7. "A house without a walk-in shower is social housing"
The price driver is primarily the bathroom.
Yes, I live in social housing. Without floor-level showers. And my house is anything but a showpiece, it is just small, rectangular, and practical. Not beautiful and representative. It doesn't have to please anyone. Well, almost, me and Steffi of course, and we are modest.
We have two bathrooms because I wanted a bathroom with a shower on the ground floor, one for guests, and one for us, with me in particular often using the guest bathroom. The bathroom upstairs is very large, almost impressive. It is a pleasure to go into this main bathroom in the morning. I could have easily sunk another 20k there. However – I resisted. Floor-level showers and all the great things that come with them are the trend. Totally in. But I have no trust in the drains of floor-level showers (simply a personal disturbance feeling, not rationally explainable), and in a timber-frame house a defect in that spot is a major disaster and can cause respectable damage. So normal showers – with a 6 cm high entry into the shower tray. Despite my accident in January, being unable to walk for weeks (months), with crutches and a walker: I showered – without problems, so I will still be able to get into such a shower at 80+. Saved several thousand twice. The other things were chosen timelessly, mid-range standard. However – the bathroom is expensive.
It gets interesting when several people in the circle of friends are building, so you feel under pressure. It becomes problematic when you can't agree with your partner: one complains that a conservatory has always been the greatest dream, the other reluctantly agrees if he gets his roof terrace.
Many haven’t built but believe they know everything. I know that. Don’t let yourself be influenced – do your own thing. Ignore stupid advice, ask professionals, not laymen, thinking for yourself is also allowed.
And it’s good to have a reliable spouse like my Steffi, who pulls with me on one rope. That went smoothly. However, the advisor at the sample choosing center already anonymously told us quite a few stories – he had the time because we were so quick that he won half a day off.
8. wrong own work
It happens that missing €20,000 in the financing calculation is positioned by the banker as own work so that the calculation fits or the interest rate is better. Before the start of construction, hardly anyone thinks that they might not be able to do these services themselves.
You can calculate that for savings on labor costs by doing the work yourself, you need about 10 weeks if you were as fast as a trained and experienced craftsman (€20,000 at €50/hour makes 400 hours, a 40-hour week results in 10 weeks)
Forget about own work. Eye-wash. Pure nonsense. I also fell for it. I idiot. Until then I considered myself an intelligent person, then suddenly I saw myself as stupid. I wrote that off, it was a mistake.
It only works if you have a 20-person family, skilled, willing, and ready to just ("") invest a lot of time. Such people exist but are rare.
I did what I could. That was a lot, I lived for 10 months just for this place and my job. Without further external help and money, I wouldn’t be in the house today.
9. wrong calculation of own work
"Such a bucket of paint doesn’t cost the earth!" "€20 for a sqm of laminate, so 100 sqm living area costs me €2,000."
You have to buy decent stuff. Good for us: at the sample choosing/the items *all* auxiliary materials were included, generously measured. Big plus. However – around €5,000 for small stuff is definitely gone, you can calculate that, you just need it.
10. "we’ll do that later little by little!"
A car can stand outside just fine. Two too. Those things are galvanized, they don’t rust. Car/house door = 5 m, you won’t get wet even in heavy rain...
I also lost the carport – needed money elsewhere. And honestly, I don’t need it. We have almost a natural carport... lucky. I won’t build another one – money thrown away. My driveway is one of the few things I still have to pave and I will still build a garden shed. Neither money nor possibility back then, as the street was only finished last week, heights only known now. Terrace and everything else I wrestled out with a lot of effort, luck, and so on. The driveway is only finished with foundation/compaction (up to 60 tons) and covered with gravel. You could live with that for another 10 years, topping up gravel every few years. The killer is fill and topsoil. Almost 500 tons of that stuff – there were times I nearly hyperventilated. All solved. But I didn’t pay the price others ask for this stuff, I found a good trick in my case.
11. "we’ll pay that from our ongoing salaries"
A lot comes from cash flow, but you have to be careful. After lamps and such, we ate four weeks of black bread with recycled margarine in October 2014.
12. construction delay
Some believe that their clause in the contract about the delay of house handover protects them from the construction company
Fully agree.