Toxey M. Smith, LLC Custom Homes

The Process:
Listed here is some information that may benefit you in the process of building your home. You can click on each subject for more information.

Pre-Construction <top>
Congratulations! You have made the decision to build a new house. Now you must decide where you want to live and purchase the perfect building lot. It has to be in a great neighborhood, close to where you work and where you want your children to attend school. Is the property served by public utilities or will you need to have a perc test performed and a well drilled? Is their an architectural review committee that will need to approve your house plans? What are the zoning restrictions, building set-backs, future development plans for the area? Will access be a problem during construction or bad weather? Have you seen the property during a heavy rain? Be sure that you take the time to consider all of the related aspects of the property you are considering.

Next, you will need to determine exactly what you need and want in your new home. A great source of ideas are homebuilding books and magazines. These can be handy for not only those things that you will want to incorporate, but also those that you will definitely not want to include. You can also get ideas by perusing online house plan collections, specialized plan books, and homebuilding software.

You may also want to seriously consider meeting with one or more architects or designers at this stage. While their fees will typically represent about 8 to 15% of the cost of your home, a good architect may very well be able to help you save more money than they charge for their services. After all, designing and overseeing the construction of buildings is their job. Depending upon your personal abilities and characteristics, your available time, your wants and needs, and your current circumstances, designing and building the home that you really want may very well require the knowledge and experience of a professional.

After you finally settle on a suitable design, you will need to identify all of the materials and finishes that you want to go along with it. There are literally thousands of items that go into the construction of a new home and everysingle one of them must be specified by someone. Those that you specify clearly enough for others to understand may actually end up the way you want them. However, those that are not specifically mentioned or clearly defined will almost certainly wind up being something other than you thought they would be. So, in order to get the things that you want the way you really want them, be sure that you put everything - and I do mean EVERYTHING - in writing and in as much detail as necessary, to create clear, complete, and accurate construction plans and specifications. Besides their importance in building your new house, these documents will be needed in order to create an accurate budget. You cannot realistically expect to know how much your house will cost to build, until you know exactly what you are trying to construct.

Finally, you will need to interview contractors, search for a lender, obtain the required financing, sign contracts with the people that will help you build your dream, and apply for the permits, licenses, bonds, and zoning variances that are required in order to build in your new local jurisdiction.

Site Work <top>
Now we're having some fun! Trying to find water 300 feet below the surface and counting the dollars in every dry foot along the way. Paying to clear all those big, beautiful, trees off your premium priced wooded lot. Buying tons and tons of fresh, clean, stone to spread on the ground for a construction entrance so it can get buried under the mud from your once wooded lot. Digging out tons of earth to construct the foundation of your new home only to find that the water you had been looking for 200 feet away and 300 feet down was only 6 feet under the surface the whole time.

If you are prepared for what may happen, this can be a very exciting time during the building of your home. You will finally get to see where your house will sit, how big it will be, and what views you will have. This is the first physical work on the long and sometimes bumpy road to realizing your dream.

Foundation <top>
The foundation is the structure on which the rest of your house is built. Whether it is stone, concrete, steel, or wood; a basement, crawl space, pilings, or slab on grade, it needs to be strong and square and dry. This is not a good place to try to save money. Be sure the footings are properly sized and reinforced for the loads that will be carried. Build the walls to be able to withstand the forces of the earth that they will need to hold back. And, invest in a waterproofing system that will protect areas below grade. A house is only as good as the foundation on which it rests
.

Framing <top>
Many people consider the framing stage to be the most exciting. When the framing crew finishes the first floor deck, you will finally be able to take your first walk around your new house. It is an indescribable moment.

Framing will take anywhere from a week for a small house, to several months for a larger one. You will be able to watch the basic structure take shape very fast. Your home will suddenly have walls, a roof, and windows.

This is also the time when the first on-site changes will probably take place. Room sizes and layouts become much easier to see in 3 dimensions. Even the best architect frequently finds something that didn't turn out quite the way it was envisioned on paper.

Rough-Ins <top>
As the individual trades converge on your house, things will appear to slow down considerably. In reality, a lot more work is actually being done on your house during the rough-in stage, it just isn't as dramatic.
During the next several weeks or months, dozens of people will be installing the inner workings of your house. Plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, lighting, security systems, central vacuum lines, television cable, entertainment systems, computer networks, exhaust fans, phone lines, fireplaces, and scores of back-ups and nailers for things yet to be installed.

This may not be an exciting time, but it is very important that everything and everybody be properly coordinated. Take the time to get things right at the rough-in stage, and you will save yourself lots of aggravation later on.

Landscaping <top>
Landscaping can tie your house together with the land. Properly placed trees can help keep your house cooler in the summer, and protect it from cold winter winds.

The walks, patios, pool, walls, pond, and plantings that make up a landscape can easily represent a sizeable expense, yet they are very important in making a new house look and feel like a home.

All too often, because this is one of the last phases of the job, people forget about the importance of blending the structure with nature. Be sure to make a reasonable budget for landscaping and try very hard not to spend it on something else.

Completion <top>
Landscaping can tie your house together with the land. Properly placed trees can help keep your house cooler in the summer, and protect it from cold winter winds.

The walks, patios, pool, walls, pond, and plantings that make up a landscape can easily represent a sizeable expense, yet they are very important in making a new house look and feel like a home.