Remodel of our new old house

[ExtraSlow]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Not our first rodeo. However, the cost increase and material / labour shortage was and is still an unknown.

I know you know what you are doing, but sounds like others in this thread are considering similar, and my comments are more directed to them.

I'm still mad jelly of your place, lots of wicked features.

[TomcoPDR]

brutal with the wire thieves wow boo

[kenny]

That AeroBarrier thing is neat. Watched a youtube video on it by Matt Risinger earlier this year. He did a demo with a bunch of holes in plywood showing the process of the holes closing up.

[benyl]

I've watched way too much of his channel over the last year. Spent extra money because of him.

I almost put drains next to the kid's toilets like he did... Everyone looked at me funny when I request pricing.

[littledan]

thank you for sharing all of the pics! super interesting.

Are you going to backfill under that concrete with sand or something? or maybe apply for funding from the liberals for a vole refuge?

[benyl]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

thank you for sharing all of the pics! super interesting.

Are you going to backfill under that concrete with sand or something? or maybe apply for funding from the liberals for a vole refuge?

I did it by hand. Put a bunch of sandy gravel underneath. Tamped it with a 2x4 horizontally. It's the best you can do.

Probably have to redo it in the spring. Sure I could have paid someone, but I'd rather blame myself for not doing it right. Plus I don't mind doing hard labour. haha

[killramos]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I know you know what you are doing, but sounds like others in this thread are considering similar, and my comments are more directed to them.

I'm still mad jelly of your place, lots of wicked features.

Your comments are more applicable to my level of poverty

[ExtraSlow]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Your comments are more applicable to my level of poverty

My comments are applicable to all sorts of poor people. Even the rich ones. Wait . . .

[prae]

ES definitely spittin' truth on custom builds. We're only low six figures over our budgeted price, thanks in large part to selecting a fixed-price design-build contractor. All of our cost overruns were our own choices to go above-and-beyond the contracted specification. No doubt our initial cost was higher than benyl's self-managed endeavor. We're north of $400/sqft before landscaping/hardscaping. No regrets; I've been really pleased with our builder.

Knowing what we know now- would we have just bought someone else's custom infill? Maybe. Certainly our budget's larger than we thought it was a year ago and there was [at the time] some interesting inventory. There's risks in that (i.e. defects undetected at home inspection), and costs too (e.g. changing out flooring or other details you don't like).

I think the biggest discomfort for us in building custom has been uncertainty about resale. After our costs our house occupies a weird price bracket that's above what I perceive as most infill shoppers price tolerance, but well below true baller double-meat 50' lot SFH infills. That's a bonus for us as it's saved us a lot of dough, but might leave a big hole in the balance sheet were we ever forced to sell. Here's hoping it's truly a forever home.

The biggest benefit is being able to get exactly what you want; but as mentioned this is a double-edged sword as you can quickly end up building wacky shit nobody else values.

I've also heard that most custom infills depreciate, and I believe it. At this price point buyers have a lot more options (not necessarily in inventory but in terms of build vs. buy), and the trendiness of what you build has a shorter shelf-life.

I will say that doing a full custom has definitely opened my eyes to where spec builders and developers save costs; some of which are easily changed as a buyer, some not.

[XylathaneGTR]

Mind sharing who your builder was? All of the builders I chatted with weren't interested in fixed-price contracts.
I feel like the general ROT with fixed price vs. cost plus-applies to your situation; you're paying for the uncertainty up-front, and you've already eaten some of the escalations us cost-plus guys are seeing, they're just baked in. I think you comment about occupying a weird bracket above the typical resale price supports this (I'm in a similar position. If I were to sell now, I'd basically have to eat the builder fees (the "plus" part of the contract) to have a selling price in-line with what I'm seeing in my 'hood.

[prae]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Mind sharing who your builder was? All of the builders I chatted with weren't interested in fixed-price contracts.
I feel like the general ROT with fixed price vs. cost plus-applies to your situation; you're paying for the uncertainty up-front, and you've already eaten some of the escalations us cost-plus guys are seeing, they're just baked in. I think you comment about occupying a weird bracket above the typical resale price supports this (I'm in a similar position. If I were to sell now, I'd basically have to eat the builder fees (the "plus" part of the contract) to have a selling price in-line with what I'm seeing in my 'hood.

I'll DM you.

[TomcoPDR]

We need custom home build sub forum

[gpomp]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

We need custom home build sub forum

Ask benyl?

[88CRX]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Speaking with the Energy consultant, the biggest heat loss is air movement. It isn't strictly about how much insulation you have.

Smart Energy Consultant, its 100% the truth. When you see the half assed AVB's in most homes it shows exactly why homes are drafty, cold and have wall rot/attic rain issues.

Can't wait to see it all done.

[CarlLester]

@benyl did your Lux windows and doors arrive on time? I am waiting for mine and while they are not late yet, I dont have the warm and fuzzies that they will be on time. I'm getting a little spooked when I hear a window horror story from every contractor who shows up at my house - haha!

[benyl]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Smart Energy Consultant, its 100% the truth. When you see the half assed AVB's in most homes it shows exactly why homes are drafty, cold and have wall rot/attic rain issues.

Can't wait to see it all done.

I equate it to technical clothing. On a windy day, you can have a wool sweater on, but if you don't block the wind, you will still be cold. Get a wind breaker and you might not need any thermal layers.


» Click image for larger version

K-way all the way baby! lol

[benyl]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

@benyl did your Lux windows and doors arrive on time? I am waiting for mine and while they are not late yet, I dont have the warm and fuzzies that they will be on time. I'm getting a little spooked when I hear a window horror story from every contractor who shows up at my house - haha!

Nope. Supposed to show up mid August. Arrived in October.

We still don't have a front door (Lux).

[CarlLester]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Nope. Supposed to show up mid August. Arrived in October.

We still don't have a front door (Lux).

Ha...awesome. Not as bad as some of the other delays I heard about but still sucks. Hope your door shows up soon.

[finboy]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

My brother is living in a house in Rosedale that was some couples dream home. Cost them about 3x to build compared to what he bought it for. A bunch of weirdo custom shit including a hidden passageway behind a bookshelf.
Now it was expensive in any case, and maybe some of that weird stuff would not have been on my bros list, but it was a great location on decent value.

I'm probably biased because every person I've ever known who had a house built for them always hated the process and always went over budget. Custom infill or cookie cutter suburb doesn't seem to matter, it always goes over budget.

Buying a house, you know your costs.

Benyl's place looks wicked though, no doubt about it.

Curious if this used to be an architect in the neighbourhood, his whole top floor was Japanese inspired with sliding walls etc.

[benyl]

Some updates:

Closet organizer in the spare bedroom


Hardwood compared to the stain on the solid tread stairs


Ensuite Shower




Hardwood starting


Prices are rising. We ordered the tile in Nov and the price went up 10% when we needed 5 extra pieces to finish the master shower. Wood is rising fast. It's only 5% lower than when we ordered our wood.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lumber