We recently moved into our new construction here in <!—-><!—-> <!—->Iowa<!—-><!—-> where I was owner/builder/GC. I received a lot of help and encouragement from the regulars here when I had questions, problems with a sub, or just wanted to vent. DougU even came up from TX to trim the house for me. Since many of you, even if only virtually, helped with the building of our house I thought I would share a few construction pics with you, some details about the job and give a big thanks to all of you.
Also some of you have mentioned that you wish that cost information was listed when people post like this so I will add some of that as well. We came in at about $101/sq for the house so apparently I am not as good at being my own GC as some others. On the plus side, we appraised out at about $122/sq.
Here are some pictures of the construction. I will post more interior pictures soon.
Dennis
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Edited to change sq/ft price as I included the lot price before.<!—->
Edited 12/10/2005 12:30 pm ET by djj
Replies
Details about the house
.74 acre lot (147 x 220 ft)
~2020 square feet on the main floor (note the square footage on the floor plan isn't correct but I didn't have a scan of the current version)
~650 sq ft in the bonus room over the garage
Three bedrooms two and a half baths
9' ceilings and 12' in great room
Marvin Integrity windows
~10500 sq ft of brick
~900 sq of site finished 3/4" red birch floors
~700 sq ft of tile including master shower
Black galaxy granite in kitchen and around fireplace
Bertch Legacy natural cherry cabinets
Kichler xenon under-cabinet lighting
Escient/Paradigm/Niles Whole house audio
~50 4" and 5" cans
Lutron Grafik Eye system
Kerdi shower in master bath
Panasonic bath fans
Toto toilets
Masonite Palazzo interior doors
Interior trim was paint grade poplar and a mix of 70% custom and 30% stock profiles.
~800 feet of baseboard
~1400 feet of casing
~700 ft of crown
Things I did myself:
All low voltage wiring including whole house audio and half the rough and finish regular electrical
Insulation, caulking, foaming etc.
All painting including doors and trim
Wainscot in dining room
The rest I subbed out
Costs:
Lot 52900
Building Permit 1880
Sewer & Water to House 984
Excavation 3239
Foundation 31475
Drive and sidewalk 11900
Plumbing 6910
Plumbing Fixtures 2750
Lumber Package 53000
Exterior Doors 2438.63
Mouldings 6777
Interior Doors 2900
Windows 14486
Framing labor 21295
Roofing labor 4059
Heating/AC 6000
Electrical 4500
Cabinets and vanities 9750
Painting materials 2106
Drywall labor 7840
Gutters 1068
Finished Grade/Sod 2900
Finished Grade/Seed 1400
Landscaping 4800
Garage Doors 2522
Carpet 5155
Hardwood floors 6200
Tile 5700
Lighting Fixtures and Lutron 3300
Insulation 3700
Siding labor 4100
Brick 15540
Fireplace 3200
Mantle 1500
Kitchen counters (Granite) 4168
Stucco 985
Whole House Audio and video 5700
Please note that I left out the trim labor price since it was done by a breaktimer. We ended up going about 15% over budget. Maybe 3% was unexpected costs and the other 12% were things we decided to upgrade as we went. I can post more info tomorrow if anyone is interested.
Thanks to everyone for your help the past year.
Dennis
obviously having Doug there put yer sq/ft price way over the line!
he's like that ... I've heard ...
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
HEY!
I got to go home for a 5 week vacation to boot and avoid 5 weeks of Texas heat!
Plus I had to endure 5 weeks of my buddy Jose and his nonsense, that's worth the extra cash. Jose was my helper, using that term lightly.
Anyway, screw his budget!
Doug
Jeff,
Obviously having Doug there put yer sq/ft price way over the line!
Actually Doug said he saved me lots of money by not using some special kind of screw for hanging cabinets and stuff. I think they were called effin screws or something like that :)
Seriously though, Doug was great to work with, cut me a very good deal, and became a friend in the process (OK, he probably won't claim me as a friend but I consider him one)
Regards,
Dennis
Very nice finished product!Thank you for that detailed list. I wished more peoplewould share the "hard costs" like you did. I was shocked at the price of the framing lumber
Butch,
Let me expand on what was in that lumber package number. Framing lumber, trusses and floor system, roofing materials, siding, drywall, composite deck materials, materials for closets and built-ins. Not counting trusses and TJIs, framing lumber was about half the amount.
Regards,
Dennis
That brings it back down to reality from my perspective.I hadn't framed houses in about 15yrs and didn't thinklumber prices had gone up that much.Thanks again for sharing your costs.Now that your "done"(do we ever get done with our own house?)what would you have done "differently"? Or would you havedone anything differently?
Butch,
Next time I will use a few different subs and a different yard.
I will simplify the foundation (not so many corners) and use 9' walls instead of 8' both of which will simplify finishing the basement.
Use blown insulation in the walls instead of batts.
Make sure floor plan and and hallway dimensions are coordinated with trim schedule. For example, we had a couple hallways where we had to rip the door casing down to get it to fit since the hall was too narrow by a couple inches.
Engineered studs in any place with cabinets
Hardi Plank instead of vinyl siding. I wanted to use it this time but the only subs in town who are very good with hardi were booked.
I wanted to go with radiant heat this time but couldn't afford to double the HVAC budget. Next time this WILL be in the budget.
Oh yeah, never let my wife pick any paint colors by herself.
I am sure there is more but this was a great learning experience and overall we had very few problems. Assuming I can persuade the wife to do this again I will start planning again in a couple years.
Regards,
Dennis
I was surprised at the foundation cost! Not that I would really have a basis t say one way or the other, but I was surprised!
Any guess on how much a crawlspace would have saved?
Sorry no clue. 95% of all new homes here have a full basement. It is pretty hard to sell them if they don't.
Regards,
Dennis
Did you mean to leave out the cost of painting labor?
I did my own painting so that is why I didn't include the number. I spent about 2 grand on SW paint, brushes, roller covers etc. My bids for painting ranged from 6k to 10k. This included primer, paint, painted trim, and three colors.
Regards,
Dennis
djj,
Marvin windows. I know Marvin makes a nice product. I assume your's were wood? (I don't know if Marvin makes any thing else).
What was your window count and breakdown between fixed glass and movable glaze units?
The Marvin Integrity line is wood inside, pultruded glass outside, primed, then factory finished.
Darned nice windows, but you gotta buy their standard sizes.
We had 19 double hung, 5 casements and two sliders for the egress wells. Most were 3'x5' but we had 5 that were 3'x6' (all in the great room). There were 6 fixed roundtops and 1 glass block for the master bath.
Regards,
Dennis
That does not seem like too bad of a price point for wood windows! 26 windows for 14+ grand. Sure vinyl is a lot cheaper, but . . . what a difference.
I am looking for property to build and was not sure I could afford wood windows.
djj,
Did you mean to say 10,500 sqft brick? Even at 10 foot high walls that would mean 1050 Lf of wall? Or do they measure brick in some strange way? Curious.
Shaken,
Sorry, I meant 10500 brick, about 1500 sq feet.
Dennis
Thanks for explaining what was included in the "framing" package.
Can you do the same for the foundation number? Your excavation number seems low to me, and maybe your foundation figure includes all drainage, waterproofing, flatwork everywhere, insulation, backfill, finish grading, etc.
Stinger,
Foundation price also included drainage (Formadrain), gravel, waterproofing (Rubberwall), basement floor, garage floor, front stoop, and two 4'x6' poured egress wells. The price for the walls was a bit higher due to the floor plan being so cut up. This probably added an additional 15% to the price.
Excavation price included scraping off the top 6" or so of black dirt off the lot, excavation for the foundation and garage, backfill and after the drive and other flatwork was in, spreading out the black and doing a rough grade and hauling away extra fill.
Finish grade was done by my landscapers and in the sod and seed pricing.
Regards,
Dennis
Beautiful house djj. Congrats!
Thanks for sharing the hard costs. I wish more would do that just for the fun factor.
blue