Why the Pat Fay Method was Created. Buy the PF Method book!
The creation of this book has taken a long and interesting route. I had no plan to write a book on what my wife and I learned when we built our new home without a general contractor in Kirkland (a suburb of Seattle), Washington, in 1994. At the time of our project we only thought about building a nice house and not spending too much money.
During our project my wife and I did our own planning and preliminary design. Once we had determined the floor plan and elevations, we hired an architect to produce a set of permit ready construction documents. We found an architect who took our floor plan and made it into a great floor plan.
After we received our building permit we hired and managed about 35 different contractors needed to build our dream home. We did not use a general contractor for reasons that you will read about in the book. However, the main reason is that they are too expensive for the service they provide. Our project was both successful and unsuccessful.
It was unsuccessful because our project did not go smoothly. We had thought that because of my extensive experience in construction management in Industrial Construction that we would have a straightforward house construction project.
In fact, we had an awful experience that left us mentally and emotionally exhausted by the end or our project. We made many mistakes and some of our mistakes cost us a lot of money. We hired about 35 different contractors. Three were excellent, half were good, and the other half were poor to bad contractors. One was a con man contractor. Only the 3 excellent contractors and the good contractors did what they said they would do at the price agreed to in the contract. The poor contractors always had a problem or issue or wanted more money.
More importantly, however, building our home was a successful project because we finished our home and we stayed married. In fact, our relationship grew stronger because of this shared, difficult experience. My respect for my wife grew because of her knowledge, skill, great ideas, and ability to keep her wits about her through the thick and thin of our project (which I was not always able to do).
Another reason we had a successful project is because our cost to build was only $65 per square foot (SF). We built a brand new 3,000 SF, two story house with a two car detached garage for this price. The house also has a 1,500 SF unfinished basement and the garage has a 500 SF living space above. Therefore, the finished living space is 3,500 SF. In 1994 the cost for new construction in Seattle was about $120 per square foot.
By managing our new home project without a general contractor we saved approximately $192,500 ($120-$65=$55/SF x 3500 SF = $192,500).
Actually, we had budged $50 per square foot based on the cost data in the RS Means Cost Estimating manual. The problems we encountered with our contractors drove the price up to $65 per SF, as well as a few changes we made.
RS Means Company (rsmeans.com) produces excellent cost estimating manuals that define the amount of labor and materials needed to build houses. Their square foot cost manual defined that in 1994 the cost to build a new 3,500 SF house including the general contractor's overhead and profit was $62.50 per SF. The contractor's overhead and profit is typically about 25%. If one subtracts 25% from the $62.50 you get about $50 per SF.
At the time of this project, I had over 20 years of experience in all phases of industrial construction and even two years of building houses in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Despite my professional experience, I was barely up to the challenges that presented themselves during this project. I learned that hard way that the rules of the industrial construction world are not followed in the home construction world. The home construction world has no rules - except what seems to be made up by the contractors as they go along.
If a person with my extensive construction knowledge and experience could be run through the wringer by the current home construction process then I can completely understand why this process can ruin a family's finances and even destroy a couple's marriage. It need not be that way. Buy the Pat Fay Method book!
Part of the problem is that the typical homeowner does not know what they need to know before they do a remodel or build a new house. They go into their project with excitement, happiness and joyful anticipation. By the time their project is complete many wish they had never started their project. They feel beaten up and have a lot of anger towards their contractors. Most feel cheated.
The ordinary homeowner thinks little of the planning, preliminary design and final design phases of their project because they mostly focus upon the construction phase. That is partially correct because the greatest cost of their project will be in construction. However, we learned that to be in command of your construction phase you must fully understand the details of what makes up your planning and design phases. By knowing everything that comes before construction, you will be able to answer the vast majority of questions that come up when you are deep in the jungle of the construction phase.
After we had lived in our new home for a time we felt better about our home construction process. However, at the same time I became angry whenever I thought about how the home construction process was so complicated. I felt it should be more like the industrial construction process where the owners really are in charge of their projects. I thought to myself why not try to teach other homeowners how to be in charge of their project as well as teach them how to avoid the pitfalls we encountered. So I decided to teach a seminar. I titled it "How to be Your Own General Contractor". My seminar was a three-hour lecture covering all the phases of the home remodel and new construction process.
Unfortunately, the seminar was a failure! I could not convince enough homeowners that they should trust in the power of the contract not their contractor. Nor could I convince them that their money should stay in their pocket and to not pay their contractor up to 50% of the money at the time they signed a contract!
In fact, I did not get enough students to pay for my expenses. Interestingly enough, most of the people who most responded to my advertisements were women. They would be very interested in taking my seminar, only in the end, decide not to attend.
Upon follow up, I found two reasons why they decided not to attend my class. The most common reason was because their husband said he knew everything there was to know about construction and contracting and that he would tell his wife what to do. The second reason was that they had spoken to their contractor who told them my class would be a total waste of time.
I felt sorry for these women because, being a man, I know how a husband will react when things go poorly on a home remodel project even when a wife was just doing what she believed her husband had instructed her to do. He will usually blame his wife. Men will go to great lengths not to blame themselves, especially when there is someone else to blame instead. Buy the Pat Fay Method Book!
As for the second reason, I was dismayed that women would actually believe their contractor that my class was without value. Taking their contractors advice in this case was as bad as letting the fox guard the hen house.
I had just about decided to give up on the seminar when I had a conversation with my friend, Steve Hale. He suggested rather than giving up on my seminar that I teach it at Discover U in Seattle. Discover U (discoveru.org), as I found, was and is a lifelong learning organization that holds classes mostly in the evenings and weekends. The classes they hold are unique and range from how to become a private detective, to how not to stay single in Seattle, to computer training classes, to how to be a blacksmith, and, of course, how to be your own general contractor.
I have taught my class three or four times per year at Discover U since 1997. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself even though the attendance, in the early years, was quite small, often as few as three to five students.
My students were ordinary mean and women who wanted to remodel their existing home or even build a new home. Some had built before and they generally had poor experiences with their contractors and wanted to do a better job the second time around. They also wanted to be in charge of the process. Others had never done any remodeling before but they wanted to build without experiencing the terrors they had experienced vicariously through their friends and associates.
In 2002, my class sizes unexpectedly jumped to 15 to 25 students. Obviously, something in the market place was changing. So I sat down and began to write this book. I wanted to be able to reach homeowners throughout America not just those who could attend my class in Seattle. I believe I have something unique and valuable to teach ordinary homeowners about how to manage their home construction projects. I have written this book so that you, the ordinary American homeowner, can read it and understand the dangers and pitfalls before you act. When you have the information and knowledge from this book available to you before construction starts then you have an excellent chance of not succumbing to the many problems that have caused such problems for other homeowners, including me.
I want to teach you what my wife and I learned in the difficult world of home remodel and new construction. I believe, with knowledge, good planning and by following good, basic, project management techniques, the homeowner can manage their home remodel or new construction project to a successful completion without a general contractor. I define success to mean quality materials, superior workmanship, a reasonable price, lower personal stress levels, and staying married.
One of the problems for homeowners is that they only do one or two major home construction projects in a lifetime. The homeowner is just not prepared to handle the issues without a book like this. The Pat Fay Method prepares the homeowner to be aware of what can happen so the homeowner can take steps to prevent the undesirable from happening.
This book is not written for the financially elite of our society (even though they could put it to good use). They have enough money so they can just write a check for double the original bid - a problem that they can reluctantly, but easily make go away.
However, for the vast majority of us solving the problem this way is a pipe dream. We work very hard for the limited amount of money we have. Doubling the cost of a project can spell the financial ruin of the family involved. They can even end up having to sell their home because they cannot afford to make the payments on a mortgage that is twice as large as was originally planned. Then the finger pointing starts and spouses begin to fight. Even the best marriages can fail under such pressure. In cases such as this it would have been better if the remodel had never occurred.
I believe the time is right for this book because there is a shift in the thinking of the American homeowner. I believe they are awakening to the realization that they can have better quality construction for a reasonable price. They realize that it is their home, their money, and after all, the contractor is just someone that has been hired to perform a service. It is a vital service but it does not mean that the contractor is in charge of either the project or the homeowner's money. They are hired to perform specific work that is defined in a written contract.
Now is a good time to ask what new innovations have taken place in recent years that have benefited the homeowner with better quality and lower prices? Not many. There is the rise of the home construction super stores by Home Depot and Lowe's. This is a good thing. Besides that the only new innovation that I know of is the Pat Fay Method.
Stagnation is a good way to describe home construction in America today. The price of building and remodeling in all areas of America has reached absurd levels that in no way reflect the actual cost of materials and labor needed to build.
Power tools should have been an innovation that drove down prices because now contractors use power nailers where before they used hammers, power saws where before they used hand saws, battery powered drill motors where before they had to run extension cords everywhere, and many other powerful, time saving devices to increase home construction productivity. These tools cut the time to build by a factor of 2 to 4 times.
But where are the savings to the homeowner? There are none! Instead the cost of construction has gone up instead of down! Not only is this absurd it is ludicrous. It is time for middle class homeowners to say no to the contractor method of home construction and say yes to innovation and the Pat Fay Method!
In this book I have dedicated myself to teaching homeowners a better way to do home remodel and new construction. The methods I teach are those common to industrial construction but in the home remodel world and new home construction world they are considered unorthodox and controversial.
The homeowners who buy this book and then implements the ideas and method found herein will be told that what I teach cannot be done! Do not believe it because what I teach is nothing more than good, basic, construction and project management techniques, principles and methods. I have added my own knowledge and experience to create a unique 21st century method of how to be become a home construction project manager and successfully manage your remodel or new construction without a general contractor to save serious money and still stay married. Buy the book now!
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