We’ve been dreaming of our place in the country for years.  We’d been waiting and watching for the right piece of land that we could afford—away from the suburbs, away from the noise, and hopefully away from the stricter rules that govern suburban life.  That’s a tall order for folks who are tied to the city by work and don’t have enough money to buy property close by.

While most people prefer acreage that gently rolls or is flatter and lends itself to building, our prerequisites for our slice of heaven are a little different.  Jeff is an off-road enthusiast who has helped friends piece together–from old trucks–rock crawlers that are capable of climbing hills, scaling large rock faces and short cliffs.  He and his buddies thrive on challenging trails, not just paths cut through the woods for ATVs.  If you add boulders, steep inclines and possible roll-overs, then you have the epitome of a rock crawler’s path.  What some see as an impossible, quagmire of rock and woods, they see as an invitation to play.  It would have to be large enough to have several trails, yet affordable.  Sound impossible?  I thought it was—until we spotted a “for sale” notice on some acreage nearby.  He agreed to owner-finance our dream for a while, with a payment I could manage.

And now we want to build our next home on this piece of land.  We found a spot toward the top of the hillside that is buildable yet overlooks the wooded valley, and we’ve been searching for plans that come close to our country home.  We listed all our requirements and wants, then we started searching house plans online.  It was dizzying.  Over the past year we’ve both viewed more floor plans than we ever cared to, and nothing seems to come close to what we need or want.  So we took a couple floor plans with elements we liked, and we visited with a local drafter to create something for us.  We patiently waited 12 weeks for the results. What we didn’t consider were the costs associated with building different styles or elements.  Everyone tells you to be prepared for sticker shock, but we truly thought we were being reasonable with our plans. We’d had several discussions about building smaller, but we decided using a two-story plan should keep costs down to include all that we want. Shows you what we know…nothing.

I loved our plans, and with us performing at least some of the work ourselves, we felt that we could do this.  After finally finding several contractors to give us bids and waiting another two months for the first bid to come through, we suffered our first stroke looking at the bottom line.  This house would cost us twice as much as our budget allows!  Now, we know that construction trades have been going crazy lately, and they are very busy.  We know that most contractors don’t need more work, so we know that will affect the cost (the old supply and demand theory in play), but we honestly didn’t expect this.  How could we have been so far off? 

We since have researched a few other, simpler plans of the approximate same size, but the initial estimates are still huge.  We’re now researching the option of working as our own general contractor—something we hoped to not need do.  With Jeff’s business keeping him busy 60-plus hours a week during spring and fall, and with me working full time, it doesn’t seem feasible.  Yet we aren’t giving up hope. 

We’ve had a few disagreements about our expectations.  I contend we need to think smaller.  Jeff refuses to allow me to “shrink my dream.” We will likely have a compromise in the end, but until we check all our options, we’re on hold with the construction.  We can’t even get a loan lined up until we have both the plans and bids in place.  So meanwhile, I’ll share with you, dear readers, some of the things we’ve learned thus far.

Some things to consider if you hope to build a country home?

1. Consult with general contractors before you create a plan.  Discuss your important home features as well as the cost differences between building styles and materials.  For instance, a higher-pitched roof that requires specialized trusses, or a house with a wider-than 32-foot truss stance will cost much more.  The more angles a roof has, with more details to the build, the costlier it’ll be. Some contractors can assist with plans.  I would do this first, even if you decide to use an architect (which can cost much more than an engineer or drafter, by the way).  A seasoned professional can give you guidance before you employ someone to draw up plans.
2. Where you build on your lot can make all the difference.  Our original plan had the house on the edge of the hillside, and moving it up the hill just 50 feet can make a huge difference in the cost of the foundation and fill.  But because we’re likely to encounter rock when digging we thought it’d be cheaper.  A professional explained to us that the move could be still cheaper due to the amount of back fill you’d need in the original site.  That’s something he knows from years of experience.  Plus, there’s a reason why so many homes are built close to the road and utilities.  While we are able to help defray the cost of running electric lines because Jeff can dig the lines with his trenching equipment, most would encounter a large bill just by trying to locate a home a couple hundred feet from the main electric lines.
3. Be careful of estimates with costs per square foot.  While the regional average of building a home might be one amount per square foot, if you’re not building in an already established subdivision with utilities, that cost goes way up when you factor in a well and septic system.  What are those square foot averages based on?  Heated square feet?  Or overall square feet?  While our plan for the livable space was 2200 square feet, when the porches, decks and garage were all considered, it grew to over 3000.  And of course, it depends on the finishes you choose.  We haven’t chosen expensive finishes, yet our bid cost ended up being way over what we expected per square foot!
4. Unless you can afford to let someone bid the overall cost for you and oversee all the details, it’s best to obtain subcontractor bids yourself whenever possible.  General contractors not only mark up the cost to build by a percentage or a GC fee, they may also work with the subs to create bids that give them a percentage of each piece of the pie.  A plumber’s bid that you may get for $10,000 suddenly becomes $13,000 even before the overhead and profit are added.
5. Consider the value of the work you would perform yourself, and make sure that the cost is listed as a line item on the bid.  While you need the bid amount for loan purposes, particularly including materials you’ll need, you’ll want to be able to back out the labor for your own work.  You’ll need the loan to cover the build, but it should not include your work.
6. Last, make sure you’re aware of all the details of your pending construction loan and how the down payment is figured.  Our first bank approved us for a loan amount, with 20 percent down payment coming from our cash on hand and equity in the land.  We expected that, but then they told us they would only figure the equity of the land based on our original purchase price, not the current value of the land.  They would not appraise the land for the construction loan, just when the loan is converted to an actual mortgage.  The construction loan is a different animal. The right loan officer will work with you to consider ALL possible paths of funding construction, and that can make the difference between getting a build going or not.