Timeline for building the house (note...edited & updated August 24, 2025)

photo courtesy of Jane Howe

August 7, 2025

I had a great talk with my builder.  I got to ask about a clearer timeline of the whole build, what to expect, and ask him how flexible he is about the timing. 

Quick Version:

Well is installed

Barn is cleaned out

Garage done soon (except siding)

House capped soon (with basement joists and sub-flooring)

Next up- Framing house fall 2025

Metal standing seam roof on after framing 2025

Put in windows 2025

Take a pause... Winter 2025-2026

Electricians & plumbers maybe spring 2026

Septic system installed 2026 or 2027

Start work on interior

Putting in piers for screened-in porch on south-east side, framing that, & piers for big porch on south side, framing porch

Finishing interior 2027

Barn/fencing ready for animals 2027

House ready by late 2027

Landscaping 2027

Move in early 2028

Long Version:

It has been a weight for me to carry, thinking about the timeline financially and trying to balance what I want, what Danny (husband) is expecting, and Joe’s schedule as a builder.  I had naively thought we could space out expenses over three years and voila! the house would be ready exactly when we wanted and needed it in the spring of 2028. 

It has been a learning experience for me, lining up contractors, learning about septic systems, wells, foundations, and schedules.  I guess I started as my own General Manager and am now evolving more into client (insert smiley face here) who has a house being built by one builder who handles the whole project.  Granted, there will still be many consultations, many decisions, lots of back and forth with the builder, but it will be more in his hands where he coordinates the action.  That’s a good thing.  It is important to have one person to coordinate how everything comes together.  I am lucky to have a builder who is very experienced who can juggle all of that. 

I had some ups and downs working with two different contractors on the site at the same time…who’s the boss?  Who gets the space when two contractors are on site with big trucks and heavy equipment?  Whose timeline do you use?  How do you make it all come together if neither one is completely clear on what the other one is doing?  I take responsibility for that situation and it was a learning experience for sure.  (In my defense, I was only going to do the septic so I hired an excavator operator and septic system builder. My builder (as of May) entered the scene with a different timeline than originally planned on.) Now we will be down to one contractor.

I am proud of what I have accomplished.  I was able to research and organize the dismantling of an old family relic, and not just paying to have it loaded into dumpsters and carted away.  I researched controlled burns and fire training and invited many area volunteer fire departments to be involved.  I wrote many emails, had meetings, filed all paperwork with the state officials, stamped, addressed and sent out over 50 notices via certified mail to all neighbors within a certain radius of the house. 

Of course, before the controlled burn day in February of 2024, a lot had to happen with the whole house being cleaned out and anything metal removed (including the metal roof).  I went up once a week from the fall of September 2023 through February of 2024.  It is 2 hours and 15 minutes from Leverett, MA to Randolph Center, VT. 

The builder who was scheduled to start working on the barn in the late winter/early spring of 2024 unexpectedly passed away.  I got an email from his wife as she searched through his work-related correspondence to determine who to contact.  A huge occurrence for his family; in comparison- a small set-back for me.  Luckily, I had another very qualified builder in mind. 

My first project (besides the barn work) was to be the septic system.  Unfortunately, between the snowfall in the winter of ‘23-’24 and the intense spring rains, the test pits failed in the location to the north of the house (where the septic has always been).  Water was flowing into the holes as they were dug in April. We put the septic system on hold.

Instead we got the well drilled.  The water is excellent and a true artesian well with a lot of pressure, a lot of clear water. 

The new builder was ready to start earlier than he expected and started on the foundations.  So, this year has been busier with accomplishments than I anticipated.  More money, more items to show for it. 

The garage will be done soon, the gray metal standing seam roof is on (windows and doors will be in soon, siding won’t happen until the house siding is done).

The house foundation will be capped by late next week (started on it yesterday with sills, and they will move on to installing joists in basement ceiling, sub-flooring on top of that.)

The next step will be to start framing the house and installing windows.  This will start soon and continue this fall, 2025. The gray standing seam metal roof will go on the house using an outside contractor (sometime in Nov/Dec).

I am most excited about this step of framing the house! The shape of the Ridge Road house will start to appear. What fun to watch and go inside to see the space and look out the windows.

The framing will not include the additional work of the deck/long covered porch that runs all along the south side of the house and the 4-season room (screened-in porch) off the south/east side. These sections of framing won't happen until the interior finish work/exterior siding work occurs...more like 2027.  Neither structure is a part of the house foundation, instead they will have concrete piers supporting them. 

After the framing, the house will be protected from the weather, secure, and we can take a pause in work and money outflow for the winter of 2025-2026. We discussed the need to do this project over time with our builder and have reached a compromise where he will do some parts of our project as needed and what works for his schedule, without us losing him as a builder. In order to do this, Joe will move onto will be a two house builds, so he can move back and forth from our project as needed,

In the spring of 2026 we can get an electrician in to wire the whole project, then the plumber.

Work could then start on the interior but could be spaced out through 2026-2027. Ultimately the siding will go on last, along with landscaping. This will fit our original timeline of moving to the Ridge Road house in early 2028.

And oh yeah- the septic system!  The good news is that with a later test pit dig which happened this summer, the test passed for placing it to the north of the house in the original location.  Dry and well-drained.  It will be very close and handy.  It will be a Presby Mound system using a gravity feed, no special pumps.  We are using Chase & Chase out of Barre to design the system and Joe will chose a septic builder and the timing for that. It could happen in 2026 or 2027. Maybe it will be 'last' instead of 'first' in my timeline!

And the barn work?  I am still hoping for my brother-in-law to work on that for me to ready it for the horses’ arrival, but it is a bit funky with its current state and design and he’s not sure about doing the work.  If not, I’ll be looking for someone.  I have gone up about four times to clean out the barn and make dump runs.  One man from Randolph (who will use the English garden system of planting right in old bales of hay) took quite a few bales but I still have some more cleaning, the sleigh and a horse cart to move from the loft.

The good thing- our investment will be there.  If we spend 500,000 on a new house, it will immediately be worth almost twice that. That's a decent return on an investment, along with a beautiful family home which we helped rise back up onto that little knoll in Randolph Center.