Construction company wanted Part 2: Builder change
Back in Germany, we racked our brains as to how we could turn the floor plan, which we didn’t like but contained everything we wanted, into our dream home . Because when we got back, we were supposed to meet the architect. In layman’s terms, we drew a pencil sketch on paper in the style of the plan we had. We also created a specification list so that we could turn the estimated offer into a detailed contract as soon as possible.
Architect of the old school
So that we didn’t lose so much time, we took care of the seawall (sea wall), which was built immediately after we re-entered the country in December 2015. One day after our arrival, we finally met with the architect together with our builder. He seems to be a man of the old school, which shows a certain amount of experience and quality. Disadvantage: We would probably have to do without modern tools such as CAD and 3D.
The office in the rear building was very interesting. There were several piles of hand-drawn work plans that gave the impression of a good order situation. We emphasized that our self-made drawing was only a sketch and were curious to see what the master would make of it. When we asked if we should meet at the property, we were told: not necessary.
Well, we already had a survey that included all the dimensions. After we had gone through everything, we waited about a week for the floor plan, which we met again to discuss.
A professional floor plan at last
About a week and a few small optimizations later, we had a floor plan in our hands, on the basis of which our chosen builder would prepare a detailed offer. In the meantime, to be on the safe side, we wanted to obtain two or three more comparative offers, as we now had a professional floor plan.
We went to the builder on which the CAD drawing was based. Like others, it was no longer in our price range. The prices for new builds seemed to be rising every month. Another offer also knocked us off our feet, as it was six figures higher than the estimated price. So far, we had only looked around among the well-known house builders with their model homes located around Cape Coral Parkway. Anyway, we actually already had a builder. Unfortunately, his final offer was much longer in coming and we were a little irritated.
The prospective building owner needs new approaches
So we decided to explore new avenues. We looked for a few builders in the lower price segment who are better known for standard homes than for custom homes. Initial discussions led us to believe that we could expect prices that would meet our expectations.
Two of them were also shortlisted. During a visit to the first estate agent ‘s model home, we were given an estimated price based on the floor plan and specification list we had brought with us, which allowed us to make an appointment with the builder.
This really pleasant appointment was very informative, but unfortunately the initial estimate was way off the mark. At the second appointment, after going through the specification list and finding no major problems, the agent drove us to two of his model homes. He estimated where we would be in terms of price and his assumption for our project suited us.
Great idea in the Great Room
Luckily we came across this builder, because in one of the houses we looked at we found such a good sliding door solution in the greatroom (living room, dining room, kitchen) that we later changed our brand new floor plan again. Very often you will find a sliding door corner front to the pool in the greatroom in the relevant building plans (picture left). If the budget allows, this is often designed with a so-called corner sliding door. This is a sliding door that is installed at an angle and is therefore very expensive.
In winter, you slide all the doors open and virtually live outdoors. We had planned a corner sliding door like this. The solution we came up with had no corner at all in the 70 m² room for the living room, kitchen and dining room. Instead, it opened up the entire room with a 24-foot (7.30 m) long sliding door design with 6 panels (picture on the right) without any disturbing corners or edges. You could look across the entire width of the room from the stove over the pool directly onto the water of the canal. Great! Want to have.
As we were still waiting for the aforementioned offer from the builder we had already chosen and this had not arrived even when we asked, we decided to change builder. We met for a four-hour meeting, went through the contract and the attached specification list point by point with the estate agent, then asked him if he could build it for the price we had in mind and received the OK about half an hour later. We sealed the deal with a handshake and were delighted to have found a builder for a second time. But the deception seemed to be over again.