Owner Building/Contracting Your New Home 7.6.07
Posted by jondavis on Friday, 6 of July , 2007 at 12:06 pm
The topic of owner/building or owner/contracting comes up pretty regularly around here. The short answer that I give my customers who are considering owner/building or owner/contracting is to approach this issue very carefully.
The process of building a house is multifaceted and complex. To do it well requires knowing a lot about many different topics; engineering, how things are built, physics, managing people, organizing, navigating through government red tape and much more. Without prior experience in many of these things, the learning curve for building a home is very steep. It’s a little scary to learn (without working as a team with someone who already knows) especially when it’s your own new home! There can be painful and expensive lessons if things go wrong, but it can also be a very rewarding experience if you are realistic about it and if you approach it with the right attitude and with the right set of skills.
If you really think you want to owner build then a good primer would be to take a stab at being an owner/surgeon and operate either on yourself or your spouse. If you can get through that successfully, then you will probably be a successful owner builder/contractor!
Of course I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the analogy is not too far off. We men tend to think we are a mix of Tarzan and Superman, at least that is how I have often viewed myself. However, over the 55 years of my life I have slowly come to the realization that it is more like Fearless Fly and Mighty Mouse. How amazing is it that we men think we can take on a project that has thousands of variables, government entities to deal with, processes that can be amazingly complicated, hundreds of different kinds of materials, and do all this in a work environment that is right out there in the heat, rain, snow, dust storms and so on. Add to that you have to deal with lots of personalities of the various subcontractors, and supervise them when you don’t know a damn thing about what they do. Then there are the building inspectors and the bureaucracy that is behind them. Most inspectors are great guys and are there to help but I am always surprised that there are a substantial number of them who are having a life-long bad hair day and you, the contractor or the owner builder, are their closest whipping post. At least the seasoned contractor has been beaten up enough times to know what he is getting into every day!
Is it really that tough to owner build or contract your own home? The truthful answer is that it can be great or horrible depending on the circumstances. There is a lot to know about the home building process. That said, there are a lot of successful owner builder/contractors who have navigated the maze and have had a great experience. I have worked with a number of owner builders who have done a great job in building their houses and they were still married and happy at the end of the experience. I have to come to believe that it takes a very particular person to have a good and successful owner building experience and the number of people with the right mix of skills and personality traits is fairly low.
We currently have an owner builder project in framing in Moab, Utah. The wall panels are going up and it won’t be long before the house is closed in. What is most amazing about this project is that the owner has done almost all of the work by himself. He is doing a great job and his attitude is unbelievably good. Add to this he is doing the work in the heat of the Utah summer! He calls me often with questions (very smart thing to do) and he is just chugging his way through the construction with a great attitude. My hat goes off to him because I know I would have had a hard time doing what he has done to date. It certainly shows me that there are people who are more highly evolved than I am. So in spite of what I have said about owner building/contracting it can be done successfully.
We currently have another owner builder who is also doing an admirable job in Virginia. His job site is immaculate and he has been organized and thorough from the beginning. I wish that all professional contractors ran their projects like this guy. His attitude is the right combination of high standards with a calm demeanor. His house photo appears on this post. Click it to see a larger photo.
My bottom line recommendation for almost everyone is to find an experienced general contractor to build your home. A seasoned contractor will have already gone through all the learning curves and will make your life much less stressful. I don’t mean to scare you off from what can be a great experience but I do want to caution you to really be prepared for what is akin to running a marathon. It can be done, but it is lots of hard work. If you do decide to owner build/contract your new home, we can supply you with support and documentation to help you navigate the maze, including phone or e-mail technical support from us.
We have a lot of information on owner/building and owner/contracting on our web site. To find out the specific skills you’ll need to be successful, follow this link.
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