It was a somewhat stressful process that took longer than I wanted, but as of today we have officially decided that David Jenkinson of Jenkinson Homes has been selected to build our Sudbury River House. David has no web presence, so I cannot add a link. But he has been building and renovating homes in Concord for many, many years. David only works on one project at a time, so we will have his full attention until mid 2026 (fingers crossed).
The selection process started with the architect putting together a preliminary packet with all the known details of the proposed house (although not everything was known). We then asked four different builders to put together a proposal, and we gave them a month to get back to us. All four visited the site (I was there for two of the site visits), and they talked to the architect when they had questions. In mid-December, we got back all their proposals.
Our architect then merged all the proposals into one spreadsheet so we could compare the bids, line by line, as fairly as possible. Not every bid included the same breakdown, but that was cleaned up for the comparison. The bids were similar, which was expected. The material costs should be the same in all four bids and the subcontractor quotes should also be similar, so a lot of the difference in price came down to overhead (the spreadsheet approach allowed the architect to fill in missing line items, so an incomplete breakdown did not mistakenly result in a very low bid). The schedules were all reasonably close.
After we got the bids, I met with each of the builders to hear their pitch and ask questions. We held those meetings in mid-December at my current house. Following that, I asked for and followed up on some references (although did I really expect to hear bad things?). For some of the builders, there would be site supervisors and project managers and I tried to meet those people as well to get a feel for them.
The selection process was not easy. All four builders seemed great and I believe that all would be able to do a good job. My architect had some experience with all of them; and, they all seemed interested in the project. At the end of the day it came down to big versus little. The little builder (whom we ended up selected) is basically a one man shop. He is the site supervisor and the project manager. At the other end of the spectrum, two of the builders were larger firms who build multiple houses at the same time, and use a project manager and separate site supervisor for each job. I was ultimately able to meet the project managers and site supervisors who would be assigned to our project (something I wanted to do before making a selection).
I want to make it clear (since I know at least some of the builders have visited this web site), that this was a hard, agonizing decision and I would probably have been happy working with any one of builders who bid on the project. I am not going to go into more detail about why we chose David Jenkinson, but it was close and I actually had made a different choice at first, but changed my mind after sleeping on it.
Next steps:
We have a structural engineer and mechanical design firm working on details of the house. The structural engineer makes sure that the house will not fall down (which means, among other things, deciding where we may need a steel beam). The mechanical design firm deals with the heating/cooling system as well as energy recovery system and ventilation systems (e.g. kitchen and bathroom fans). Once we have the details of those designs, our architect can put together the necessary packet to give to the town so we can get a building permit. I estimate that we are two to three months from having the building permit.
Meanwhile our newly selected builder says that the removal of the stump in front of the garage (seen below) may actually damage the garage foundation so we may need to consider rebuilding the garage in place. This would require another visit to the Natural Resources Commission (which would happen in late January), but we do not expect any problems getting approval. We will start that process now.
We are also investigating what asbestos remediation the town will require before demolition. That work can proceed as soon as we know what needs to be done.
While all this is going on, Daphne continues the selection process for interior details, fixtures, lighting, doors, bathtubs, etc. We think that we have decided on the siding material and color (Nichiha Vantagewood cement siding in “poplar”), although the color we chose is brand new and may not be available for a few months. We have also chosen the roofing material and color (Enviroshake in “aged cedar”), and the trim color (matte black). We also have the window details (Marvin casement windows in “black” with natural wood trim exterior) almost ready so windows can be ordered soon. It will be a modern look house, with a Class A fire rating and materials that should not need to be replaced in our lifetimes.
Finally, I have started looking for a construction camera that will take time lapse pictures of the process. I will install that on a tree near the wetlands, looking back towards the house, before we start work.
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