Expensive to build this home?

[Nalu Mama]

Out of curiosity- WHY wold you build a new house when there are so many new houses sitting empty for sale?
not being a stinker- just wondering.

Breathe. Relax. Focus.

[mikewj]

I can't answer for Francesca, BUT my reasons for building vs buying are several:

Firstly, the stock of spec houses available are, almost exclusively, mainland-style tract homes. They have small rooms, small windows, and are dumped on a pin to pin cleared lot without regard to the prevailing winds or the view (if any).
Secondly, they are generally not designed for outdoor (tropical) living. the roof overhangs are minimal, and if they have a lanai it is generally fully exposed to the weather with no overhead cover.
Thirdly, and for me most importantly, if I build a home from scratch it can be exactly as I want it (within budgetary constraints). I can build a home which has only to please me, and I would plan to live in it for a very long time, rather than sell it as soon as the market improves.
If 'spec' homes were built for the climate and placed rather than dumped on their lots, I'm sure that more people would buy rather than build, since building takes a lot of time and energy.

[Francesca]

Nalu Mama, the reason we are building instead of buying an existing spec home is for several reasons. The primary reason is that we already have land with one home on it and this will be a second home that we are building on our property. My family is Hawaiian and it's not uncommon for a local family to live in a "compound" with extended family, which is our plan.

Even if I didn't already have a home with property to build on, I wouldn't want a spec home for all of the reasons that mikewj listed so well.

Thanks mikewj! I couldn't have said it any better. : )

[Nalu Mama]

that makes sense. thanks.
I like the compound idea- I plan to do that one of these years.

Breathe. Relax. Focus.

[Francesca]

We're finally getting closer to starting construction. We now have plans approved by planning, health, and engineering departments and are now just waiting for building to approve.

We also have estimates for most everything. Just need plumbing, site prep, and septic estimates. Including my "guesstimates" for those three and real estimates for everything else, we're at about $75K to build our 672 sf, single-wall, raised up 8 ft post and pier home with small (6x12) screened-in lanai.

Most of the windows will be special order because I want the kind that slide up and down, instead of from side to side. So, the things that are adding a bit more expense are the windows, the amount of overhang (3 ft.) and steeper pitch (5/12) of the roof, the 9 ft ceilings and being raised up 8 ft.

To keep costs down, I decided to do without the five panel interior doors that look like the old style that we have in our existing plantation style home. We're going with inexpensive bathroom sink, shower, fixtures, etc. and going with stock cabinets for the kitchen.

So, a bit of give and take on cost versus wish list. Our target not-to-exceed cost is $70K and I'm still hoping we can hit that number. I've guesstimated plumbing, septic (no leach field needed, will drain into our existing cesspool instead), and minimal site prep at $5K each. I don't expect plumbing to come in under $5K, but the site prep may be a bit lower. We have estimates for finish carpentry figured in, but may decide to do that ourselves in order to stay within budget. We're definitely going to do all of the painting ourselves. We'll have to see how are energy and sanity is holding out when we get to that point.

Anyway, I'll give updates as we get more information that may be helpful to someone else who is just starting the process.

[t_honu]

Francesca are you buying all the material and subing out the labor work or are you subing out the work with the sub buying all the material to frame up your house. How much is your labor costing you to put up your home?

Good things come when you be Honest!

[Hotzcatz]

Ya know, there are old plantation houses you can buy or get for free and move onto your lot. See if you can find one and your costs should be way below the 70K, maybe half or less. Also, the taxes on an old building are extremely low it would probably be less than $500 per year and for a new house your taxes will probably be four times that.

[csgray]

How do you find one of those houses? I would love to move an old Kama'aina house and restore it but I'm not familiar with the house moving industry here. It was really big in Eugene, Oregon when we lived there, there were 4 different house moving companies in a town of 150,000! It all started in the seventies when the state and feds ran a freeway through a low income neighborhood of beautiful old craftsman homes. People got them for free and moved them to new lots.

Carol

[Francesca]

quote:

---

Originally posted by t_honu

Francesca are you buying all the material and subing out the labor work or are you subing out the work with the sub buying all the material to frame up your house. How much is your labor costing you to put up your home?

Good things come when you be Honest!

---

t_honu, yes we are buying all material and subing out the labor. Quotes are still coming in, so I don't have all of the costs for labor. I'll post a breakdown when I have the final quotes that we are going with. The one big one I'm waiting for now is plumbing.

[Francesca]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hotzcatz

Ya know, there are old plantation houses you can buy or get for free and move onto your lot. See if you can find one and your costs should be way below the 70K, maybe half or less. Also, the taxes on an old building are extremely low it would probably be less than $500 per year and for a new house your taxes will probably be four times that.

---

Hotzcatz, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, there are a couple of reasons that won't work for us. The primary reason is that there isn't any way to get a house into our back yard/building site. Our house, which sits toward the front of our property, is in the way and there are houses on either side of it. In the back of the property there is state land with large trees that are in the way. The other reason is that most old plantation homes are larger than what we are allowed to build on our lot. We're building a one bedroom, although we are allowed up to two bedrooms. We just need a one bedroom and don't want a large house to maintain. It's a great idea, though.