Understand Your Budget
How much do you really have to spend? Do you need to build the entire addition right away? What if you got the shell up and under roof and the exterior done and finished it later on the inside once you got your bonus check? Don’t over leverage yourself. Time is a benefit you have that a general contractor does not have.
Gather Detailed Requirements
The key emphasis is on the “detailed”. This also means documented. Per room. See the book in links for more details on this. It is a great step by step document for moving your build forward. The designer will spec this to code. Make sure you have an idea of size by laying out stakes and measuring. The book in the links section has a checklist for everything you’d need to ask the designer.
Gather costs as a baseline
Gather some costs from general contractors. Use this as a gauge that is you rule of thumb to determine what would have been the base cost by which to measure your build against. Why a base cost? Enhanced upgrades in finishes, materials, change orders, etc….
The ONE thing NOT to do is….Stress about it.
Are you nervous? If you are still not sure, model it.
Model it? How could I possibly do that?
Get the quotes and start to figure it out. As you were gathering details for the build, get with a designer to draw up a set of house plans. These plans will have an additional charge to be signed by an engineer. Don’t do that just yet. Take the electronic set of plans and get them off to the respective trades for cost quotes. Let them know you will pay for all the materials. Do all the leg work up front by getting with a single contractor using one of the sites in the important links section, add to a spreadsheet and see where your costs lie. This should be pretty close to your final as you will likely save from these figures as you are going to get more than one bid per trade but may add a 5-10% buffer for risk.
