Month Six (and a half) Metrics

We are technically probably into Month 7, but I never posted Month 6, so this will cover both of them.

We were looking to be under budget for a while, but I knew the expenses were about to rack up and they have. A lot of areas we have gone under, but there were a couple surprises.

Where we went over budget this month:

1) Concrete - We spent WAY over what was budgeted for the concrete for porches, driveway and walkway. This also happened at the beginning with our foundation. It was just a bad estimate from our builder.

2) Landscaping - We have a large yard and it took more sod than we thought. We didn't go over by much, but enough to call it an overage.

3) Tile Labor - We had a guy no-show, so we found another one. However, the new tile guy was more expensive. We didn't have time to lose, so we went with him.

Because we have gone over in areas, we had to cut some things out. We decided to wait on:

1) Porch Railing - I made sure the drop was less than 36 inches to the ground so that an inspector wouldn't force us to put railing up.

2) Screen Porch - We can always add this later.

Our original closing date was way back in July. Now we are looking at early September. Areas where we got behind:

1) Framing - The original quote was six weeks to completely frame the house. It took twelve weeks.

2) Brick - The original quote was "Two weeks, easy." We ran out of brick and it also ended up taking four weeks. We only lost a couple days for running out of brick.

3) Trim Labor - Our trim carpenter only worked four hours a day, so it took him four weeks instead of two. The stairs also took longer than expected.

4) Painters - Although the painters were quick, it was hard to get them to show up. Once they showed up, they were lightening fast.

We have had some great contractors that make the experience enjoyable. They come out when they say they will and the price is what they originally said it was.

Our original timeline was always October 1st and we will definitely make that deadline. We have done pretty well for building a custom home that hasn't been done before. It's not like a production house where the same floorplan is done many times. This is completely custom and we are only seven months in. 

Month Eight will be here soon, and I am hopeful to say we will be complete then! About four more weeks!

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 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!