Buying local series: Kitchen companies

Buying local series: Kitchen companies

When building a new home it is always best to buy from the local businesses in the area or community that you are constructing the home. No matter if it’s your summer home or a second home buying locally always makes more sense. This time I’m writing about the reason you should be buying your kitchen from a local kitchen manufacture.

Kitchen companies;

In most homes the centre piece or the central hub of the home is the kitchen. Whether it is a large kitchen or a small kitchen every person passes through it, sits in it or prepares meals in it. It is probably the one room in your home that every single person will be in and out of multiple times a day. So the look and feel of your kitchen is extremely important to the overall feeling of the home. It is also the room that takes the most wear and tear. Nowhere else in the home is there boiling hot liquids, cooking foods, dirty dishes piled up, soapy water and appliances that are physically touched dozens of times a day. The kitchen will see more people in it and through it then all the other rooms combined.

You need a kitchen that is well built so that it will last as long as you need it too. You also need someone that is close by so that when something does go wrong you can have it fixed right away.

When building a home the kitchen installation is a tricky thing. The builder needs the kitchen to be installed on a certain date because there are a lot of things that can’t be finished until the kitchen cabinets are installed. If the kitchen maker is 2 hours away instead of right down the street then he may have problems getting them to deliver and install when he wants them too. If the kitchen is delivered too early on a build, the cabinets might not be installed and then they have to be stored on site. This is a bad thing for cabinets, the more you handle a cabinet the more likely you will scratch or dent the cabinet. A construction site is no place for cabinets. Even when a builder wants the kitchen installed, the cabinets are vulnerable until they are put in place. Once they are installed the builder can take proper care to protect them as a whole. If the cabinets show up too early some of the things that can restrict them from being installed are as follows;

·         Flooring isn’t layed so cabinets cannot be placed on floor.

·         Drywall isn’t finished, so cabinets could be covered in drywall mud and dust.

·         Ceilings are not primed and painted; cabinets could be covered in paint. Also if cabinets are installed and the painter wants to paint above them he could stand on them and cause damage.

·         Electrical isn’t complete, causing the electricians to have to remove cabinets from walls to run wire, possibly standing on lower cabinets.

·         Venting for range hood not run causing cabinets to be removed from the wall.

·         Plumbing rough in not complete, cabinets would need to be removed to place plumbing and then reinstalled.

Those are just a handful of things that can restrict the cabinets from being installed.

If the kitchen is late being installed because of distance of travel with weather or schedule then there are a lot of things in the house that cannot be finished;

·         Counter top templating is done after cabinets are all in place. Without cabinets there can be no ordering of the counter tops.

·         Without counter tops the sinks, taps and appliances can’t be installed.

·         Painting of walls can’t be finished until cabinets and counter tops are installed.

·         Tile backsplash can’t be installed without cabinets and counter tops.

·         If you have custom coated wood floors, the final coat is installed after kitchen has been installed.

·         The baseboards that run up against the cabinets can’t be completed.

·         Electrical cannot be completed if there is in cabinet lighting, or under cabinet lighting.

·         Appliances cannot be delivered or installed.

A kitchen installer that is too far from the build site could easily not have the time or the resources to install in the time frame that your builder needs them too. This could cause delays in the completion of your home. A local installer will have the flexibility to install when you need them. A local builder is also able to do a partial install if that is what the builder requires. They could install just the lower cabinets and store the upper cabinets until the builder is ready for them. This could allow other work to continue while allowing the builder to fix a certain area that was in the way of the upper cabinets.

In the future you might want to update, or add to your kitchen. If you went with the local kitchen manufacturer then they would be able to stop in and help you plan this and give you a proper quote on the work.

So remember when you are thinking of that dream kitchen give the local company a look, they probably will surprise you with superior service and quality.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

Buying local series: Electronics Installer/dealer

Buying local series: Electronics

When building a new home it is always best to buy from the local businesses in the area or community that you are constructing the home. No matter if it’s your summer home or a second home buying locally always makes more sense. This time I’m writing about the reason you should be buying your electronics locally, I’m talking about the Electronics installer/dealer.

Electronics Installer/dealer:

One of the main items that is being installed into people’s homes these days are electronics. I’m not just talking about the amplifier for your stereo or the receiver for your cable. Today’s house is outfitted with almost more structured wiring then electrical wiring. Structured wiring is all the cable that is installed for everything electronic, such as internet, phone, speakers and auto controls.

Dealing with a local electronics installer is the best way to go to get the level of service that you will require when you try to operate all of your new equipment. Usually the company that installs the structured wiring will also be able to supply you with the equipment that will allow your house to function as you want it too. Because there is such a wide verity of electronics on the market today it is safer and easier for you to have the installer supply the equipment. If they don’t supply the equipment you could end up having problems with the compatibility of all the components when you try to operate them once they are hooked up. The software in these components have become so complicated that you almost have to be a computer wizard to be able to properly program them.

You will have multiple systems at any one time operating and talking to each other to perform the functions that you require it to do. Here are some of the things that you can control in a house;

·         Furnace, you can control the temperature of the house remotely from your cell phone, also you are able to receive alerts if the temperature of the house drops below a certain temperature.

·         Sound and Video. You can control the music or sound in every room of the house, allowing you to us different formats such as cds, mps or radio. The volume can be controlled from a wall mounted dial, a handheld remote or your cell phone.

·         Security. You can turn the security on and off remotely from your cell phone or computer. It will send you an alert if something goes wrong in the house, like a sump pump has failed in the basement, or there’s been a brake in, or a power failure. If your house has security cameras then you can stream them online to view the inside or the outside of the house depending on how many cameras you have.

·         Control the lights. You can control the lights from your computer or your cell phone. So if you think that you left any lights on when you left for that 2 week vacation then you just turn them off remotely. Also you can set a schedule for the lights to come on and off depending on what you require. Gone are the days when you stumble to the front door trying to see the hole were the key is suppose to fit in because someone forgot to leave a light on. Interior/exterior lights can also be controlled with a hand held remote control, so when you go to bed you just have to hit a button on the remote and all the lights in the house will go off. Some can even be programmed to stay on while dimmed.

·         In house home theatres with powered 9 foot screens that repel out of the ceiling in front of stadium seating are now popular. They require a whole system dedicated to run your personal movie theatre with all the speakers, projection and lighting.

·         Remotely turn on gas fireplaces to warm up one room before you arrive in that room or to help set the mood.

·         Operate your garage door from your phone or your computer; you don’t have to worry if you forgot to put the garage door down.

·         In home intercoms, depending on the size of the house, or if you have a person that needs a lot of care then these systems work wonderful. Especially when you can have a hand held device instead of one on the wall.

That is just some of the things that can and are being done in new houses today. The list grows longer everyday as more and more technology comes on the market.

All of those functions, systems and components have to be programmed to talk to each other. A person has to physically program them to talk to each other and connect the hardware appropriately. With a local electronics dealer/installer you would be able to get them to come over to help you when you have problems with the system. You will have problems; they are basically a bunch of computers hooked together. You need a person locally who will take the time to show you how to work it, then be close enough to come over for tech support. If your automatic lights are not working you don’t want to wait a month for the next available techi to come to you because you live to far away.

You also want someone close that you can do future business with when you want to upgrade your system.

The local installer/dealer might cost a little more at the start, but it will be worth it in the end when you need the tech support to control your house.

So please, buy local.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders inc.

Where to start when you want to build a house?

How much does it cost to build a house? There is one sentence that contractors here all the time, it actually makes them roll their eyes.

People that are thinking about building a house search the internet or the phone book find a builder and call them up and ask that eye rolling question. This will probably surprise a lot of people that this question is the number one asked and it is never responded to with a straight answer. There is a good reason for not answering the question; the reason that it can’t be answered is that it is a trick question. It’s such a trick question that the people asking the question don’t even realize that it’s an unanswerable question. Asking that question like that is the same as asking a car sales man how much a car cost without pointing to one.

Let me explain, there are so many options to houses these days that it is vertically impossible to tell someone what a house cost. A couple of times when I was young and naive I quoted the average price of the homes that we build to a customer. When we finally estimated the house it was 1/3 more then what I had told them on are first conversion. They left thinking that I had lied to them just so that I could get the job. The fact was that the house they asked us to price wasn’t just bigger then I originally thought, it had every high end feature that you could find in a house at that time. The way a contractor will quote a house is as follows;  they will take your plans and quote every piece of the house separately, so they will get a framing price for walls, the roof and the floor.  They will get prices on the plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting ect, ect.  Then they add up all the prices, put a profit on top for themselves and all appropriate taxes. Before they present the quote or budget to you they will usually break down the cost to a sqft price so that they can understand where there pricing is taking them. For example if you routinely build houses that are $500,000 and are 2000 sqft then they are charging $250 a sqft for a finished house. So if they quote a 2000 sqft house and it comes in over or under $500,000, then what they do is go back through your estimate to make sure that they didn’t miss something in the plans.  If there estimate is over the normal sqft price then they look for something making the quote more expensive and remove it if it doesn’t need to be included in the build. The big thing that changes the sqft price of a house is not just what you put outside on the house (siding, brick, and stone) it’s what is put inside the house. It’s amazing how fast the finishing’s in a build raise the price of a house. Upgrading your flooring in a house can add $10 a sqft to a house depending on what you choose.

So the best way to go about finding out the price of the house that you want built and the process that is required by you to go through to get that accurate price is as follows;

1.       Find out what you can afford, what your total final budget can be and what you can get financed.

2.       Find a contractor that you trust and hire him to help you do everything. For a small fee a good contractor will help you through the tough process of getting ready to build a house.

3.       You with help from the contractor can find a lot to build on; the reason for involving the contractor in this process is so that you purchase a lot that will suit your needs, like size of house. Depending on where the lot is, you might need to install a septic system, a well and probably a driveway. These are all extra costs that most homeowners don’t realize they need to include in there building budget.

4.       Have your contractor find out the fees for building in that area, there could be development charges, building permit charges, sewer and water charges, conservation authority charges and in some places you might have a homeowner association that will have fees to build.

5.       Get your plans drawn up by a professional. Your builder should have access to professionals that can draw up your home for you. You need to use either an architect or a drafts person; both these professionals (in Ontario) will have a government appointed design number. This number allows you to take their plans that they have drawn for you to the local building department to get a permit.

6.       Give the plans to your builder and have him give you a price on what it will cost you to build your home. There is a good reason that I recommended you pay your builder the fee for helping you with the process that leads up to you having plans drawn.  It is so that you own the plans and that you will not owe your builder anything when it comes to getting a price on the building of your home. This allows you to take the plans to another builder if when you get the price from your builder and you believe that they are too expensive. You have that right because you paid for the plans and legally you own them. Any builder will tell you that it’s a good idea to get a second quote. But one word of caution, do your research on the other builder, so that you know exactly what they will be quoting you and the quality of their work. This also should restrict you from going out and getting 3 or 4 other builders to price the job. This is a major mistake that a lot of people make, they think that the more prices then the more options you’re going to have; actually all it does is confuse you. Every builder will quote in a different way and add or omit certain things from the build depending on what they believe will get them the job. The builders that give you the large multi page estimates that show everything in detail are usually the best ones to go with because it means they are going out of their way to show you that they are not hiding anything. A lot of builders will be vague on their estimates trying to show you they have the lowest price and it’s only later that you realize that you’re not getting everything that you assumed you were getting.

7.       Sometimes you will have to get the plans redrawn or altered because of the price or because the municipality has an issue with the size or height of the building. This doesn’t cost you a lot and a good builder will help with this process.

8.       Now that you have your builder, you need to apply for your permits, a lot of times if there is a conservation authority involved which means it could take you up to 6 weeks to get your building permit approved. There could be other permits that you have to apply for as well, such as if there is an existing home on the property that you want to demolish. This requires the services to be disconnected and reconnected at a later date before they will grant you a demolition permit.

9.       The building of your house should be left entirely to your builder. That means he does all the organizing, he talks to all the sub trades and he does all the quality control. You as the homeowner should be involved to a point, you should only deal with the builder, there is nothing worse than having a homeowner show up on the building site and start questioning sub trades about what they are doing. It doesn’t just cause confusion for the trades on site, but it can be a major safety issue for you the homeowner not having the proper safety equipment. Many a homeowner or their family member has been injured by showing up on the building site unannounced and wandering around without an escort. Injuries from simply stepping on a nail, to falling down a hole, or standing in the wrong place and having something heavy fall on you can be devastating and life altering. What homeowners have to realize is that residential construction is extremely dangerous and no matter the best efforts of the builder there will always be unsafe areas in a construction site.

10.   Once the home is built and finished, you and the builder will do a walk through and list any problems minor or major that you have with the home. The builder will work through the list and then when everything is satisfied you can pay the builder the holdback that you owe them.

Don’t be afraid of paying them the final amount, you don’t have to worry about something going wrong in six months, because (in Ontario) your home carries with it a 7 year Tarion new home warranty. Which means you’re insured against anything serious that could go wrong.

So the next you are thinking about picking up the phone and calling, or emailing your local builder to see what your new home will cost you, remember the list I have left you with, it will help stop the builder from rolling their eyes at you and help you get the answers you need more quickly.

Remember that the more planning you do, the easier it will be for you to get proper and accurate quote on your building project.

If you can any question about the building process or are looking for a quote please feel free to call me at (877) 866-3202 or at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

   

Renovating an older home VS Demolishing and Building New (Part 1)

Building new vs. Renovation/addition Part 1

Here is a question that is posed to me at least once a month. Do I renovate my existing home or do I demolish it and start from scratch with a new build.

Part 1 will focus on the benefit of renovating/additions aspect of it.

Part 2 will focus on the benefit of demolition/new building aspect of it.

Most people always think that it’s cheaper to renovate an older home then to knock it down and rebuild it. This is true to a point.

There is a fine line when you are renovating were you need to know if you’re going to start wasting money fixing a house that is not worth fixing.

If your home is structurally sound, the outer shell of the home has been properly maintained (the roof, the siding/brick and the foundation) and it was properly done at the time of the construction then there is probably no need to demolish it.

If most of the changes that you want to do are inside the house and are more cosmetic/ updating then you should renovate. Tearing down interior walls and moving plumbing and heating lines is not that big of a job and can be down in a moderate budget. With new dust stopping protection and floor protection a lot of the work can be down without causing damage to the rest of the house that isn’t being altered. Plus this allows you to leave your furniture and other possessions in the house while it is being worked on.

Depending on your financial situation this option allows you to do the work on the house over many years instead of all at once. One thing that some home owners do when they are doing multiple renovations over many years is that they do some of the work themselves to save some money. These tasks should be limited to small demolition, cleaning up and painting. If you deviate away from these three things you start to open yourself up to problems that you will have to pay a professional to fix later. Also there is safety issue; if you start playing electrician you could hurt yourself or someone else.

If you want to add square footage adding an addition or several additions can easily be done, as long as you have adequate space on your property. Additions are an easy way to make your house more enjoyable and add value. It allows you to do something completely different than the rest of the house which would allow you to leave more of the original features in the existing house. This would allow you to bring a modern touch at a lesser cost then trying to reshape the whole existing interior.

If you have heritage laws where you live you might not be allowed to demolish the house and renovating might be the only option you have. Additions can allow you to do what you want, where a heritage society might not let you change much on the outside.

Permits for a new house are more expensive usually then the permits for renovations because of ever increasing development fees for all new buildings.

There are government grant in Ontario for raising the energy efficiency of the house from insulating to new furnaces. These grants can add up to a lot of money and are usually exactly what your house requires. They are not hard to attain, you simple need a pre renovation inspection by an energy auditor and a final inspection when your renovation project is complete.

By renovating an older house it allows you to keep the character of the house and the history of it. There are unique features in older houses, like stained glass and wood that you just can’t find any more. Sometimes taking a large older house and renovating it can add superior value to the resale of the house that you just wouldn’t get out of building a new house.

If you have to build a new house, you will be required to replace the septic system (if you have one) and sometimes you will have to drill a new well (if you have one). Renovating a house does not require you to do any of these things.

There can be a strong emotional attachment to an older house; it might be very difficult for the neighbourhood that the house is in to deal with the loss of this house. You could experience delays when applying for your building permit because it would first have to go through several committees and be open to public comment. Simply renovating the house can easily speed up the process; it will also put you in good standing with your neighbours and the community at large.

If you have an older house that is already a century old and has been properly looked after then there is no reason that the house should not last another century with proper maintenance and upkeep.

Look for part 2 of renovating vs. Demolition/new build

Part 2 will deal with the benefits of a new build.

If you would like to discuss this or any other topics in the construction industry, please feel free to email me at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca.

Or visit our website villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.