Building a home for little $$$$

[hwillm1977]

We bought our house a few years ago, and are mortgaging it to get some renovations done... here you do need to get permits, have inspections, and it's illegal to do your own electrical work so we had to pay for that... that alone was $10,000... but I'd really like to get everything else in the house done for 10K...

We need a kitchen, bathroom, drywall everywhere, siding, insulation, 3 windows, a set of stairs, flooring for the whole house (850 sq feet), and a new roof...

Our habitat for humanity store is usually more expensive than going to a hardware store... but we have lots of garage sales and auctions... I got enough drywall to do an entire room by searching craigslist and someone was giving their left overs away after finishing a job...

I'm looking forward to following your messages!

 

[Denim Deb]

We bought our house a few years ago, and are mortgaging it to get some renovations done... here you do need to get permits, have inspections, and it's illegal to do your own electrical work so we had to pay for that... that alone was $10,000... but I'd really like to get everything else in the house done for 10K...

We need a kitchen, bathroom, drywall everywhere, siding, insulation, 3 windows, a set of stairs, flooring for the whole house (850 sq feet), and a new roof...

Our habitat for humanity store is usually more expensive than going to a hardware store... but we have lots of garage sales and auctions... I got enough drywall to do an entire room by searching craigslist and someone was giving their left overs away after finishing a job...

I'm looking forward to following your messages!

I'm curious, would they let you do your electric if you were a licensed electrician?

 

[hwillm1977]

I'm curious, would they let you do your electric if you were a licensed electrician?

Yep... only a licensed electrician can do the work on electrical here, so if you happen to be one you can do your own work. I've done minor things on other houses, moving lights, changing out switches... etc... but this entire house was wired with knob and tube wiring from about 1910 so it was a total gut job.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Around here, you can do your own electrical, as long as it is inspected by a licensed electrician. Small jobs don;'t need to be inspected, like puttnig in a new light switch.

 

[handydude]

In a lot of places, If you own the home, you can do your own electrical work. In Minnesota, You still have to get a permit from the state electrical board and have the state inspector check it over after rough in, after installation of fixtures and a final inspection, but here in the area that I live in, no inspections are required. And yes, I AM a licensed electrician. That is why I stress to have a professional do ANYTHING that the state says you cant or you don't feel comfortable doing. The first thing I did was to go to the bookstore and purchase the book "How to build a house" put out by Habitat for Humanity. I read that book and several like it that I got and honed my skills by building a 12 x 20 storage shed (you will need one, I promise!) and some previous smaller projects. I went from ground up all the way to wiring it, sheetrocking it and taping and bedding it, texturing it and painting it. After finishing it, before i was able to use it for storage, someone wanted it more than I did and bought it, so I had to build another, just without sheetrock, this time. The best thing you can do to prepare yourself for ANY project is to read about it, study the correct way to do it, draw your plans to scale using drafting or graph paper and if possible have someone in the building field look at it and see if you are on the right track. Most builders are willing to look things over and give suggestions, even if they are not doing the job. Always be respectful ! Alot of useful info will come from the guy behind the lumberyard counter, because he has usually talked to everyone about every project you can think of.

 

[handydude]

Yesterday, I went to the Habitat store and purchased a 12 ft and a 6 ft countertop, that was the same color for $4 a running foot. That is less than half of the price that Lowes and HD wanted. The only drawback to that is they didn't have the endcap covers in that design. I went to Lowe's and they had something that was so close, that only the sharpest eye would catch. I picked them up and they will work great. The Habitat store also had tons of kitchen sinks there from 25.00 up to 200.00 and so i was able to get an almost new one WITH a really nice kolher faucet on it. I won't use the faucet, but I will hook it up to see if it works and if it does, Craigslist, here it comes......... As for flooring, If you are going to use laminate, ALWAYS get 15% more than you need. They say get 10% more, but if you are DIY ing it, allow your self that extra 5%. You will be grateful for it later. 10% extra will work if you are experienced in laying that stuff, but you will break one, cut one wrong, ETC and before you know it, you are one or two pieces short. If you purchased it six months ago, Will the place you got it have any more of the SAME LOT number? NO!

 

[Wannabefree]

I SO want to do this!

 

[handydude]

If i can figure out how to post pictures, I will post some of the work on my house..... Any suggestions?

 

[Wannabefree]

If i can figure out how to post pictures, I will post some of the work on my house..... Any suggestions?

You have to upload them to this site or a picture hosting site then cut and paste the link into your reponse on here.

 

[handydude]

If a person is willing to go to the max and really do it, you can really save some money. Keep your eyes open in your town for signs that someone may be building a new house. A lot of times, a person will buy an old house, improve it some and then just give up and decide to build a new house. That old house may have new windows, a new furnace, water heaters,ETC. If they are gonna build a new house, most times they wont reuse any of the barely used stuff. Here is a chance to get for free (or almost for nothing) stuff that is almost new or in really good shape. You wont get a warranty, but you won't have a lot invested, right? You will have to be flexable as to the time that you can get the stuff out, because of the construction schedule. Just another money saving idea from handydude.