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You know how they say that building a custom home is stressful? Well, they are right. It’s not just stressful, it’s a nightmare. I’m not exaggerating. I wish I was.

Let me tell you, I was not naive. I knew that building a custom home would involve a lot of challenges, decisions, and compromises. I did my homework. I spent a year and a half researching everything from floor plans to faucets, from contractors to codes, from permits to plumbing. I had a binder full of notes, sketches, and samples. I was ready.

Or so I thought.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for the horror show that was the construction process. It was like a comedy of errors, except it wasn’t funny at all. It was more like a tragedy of terrors.

Where do I begin? The delays, the mistakes, the miscommunications, the cost overruns, the quality issues, the legal disputes…I could write a book about it. Maybe I should. It would be a bestseller. Or at least a cautionary tale.

Every step of the way, something went wrong.

The incorrect floor plan was submitted to permit, the excavation was inadequate, our basement kept leaking for months, the five sets of front doors that still aren’t correct, etc… I’m not making this up. These are all real problems that we faced.

From the builder to the contractors, we saw it all. They were either incompetent, dishonest, or both. They missed deadlines, broke promises, ignored instructions, overcharged fees, cut corners, damaged materials, and blamed everyone and their dog for their own mistakes. They were rude, unprofessional, and disrespectful. They made our lives miserable.

We tried to be patient, reasonable, and flexible. We tried to communicate clearly, negotiate fairly, and resolve issues amicably. We tried to keep our sense of humor and our sanity. But it was hard. Very hard.

We lost sleep, we lost money, we lost trust. We argued with our builder, we argued with the subcontractors, we argued with the mortgage lender, we argued with each other. We cried, we yelled, we cursed. We wondered if it was worth it. We wondered if we made a mistake.

But we didn’t give up. We kept going. We kept fighting. We kept hoping.

And finally, after two years of agony and anguish, we finished our custom home.

And you know what? It’s beautiful.

It’s everything we dreamed of and more.

It’s our pride and joy.

It’s our home sweet home.

The Journey Begins

It started when our builder submitted the wrong floor plan to the county for approval. When we brought it to our builder’s attention, he thanked us and reassured us that it wasn’t a big deal and that he would have caught the mistake himself “by the time the HVAC was getting installed”. He provided assurance that the accurate floor plans were shared with vendors, confirming that the specifications provided were consistent and in alignment with the intended construction project.

As if.

Because when that time came, the subcontractors were working off the incorrect plans as proven by the printed plans of the incorrect floor plan and the fact that there were pipes and tubes installed all over our theater room, making it look like a giant spaghetti monster. To save his face, my solution was to simply remove the plans from the premises and pray it would be enough. It wasn’t.

Why did the builder only dig halfway when laying the foundation?

Because he thought, “The only difference between a hole and a grave is how far you dig” … and he didn’t want to take any chances!

When it came to time for framing, we realized that our builder did not excavate enough and what was supposed to be a garage that had two steps into the house now had seven. It was not okay.

We were mad and annoyed. It never really got better from here.