Reality Check.
Posted on | March 2, 2009 |
Wow, what an eye opener this project is turning into. In total, I think we approached five builders to ask them about looking into our project. One turned us down via email before even looking at it (maybe this site scared him off? I dunno). One turned us down after spending an hour meeting with us. He waited until the very end of the meeting to do so. One (State Homes) took on pricing the project but after numerous clarification phone calls and a fairly terse email exchange, decided not to pursue it. As Vern put it, “there’s no way to provide an accurate quote with these plans”. It seemed that our plans were more preliminary than we realized, and for a builder not used to dealing with architect’s drawings, it was hard for him to nail down. Fair enough, I can respect that. I was kind of ticked off at first, but I’m coming to realize that there are pretty different types of builders and some just don’t know how to work with this kind of thing. That left two builders. One who generally builds spec houses that we’re still waiting on, and lastly Black Diamond Builders, who are a client of my company’s and build some truly remarkable homes.
So, this morning we had the opportunity to finally see some pricing from Black Diamond. Let me start off by saying that pricing these sorts of projects is NOT an easy task. These builders have to work with their subcontractors, using drawings that aren’t always accurate and come up with a price they can stand behind within a certain tolerance range. It’s at least a solid few month’s work to put together a quote and the level of detail and specification goes well beyond most of the RFPs we as web/graphic designers have to go through. Andrew from BDB figures that the price he gave us this morning is pretty accurate within about 10% or less. Which is pretty good, given how much interpretation is required with the plans we have.
Let’s just say though that we were taken aback by the price we received. I’m not going to reveal the costs until we’ve received both quotes, but it’s substantially more than expected. About 1.5-2 times as much as we can afford. Once we make a few modifications, we’ll likely be on our way north of a very uncomfortable number. Even if we cut some things like the cedar exterior siding, metal roof and a few other items for more ‘normal’ finishes, we’ll still save less than $40,000 off the quoted price and the allowances we have are pretty tight as well for cabinetry and flooring. The septic could be more expensive than anticipated and there’s no allowances at all for blasting and this is pretty rocky land.
So, where does this leave us? Pretty disappointed, for sure. I highly doubt the second quote will come in anywhere near where we need to be and if it does, we’ll be questioning the reasons why it’s so much less than the one we received today.
We’re not prepared to sell the lot just yet. We truly love where it is, the community it’s in and the people in the neighbourhood. But, I think that the house we have designed is out of reach. It’s a shame as it may only be a very expensive piece of paper for us, but that’s a lesson we’ve had to learn the hard way.
We may yet build something on this land, but I’m not sure if it will be the house we’ve seen to this point. Alternatively, we may get the lot approved with a test pit and try to make a few bucks on it in a sale once the housing market recovers. If that’s the case, we’ll likely make some energy efficient renovations to our existing house and keep it, or sell and look for something on peninsular Halifax.
I don’t know where this is headed, but it’s not where I expected when we started, that’s for certain.
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2 Responses to “Reality Check.”
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March 2nd, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
All of the frustrations stated here are totally believable (even though they are unbelievable).
What is missing is the sheer insanity of getting into a bad contract with a builder that A) leaves you hanging without a finished house B) forces you to make BRUTAL decisions mid way or 3/4 of the way though construction when you bank account on impending homelessness is on the line and C)exposes all the things that aren’t covered in the original agreement - generally measured in time and money.
The way you describe the process of pricing alone is probably less than half the shenanigans.
I would be more than happy to sit with you for an hour or two just to talk if you think it would be helpful.
March 2nd, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
Hey Benjie,
Thanks for the comment and the insight. It’s nice to see it from the other side. I don’t doubt that BDB is a phenomenal builder. I love their work. And, I don’t want to get involved with someone who can’t handle it and would put us in any of the awkward situations you described. I guess I’m just surprised at how out of our budget this really is. I was anticipating that it would be a bit spendy, but I wasn’t expecting just how much.
I’d love to catch up with you anyway, so let’s plan to have coffee/lunch soon. My contact info is on my site. http://brightwhite.ca