All Forum Posts by: John Blackman

@Karen Margrave

 Yes we mix river rock into the concrete to create the pebble finish.  I've got one property where we did this coming to market soon.  When the floors are polished and it's listed I will send you some final product pictures.

We do not use radiant heating. It's Texas.  :)

Here is a sample of the river rock finish (at the foundation stage, not final).

It's hard to tell from the above picture, but if you look down, it looks like this.  This is also not polished since there is no house on it yet.

Here's my 2c on these questions.

• When doing that, are you using just the standard concrete color, or putting color in?

We have stained regular concrete and done river rock finishes which take about a week longer to dry at the foundation stage but make a unique look for the floors.

• Is there anything different done other than typical pour that is required?

The dry time is longer to prevent cracking.  It is watered for two weeks.

• How do you seal?

The floor vendors do their voodoo.  I leave this up to my GCs

• Also, what paint finish do you use in living areas, flat, velvet or ?

Light orange peel, flat.  We use a lot of light colors (lots of white) and anything smoother than orange peel with flat paint shows even the slightest nicks, and it a huge pain to get show ready.

• What is the age of your typical buyers? 

Either in their mid twenties or over 50.  No families.  But this is likely due to our location.

I highly recommend wix.com for a basic marketing site.  They have several templates and make getting a nice looking website up and running pretty quickly.  You can even hire someone else to put it together.  They have lots of plug-ins to your favorite apps and you can embed CRM links pretty easily as well.

I used a local real estate attorney. You may spend several hundred dollars on state fees and attorney time to set up an LLC. Most of the docs are boilerplate, but some legal customization will likely be necessary. You will use this document for years to come, so make it right.

So far we're not over budget, but we are over on the schedule.

Healthcare costs for individuals are pretty terrible.  For my family of 4, I was paying about $900 a month for the most basic coverage, basically disaster insurance with a $12,000 deductible.

So I have become the master of using my HSA card which I can put $3,750 a year into.  When you pay with an HSA card, its basically like cash to providers.  In many cases you can ask for a 50% discount on services if you pay that day.  So instead of doing the insurance company wrangle and price negotiation hoop, they can just get cash from you at the time of service.  Most providers are willing to cut the bill in half if you pay that day.  So I've been able to reduce my healthcare expenses using my HSA.  But I still have to pay the $900/mo for the no insurance insurance plan.

I would highly recommend using something like asana.com to manage your project task lists.  This is not so great for GCs, but it is very good for PMs.  This allows multiple team members to see who is working on what and what they are getting done each week without having to write reports or emails.  If their list comes up weak, then you have the evidence to call them out.

I create project templates for each build.  The templates have my checklist (about 300 items) that get copied and applied to each new build.  You can always update your templates and every time a new project is instantiated, the whole list is there.  Tasks can be assigned to other people, comments get automatically communicated, it's awesome.

This is also great for developing your process and sticking to it.

Welcome Aaron, there are a ton of resources and experts here.  It's a great place to get advice and run ideas past an experienced crowd.  Welcome.

WEEK 38

Overview:

It has been raining for three weeks straight with another week of rain ahead of us, which is delaying exterior work. With the interior paint complete as well as most of the interior door trim complete, we should be able to start fixtures this coming weeks.

Work Items

Complete this period

• Order counter tops - being fabricated
• Started to install countertops and sinks
• Painter finished interior
• Order garage door
• Order fixtures (lighting and plumbing)
• Start grading for landscaping and decks
• Order water meters
• Rough clean
• Order wood flooring

To Complete next period

• Complete countertops
• Start wood decks
• Complete grading for landscaping - weather permitting
• Start kitchen backsplash
• Start installing electrical and plumbing fixtures
• Start HVAC trim out
• Complete sewer and yard lines

Blocking Issues

Weather

Schedule

Estimated completion date is likely early July

Pictures