HomeHuntress:

I am in the same boat...started in March and we are about 80% complete as well. My wife is a teacher so we were pushing to be in by school (Sept 3). That was the âÂÂproposed dateâ initially...that date was moved to mid September in early August and now is looking more like mid-to-late October. Our house is 2650 sq ft ranch. We are in Michigan and I go by the house daily and have spoken to many of the sub-contractors...a few things they are dealing with:

1.) Most of the subs have way over-committed themselves. Building has really picked up in the area and these guys quoted aggressive to get the business but are so lean its taking longer then anticipated to complete work. One job then pushes the next and so on.

2.) the market for laborers is crazy competitive. A lot of people are being "poached" from one company to the next with the promise of more money. The guy who hung our drywall started with 7-8 man crew and said it would take less than 1-week to complete. By day 9 they were not done and he had 2 guys (2 quit because it was "too hard" and 3 left to work elsewhere in the industry).

3.) Overall permits/inspections/etc are taking longer than expected. Again, due to item 1, even the city/township inspectors are having a tough time keeping up with the amount of building that is happening and thus they are delaying our builder/GC from moving on to the next phase.

A lot of this may be very specific to my area/market but I have seen it with my own eyes. Inspections are scheduled for a Monday and they don't show up until Wednesday, crews shrinking, crews starting a much as week+ late due to a previous job, etc. It stinks but I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end.

Good luck!

We broke ground in October 2011, original date late March, early April. We finally moved in the week before Labor Day 2012. The house was not done, but we could live in it. We finally converted the construction loan in January 2013.

I agree with mjwkr that building is picking up and the workforce is lured away. We have been waiting months for many subs.

Thanks for your replies.

Mjwkr, your situation is almost identical to ours. School started on August 27th here, so we were supposed to be done a few weeks before the first day. When it was obvious it would be more like late August/early September we still decided to enroll our daughter in her new school so we wouldn't have to transfer her a few weeks into the school year. Fortunately the school understood our situation and allowed us to do so because they're usually very strict about residency rules. Meanwhile we're adjusting work schedules to commute about 45 minutes one way each morning then again each afternoon to meet her school bus in front of a house that looks like an abandoned job site.

Sigh...

It'll end...one day.

Good luck to you too!

We were suppose to be done by August 1st and we moved in on the 22nd I think and officially closed on the 29th. I was frustrated with that delay. I couldn't imagine the delays you guys are having! Our lease expired and we had to be out no later than the August 31st. I was getting highly concerned there for a little while!

It's not fun amtrucker. It's suddenly gotten cool here in NC (by our standards), and this morning I realized all our fall clothes were packed in boxes and stored *somewhere* in the garage back in July. So after work I'll be shopping for jeans and jackets despite already having plenty.