Month 5 Metrics

The month of June has flown by. The invoices are coming in faster than once a month. The insulation, drywall and brick have completed since the last draw. 

For the last month, we have only had one rain day! And it was on a Sunday, when no one works. It has been nice, but it has been extremely hot. I was grateful, because the rain was not an issue while installing the brick on the exterior of the house.

Currently, we are about a month behind our original schedule and we are under budget. I am waiting to claim victory with the budget until we are officially complete. We have a lot left to do and you spend a lot of your budget in the last bit of the building process.

We have completed all the tasks we set out to accomplish, it just took us a little longer. The brick was delayed; the trim was delayed; and the inspections took longer than expected. Although some months we spend more, there are some months we spend less. It's kind of like how you go to the grocery store and spend so much one month because that month you ran out of a lot, but it means the next time you grocery shop, you spend less and get back on track.

I will say, staying under budget has taken an effort. It's a good practice to get many quotes. Some people can really be outrageous with their prices. I had budget goals that I knew could be achieved, but were not easy. I would almost lose hope when an estimate would be twice my budget, but then I would get excited when I got an estimate within or below.

Right now, it's my goal that we will be moving in around the third week of August. It's so close we can feel it and it's getting exciting. The trim (baseboards, interior doors, window & door casing, crown moulding) is almost complete... the wainscoting has not started and the remaining baseboard cannot be complete until the cabinets are installed (baths and kitchen).

We're almost there!

Month 4 Metrics

We have another month down in the construction phase of our new home. We're 141 days in now and some exciting things are about to happen all at once.

We had three weeks of stand by trying to get inspections lined up. One inspection held up all the others. The weather has been great, if only we weren't sitting around. We didn't have a drop of rain for two weeks!

We're currently behind on schedule, and my prediction is that we're two weeks behind. The original schedule said we would be done with insulation and drywall by May 15th. We're close, but not there.

As for budget, we're currently on track. On May 1st, I paid two big bills I didn't expect. I had to put 50% down for the garage doors and the cabinets. In my budget, I had a lump sum paid upon delivery. So those payments put us over for the month, but in the long run, we're good.

And I still have two payments to make this month that I don't have calculated; that's insulation and drywall.

Overall, we are good. I originally had us moving in to the house mid-July, and now it's looking like mid-August.

Month 3 Metrics

We have actually had two "draws" in the last month to add to our performing metrics. Draws are invoices from the general contractor to pay bills. Ours is set up a little differently since we are acting as our own GC (kinda). Usually a GC has an account with companies and they have 30 days to pay the bills. We just pay the bills once the invoice is delivered.

The first draw of month three was to cover the remaining lumber we used to complete framing and the windows and doors. The remaining lumber came in the same week as our last draw, but the company gave us 30-days to pay. The windows we paid upon delivery, and the doors as well.

The next draw was for the rough-ins. We paid both the plumber and the electrician 60% of their total quote for passing their inspections. The plumber's quote came in slightly higher because we had him add two things; (He ran the dryer vents and we added a radon venting system.) I was okay with that.

With the plumber, we had to order the tubs and some trim kits for the drains in the tubs/showers. We also went ahead and had our plumber install the water heater we bought. I misread that the plumber needed faucets. I was confused, because I knew they wouldn't be installed until the counters were in, but I bought them anyway. That was a purchase that happened sooner than it needed to, but I tracked it. 

The electrician came in under his budget. I knew he might have quoted high. Our general contractor added a buffer line for electrical in his budget. It was his experience that homeowners overrun in electrical the most. Our electrician quoted us by outlets, switches, lights, etc. I really liked seeing it broken down by line-item. Most companies just gave me a flat quote, and told me how many cable outlets that included.

I keep my earned value sheet but I also "balance my check-book." Up until April 1st, we were able to use the money we put down to pay our bills. I had to balance the books to know when we were about to run out and when I needed to ask the bank for money from our loan. This has been a huge help! We were able to make it through those rain delays and not pay interest on money borrowed. Now, when I receive an invoice from a contractor, I ask the bank for a deposit (from our construction loan). They verify the total with what the bank's inspector thinks of the value we have so far. The inspector comes out twice a week.

Overall, we are in good shape. The rough-ins completed on schedule, so it appears we have gotten ourselves back on track. Budget wise, we are still good. We're still over budget a little from the last month, but there are some areas that can get us back down. It's now all cosmetic and our choices really affect the price.

Month Two Statistics

We closed on our construction loan December 31, 2014. We had our lot staked out the same day and the lot was being cleared by the next. Rain was coming, so we didn't start digging our footings quite yet.

When building a house, you have "Draw's" as a way to pay invoices. Because we are doing a lot of the coordination ourselves, we have multiple invoices and not just one from a builder. But I keep the invoices organized by the "Draw" they correspond to.

Month One marked the milestone of having our foundation complete. We only had one "Draw" at that point and were waiting on the second. Draw One correlated to the footers being complete. Draw Two correlated with the foundation being complete.

At Draw One, we were on schedule and under budget. Woohoo!

But by Draw Two, we were over budget, and still on schedule. I maybe should have waited to provide monthly metrics after I got Draw Two, but I was anxious.

For Month Two Metrics, I waited for our third Draw. And with the weather, we've been waiting a while. Draw Three relates to the second floor decking being complete. This can mean different things to different people. If you have a two-story house, it could mean that you've framed the first floor and laid the floor joists for the second floor. Or you could take it as completing the framing for the second floor. We used the latter.

At Draw Two we were over budget, but Draw Three came in under budget to get us back closer to our goal. We are behind schedule by a week (Look at all those rain/snow days!)

The reason for Draw Two to be over budget was because of a fault when we changed things. Originally, we thought we would use ICF from the footer up. We then changed it to be block for the foundation and use ICF for the first floor only. We reduced the quote for ICF, but forgot to raise the quote for a block foundation. We only had the garage quoted as block. OOPS!

For Draw Four, the milestones we reach are felt on the roof, windows and doors. That's coming up! Should be next week.

I did change the color thresholds for the earned value. Because our project is short compared to years-long projects, I made the parameters tighter. I also had the monthly metrics calculate schedule data based on dates. But for the cumulative metrics, I calculated the metrics based on the number of tasks completed. That's why they say different things. We've accomplished a couple more tasks than planned, but we are behind date-wise.

Enjoy!

Month 1 Earned Value Metrics

With today being Day 36 in our house building process and we just completed the foundation, I thought it was appropriate to report progress using money and time.

I love earned value, so it came natural to want to track the house with calculations. I first had to set up the plan. I had my Microsoft Project file that told me how long it was going to take, and I had my budget, but I wanted to marry them.

The money part of the statistics will be hidden. That just gets personal. Ladies do not share their age nor their finances. But you'll see the "trend" in the line graph and the EVM number will be an indicator of over-run or under-run.

For schedule, we came right in where I expected. There were a couple times we pulled ahead of schedule, but those rain days made us get back on track.

For budget, we came in under. This is rare. I have not anticipated running under and don't plan to ever again. We planned the budget to be realistic. We knew what we wanted and we used those estimates for our budget. No guessing on a contractor's part of what we want or don't want. Our estimates are accurate.

The graph below I will keep a tally on. It shows the amount of money spent at each draw. The bank uses the word "Draw" for paying the contractors. Inspectors come out every other week to check on progress. We cannot pay for something that hasn't been done. There are eleven draws, but I don't anticipate to be building for 11 months, so the draws don't represent months.

The blue line is currently the planned budget. A red line will soon appear that keeps track of the actual money spent. Let's hope the blue line over powers the red because we are on budget. A red line below the blue would be even better! Just not above the blue line.

I will be calculating "monthly" EVM along with cumulative. Some months may look good or bad, but the real judge is how you are dong cumulatively.

Blue indicates exceptional performance in that category. Green means expected. Yellow and red indicate something went off track.

Overall, we are very happy with our status. Let's keep this trend going!