Builder #2 - What's for lunch?

(Before we start, a friend suggested that we include some pictures in each entry but we forgot to take any so you'll have to make do with a meme and a stock picture this time)

The next stage involved us going to see another house building company who also specialized in building modern-style wooden homes. They were located a few kilometers away from our site so not completely local but close enough for a place on our shortlist. One of the reasons we liked them was their fondness for using authentic materials to produce a simple but quality finished product. They are a medium sized company who build 10-15 houses a year.

Since this was our third meeting in total, we were a bit more prepared and had a few more questions up our sleeve. We were also in the more fortunate position of being able to make better comparisons with what we had seen already. Someone on one of the online groups had written that it is best to see your notional first choice option last. We had completely neglected to follow this advice but this firm were still one that we were very interested in so we approached the meeting with no shortage of enthusiasm.

We arrived to find our name on a board at reception, indicating that we were one of three appointments that day, exchanged business cards and sat at a small wooden table in their office in a group of four.

They welcomed us warmly and then proceeded to tell us about their company. For absolutely ages! They had this 40-odd page brochure that they started going through, explaining each and every page in minute detail. It was horrendous. I survived about 6 pages of complex Japanese before my mind started to wander and think about what we were going to have for lunch. A few minutes of spiel later, I turned to my horror and saw Yuko’s eyes also glazing over. She was supposed to be the responsible one!

It wasn’t that their presentation was bad. In fact, it was quite polished and I’m sure very informative. The problem was that they were just talking at us. Yes, their unique beam joint construction is very interesting and I understand that it allows you to build slightly larger rooms without supporting joists but the one-way nature of the conversation just made it so hard to pay attention to. There was literally no interaction at all. This was supposed to be about our dream house, not a lecture on the history of modern building techniques.

Thankfully, the presentation ended (Any questions? Yeah. Can we go home?) and they then asked us some searching questions about things that we had either forgotten about or hadn’t considered in enough detail. This was enlightening if a little scary (we’re getting the septic tank removed right?!) and a big improvement on the first part of the meeting. It certainly made us realize that we needed to revisit the paperwork and just remind ourselves of what we could and couldn’t do with our plot. Full marks to them for that.

However, our moods quickly turned back to frustration in the subsequent discussion. When they finally got around to talking about what we wanted to build, they seemed more intent on us describing our lifestyles and talking about our general likes and dislikes than just letting us give them the details of what we were planning. It seemed they were keen to make these preliminary decisions on our behalf rather than trusting us to know what we wanted inside the house. Perhaps that’s what some people need but I felt this was another early warning sign. They seemed not to trust our judgment at all.

We are not house building experts and we don’t have the answer to everything but we have at least put some thought into what we are doing. We really disliked their approach to this. The questions we wanted to hear were “What type of kitchen would you like?” or “How many square meters?” not “Are you day/night people?” or “What type of food do you cook?” We can deal with practical questions with a specific answer or an “I don’t know yet”. We’re looking for a house builder, not a spiritual guru or a life-coach!  

To be fair, it wasn’t just that they asked these questions in the first place but that they failed to pick up on our cues to let us describe what we actually wanted. Even when we started to talk about specific wants and needs, it was soon back to their pre-prepared questions which had really started to annoy us (well, probably me more than Yuko). In any case, I think we had lost interest by that point.

It was also clear that we had been fortunate in the first few meetings to find companies with some English ability. This particular company didn’t speak a word of English and so it was evident from watching Yuko struggle to keep her eyes open while I switched off and thought about sandwiches that I couldn’t in good conscience put such a large share of the burden on her.

"Blah blah blah innovative joining techniques blah blah blah"

With that in mind, perhaps the one good thing to come out of this meeting was the realization that English ability had gone from being a nice-to-have to a must-have. That would seriously limit our options but wouldn’t preclude the two firms we had seen already. In a way, it felt like progress!