Estimates don't exist

Being a homeowner who has worked with contractors on smaller projects within an existing home, I have always gotten estimates. Kitchen upgrades, new windows, siding, a new roof...the list goes on. You get recommendations from neighbors and friends for names of good builders, then you contact them, one by one, arrange times for them to come check your project, and you get prices. All else being equal, you go with the lowest price.

The newest ingredient in the land of contractors is...when are they available? I knew this was the case during Covid but I was hoping this had settled down four years later. I realized when people discovered they were stuck at home during 2020-2022 they started to look closely at their surroundings. They couldn't even get away to go into work. They wanted better. If you can't change the world around you and a plague is controlling your life, then you change something you have control over...your home. Or you even decide to move to the country, get away from all of those contagion-carrying people and get some breathing space. You build new there or you have fun refurbishing that old antique home that was just waiting for you to discover it.

Even in 2024, when people are traveling again, going to theaters, concerts, and maybe even reversing their move to the country and heading back to the city... you are most likely in for a long, long wait. If you can even find a contractor or get them to answer phone messages, emails, or texts. You mull over the idea of calling them back and leaving another message, but will that make you even less likely to get a call back?! Annoying customers do not make it into the lineup of possible future projects.

Builders have told me they don't put their names on their trucks; that means more phone calls they don't have time to make. They don't do websites, they have unavailable email addresses. They are busy working. And they are booked for years. Some builders are only picking and choosing smaller projects or specialty projects, things that are appealing to them and in a timeline that doesn't pressure them. Why not? I would do that if I was a builder.

Another factor in the building industry is even if building material prices are settling down from 2021-22 prices, wages have gone up (which is a good thing). Also, builders have told me that 'kids' (i.e. up and coming workers) don't want to get up early to work, so there is a lack of workers. And older contractors, like experienced electricians and plumbers are aging out and retiring (with not many younger people moving into these careers).

Getting estimates seemed like the obvious and responsible thing to do, but now I understand differently. I got this advice from a builder who told me (most likely because I wanted an estimate and was letting him know that I was getting multiple estimates from different builders) that we were not a good match. He gave me good information though- choose a builder you trust, and then work with them to give you a fair price. It turns out, an estimate on an entire house with all of the details and different components that go into that is almost impossible to get. It takes a busy builder way too much time to do that. They are too busy working to give estimates. They'd need to be paid for an estimate but even with that, it is not worth their time to do an estimate when they can't be guaranteed to actually get the project.

The Ridge Road House is a learning experience for me and this was one more level of learning. But also scary...how do you trust someone you have never worked with? How do you move forward when you might be falling into the very dark and very deep abyss of a money pit?

I got some ideas by talking to builders. Builder number 2 told me about a similar house he built (to our house design) that he could also do for me for about $800,000, gulp. Since when did a simple Cape Cod style house cost more than a quarter of a million dollars to build? 2024.

You visit his current work site and see that OK, he works for people who have big and I mean B I G bucks. They pay as they go, no problem. He bills them as he spends money and moves forward as he gets paid by the homeowner (who had better have a plentiful, ready cash flow). Huge houses, tall and imposing, with huge floor plans and added items like greenhouses inside the house. A basement with a higher than usual ceiling so heavy equipment can pull into it if needed or desired. This was not a MacMansion; it was well-built with a builder who has great experience. Not a tasteless design but lacking the thought or detail of a house that is well-loved before it is built.

This particular contractor works with many subcontractors who only work alongside him...an electrician, a plumber, a crew of painters, etc.; they are his electrician, his plumber, his painting crew (but autonomous too if they wanted to be). He is so busy he can keep them endlessly in work. He seems more of an organizer than a builder. He was on the phone when I got there.

The only thing that interrupts the flow on the day I visited was waiting on custom kitchen cabinets to arrive from Bethel Mills. Yes, very nice, but this custom kitchen somehow had no soul. The cabinets are a beautiful deep blue, well-made, gorgeous. The room had a high ceiling, had a lot of white tile, stainless steel, you know, the usual. It felt industrial, but not in an interesting industrial way. The cabinets were the only nice part. And why didn't countertop to ceiling windows on two sides make this kitchen beautiful? I don't know. A room is a sum of its parts and these particular parts just didn't add up. It certainly wasn't cozy (and wasn't meant to be) but it also was not breathtaking or light-and-bright-cheerful.

OK,...onto builder number 3. I now know the months-long process of waiting to get an estimate from him is one I shouldn't even have asked for. I know he would be fairly reasonable, guessing high priced (hey, everyone has to make a living and should not give away their work), has great experience and has shown me work he has done that looks like excellent quality. So he is still an option. He is fast...goes in, focuses on the one project, sets up his team to only work there (which is definitely a great benefit compared to builders who come and go and you never know for sure how long something will take). It would be about one year from start to move-in-ready. Pretty cool to imagine. A dream delivered.

Builder number 4 seems like my best bet. He told me his price per square foot ($300) based on my materials list and the floor plan, etc. This is still A LOT and I won't print the math here, but you can play with that if you want. He let me know the obvious...the price he gives me now can't be guaranteed as the price we will get when we actually build. Time will pass, prices will change. But what I like best about him is his flexibility. He is willing to really work with me (whereas I had one builder who seemed perturbed when I said I really don't like vinyl siding). This builder said, if I change my mind on something, he can deal with that. He can let me know what that means in terms of time, money, design, etc. He can do the project in pieces or stages if I want to.

He will also let me subcontract parts of the project myself. Most builders want to handle the whole process (and I understand if you have control over everything you can more easily coordinate a project and make sure it works, but with that comes added on costs of paying yourself as the coordinating builder who is having to handle the sub-contractor.)

After meeting with him at the house site and talking with him for over almost two hours, seeing a house he built in Randolph, and just having a good gut feeling about him, I think he would be a great fit for our house.

One benefit is psychological...don't rush, take your time, be thoughtful, feels safer. Another benefit is practical. If you do a project in stages, you only need money in stages.

Stage one will be work on the barn, making sure it is secure and usable.

Stage two will the septic system in 2025 (and a huge plus here...I can work with Eric Henderson who already has contributed so much to this project with the demolition of the old house and driveway work. He is a Civil Engineer and can design and build the septic system).

Stage three will be the well and maybe the garage in 2026.

Stage four will be the house in 2027, where we can sell our house here in MA to make up for the bulk financing the house in VT.

Moving date 2028.

One more builder to go.... I haven't talked with him or met him yet, so he is an unknown. And again, waiting on one builder where I still need some feedback on costs.

How many builders did I contact that I never heard from? Really only two builders out of seven, so that isn't bad. And I heard through the grapevine they were either aging out of the business or doing smaller projects and were already busy.