Tom on second floor getting ready for the roof |
Panston Gibson, one of our bad ass masons |
Me on the roof working |
Tom and the boys hoisting a SIP to the roof |
- Choosing your property: Know the area extremely well. That includes your topography to your neighbors. Do your homework. Plan trips for several different seasons and weather patterns. Be observant of those weather patterns. The weather patterns should be a guide for your land purchase and your building type. Watch how the sun rotates during the day on the property that you think you want. Are you going to bake or freeze. Will the wind blow so hard you can never sit on the porch or will the bugs carry you away?
Will the rain or surf, wash you away or be a pleasant calming experience?
2. Now... you have chosen the ideal site for your home. What next? Purchasing land in a foreign country can be daunting. Persevere! A real estate agent can be a blessing or a real pest. It depends on the person and the country. We were using a real estate agent when we were looking at pre-built homes and land in the beginning of our search. We did not find what we were looking for. We have been going to Eleuthera for twenty years and had established friends who began to guide us toward land for sale by owner. Which ever route you choose you will need a lawyer to complete a sale in the Bahamas. Ask around and choose wisely. That is where the process will begin. It took us nine months to a year to finish our purchase. There will be a back ground check by the government. It will include criminal as well as financial inquiries. So be prepared. Through out this process be an informed consumer...ask questions....ask questions. If you do not understand keeping asking until you do.
3. Are you tired yet? Purchasing the property may have completely zapped you of your strength. Take your vitamins and keep going. Now to plan your home. This was fun for us. We had a ball planning our dream home and putting it on paper with and architect. It was a three story with all the bells and whistles. It was a dream. Then we put that dream to the dollars and cents test. Reality....ouch. We took our dream home through a cost analysts expert in Nassau who worked with our engineer. Yes..we had our home engineered for 150mph hurricane. We thought this was important. So let me back up....first...dream home on paper with USA architect. Next, took those plans to a Nassau engineer and then to the cost analysts process. Yes, that was expensive but worth it. We spent about $1500 in Nassau which saved us $100,000 in over runs. This was money well spent. The only part required in the Bahamas is a Bahamian architect to sign off on your plans or have them do it to begin with. Totally your choice. The design of your home needs to be pleasing, practical, and easy to care for. Building a home that becomes a pain in the ass to take care of in a distant land is a home that will be sold quickly and never enjoyed. The design of our home was a labor of love. My husband put his heart, soul and money into our roof. The roof is his baby. When you design your home think about how it will be built...by you or a contractor. We did both. Some things we did by ourselves, example...staining our concrete floors. Other things were a joint effort with our contractor for instance the roof. Gibson and Sons construction were the real deal. They are expert masons and can do unbelievable things with concrete. The concrete was all them. You will probably redo your plans several times. This is totally normal.
3. How will you finance your home? We used a combination of savings and a home loan with RBC in the Bahamas. We were told several times by well meaning people that a home loan from a Bahamian bank to a foreigner was impossible. We learned to always challenge the so called impossible. The financing part is where many people fail. This plays back to our cost analysts. If you only have a vague idea of what your dream home will cost to build you could be in trouble. Even with proper planning we had close to $30,000 in cost over runs.
4. Once you have a plan for the finance, now you need the builder. The builder may be you or a combination of you and a local contractor or the contractor all the way. If you are the home builder understand what you can do and when you can do it. Give yourself a reality check here. The Bahamas are the islands of lost dreams. Many houses get started but not finished. If you have already built a home in the past then you have a valid idea of your own strengths and weaknesses. If this is your first, we would suggest the combination approach. This is how we did it. We took our time and found a builder who matched our budget, time frame and approach. The contract with our builder was from beginning to end. The end was finished concrete, roofing, and plumbing. All the finish work were bid as separate jobs. Along the way we have had friends who were building in stages and bid each stage out for their own projects. If we build again we may try the stages approach and see if we can stick to a stricter budget. No matter what you choose, you will have to bid out a job or two. The work that is done for you must be checked at critical stages. The beginning parameters must be clear, do not do verbal. Write it down. Keep copies. This is important whether you are doing a formal build or a deal with the local painter. Make sure you have the price for the job upfront not after.
5. Know the building codes for your area. Do not just leave it up to the builder. Be an educated consumer. Meet with the local inspector and get to know them. This should be done before you lay your foundation. Our building was set to close to the road but our builder was able to push it through. After that we paid a lot more attention to those codes. The building codes are set at minimums for the Bahamas. For instance hurricane straps, the minimum is not based on wind load or the maritime environment. Look at where you are and over build. The structural integrity of a building during a hurricane falls apart from the roof down, then the windows and walls. If you are high up, your enemy is the wind. If you are down low, your enemy will be flooding. We looked at lots of buildings with shitty hurricane straps in Florida and the Bahamas. We educated ourselves by calling Simpson Strong -Ties. (Call the manufacturers of the products you feel are important and get your info straight from them not a salesman.) We spoke to their engineers. It was mind blowing. Know everything you can about the structural integrity of your building. We cannot stress this enough. This is where you put your money, skimp some where else.
6. Before you start building from your plans, learn to read them. Make as many copies as you think you will need: two for yourself, builder, electrician, and plumber. Know what every symbol means. Do the math where needed. Make sure things add up. Then go over them with your builder or sub contractor and make sure the plans are correct. We learned to read our architectural plans and engineered plans. We did our own concrete calculations to see if we were on track. We looked at electrical and plumbing and even with all that the plans were not always correct. We looked at critical stages: foundation, plumbing lay out, electrical, 1st floor walls, staircase, 2nd floor poor, columns, etc and matched them to the plans. 80-90% of the time they matched but the times they did not the contractor had to fix it. Unfortunately over there we ate the cost about 50% of the time. Their country their rules. Let me clarify....the labor part of fixing mistakes was covered by our contractor but replacement materials had to be re-imported by us at our cost. Our contractor made allowances where he could to make up for those additional costs. You have to know where to bend and where to stand your ground...give and take.
7. This is where having a construction loan was a good thing. The foreign bank was an investor in our home. They wanted to protect that investment and required periodic inspections. These inspections were critical to our builder receiving his next draw. This put another pair of critical eyes on our project. It gave us the power to keep our builder with in code and build a better home.
8. Staying on schedule was a critical factor and staying in budget. We had certain financial stop gaps that we had set in place for ourselves. We gave ourselves a low, medium and high figure to work with. At one point on our home we had reached our middle figure and we were not where we wanted to be in building. We came to a screeching halt. We took our builder to task where we thought money should be better spent. We went over things like to many guys on the job and over priced concrete vendors. Small things become big things if they get out of hand. At this point we had to make a decision. Do we stop at this stage or have cost over runs that we new were coming? We were at a stage where stopping the job for a year was possible. We decided to carry on. We did end up $30,000 over budget. Some of that was unforeseen some was not. Duty on construction imports can kill you and drive your budget off the chart. For the Bahamas a safe estimate is 50% duty on everything you bring in. It will not always be that. Some things will be 60% others will be 10%. The majority will be in the 35-45% range. The basics of a building budget for the Bahamas should include: Permit fees, price of building contract, materials, duty, shipping, utility hook up fees, inspection fees. Shipping can be an issue. We used Bimini shipping out of Miami and G and G out of Ft. Lauderdale
9. One thing that can drive your personal budget up is where will you stay and what will you drive when you are visiting your building project. This requires planning and making friends. We were lucky our neighbor was a saint. He allowed us to stay with him. We tried to be good guests and cover the costs of us being there by taking care of the food, drink, cleaning and some money for utilities. Amazingly he is still our friend. If staying with a friend is not an option check out where the locals stay instead of the tourists. Let them know you will be a repeat customer. You will get a better deal. For the driving we imported an old Astro Van. It is the beach mobile and a great delivery van. They have changed the car import laws since we did that. You cannot import a car over 10 yrs old. The duty on cars is 60 to 80%. Our next vehicle may be found on the island instead of importing. If you choose an island car, take it to a trusted mechanic and have it checked out. The under carriage takes a beating. Suspension and tires are usually replaced much quicker in the islands. Buy what you need to get you around and carry things. Do not buy for looks.
10. The final product is in the details. Finishing your build, what a great idea. You may find that when you are near the end....you are just beginning. Putting in cabinets, toilets, tile, floor coverings, and paint colors can be mind boggling but fun.
3. How will you finance your home? We used a combination of savings and a home loan with RBC in the Bahamas. We were told several times by well meaning people that a home loan from a Bahamian bank to a foreigner was impossible. We learned to always challenge the so called impossible. The financing part is where many people fail. This plays back to our cost analysts. If you only have a vague idea of what your dream home will cost to build you could be in trouble. Even with proper planning we had close to $30,000 in cost over runs.
4. Once you have a plan for the finance, now you need the builder. The builder may be you or a combination of you and a local contractor or the contractor all the way. If you are the home builder understand what you can do and when you can do it. Give yourself a reality check here. The Bahamas are the islands of lost dreams. Many houses get started but not finished. If you have already built a home in the past then you have a valid idea of your own strengths and weaknesses. If this is your first, we would suggest the combination approach. This is how we did it. We took our time and found a builder who matched our budget, time frame and approach. The contract with our builder was from beginning to end. The end was finished concrete, roofing, and plumbing. All the finish work were bid as separate jobs. Along the way we have had friends who were building in stages and bid each stage out for their own projects. If we build again we may try the stages approach and see if we can stick to a stricter budget. No matter what you choose, you will have to bid out a job or two. The work that is done for you must be checked at critical stages. The beginning parameters must be clear, do not do verbal. Write it down. Keep copies. This is important whether you are doing a formal build or a deal with the local painter. Make sure you have the price for the job upfront not after.
5. Know the building codes for your area. Do not just leave it up to the builder. Be an educated consumer. Meet with the local inspector and get to know them. This should be done before you lay your foundation. Our building was set to close to the road but our builder was able to push it through. After that we paid a lot more attention to those codes. The building codes are set at minimums for the Bahamas. For instance hurricane straps, the minimum is not based on wind load or the maritime environment. Look at where you are and over build. The structural integrity of a building during a hurricane falls apart from the roof down, then the windows and walls. If you are high up, your enemy is the wind. If you are down low, your enemy will be flooding. We looked at lots of buildings with shitty hurricane straps in Florida and the Bahamas. We educated ourselves by calling Simpson Strong -Ties. (Call the manufacturers of the products you feel are important and get your info straight from them not a salesman.) We spoke to their engineers. It was mind blowing. Know everything you can about the structural integrity of your building. We cannot stress this enough. This is where you put your money, skimp some where else.
6. Before you start building from your plans, learn to read them. Make as many copies as you think you will need: two for yourself, builder, electrician, and plumber. Know what every symbol means. Do the math where needed. Make sure things add up. Then go over them with your builder or sub contractor and make sure the plans are correct. We learned to read our architectural plans and engineered plans. We did our own concrete calculations to see if we were on track. We looked at electrical and plumbing and even with all that the plans were not always correct. We looked at critical stages: foundation, plumbing lay out, electrical, 1st floor walls, staircase, 2nd floor poor, columns, etc and matched them to the plans. 80-90% of the time they matched but the times they did not the contractor had to fix it. Unfortunately over there we ate the cost about 50% of the time. Their country their rules. Let me clarify....the labor part of fixing mistakes was covered by our contractor but replacement materials had to be re-imported by us at our cost. Our contractor made allowances where he could to make up for those additional costs. You have to know where to bend and where to stand your ground...give and take.
7. This is where having a construction loan was a good thing. The foreign bank was an investor in our home. They wanted to protect that investment and required periodic inspections. These inspections were critical to our builder receiving his next draw. This put another pair of critical eyes on our project. It gave us the power to keep our builder with in code and build a better home.
8. Staying on schedule was a critical factor and staying in budget. We had certain financial stop gaps that we had set in place for ourselves. We gave ourselves a low, medium and high figure to work with. At one point on our home we had reached our middle figure and we were not where we wanted to be in building. We came to a screeching halt. We took our builder to task where we thought money should be better spent. We went over things like to many guys on the job and over priced concrete vendors. Small things become big things if they get out of hand. At this point we had to make a decision. Do we stop at this stage or have cost over runs that we new were coming? We were at a stage where stopping the job for a year was possible. We decided to carry on. We did end up $30,000 over budget. Some of that was unforeseen some was not. Duty on construction imports can kill you and drive your budget off the chart. For the Bahamas a safe estimate is 50% duty on everything you bring in. It will not always be that. Some things will be 60% others will be 10%. The majority will be in the 35-45% range. The basics of a building budget for the Bahamas should include: Permit fees, price of building contract, materials, duty, shipping, utility hook up fees, inspection fees. Shipping can be an issue. We used Bimini shipping out of Miami and G and G out of Ft. Lauderdale
9. One thing that can drive your personal budget up is where will you stay and what will you drive when you are visiting your building project. This requires planning and making friends. We were lucky our neighbor was a saint. He allowed us to stay with him. We tried to be good guests and cover the costs of us being there by taking care of the food, drink, cleaning and some money for utilities. Amazingly he is still our friend. If staying with a friend is not an option check out where the locals stay instead of the tourists. Let them know you will be a repeat customer. You will get a better deal. For the driving we imported an old Astro Van. It is the beach mobile and a great delivery van. They have changed the car import laws since we did that. You cannot import a car over 10 yrs old. The duty on cars is 60 to 80%. Our next vehicle may be found on the island instead of importing. If you choose an island car, take it to a trusted mechanic and have it checked out. The under carriage takes a beating. Suspension and tires are usually replaced much quicker in the islands. Buy what you need to get you around and carry things. Do not buy for looks.
10. The final product is in the details. Finishing your build, what a great idea. You may find that when you are near the end....you are just beginning. Putting in cabinets, toilets, tile, floor coverings, and paint colors can be mind boggling but fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment