Has anyone had the experience of buying a pre-constructed panelized house and had a contractor construct it for them ?

Also interested in anyone buying a panelized cabin type recreational cottage ?

Cheers
Gary

Okay I know its not really etiquette to reply to your own posts BUT i have had over 60 views with no replies so I will rephrase my question.

Has annyone bought land and built their own property ?

Come on surely someone must have done this rather than take the easy route

If it's an answer your after, here's one:

NO I HAVEN'T!

Sorry - you did ask.

Yes.

What do you want to know? Take a look here http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=439169 for a thread I previously replied to, and click here http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fie...OTzbGBOAaK5v6b if you'd like to see how our build is progressing.

Okay nice one

Found a good article on build costs at
http://www.torontorealestate.ca/arti...article_id=236

Extract :
How Much Does It Cost To Build A New House These Days?



Building professionals face this question every day, and the answer is usually not what the client wants to hear.
For a client base which is middle to high-end, the figures start at around $120 per square foot, but it can go sky high from there.
To give an idea of the wide range of prices, the above starting price is much more than what one home plan company lists on its Web site. It suggests that the low end of building costs in Canada is $70, the mid-range is $87.50 and the high end is $105 a square foot. The clients hear varied information, such as a house built for $90 a square foot, but companies that quote those kind of building prices are not doing anyone a service.
There are three things that drive up the cost: the level of design, the level of finishes, and the location and accessibility of the site. Without knowing all of those things, it's really impossible to give a square footage cost.
The level of design refers to how difficult it is to build the house. If there's a lot of engineering in it; if it has a lot of steel or engineered wood products or arched windows or if there are a lot of design and architectural features in a project, it greatly increases the cost of the project. Some builders use a plain interior space, such as a standard bedroom or hallway, as the basis for calculating square footage, and then add 50% for elements such as cathedral ceilings.
The level of finishes also has an obvious impact on the price of the home. For example, the difference between a $20,000 kitchen or a $60,000 kitchen changes your square-footage cost considerably, and that's just for the finishes.
Different finishes also create different labour costs. Hiring a stone mason to install natural stone cladding is considerably more expensive than using bricklayers to install traditional brick.....

If you can find a builder to quote anywhere under $150 p/sq ft in BC, either be highly suspicious or get all the specifications in writing and crack on with whatever you want built. Those prices don't just seem highly optimistic, more like laughable around here - an unheated garage costs more to build than what you've quoted per sq/ft

RICH,

I don't give my own opinions or figures on here anymore as no one believes what you say anyway so it isn't me quoting these figures, as you can see from the link it is Toronto Real Estate people !

BC is maybe a hot spot in terms of builds compared to the supply of labour as it is in the UK at the moment. A mate of mine who is a bricklayer is on £200 a day in the North West of England, no wonder house prices are getting higher !

Gary

They are called prefab houses. In Canada the logs are pre cut and sent
to Asia for people who want to build log cabins or western style homes.
Franchises are asking people to join in the business of selling prefab houses
locally and internationally. Google search prefab houses for more info.
http://www.cabins.ca/
http://www.countryheritagehomes.com/
Some houses in Vancouver are prefab .
Hope that helps,
Yoong

We live in one of those prefabs. I have the original receipt, it cost nearly $20,000 and delivery was free. Alas that was in 1978, a friend pricing a similar kit to use as a cottage reckons it'll be $178,000 just for the bits that come on the truck.

I haven't done massive research into this subject but have looked at cabins.ca as per previous posts and these are priced from around $25000 for 1/2 bed cabins to $65000 for a rather spacious 3 bed 2 storey with walk out basement; their sister site www.abshomes.com named Allpro has some between $51000 (smallish 3 bed) and $102000 (4 bed 2944 sq ft) for pre-priced standard plans which you can take as is or adapt yourself. Obviously price depends on size and complexity of design and of course you can upgrade certain features but the website tells you what materials are included in the price. If anyone has ever seen US Extreme makeover home edition this is the type of property they usually build due to the time saved on labour costs.

I expect there are cheap ones. The $178,000 is for a Viceroy.

Yes but that is not for all of them, it is only for the top of the range large house, the Viceroy Company have homes between around $70000 and $180000 and they also do cabin/country types for less than $50000 see http://www.imaginehomedesigns.com/model_homes.htm who are an authorised distributor.

That price is to replace a three bedroomed single-storey cottage that burned down, I expect they'll get something quite nice but very much cabin rather than house. I think you're way underestimating, the replacement cost of this building (small pre fab cabin) on our insurance policy is $180,000 and I don't think that includes digging a foundation/basement.

Still, no harm in having a dream.

So you don't believe the Viceroy company's quoted prices then, is that what you are saying ?