Counting the costs

Herrs face budget-busting bids while taking 'biggest financial risk of our lives'

By Jay Dedrick, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 15, 2005 at midnight

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Photo by Ellen Jaskol © The Rocky

Hacking away at the rocky hillside north of Boulder, Christopher Herr prepares to plant trees as his pregnant wife, Tina, provides lunch. They are using pines from a tree-thinning project near Divide. Planting the trees saves them the cost of hiring landscapers - a relief for their tight budget.

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Over the course of building a custom house, the sunny optimism of draftsman/homeowner Christopher Herr calls for a counterbalance. Enter James Casanova, the builder/general contractor of the home that Christopher co-designed for his family.

Not that James is pessimistic. He just has to play the role of realist. And as the construction site boss, he's usually the messenger who breaks news - good or bad - to Christopher and his wife, Tina Galgon-Herr. Or to guys like Vince Kasperbauer of Dunrite Excavation, who, on groundbreaking day at the construction site in the foothills north of Boulder, whispers a pressing question to James:

"Where's the Porta-Potty?"

There isn't one. Not yet, anyway. James smiles and quietly suggests the men in the crew can duck behind a tree if necessary. "It wouldn't be the first time up here," he says.

Christopher and his partner Brad Tomecek, co-architect on the project, are comfortable with their builder. Confident in him. James has an architecture background - he became friends with Christopher while both were working at a Boulder firm - which makes communication effortless. James also isn't scared off by the 40-percent slope where the house is being built.

"I grew up on the Western Slope," James says, "so everything we do there is on a steep slope."

Though Christopher and Tina already have sunk a small shovel into the ground for the ceremonial start of the project, James has heavy machinery at the ready for the real groundbreaking on this August 2004 day.

A big rig hauling an excavator - "the backhoe's big, mean brother," James calls it - chugs up to the construction site, causing blacktop to buckle.

"No wonder there's so many potholes on the roads," says Diana Bajada, a friend of Christopher and Tina's. The driver backs the rig from the street onto the hillside, pulling within a few feet of a Saturn parked in the brush.

"Turn! Turn! Turn!" shouts Katlen Smith, another friend. The rig brakes, and the SUV she'd bought three days earlier is spared.

Within a couple of hours, the 40,000-pound excavator is at work, scooping into the soil. James expects excavation to take about three weeks, followed by three weeks for pouring the concrete foundation and retaining walls. After that, framing begins.

These estimates are courtesy of James' optimistic side.

Concrete figures drive up cost

A bold, modern home doesn't come cheap.

"At one time," Christopher says, "I thought it could be done for $150,000."

He smiles. That figure is a speck in the rear-view mirror.

James' earliest estimate was $350,000, and Christopher and Tina were prepared to go ahead with that number in mind.

But by the time James had collected concrete bids from subcontractors, the figure fattened up to $450,000. Once other bids were gathered and came in higher than the earlier estimates, the number was ratcheted up to $500,000.

In the weeks before groundbreaking, the steep price sent Christopher and Brad back to the drawing board.

The quick fix they came up with: Set the house atop concrete pillars, thus drastically reducing the concrete amount needed for an in-the-ground foundation. It would save about $80,000.

"The idea," Brad says, "was to put it on piers, so it's touching the earth much more lightly and we wouldn't be moving massive square footage of earth."

Though the pillar concept is not uncommon on hillside construction sites, it's far from the aesthetic the duo had taken to heart in years of planning.

Nor is it the look Tina wanted.

"I thought, 'Dang, that's gonna look '70s. I don't want a house on stilts'," Tina says.

Despite Christopher's attempts at convincing Tina the concept would be a satisfying compromise, she wouldn't budge.

So while Brad left town with a reasonable excuse - something about getting married and going on a honeymoon - Christopher tinkered with the original plan.

To begin with, he scrapped plans for a concrete driveway and substituted a crushed-gravel drive leading to the two-car garage.

He also scaled back plans for concrete walls fully enclosing the open-air courtyard on the south side of the home. The courtyard wall that rests against the hillside is a must, holding back the earth, and glass doors leading into the family room will border another side. The other two walls will now be low - all the better for views of the mountainous surroundings, Christopher figures.

The plan for a concrete floor in the courtyard is scrubbed, too, and replaced by gravel and pavers.

That takes $50,000 off the budget.

And a load off everyone's mind.

Deep down, neither designer wanted to drastically change the plans.

"If we had lifted it up high, it probably would have felt more flimsy," Brad says. "Because it was designed to sit in the earth, it would have been missing its partner - yin and yang. It would have been a different project."

'It's a gamble'

Christopher and Tina believe keeping the house grounded is worth the extra money. It doesn't mean they aren't sweating the finances. Their construction loan - and then the mortgage that will replace it - is set at $500,000, with a $40,000 contingency fund.

"It's the biggest financial risk of our lives," says Tina, who's carrying the couple's first child - a girl, the ultrasound shows.

They're helped by the value of the property, which makes it possible for the couple to put no money down on the loans. An interest-only mortgage will lower monthly payments during the first five years.

"The idea is to build this house, then a couple of years from now we can borrow on the equity so Studio H:T can do a small development project," Christopher says.

"It's a gamble. Studio H:T is a gamble. At every step along the way the last several years, we could have taken a more conservative turn."

They expect to curtail their travel and restaurant spending. And they realize Tina might have to return to work full-time after her maternity leave.

"Knowing it's the house we'll be in forever makes it worthwhile," Tina says of the financial risk. "This is the house that feels right - even though I haven't been in it. I've been in and out the door many times in my mind."

A lot of unknowns

The building will take root in the same land where Christopher and Tina are planting trees, pine saplings they picked up at a tree-thinning project near Divide. They're far enough from the building site not to violate county fire codes, but close enough to count toward the Herrs' revegetation efforts, also required by the county. They enjoy the large-scale gardening, and it saves them the cost of hiring landscapers.

The Herrs still hope to shave expenses off the construction cost, too, but much is still unknown: like what lies beneath the topsoil on the hillside property that Christopher's grandparents bought four decades ago.

With digging under way, James, his crew and subcontractors hold the key to a question that has everyone concerned:

How long till we hit bottom?

They fear bedrock won't be far beneath the surface, which would call for costly dynamiting. The budget already is hurting. Each scoopful of dirt takes them that much closer to the answer, which is hardly the only unknown at this point:

Can the couple really afford the half-million-dollar construction loan they're taking out, rather than the $300,000-$350,000 loan they'd originally intended?

And might the realization of their dream house collide with the reality of unhappy neighbors?

As the ceremonial groundbreaking winds to a close, a homeowner across the street threatens to call police if the visitors don't move their cars away from their driveway immediately.

It's not the first conflict Christopher and Tina have had with their future neighbors - and it won't be the last.

dedrickj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5484

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