ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor
Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
G
goalkeeper
Hello everyone,
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
goalkeeper schrieb:
And here is the daily update:
Our end house will start its earthworks on 04.11. However, what’s much more interesting is that today I got in touch with our middle house neighbor (or maybe not?). I actually just wanted to check on their current status (curious as I am).
So it remains exciting. You probably could have planned with windows on the right side of the plan, that is, facing north.
Oh dear... hopefully the potential neighbor at least had their construction costs properly calculated.
There has definitely been good progress, and you're still the only one there. I see this with mixed feelings: on the one hand, you still have complete freedom around your property—no others who might temporarily store materials nearby or park construction vehicles, etc.—but on the other hand, once you’ve moved in, you’ll likely have to deal with construction noise and dirt from the surrounding sites for at least another year. From a financial and project management perspective, this is probably actually better. It’ll just cost a bit of patience later on.
There has definitely been good progress, and you're still the only one there. I see this with mixed feelings: on the one hand, you still have complete freedom around your property—no others who might temporarily store materials nearby or park construction vehicles, etc.—but on the other hand, once you’ve moved in, you’ll likely have to deal with construction noise and dirt from the surrounding sites for at least another year. From a financial and project management perspective, this is probably actually better. It’ll just cost a bit of patience later on.
goalkeeper schrieb:
The "Building Competence Center" is definitely not located in the area yet. Why, you are there...!F
Fummelbrett!26 Oct 2019 09:00I can already picture you living in the finished house, sitting on the terrace during your first summer, surrounded by construction sites and desperate builders, as well as even more desperate homeowners.
But I always find it very nice to read that you seem to have been very lucky with your contractor. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the positive experiences will continue throughout the entire construction period.
...surely you are already the secret chief of the neighborhood
But I always find it very nice to read that you seem to have been very lucky with your contractor. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the positive experiences will continue throughout the entire construction period.
...surely you are already the secret chief of the neighborhood
F
Fummelbrett!26 Oct 2019 09:22...you could already prepare a template for a tally sheet to track how often the phrase "Oh, if only we were that far along already!" is said during future conversations with your neighbors
Fummelbrett! schrieb:
I can already see you living in the finished house, sitting on the terrace during the first summer [...]Even the Bible says (although it also includes "defective copy, misprint") that "the first will be the only ones." I imagine that only so few of the other prospective builders will persevere that in five years there will be three houses standing, and the remaining plots will be incorporated into a developer’s site-specific development plan. If the developer is nice, they might sell Goalkeepers a three-meter (10 feet) strip, allowing them to add side windows.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/