Every now and then someone asks me about building their own home. To be sure, it could be a way to save more than a modest amount of money, but there are more than a few pitfalls in such an endeavor. Most of the potential problems are contained in two or three ideas.
One area where costly mistakes can come about is the area of language and culture. Let’s say that a newly-arrived individual wants to build his own dream home. He has construction experience of one variety or another and he runs into some local craftsman and decides to begin construction. Now let’s say that he wants to add an addition to his existing residence. He goes to his newly-acquired alvanil and asks how much will it cost to make the addition. It is not very likely that the alvanil will have this information but let’s say that the alvanil gives auto-constructor a number. Very few times have I seen apples and apples discussed in this type of exchange. You are much more likely to see eggs and kumquats being discussed with both parties believing they are discussing apples. This leads to bad karma.
Usually by the second or third time the discrepancies come to light, one or both sides are beginning to feel as though mistakes have been made. The Mexican worker involved will be embarrassed and that may very likely result in a devil-may-care or, even worse, a “yas sir boss man” attitude. Generally it is at this point that the alvanil begins to do exactly as he is told. No more nor less, but exactly as he is told. This will be true even if he knows a mistake is being committed.
Another place where this type of waste can come about is when the newly-arrived builder doesn’t understand the work culture. It is important that the work force believe they are working for “gente fina” or fine folks. If the builder falls into the quagmire of being unfair in the eyes of the workers then all bets are off. I recently had the experience of working for newly-arrived folks who perceived a wrong by one of the peons working on their site. They demanded his immediate dismissal. This would have been unfair to the young man in question because the earliest I could have dismissed him would have been on Monday morning. He wouldn’t have had a chance to find another job for the week and because I knew that he lived from hand-to-mouth I kept him on until the end of the week. My action irked my client, I’m afraid, but I could not run the risk of being seen as unfair in the eyes of my workers or my client’s job would have been done poorly and at a greater expense.
The most costly mistake I have seen committed is falling for the wiles of the dedicated brown-noser. I understand that nearly everyone likes to be kissed up to from time to time. However, a dedicated brown-noser is, by definition, less than honest. It is truly amazing to me that so many North Americans fall under the spell of such people. I know of a number of instances where a person who is known in the Mexican community as being lazy, shiftless, or dishonest works for several North Americans. It seems that the results are always the same. At first everything goes swimmingly then after a period of time something goes missing or work begins to stretch out. In nearly every one of these instances the worker rarely has a kind word for his “friend” while he is in the Mexican community.
I would suggest to anyone who is contemplating building on his own to look for people who will disagree. That worker will save you money. It is highly unlikely that you understand the culture or even the work that needs to be done. If you don’t speak Spanish, well, you will probably cost yourself more money than if you hire a contractor. There are exceptions to this point of view but precious few.
