Chapter 13

I managed to find three finished lots over on the East side of Santa Ana to buy. Not really the best side of town, but far enough out of the way that I was able to buy all three for four thousand dollars. Each was a bit less than half an acre, and zoned R-1, ready for one single family residence per lot. What had drawn me to them was the fact that all the lots were level and wouldn't require any grading, and that the street in front of the three properties was paved, with sidewalks already put in by another housing developer who was currently building out a twenty acre tract that was less than a quarter mile from where my new lots were.

The other builder was selling fifteen hundred square foot homes for fifteen thousand dollars each, including built in range, oven, dishwasher and garbage disposal. I had gotten a chance to walk through his three different models as they were going up, and I wasn't impressed with the materials he was using, especially the aluminum wiring, and the eighty amp electrical boxes, or with the way each house was being thrown together. I could foresee future problems for the people unfortunate enough to buy into this tract of homes.

He met all the minimum specs of the building codes in effect at the time, but he'd cut as many corners as he could get away with. Even the lumber he was using was sub standard. Every other piece I looked at in the newly framed interiors showed evidence of being warped and having been improperly dried and cured. The exterior wall insulation was a cheap and inferior brand as well. The builder was probably going to clear sixty five hundred to eight thousand per home, but, if he stayed in business, was going to use up the bulk of those profits in taking care of future homeowner complaints.

Building homes like that wasn't anything I'd be willing to engage in. I almost didn't buy those lots of mine, because I didn't want JF Construction's first building project associated with the reputation that other builder would have in the immediate area. In the end though, having three contiguous lots like that, for so little outlay on my part, was more than I could resist.

I continued working for Jack for an additional six months, after purchasing the lots, in order to allow some time to pass for that other builder to sell off his remaining unsold inventory. To my surprise, few homeowner's made complaints about their homes during the one year period they had to discover and get corrected any flaws or building shortcomings. I asked Jack about this, listing all the problems I saw with the materials and construction.

"I know that guy, and he's been building around here for a lot of years. He's always careful with the plumbing, and doesn't cut any corners there. He doesn't get involved in any grading problems either, and always uses the best concrete he can find, so his houses seldom have any issues involving the foundation settling, or cracks suddenly appearing anywhere in his houses. Chances are that no one will be tearing out their wallboard to take a close look at his framing work, or at the materials he used for it. As far as that insulation he used, the temperature here in the worst of winters doesn't require R-19. I know some guys who use old newspapers, folded up into tight balls. The only big thing you told me about is where he cut corners on the electrical. That will cause trouble later for people who'll need to get their house rewired, but that probably won't happen right away, probably not for at least ten to fifteen years. You said yourself, he met all building codes and minimum material specs."

"For an extra thousand dollars per house, he could have done all the rest of it the right way. Why screw people like that for so little money?"

"I agree, but he makes a lot more than that from using crews that have little idea of what they're doing when it comes to putting up the sticks in the first place. Have you ever gone and taken a look at most of the people who make up his crews? Usually there's one guy on each crew who has a good idea of how to go about putting a house up, and the other four or five guys are people who don't have the first clue as to what they're doing. In most cases, its one guy building the house, with four or five unskilled helpers."

"I was thinking of building houses like that myself, Jack. Just me and a couple guys to move things around and hold them up for me while I took care of anything that needed doing."

"Big mistake doing that, kid. Take you too long from start to finish to do it like that, and you'd have no one there to tell you when you were making mistakes. You can't be the builder, the foreman, and also the guy with the hammer, putting the house up too. You run into one big patch of bad weather, at the wrong time, and you lose all the profit you would otherwise have made. You get sick or hurt on the job, and what then? You can't put all your bets just on you, that isn't smart."

"What would you do, if it was just you starting out as a new builder?"

"If it was me, I wouldn't do it. Not enough extra in it for me to take on all that added headache and aggravation. If I had to do it though, I'd go find myself three other guys like me, and I'd build houses with a four man crew, one that really knew what they were doing. I might hire a kid to fetch and carry for all of us, but that would be it. I'd build eight to ten houses a year that way, nothing too grand, but steady work for everyone. But that's just if I had to do it. If you wanted to do something like that, build eight to ten houses a year, and were willing to pay top wages for good men, I could put a solid crew together for you with just two phone calls."

"When you say top wages, what are we talking about?"

"Thousand dollars a month, for each of us, guaranteed, for all twelve months of the year. Health and accident insurance, workmen's comp and full Social Security withholding too. On top of that, maybe a Christmas bonus for us, if you end up having a real good year for yourself."

"What would be left for me, if I paid everyone that much? I'd end up working for less than I'm making now."

"Not if you do it right. You'd need to go into custom homes, not these tract houses. People with money expect to have to pay more to get things built the way they want them. You'd have to work with real architects, and do the build out according to their specs and plans. You'd never bid a job that didn't net you out at least ten thousand. Figure out how long each job should take, then tack on an extra twenty five percent to that, just to be on the safe side. If your end is eighty to a hundred, you wouldn't have any trouble paying out forty or so to us, including benefits. Your biggest problem would be trying to find enough hours in a day to do everything you need to do, and still be there everyday, swinging a hammer with us during working hours. I know three very good architects that would probably let you bid their jobs, just on my say so."

"I don't think one crew could build out eight to ten custom homes a year."

"Greg Milton and I did it with two other guys, for three years, ten or twelve years back. Trick is to have three houses all going up at once, so you always have someplace to work, when there are the unavoidable delays for inspections, or for building material snafu's. You need to give yourself plenty of wiggle room in the contract you sign too. Four month build out's, with a clause for time extensions, if the owner or the architect insist on changes in the plans from what you had originally bid. You also need to make sure you have every kind of insurance for the job. Have that written into every contract. Things always happen on job sites, even if you fence them in."

"I wanted to build my own designs. Build them on speculation, and sell them once they were ready."

"Good way to go broke in a hurry. What do you do when all your dough is tied up in a house that you can't sell for some reason? You can't pay a crew if you don't have the capital to keep them working."

"I've got some money put aside. I've got more than enough to put up the first three houses I have it in my mind to build."

"So, let's say we build them, and then what? No one is going to quit a good job to go to work for some new builder without a proven track record, and no outside backing to speak of. My advice to you is to forget it. If you just have to try it anyway, go bid some custom jobs with established architects."

I listened to Jack telling me what I didn't want to hear. I had started out, some four years before, with a very clear idea of what I eventually wanted to be doing with my life. Since that time, everything I had done had been with that deeply entrenched goal in mind. I wasn't going to abandon my dream now, not when it was so close to becoming reality.

"I've planned on someday building my own designs for a long time now, since before I ever got a job in construction. Everything I've done over the past four years was part of my working toward that goal. It isn't about how much money I'll make, its about the satisfaction I'd get from taking something I dreamed up in my head and turning into an actual house, one that people would live in and appreciate. I first got the idea when I saw how my mother fell in love with our house, the first day she walked through a model of the floor plan. I want to make other people feel like she felt that day."

"It's nice to have a dream, kid, but you better remember that making money is always the most important thing. You can't eat satisfaction, and you can't pay your bills with it either. You're doing pretty well right here with us. With another kid on the way, why don't you forget about all that other crap you've got in your head, and maybe think about building a house for you and your family to live in?"

I could tell that Jack wasn't a dreamer. He was more than content to work for someone else, satisfied with bringing home a nice weekly paycheck. He was close to fifty, so maybe whatever dreams he had once nourished were only distant memories. I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life, and I thought I had the skills and the resources to turn my vision into actual homes for people to live in and enjoy. I wanted the thrill of being able to drive by homes, knowing that I had designed and built them. To know that they existed only because of me.

Still, I stayed working on one of Jack's crews. While I did it though, I was also moving forward with my own plans, pricing all the materials I'd need, and deciding on the building sequence I'd be using.

One good thing was Dorothy had listened to me telling her of my future plans, and she understood, encouraged, and supported me in pursuing these goals. Many evenings she and I would be at the kitchen table, constantly going over each set of building plans, checking to make sure we hadn't forgotten any detail, or failed to consider any expense we might encounter.

The first set of plans I decided to build was for a twenty seven hundred square foot, two story home that I'd designed over the past two years. It incorporated many of the best new features that Dorothy and I had seen in the model homes we usually went out looking at on most Sunday's, and had a few others that I'd come up with on my own. I had decided to emphasize spaciousness, building in large bedrooms, and including more bathrooms than the one or two that most homes came with. There were four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms in the plan I was ready to start building. The first master bedroom was downstairs, with a nice attached bathroom and a generous walk in closet. The downstairs master bedroom had a vaulted ceiling too, so that no one would be above them.

Upstairs, there were three other bedrooms, one was a second master bedroom, with its own full bathroom and huge walk in closet. The other two bedrooms shared a bathroom between them, with connecting doors.

I had a full three car garage, with two of the upstairs bedrooms centered over it. The third upstairs bedroom was over the kitchen, pantry, and half of the living room. I planned on putting in quite a bit of sound insulating materials in most of the interior walls.

My kitchen area would feature large dual sinks with a built in garbage disposal, a dishwasher, walk in pantry, built in range and oven, as well as a recessed area to put a large refrigerator. There would be a door off the kitchen leading to a fully equipped laundry room that featured a built in sink, ironing board, storage cabinets and new washer and dryer. The laundry led directly out to the garage which I had on the side of the house, instead of at the front.

Beneath the staircase leading to the second floor, I was building in extra storage and the guest half bathroom. I had shown my plans to many women, finding out from them, firsthand, what features they liked and didn't like about my design.

The kitchen and living room were open to each other, to give the feeling of increased spaciousness. There was a third open area, which I planned on having used for family dining.

For that day and age, this was an ambitious size for a somewhat affordable family home. I could close my eyes and see all the details come to life. I planned to build this home on the center lot of the three that I'd purchased. Counting all the materials, utility hook up's, and included appliances, my building costs would be a shade more than ten thousand dollars. Add in an additional five thousand for my labor costs, assuming I hired my own fully experienced two man crew to work along with me, and I'd be in the house seventeen thousand dollars, counting land costs. I planned on listing the house with a local real estate sales specialist, so that would add another six percent coming off the top of my eventual sales price.

Realistically, I needed to be able to sell the home for thirty thousand dollars, in order to come out of it with the ten thousand dollar profit I had been hoping to make. Housing prices were moving up, but even in the current market, my parent's house would appraise for no more than twenty thousand dollars, including their block wall fence. Their house was only four hundred square feet smaller than my own design.