We used to build high end custom homes in our local area. We never had a Nightmare Build until that last house...
Half way through, we staged an exorcism, that’s how haunted the job was.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
The house was not designed by a professional. The client drew the house and a draftsperson converted it into a drawing. That’s a bad sign.
The build kicked off during COVID which, if you know, you know. The cost of materials went through the roof and delivery dates were not reliable at that time. In fact, being right on the NSW/QLD border, we were questioning our ability to acquire everything/anything…leading me to my next point.
We couldn’t get labour - it’s like every qualified carpenter went to ground on government assistance payments and when we did find help, the quality was patchy at best. Manpower showing up late, or not at all. The delays were out of control.
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The area had experienced a massive hail storm 6 months prior. When that happened, roofing companies were busy - just rammed. So we weren’t sure if we could find a roofer for the job and when one popped up, recommended by a neighbour, we jumped on him. Little did we know he was about to go bankrupt, and we were part of his Last Scam. He made off with a $20,000 deposit from us, and who knows how much from others. He was known to police and even his landlord was owed 6 months rent (don’t ask how we found that out, it’s a whole story all on its own).
THIS IS THE POINT WHERE WE BURNED THE SAGE & STARTED QUESTIONING OUR OWN SANITY - BUT IT WASN’T OVER YET
A concretor that we had used for years charged us 50% upfront, which was fine, but then he did a terrible job. We asked that he rectify a few things and alter the invoice because we’d had to supply most of the materials in the end. He blew up, then left town without finalising his outstanding fees. He came back about 18 months later after all the state borders had re-opened and Covid restrictions had eased to claim the rest of the money owing. Instead of a phone call, he went through a lawyer which felt particularly cold and aggressive. We paid him of course, but it stuffed up our bookkeeping at the time.
The plumber, who had been a friend of ours, did a mediocre job that all but killed the friendship and it still hurts to think about that.
The handover with the owners went fine, but the tumultuous nature of the build - all the starts and stops, budget blow outs and general instability - caused a strange feeling amongst all.
They love the house and it’s been a good property for them. We aren’t sorry we did their job and even though the profit margin was slim, I don’t think we went backwards. I purposely didn’t do the final figures on that one because I didn’t want to know what we were paid for that level of stress.
In a way it helped to make a tough decision easier. We’d been thinking about getting out of construction for a while, so this was our sign.
I’m aware, from various building industry groups, that this scenario was actually not that bad. Builders and clients experience Nightmare Builds all the time and we were lucky we didn’t go bankrupt.
We’re not laughing about it yet, but maybe in 5 years when one of our sons is doing an apprenticeship we can tell him the story without getting the twitches.
