THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604250314
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
For the last six months, Frank ``Buddy'' Johnson Jr. has had no spare time. He's been building his own home.
He's given up sleep to pour concrete, weekends with his family to lay tile and home-cooked meals to put down flooring.
Johnson belongs to a small but special breed of homeowners. They are sticklers about quality, these do-it-yourselfers, willing to sweat and toil to save big bucks and micro-manage a small army of workers to get what they want.
Johnson and his wife, Joyce, wanted a big house with lots of breathing room between neighbors. So they designed and built a brick two-story home with 4,500 square feet of space on a rural parcel in Chesapeake. It stands on Seven Eleven Road, where Johnson's great-grandparents lived and farmed, and down the road from where Johnson grew up.
``I was thinking about naming it,'' Johnson said recently as he stood on the packed mud of his front yard and looked at his home. ``I was telling one guy, the way things are going I think I'll call it the Poor House.
``We could never have afforded to build this house if we hired a contractor,'' Johnson said. ``Wouldn't have been a chance.''
One appraisal fixed the value of the Johnsons' home, minus the land value, at $218,000. But they will spend far less to build their palace. Their cost? About $150,000.
``You save so much money knowing how to do things,'' Johnson said.
Johnson, who is 47, maintains rental property and is a jack-of-all-trades. He has been learning the how-to's of construction since he was 19. That's a long time to figure out what mistakes not to make, he said.
Six or so men have helped Johnson build his home. Some are family, some are tradesmen with whom he is friendly, and a few simply are hired guns. Still Johnson figures he's done about half the work involved.
He helped clear his lot with a chain saw and bush ax. He helped dig the footing, frame the house, put on the roof, put up sheet rock, install wiring .
Johnson may be more hands-on than others who build their own homes.
Oh, sure, there's the guy who hammers every nail. He likely will take longer than the six to nine months most do-it-yourselfers spend. But unless he's independently wealthy, he probably will pay more in interest on his construction loan simply because he borrows longer.
At the other end of the spectrum are the people who leave the laboring to the subcontractors and the site management to someone else. They probably have little experience or interest in construction.
People like Johnson hold the middle ground. They've worked in construction or know family or friends who have. They act as foreman, scheduling ``the subs'' and making sure the materials arrive when they are needed.
``The trick is you have to know what you're doing,'' Johnson said. ``The average person has no idea what it takes.''
William A. Gillum built a 3,000-square-foot brick and vinyl home on Westward Drive in Virginia Beach. It took seven months and about $145,000 to buy the land and construct the home, which a bank appraised at $190,000, Gillum said.
``It took a lot of time and my wife walking through hardware stores,'' Gillum said. ``After going to a hardware store for five months every night, it starts to wear on you.''
It took an ear-numbing amount of time on the phone. Subcontractors would page Gillum at work and ask questions such as: Where do you want the electrical switches? How do you want the tub placed?
``It's mind-boggling how many decisions have to be made,'' Gillum said. ``And quickly. You darn sure want a pager.''
But what Gillum needed most, he said, were good management skills. Acting as the contractor, he had to know when the foundation guy was going to finish so he could tell the carpenter when to begin framing.
``You don't want your house sitting there for weeks without any work being done,'' Gillum said.
Scheduling and managing the subcontractors didn't always go smoothly. If a sub didn't show, Gillum had to track him down and find out why. If he wasn't happy with someone's work, he had to explain and demand better performance without ruining the relationship. He didn't have the time or money to dismiss anyone and start over.
Gillum is 37 and vice president of Mill-End Carpet Shops in Virginia Beach. He understands the construction business. He works it every week. And he offers this tip for anyone who doesn't, but wants to build their home anyway.
``Get a good builder,'' he said.
W. Carl Gilmore of Suffolk may do just that. His friends say he should construct his own home. They have promised to help. But Gilmore remembers his first effort.
``It was a headache, just trying to get people there who wouldn't show up,'' Gilmore said.
Gilmore wants to build a 4,000-square-foot home in Sleepy Point Estates in Suffolk. It would be the third he's built. He can hire a builder or he can do it himself and save about $15,000, he estimates.
``Fifteen thousand dollars is not worth it to get in the middle of it,'' Gilmore said. ``Not to me.''
Gilmore is a battalion chief for Portsmouth Fire Department's District 2. He works a second job, tending lawns. Building a home would devour any free moment he had.
``It's a lot of stress,'' said Gilmore, who is 37. ``You've got to be a person who doesn't worry. I'm a Type A personality.''
Jim and Christy Litchfield are building a 4,000-square-foot home that overlooks the 10th fairway of Cypress Point Country Club in Virginia Beach. It is the second home they have built, though this time they didn't hire a contractor. Litchfield is it.
``You eat, sleep and drink this thing every waking moment,'' Litchfield said. ``And you wake up worrying about what you forgot.''
As part of the application for a construction loan, the Litchfields had to estimate their building costs. That meant marching their blueprints around to subcontractors and collecting two and three bids for 42 categories of work.
The Litchfields figured the task would take a month to complete. It took at least three months instead. And when they were done they filled an accordion file 18 inches deep with estimates.
``We thought we gave ourselves quite a cushion,'' Christy Litchfield said. But as the project approaches the final stages, they worry as they see the cushion dwindling.
Meanwhile, the bills keep rolling in. The portable toilet rents for $1 a day. The electricity to run the work lights and power tools costs $35 to $50 a month. And little surprises, such as the lumber costs running $5,000 over budget, pop up, too.
A harsh winter didn't help. The exterior finish could not be put on until the temperatures warmed several degrees above freezing. Last summer was harsh, too. Before construction ever began, Litchfield would stop at the site before and after work to water the parched dogwood trees.
So why build your own home?
``I've asked myself that many times when my fingers were so cold I couldn't pick up nails,'' said Litchfield, who is 48 and a machinist by trade.
One answer is because building your own home gives you instant equity. ``You can build a lot more house than you can buy,'' Litchfield said.
Another reason is because some people, such as Johnson, enjoy the reward of trumping tough challenges.
Perhaps the best reason is because one day the work will be complete and the house will be ready to live in.
Johnson may take up another project then, such as clearing some land and growing vegetables, just like his great grandfather did.
And Litchfield? ``I'm going to relax,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by GARY C. KNAPP
Frank and Joyce Johnson decided to do the job themselves.
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Jim Litchfield wanted big windows. His new house overlooks the 10th
fairway of the Cypress Point golf course in Virginia Beach.
Frank ``Buddy'' Johnson installs the flooring himself in his rural
Chesapeake house.
The Litchfield family: Christy and Jim and daughters Amy (holding
Bitsy the dog) and Dana.
by CNB