Building a custom home in Creemore

Building a home in Creemore

If you are planning to build a home in the Creemore area you have chosen a wonderful and beautiful place to build your home.

The Creemore area can be a tricky place to build if you are not from the area. This is the reason that you should hire a local General Contractor to build your home. There are certain things you should look for when you are looking into hiring a general contractor.

·         They should have the appropriate insurance to cover you and there employee’s. There is nothing worse than having a worker get hurt building your house and you find out that the general contractor is not WSIB compliant. Then everyone is in trouble including the homeowner.

·         They should have a solid reputation of building quality custom homes and can supply you with a list of references.

·         You want a company that is involved in the community and is local. If a company lives and works in the area that they build then they will want to keep their clients happy and keep the quality of the workmanship high so that their reputation is kept in high regard.

·         Your general contractor should be using local trades. This is a great way to make sure that your new home has local flare with local craftsmen constructing it.

·         Local contractors can give you service when you require it in the future even if it’s past the warranty. It’s a great thing to be able to call your contractor and have him stop by the same day to check the current problem you are having. Or if you are away, you can call them and ask them to check on a problem without you even being there.

·         Depending on the size and scope of your building project you don’t want to hire a general contractor that has never taken on something of its size and ends up in over there head.

·         Local contractors know the weather and will be driving the appropriate vehicles so that they can always get to your house even in the middle of winter.

·         Creemore is in the snow belt. It snows in Creemore when it’s not snowing anywhere else. A local general contractor will be able to include that in their budget so that you don’t get hammered with a large bill of extra’s at the end of the project.

·         You want a general contractor that uses the best sub-trades that are available in the area so that you get the best workmanship.

·         You want a company big enough that they don’t get bogged down when they have 2 big projects on the go and are not able to finish your home in a timely manner.  But you don’t want the company so big that you are just a name to them and not treated like the important client that you are.

In Creemore that General Contractor is Village Builders Inc.  They are a family run and operated company that builds custom homes in and around the Creemore area. Village Builders has been in business for over 30 years and has a great reputation, giving clients exactly what they want for the price that they were quoted. They are also able to give it to them in a timely manner with a proper schedule to let them know how and when the project will be completed.

Village Builders stands head and shoulders above the competition in the Creemore area and has a long list of happy and satisfied customers to prove it.

If you are thinking about building a house in the Creemore area feel free to stop in and talk to them at 3 Caroline St. East in the middle of Creemore. They are located in the old fire hall. Or check out the website at villagebuilders.ca or give us a call 877 866 3202.

If you have any questions about building or renovating in the Creemore and surrounding area please feel free to email me at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

Village Builders construction forecast for 2012

What it looks like for Village Builders in the upcoming year of 2012.

The upcoming year of 2012 looks to be a anther good year for Village Builders Inc.

Every year since the credit crunch and stock market crash of 2008 Village Builders business and production has increased year over year. With 2011 being such a good year for Village Builders it will be hard to top it. But perspective project starts for the spring of 2012 look to be shaping up for a record breaking year for the company.

With the new management structure being put in place in 2011 it seems to be allowing Village Builders to identify new clients earlier in the planning process and to form a relationship of trust and honesty between the two parties. This is breeding more loyalty in the customer base and allowing Village Builders to play a larger part in the planning process of the projects. We are now installing driveways, wells and other essential services before the building process even starts.

Because of this planning and customer service Village Builders looks to be able to plan for the future with more work and larger projects in the precious years.

With the design department into its second year of operation, the prospect for growth seems at the moment to be limited only by the amount of employee’s in the design department.

With a record number of employee’s in 2011, Village Builders looks toward keeping a stable number of employee's as it heads into the spring and the summer of 2012.

The Current apprentices (carpentry) in Village Builders were at an all time high in 2011 and that trend will continue in 2012. With a focus on expanding skilled labour, apprenticeships for carpentry will be available to perspective new employees. There will be a focus on trying to improve the attrition rate of 50% on apprentices.

Current apprentices with schooling will be asked to take a greater role in production and more responsibility on smaller projects in 2012.

With the current construction climate looking to be extremely volatile in 2012 for a lot of Village Builders competitors as it was in 2011 the ability to higher skilled labour such as carpenters looks to be very promising.

Overall Village Builders looks to be heading for another good year in 2012. With our ability to successfully manage and build projects at an extremely high level with an equally high level of customer satisfaction, we look to be able to stay the course of giving our clients what they want for the price that they expect.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

2012 forecast for constuction in the Collingwood, Creemore and Wasaga beach area

Residential construction forecast for the Collingwood, Creemore and Wasaga beach area for 2012

The residential construction industry is on a rollercoaster from one month to the next depending on where you live in Ontario. Places like the muskoka’s where builders have enjoyed having multi-year waiting lists are looking at a spring with no work and no leads on future work. The market has shifted away from second homes and cottages.

The only market that seems stable outside of Toronto is Home Building for Baby Boomers. What is happening is Baby Boomers living in Toronto are looking to start retiring and want to do that outside of Toronto. They are sitting on their retirement fund. House prices in Toronto have been on the rise for decades and are even know staying high. This is allowing Baby Boomers to buy property in the Collingwood area and build custom homes of all shapes and sizes. Once they are ready to retire they simply sell their home that is mortgage free and retire to Collingwood paying off the mortgage on their new home.

This is not just happening in the Collingwood, this is happening all over Ontario. Even as far north as the Sault St. Marie area builders are reporting Baby Boomers moving in and building or renovating homes to retire into.

Because of this, the market for residential construction is somewhat stable in these retirement areas. It is not growing but it is not shrinking either. Depending on the township, there is to be expected a fair bit of work for qualified and experienced contractors that have an established name. The newer contractors in the area will find it hard to get work in 2012 as was the trend in 2011. There just isn’t enough work to go around for all the “custom home builders” or those who call themselves that.

Wasaga Beach

Places such as Wasaga Beach will see the best growth in the area. Wasaga Beach’s residential construction has been steadily growing every year for the past 3 or 4 years since the credit crunch and stock market crash of 2008. Property anywhere near the water and the beach is being bought up by people looking to retire. The rising tax’s are forcing a lot of people that have owned small little cottages in Wasaga Beach for generations to sell them or tear down and rebuild with a new home. There is huge potential for growth in this area with whole streets having small cottages that are at the end of their life and need to be replaced. Property values in Wasaga Beach continue to rise year over year, prompting many to sell their family cottages instead of fixing them. Wasaga Beach has turned from the tourist area and is now actively promoting itself as a retirement community for the Baby Boomer generation. Enforcement of strict rental rules for seasonal cottages are having a serious effect on the market, pushing more families to sell their cottage as they are having trouble bringing in enough income to justify keeping it.

Clearview Township

Clearview Township will struggle in the residential construction sector like it has for the past couple of years. It seems this market will only get worse, as land prices in the township continue to rise and so does the taxes. Building and development fees are now at an all time high, to the point where it is scaring away people that want to build a new home. No effort is being made in the Township to help curve this trend and it looks like they are determined to only allow people with deep pockets into the area that can afford to pay the massive fees. The fees are so suppressive that subdivision development has all but ground to a halt. Only well established contractors seem to be able to get what little work there is in this township. The renovation market has all but dried up as well in the Clearview Township area.

Collingwood/Blue Mountain area

The Collingwood/Blue Mountain area seems to be spotty at best. Some places in the area have 2 or 3 houses being built on one street, where other areas have no building or renovating at all. A lot of this seems to have to do with the stalled real estate market. Homes in the Collingwood market have been going up year over year and still sell. 2011 was different with house prices dropping, but homeowners who were selling refused to follow the trend keeping their selling price high, thus stalling the market with a large inventory of houses coming on the market and not much selling. When the market corrects itself the renovation end of the construction industry should come back fairly well in 2012. At the moment the renovation end of things is very slow. A lot of contractors that rely on the renovation market to get them through between house builds are having trouble finding any work at all.

The prospect for growth for 2012 in the Collingwood area could be very good, there seems to be a lot of commercial work running into 2012 and more commercial projects to be started in 2012. Collingwood is looking like it could experience extreme growth in the coming decade. Most of this growth will be of Baby Boomers moving into the area, but there are also a lot of young professionals moving in to fill all the jobs that need to be done with this ever growing and aging population.

The Collingwood area trend of builders coming in from other areas to find work will continue and might even get worse in 2012 as the prospect of bigger homes and cottages is a powerful draw.

                Overall 2012 looks to be a better year than 2011 in the new home market, the renovation market still looks shaky and could go either way. There looks to be in the late winter and early spring a bump in new home starts in all areas because of the new building codes. A lot of people put in for their building permits earlier then they wanted to so that they could beat the new regulations. The new regulations will see the cost of building go up by a minimum 10% and could be as much as 30% depending on what standard you will have to raise the building too. The new building regulations take effect on January 1^st 2012 and any plans drawn in 2011 will have to go through some serious changes to meet the new code. So this should help the construction industry for the early part of the year, but with this new code it might slow down permits and applications over the whole year. After the spring it might be hard to pick up new projects in 2012.

The new codes will have a major impact on the renovation market, as the code will be a lot more restrictive and expensive for homeowners to receive permission to renovate and complete their projects. The renovation market was slower than normal going into this year and this could slow it to almost a halt. It might get the same bump that the new home starts will be getting with people getting there permits before the code change, but the 2^nd half of the year might be very difficult for renovators.

Overall it looks to be an up and down year for the residential construction industry in the Collinwood, Wasaga beach and Creemore area. Competition for new homes looks to continue to be high with everyone trying to stay busy.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.  

Village Builders 2011 year in review

2011 the year in review for Village Builders Inc.

It has been an interesting year for Village builders Inc in 2011.

For the third straight year the overall work taken on and completed has grown. We have grown every year since the credit crunch and stock market crash of 2008.

2011 was the year of the house for Village builders, we started and completed more houses in one single year than ever before in the company’s 30 year history.

Renovations on the other hand were down compared to the previous two years but still ahead of the pre 2008 pace.

Trends

The trend for houses seems to be that they are getting more expense per square foot. Houses now have all the bells and whistles in them and every feature imaginable to make life a little easier. Things such as rough-ins for elevators and generators are now a common theme in all our houses. Electronics and automation is on the rise with more tech savvy clients wanting to be able to control their house functions from there smart phones.

The trend for pre 2008 was that the houses grew in size, but were close to the same price per square foot and tended to be in the chalet or country style. The trend in 2011 was houses of all sizes, shapes, styles and locations but with an ever rising price per square foot.

·         Energy efficiency in all the aspects of the home is growing year over year, 2011 was no different. High efficiency gas furnaces are now the norm and if the property allows geothermal heating seems to be the only sensible option for houses in the country that have no access to natural gas. More insulation is being added to houses, in the walls and in the attic with the rising cost of electricity and gas.

·         A larger percentage of houses that we built or were building in 2011 are getting away from wood siding and are turning to stone or brick. Also cement sidings popularity has continued to grow.

·         Steel roofs have become the most popular option for at least half of the houses that were built. With the uncertainty of the quality of shingles these days and the extreme weather steel will continue to grow in popularity.

·         Decking is undergoing a major revolution with so many new products and options. Builders are being asked to look into products that they have never even heard of or seen before. Composite decking is becoming the most popular because of its longevity and new materials that are making it look more appealing.

·         Fireplaces are growing in size, especially natural gas fireplaces, with so many options out there people are being buried by choices and so are builders.

·         Painted trim is the most popular way to finish off the house in 2011 and reclaimed floors that are finished on site were also the most popular.

·         Window sizes seem to have grown in size. Also the amount of different manufactures that we seem to be using has grown as well.

·         Houses with attached double car garages seems to be the norm again in 2011, this is a trend that has continued for the last couple of years, even with the space for a detached garage people are opting for the attached version.

·         Master suites are now the norm in all houses built in 2011. Suites commonly all contain a large bedroom, large Ensuite bathroom and an ever growing walk in closet with custom shelving units installed.

Overall it seems that homeowners are becoming more and more confused with the over abundance in choices that they are able to find on either the internet or in the stores. There is a growing lag on the building process because of homeowners being bogged down with choices.

Employment

Village Builders as a company now employs more people than they ever have before. This is in every department from the operations, office staff and the design.

With the prospect of large new projects in the spring and the current ongoing projects the operations side of the business looks to grow even more in 2012.

With the increased management and growth of the business, perspective clients are being identified earlier on in the building process. Instead of being identified months before there project starts they are now being identified years in advance. This is allowing Village Builders to take a more active role in the planning process of their perspective client’s entire project. This is one of the main reasons for the growth in 2011 in Village Builders.

Overall the year of 2011 was of growth and change with so many new employees.

2012 looks to be another year of growth with less change to structure of the company and more infill around the current structure.

Design Department

This year marks the 1^st anniversary of the interior design department at Village Builders. The prospect of growth in this sector seems to be very large as not only new clients are using our service, but former clients as well are taking advantage. The design department has revolutionized the renovation side of the business with new modern designs and out of the box thinking. They are also giving our clients more personal attention than ever before and being able to help keep a strict eye on all the purchasing of materials and order tracking.

2011 was one of the most successful years for Village Builders Inc. and 2012 looks to be even better!

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village builders Inc.