Building your own house

[ChickenToes]

My DH and I built our own house from foundation up and neither of us had any previous experience. We did have a good friend who works in the construction industry help. He made sure we were all square and plumb and made sure we knew how this went and that. Without him we would of had no clue. It took us only 6 months to build it and move in. It is not a big house, it is less than a 1,000 sq. ft, but I will tell you nothing is more better as the satisfaction of being in your own home that you built with your own two hands. In our part of the country there is very little codes or permits to have to uphold to or have, but that is something you have to make sure you have right. We were only required a building permit, and a inspection from a certified electrician. Sometimes its good to be in the middle of nowhere.

I agree, have a friend or someone help you that does have construction experience. And do make sure everything is square...believe me, it's no fun trying to remodel something 20 years later when the original builder didn't care whether a wall was square or not.

 

[MorelCabin]

DH and I thought of building our own home, but only because we have alot of friends who are framers, electritions, plumbers, etc. After seeing all the small stuf that was put intojust watching this house go up 'right' we have decided that many things are well worth hiring contractors for:>) Especially because we have to take into consideration so many seasonal fluctuations and such...which can cause alot of structural damage if not done right the first time. We've lived in homes (and had to fix things) where the previous homeowner thought they knew what they were doing but didn't...
Not only that, here there are strict building codes, and your home is inspected every step along the way.

 

[Niele da Kine]

There is a book called "Basic Home Building" by Ortho Press and it pretty much shows you how to build a basic house. There is a book by Sarah Susanka called "The Not So Big House" which can give you some great design ideas. I don't own the second book, but I've used the first one to build three houses with. From this experience, the difference between houses built by amateurs and professionals is how square everything ends up. If you have one lead person who knows what's going on, that should be enough experience to get a good result. For pouring concrete, though, it's best to have several folks who know what's going on as well as a bunch of grunts.

House building is lots of fun! New construction is way easier than renovation, too, so if you have a choice - go for new.

 

[Marianne]

My husband and I are building our current house by ourselves. We had a lot of remodel experience. We bought an excellent book on home construction at Lowe's when we were first getting started.

We're still living in a construction zone, but that's okay, we keep plugging away as time permits. Not that we're that young, either, he's almost 64, I'm about ready to turn 59.
The only help we had was on roofing 2nd story and siding, most of which we had to go back later and redo (guy was a dumbs***).
We even hand mixed our own concrete for the foundation - build a gigantic slip form, more steel, interlocking block system - agh, took forever, I wouldn't do it again, but we saved tons of $$ there.

You can get all the info you need from a good book and the internet. Go for it! But think about the size first - Most of us make the mistake of building too big. We sure did, now have 3500 sq ft that's taking forever to finish.

 

[ThisOldCabin]

It is alot of work to DIY.But it can be done.You will need help.We have bartered for some of our help.We did buy land and instead of selling the timber we bought a sawmill and with the help of family and friends we have been able to cut and saw timber for our house.It does take time.Alot of extra time.We are self-employed full time and have to work on the new house when we can.What we've done is not for everyone buts its what we always wanted to do.I'm gonna try to add pictures.I have tons but...then I realized I can't add pics yet.



I just wanted to ad I migrated here from BYC.Excellent sites.

 

[freemotion]

Quick, find 9 more things to post then you can upload pics! I suggest you start a new thread for it, though, as it will be quite interesting by itself. I use photobucket so as not to use up all my pic space here.

 

[Denim Deb]

I wanna see pics too! And,

 

[Wannabefree]

Pics for me three And,

 

[TanksHill]

 

[ThisOldCabin]

Thanks for the welcome!!!Off I go to do some posting.