It’s hard to believe that the last home update post I wrote was back in April of 2018. And that it’s been a year since I made the announcement about our decision to build our home! To say that the home building process IS a process would be an understatement.
Looking back on this year of building a forever home, I’m glad to say that most of it was expected. We went into this whole ordeal with low expectations. Not of the finished product, but at least of the building process.
We knew it wasn’t going to be easy and that at times we’d be frustrated. Especially considering we chose the semi-custom option. I knew that we were going to have a lot on our plates as far as choices and decisions.
CURRENT STATUS
To catch you up, the past 8+ months have been filled with building the bones of our home. Rough carpentry took a couple of months, then the roof and brick were completed over the summer.
If you’re going to semi-custom or custom route, be prepared that this can be a long, tedious process. And that this phase of building the bones of your home can be super boring; very important, but boring nonetheless.
Other things that were completed were the HVAC and electrical work, as well as the grading of our lot.
There’s been a shortage of trade services in our region, so there were unexpected delays between different phases. All in all though, we’re still on track with our original anticipated timeline of around 15 months from when we broke ground.
THINGS TO COME
In the immediate future, they will be drywalling and finishing off the interior of our home. Then the next few months will be all the “fun” stuff. For me, any way. This is the phase of the home building process that I’ve been waiting for all year.
Our selections for tile, counter tops, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, etc. will all be installed. We’ve been told this is also the phase of the home building process when multiple trades will be working on our house concurrently. Whereas in the beginning and middle phases, we had to wait for one trade to be complete to go to the next to do their layer to the house.
THINGS LEFT FOR US TO DO
Like I mentioned in my post back in April, we tried our best to stay ahead of the timeline by finalizing selections early. Some of our choices were done so long ago, that I can hardly remember what I chose. My next few home update posts will be highlighting these selections and more detail around the look and ambiance of the interior of our home.
- Paint Colors
- Lighting Fixtures
- Deck Design
- Landscaping Design
LESSONS LEARNED
- Be proactive and reach out for status updates. You won’t know if you don’t ask and it’s always better to be sure about the status of trades, projects, etc. than to sit around and wait for weeks at a time. (Yes, this does happen.)
- Stay ahead on selections. Every step of the way, we’ve tried to finalize our choices early on as possible. This will only help us on the back end with (not) running into issues with product shipment. And interior trades being on time and working concurrently on the final phase of our home.
- Don’t be afraid to make changes. And if you’re unsure, take the time before you sign off on selections.
- Document everything, phone calls, e-mails, text messages, etc. We haven’t run into any issues, but this was something that we were advised from friends who have been through the home building process. The paper trail is so crucial to stay on top of all the little details and ongoing communication.
Building A Forever Home – Carpentry HVAC Roofing
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