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Thread: Has anyone built their own home?

  1. #1
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    Has anyone built their own home?

    Has anyone gone through the experience of building their own home? By that I mean, actually built the majority of it themselves, with help from family and some subcontracting of tricky or difficult tasks.

    If you did build one, was it a one off design, or was it based on a kit or package? How much money (percentage wise) did you you save, if any?

    Here's the deal. The wife and I are selling our business in the next few months and will be moving full time to the country place. There is a small vacation house on site now, but we want to build a nicer place,,,something that has HVAC, plumbing, size, ect. that's actually suitable for human habitation.

    Now being karmakanics, our business is not worth a whole lot. But I think there might be enough (after paying off the bankers and the other hanger-ons) to acheive my life long ambition, that of being a semi-retired jack of all trades. But, to acheive that, I'll have to maxamize any opportunity. And I think it would be worth a year or two of my life if I spent it building a house that I wouldn't have to turn to the bankers to finance. I've paid those bloodsuckers enough already.

    So,,,am I a fool? Is this one of those questions that if you have to ask, you can't do it. (We get a lot of those in our business). Could a hard working family unit build their own place and save 50% with a little artfull (& lawfull) scrounging of materials? We're not talking a mansion here, just a comfortable abode for two people, say 1500 sq. ft. The actual skills needed are mostly available, if a little rusty.

    Any input is appreciated. Especially helpful are descriptions of what not to do. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

    TIA
    Dave

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    Had a pole barn built 2 years ago, have spent the last two summers, evenings and weekends, doing electrical, plumbing, insulating, etc.

    Hope to finish next year.

    It is a lot of work, but rewarding in learning new skills.

    Good luck. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

  3. #3
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    <font color="red"> And I think it would be worth a year or two of my life if I spent it building a house </font color>

    Theres the key. You will be spending a year or two. Heck it had taken me a whole summer to build a shed, [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] and its still not done. but yes, you will save a lot of money.
    Paul Bradway


  4. #4
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    I have not built a house by myself...yet.

    Currently, I plan on building a Barn House from Barnplans.com. There are alot of pictures (showcase &amp; gallery) that has given me the confidence that it can be done.

    I am thinking of getting the shell built, and concentrating on the bottom floor until liveable -- and then finish off the 2nd floor (loft) with a couple more bedrooms/bathrooms after move in.

    The size I am looking to build is a 36x60 gambrel style. I would then build a separate garage with breezeway in the distant future.
    :: D A V E
    :: g a t o r b o y

  5. #5
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    I'm going to be doing the same thing, building my own home. I've been planning it for a long time, so feel I've got a lot of "book-smarts". A couple of books I recently purchased are: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Building Your Own Home" (not too helpful) and "Housebuilding:A Do-It-Yourself Guide", by R.J. Christoforo (much better). I also have an older book, "Building Your Own Home", by Robert Roskind. He founded something called the Owner Builder Center, where someone can go and learn skills needed to build your own home. It's a very good book. It's copyright 1984, so I don't know if the Owner Builder Center still exists, but still a good book. I reinterate, I have not built my own yet, just getting ready to do so. I have built smaller projects, though. If you don't own a nail gun, go buy one.

    Many of the tools I wanted to have to build the house, but couldn't justify new and didn't want to rent, I purchased from pawn shops. Just know what the retail price before starting the negotiating. I hope this helps.

  6. #6
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    I came close. I renovated and added onto an old frame house. We put on a 2 story 700 sq. ft addition, took the entire interior down to the studs, rewired, replumbed, reroofed and resided the entire house and did everything else needed to make it a nice home. As soon as it was complete, after almost 10 years working on weekends and vacations mainly with my father in law, we sold it. The only contracted work was HVAC and one small section of roof.

    I don't know that I really saved any money because as we did the house I rationalized a lot of upgrades by telling myself that I could afford it because I was doing the work myself. We did hardwood floors through-out, redwood clapboard siding and redwood trim, I made all of the interior millwork and cabinets - 7" baseboards, window and door casings, cherry cabinets in the kitchen, and built-ins through-out the house. It was a lot of fun and I ended up with good skills and a complete woodworking shop.

    The house was exactly what I wanted, unfortunately the neighborhood around it was no longer what we wanted as over the 10 years our 3 acre lot with a creek was completely engulfed by suburban sprawl and golf course communities. So we sold it to some friends and moved on.

    Building can be a lot of fun, you'll get exactly what you want, and you'll learn a lot, but if you haven't worked in construction don't count on saving a lot of money, whatever your budget is you'll spend it and probably a little more. However, by building it yourself you could end up with something much nicer than you would get by buying a house.

  7. #7
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    not really what u plan on doing, but for what it worth, this was our plan of attack....
    we went to alot of new home subdivisions where they were building homes, saw the quality of the work the subs were doing, and asked them if they would consider doing our house on the side if we purchased all the materials and worked around their schedule....most all of them jumped at the opportunity and really liked the idea of being paid when the craft passed inspection instead of having to wait 45-90 days like most builders pay them....they are all experienced in doing what they do, and if we didnt like the work they did on the subdivision homes, we just didnt hire them...you'd be surprised, but most jobs on a new house can be completed in 1 or 2 weekends each, most everything except framing , brick and trimming was done on the weekends and nights...
    we had builders give us prices from $285 to $360K to build the house complete, but we came in right around $200K...on a 4200 sq. ft. house ..we only used full service companies for the electrical, plumbing and HVAC, which all had to be permitted to pass city inspections....we hired a outside home inspection company at a cost of $1800 to help us insure that the work was up to parr, and we really didnt have any major problems...in fact, it seems most of the subs enjoyed working with us and might have actually done us a better job since they knew it was our house and not just some spec house with owners they would never see ....
    good luck and just have patience!!!

  8. #8
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    My wife and I have just completed our dream home. It is our design that we had put together over the years. Jane and I took the plan to an architect who made some very good changes without compromising the original plan.

    We wanted to do most of the work but then reality sets in. Our home called for 44 foot trusses and a 2350 square foot basement. I am trying to remember but I think it called for 2400 12 inch block.

    I am retired and can do most of the trades, some better than others. My wife and I work together well and I have friends and relatives that are in the trades. Now here is what I found.

    I wanted to hire a framer to put up the shell and a mason to do the basement. That was for sure. Just to see what the market was I decided to put out bids on everything but the hardwood floors, tile floors, tile counter tops, painting and the electrical. Those were tasks that were the most cost effective for us to do. I also had four home builders bid the complete job.

    The home builders bids ranged from $245,00 to $365,000. I never could find why the highest one was so high. The other three were within $20,000. When I added up all the subs costs and my part of the job I came close to $180,000. Well worth doing some of the work myself. In the end the true cost was 171,000. The house was ready in five months. It probably would have taken over a year to complete if I had not used the subs.

    You already have a structure to live in while you remodel. That does really make a difference. I did not want to have two properties on the books for a year or so. That would sure eat into the savings. I did what you want to do with a house ten years ago. It took two years to complete but it was all done by my wife and myself with a little help from family and friends.. It is a great feeling to say you did it all.

    Good luck,

    Tim

  9. #9
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    Dave - You're not a fool, you just need a lot of patience (and some money) to accomplish it.

    My wife and I are building our second house. It's a long story but we lived in 30' camper while we built a "barn house" (basically a one-bedroom apartment shaped like a barn), and are living in the "barn" while we build our "big" home. We are in our 3rd year now and about 6 months away from moving into the big house.

    Don't get me wrong, we have not done all the work by ourselves. In each case, we had someone put in the foundation, frame and roof the structures. We took over from there with one exception, we had someone drywall and insulate the "big" house - we found we didn't save much (or any) money on these doing them ourselves.

    Would I do it again? Probably not. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of perks to doing it this way. However, it's been nothing but work for me for 3 years - almost every night and every weekend. I put in 40 hours a week at my job and then probably another 35-40 hours on the house. I also found people (friends/family) have good intentions of helping through the project but get too busy with their own lives.

    Lastly, it may be difficult to finance the project. You really need to find a bank who will work with you - and believe me, most won't. We were lucky because we used all the equity from our barn house to start the big house. It was a little more tricky getting the additional funds we are using now to complete the project.

    Well, I'm rambling. I'll post a picture sometime. If you have a lot of ambition, time, money and patience, go for it. A few years from now, I think we will be very happy we did.

    Best of luck,
    Drago

  10. #10
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    Re: Has anyone built their own home?

    However, it's been nothing but work for me for 3 years - almost every night and every weekend. I put in 40 hours a week at my job and then probably another 35-40 hours on the house. I also found people (friends/family) have good intentions of helping through the project but get too busy with their own lives.

    This is the truth!!!!!

    I've built two by myself and wouldn't do it again unless I was retired. Even then I don't think I would. You will probably save anywhere from 25-50% of the cost but what is your time worth? In your case it may be a little different if all you have to do is build the house. Also remember that you're going to get more weather in the house as well because it's going to be harder for you to get it put up as fast. If all you want to do in the next few years is build your house then do it. But if you want any kind of a life or fun then I wouldn't do it. It's a major headache and everything always takes twice as long to do as you think and costs twice as much.

    Having done it and looking back yes it was nice to see what I had done but at what cost? I basically gave up about four years of doing things that I enjoy. And looking at all the time I spent and time taken off from work I would have been much better off to work harder and pay someone else to do the work.

    What I will do when I do it again is just act as the general contractor. That way I have control over all the materials and you will save yourself that 20-30% that the contractor puts on a house for coordinating everything. Most contractors as well will charge a surcharge for materials as well.

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