Has anyone built their own home?

[Argee]

I buily my own house. Took about three years to complete to the point of moving in. It's a lot of hard work when you have a crew of one, sometimes two. You just have to get the mindset that it isn't going to happen overnight. But the savings is enormus. I'm a contractor so I have the tools and experience, but when you get home after swatting nails all day, it's kind of hard, at times, to get the motivation to go out and do it after supper. But that's what it takes.

I subbed out the electrical, plumbing and heating, left those to someone who could get them done fast and right to code the first time.

I built my shop first and then finished off half of it for a place to live while we built the house. Problem is I finished it off so nice that I was to comfortable to keep motivated on the house. That plus a heart attack slowed the progress.

The house is 99% finished now and was well worht the effort.

[jtcweb]

I will be building a house this fall or next spring. However I will mainly just be acting as the general contractor. I will only do the things I am good at, otherwise it will just take too long. What you save in labor you pay in interest. You should be able to save at least 20% just by being the general contractor, but still plan on spending bunches of time chasing permits and material quotes and so forth. I have 2 years into my current project and I'm not sure I can start before the ground freezes.

Also make sure you wife is with you on the project, a lot of marriages are strained if not broken over such a project, and that sure aint worth what ever you save in $$$ if you loose your family. My wife is a builders daughter so she has been through it several times, so we should do OK [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[EJB]

karmachanic, I'd guess you'll save from 30-50% off of having someone else do it, but as others have pointed out, it depends on how good you are and how many mistakes you make and how many subs you use.

I think you need to decide if it is something you want to do, versus something you are doing just to save money...if you give up 2-3 years of year life up in just to save money, but don't really enjoy the actual construction process, my guess is that you will regret the decision...if you are going to be working at something you don't enjoy, you might as well do something that pays well (i.e. keep on working) and get a pro to do the work...ON THE OTHER HAND...if you find the prospect of building your own house a pleasureable experience, and have the time and are willing to learn or perfect the skills needed, I say go for it.

One thing I learned when I stopped working at the beginning of this year, is that you need to stop putting a value on your time...and then comparing how you are spending your time versus how much it would cost to hire/buy what you are doing.

In my previous life, I was paid well(self employed programmer) and fell into the trap of anytime I wasn't billing a client, comparing what I was doing to what I could be making if I was working and unfortunately that caused me to miss out on many of the better things in life. Just this week for example I spent 2 solid days building a rabbit hutch for my kids's new rabbits we got...now if I took those 16 hours and figured out how much income I lost by not working at my previous job it was probably the most expensive rabbit hutch built in the country [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] , but then again, I spent 2 days with my three small kids doing a project together and I have the pride of a job well done and they got to help....just not the same thing as writing a check to someone else and having it delivered.

I am also in the midst of tackling some very major renovations to my own house and am finding the work very pleasurable and the skills come very quickly. I also get to add a lot of tools to my collection that I otherwise could not justify buying. (having the right tools for the job will really make a difference..take some of the money you will be saving and invest in appropriate tools for your job).

Good luck...enjoy your retirement.....I know I am. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[MarkV]

Wow, a lot of good advice and most of it matches my experience. I am a contractor by trade and have built for myself a couple of times. We are just finishing a weekend home that is about 1500 sq ft with another 1000 ft of deck and screen porch. This has been a pay as you go weekend project on a difficult site and has taken 6 years. The only things we subbed out were the foundation and HVAC.

If I were building my full time home I would mix some general contractor and carpenter skills. The amount of time it takes to do everything will be very consuming and even the most motivated will get tired before the project is done. My suggestion would be to sub out the foundation, framing, roofing and all mechanical trades (HVAC, plumbing and electrical). Even if you are skilled in any of these areas you will save a great deal of time, the house will get dried in fast enough to save you a lot of problems and you will not have near the code problems. Believe me, there is still a good year’s worth of work on the interior and exterior finishes.

Good luck

MarkV

[rocky2]

I agree with Cowboydoc. Building yourself is a killer. I did my log home from the land clearing, road installation, utilities, excavating/footer on up, with only 4 friends for the rough in phase. After that just me and my dad doing the rest. Say goodbye to your life. Your evenings, weekends, holidays every spare minute is gone for at minimum 2 years. If you're married hide the keys to the backhoe because one of you will be tempted to kill the other and bury them in the woods. If you figure out all your hours, and what you saved, if you paid yourself you end up working for about 50 cents a day. Seriously, subcontract as much as you can for your sanity.

[karmakanic]

Thanks for the informative and interesting replies, guys.

I am always blown away by the willingness of somewhat strangers to help a fellow by sharing their experiences. It tells me the world might not be perfect, but it's getting there.

To the subject at hand.

I really admire anyone who would undertake building a house from scratch while having a day job. I would not even attempt this unless I was "retired' and looked upon it as my main job. With a day job, you really have to think it would be easier to work harder at what you do best, and pay others to do what they do best, especially true if you have the time value of money included. (i.e. you're paying interest on a construction loan)

But, if we're retired, the economics change. One aspect about earning money to pay others to do things like build houses for you, is that ole' uncle sam and his local cohorts take 50% off the top. If I'm working at the job of building my house, I'm not gonna pay any income taxes on that work. Being retired, I'll have the time to hunt out bargains in materials. And if I scrounge materials at a lower then retail price, I also save on the sales taxes. (8 1/4% here in Texas, not an insignificant amount). The other advantage to me would be the ability to fund the construction out of cash flow. No interest charges, other then the lost opportunity costs incured by transferring funds from retirement accounts into building materials. (and with what the stock market and CDs are returning nowdays, the lost opportunity ain't that much)

Another aspect of building it ourselves is the ability to do some unusual things that would make it ours. For instance, the timber frame design intrigues us. We would love to tear down an old barn and salvage the timbers for a timber frame house. The only trouble with that in this area is there aren't many large timbered barns around. But, we've even looked into buying a barn in another part of the country, having it dismantled and trucked in. Surprisingly doable, with the help of the internet.

Of course, when you go talking about some unusual design, any cost savings disappear quickly. And as AndyF pointed out, I can see how it can be easy to add features when you think of how much you're saving by doing it yourself. Pretty soon you've saved yousrelf into no savings.

But, I think in the end, we're gonna do it. I picked up a book at the library this afternoon "Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding" by George Nash.(still looking for the ones you mentioned, rstcso. Thanks.). In the preface Mr. Nash hit on a couple things that really struck home for me. "An efficient professional homebuilder makes a profit by assembling the smallest possible amounts of the least costly materials into a minimally adequate structure as fast as possible" And,,, something you guys have already pointed out,,,"I'd argue, ultimately, the best reason to build your own home is for the pleasure of it.,,,By giving public shape to private dreams, it's a creative, challenging, and socially valued form of applied art"

Thanks again for the responses. It's one thing to read it in a book, but it's much more valuable to hear it from guys who have BTDT. And I'll also say I would be much more reluctant to undertake the job without the help of you guys who support these special interest internet groups.

Dave

I'll have the time to hunt out bargains in materials. And if I scrounge materials at a lower then retail price

Don't go cheap. Buy the best. Our first house I scrimped on some things and was sorry. The second house I didn't and we were much happier with it. But I didn't have money on the first and had a little on the second one. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Hondo]

You can find copies of the aforementioned books at abebooks .

It's the largest used/rare internet book site. I've found many a hard-to-find book there.

[pbenven]

My father and I built my family's house (I was 13 at the time). We roughed out the foor plan and exterior then passed it off to my cousin who actually drafted it for us. We had the plan approved and proceeded.

We planned a French Canadian style house (steeply pitched roof with 2 gable windows, exterior finished in field stone). Because of the extra weight - we had really beefy footings poured. We sank a small metal box into the foundation walls to act as a safe. We framed a hole near the fire place in the basement to facilitate the loading of wood.

I remember it being March. It was the day after hanging the joists and sheathing the first floor (3/4" BC fir - you won't see that in a "bought" house). We had to shovel 1 foot of snow off the floor before we could start working.

With no walls up, it was the perfect time to lay out a jig on the floor in order to "mass-produce" the roof trusses. Man it was cold. I used to look forward to my mom showing up at lunch time with some hot food.

We finished the structure that summer. The we started on the field stone exterior. This was the routine:

I arrive home from school at 3:15. Start a batch of cement. My dad would pull in the driveway as I was dumping the first batch out into the wheel barrow. Walk that over to the scaffold and load up the bucket we had rigged up to an old bicycle rim pulley. Haul it up to my dad on the scaffold. Reload the bucket with a few stones and then haul that up too. Back to the cement mixer and start another batch. Quitting time was around 8:30pm. Much the same on weekends except it was from 7am until 8 or 9pm.

We only got one side of the house done the remainder of that year. It took all of the following spring/summer to finish the rest of the house's exterior.

It came out to about half of the cost of a regular house to build it ourselves. However, this is not a regular house. To sum it up, let's say that this house will be the last one standing on that street. The problem is that most of the time the choice of building materials has absolutely nothing to do with resale value.

I found the experience kind of traumatic. I now get this uncontrollable urge to run and hide whenever I smell fresh cement [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Seriously, you need to be comitted or you will be.

[Carl]

Dave,

Echoing the comments from the other replies, have the foundation and framing to weather tight completed (cost for 1500 SF probably $30K range) then tackle the rest on your own. Acting as GC will save a lot, but there are also other savings if you plan it out. Such as;

- Standard window openings and size - buy in qty for discounts
- Same for interior doors and exterior doors
- Tub enclosures, fixtures, cabinets, siding etc can be found at big discounts if you have time..

I have remodeled two houses, completely gutted and doubled the size of our existing house, acting as GC and saved a lot in the process.

Good luck on your project and keep us informed.

Carl