Though it can be the best way to assure you get what you want, building a home from the ground up can be intimidating.
There are many factors to consider in the process, including time, who to hire and costs. R. Dean Toth, a general contractor who owns Colorado Mountain Builders with his son, Kyle, advises new home builders to be realistic in their expectations and allow themselves to be guided by contractors.
“If you’re looking at property, let us see it first before you buy it because the property may not be conducive to what you want to build there,” Mr. Toth said.
He added that if you change your plans once building starts, the architects have to redraw, and it ends up costing more money and time.
Owner-builders accounted for just a fraction of the over one million housing starts in the United States last year. Still, despite the challenges, about 50,000 people a year have chosen this route in the United States over the last decade, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Four people who did it, or undertook an extensive overhaul, described their experiences and offered advice for navigating the process.
A Brooklynite heads to the country
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, Jodie Patterson began to consider homeownership because she wanted to be in nature.
“I wanted to find a home that if all goes to hell, we’ll have our own little place on which to sustain ourselves,” she said.
Ms. Patterson, who is a social activist, author and entrepreneur, lived in Brooklyn at the time and had her sights set on a second home in Sullivan County, N.Y., which is along the Pennsylvania border. After she had looked at pre-existing houses and found none suitable, her broker suggested that she look at a property she had found in Forestburgh.
“Blueberries were budding, the water was flowing, and on an emotional and vibrational level, the property spoke to me before the houses did, so I went with the property,” Ms. Patterson said.
After buying the land, a five-acre parcel, for $35,000 in 2020, she hired a contractor with deep roots in the neighborhood. Having collected binders of inspiration on design elements, Ms. Patterson realized her preference was a simple-shaped exterior and a detailed interior. She decided on a barn style with four corners, making it more cost-effective.
“It also fits my aesthetic, and I’m a New Yorker who has lived in lots of lofts and again it’s that simple structure that allows for creativity to happen on the interior.”
The pandemic presented challenges for the build. When prices of materials changed, the contractor had to delay in order to stay on budget. The process ordinarily would have taken a year and a half, but it instead took an extra two years. Finishing at a cost of $430,000, the home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Once you commit to a budget, she said, then it’s a matter of making trade-offs and using creative methods to achieve results similar to the original goal.
Ms. Patterson didn’t budget for landscaping, which included laying down a lawn, clearing out boulders and felling trees about 20 feet away from the house. A year after building, her basement flooring cracked, meaning water is working its way inside. If you’re building in a place where the land is wet, she said, you need to focus on creating more drainage.
Ms. Patterson’s home has a wall of windows so when she is in the main room, the kitchen or the dining room, she is looking out at nature, including foxes and bears.
“In the city everything is artificial, light, heat and sounds,” she said. “In the country, I go about the natural rhythm of outside and so almost every place in the house, you can see outside and that was something I really appreciate.”
Patience and persistence in Pittsburgh
Olivia Bossa Ansell started looking for land at the end of 2016 and officially broke ground in September 2020. But even with a budget near $4 million, Ms. Ansell, who owns businesses in health care, real estate and farming, could not avoid surprises.
A federal permit cost over $40,000, and the storm water management plan came in at more than $300,000 all before breaking ground. The home — with 12,000 square feet, eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms — took two years to build after delays from a mix of issues.
Ms. Ansell, 34, advised first-time home builders to vet the contractor thoroughly and ensure it specializes in custom homes. The company she hired prioritized completing its large-scale developments, so labor was often split between her project and its subdivisions. It also tried to treat her home as if it were one of its subdivision models, telling Ms. Ansell what she could and couldn’t do while still charging custom-home prices, she said.
She suggested that you budget 20 to 30 percent more than you think to account for unexpected costs. Tape out room sizes on the floor before building, she said. Ms. Ansell realized too late that her closet and garage weren’t large enough and had to make costly changes midconstruction. And if this will be your forever home, build with future needs in mind, she said.
“I truly hope my story encourages others to see that while building a home can be challenging, with patience, planning and persistence, it’s possible to create a space that reflects your dreams and stands the test of time,” she wrote in an email.
New York cabin inspired by Scandinavia
When Spirit Demerson, 46, and her partner were searching for a home, the houses available fell short of what they imagined. So they met with their agent to discuss buying property.
They ended up spending $47,500 on a five-acre lot in Forestburgh, N.Y., in 2020 that they thought was suitable for a Scandinavian timber cabin. For the floor plan, Ms. Demerson, a former beauty consultant who is now an interior designer, used an app to rearrange the rooms and went to the architect with a nearly finished concept.
They set a budget of $350,000 for building, but the quote came back at $405,000 because the pandemic had affected the cost of structural elements. After accounting for furnishings, plus an outbuilding with a gym and an extra sleeping space that was not in the original budget, they spent $600,000. Their home, which they now use as a short-term rental, is 1,600 square feet and has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Once they had a plan, the builder estimated completion would take nine months but after three years he was still not done, and they had to replace him.
Despite construction being a male-dominated field, Ms. Demerson encourages women to be confident in asking questions and not to be intimidated since they are investing a large sum of money.
“Listen to their expertise but do your own research because you are going through this process for a long period of time, and you should be informed at each stage,” she said.
Blank slate in Toronto
Andrew James waited several years for a century-old house in his neighborhood, The Danforth, to be placed on the market. When the home eventually was listed and his offer of 880,000 Canadian dollars was accepted, Mr. James gutted it and made it his own.
“It’s essentially a new build,” said Mr. James, a lawyer. “I doubled the size, and dug out the basement so I have eight-foot ceilings in the basement, along with heated floors.”
He designed his home using an app and then took the plan to an architect. In addition, he researched costs and found HomeStars, an online database of tradespeople, and used it to save money by finding workers within his price range.
He hired a green contractor to coach him through the process, and the end result was a home with the highest certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building ratings system.
Mr. James faced a delay in starting construction while awaiting a ruling on zoning variances. He and his wife eventually started building in June 2015 and moved in 10 months later. The home, with six bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms and over 3,600 square feet of living space, including the basement, cost 800,000 Canadian dollars to build.
Mr. James said interior designers are expensive, but they can make all the difference.
“It is a major investment, but they just know stuff and you don’t know what you don’t know,” he said. “You don’t want the husband and wife arguing about this stuff.”
Mr. James believes building a home is great because you can get what you want.
“I personally enjoy dealing with the guys,” he said of construction workers. “It was really fun and when we finally constructed the mainframe of the house, we sat on the roof, late in the afternoon, looking over the Toronto skyline and it was satisfying because we built this house.”
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