Day 115 – Adair Homes Prices, Painting and Finishing Back Fill

Our excavator was back on site this week. He was supposed to be there last week but he didn’t show up until Friday afternoon. He left all his equipment there over the weekend so I thought he would be back on Monday, but he didn’t show up until Tuesday.

Since Tuesday he’s been working hard. Our site superintendent gave him a call and I think it helped light a fire under him. (Thanks John!) The sewer, water and gas trenches have been back filled (this was done last Friday). They have all the rain drains and foundation drains installed now; and they were inspected yesterday. There was only a small change that needed to be done from the inspector and then it was approved.

They worked on the back fill and grading of the rest of the foundation and finished the section needing to be fixed after the inspection was approved. The hope is that this week we will have the entire back fill completed and get the front porch prepped for concrete.

Painting with Adair Homes

Inside the house our painters have been diligently working. It’s turning out great so far. This is one area you can save a lot of money with Adair Homes by doing it yourself, which I know friends that have done. Well, they had some retired relatives and flexible work schedules to help them, two things I don’t have.

With Adair Homes you have three options for painting – DIY, have Adair Homes do it or hire a painter yourself. We initially had this included in our home order, however after getting bids from painters it was going to be a huge savings by overseeing this ourselves. It does take a little time coordinating this, but so far our painter has been really awesome.

Looking at the weather I was hoping the painter would be able to get to the exterior this, but I’m not sure we’ll be able get to it before the rain starts. He said that they might be able to do the caulking this week.

If you’re building with Adair Homes it is your responsibility to do the exterior caulking. When I initially asked the painter about this, he was a bit surprised and after talking to other people, it sounds like the standard is that the siders are typically responsible for the caulking. It’s not a huge deal, but you want to make sure you have the painter include this as a part of their bid; or if you’re doing this yourself, make sure you have time to get this done as well.

Adair Homes Prices

I had a question from a follower last week about the cost to build our home. I’ve posted about this in the past. It’s really hard to say what the exact cost is going to be to build a new home because there are a lot of factors; the price for subcontractors, the price of lumber, your specific wants, etc. Due to these different factors the base price is always changing. From the time we first met with Adair Homes to when we signed our home order there were two price increases in the base price. Once you sign the home order and are price locked you should not see any changes unless you don’t have the lot ready by the specified lot ready date.

If you’re trying to compare builders and prices you can get the base prices and take them to another builder and see how they would compare. One thing to keep in mind with the base price from Adair Homes is the standard features. If you’re planning to upgrade anything it’s going to be a lot more than the base price. With the standard features you will not be getting anything fancy. A lot of people choose to upgrade things after the fact, but you’ll want to look into how much it is to get things changed and include that in your budget.

Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of extras that are not included in the base price for Adair Homes, such as anything that happens on the outside of the house. If you decide on a custom builder they might be including everything that goes into building the house; excavation, permits, outside utilities and some include landscaping. When you look at the base price from Adair Homes, know that there is a lot that you will be responsible for that will increase the price per square foot of a new home build.

With all that said, we did look at our options for building with a custom builder compared to using Adair Homes (or other production builders) and for us it was going to be less to go with Adair Homes. At the sacrifice of not having every option we wanted we decided that the floor plan we found gave us enough of what we wanted for the best price.

The best advice I can give to someone who is just starting out in the building process is to talk to multiple builders and talk with someone else who has built to get different viewpoints. When you set up your initial visit with Adair Homes don’t think that you’re committing to them. Just use it as information and if you decide not to go with them, you’ll be able to use what you learned to help you make decisions later on.

 Finish Truck Coming Next Week

I’m not sure how much will get done next week as it is Thanksgiving, but the finish truck is supposed to arrive Monday. The painters should be back to get the caulking done for the exterior and depending on weather they may start painting.

Also, I heard from the gas company and they were able to move our install date sooner, so we should be getting gas November 26th.

With the finish truck showing up Monday all the fun stuff is really going to start. Hope you continue to follow along as we see the finishes go into the home!