Yeah, it's actually amazing I was able to buy 75 little computers with their own buttons, LEDs, wifi and internally hosted HTML pages for $15 each delivered overnight.
But yeah, building a custom house. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. Having done it now, I like to advise "If you're someone with the resources to build your own custom home, you'll find the experience transforms you... into someone who no longer has the resources to even build a garden shed." :-)
To be fair, we knew this going in and only did it because we happened to have access to a deeply experienced general contractor who'd built high-end custom homes for several friends of ours over the past 15 years. And he has his own dedicated crew, most of who have worked only with him for much of that time. Although he wasn't the cheapest (nor the most expensive), he had an extremely impressive, personally verifiable track record. That's very rare to find, and without it, we probably wouldn't have even considered doing a custom home. And he did complete the project nearly on time and nearly on budget - and COVID happened during the build. Everyone else we know who was building a home during COVID ended up at least a year late and >40% over budget - so, even though technically a little late/over budget, the guy delivered at a near-miraculous level given the circumstances.
But yeah, building a custom house. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. Having done it now, I like to advise "If you're someone with the resources to build your own custom home, you'll find the experience transforms you... into someone who no longer has the resources to even build a garden shed." :-)
To be fair, we knew this going in and only did it because we happened to have access to a deeply experienced general contractor who'd built high-end custom homes for several friends of ours over the past 15 years. And he has his own dedicated crew, most of who have worked only with him for much of that time. Although he wasn't the cheapest (nor the most expensive), he had an extremely impressive, personally verifiable track record. That's very rare to find, and without it, we probably wouldn't have even considered doing a custom home. And he did complete the project nearly on time and nearly on budget - and COVID happened during the build. Everyone else we know who was building a home during COVID ended up at least a year late and >40% over budget - so, even though technically a little late/over budget, the guy delivered at a near-miraculous level given the circumstances.