Custom Building Is A Full Time Gig
Remember when I was whining and complaining five months ago about the house not getting started fast enough? There were so many hold ups at the beginning of the building process and I was so grumpy and impatient about it. Well.... God sometimes needs to shut me up!! My mom brought up a good point the other day " Imagine doing all this if it wasn't summer?" I cant. If the house started being built in October like we planned, I imagine that I might have been admitted to the crazy place by now trying to battle building, moving and closing out the school year. It's definitely a perk of being a teacher to have summers off, but I didn't realize how much I would really need some time off to tackle this house. I am sure for some people, building a house can be very simple and carefree for those who have the money to point fingers and pick what they please or even hire an interior designer. But..... that's not us. Plus.... we WANTED to be THIS involved in building our home. I have personally called or texted most all the sub contractors, brought them cold drinks while they worked, looked for better prices elsewhere, spent hours learning about how to complete projects, or what kind of insulation is best in our area, or the pros and cons to different flooring, windows, lighting, countertops. So maybe we didn't have to be THIS involved, but I really can't imagine any other way or doing it.
Yesterday was a "work day"..... a house work day. With Zoey getting her tonsils out as we speak, I knew I needed to get as much done as possible yesterday since the rest of the week I was going to have to be pretty grounded! I have plenty of "at home" projects (painting vanities, mirrors, nightstands...) to tackle too that I can do while Zoey is watching hours of TV and eating millions of ice pops and slushies! So I dropped Piper off at day care and took the big kids with me. After the 4th errand, they begged to go to day care too!! So, off they went to day care too.
I met with Chad to go over the cost break down line by line to fix any mistakes, or confusion on some of the bid pricing. Man. It's crazy at how much you have to keep track of with those bids and invoices. Things are always changing and if you are building a house you REALLY should be a part of knowing what is going on with the costs of building.
Being able to see the bid of each thing is what really helped me to save SO MUCH money! One of the reasons I went with Artisan is because if they underbid something, like they bid our fireplace to cost $1700. It ended up costing $1836 to do the fireplace. So, artisan will cover the extra $136 from their contractor fees. If I had asked for an upgraded fireplace, then the extra would be on me. There are a few items that artisan will not cover extras for like the building permit, excavation, compaction and framing which were all over and it really sucked! I think it ate up about $7,000 of our contingency money. There was a $20,000 contingency built into the loan to cover " extra costs" for upgrades and such but if we go past that $20,000 contingency then we need to come to final closing with the extra cash.
Some items are given as "allowances" like lighting. My budget is $2000 for lighting and I think I spend like $2200 buying lights, so I will cover that extra cost. We are like right at the top of our budget right now! I'm still hoping to stay right at or under budget! You guys following me here?! Here's a little glimpse of what our cost break down looks like. It's all very organized, open and clear!
So, that was first on the to do list, was to just go over things with Chad. Next up was finding some carriage lights for the garage. The electrician is coming to install all the lights so I've been gathering all my light purchases and bringing them over to the house and putting them in rooms where they will be installed. I'm really loving the lights in the house! I can't wait to see them installed. I got lights from West Elm, Pottery Barn, Vintage Shops, Lowes, and from Facebook Marketplace. It's been a lot of lights to buy!! Me and Zoey and Logan found some carriage lights and also grabbed the recessed lights for the basement.
Then we headed to Great Western Supply in Orem where our plumber needed us to go and pick fixtures. The kids literally touched every single handle, toilet, faucet in the place. haha. We picked what we needed to pick and off we went.
I made the kids lunch, dropped them at day care and headed to South Jordan where I was picking up a used kitchen sink from a lady I found on Facebook Marketplace. I don't know how people bought things before Facebook Marketplace. It has made my life sooooooo much easier! I have bought vanities, mirrors, bookcases, sinks, ovens, washer and dryer, fridges etc... from marketplace!
On my way back from South Jordan I stopped at Lowes to order the carpeting for the basement apartment. We are carpeting the hallway and the two bedrooms. It will be nice to see someone else install that!
Lastly on the list was meeting with a different countertop guy. My co-worker April suggested I do a countertop search on marketplace to see if someone could give me a good price on a vanity top. I did and I found a guy who gave me a great price on one AND could save me $1000 on my kitchen countertops. I had my countertops all picked out with another guy but who doesn't want to save $1000! Andres came and brought all the samples and gave me a bid of $2400 to do my whole kitchen including backsplash and my 60" vanity with a sink and I could pick from any of his options and he had sooo many good ones!! The other guy's bid was $3600! Um. Duh! And it's 3mm quartz. It's through Arizona Tile if anyone is wondering. I have his card and contact if anyone is in the market!
By the time I wrapped up with Andres it was 5:15. Enough time to grab the kids, head to the grocery store to get treats for Logan's final baseball game, and lots and lots of icepops for Zoey's surgery recovery, run home, make a stouffers lasagna, look every-freaking-where for Logan's baseball shirt and rush to his game. We got to meet Jess new boyfriend, get a treat and then Jake finished grouting the last bathroom!! After I got the kids to bed I spent 2 hours trying to figure out if I don't like my master vanity light. I kind of wish I didn't do the rough in for a vanity light at all. I am liking so many bathrooms on pinterest that have sconces or no lights at all. hmmm. darn .
Well another day down with building this house! Hoping by the end of next week to see the vanities all in, the light in, the coutertops in, and the exterior done!! We are probably 4 weeks out from finishing this all up! Then moving...... 😕
Yesterday was a "work day"..... a house work day. With Zoey getting her tonsils out as we speak, I knew I needed to get as much done as possible yesterday since the rest of the week I was going to have to be pretty grounded! I have plenty of "at home" projects (painting vanities, mirrors, nightstands...) to tackle too that I can do while Zoey is watching hours of TV and eating millions of ice pops and slushies! So I dropped Piper off at day care and took the big kids with me. After the 4th errand, they begged to go to day care too!! So, off they went to day care too.
I met with Chad to go over the cost break down line by line to fix any mistakes, or confusion on some of the bid pricing. Man. It's crazy at how much you have to keep track of with those bids and invoices. Things are always changing and if you are building a house you REALLY should be a part of knowing what is going on with the costs of building.
Being able to see the bid of each thing is what really helped me to save SO MUCH money! One of the reasons I went with Artisan is because if they underbid something, like they bid our fireplace to cost $1700. It ended up costing $1836 to do the fireplace. So, artisan will cover the extra $136 from their contractor fees. If I had asked for an upgraded fireplace, then the extra would be on me. There are a few items that artisan will not cover extras for like the building permit, excavation, compaction and framing which were all over and it really sucked! I think it ate up about $7,000 of our contingency money. There was a $20,000 contingency built into the loan to cover " extra costs" for upgrades and such but if we go past that $20,000 contingency then we need to come to final closing with the extra cash.
Some items are given as "allowances" like lighting. My budget is $2000 for lighting and I think I spend like $2200 buying lights, so I will cover that extra cost. We are like right at the top of our budget right now! I'm still hoping to stay right at or under budget! You guys following me here?! Here's a little glimpse of what our cost break down looks like. It's all very organized, open and clear!
So, that was first on the to do list, was to just go over things with Chad. Next up was finding some carriage lights for the garage. The electrician is coming to install all the lights so I've been gathering all my light purchases and bringing them over to the house and putting them in rooms where they will be installed. I'm really loving the lights in the house! I can't wait to see them installed. I got lights from West Elm, Pottery Barn, Vintage Shops, Lowes, and from Facebook Marketplace. It's been a lot of lights to buy!! Me and Zoey and Logan found some carriage lights and also grabbed the recessed lights for the basement.Then we headed to Great Western Supply in Orem where our plumber needed us to go and pick fixtures. The kids literally touched every single handle, toilet, faucet in the place. haha. We picked what we needed to pick and off we went.
I made the kids lunch, dropped them at day care and headed to South Jordan where I was picking up a used kitchen sink from a lady I found on Facebook Marketplace. I don't know how people bought things before Facebook Marketplace. It has made my life sooooooo much easier! I have bought vanities, mirrors, bookcases, sinks, ovens, washer and dryer, fridges etc... from marketplace!
On my way back from South Jordan I stopped at Lowes to order the carpeting for the basement apartment. We are carpeting the hallway and the two bedrooms. It will be nice to see someone else install that!
Lastly on the list was meeting with a different countertop guy. My co-worker April suggested I do a countertop search on marketplace to see if someone could give me a good price on a vanity top. I did and I found a guy who gave me a great price on one AND could save me $1000 on my kitchen countertops. I had my countertops all picked out with another guy but who doesn't want to save $1000! Andres came and brought all the samples and gave me a bid of $2400 to do my whole kitchen including backsplash and my 60" vanity with a sink and I could pick from any of his options and he had sooo many good ones!! The other guy's bid was $3600! Um. Duh! And it's 3mm quartz. It's through Arizona Tile if anyone is wondering. I have his card and contact if anyone is in the market!
By the time I wrapped up with Andres it was 5:15. Enough time to grab the kids, head to the grocery store to get treats for Logan's final baseball game, and lots and lots of icepops for Zoey's surgery recovery, run home, make a stouffers lasagna, look every-freaking-where for Logan's baseball shirt and rush to his game. We got to meet Jess new boyfriend, get a treat and then Jake finished grouting the last bathroom!! After I got the kids to bed I spent 2 hours trying to figure out if I don't like my master vanity light. I kind of wish I didn't do the rough in for a vanity light at all. I am liking so many bathrooms on pinterest that have sconces or no lights at all. hmmm. darn .Well another day down with building this house! Hoping by the end of next week to see the vanities all in, the light in, the coutertops in, and the exterior done!! We are probably 4 weeks out from finishing this all up! Then moving...... 😕
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