Hot Dogs and Houses

Courtesy FoodnessGracious!

Ordering a hot dog packed with all kinds of good stuff, and building or remodeling your home have at least one thing in common - they are both transactions. But the similarities end there. True, you start with a raw product (either the "dog" or an empty lot) and you add things as desired. But one takes literally seconds to produce, and the other months. Therein lies the difference. Production time raises some interesting issues.

If building a home were as simple as slapping a dog on a bun, squirtin' and spoonin' some great tasting condiments on it and calling it good, friction between parties involved in the transaction would be absolutely minimal. But time has a way of adding emotion, and emotion sometimes fractures relationships. Performance plays a much larger role in building/remodeling than it does at the hot dog stand. So does cost!

Understanding that it takes longer and costs more to build your home than it does to decorate your "dog," here are some tips for surviving the longer transaction period:

• Building a home is like putting together a gigantic size jigsaw puzzle. It's not just dog, bun, mustard, ketsup etc., it thousands of parts which must be put together in a very specific order. Being highly organized helps! Hiring professionals that are highly organized and have a specific administrative plan for putting those pieces together, will cut down on mistakes and improve efficiency.
• Do your part! Whether it's deciding if its as simple as ketsup, mustard and/or relish, make your housing selections decisively. Remember, construction is like a "big ball" - if it slows down or stops waiting for you to make a decision, it's very hard to get the ball rolling again.
• You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. A positive, fun, engaging personality attracts a lot more attention than negativity. Basic human nature says that we would all rather work for someone who is nice and fun than for an 'ole sour puss!
• "Hold things loosely, and people tightly." A house is a "thing," but the people putting it together have eternal significance. Focusing on the workers and realizing imperfect people make mistakes ensures that value is placed in areas having eternal significance.

We all want what we want. Sometimes getting it requires a little bit more time and effort. Next time you order a "dog" just the way you want it, be grateful it's a simple transaction, easily corrected if it falls on the floor!

Just Released...

If you follow this blog, "Raising the Roof..." became "UnHINGED - A Homebuilder's Secrets for Saving Time and Money." (What in sam hill is he talking about?) The book! Amazon just released that labor of love so often mentioned and described on this blog. After months of writing, editing, re-editing, re-writing, editing some more, formatting (whatever that is), and working on a cover, UnHINGED is finally off my desk.

So who are we trying to hit? National Association of Homebuilders says that every year in America 305,000 new custom homes (not tract) are built. AND... $191billion is spent on remodeling. Ahhhhhhh...that's quite a market. So here we go, beating the drum.

35 years of building homes and working with clients have taught me a thing or two about the building process. Literally hundreds of friends and family have called through the years asking about various aspects of the construction industry. As we have become fond of saying, "you should know what I know..." and now, with UnHINGED you will! The pages are filled with all kinds of time and money saving tips. Would you believe it if I told you that we serve those tips and ideas up with a little bit of humor too?

Is this some sort of swan song or something? Shoot NO! Hoebeke Builders, Inc. is just gettin' goin good! 

Puzzle Masters - The Builders

(Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from my new book Raising the Roof! A Homebuilder's Secrets to Saving Time and Money. So often homeowners take a "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach to the building process. Raising the Roof! attempts to re-orient the process so most of the planning occurs upfront, before leaving the architect's office. This piece is a snippet from the section dealing with the second of the Team Members, the builder. Many additional "tricks and tips" can be gleaned from the balance of the text, but you'll just have to wait for the book to be published before you can see the rest of what we're up to!) 

Puzzle Masters – The Builders

On one hand you have architects that specialize in design but don’t know cost. The other hand consists of the contractor/builder who doesn’t know design but lives in the world of cost everyday. Sounds like a marriage made in heaven doesn’t it? Wrong. Seemingly architects always want to be on the budget and production committees, and builders want to sneak over to the design committee. The problem? Each is convinced they know more about the other’s discipline. The truth? Architects need only to design – and stay away from cost issues; builders need to specialize in the cost and technique of putting puzzle pieces together, and stay out of the design.

Let’s sort this out. But before we do, let’s clean up the difference between a “builder,” and a “contractor.”  Though the terms seem interchangeable, and will be used interchangeably in this book, a “builder” is someone who builds things and accepts all the normal risks inherent of the building business and also accepts the economic risks of being able to sell, or not sell their product in the marketplace. A “contractor” builds things for clients, still shouldering the normal risks of the building business, but works on a “for hire” basis, thus eliminating  most economic risk. Whew…is all of that clear as mud? If we go way back to the beginning of this book, the builder is the “businessman,” and the contractor is the “artist.”

By the very definition of their job description a builder/contractor has to be in cost and budget everyday. (Note: the title “Contractor” is derived from the word “contract” which everyone knows means lawyers and money must be involved). Whether building for a specific client or the open market, it’s impossible to build something without incurring cost. So, with pricing fresh in their mind, the Contractor is much more likely to know the cost of a pier and beam foundation then the pencil pushing architect.

But ignorance doesn’t stop the architect from guessing. Almost every day in Dallas, Texas you have an architect guessing how much it’s going to cost to build the magnificent structure he/she has just designed. They’re clueless! (Qualifier: unless the firm is “design/build” where architecture and construction both come out of the same office – see the section on Architects). Some of the hardest deals ever done are projects where the client has hired the architect independent of the contractor, designed a magnificent home with the architect, and been told it can be built for say $175 per square foot (exclusive of land). Just imagine the surprise of the client, and the embarrassment to the architect when the project prices out at $300 per square foot. ARCHITECTS DON’T KNOW COST – they think they do, but don’t let ‘em fool ya.

Earlier, in defining the difference between builders and contractors, the rather unusual and precarious risks faced by builders everyday were noted.  Any occupation where people are putting large objects together; standing on walk boards two stories in the air; installing roofing on slopes too steep to possibly walk; and playing with methane gas, to name just a few potential dangers, has inordinate amounts of risk. Assembling the large pieces necessary to build a home requires hanging in mid-air on scaffolding (usually walk boards to the framers), and nailing shingles on a steeply pitched roof while plumbers connect methane gas lines throughout the structure. The chemicals used in painting have yet to even be considered.

A natural argument says builders must be nuts to want to build houses. Some   are – “nuts” about the people, “nuts” about the process, and “nuts” about the finished product. Building gets in the blood and just won’t go away. Sure, risks can be managed through incorporating a business and buying all kinds of insurance but my Father-in-law said it best “…if you’re going to build big houses, you’re going to have big problems.” Truer words have never been spoken.

Builders wish the risks and liabilities were limited to only jobsite related functions. No way - those risks are too manageable. Add economic risks, downturns in the economy, international trade regulation risks, raw product price spikes (copper and gypsum are two prime examples), shortages, client management and relations risks, even the threat of litigation, and it makes one wonder why anybody would sign up for being a builder. (I once had a client that was soooo mad they said their attorney was ‘going to sue me until I bled to death!’)

What’s the incentive in begging for this kind of potential punishment? Where else can a person literally conceive an idea one day, start building on it the next, and end up with something becoming a legacy when long gone? Fourteen months in the oil and gas business years ago filing files taught me about missing the spontaneity of the homebuilding business….. (probably didn’t make near the money, but I’ve had a much better time).

Gone Fishin'

When my daughters convinced me to start this blog last year in March I really didn't think I had much to say. Ahhhhhhhh....that was 90 posts ago! So, we've solved the problem of 'what do I say' to all of you loyal readers. But I have grown envious of these college kids that have the summer off. With creativity waning as I look longingly out the window, I've decided to take a little sabbatical myself. 

Through the summer I will only be writing when something really important happens, or when I really have something to say. Otherwise, 'I've gone fishin!' (Not really - I plan on being right here!) Actually, a dear friend has encouraged me to write a book about the building process as sort of a "self-help" manual for all of you that might want to have something built one of these days. I'm about a chapter deep already - and wondering again what I really have to say!

Let me leave you for a while with a few pictures of comfortable spaces outside. That oughta cool you off!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Have I mentioned that I am married to Mrs. Christmas? Every year our home looks like the inside of a Christmas package - it just explodes with color and fun! This year is no exception. It's just that it happened on October 25th - a WEEK BEFORE HALLOWEEN!

If one tree is good, two is better! Ahhhhhh, but one is upside down!

But there's method to Molly's madness. You see, within a matter of moments Shelby and Jake will be having their second child, AND the Christmas rush is already on at Heart's Desire, Molly's retail store! To say that she is way out ahead of the curve is to put it mildly!

Old 'stick in the mud' Bob (Dutch to some of you) wouldn't be up for decorating that early so Molly got really smart and brought in Michael Hamilton to do the honors. Michael has a wonderful touch, and he is loads of fun, so the two of them giggled like little girls all day long while they decorated. Kind of put me in the mood!

While many will think it kind of odd that we decorated so early, I really kind of like it! Careful though - too many kind platitudes and next year Molly may start decorating for Christmas in JUNE!!

Can't "BEE" True...

To say that you meet some facinating people in the building related trades can often be a enormous understatement. Any time you mix creative people together with the big money required to build a home, hilarious things are bound to happen. 

Take the time I was making a routine jobsite visit and found one of the lead framing carpenters with a big old cotton wad in his ear. 'Jeff, what in the world happened to you?' "Ear ache" was Jeff's reply - "absolutely killing me, must be a wax build up!" You could tell the poor guy was in a lot of pain. As faithful and loyal a framer as you could ever want, he was thinking about going home.


For several days Jeff suffered along. When asked about why he wasn't going to the Doctor, he mentioned that he felt his ear was improving. 

Then one day the cotton was gone, and Jeff was whistling and working away. 'Jeff, what happened - the cotton is out of your ear?' Reluctantly Jeff replied, "...ahhhh I was sitting around at lunch and decided to clean out my ear with a sixteen penny nail (not recommended for the best of personal hygiene!) and I'll be dad gummed if I didn't pull a dead honey bee out of my ear!" He surmised that a bee had crawled in there looking for the ear wax without him knowing it, and had stung his eardrum! These guys are tough - I believe I might have heard the bee before it stung me!

A Sixteen Penny nail - the Framer's version of a "Q-Tip!"