just built a house - lessons learned!

[swissmiss]

Hi everyone – I don’t know if this will be useful, but we’re fresh from our new build house and have just moved in after a 2-year process (one year planning, one year build). There are some key things that we really weren’t aware of, which inevitably added to our budget. In order to help others in the same position, I’m willing to share some key lessons we learned!

 

Most of these apply if you are having a house built on contract and are then adding your own touches also. Hope they are useful….

 

Some key tips for things that are easily left out:

 

-         remember to factor in money for tax (TVA) and *installation* ('pose') of everything

-   factor in the delivery & instaallation timeframes - can take weeks, especially with holiday season approaching

-         floors – remember skirting boards (for wooden) and rods  

-         doors – remember to cost in door handles & back plates

-         if you’re having a terrace, know that concrete foundations can cost a lot, ours didn’t come with patio tiles as standard – that’s extra!

-         if you’re having a lot of wood on the house or any sort of word storage it needs to be treated – can be costly and awkward to do afterwards

-         balconies / Stairs / mezzanines – cost in the (balcony) railings and / or handrails (not usually standard)

-         most new build house deliveries don’t come painted – remember to set aside money for painting all rooms, and exterior walls (the French use ‘crepi’ a sort of smooth pebble dash (a bit horrible, but doesn’t draw in the rain)

-         lightswitches

 

-         if you’re designing yourself, don’t forget useful things like:

o       a tap for the garden

o       utility room or cupboard

o       loft space/other big storage area for big things like kids beds, skis, duvets, etc

o       exterior lights

o       alarm/alarm system

o       steps to the house or paths (laying concrete is costly)

o       laying the drive, adding gravel/tarmac

 

Check that suppliers all work to the same set of standards and norms. Our house-builder worked to a different set of norms to our chimney installer. We had to take down the chimney casing and install different fire-proof plasterboard afterwards….

 

Also check that everyone works to THE SAME PLANS, and that they all *understand* and *check* the dimensions….(don’t ask)

 

Our process was to buy land (haute savoie) and then build. We love the house and are happy with the end result, although its been a long process. More information where all this came from!

[Gastines]

Very useful. When I used to do re-furbs and building jobs I used to  TRY and think of each job that had to be done and write down a rota, then think of everything that each job entailed and TRY and cost materials and labour cost and labour time. At the end I used to pencil in an extra 15% to cover forgotten items. My wife used to go through all my notes and usually managed to think of quite a few items that I'd overlooked. The only fortunate thing was that as I dealt with the same property owners for about 12 years,including our own re-furbs, I just used to get the keys to thier homes and properties and was never asked for a fixed price or quote. I used to keep a day to day expenditure sheet and just present it at the end. I find the most difficult item to price in France is Timber.Treated/quality etc. However, now I've hung up my hammer and nail bag I don't have to tax the brain too much.

Regards.

[Monika]

Very useful tips, we only had an extension built and a renovation the rest of it, but now I wish we would have been more thorough in emphasising things/putting things in writing to our project manager. Anything we agreed by word of mouth has really been forgotten. For instance a lot of the electrical points are in the wrong place, admittedly some of it is our fault as we were not 100% sure where we wanted them on the plans. Also, they sourced all of the material and fittings and fixtures and I wish now we would have demanded to see samples, because some of the things are not to our liking (doors, door handles, basins).

Now for a bit of private talk: I was intrigued by your name "swissmiss", are you by any chance from Switzerland and from where? I come from Obwalden!