Whenever someone asks when we plan to move into the new house by, they're always shocked to hear that it's only 4 months away (February 2015!). 4 months may be pushing it a bit, but I'm determined, and I'm a bit of a schedule/control nut when it comes to this stuff. If our drywaller called us tomorrow and asked when he's expected to start, I can give him an exact date and we don't even have footings in!
Now we could just be incredibly naive, but if contractors can build multiple houses concurrently and all in 4 months time, then surely we can build one!
One of the questions I asked every trade/supplier is lead time. Timing is very important when it comes to building a house. I want to know how much time they need to do their job and how far in advance I need to order materials so they arrive in time. I don't want to keep anyone waiting for 2 reasons,
1) it delays the whole project.
2) it can, and likely will, cost you more money. If you're delaying contractors on your job, that means you're delaying them on other jobs as well. They will charge you more to make up for their lost time.
I found the best way to stay organized was with a good old fashioned calendar. I've marked down when things need to be ordered by, delivered by, paid for and when people should be starting or ending their jobs. All this information is based on the questions I asked trades and suppliers about timing and lead times.
There are 2 things you'll need to have by your scheduled start date that could easily be forgotten!
Builder's Risk Insurance
This was about $1900 for 7 months of coverage. This will protect us in cases of theft, fire, injury or other damages. We also got an extra $2 million in liability insurance included in that price. You do need to make sure that your trades have their own liability insurance too.
Portable Toilet
This is a must! And it must flush, who knew?! This is a Ministry of Labour standard. It costs about $180/month and we figure we'll need it for 3-4 months.
Other things to consider are getting your bigger things in before all the framing is done and roof is on. These would be things like bath tubs and fireplaces. Ask your framer when the best time would be to have them delivered and make sure your items arrive on time.
We chose our fireplace and main bathroom tub from our mechanical/electrical contractor so he knows the importance of getting them in time. We did however order our freestanding tub from Costco. It has a 2-3 week delivery schedule so we ordered it based on 3 weeks and are hoping for the best. We don't want too many things left out in the house in case of theft.
We should be able to lock the doors by mid-November before most things go in.
Something else we did to help with scheduling is we hired one company that does Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC. That's a bit of a relief in terms of scheduling. It should also work to our benefit for sharing space. You always hear stories of trades taking up the space that the other needs and then things like duct work or plumbing have to be moved or run in weird spots to accommodate. Since these guys work together all the time, we should hopefully eliminate a lot of that!
We realize that our schedule isn't going to be perfect, but it gives us something to strive for. It can also make things incredibly stressful when we see a forecast like this for this coming week. :(
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