Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum 1 Feb 02, 2012 9:40 am Hi there, Just wondering what everyone experiences as an OB where like? We are STILL in the planning stages - plans finalised, building permit through so now just waiting on the finance so we can break ground... We've had a few hiccups already but just wondering what the worst part of your build was. Jem's Custom build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58630 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 2Feb 02, 2012 2:33 pm Hi jemsaf, Being right in the middle of it right now I should know a specific answer to this but honestly, it is just everything. Don't get me wrong - I love doing it but it is pretty consuming!! Some things that can be really difficult: Dragging young kids to tile shops, bathroom shops, timber yards, etc. when you can't get babysitters (or have already used up your fair share of baby sitting hours) The fact that it tends to be all you think of from the time you wake up until the time you (finally) go to sleep. The waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, everything generally takes longer. Either doing things yourself or waiting for tradies to arrive to start work... it all takes longer than big builders who have multiple contractors working for them For some owner/builders, finance can be a big stress - I mean getting finance before you start or budget blow outs during the build. Even with heaps of estimates and quotes it is still difficult to know an exact figure that you will end up spending. Having said all that there are so many positive and rewarding parts to owner/ building - must be or we wouldn't keep doing it!!! I'm just too tired to think about them right now Best of luck - it is so exciting when you finally 'break ground' Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 3Feb 04, 2012 11:17 am Thanks for your reply. Yes I am a little worried about the stress of finances but I am sure we'll work through it. I am also not looking forward to dragging the kids around either, we will have to make the most of the time they are at school/childcare. Jem's Custom build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58630 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 4Feb 04, 2012 2:57 pm One thing, and one thing only and that's... colours!!!! I have never been one to redecorate and i never will be. I can now see why interior decorators charge what they do lol Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 5Feb 04, 2012 5:42 pm Hi again jemsaf, I have decided, after today, that one of the most stressful things about OBing is never seeing DH ... and when I do we only have time to discuss house stuff... I wonder what we will talk about once we have finished building!!!!!!! All his spare time at the moment is at the building site... hard on him doing all that labour intensive work and hard on the kids and I not seeing him as much as we'd like to!!! BradS - if colours is the most stressful thing to you, then you must be having a smooth build!! Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 7Feb 08, 2012 12:55 pm jemsaf - im going to list my 'so far' list; * I have to agree with Rocketship - not seeing the family or spending quality time will get to you. it proves difficult that every time you do sit down, it always comes back to the house. but i do not regret it one bit - just remember WHY your building the house and WHO its for * Family (working with) - anyone that you have in your family that can offer their services, get a quote up front. The phrases 'it will be about' or 'just fix me up later' WILL come back to bite you in the rear. always ask for a quote, irrespective of who they are * Keep a budget - coming up with a budget is relatively easy, maintaining a budget is completely different. being strict as to stick to and where to spend more is difficult. Without this, you will always risk not having the money at the end that you expected to Hope it helps Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 8Feb 08, 2012 3:04 pm Agree with most of whats being said here....however we didnt owner build, and wish we had. Our builder (a major renovation company) initially sold us on using them as a full service builder but allow clients to bring some of the trades themselves. We sourced our own sparkie, cabinetmaker, did the demo and site cut and all of the finishes ourselves. Its been a nightmare as the builder is now trying to get out of contractual obligations to avoid hiring tradies to do some minor jobs at the end. We aint talking large sums of money here but as for full service...we might as well have done the lot ourselves. So go you ...do it yourself, you will save a fortune and the the time you spend on the project isnt much less than you would spend doing it our way. Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 9Feb 10, 2012 3:12 pm Thanks for the replies. I am not looking forward to having no spare time either. I think this and the financial stress is my biggest concerns. Luckly I am keeping family completely out of the build but friends that want to help may be a little surprised when we can't pay them (except for BBQ's and beers). My husband has his own small business (carpentry/building) and in the past we have paid some of our friends to help him out on jobs. That will be a little tricky as well. Jem's Custom build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58630 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 10Feb 10, 2012 4:45 pm I've found that if I tried to do a schedule and stick to it my stress levels go up significantly. There seem to be more hold-ups for owner builders as tradies seem to put you lower down on their priority list than bigger builders who they get repeat business from. A few times I've gotten a bit ahead of myself and booked in a string of tradies, with each job relying on the previous job to be completed. I then found it stressful having to continually juggle and reschedule stuff. I learnt quite early on not to plan too far in advance, and expect the build to be slow. We're very lucky in that we're living on site in an old house that will be demolished near the end, therefore we're not having to pay rent so there's no financial need for us to rush. The other most stressful thing we've found is dealing with tradies when things go wrong (and things ALWAYS go wrong). We've had about a 50% success rate of really awesome tradies who we trusted and could rely on, and the other half have been absolute shockers, stuffing up heaps of stuff. You really need to oversee all their work and be confident that you can firstly see where the errors are and assess good workmanship, and secondly stand up to them and sort it out if they have stuffed up. We've found that even if it's a job that we know not much about, my DH spends a good deal of time researching it all and learning exactly how the job should be done so he can make sure it's done right. We've found it HEAPS less stressful when we're physically doing the work ourselves are we have total control, therefore we have tried to do as much of the work ourselves as we can. The final thing that I've found stressful and hard work is I've got 2 young kids and my 3yr old HATES getting in and out of the car and going around to shops. She chucks massive tantrums when I try and get her in the car so I really have to limit how many places I can go in a day. Makes it extremely hard to shop around for stuff, and hard to make decisions when you've got someone screaming and doing wee on showroom floors. Oh, and say goodbye to a social life for the next couple of years! Our owner-builder journey - viewtopic.php?f=38&t=45187 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 11Feb 13, 2012 2:15 pm I have to love the last comment - ' Makes it extremely hard to shop around for stuff, and hard to make decisions when you've got someone screaming and doing wee on showroom floors.' This should sum up the term Owner Builder Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 13Feb 15, 2012 4:28 pm Hey JMAP I've had the weeing bit happen to me 3 times, and each time it was right when I was talking to the sales assistant. The most classic one was when were were in a light shop and just as my DH said to the sales assistant "can you do it any cheaper for us" my oldest DD calls out "Mummy she's done a wee again". We look down and not only has she done a big wee on the carpet, she's managed to wee right on a display and it's soaked into a box containing a fan. Hmmm, classy. Pretty hard to negotiate a good price when your kid is weeing on their stock. We're now really good at going straight up to sales assistants as we walk in the door and asking where their staff toilet is so we can bolt there if necessary. Only problem today was she chucked a massive tantrum in the Reece plumbing staff toilet and barrackaded herself in there. The staff had to get her out. Ahhhh who would owner build with toddlers! Our owner-builder journey - viewtopic.php?f=38&t=45187 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 14Feb 15, 2012 4:31 pm Oh and just to top things off, the plumber has just informed me that the mixer taps we bought don't fit. When you turn the mixer lever all the way to cold it hits the wall and you can't turn it all the way. Now have to find 3 new taps Every day a new problem. I REALLY loved our kitchen mixer. Was one of my favourite things in our kitchen. Back to another plumbing shop with a weeing, screaming toddler. Our owner-builder journey - viewtopic.php?f=38&t=45187 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 15Feb 16, 2012 1:46 pm TamK - Im not too worried about the weeing piece (though I cant count how many times my 18 month has had nappies changed in the boot of the car as we leave yet another tile store) The tantrum bit is what irritates me the most For everyone - if you are going to negotiate and you need to have the family there, never do it by yourself. Having the comfort of saying to your partner/poor suck you convinced to come with you for the day "please take them outside before i use child (insert which one here) as currency" is a great help Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 16Feb 16, 2012 3:38 pm This thread today has really made me giggle. It is all exactly what we are living through right now. I felt l was reading my life story whilst Owner Building with two small children and a partner who is doing most of the work himself! I have been trying to find another word bigger than 'stressful' for this experience. I have been using stressful a lot but now it's gotten way beyond that. But in a strange sort of way it also very rewarding to see stages complete and slow progress being made. The hardest part of Owner Building for me is the slow slow speed of the build. It takes for ever to actually get tradies there and everyone is always waiting on some other part to be done. Also sourcing materials and knowing what is the best to use. I have found there is so much out there that it has been difficult at times to put it all together. I also often think about what we will do with our time once the house is complete, as the build has been life consuming. After reading all of this Jemsaf don't be completely put off by Owner Building. It has its place and benefits but be realistic and prepare as best you can for total madness! BLOG: thehousewebuilt2010.blogspot.com (And are still building!) Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 18Feb 17, 2012 1:03 am and cleaning it.... Our owner-builder journey - viewtopic.php?f=38&t=45187 Re: What was the most stressful component of your build? 20Feb 19, 2012 10:12 pm There will be lots of little things along the way that go wrong. We are nearly at lockup on our owner builder house. It has a suspended slab with a room in the loft. There were so many things that needed changing along the way. The concrete stairs were too steep on the plans, so that was changed on the plans. When you have good tradies, they can point out this sort of stuff to you. Now we have stairs with a deeper tread. When the slab was marked out, one door frame was put in the wrong spot, so when the double doors open the doors went past the wall instead on opening level with the wall. So we had to get the brickie back to extend the wall. We paid a builder to mark out where to put the weep holes in the loft. Out of ten weep holes in the loft we have one left as they were all put in the wrong spot. The roof flashing covers them now. Make sure you choose the best tradies you can afford and see their work before you go ahead with them. Always ask lots of questions. Try to think ahead of where you will put things in your house. I thought we were well prepared and the plasterer just asked about where all our tiling will go. Actually hadn't thought too much about it, so had to work out exactly where the tiling is now going to go as you don't tile over white set plaster. Check where your plumber has put the waste drains etc. We wanted this lovely bath with a centre plug hole and he put it at the end. That made me mad. Our electricans are excellent, always got great ideas and suggest another light where we should have one. Difficult part is getting quotes. We got caught out a few times, got one door hung and cost $250 just to hang it. Be patient and just wait for the best tradies. Good luck! The worst thing you can do is sign a building contract without a pre contract review. Over the years many people have come to me with disputes where they just signed… 0 8351 Thank you. That is really helpful. Once we get the place done and passed for OC we can upgrade in the future once we get back on our feet and not paying mortgage and rent. 4 5745 Thank you so much everyone. This all makes a lot of sense. I guess when you talk to a builder who butters up everything to look very polished, you get to start believing… 7 17618 |