THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170681
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
It's a good thing my mother lives in Illinois and won't be reading this. She's a firm believer in the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not whine. But I'm building a house. The trouble has started. I can feel a big whine coming on.
I have bought many houses. I have gutted and remodeled. In the course of writing this column over the last six years, I have observed and documented other people's houses being built. None of this adequately prepared me for building my own.
My general contractor is capable of building a house with minimal input from me. In fact, some houses on the Outer Banks, usually investment properties for owners who live elsewhere, are built that way.
But the Outer Banks home market is a custom-home market. Few builders build the same house over and over without changes. Even fewer build model houses or houses to be sold upon completion (``spec'' houses).
Outer Banks home buyers want their houses to be uniquely theirs. Most will work from a pre-designed floor plan but will change it an average of 15 times before the contract is finally signed. Once the contract is signed, one in five clients will make a major floor plan change. The rest will make 10 to 15 minor changes.
Although I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, in spite of my protests that I'd not be changing things once plans were drawn, I've been no exception. I spent days studying floor plan books, tearing out the plans I liked, cutting and pasting plans together until I had three different designs that, I thought, fit my needs.
My builder took those three plans. Several days later, he presented me with a floor plan that bore no resemblance to what I'd given him, yet managed to incorporate most of the features I'd wanted. That feat caused me to consider that, perhaps, the builder knew more about this process of designing and building a house than I did. But I wasn't quite ready to admit he knew more about my ability to make decisions than I did.
The plans were perfect, I said; the builder simply smiled. And then, over the next two months, I proceeded to change the perfect plans. I had to pare down room sizes to bring the house in line with my budget. I wasn't happy with the kitchen layout (I changed that three times). Other changes were minor but numerous: the direction doors would open, the size and placement of windows, adding skylights.
Like most buyers, I expected to choose the house siding and trim, door and window styles, floor coverings, cabinets and countertops, bathroom fixtures, appliances, light fixtures and wall finishes. I just didn't know how much trouble it would be.
When you decorate a ``pre-owned'' house, you're not starting from scratch. Some of the ground rules are already laid. Decorate a new house - one that exists only on paper - and anything goes.
I've been overwhelmed by the decisions.
Let's take kitchen cabinets, for example. I had my choice of white or almond laminate or numerous wood finishes. By choosing a simple European-style, custom-built laminate cabinet, I avoided other styling decisions.
Had I chosen a wood finish, I would have needed to decide whether I wanted the framed or frameless look: flat, raised or recessed door panels; glass insets with or without mullions. There would have been numerous hardware choices.
I had to decide what shelf and drawer configurations I wanted. Did I want roll-out drawers? Lazy Susans in the corner cabinets? Vertical storage over the refrigerator? Bookshelves? A recycling bin?
Before I made those decisions, I had to know the make and model for each kitchen appliance. Did I want a cook top and built-in oven or a free-standing or drop-in stove? Did I want a side-by-side refrigerator? Was I going to put a microwave/exhaust fan combination over the stove or would I have my microwave built into the cabinets?
Every decision affected the next. When I switched from a drop-in stove to a cook top and wall oven, I lost my bookshelves and over two feet of countertop. When I moved the refrigerator to a tight corner, only a side-by-side style would work.
Maybe the kitchen wouldn't have seemed so mind-boggling if, at the same time, I wasn't trying to decide so many other things.
The contract price for most Outer Banks houses includes allowances for carpet, light fixtures and appliances. The electrician and plumber bid their work on code requirements. Any extras, any expenditures over the contract amount, are paid by the owner out-of-pocket at closing.
I wanted real costs, not estimates, to ensure that I was getting the quality and quantity of everything I wanted without needing a second mortgage to close the deal when construction was complete.
I picked the carpet and vinyl floors. I know where I'll install ceramic tile, where I want wallpaper and where I want paint. (I know these things today but I worry, of course, that I may want to change my mind.)
Instead of waiting until I could walk through the roughed-in house with the electrician, I sat down with a floor plan of the house and tried to visualize every light fixture, ceiling fan, wall switch and electrical outlet. I came up with 35 light fixtures; the builder added another five or six that I'd overlooked.
The builder laid out about 40 wall outlets, I added 12 more and I'm still not sure I have enough. A friend who has been through this tells me that I need to take the number of outlets I think I need and double it. I can't bear the thought of calling my builder with more changes.
In other markets, many buyers would be looking at model homes or ``spec'' houses, avoiding the headache of making a million decisions. On the Outer Banks, such houses are rare. That fact is, in part, a reflection on the buyers: Few are first-time buyers; most have built houses before. Most want to be involved from the ground up.
My builder says he wants his clients occupied with decisions about light fixtures, carpet and the like. ``It keeps them busy while we take care of the building,'' he says.
He doesn't need to worry about me getting underfoot. I still have to pick my countertops from 437 samples of Corian, Wilson Art, Nevamar and Formica. And then I have to decide whether I want the tops post-formed with an integral backsplash.
And then I can start on the bathrooms, the roof shingles, the exterior siding. The way I figure it, I'll be finished making decisions about three months after the builder completes the house. MEMO: Chris Kidder covers Outer Banks real estate for The Carolina Coast. Send
comments and questions to her at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head, N.C. 27959.
by CNB