With an 8-acre property in Southern Indiana, I’ve begun the process of building a home, shop, and needed infrastructure so that Beth and I can put down roots again and have our forever home. The process has been a challenge, even for someone who has been involved with building many structures in the past (over a million square feet, in fact). I haven’t built many homes, but I have built many commercial, educational, correctional, and medical buildings. While all of them were built using off-site construction, so most of the trades, processes, and materials are the same, with the exception of foundation and at-grade or below-grade trades. Still, I felt ready to manage the process as General Contractor, even when I ran into the challenge of finding subcontractors.
The home building market here in Southern Indiana remains hot, so finding subcontractors who can commit to being on site this year has been exceptionally hard, especially if you want contractors with a great reputation for being on time and providing good quality at a reasonable price. But before I go into that further, let me tell you why I became the General Contractor.
The venture into being GC wasn’t my original plan. I planned on the company that built our shop to also build our home, turn-key. For 6 months, that was the plan…until we were at the point of getting the final update on their bid so that we could apply for the construction loan. But at the last minute, they decided to take another direction. Because we were on the far edge of their service area, they decided that they could only build the shell, with complete exterior including foundation, roofing, siding, windows, doors, and interior framing. That left me the task of finding all of the trades needed to finish the home if I still wanted to use the original builder, which I did. Beth and I wanted an Amish crafted home, so we still wanted to use the original builder and as many Amish subcontractors possible. I knew I could manage everything, but I didn’t know how hard it would be to find the subcontractors needed and maintain our original budget.
So far, we have built roads, brought water and electric 450 feet to a central area between the shop and home, and the shop is built. We ran utilities to the shop and laid down rock for parking and other areas needed to work around the shop. We have all of the bids needed for the house, and many are the same Amish subcontractors for cabinets, doors, trim, flooring, and countertops. We are grateful to have found highly respected local subcontractors for the remaining trades…but I’m betting we’ll encounter many more challenges over the next several months as we live this adventure.
Our next step is getting the construction loan and formally contracting all of the trades. Wish me luck!