Reining Yourself In????

[silvercrayon]

In an earlier post I mentioned that we are in the beginning stages of building our dream home. I want it all!! But, I can't afford every little luxury. My DH has been great agreeing to everything so far, but the cost are already going up with the choices we are making.

If you have built in the past, how did you stay firm with your budget? I'm struggling.

P.S. I know this is a first world problem! 

[mrsukyankee]

I didn't build a home but I've fully renovated two houses from studs. I made a list of what was most important to me to the least important. I then figured out the budget using this - if it was most important, it got more money. If it was less important, it got less money. Some things didn't happen due to having less money and that was okay because my big stuff did get done. And you can always make some changes later - fixtures and fittings. Think about things you CAN'T change later as easily - those became some of my big things (electricity placement, wall placement, etc).

[ktw]

We are almost done with a semi-custom build. This was challenging for us, largely because we wanted prices for everything up front so that we could prioritize, but our builder wouldn’t/couldn’t do that. Prices are really volatile right now with supply issues and delays. We had to decide as we went, and tried to focus on things that actually had to be done during the building stage. An example is that my husband wanted stairs from the basement to outside - they’re built into the foundation, so doing that later is a no-go. But when our master bathroom floor tile ended up being $$, we switched it out because we can always change that later.

[aprilsails]

We set a hard cap at the beginning based purely on our desired mortgage payment. It was $80k higher than the base price for our model so we obviously anticipated a lot of upgrades and customization. We asked our contractor for a price list of anything and everything we would possibly think of changing, and then we went through the list and determined what we wanted and valued the most.

Nonetheless, other things came up during construction. For instance the contractor’s tile options at his base price were terrible. So we had to upgrade those. When time came for selecting countertops we went with a pricier option.

Now, DH had one item in our upgrade list which I thought was stupid but he was adamant about, and that was increasing the basement ceiling height from 8’ to 9’. That was a $9k cost increase. However, when the contractor went to survey for the basement work he found that based on the sewer line invert, we would need to add a sump pump to the basement if we wanted the additional depth. So we scrubbed that from the list, because a sump pump would mean stress, a generator, and a pile of additional costs.

So then we had $9k to cover the tile and kitchen upgrades.

Jokes on me though, I had let DH set up the spreadsheet where we tracked all the housing costs. Spreadsheets are not his forte but I figured this was pretty simple. He had made an error where he didn’t count one of our deposits against the final purchase price. We figured it out one week before move in that the house was actually going to cost $30k less than anticipated. Beyond that, interest rates dropped even more before we closed, so our payments are even smaller than planned. There are definitely some other upgrades we would have gotten with that 30k, but it doesn’t matter now.

[simpsongal]

Jun 4, 2021 2:51:42 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I didn't build a home but I've fully renovated two houses from studs. I made a list of what was most important to me to the least important. I then figured out the budget using this - if it was most important, it got more money. If it was less important, it got less money. Some things didn't happen due to having less money and that was okay because my big stuff did get done. And you can always make some changes later - fixtures and fittings. Think about things you CAN'T change later as easily - those became some of my big things (electricity placement, wall placement, etc).

This - as we take on major renovations, I put money into things like lots of high quality windows.  I can't tell you how I wince at all the $2M new builds going up around me in Northern Virginia w/obviously cheap windows.  I wish we spent more for our patio door (french door) but time was against us so it's from home depot. 

When we did the mudroom, I went mid-range on the cabinets, knowing I could replace or paint them in ~20 years (they're solid wood).  I also did Home Depot hardware, which I don't love but hardware can be $$$$ (and easily replaced later when money isn't as tight).  

Spreadsheets are your friend and they really help you see the sum total of each little decision.  B/c spending 50% more on a toilet may not seem like a huge deal, but it adds up if you make the same upgrades on everything and buy multiple items.  I also find it helpful to think of things as a tradeoff.  Like yes, I could have spent more on our cabinets, but then we couldn't have done such a nice back patio.

[corgimom]

We did a semi-custom build so we had a base price for the home and layout but could pay more to "upgrade" or change things.

Like others have said, we prioritized things that would be difficult to change later, so things behind the walls, placement of walls, outlets, lighting fixtures, switches, flooring (got higher quality padding for carpets, upgraded anything from tile because tile is $$$ to tear out), cabinetry, larger shower and tub and the tiling around them. Our house came with 9' ceilings downstairs and I would have paid to do that. I upgraded the railings on the stairs and took out a half wall that overlooks the entry to have that match the railings. We had a larger patio poured out back and we upgraded the outside of the house (stonework, 3rd car garage, etc)

This we did NOT do: countertops - we found ones we LOVED for a great price elsewhere and had them installed right after move-in. Light fixtures - we have replaced them all for a fraction of what our builder could have done it for. Backsplash - We're going to do our own this summer or fall. Paint - We have been painting the house in higher quality paint, plus our builder would only let us choose 2 colors. Hardware and fixtures - we are installing our own cabinet hardware, towel bars, etc. Closets - we have been installing our own closet systems and are planning to do our master closet this winter. We're doing and IKEA system and it will cost is 2-3k but the option from out builder was nearly 7k!!!

We moved into the house in April 2018 and have already made a lot of changes ourselves. I'm actually glad we waited on some things because it gave me time to live in the space and see how we really use it before we made decisions.

[aspentosh]

As many have said, figure out the most important things and the things that would be hardest, or impossible, to change and go from there.

We've never built, but when we've done renovations I've put the money where we would get the best long term benefit. For our bathroom, we are splurging to move our window and toilet because it means a bigger shower and easier for curbless. Shower fixtures are another thing we splurged on because thermostatic controls sound awesome and might as well front the money vs spend $500 now and having to replace in a couple years. Vanity came next because it'll be the feature for our bathroom but we still didn't go crazy $$$ on a 60". Tiles, while annoy to replace, are not something I want to spend $$$$$ on because I like some cheaper ones just as much. Same goes for mirrors, light fixtures, hardware, etc. Doesn't mean I'm not buying something I hate, but my $100 light fixture is going to do the job just as well as a $500 one.

Maybe it's different for new builds because you can't just buy things as you find them and do a lot of bargain shopping...

[atarianna]

Honestly, I was able to find cost savings in some places to be able to splurge in others. With supply costs right now it’s likely much much different than when we built 1.5 years ago, so it may not be possible.

My best advice is, do what you want (within reason). Don’t spend good money after bad, meaning, don’t spend money twice on the same thing just to save a little up front.

Example: I wanted a very specific solid door for our interior doors. It was $35/door more for solid vs hollow and another $20/door for the design we wanted versus the typical raised panel door. I had a really hard time relenting and ordering the solid door in my style preference but LOVE them so much and am so happy I did it.

If you think “I can upgrade later” just spend the money upfront. There is no reason to spend $500 on a light fixture now, just to change it out in a year and spend another $900; just do it.

At the same time, you need to ensure you’re not allowing scope creep to completely blow out your budget but I guess what I am saying is, figure out your priorities and non-negotiables and go for it.

[ellipses84]

I’d priorities by the following:

1. Things that are impossible to change later, like ceiling heights or major wall placement

2. Things that are expensive to change later or % cost upgrades for something that I love vs. spending almost as much in something blah or basic. Finishes, especially tile and countertops and are in this category. Why pay $4k for a countertop you don’t like when you could pay $5500 for one you do, and not have to hate it for a few years and eventually spend even more $$ and hassle replacing it. The same goes for light fixtures, but if a builder is charging $$$ for a minor upgrade that’s worth more than it should cost, I’d consider changing out a light fixture later, and just make sure the electrical was in the place I wanted to be.

Central vac with openings under kitchen counters is high on my priority list. Some things you can ask for the infrastructure to be put in so it’s easy to add the rest later, and that can be a way to save money at first (or throw it in at the end if you are better on budget than you expected).

Extra windows or solatubes go on this list. I see so many new houses where the plans don’t take into account the site and amount of / type of natural light or good views at all. My parents neighbors built an extra house on their lot, partially blocking their water view, and didn’t even put windows on the water view side 😖

4. Things that will improve my daily life, have moving parts where higher quality is better or create energetic savings that will save me utility costs (although the last one hopefully you are getting as a a default for most things). For example, cabinet hardware, insulation for soundproofing / energy savings or windows.

Anything I could DIY or might re-do in 5-10 years wouldn’t be on the list. Outdoor projects / landscaping would be a low priority unless they were needed for drainage. I’d love a $$$ nice patio on day 1 but I could live without it for a year if it meant getting all the interior stuff I really wanted because that’s a standalone item you could bring someone in to do later or DIY if it’s a deck.

If you have options, you need to ask yourself, can I live with this? Do I really care about this? And say no to the upgrades you don’t feel strongly about.

[aprilsails]

Oh reading ellipses84 post reminded me:

Don’t tack on landscaping on day 1. A house will naturally settle slightly over 3-5 years. I don’t know why but over half of the neighbours in my new build street have done elaborate landscaping and patio installations immediately after move in, some even cutting off their front steps and replacing them with patio stone work.

When you go to the next street over which was built between 7-10 years ago many of the houses have uneven or downwards sloping patio installations and steps. These are the houses that spent &$$ to do it on day one and who have a crap installation now.

Our house looks plain at the moment, but we’re not going to touch the outside other than some plantings for 5 years.

Now this could just be a problem because my area is all clay, but I think it’s definitely a consideration and there’s a lot of keeping up with the Joneses going on with the exteriors.

[msn06]

We built 4 years ago with a builder in a subdivision. Things that we spent money on that were worth it. Adding extra windows, adding additional outlets in rooms to accommodate tvs, lamps, my craft supplies, in the garage. A friend who is an electrician said its worth the cost just so you don’t have to try and run wires latter. He gets called to so many new builds after year and has to run wires and cut into dry wall.

Few things we wish had done because it would have been cheaper is a bigger patio. The cost of the extra concrete then was significantly cheaper than what it just cost to put in. In retro spect we should have done the walk in shower in mast bath and added a transom window for natural light. Someday we will probably remodel the bathroom for the shower but its way down on the list. However we stuck to our budget and that was the right choice at the time. We also not have a much bigger patio than we ever would have thought about previously so I guess that worked out for the best.

I agree on sticking to the basic landscape plan.