Photograph: Courtesy of Edenlane Homes Inc.

Welcome back to our nine-part feature! Parts one and two are both available on our website – www.cottagehomeshowcase.com. We’ve talked about buying the lot and choosing the architect. Now in this third segment, we address the builder. Let me take this opportunity to thank Brian Hoar of Brian Hoar Inc. for his amazing contribution to this series. The depth, expert touch and authenticity would certainly be lacking without his well-chosen words of wisdom and years of experience.

The builder
The single most important piece of advice in selecting a builder for your custom home is to do so with great care.
A drive in the country, a boat ride on the lakes will reveal beautiful new homes everywhere; and Muskoka is home to many fine builders who construct them.
Ensure your builder is the right match for you personally and for the home that has taken so many thoughtful hours to design. Once again, due diligence will pay off in spades. Do the homework. Ask the questions that count.
Most build programs will run anywhere from eight months to more than a year. There will be countless site meetings and decisions to make. Ongoing communication, a good working relationship and trust become crucial to what should be an exciting and positive experience.

Photograph: Courtesy of Fitzmaurice Bros. Carpentry

Homework
Referrals are often a good way to begin. Arrange a meeting with a builder and ask to be shown a current project plus at least one recently completed residence to illustrate experience in similar sized homes.
Talk to the owners. Are they happy with their choice of builder and the way the program was run? Was it on time? How about quality of workmanship and attention to detail? Ask about communication and what’s known as value-added suggestions that only come from builders who care.

Note the job sites. They should be safe and clean. Builders have a responsibility to employees and sub-trades to provide safe-working conditions at all times. This includes proper scaffolding, safety railings, etc. It is not difficult to spot the difference between a well-run site and one that is untidy, unsafe and disorganized.
It speaks volumes about the builder and the people who work there. It’s an excellent indicator of efficiency, care and quality. Were the people working on site respectful and courteous when answering your questions?

“Call building suppliers and organizations such as the Muskoka Home Builders’ Association to check references,” suggests Doug Fitzmaurice of Fitzmaurice Bros. 
“If all you’ve done is get three or four names out of a phone book,” he adds, “you haven’t done the homework. Spend the time before building begins. If you have any skepticism in the early going, it is not going to be good.” 
Muskoka’s economy in the building sector has been running in high gear for more than a decade. All builders are busy. Good builders are really busy. Be cautious of one who is not.

Preparation
Lots of lead-time is necessary in preparing to build. Do not leave arrangements until the last minute or the builder of your choice may not be available. Do your due diligence and make that commitment well ahead of time. 
This in turn, will allow the builder to plan the project. Permits must be in place. Logistics of site preparation and access will need to be worked out to ensure a smooth start on time.

Good builders will have a well-established business relationship with their sub-trades. This becomes critical where tight time lines and complicated schedules are the norm.
Sub-trades must be equally up to the task of applying their particular skills and experience to the custom home. They are best selected by the builder who knows who they are – the expertise and quality they bring to the project and their reliability to be there when they are needed.
Owners sometimes wish to inject their own choices of sub trades into the mix, but do so with caution and talk it over carefully with the builder. Are they qualified? Reliable? Who will coordinate and supervise their work and activities on-site? It can be successful but often isn’t and leads to slowdowns and unnecessary headaches for all concerned.

Photograph: Courtesy of Shorline Construction

“It’s important to use local trades,” adds Gary Clark of Edenlane Homes. “If somewhere beyond the warranty period, the furnace goes or there are plumbing problems, the people who did the installation are just down the road for service.”  
Says Brian Higgins of Cottage Country Construction: “Most customers appreciate the fact they can hire general contractors to oversee all the sub trades and don’t have to worry about running back and forth.”
Fitzmaurice adds, “Some owners will decide to be their own general contractor. It’s important for them to realize this makes them liable for anything representing health and safety issues on the job site.

‘If anyone gets hurt the general contractor is the one they’ll be coming to see. It’s just not worth the risk to take some of these things on yourself.”
Grant Watkinson of Shorline Construction says, “The year before building, we encourage the prospective home owner to prepare. We suggest things like cutting out pictures from magazines – even if it’s a bookshelf or a certain feature in a kitchen or how a fireplace is finished, a media room designed.”

Verify qualifications
The building business is presently undergoing many changes, especially the custom home segment requiring architectural design, new materials, larger spans, professional engineering, higher client expectations and greater skills at all stages of construction.
Ontario Building Code changes, new municipal bylaws, workplace health and safety issues all require builders to consistently upgrade and increase their own knowledge if they are to remain competent at this level.
Ask the questions. Does your builder participate in professional trade associations? Attend seminars?

During construction, builders wear many hats. Most often they will obtain all permits, supervise driveway access, tree cutting, site excavation and layout plus locate and clear for sewage disposal system, arrange temporary hydro service etc. before any real building begins.
Clearly a sound knowledge of local bylaws, setbacks and water management is required to even get this far. Orchestration of trades, solving problems, recommending solutions, liaison with clients, architects, interior designers, landscapers are but a few of the other responsibilities in addition to the actual construction of the custom home.

The builder’s role
“We meet our clients on site to review the plans and to check out where the home will sit on the lot,” states Chris Ember, from Cottage Country Construction. 
“People may want a large stone fireplace in the basement and above in the great room, plus one in their master bedroom but, when they realize what it does to the cost of the cottage, they may decide to go with a zero clearance fireplace and cultured stone or brick.
“A $60,000 fireplace could be done for $15,000 depending on changes. We provide information and alternatives.”Meanwhile, Higgins warns, “Top notch items such as a masonry fireplace, advanced heating systems and all pine wood flooring and trim increase the price but may not carry into the equity of your cottage, if it’s on a small lake.

Conversely, an upper end, large cottage on one of the bigger lakes, may need those extra trim details to retain value.”
Larry French, of French’s Fine Homes says: “We have a catalogue with 42 sample homes for those who have not yet decided on the design of their new home.
“We also have two model homes, one in Bracebridge and one in Huntsville, so that clients can see, touch and experience various options. I also use my own home to show custom features.”

Photograph: Courtesy of Shorline Construction

Building everything from starter homes to those over 7,000 sq. ft., French has trained designers on staff and Ministry of Housing qualifications for permits.
“People are asking for one level and smaller but nicer homes,” adds French. “Many are looking for a retirement home. They want a house to live in until they’re 100 or more!”
Catering to their customers’ needs, French’s Fine Homes has a selections coordinator who will cover every detail you could ever think of, including light and plumbing fixtures, outside taps – how many and where and so on.

Clark says his company is a one-stop shop. “We design and build. We do island work, large boat houses, quaint homes in subdivisions, custom single family cottages. We do the whole gambit and we’ve learned above all else not to over extend. We don’t rush things. We just do the ones we can handle and handle correctly.”
Fitzmaurice says, “Once the actual building process begins, it moves along fairly quickly Each week, we give the client a list of decisions that will need to be made in the next month. We also provide a list of recommended people who offer the different products.
“Without these decisions made on a timely basis, everything comes to a halt. There’s a chain of events all working in sequence. Different trades have to be on-site at the right time.”

Options
In a spec house, the builder makes the decisions and the customer buys it the way it’s built. With a custom place there are many variations and options from which to choose.
Some buy an existing cottage and live in it for a year or until they get an idea of what they want to build. They’ll stay in it for the summer, go home Labour Day, and then the building is torn down. From there, it’s up to the builder to get a roof on the new home before Christmas.  
“We offer Guildcrest Homes – modular homes which have many plans to choose from,” states Louisa Moffit, of  Moffit Construction. “If this is the route the buyer takes, Guildcrest has designers on staff and they will provide the plans.
“Many of our custom built homes are Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) from foundation to eavestrough with the interior post and beam and cathedral ceilings.

“This results in an energy efficient home, year-round, with a cottage feel and look.”
Popular requested features include an ensuite bath, main floor laundry, raised kitchen island and charcoal grey siding to give the old Muskoka cottage look. It looks like the cottage has been there for 50 years.
“We build cottages from 3,000 to 10,000 sq. ft. on Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau and Lake Joseph,” states Grant Watkinson, of Shorline Construction. “Every project is different – we work with several different designers. My clients tend to know what they want.
“One client has been all around the world and can afford to live anywhere,” continues Watkinson. “He told me, ‘I don’t know what it is that keeps drawing me back, but I keep returning.’ He built a 10,000 sq. ft. cottage on Lake Muskoka and he works from home.”

Photograph: Courtesy of Ferncliffe Development & Design Inc.

Costs
Some ask, why is it so expensive to build in Muskoka?
“First, we often build on a 45-degree slope and have to blast through rock, as opposed to digging a hole on a flat field,” replies Bill Ferguson, of Earl Ferguson and Sons Ltd.,
“On one particular project, my client did not want a basement. The slope was steep so we blasted. The rock was moved from here to there so the house would sit flat. A crane was needed to get the material down to the building site.
“Half load limits prohibit heavy loads from March to mid April, until the frost is out of the ground, and can result in time delays.They don’t run into this in Toronto,” he explains.

Common requests for Muskoka cottages include custom trims, baseboards and stairways. Antique hemlock floors can add up to $60,000 for flooring. A separate room for an office is popular and landscaping with huge stone steps and pathways is a current trend.
“These are not cottages like they used to be,” asserts Ferguson. “They are second homes away from home with offices and all the pleasures you could want.”
Higgins agrees saying, “These are one-of-a-kind homes, on one-of-a-kind lots for one-of-a-kind people.”

Conclusion
“The key to being happy with the final project is communication,” stresses Fitzmaurice. “The more input a client gives the builder, the better. If you can have all your decisions and choices generated before you go to the architect it really cuts down on time. And time is money. Everyone feels more comfortable, right off the bat, because you have come prepared.”
For your information: the Ontario Building Code is a set of minimum building standards to which a residence must comply. There are no maximum standards and the code does not address cosmetics and the superior quality of finishing you will be expecting.
Choose your builder carefully. Quality is remembered long after the price has been forgotten.

Don’t miss the June issue of Cottage Home and Property Showcase when we tackle site work in part four in this series.

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