Shorestone News
The Myths to Building a New Home Exposed Oct, 03 2013 Posted by : admin
There is something inherently appealing about building your own home – you get to design a living space that suits your lifestyle and have it done the way you want it. However, the advantages of building a home are often overshadowed by the real problems of shoddy construction, lengthy delays, pricey upgrades that you are unaware of, or worse cannot afford but thought were standard as this is what you saw in the show homes, hidden costs, builder accountability after you move in (and they have your money), or a myriad of other problems that you have either experienced, heard, or read about. The downsides to building a new home exist and are real concerns. However, when our family built our dream living space with Shorestone Homes, these concerns became myths as we moved together through the process of building our home.
Myth #1 – Builder integrity does not exist
Our builder exhibited integrity throughout the entire building process. For instance, the quoted price of our potential home was the price that we eventually paid, despite the fact that there were instances of cost problems that the builder did not pass on to us, the clients. Shorestone stood by their quote! Shorestone was up front with all costs and we felt that there was nothing hidden – they were very transparent. Shorestone followed up on every detail that was promised; even if my wife and I forgot to get it in writing. It would have been easy for them to say “if it’s not in writing, it was not promised or talked about”. If we were unhappy with something through the build, it was made right for us.
Myth #2 – It is a hassle to design and build a new home
When building a new home, there will be situations that elicit stress and frustration no matter how great your builder is. Our builder minimized these situations in several key ways. Shorestone staff is knowledgeable and experienced with the wisdom to give us as much or as little control in the building process as we wanted. They were honest and upfront throughout the process with communication and as many face-to-face meetings as we wanted and needed and walk-throughs of our home were scheduled with us through the entire build. Co-construct, a web-based construction management software, was used to manage the various parts of the building process from selections, to schedules, communication and budgeting. Everyone involved in the build accesses co-construct: builder, client, and trades and it really does keep everyone on the same page and fosters a depth of communication which results in a much smoother building process for the homeowner.
Myth #3 – The time frame promised to build is not delivered
Shorestone homes quoted a reasonable time frame to build our house and they delivered on that quoted date to move in. This was a significant stress relief for us as we were renting a basement suite for a couple of months during the build of our new home, as our previous home closure date just did not match up. Our family was in our new home within 120 days.
Myth #4 – The builder will disappear after they have your money
Simply not true. Our builder has made every effort to rectify any of our perceived building deficiencies in a timely matter. Moreover, we just celebrated our 1st year in our new home and Shorestone Homes did a thorough walk through on the oneyear anniversary. I see this as a strong sign of our builder’s vision, commitment to stand behind their products and longevity in the building industry. Additionally, many of the builder’s own employees are deciding to build homes with them in our neighbourhood.
Myth #5 – Older homes tend to be built better
There has always been a high level of craftsmanship and pride in the home-building business, and that holds true today. Some owners of older homes will tell you how sturdy they are, but with improvement in technology and build practices, new homes actually have more detailed energy and building codes to adhere to. Although homes may go up faster than in the past, roofs today typically last longer, insulation is vastly better, wiring is safer, heating and air conditioning are far more efficient and foundations are more sound than ever.
In summary, Shorestone Homes exposed some of the negative myths about building a new home our family had before we began the building process. Realistically, there will be frustrations, stresses, and even disagreements in any building process, no matter how great your builder is.
I think what sets certain builders like Shorestone Homes apart from others is their focus on building and maintaining relationships with their clients. Everything else comes second.
George Orwell once wrote that “myths which are believed in tend to become true”.
However, our family did not experience any of the negative myths of building a new living-space for our family. Thankfully, these ‘myths’ did not transform into reality for us. In fact, we love our current reality and will continue to promote only the positive. We are hoping that others will do the same.
Rob Steciuk