Top Three Tips for Building a House
Truth is, I have. a lot of tips for building a new house. Some helpful and others are probably just little nuggets that were only valuable in our case. However, if I had to narrow it down to three big ones, well I can do that easily. First, spend a lot of time in the planning phase. We spent well over a year finalizing house plans. I spent months before that just looking at house plans online and narrowing down what I liked, what I didn’t like, what would make sense for our family and budget, and what my must-haves in a house were before I even spoke to our architect. Now you may be able to find the house plans of dreams online and purchase them that way. I could tell immediately that that wasn’t going to be an option for us. We were going to have to go the custom route to get exactly what we were hoping for. We actually had one full set of plans drawn up, and then our start date got pushed back due to lumber costs, and we made some fairly significant changes to the plans within that 6 months. I am so thankful for the changes we made because although our original plans would have been great, we fine tuned them enough to really meet all the needs of our family. (The biggest change was streamlining the back of our home which made the foundation simpler, and removing the large office at the front of the home making that the dining room area and creating space for a pocket office instead which is more functional for us) If you think you might build in the future, then please don’t skimp on the planning stage! It is so much harder to make changes once the building process has started than it is in the planning phase.
I am ready for some landscaping this spring!
Next, find a builder whose work you not only love, but who you feel comfortable with and trust. I don’t have a lot of experience with builders, and my experience has always been good, but I can imagine a scenario that would make building difficult, and I am so thankful we avoided that. My husband or I spoke with the crew members on our build almost everyday they were out here. Kevin was very hands on in the beginning stages of the project, and helped with the foundation, some of the framing, electrical, he got stuck hauling dry wall, and did the dirt work. There was constant communication. Once everything was roughed in and we moved onto the finishing, I was able to look stuff over as it was being done. Living 40 yards from the build site definitely had its advantages as I could pop over and answer questions most days. We knew our builder going into this project and so there was definitely a level of comfort in that. It made it very easy to talk through decisions, to weigh the options, and to get an honest opinion that we trusted. I didn’t feel intimidated to ask questions or make changes as we went. It always felt very collabartive which was just what we had hoped for!
Lastly, it helps to be a bit flexible. Now I have never been described as flexible. I am not easy going and I am stubborn. BUT, I tried really hard not to put too strict of a timeline on our build. Luckily we were ahead of schedule from the start since framing took place in February which is not always a possibility in Montana. However there are always going to be set-backs and progress will stall. Some weeks it felt like we made a ton of progress, and other weeks there wouldn’t be as much even though some of the small progress aspects were just as important. (just not as much fun). We waited a long time for windows. Even though we ordered them very early on, we still waited. Our big window was a quite possibly the biggest headache of the whole process. It was backordered, and then was broke in transit causing another 4 week delay. Dry-wall was done before that window was in which was risky, but it worked out. I can happily say it was worth it, but I definitley questioned that window a handful of times!
Building a home was truly an amazing experience for us. Had there been a more livable house on the farm, we likely would have done our best to renovate and make that work for our family because for us, the ultimate goal was living on the farm. However building was the option that made the most sense, and although it isn’t something I want to do again anytime soon, it was so very rewarding! If you have questions about our build process feel free to ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer!
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