If you're coming from Part 2 you'll remember that I mentioned the term "builder grade." It has become a term that represents the very least you can legally put into a house as it is built. That is unfortunate as most people would pay a few thousand extra for a new house that had more than the minimum. What does a builder gain by sheathing a house with thin foam board instead of OSB? One might think it more insulated but structure is compromised. Why would you install shingles without tar paper? Not only does it void the shingle warranty but you lose that extra protection against water intrusion. What about leaving out underlayment to place on top of the sub floor? While it may not be required by code it often provides extra stiffening for the floor and levels out the surface for the flooring above. Thin concrete, poor insulation, missing house wrap, cheap windows, cheap cabinets and vanities, cheap lighting, undersized heating and cooling systems, and marginal electrical panels are some of the shortcuts taken under "builder grade."
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Builder grade kitchen cabinets: not fancy but they hold your dishes |
I've experienced all of the above in one house or another and they all cost money to fix. The junk had to be torn out and the better parts installed. It would have been better to pay a little more to do an upgrade of each item at the time of the build. But as one finds out when going to either buy a new house or have one built, there are no changes allowed by the builder. The plans are drawn up and approved in advance and builders don't want to waste any time as time is money. Economy level builders want a house to go up in as short a time as possible for as low a cost as possible so they can move on to the next one.
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Semi-custom: up-to-date cabinets, stainless steel appliances, granite countertop |
If builder grade is the bottom rung of the ladder, what is at the other end? For that answer let's go back to Ken who is building what I would call a custom home since he designed it according to what he and Kelly wanted and has contracted with a builder to bring his dream to reality. If he wants to change a few things here and there he can do that. In fact, not too long ago he mentioned online that he had a wall removed. Depending on his agreement with the builder there may be an additional charge but he is entitled to that choice. I see that he has been allowed to work on his house, as he also mentioned that he pulled his media wires throughout the walls. It is likely that Ken and Kelly were able to choose every option they wanted in the house before the build started.
In between those two options is what I would call semi-custom and that is what we experienced. When we chose the model and floor plan we had some other decisions to make. We had two choices for the kitchen area and two choices for the master bathroom. The kitchen options dealt with the island facing and an entryway into the dining room. In the bathroom you could have a tub and a smaller shower or no bathtub, a huge shower, and a monstrous double vanity. There was no extra charge for these choices. Of course, once you made those decisions your floor plan choices were over.
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Setting out our choices at the Design Center |
Another difference with semi-custom is the choice of finishes. While builder grade makes the choice for you in everything and custom gives the owner the choice of everything, semi-custom gives you a limited number of choices for certain areas of the house important to owners like kitchens and bathrooms. We could choose the color of the kitchen cabinets, door hardware, countertop material and color, tile, appliances, vanities, paint color, carpet color, wood flooring, extra outlets, media ports, crown molding, and exterior colors. Choosing all of those was fun for Kathy and Myric!
Two weeks after signing the contract for the house to be built, we headed to their Design Center to make all those choices. A good amount of time had been spent beforehand with the list of upgrades so we were prepared. There were some surprises with extra choices and lower prices but it took us the four hours they had planned for us. We were able to see exact colors in the showroom, along with lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, carpeting, flooring, and the like. By the time we were done we could start visualizing what they entire house would look like. I liked what I saw in my head.
A great back yard, large and level
Since we were the first one to buy into this new community we had our choice of lots. Well, except for the completed model and the nearly-finished house across the street. This community of sixteen lots was divided up with 1-9 on the left being designated as houses on slabs, while 10-16 on the right were designated as houses with basements. The purpose of this was to follow the original topography of the land. As we walked around the basement lots we decided against 10 and 11 as they were in the tight space of the cul-de-sac where the front property width was less than the width of the house. Jon said we'd go with #12 as it was the largest of those remaining and would have a larger back yard. Plus there was an easement strip between #12 and #11 that would give us breathing room. Lots in communities like this all come with various price premiums, from $5,000 to $25,000. Silly me, I just figured the lot came with the house. Though ours was "just" $10,000 that amount was erased with a builder credit. Many months later we still feel we picked the best one for us. Coming from a back yard filled with trees and hills and mounds, Jon and Myric had hoped for a large and flat back yard and that is exactly what they got.
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Preparing the lot |
By March they had brought more dirt to the property to start setting up the topography correctly. No more can builders simply do what they want. Properties and communities are required to deal with the rain that falls on the land, protect the trees nearby, keep water away from the house, and plant new trees and bushes with a specific plan. All of that has to be permitted and approved. We ran into an early stage of that policy when finishing the grading of the Lincoln church in 1999, twenty years prior. That was the first time I heard the word "retention pond" and we had to make sure all the water from our property was first routed through that retention pond. Fortunately we had an area that worked well for that purpose, between the parking lots, and it didn't cost us very much. Developers and builders often pay hundreds of thousands of dollars now to meet those requirements.
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Footings formed and poured |
Once the dirt was moved into place or scrapped away, the digging started for the footings. Then the forms for the foundation walls were put in place and concrete poured. Finally the back half of the basement floor was poured in place like a slab. These were rather complicated floors with deep footings built in to support the walls placed on them later, and lots and lots of reinforcement bars placed all through the concrete. For our eventual apartment, we were happy to see that they put in a heavy plastic sheeting under the concrete floor to keep out moisture.
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Foundation formed and poured |
All of this made for what was called a daylight basement, or what my dad called a walkout basement. Here is Georgia they call it a Georgia basement. The front half of the basement is built of concrete walls which step down to ground level in back, allowing the back half of the basement to work just like a house on slab. With the door placed out on that back wall, Kathy and I would have our separate entrance. The build was underway!
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Foundation at the front steps down to the back |
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| Basement floor is on ground level in the back yard |
Even this early in the build I could see some areas where I would have liked things changed. I had even spoken to the new "builder in charge" for our home but it was clear there was nothing that could be done about it. No matter, I would still keep them honest and show up every evening on the way home from work. I took pictures and kept Jon, Myric, and Kathy informed about what was going on right then. However, it was clear to see the builder wished to get things done right and he always asked how we thought it was going whenever I saw him.
Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)
( Be sure to check out "Home Sweet Home, Part 4" which follows)
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