decisions are made up front in building construction.and design.</p>
<p>As to buying plans from a book–our neighbors did that. Their builder BEGGED them to go see an architect. The property is on the water and the house has practically no windows on the back. </p>
<p>We finished one house that was partially built and subsequently built another ground up. DH is an engineer and was very, very picky about every aspect, went to the sites daily and took extensive photos so everything is extremely well documented. Highly recommend. Especially with our ground-up house, the crews knew my husband would show up every day, and I think they not only were more careful with the work but also kept the site cleaner throughout - which neighbors appreciated.</p>
<p>In terms of making all the choices - as everyone has said, research! And then try not to let them rush you. Get a timeline so you know what needs to be chosen by when. And - have fun!</p>
<p>We built a house 21 years ago. I had a kindergartener and a 2 year old. My H is “in the biz” so we built one of his company’s standard homes with a bunch of options on our own lot. I would not have been able to make all the selections without having it all laid out for me. I decided I could choose light fixtures, mostly standard but a few custom. I did not have to select doorknobs – the standard doorknobs would be FINE. The closet company just did their thing. Picked my plumbing fixtures and appliances. Economized with formica instead of granite – but granite was 5x as much at that point. </p>
<p>He was working – and scheduling the subs. I was there every single day with the two year old on my hip. I know where <em>everything</em> is buried. I made executive decisions and paid all the bills, dealt with the banks, the town, and the details.</p>
<p>We had to sell our house, move into a rental for 7 months, and build. We had not closed on our land when we moved out of our old house which was a bit scary but it all worked out. Because we chose to build a house that the subs had already done 17 times (we were the 18th of that model!) it went quickly and smoothly. Broke ground on July 1 and in for Christmas.</p>
<p>I bound houses for fun with Habitat - if you can do any of the work yourself you’ll save yourself a ton of money. Make sure you have a contingency fund in case you run into things that are unexpected.</p>
<p>So much easier to research now with the internet than it was 20 some years ago. Also, a lot less choosing from among limited selections offered you. But- increased resources also means harder to decide among so many options. The most important thing is finding a good contractor. </p>
<p>Inlaws modified a house plan- they would have been better off using an architect instead of stealing the corner kitchen space for a guest bedroom… I also see far too many spec homes where the windows could be utilized for good views. With this house renovation I bought so many things and learned more than I wanted to about plumbing innards in the process. Found some great deals, however- got the master tub at a lower price than it was a month later et al. So different than 20 years ago when I chose a bit and the plumber did the rest of the decision making. A matter of how we contracted the renovations versus having the contractor do more. No matter what you still need/should decide a myriad of details such as door handles, faucet types etc.</p>