Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

On the topic of personal contribution:
We just sanded, primed, and painted the wooden windows of our condominium ourselves during one week of vacation. The painter wanted 2,500 € for that. Our hourly wages are each significantly higher than the craftsman's hour rate... we still did it ourselves. And do you know why? Because you can't spend 30 days a year traveling or on vacation at home. I think you can definitely use a few days a year for a bit of personal contribution.

We will also contribute personal effort to our new build next year, even if it seems uneconomical according to the calculations carried out here. Ultimately, I am selling my accrued (which didn’t even hurt) paid vacation and can afford a nice upgrade for the house.

On the actual topic:
Our general contractor contacted us today and announced that our installation date in 2022 is currently being postponed by 4-8 weeks due to delivery bottlenecks in various material groups.

Personal appearance at the citizen service or building authority is possible with prior telephone appointment in our case. For example, that’s how I got the card for the wave outdoor pool or my recently lost key (for the new house!)

I should have limited myself, saying that it is unwanted in our case. That it works for you, I never doubted :)

I currently do about 200 overtime hours per year

With a 35-hour week? Many certainly have that workload (including the 200 hours) regularly at 38/39/40 or even 42 hours.

Now I have to stick up for the DIY crowd. We did the painting work, floors upstairs, doors upstairs, all lamps and spots in the house, final cleaning, and the move completely ourselves, a total of about four weeks (weekends and evenings 1-2 days during the week) "gritting our teeth" and the matter was done. Savings according to quotes ~20k€.

But except for the doors, that's all DIY anyway in 98% of the turnkey houses... so not even worth mentioning as DIY!

Wow… even if I work for 4 weeks straight, I don’t see a 20K saving potential. Nicely calculated? We did the entire drywall ourselves for a total of 300 sqm of living space. Laid all cables for electricity and Smarthome (2-3km), about 70 sqm of dry screed, boxed all pre-wall elements, controlled residential ventilation from the air distributor, insulation for attic and upper floor including foil, and many small things alongside construction management/organization. Here we see for both semi-detached houses together about 20- max. 30K saving potential. And that actually cost more than 12 weekends and weekday afternoons. Soon all floor coverings including floor tiles in bathrooms and 50 sqm of solid wood planks will be added, as well as priming and partly wallpapering and painting all walls. And of course we will connect all switches (24V), ignition points, and sockets on one side ourselves. Smarthome wiring and programming, of course, as well… For the outdoor facilities, we only let the “rough work” such as L-stones and gravel be done. We will also do the split and paving as well as the terrace slabs ourselves.

With a 35-hour week? Many certainly have that workload (including the 200 hours) regularly at 38/39/40 or even 42 hours.

With a 40-hour week. I am now paid monthly for 42.5 hours/week.