It was still too early in the game for downstream COVID-19 effects to play out fully. It remained unclear if the local GC backlog was pandemic-related or if contractors were leveraging demand and lowering expectations. Our thought process was all the restrictions and related effects were temporary and that life would return to normal in weeks, perhaps in a worst-case scenario, a month or two. Finding a qualified contractor this far in advance should be possible. The Fraser Distillery provided good food and generous portions of home-distilled spirits, prompting us to minimize the impact of future challenges while inflating our sense of optimism.

My visit was short, intense, and productive, as we both had a laundry list of items to address. Hayden’s list consisted of revisiting objectives, zeroing in on workable designs she liked, defining finish levels, and a budget she could handle. My list included service providers, infrastructure requirements, and essential vendors. Our goal was to have the project ready by spring ‘21 and to line up as many available vendors as possible. I was proud we were so proactive. It was reasonable to assume a 1+ year lead time for specialty service providers would provide adequate notice. We came to discover it was not. Unknown to us is a thing called ‘Mountain Time’ that follows no calendar or cloud-based scheduler. Mountain folk tend to be salt of the earth, good people. Yet, their service delivery depends on factors difficult to quantify, impossible to predict, and in no way dictated by your schedule.

Hayden was dead serious, so we conducted a down-and-dirty, off-the-cuff acquisition discussion while she slogged her way back to her car. We reviewed the property size, utilities available, possible housing type, infrastructure requirements, and ballparked costs to realize her dream. Ideas and numbers were randomly thrown about and ultimately had no validity with the volatile state of affairs waiting around the corner. The lot was well-priced but had failed to gain traction before COVID-19, and with the national lockdown, our speculation was it would take time for this listing to garner actionable interest. It is important to remember this was early spring 2020, and most people were sheltering in place, only a month + into the lockdown with no end in sight. The full extent of the supply chain disaster had yet to hit the fan, and the tsunami of people searching for alternate living situations was mere weeks away, as a dam was ready to break. Hayden understood the seller, who sat on a lot for almost a decade, needed a quick sale. We translated a ‘quick sale’ as a willingness to negotiate, so we discussed coming in under the asking price to determine the owner's bottom line. My philosophy has always been to make money on purchases and not hope for future value appreciation. In short, always attempt to start with a favorable equity position. It was a gamble as the asking price seemed more than fair but the fact remained raw land presented marketing challenges during the best of conditions. During this brief point in time, real estate activity was, at best, anemic, so the hope was these factors would work in Hayden's favor. We settled on requesting an 8% discount off the asking pricing as the offer was close and also presented a nice round number. A penny saved is a penny earned, even if it is just a penny. Such a big commitment made her understandably nervous, but the excitement of the acquisition led to the next call, the new realtors.

The following is a true saga detailing the challenges, frustrations, endless days, and the excitement, joy, and personal satisfaction of building a home with my daughter (Hayden). I am a professional general contractor specializing in historic homes outside of Pittsburgh, PA, with intimate hands-on experience and knowledge of all elements of the home construction process. However, 35 + years of experience failed to fully prepare me for such an undertaking. Looking back, it is easy to recognize the long odds against pulling off this ambitious venture, but as with many worthwhile things in our lives, if we knew the downside upfront, we would be inclined to do nothing.

From an established east coast construction environment to a 9000’ remote mountain, ground-up home build, it was safe to say I found myself out of my comfort zone. Before breaking ground, a local contractor predicted we would retreat in failure as many had done before, as they believed experience in other geographic areas would translate to mountain building. Even though such a statement was akin to waving a red flag in the face of a raging bull, there were times during the process when I wondered privately if he was possibly correct, as there were moments of true desperation on this long journey. Pressing on through extremes of weather conditions and numerous unpredictable pandemic-precipitated circumstances, there were moments when we thought we had reached the end of ourselves. We had not, as somehow, we had found a more bottomless reservoir from which to draw.

An appropriate comparison for remodeling is spelunking. You never know what awaits you until you go in and explore. You go in hoping to discover a crystal cavern but more than likely; it will be a shit sandwich of mouse-dropping, guano, and organic material in varying levels of decline. Your thought through your plan; the execution is spot on, you open walls, and 'Poof' your plan is figuratively, and quite literally, out the window. Issues are not solely age-related as previously unknown mechanicals, structural, or unusual conditions can waylay the best plan. If you were curious about the difference between new construction and remodeling, hidden unknowns top the list.

New construction starts with a clean slate where design/build features can be incorporated and planned for from the beginning. Far from a rainbows and unicorns experience, new builds tend to have fewer surprises. However, renovations require you to break a few eggs before you make the omelet, and gremlins hiding behind 30 layers of paint, wallpaper, and crumbling plaster can quickly derail your plan. The first step is to lay bare the skill set of every tradesman to work on your dream house. I have worked on enough century + old homes to know the mindset that "they don't build things like they used to" can be an illusion. What made sense in the original build or some subsequent modification now becomes an obstacle in your redesign. Such hurdles have the potential to impact not only the direction of the final build but also significantly increase the project costs.

Most people are unaware, but in many municipalities, you and your poker buddies can draw up Man Cave plans during halftime on a napkin, sufficient to obtain a building permit. An engineer's stamp may be required for any structural work required, but as long as you pass inspections, you, too, can be your own architect and builder. So this merits the question of what professionals you need for your project.

Any project needs a plan providing directions on how to reach your objective. Simple projects may have clearly defined and obvious steps, but the more extensive your plans, the more you will need a professional(s). The more detailed your project, the more professionals will be required to assist you.

Without question, you will need someone to do the work, so you will need a contractor. There are 2 significant types of contractors. 1). A technician providing the skill set and horsepower your project requires. 2). A General Contractor who is a soup-to-nuts facilitator providing sequencing, supervision, coordination, and knowledge of the micro-processes to fulfill your scope of work. This is not limited to million-dollar projects, as many routine household remodels require this level of oversight. A skilled technician could be your best option if your project is one-dimensional and you are comfortable providing the functions defined above. If you overestimate your skill set in any of the tasks mentioned above, the cost of what you don’t know may readily exceed the additional cost a GC would charge to perform that function.

From the dawn of time, acquiring a place to call your own has been etched into our DNA. From caves to cud-a-sacs, we want a plot of land with a house we can call our own. Wars have been fought, and governments have been overthrown over this basic need. This adult-level acquisition is a right of passage, just as potty training, formal education, puberty, and obtaining your driver's license are. Not everyone passes through, but most do. This blog is for those about to launch themselves into the process but are questioning if they are doing the right thing.

If you are nervous or anxious about the process, I am here to reassure you that these emotions are normal and healthy. The excitement of the process can quickly morph into cognitive dissonance, where you can't sleep from wondering if this process is the correct path. You have buyer's remorse and have yet to collect the keys. Let’s further evaluate this significant life decision from where you stand in a fog of uncertainty.

It is important to understand why you are purchasing this home. If your answer is a home should be a great tax deduction, everyone else your age has one, or you fear missing out, your anxiety may be justified. If it is the next right thing to do in your life, let’s attempt to put your mind at ease.

The simplicity and sensibility of this statement belie its complexity. The number of times I have heard this phrase over my career is slightly less than the number of projects I have contracted. Unknowns are a part of remodels and rehabs. These typically fall into one of two categories. The walls are open, and it’s a Grinch Christmas extravaganza with a laundry list of deficiencies. Little or no insulation, knob, and tube wiring, insect &/or water damage, and plumbing issues are a few of the unknowns that force you to address before going forward with your original plan. Even if your home's existing conditions are pristine, the second category tends to kick in. Another window or perhaps a skylight, bonus storage space would be nice, removing a wall would open things up, the library needs additional casework, another layer of trim would add so much visually, footsies and toes would appreciate supplemental heat, now the adjacent flooring looks like crap. The list is endless and “Project Creep” can become a slippery slope.

Fewer deficiencies accompany newer homes and smaller projects, but the “Got-to-Have” add-ons tend to be universal. If you have friends, travel, access the Internet, and think about your comfort, you will come up with ideas that are not in the original scope of work. It is not unusual for additional work to add 10-15% or more (sometimes a lot more) to the base contract price, so it is essential to anticipate and incorporate this phenomenon into your plan. This is not necessarily bad, as upgrades and additions can provide immediate benefits. The most elemental is peace of mind, but enhancements to your lifestyle can be the gift that keeps giving long after the dust has settled. You need to be aware there will be an impact, and this impact is not yours alone. Time and costs are preliminary considerations, but remember that your expanding scope of work affects your in-demand contractor and delays downstream clients and their projects.

The frequency with which this question arises demonstrates how well the concept is known but how little it is understood. Shiny and New does not make a home code compliant more than Ugly implies it is not. Building codes have a rich history dating back to the heyday of Babylon, circa 2000 B.C. Then, as with today, codes provide health and safety protection from known hazards, but it is essential to remember that there is context to this continually expanding document. The original Babylonian regulations may have protected residences from unscrupulous contractors but, in the end, proved meaningless when dealing with invading forces. I imagine all this proves is if one thing doesn’t get you, something else will.

Whether the specific codes your municipality follows are international, uniform, or some other building codes, they provide a consistent level of minimum building standards you can count on anywhere in the country. It is a living, breathing document subject to annual updates and regulation changes reflecting advancements in materials, products, social awareness, and our ever-changing lifestyles. I imagine confusion abounds because the codes are, by their nature, a moving target. It is important to understand code changes are not upgrade mandates. Generally speaking, new regulations are not retroactive but go into effect from the point in time they are adopted and subsequently into the future. This point of fact is more important if you own a home built around when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock vs. a new build in a subdivision.

For one reason or another, your current home is no longer large enough. You may need another bedroom, bathroom, larger kitchen, private in-home office, or more family living space. The simple solution is to add bulk square footage to fill the need. Pay attention to homes during your travels, and it becomes evident that this basic solution is all too common. Boxes devoid of imagination or creativity slapped onto homes like a cancerous growth where the prevailing philosophy was if “x” square footage is good, “2x+” must be even better.

Over the years, I have worked on many period homes, and no matter the style of the original structure, a cube rarely improves the base structure. I am not an elitist, but architectural integrity, aesthetics, and creative license are very important to me and should also be to you. I am in no way promoting spending above your comfort level, but decades of experience have repeatedly confirmed attention to detail can yield significant benefits far above your initial cash outlay.

Excluding those who have the sole purpose of gaining the biggest bang for their buck, there are several very acceptable philosophies on architectural integrity. Some believe any addition or modification seamlessly blends new into old. Others have no qualms with well-defined demarcation lines proudly emphasizing the boundaries of new work. I view an addition as a new member of a family. Every addition, like a baby or partner, will bring something new to the table, changing what already exists forever. The hope is that the addition will enhance and not detract. A dysfunctional or unattractive addition should have the same appeal as your youngest daughter bringing home an unmotivated, emotionally unstable, couch-surfing man-child. Harmony is always the key, and whether the work subtly modifies or radically changes your home, the addition must fit and complement what already exists.

There is a tiny percentage of the population that lives like Gypsies, Vagabonds, and Nomads. These are great names for boats, but most of us limit our residences to random locations for less than three weeks a year. For the rest of the time, we want nothing more than to put down roots. Some place to call home, hang our hat, let our hair down, and kick off our shoes. An unfortunate phrase has become associated with one of the most expensive purchases many of us ever make. The ‘Forever Home’. Execute a Google search for types of homes. There are beach homes, mountain homes, split-level homes, farmhouses, and even old folks homes, but no forever homes. What does one look like? How many bedrooms and Bathrooms does it have? Does it have an English garden, turret, or a hot tub?

I understand the concept, but it is an illusion and a false narrative, and ‘Forever’ does not have nearly as long of a time frame as we might assume. What happens when the perfect 2+2 family is surprised with the number 3, and there are no longer enough bedrooms? What if someone is transferred across the country for work, there is no longer enough room in the kitchen for all the cooks or a storm deposits a tree in your living room? The list of potential changes is endless and can quickly make our ‘Forever’ Home into anything but. Our needs change, as do our tastes, the levels of finish we desire, the amount of square footage we need, not to mention the modern conveniences we cannot live without. You can call your Home whatever you want, but it falls considerably short of forever. A more appropriate description may be a personal way station.

As Dink’s (Double Income No Kids), your nest egg has successfully transported you from an upscale city loft to a 3 BR, 2 ½ Bath suburban anchor. You now have a white picket-fenced yard for your dog and enough square footage to justify commencing with a college fund. The home ticked many boxes, the inspection report was reasonably clean, the mortgage was event-free, and you received the keys. Walking through your front door, the next step in adulthood, suddenly takes on a new homeowner perspective.

The list of ‘Wants’ and ‘Needs’ can expand exponentially. No longer can you call the management company for a leaky toilet or a door that won’t close. You are now the management company. Most home purchases are of older homes with no warranty, and your window of due diligence expires upon closing. Although furnishings will be a high priority, new and older homes will have issues at some point. It is not if issues will arise but when there is typically a cost. Some will have a lower impact as they are cosmetic. Others are discretionary and potentially bigger ticket items resulting from your desire to change/personalize the home. The last and possibly most problematic to deal with are issues that do not manifest until the house is put through its paces. There is no guarantee surprises will not be hiding in your walls, attic, under the floors, and behind appliance housings, while Mother Nature and acts of god are a gust of wind away from putting their dent in your limited resources.

You are responsible for the mortgage, taxes, and utilities. You put food on the table, keep up with maintence and take great pains to tastefully furnish your home. Unaware you go your merry way as unwanted guests, one by one, are taking up reside somewhere in your home and doing so rent free. They can be extremely persistent, tend to arrive unannounced and when you become aware of their presence it is usually to your shock and dismay. No we are not talking about your mother-in-law or down-on-their luck relatives that feel you have something to offer in their time of need. What we are referring to here are critters.

Snakes in the basement, bats in the soffit, raccoons in the attic, mice behind the cabinets, termites in the floor, birds in the chimney, squirrels in the wall, spiders in the corners, carpenter bees in the columns, meal moths in the pantry, skunks in the crawl space, mold in the shower, you get the idea. There is an endless parade of unwelcome visitors looking to capitalize on your oblivious hospitality. There is nothing more embarrassing than having one or more of these unwanted tenants making a random appearance for invited friends/family to observe. The rumor mill can go into overtime referencing biblical type plagues and your house keeping abilities

Every home has a heartbeat, personality, and a spirit. You walk into a home and it has an identifiable energy. Whether the nuanced atmosphere of the home presents as a subtle influence or it is glaringly obvious the ability to impact you is beyond question. How many times have you heard home purchasers declare they knew this was their dream home the instant they walked thru the front door? My wife and I had the opposite reaction when we looked at a home and the second we entered the foyer we knew something was off and without seeing more collectively opted out. Later it was disclosed there had been a recent, and tragic death, in the home. On the other hand the first house we purchased should have been torn down and although there was no apparent or rational reason why somehow it felt like home, and ultimately it became so. I don’t know how it is possible for an inanimate object to put off such vibes, but it does.

The lifeblood of a home can generate emotions from “Warm Fuzzies” to debilitating spikes in your anxiety. You may live in a new development where the only noticeable difference between homes is the model of car in the driveway or your home may be a unique, one of a kind, with a centuries old ownership legacy. Whether your home is a newborn or one manifesting its age it is still your baby and needs to be treated as such. It does not matter if it is a runway showpiece or the runt of the litter home ownership can be compared to having and raising a child. Like a child a home is unique and becomes a product of its upbringing and the effort, attention, applied to it. Well-balanced attention, care, and love will yield positive results you will be proud of. Take care of it and it will take care of you. The opposite is also true. Poor attention to details, neglect of deficiencies, or over indulgence in some areas to the detriment of others in the end can, and more than likely will, cause you issues and reflect poorly on you.

The initial go to response is to quantify your comfort level. If you have balance issues or fear of heights then cleaning out gutters on your tippy toes, from a step ladder, may be a hard pass project. Short of specific limitations my goal is to motivate you to reconsider your stance and expand your DIY skills. At the very least as the tag line from the ‘Red Green’ show so eloquently states; “If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

As a child, when forced to assist my father in the repair of cars, fixing things around the house or tackling chores I held fast to the emphatic belief when I grew up I would be rich enough to hire someone to do all that stuff. The joke was on me because I have made a career out of doing what homeowners were/are incapable of doing themselves. Perhaps indirectly that is your bent today. You rationalize hiring out tasks as a more cost effective approach and on paper you are probably correct. Your billable rate is $300/hr and handyman Hank will do it for $30/hr in half the time. You don’t need to be an accounting wiz to solve that equation. Long gone are the self sufficient days where you were the sole proprietor of your own destiny surviving on your natural talents and hard learned abilities. Today we have gone to great educational expense and effort to effectively pigeon hole ourselves into a world where you are only capable in one area of expertise. What has been lost in this polarized world of work identity is the personal satisfaction and pride derived from knowing you made something happen with you own 2 hands. You can not put a dollar value on how a successfully completed project can boost your emotional psyche. You will feel like a hero simply because you took control, tackled it and saw it through to completion.

This is a cautionary tale for you adventurers who have chosen to dive into the deep end of the pool. Many of you bring little to no applicable experience to the game. That did not stop you. There is no easy formula to determine what you should have done differently or should be doing now. Much of the math is hidden behind Victorian wallpaper, under mosaic tile and deep within your ability to adapt and adjust. In short there are many unknowns and how they play out is similar to snowflakes. No two will be the same.

You fell in love with a quaint historic home in a magically old section of town. It was impossible not to be enamored with the wrap around porch, stain glass windows and period woodwork. You envision your rambunctious protégé squealing with delight as they race from room to room on Christmas Day. The state of bliss you imagine precipitates the big smile you have plaster on your face.

You move in and reality wipes that smile off your face. You haven’t spoken more than two words to your partner in days, or slept much for that matter. Money is tight as you sit in the middle of a plaster covered disaster zone. The hot water tank shit the bed the night you moved in. 13 calls and no one is interested in providing assistance with the developing, smelly grey water issue occupying more and more of the basement. The furnace is putting out air slightly warmer than the windy 10 degrees outside and your electrician uncovered something nasty called Knob and Tube. What started out as a Disney adventure ride has deteriorated into an out-of-control roller coaster ride you cannot get off.