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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 26, 2007 - 02:10am PT
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in cali, what do think it might cost to make it livable?
build house to make it livable 2 bed, 2 bath single story on a sloped lot (will need to make a level spot for house I'm sure)?
water well- to install how much?
septic- to install how much?
just under an acre sized lot
rough estimates here are fine if you have expertise on this or experience building your dream climber home, just thinking out loud...
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John Moosie
climber
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Nov 26, 2007 - 03:02am PT
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Too broad of question. I have friends who have built their own. Lots range from 25,000 to millions. My friends built a fancy house in a nice area. They acted as the contractor and hired a climber/builder to oversee. She is a designer so they cut cost there and she designed the house and they had a architect draw up the plans. It is in Madera county so they paid a fair amount in fees such as for schools. Their fancy house ended up costing about 125 dollars per square foot. It can be done cheaper if you do more of the work and like you say, keep it simple. It can also cost more if you hire a contractor. Range of 100 to 200 per square foot.
Where in California? Its a big state and cost vary widely.
How steep of a lot? Some houses are built without pads on slopes.
Has the property been perc tested for a septic. Septic can get expensive if you have to put it in a difficult spot.
Well cost is usually based on the depth. You need to know how deep wells are in the area you own property. This would give you a guide.
Will you have a contractor build it? Will you be the contractor? How much experience do you have?
Realitors in the area you are interested can often answer these type questions.
..................
my 2 cents...having looked to build my own home. There are a number of builders here. They should be able to give you a better idea.
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Standing Strong
Trad climber
the only coast
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Nov 26, 2007 - 03:32am PT
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i love this thread! someday i am going to fall in love with somebody, and we are going to build a house in the mountains : )
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Nov 26, 2007 - 04:41am PT
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In this day and age $125.00 per foot is very reasonable.
The big question is where?
Not just the cost of 'the dirt',
But what elevation? will it need to be winterized or can it be single wall or uninsulated double wall construction.(as you can do on the coast)
where dictates what the surrounding community will be.
In turn, this greatly affects 'what you can get away with' in the building process.
you will be hard pressed to build a new 'mortar and beer bottle" house in Marin county these days.
Where (specifically) will tell you a lot more about the water well and septic.
Obviously a septic buried in a granite batholith (sp?) is going to have a trendy price.
And of course same applies for the well.
http://homebuilding.thefuntimesguide.com/2007/06/how_much_cost_drill_water_well.php
before the dirt:
humble house, you do or trade for most of the work...
@least/start at $95 a square foot min.
well drilling typically $12- $18.00 a foot
Septic @least/start at 8k
This is no land prep (grading, compaction etc..)
no land detailing, (driveway, landscaping etc..)
no alt power or hot water sys.
I built a house on my own years ago.
I was going for the 'biggest bang for the buck'.
So I costed my labour on every step/ process.
If a local tradesman could do it cheaper I hired him/her/them.
For example:
I had hung but never tape/textured drywall before. I (conservatively) estimated my time to 'rock' the house. By the time I figured my time, what I would eat in that time etc...
I hired these two brothers that came in and left me with a bad ass, completed job two days later for a great price.
In those two days I was still working on other things. There is no way I could have beaten their price. So doing it yourself is not always the cheapest, you have to be realistic about your building skills.
So building this house I hired a licensed plumber and electrician, because I had to by regional law. I as well hired dry wall'r's and a painting crew to do interior/exterior paint, because there is absolutely no way I could beat their price even working at an equivalent $4.00 an hr.
Perhaps the biggest savings comes from:
"Plan to build and then build what you planned"
Jumping horses midstream is very costly.
If you have skilled tradesman friends helping you...
The best way to piss then right TF off,
or to dick yourself around, is to say:
"yah don't suppose we could...?" or "hey I was just thinking, maybe we aught to...?"
Make a plan an execute it or pay dearly for indecision.
And never forget... building departments can and will be bribed or threatened into submission much more readily than you might think.
As long as you are crafty about it.
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Tomcat
Trad climber
Chatham N.H.
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Nov 26, 2007 - 07:08am PT
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Also good to keep in mind that banks generally will not finance partial construction.They want everything completed,not"livable",because they want it to be saleable if you default.If you have cash or a more flexible form of financing then no problemo.
I'm a GC,I usually operate on a ten percent mark-up.Sounds like you would save ten percent then cutting out the GC,but we typically buy the work and products at a little less so it's more like 5% that you save,if that.Doing it yourself is good if you don't make a very high wage at your normal gig,but building right takes time and I have seen some successful people's businesses go haywire while they tried to do a GC's job.
Best ways to keep costs down are to get a lot with low site development costs,do the painting yourself,keep it simple and go two stories.Analyse your plans for efficient traffic areas.
Waiting to do or finish stuff does not always pan out either.We just threw a small block/brick chimney into a house for 2962.00.I have the same one in my garage from 1990,it cost 375.00 then.
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TradIsGood
Half fast climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Nov 26, 2007 - 07:36am PT
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When and where you build, you should consider building a house appropriate to the location - i.e. salable to somebody else buying in that area. It should be of similar price, size, and possibly style, though some places support bigger mixes on style.
On average most people only live in a house from 5-15 years, depending on their jobs, age, etc. Treat the asset as much like an investment as possible. Otherwise whatever you might save on the building may be more than lost on the resale.
Best wishes. Been through it once. We hired a contractor with experience as a project manager. That is, we paid him a percentage of what we spent. That allows you to postpone decisions on some things and adjust a little bit as things get priced. However, it does not give the manager much incentive to save you money. Regardless of how you do it, expect to be on top of the project as often as daily at many points during construction. If you are not patient, forget about it. :-)
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mojede
Trad climber
Butte, America
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Nov 26, 2007 - 09:39am PT
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IF you do your homework regarding materials pricing, and are somewhat knowledgeable with the construction trades, you can save considerable amounts of money by getting work done on a TIME/MATERIAL basis.
Not every sub-contractor is willing to work under this arrangement, but in Cali, it is possible to find good skilled labor who will.
My personal example of this is roofing being done to my own house. Since roofing is beyond my scope of talent (I'm a wood-floor guy/carpenter), I found the best deal that I could find on the steel panels, and hired an excellent roofer (by himself) to install it, with me as his assistant. If I needed another "laborer", I got a hungry college kid (a climber works well) to give a hand.
For 50.00/hr., I got three people (myself included) to do the work.
Long story short: I saved considerably, and got better skilled workers (for quality control) by not having a roofing contractor "bid" the project (who figure profit into the bid).
Good luck, it is not a road which every home owner wants to go down, but done right, can be faster, better, and less expensive.
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John Mac
Trad climber
Littleton, CO
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Nov 26, 2007 - 01:39pm PT
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We are building a small place right now in Colorado and so far it's half completed and on budget. Price per square foot is 122.00 and that's finished with wood floors, etc.
We have a general contractor/builder working part time, while we do most of the manual labor and finishing work. One example was we saved just over $13,000 on doing the concrete work ourselves.
The GC can get stuff from Home Depot a lot cheaper than I can!
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