Home Building Question

[Romandub]

Well, the contractors are raining on DH's and my parade.... Last fall, we began talking to contractors about building a home on our little ranchette in a tiny little town about two hours from Austin. The initial indications from two different contractors were that we could get a home built for somewhere between $45-60 per sq. foot. Delighted wit that news and budget, DH and I hired an architect, got the plans drawn and submitted the plans for pricing. HA! HA--I say again!! The bids have come in at $120 per sq. ft. or put in starker terms more than $125,000 over our budget!! Talk about disappointment....

Needless to say, we are back to square one. We are looking for ways we can cut back our plans, but are also looking into log home kits and modular or panelized homes. Does anyone have any experience with these? We do NOT want a manufactured home (i.e. a mobile home) but my research on the web indicates that modular homes and panelized homes are different. Has anyone done one of those? How about the log home kits? Is there a rule of thumb about a factor to add to the cost of the kit for finishing it out?

Any help you can provide in restoring our shattered dreams of a country getaway place would be most appreciated!

[wallycat]

$120/sq. foot. OH MY GOD...we'd KILL for that quote.
We had thought when DH first retired that building would cost around 110/115/square foot. We bought our lot and had our tiny house plan ready.
Building costs have shot through the roof!!
In February, we were quoted between 160-180/square foot. OUCH.

The modular homes we looked at were actually MORE expensive than stick-built on site homes. Even the mobile/manufactured homes aren't cheap anymore but they are less than stick built.
Some of the mobiles/manufactured we looked at were actually gorgeous.
I know there's a stigma about mobile homes, but I say if you love it, can afford it and are happy, there's no downside to it.
Resale may not be as huge as stick built, but then you save several thousand up front as well.

Good luck. I know just how you feel.

[misskitty100]

Just wanted to say sounds as if you are living my dream...a "ranchette" 2 hours from Austin.... :)

[Romandub]

MissKitty--we could swap lives for a bit!! I see that you are from the Northwest. DH, DS and I just returned from a week in Whitefish, MT. Now, THAT IS MY DREAM!! Warm days and cool nights with beautiful views! Right about now, when we have had over 20 days of 100+ degree weather and everything is brown, brown, brown, I would love to be in your beautiful part of the country! Having said that, come February.....I don't know!!! :)

[funnybone]

We built in PA in 1999 and at that time we paid about $100 a square foot. I know the builder told us later that we got a steal because wood and other materials had increased.

On another note, we finished our basement last fall and paid about $30 a square foot, but that only included the insides of course - no foundation, roof, etc. We got lucky with him, since two other quotes came in at double that! :eek:

[sneezles]

We built almost 6 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!) and paid about $100/sq ft so your price seems just about right for the area (we're an hour SE of Austin but had a local builder).
Have you considered doing some of the work yourselves? Being your own contractor does have it's headaches but you can save quite a bit of money. You have to decide if the trade-off is worth the headaches.

[EmilyD]

hi! my husband and I built a log home from a kit, nearly 5 years ago. We were newlyweds and I did the g.c., while living in an apt. nearby. We live about 20 min. east of Austin. At the time I worked full-time in Austin, but had a flexible work schedule that allowed me to either telecommute or work odd hours to accommodate construction scheduling.

although we live in a log home, it doesn't necessarily fit perceptions of what a log home "looks" like. we do have a lot of natural materials in our finish out, and a lot of wood. however, we opted for drywall on interior walls and the ceilings. our furniture includes a lot of antiques but there's also an oriental rug in the family room. good friends of ours also live in a log home, and although they have more wood in their finish out, they also have furnished their house mostly with IKEA and that too completely works. So while a log home can be Texas rustic in appearance, it can also be minimalist modern. we're somewhere in the middle :p

I can't remember now how much it cost to build per sq. ft. But, I believe it was about $80-90/sq.ft. (excluding land cost). That does include the utilities we had to have installed on our acreage (water & elec via co-ops, aerobic septic). Not only did we contract work out to subs, we also did do a lot of the work ourselves, which also contributed to our savings. And I negotiated aggressively for the materials we used. No one ever questioned me when I said I was a small custom-home builder. This enabled me to get wholesale pricing at times, rather than retail.

here's a fairly detailed summary of what it took to build the house, and how we got it done:
because of our elastic soil, we contracted to have our own foundation put in (pier & beam). then we paid a log home company to build the shell for us -- basically they took us to dry-in stage (walls, roof, windows, doors) -- and also framed interior walls. then we contracted for the insulation and drywall (including tape, float & texture). my husband did much of the electrical himself with the help of a retired master electrician (later I installed most of the fixtures). we had a plumber do the pipes & top out (but I did a lot of the counter prep). we did custom cabinetry in the kitchen, which they installed, but less $$ cabs in the full baths, with laminate counters from home depot (I installed both). I built my own wall-mount sink in the powder room. the other major contractor we hired was a tile guy to do the floors in the kitchen and baths (as well as the shower tiling). the carpet in bedrooms was installed by home depot contractors. my father is an excellent handyman -- he could do it as a side business. he helped us install hardwood floors, as well as solid wood doors. i did the painting & wallpapering (with lots of help from willing family members). and I've also done the majority of the trim (baseboard, crown, chair, etc.), with some initial guidance from my dad. (on a final note, I should admit that I'm not including the cost of my well-stocked garage in the cost of the house ;) )

Doing the g.c. was challenging but very rewarding. my biggest challenge was that I was a twenty-something petite female and sometimes came across men who only wanted to deal with my husband and "not some woman" who they didn't think could possibly know what she was doing :rolleyes:. We didn't hire those guys. another challenge was that I don't speak Spanish, and that's the first language of many of those I hired. However, that wasn't too hard to work around.

the end result is that we have a custom-built home, that looks far more high-end than we paid for. I love our house, but I did learn a few things in the process. Were I to do it again, I'd make a few changes (though not that many to my home; mostly to the decisions I made). If you'd like even *more* detail about what we did, then send me a PM and I'd be happy to chat.

on a related note, my original log home builder has since gone in to bankruptcy. the company's plans, operations, etc. were bought out by employees and it still operates out of Brenham. There are also a couple of other log home builders in Texas as well. I can give you more detail around this as well, if you're interested in pursuing a log home.

good luck in what you decide to do!

[Kristilyn1]

One of our homes was modular and it was very well built. www.epochhomes.com The advantage here is that a modular home is obviously built indoors which is a very desirable thing in a climate where you get lots of rain, snow, etc. It is also built with 2x6 construction, interior and exterior walls--which is not required everywhere (our home in RI was 2x4, which makes a huge difference in your heating and cooling costs) so that would only be a benefit if that is not the norm where you are. It's very quick and again, the construction was excellent. In theory, some things should be cheaper---because they might have a huge account with a window manufacturer, they should get very good prices, but like everything, it depends on if that gets passed down to the buyer. My dad sold modular homes for years and they did everything from 1100 sq. ft. ranches to huge mansions down in Florida. I'm a big fan of modular and I think you can avoid a lot of the headaches associated with building a stick built home (done that too) because you don't have to pay the price for sub-contractors that do a crappy job or just plain don't show up on time, etc. I think the product is very consistent and well worth doing. Not sure if in today's market it's a big cost savings, but if I was to build a home again, I would definitely go with modular.

Kristi

[Vanessa]

When we started our idea of building a custom home I was very shocked on prices. Prices for materials have really gone up after Katrina and with transportation prices have gone very high. The price they gave you is very good. Around here because its DC metro and theres not much land available in some areas building a house has gone up a lot in the last 8 months or so.
My suggestion is maybe looking at a small company maybe start smaller plans then add on.
Every area is different I am not familiar with your real estate market/building etc. Try getting 3 quotes and if all come around the same then make a decission.

[Chefzhat]

$45-60 per sq. foot. !

No one builds for that . . . what were THEY smoking?

$120 seems like a great price - we built 6 years ago for $125/sf.

[Romandub]

Thanks for all the responses! We met with one of the builders today and looked at ways we could cut our costs and still be reasonably happy with the result. I agree that the initial projections were shockingly low, but when we got them from two different reputable builders, we were willing to believe they were accurate. And since this is a small rural community, we figured labor costs would be a lot lower. Live and learn. EmilyD, I especially appreciate your info. As soon as I figure out how to PM, I will e-mail you to learn more.

[sneezles]

As soon as I figure out how to PM, I will e-mail you to learn more.

Just click on the posters name in their post and a list will pop-up and you can choose the PM option.