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jjt17

Help...(picking a contractor)

jjt17
14 years ago

So, about a year ago we found the perfect piece of property to build our home on (1 acre, mostly level, very deep rectangle, lot is narrow 100 ft wide). We bought it (and now own it outright) and put our current house up for sale. We than began to look into all that would be neccessary for building, but as our current house sat without selling due to the market we stopped researching about building and had decided to hold off.

However right before we took the house off the market we got an offer and now our house is under contract with a closing in the begining of November.

The problem is we are moving into an apartment and want to start building as soon as possible, but we stopped researching 6 months ago.

I have been lurking on this forum and reading posts. We know pretty much what we want and what features we have to have.

I live in Pittsburgh, PA and will be building in Cecil township near Bridgville, PA

My questions are:

-Has anyone local to me used the Khov in Washington, PA or the Wayne Homes in Greensburgh or any other big builder in this area? Yes I have read all of the posts about why people don't like them on a national level, but I want to know about these specific locations. If you used them who was your sales agent, foremen, etc and did you like/dislike them?

-If we dont go with a big name builder can anyone suggest a good general contrator in this area?

-Can you suggest a good architect in this area? We know 90%-95% of what we have to have, but we cannot find a plan online that meets up with exactly what we want.

Roughly we are looking to build:

-2000-2400 sqft 2 story square farmhouse home

-covered porch on front and 1 side, sundeck in rear

-full basement (pour concrete or ICF)

-2x6 exterior walls with insulation

-top quality insulated vinyl siding

-a couple dormers upstairs facing front

-steel roof over the porch with architectual on rest

-downstairs master suite w/ WIC

-4 bedrooms total, 2.5 baths total

-9 ft ceilings throughout, cathedral in great room

-attached via breezeway 4 car garage (2 wide, 2 deep) would settle for attached 3 car

-carpet in all bedrooms, tile in kitchen and baths and hardwoods throughout the rest

-Above average cabinets with some type of solid countertops.

-Average to just above average everything else.

We would like to do all of this for around $115/sqft or so, but thats really our max.

We also need the rooms in certain places to fit the layout and view of our property.

Sorry for the long post, if you got this far I would really appreciate your help. thanks jon