Has anyone built their own home?

[Bird]

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structure cost about $40,000 . . . replacement cost is $125K

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Tugwell, over 30 years ago, one of my brothers, who'd never built a building at all, bought a new house in Alaska. But a year later, after checking into costs, playing with numbers, etc., he thought he could quit his job for a year, sell that house, and build himself a new house just as nice, and come out financially as well off as if he'd kept working and paying for the house someone else built. He was right. It went so well, that he got a contractor's license and went into the home building business for a few years; only got out when interest rates went so high during the Carter administration.

And after he came back to Texas, in the mid-90s, I helped him build himself a new home in Texas.

[tugwell]

I just realized what I said in my first post about working might not be clear . . . When I say I "worked full time through the winter" I mean at my teaching job, and I spent about 20-30 hours a week building as well. During the first summer, I taught half-time and built at least 40 hours a week -- it was grueling, but worth it!

Bird, I've had people ask if I was interested in contracting. If I could do it with a very small crew, just hire help as needed, it would be a great business to be in. As I said, though, I'm not sure how much longer my body will be willing to do the work -- I'm not sure how much fun supervising and pushing paper would be!

Tugwell

[Bird]

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not sure how much longer my body will be willing to do the work

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I sure understand that, especially since I turned 65 last Friday. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[53559]

Mr. Dave

This is the second of my responses. . . I haven't looked on the board for quite some time and I just read your financial concerns, retirement, etc. One of the things my wife and I did was build a small apartment next to/attached to the house (that we're just about finished with; project time to this date: 14 months plus we both have full-time jobs, 18 month old boy and a freelance design/marketing biz on the side we're trying to get off the ground. So, it is VERY likely to do and don't listen to every horror story. . . As it has been difficult and frustrating, if you're either a builder or hard-headed determined to succeed, you'll do fine. I AM NOT a builder, but I did it!!! The house has been built by me and my wife with some help from friends with exception of, yes, as you've heard so often, the foundation and the electric in our case. The advatage of a 'small' apt. to the side is immediate residence/safe harbor AND learning how NOT to do some things i.e. holding your mudding trowel 90 degrees when laying your tile and in alternating semi-circular sweeps—not at a leaning angle, Where to fuss and not to fuss in taping and mudding drywall, etc. Anything is possible if you want it bad enough!

[roadkill]

Just catching this but I built my home in Ellis Co. in 1995. Cost was 79000, appraisal came in at 126000 and now it appraises at 215000. I was working 40 hrs in down town Dallas and about 50/60 hrs on the house. Took 5 months 10 days. Not sure if I could do it again but I'm sure that once the kids are finished with school I'll try on a little smaller scale. The tax man is wearing me out here..............rc

[wbonnell]

I am building a 3000 sq. ft home. I am talking to my neighbor who is a custom home builder about being the GC for my home. We are talking about me paying all the bills as they come up and paying him a flat rate for the GC work. We will initially quote out all the work so we can come up with a budget. I wont be doing any of the construction work myself - we will be using subs. This is going to be a "high end" home. What do you guys think will be a fair amount to pay him for his services??

Thanks

Bill

[cowboyjg]

What services will he provide specifically? Typical cost plus arraingements fall between 15 &amp; 20 %.

[IowaMan]

Been there, done that. Economics was deciding factor.
Hired well drilled, septic installed, basement wall pour. Did all else myself with is little help. To do again, yes, but build garage first. Pour the slab, make the walls, either truss or frame the roof, cover. Wire, and you have a place to work in bad or wet weather. Makes a good place for material and tools. I did most with skilsaw, and hammer. Had no place to keep bigger tools. Definitely garage first. Only took me a year for the 1000 foot ranch with walkout basement.

[MotorSeven]

Karm,

Built a 1624 sq foot log home in TX in the early 80's. Before that i had built a pair of speakers in H.S. It was not a "kit" home...all the logs were 9' something long and had to be squared. The only thing i didn't do was the wiring(had a friend/electrician) the septc tank, and the roof beams(22' long...had a crane crew hang them). It took a year and a half with the help of some really good friends. I learned a lot, made alot of mistakes, but none that were major and could not be corrected. I bought books and read as much as possible, but most of all i picked the brain of the fellow that cut all my logs on his homemade sawmill. He and his sons were building log homes at the time and his experience was priceless.
Would i do it again?.....Yep, but this time i will mill my own cedar off my own property and build another log home. This time i will be retired and estimate approx 2 years from start to finish. I will be doing my own septic, hiring out the well diggin, and again a friend will do the electric. It really will come down to how much confidence you have in you ability. The know-how knowledge will give you that confidence, so learn all you can. It is one of the most satisfying experiences i have ever had [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] .

RD

[Bird]

I know next to nothing about building log cabins, but I saw one years ago under construction in Alaska that I thought was a little different (or maybe not different; maybe just because it's the only one I've seen like it). The logs were squared off on 3 sides with the rounded side out, of course. Then they were putting a pretty thick layer of fiberglass insulation between each one. And each log had two or more 1" holes drilled through them with a steel rod (all thread) through them. So when they got to the top of a wall, a washer and nut was all that was needed to squeeze the logs even tighter together. If I remember right, I think they had those steel rods in each corner as well, so there was no notching of logs. Maybe that's a common way to do it in recent times, but it was new to me.