Building Yourself a New House

I have dreamed since childhood – as you may have also – of building a house of my own design. It would incorporate everything I could imagine wanting in a house and it would reflect my unique personality.

Like most childhood dreams, this one got delayed many decades until my wife and I retired. Then, feeling well-off, we embarked on this dream. We hired an inspired architect, gave him our long wish list and eventually got back some exquisite drawings. We didn’t take much time to reflect on these architectural plans since we had planned a 3 week vacation to Egypt and Israel.

When we got back, the new house was just getting started. The first difficulty was digging out the basement. We live at the bottom of a mountain. It turned out that a few feet below the surface of our hillside lay impenetrable bedrock which had to be blasted out. Since there is only one qualified blaster working on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, we waited quite a while to start the excavation. We watched endless truckloads of rock and dirt getting hauled away, since our large house also had a large terrace to excavate.

The next surprise was finding out that our house would feature a number of concrete pillars, which looked like small copies of the stone pillars we had seen during our Middle Eastern trip. Being unable to fully comprehend architectural drawings, this important detail had escaped us in our hurry to leave for our vacation. Although the concrete itself was not expensive, the intricate construction of these lovely pillars added considerable expense and delayed the project for several months.

Once the concrete was all poured for the foundation, we finally realized just how big this new house would actually be. Friends joked that it looked like a small shopping mall or perhaps Taj McWagler. Although partly delighted by this immense and lovely edifice, I felt a sharp pain on my right hip where I keep my wallet. The house was far more expensive than we had planned. It does contain a swimming pool, hot tub, spacious bedrooms, a soaring great-room and a perfect kitchen, but the price has reduced our retirement nest egg.

I tell you all these details not only for a laugh at my expense, but because I found that many other people have gone through a similar experience.

So if you ever get tempted to build The Perfect Nest, here are a few pointers:

• Even if you are financially savvy, it will likely cost a lot more than you think (particularly if it is custom designed by an architect.) You could avoid both the agony and the ecstasy by using a standard design where you can change only a few of the design details.
  
  
• Building a house usually takes much longer than you think to finish.
  
  
• Every new wish you incorporate will add substantially to the total price.
  
  
• There are hundreds of decisions to be made in a custom house, which cause a lot of anxiety. Doing it after you retire would be a good idea, since it can become a half-time job or more.
  
  
• This dream project may leave you house-rich and cash-poor.

That said, we have nearly achieved our dream house and will be moving in by the end of this year. For us, it has been a great experience, even though we don’t feel as financially well-off as we did before the house started. However, we look forward to enjoying many happy years together with friends and family in our new home!