Building a high performance home
dan.bulwinkle.net
dan.bulwinkle.net
If just 1% of all software developers are writing near-flawless code to spec, that's still about 287,000 people in the world. They're relatively accessible and the chances of you being able to work with one on a short timetable is actually pretty high.
By comparison: GC's, architects, builders at that level are far, far more rare by the numbers + highly localized + are usually mired in many years-long projects simultaneously. They do not need your business, are paid whatever price they ask, and are usually booked far in advance.
Even so! If you even get the hint that someone in that situation is willing to work with you it will save you far more time and money to wait for that person than to try going with someone available that you feel alright about. If they're readily available, it's because they are not in demand. Think about why that might be. If you can afford to, waiting for the person you actually want to work with is the better option every. single. time.
Most of this heartache could be avoided with two principles in my opinion: 1) do the harder thing (i.e. pour concrete), 2) build as close to commercial code as you can afford (i.e. find a commercial builder if you are chasing specs like this, a mechanical company to do this vanity HVAC work, etc).
If you want to build a home, try building a shed. Learn about code, how to keep out water, how to insulate, how to condition the air (if necessary). You will learn how many ways there are to achieve the "best" result, how many small skills that you will need to learn, and how many products are out there that market themselves as the best.
Building a home, even if you just plan it and oversee the build, is the equivalent of a 2-5 year software project.
My advice would be to decide the things that you absolutely must have, especially the ones that will be unique to your build and communicate why you want them to a good GC. Work with an architect, a builder, etc. Let your GC manage the network of trust necessary to get a project like this done. Or pay up and find a boutique builder that builds exactly what you want.
> I’ve never seen such incompetence in the tech industry, so perhaps that’s why I was so naive.
I get the sense that real estate in general is an extraordinarily mixed bag with far larger deviations than I’m used. Currently trying to buy a home and some of the solicitors that supposedly do this for a living come across like it’s their first time communicating with a client
Most people who work in professions that require doing more than the bare minimum in order to not get a bad performance review and eventually let go from their company will be shocked by what happens in real estate at all levels (building, buying, selling).
Also, the incompetence the author experienced is because virtually all of the skilled and smart tradespeople are doing commercial work, or they’re booked a year out.
How
Something really nice I saw recently at a friend's house in Amsterdam, it's a Qettle, a faucet which is able to dispense boiling water instantly! Fully electric, using induction. And I was thinking about this recently, because where I live in Portugal, for the shower and the kitchen's faucet, share a boiler, which it's in the kitchen. If the faucet didn't need it, the heating could be way closer to the shower, making my shower hotter!
To be responsible for the design and look of an entire house… I can’t imagine anything more stressful. Especially while having to balance it with a budget
They sell the topsoil and replace it with cheap (rocky) fill. Every. Time.
Stucco is the default in the Southwest, especially in the temperate climates. Most lower density commercial nationally will use some kind of EIFS (think fast food establishment, drug store etc).
In places with more weather, it's not easy to get right and the residential crews aren't always abreast of EIFS that has well designed moisture management. I had to pull the entire failed stucco system off my current dwelling and replace it. There is no easy way to do that, and putting up a new one is also extremely labor intensive.
The classic Western stucco gig is to put down two layers of building paper over the cladding, styrofoam, chicken wire, a cementitious brown coat and one or more cementitious skim coats. This is really inadequate for anywhere with snow freeze/thaw cycles or enough rain and high humidity, but does fine in climates like central and southern CA, AZ, NV elevation dependent. You can improve this slightly by specifying different foam and skim product but to really deal with climate you are getting into manufacturer's product line, and it gets both technical and labor intensive where you are looking at an EIFS with proper moisture management.