Competent, reasonably priced mid-coast Maine Builder? (Camden, Boothbay: real estate, custom home, to buy)

[dthw]

Not sure if you're still looking for a builder, but we've found a fantastic guy and company.

We're actually doing an extensive remodel, but I know he does many new builds. You might want to check him out. He doesn't have a website, which we were kind of put-off by. But he came recommended, so we overlooked this.

We're 3 months into the remodel and on the home stretch, and we are thrilled with the work, the contractor, his crew, and the process--not to mention his willingness and ability to work within our set budget. Highly, highly recommend.

Feel free to PM me if you want specifics.

Here's our contractor's info. He's out of Topsham (we're on Orr's Island).

Linwood Greenleaf
Linwood's Painting and Construction

email:linwoodspaintandconstruction@gmail.com
Phone: 207-798-9512

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by dthw

Not sure if you're still looking for a builder, but we've found a fantastic guy and company.

We're actually doing an extensive remodel, but I know he does many new builds. You might want to check him out. He doesn't have a website, which we were kind of put-off by. But he came recommended, so we overlooked this.

We're 3 months into the remodel and on the home stretch, and we are thrilled with the work, the contractor, his crew, and the process--not to mention his willingness and ability to work within our set budget. Highly, highly recommend.

Feel free to PM me if you want specifics.

Here's our contractor's info. He's out of Topsham (we're on Orr's Island).

Linwood Greenleaf
Linwood's Painting and Construction

email:linwoodspaintandconstruction@gmail.com
Phone: 207-798-9512

Thanks dthw. I was considering land, with the thought to build on it in 2 years time, but didn't want to bid now on the land if I couldn't afford to build it out later - i.e., trying to establish feasibility of the project. I have since spoken with another builder, who gave more sane pricing, and have then negotiated the sale of the lot successfully with the seller. So Step 1 is basically done. I will keep your contractor's info in my files until it's go-time for Step 2, thanks. :-)

[vaughanwilliams]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I have one more firm I am in touch with and have ID'd another to contact tomorrow. If they are similar to the first, I will start to look at other options besides the local builders building stickbuilt homes onsite, for example:

Here is a modular home in Castine, that looks they executed it quite nicely. The company that built it, Downeast Homes, says they can also work with your plans, so that is a possibility:
Downeast Homes

Here is a company, EcoCor, building "passive houses" (super energy efficient homes, R-59 walls!) out of Searsmont. I wouldn't normally consider this either - these kinds of places use pretty radical (for housing anyway) construction, and they also tend to be quite expensive. Still, they look interesting, and the prices certainly can't be any worse than what I was given before, and they say they have a lot of design flexibility.
Home | Ecocor | Pre-Fab Passive House

The Ecocor video was interesting. Wonder what some of their homes end up costing.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by vaughanwilliams

The Ecocor video was interesting. Wonder what some of their homes end up costing.

I found this page where they have some standard designs of their own. You can explore the layouts and the pricing for them as spec homes. They can do the entire build (turnkey) for houses built locally.

[gf2020]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

...then negotiated the sale of the lot successfully with the seller.

Just curious, where are you buying? My wife and I have been looking at land in the Harpswell to Wiscasset region for a few years now with the intent to build in the future. Now that our sons are juniors in college, the time-frame is getting more realistic.

We used to live in Newbury and now live in Lynnfield, so keeping the drive time to around 2 hours and staying south of the Wiscasset bridge are appealing factors.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by gf2020

Just curious, where are you buying? My wife and I have been looking at land in the Harpswell to Wiscasset region for a few years now with the intent to build in the future. Now that our sons are juniors in college, the time-frame is getting more realistic.

We used to live in Newbury and now live in Lynnfield, so keeping the drive time to around 2 hours and staying south of the Wiscasset bridge are appealing factors.

I hear you - also was concerned about the drive, that was why I didn't go as far as Mt Desert Island. But I did go as far as Camden. Really like the Camden/Rockport area and if I leave early-ish, can get up there in less than 3 hours. Will retire in about 10 years, and will seriously be considering moving there for good then, so I will be building a place that could be my "forever home".

[Midcentury]

Go to Hammond Lumber and ask them for some names. Be careful what you say about your current bidder, a negative comment could work against you. You can do the same thing with Hancock Lumber if you wish. The lumber yards know all of the contractors, and usually have a fair idea of their talents as they often visit job sites.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Midcentury

Go to Hammond Lumber and ask them for some names. Be careful what you say about your current bidder, a negative comment could work against you. You can do the same thing with Hancock Lumber if you wish. The lumber yards know all of the contractors, and usually have a fair idea of their talents as they often visit job sites.

Thanks, Midcentury. I have been having issues with a second builder I contacted as well. Multiple times, he makes promises, then the day comes and goes and he doesn't deliver, and he also doesn't contact me to say "Hey, such and such came up that I didn't anticipate, so there'll be a little delay, but you'll have what I promised on Friday"... in fact, he ignores my emails so I am in the dark. Only if I catch him on the phone does he at least communicate, but then he makes new promises that he also doesn't keep and another deadline comes and goes in silence.

All of this is kind of scaring the poop out of me really. Although the bank will be lending the money, ultimately it will be me, not the builder, and not the bank, who will carry all the risk, and I am coming to understand that this could go very badly, and in the worst case, it could lead to financial ruin for me.

I am trying not to panic though, have ordered some books on the custom home construction process, and have contacted an engineering and surveying firm to see if they can be on my team to help provide guidance and project oversight. I am a research IT architect, so I am used to working with project managers, which is one of the principal roles a builder would play, and unfortunately I have seen a lot of people in that role in business who aren't good communicators, well organized, or possessing pride in the product they deliver - initially they're focused on winning the project, and then next they're focused on getting past it and getting paid, i.e., not all the stuff they tell you they are focused on, which is delivering exactly what's promised, on time, on budget and with high quality. I suppose people being people, homebuilding may be a similar world. The personal stakes will be much higher for me here though - if a project is in trouble at the office, even if it's a couple of million dollars, the company isn't truly at risk. If this homebuilding goes badly, even though it's only say $400K, my financial security would be imperiled.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Judging by your paragraph, I recommend you contact Sebago Technics.

Sebago Technics Inc

If you are not already beyond site planning, contact these folks. You need to think long term as regards privacy, handicap access, parking and vehicle needs, level entry, approach to and from the public road, views, drainage, passive or active solar and ease of maintenance.

I do this up here. The one thing that astonishes the average owner is that the building does not have to be parallel to the road. Align your building with the view you would like to see forever. That may not be the road.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Judging by your paragraph, I recommend you contact Sebago Technics.

Sebago Technics Inc

If you are not already beyond site planning, contact these folks. You need to think long term as regards privacy, handicap access, parking and vehicle needs, level entry, approach to and from the public road, views, drainage, passive or active solar and ease of maintenance.

I do this up here. The one thing that astonishes the average owner is that the building does not have to be parallel to the road. Align your building with the view you would like to see forever. That may not be the road.

Thanks NMLM. It's just to be a small cottage really, and being on a quarter acre village lot, placement and orientation will be highly constrained. I am though trying to choose/adapt the home design that will function well on the lot in terms of access, room and window placement.

In terms of my desire to hire a firm to help me, it's to serve as (1) a second project manager and (2) a second quality inspector. We do that on every important custom software project at my office. It may seem redundant, because the vendor supplies their own project manager and they have their own quality inspectors that we're already paying for, and in a perfect world, that's all that would be necessary. But the reality is that their people are looking out for their firm's interests, and not my company's interests, so we also use our own project manager, and our own quality assurance person - I select and specify the system, and then personally test that what's being delivered does what it's supposed to do, and does it correctly. My partner is a project manager selected from our company. Trusting the vendor to do what they are supposed to do is a huge mistake - even with this extra oversight, I have seen massive project problems in the office, resulting in aborted projects, lawsuits, and/or huge cost and schedule overruns, lame implementations, etc. I haven't escaped unscathed myself, but haven't had a complete flop, either. I think I may need to take a parallel approach here, just on a small scale.

For this, I am hoping to find someone local to Camden - that would keep costs down as I wouldn't need to pay travel or lodging, plus they should then know the local builders and have first hand experience with how smooth (or not) their projects go, and what kind of quality they actually deliver.