Building A House Long-Distance: How Hard is it Really?
Building a new home is an exciting project but add the complexity of doing it in a different state – and during a global pandemic – and it can quickly turn into a long and unpredictable journey. While the majority of our projects are local to Charlotte, we’re no strangers to working on long-distance projects. Our clients, for example, began their dream retirement home project just as the COVID-19 pandemic was sweeping across the country. They originally purchased the 2-acre lakefront property in Maine in 2012. By 2019, they were ready to start the planning process and make this vision a reality. We worked tirelessly with them on the floor plans, exterior and interior aesthetics, and overall size and placement of the home on the property. The result? A long and sometimes challenging process, but also a rewarding one with valuable lessons learned along the way.
Working with Heather took much of the stress out of this project due to her thorough knowledge and expertise in these areas: creating precise, detailed building plans, asking for specific code requirements in Maine, helping my husband and I consider how we would use the home and the goals we had for this project. She was also available whenever we needed to review or adjust the plans or had questions that came up during construction.
Below, in our client’s own words, we’ve shared a timeline that highlights the realities of building a new home across state lines, especially during the pandemic, and how it all came together in the end.
2012
We purchased a 2-acre lakefront property in Maine which had a 900 square foot 3-season fishing camp building and separate garage/workshop.
2019 – 2020
Worked with Heather to create plans for a year-round home for large family gatherings and our eventual retirement home. We began excavating and preparing the site for the new home build.
2020 – 2021
Pandemic began, construction prices soared, and our builder was overwhelmed and decided to retire. We put the project on hold as we searched for another builder and waited for prices to stabilize.
* One bright light during this delay in the process was that our clients had time to meet with a local Maine supplier of faux cedar shake siding and were offered a huge discount on the product if they allowed the company to include photos of the completed house in their marketing brochures. Sometimes it pays to explore material options and think outside the box.
2021
We hired a second builder, worked on a final budget and project timeline
July 2022
Our code enforcement officer checked on the excavation and measured the elevation changes and decided a walkout basement was necessary. We redesigned the existing plans with Heather to include a walkout basement and revised the other floors. The final building plans were ready in February 2023.
Numerous contractors and our builder commented on how detailed the plans were and said they rarely received plans that were so easily understood and thorough. This gave us confidence that our remote project would come to fruition in the way we envisioned!
May 2023
We resumed the project and construction crew began pouring the foundation.
December 2024
House is 95% complete and we are spending Christmas and New Year’s in our new lake house with all our children and grandchildren!
Words of Advice
When choosing to take on a remote building project these are some of our clients’ recommendations:
1. Make sure you have well thought out and executed building plans/blueprints.
2. Talk to as many people as possible about your plans, specifically builders and other homeowners/friends who have been through this process before. We consulted with some of our neighbors who had just completed a new build on an adjacent lakefront property, and many builders as we chose the best builder to hire.
3. Find out what experience others have had with your builder. Our builder was recommended to us by multiple friends and subcontractors in Maine. He only works with clients that are recommended to him and does little to no marketing because he is known locally by his reputation and has more work than he can complete without advertising his business. We were fortunate to have a mutual friend put us in touch with our builder, and we worked on his timeline.
Heather was my “go to” for advice, design decisions, and when I needed reassurance. She was always willing to reach out to our builder, plumber, or electrician if needed to clarify the plans or make suggestions.
4. Using a smaller builder was the best way for us to go. Ask as many questions as you can think of. If you get evasive answers, be cautious. Ask to see other homes they have built and/or contact their references/former clients.
5. Especially when you are building in a location far from where you currently live, make sure the builder or one of his trusted employees is at the job site anytime a subcontractor is there. Because our builder had a small crew, they only take on one new building project at a time and he is on site almost every day and always there when any work is done. He also sent photos and communicated with me at least twice a week and often daily. Finding the right builder is SO important. You may have to wait until that person comes along or is ready.
6. Talk with building supply stores and builders about the best exterior finishes to use for that climate. Because Maine is a very different climate than North Carolina I relied on advice from those who live and build in Maine to help guide my choices for siding, roofing, windows, etc.
We added or revised our plans based on the following recommendations:
- A heated garage floor with a center drain for snow-melt runoff from car tires.
- Radiant heat water tubing under our basement and main floors as our primary heat source. While it’s more expensive to install, it’s much more affordable as a heat source.
- No two-story vaulted ceiling in the great room, which we originally planned, to help with more even heat distribution in the cold winter months and to conserve energy.
- A metal roof and a steep roofline to ensure heavy snow accumulation will not remain on the roof.
How We Overcame Challenges
1. We could not get enough water from the ground for a reliable well due to the granite bedrock on our property, so we consulted with a Water Filtration Company and Maine DEP and were able to draw water from the spring fed lake and then store it in tanks and through a filtration system in the basement mechanical room.
2. Because our home is in a more rural area with fewer stores for custom building supplies, we sourced some of the building materials such as reclaimed wood beams in the kitchen, reclaimed engineered flooring and some antique doors in North Carolina and had it shipped to our jobsite in Maine.
3. We wanted to use some building materials that had been milled from our property in NC; specifically, a large solid white oak wood mantle and white oak wood flooring for the second floor that was milled by our family. We communicated this desire early in the process to our builder and he accommodated these requests.
Things to consider if you are planning to start a project outside of Mecklenburg County
New build homes are much easier to work on because we don’t need the existing house measurements. However, we will need a property survey to get started. If you have a renovation project, think about how you will provide us with the existing house measurements or floor plans. Also, is there an HOA board you will need to get approval from before finalizing the drawings. Most HOA boards require a front and rear elevation for the home design you intend to build or renovate. Consider travel time and expenses that will come up often!
If you’re considering embarking on a similar journey, take these lessons to heart. With the right mindset and a good design team, your dream home is within reach. Whether it’s the beach or mountains or somewhere in-between, we’ve got you covered!
Am I glad we are almost at the finish line? – Absolutely! Was the process sometimes overwhelming? – Absolutely! But we surrounded ourselves with good, honest, professional experts who were invested in making our dream home a reality and we learned so much along the way. Heather and her team were an essential part of the success of this project, and we are so grateful!
