Self worth

Custom Home, July-August, 2002 by Leslie Ensor

If you ever want to find out the true value of your professional services, try building your own house. You'll find out just how hard it is to do when you don't have a committed general contractor riding herd on the project. Yes, I know. Most of you are general contractors committed to that role. But on your own house you're not that dispassionate professional whose attention is focused on budget, schedule, and client service.

Your own house is likely to be relegated to second-class status while you concentrate on your clients' new homes. Crews, supervisors, and subs only show up on your job when they're not needed elsewhere. To make up some time, you strap on your tool belt and become a weekend warrior. The construction schedule, if there is one, quickly becomes an office joke. And no one is prodding you and your spouse to make decisions on time. How can you, when weekends are devoted to the jobsite instead of visits to dealer showrooms with your spouse? Finally, you experience multiple-role disorder because you are cast as client, builder, husband/wife, business owner, bill payer, and bearer of good and bad news to relatives and friends in this little drama.

I may be exaggerating here. Still, each of the three custom builders I interviewed for "Builder's Own," profiles of three houses builders built for themselves, expressed how stressful the process was. "Next time, I'll hire a general contractor," one of them cracked. But the experience provided them a rare opportunity to walk in someone else's shoes, in this case their clients'. And each came away from the experience more sensitive to their clients' difficulties and fears. They learned that building a house can be very stressful for clients. The dangers they faced are common: The home's design must satisfy several different visions. Making decisions is tough when two or more people have to reach consensus. There's always the temptation to let costs creep beyond the budget.

But these are precisely the areas where the professional custom builder is invaluable. You provide much more than construction knowledge. Without the discipline and order you are able to impose on the building process, schedules and budgets would be meaningless. And without your reassurance and steady hand, the stress of building a custom home would seriously challenge the owners' relationships, careers, and sanity. You don't have to build your own home to know all this. But if you ever do decide to build your dream house, the best investment you can possibly make is to hire a good general contractor.