Has anyone built their own house?

[Beekissed]

I would love to see someone on here build a straw bale/cob house! Cheap building materials and leaves itself open to much self design features....not to mention very, very green! Cool in the summer, warm in the winter.......

I looked on the net a little bit about this type of construction, and it seems to be something that works in dry climates. Here in SE Kansas we have high humidity. Will it work here?

Well, if you look further you will find pics of 500 year old cob homes in merry ol' England....and these have thatched roofs!

Cob over hay bales insures the hay is sealed to outside weather. A good overhang on the roof lines is also a plus, as it is with any house.

 

[Home Maker]

We have been building our house for the past 8.5 years. It has been a trial, to say the least. There is something to be said for not having a mortgage, though. We did pay for labor on the basement/foundation, roof, plumbing, AC, sheetrock, and some of the floor. One of my greatest regrets is that I used a tile saw for two days in a row and have had tendonitis problems ever since.

At about the 7-year mark, I had to accept, for my own sanity's sake, that it might never be finished. I have found it stressful to live in an unfinished house. We're about to have flooring installed on the second floor, which will leave mostly "finish" carpentry things like molding, window casings, etc. undone.

We looked at manufactured homes, and it was going to cost so much to buy something large enough, that we hated to put that into something that would have no value in a few years.

I hope you're happy with whatever you decide!

 

[Big Daddy]

Manufactured homes as in mobile homes are just like cars. They even have a blue book for them. Modular homes are quite different. They are never worth as much as a stick built but do appreciate at about the same percent rate. My biggest problem with them is they are not standardized to use the same accessories as stick built. Things like door locks, water heaters. We toured quite a few and they were nice.

 

[ibreatheuw]

My husband and I built our own house. We wanted a country home, and built it back about 2,000 feet from the road (can't see us from the road), in the middle of about 56 acres. My husband is an electrical contractor (and pretty self-sufficient about everything else too), so he did most all of the physical labor himself. He hired help, but did everything himself. We made the mistake of hiring a sheetrock finisher, mainly because we didn't want to do it ourselves, but wound up REDOING it anyway, because we weren't happy with their "professional" job.

It took us about 3 years to complete it, because we paid for everything ourselves as we went (not wanting a mortgage), and we are still a constant work in progress (my husband is talking about adding a deck now), but the result is a simple ranch home, just over 4,000 square feet, that we put our blood, sweat, and tears (literally) into. It is simple by some people's standards, but it is a mansion to me. And I love to call it home.

 

[Big Daddy]

My husband and I built our own house. We wanted a country home, and built it back about 2,000 feet from the road (can't see us from the road), in the middle of about 56 acres. My husband is an electrical contractor (and pretty self-sufficient about everything else too), so he did most all of the physical labor himself. He hired help, but did everything himself. We made the mistake of hiring a sheetrock finisher, mainly because we didn't want to do it ourselves, but wound up REDOING it anyway, because we weren't happy with their "professional" job.

It took us about 3 years to complete it, because we paid for everything ourselves as we went (not wanting a mortgage), and we are still a constant work in progress (my husband is talking about adding a deck now), but the result is a simple ranch home, just over 4,000 square feet, that we put our blood, sweat, and tears (literally) into. It is simple by some people's standards, but it is a mansion to me. And I love to call it home.

Sounds really nice. Is it a walkout or do you have 4k on one level. Either way that's a good sized house.

 

[me&thegals]

We built about 5 years ago. My husband did a lot of the site prep. The house itself came in pre-built walls, so sections of stud walls were set into the foundation at our site. From there on, almost everything was done by friends, family or us. Not sure to this day how we did it, since our kids were only 1 and 3 at the time, but we wanted this house so badly that we did it with joy

Lots of painting, all the woodwork, trim, doors. Husband learned from a retired friend how to do the masonry around the fireplace and woodstove. He and his dad tiled the basement. Husband and friend laid and finished the wood floors. My family did the finish carpentry and deck. So, lots of memories made in building our home. Lots of sweat labor, or we never could have done it.

 

[FarmerChick]

This is something Tony and I chatted about....but we are not willing to build our own home ever.

We don't know enough and don't have the time to learn or the want to learn how to do it properly at all.

Sometimes we just let others use their skills and go on our merry way of our life...LOL

I know my sanity would be lost if I tried to do a home myself. Just me, not something I ever want to attempt.

 

[Mackay]

We are in the process of building right now. First the garage went up with a 500sf studio on top. This is where we will live when we build the house.
We have the well and septic done. The inside of the studio will get completed this summer when we stay in our 11 foot camper.

My husband looked at prices today for sticks... prices are way way down right now so if you have a place to store lumber you should purchase now. We feel that inflation is right around the corner...

My husband is an architect.. so I am anticipating some good things...but we don't have a ton of money and we are looking more at $60 dollars a sf not $200. Even though, design is so important to make a place feel like it is so much more than it really is. He is doing most of the carpentry himself, hired out plumbing, electric and site development.

For us all is pending selling our house in the city. We are keeping our fingers crossed. When this house sells and we head up to our site I think I will journal our experience and will post photos of our adventure.

 

[cjparker]

I just glanced through the postings, but didn't see anyone mention log home kits. I've seen several nice homes built by the owners from log home kits, and prices were anywhere from $30,000 and w-a-y up. There's lots of info on the net about log home kits.

I live in a modular which is 28x70 and is build over a concrete walk-out basement of the same size. It's basically an up/down duplex as there is kitchen facilities and two 3/4 baths down there. The house is really solid, was top-of-the-line when it was put here 20 years ago. Since we own the 2&3/4 acres that it sits on, appreciation is very similar to that of a stick-built home. In this state, we had the option to "retire" the "mobile" designation. When you come in, it doesn't look at all like most people's preconceived notion of a modular home.

 

[karanleaf]

I haven't been on this forum for about 9 or 10 months been on TEG and BYC. So just returning here now. Just read throught this thread. And see a few talked of Straw Bale building. We live in North Missouri and have been planning to build a Straw Bale home for about 6 years. We own our property and live in a 14 x 65 moble home (trailer) that is 30 + years old we had planned to build a garage 1st and move into this. Then get rid of the trailer, then start foundation and build our home.

Well plans change and we built our barn 1st, gota keep the horses comfortable and their hay and our tack dry. Our Barn by the way is on solar power. Then as it does with with many of us life comes in the way. We had things put on hold as situation with our Son and his wife got unworkable and so we now have full guardianship of our youngest grandson. Now in the area we had prepared with 5 dump truck loads of dirt and put in the water line for the garage. We now have this.... 20 x 38 working greenhouse there, I will upload photo when I get home from office. We just opened our greenhouse for plant sales this last month.

But now we are making plans to move chicken coop, duck shed, and outside furnace buildings to clear the area for the foundation for our Straw bale home Unfortunatly we have to cut down 3 trees one being a very large oak But it may provide us with some usable wood for another item Not wishing to waste anything usable. We are going to see about some large barn beams in an old barn of the Chief Deputy has that is falling in. He says the beams are some 20' long and almost 1' square. We will see if they work out. I will be taking before, during and after photos to journal our adventure.

Sorry a bit wordy there. But just coming back to the forum, guess I felt I needed to down load the lastest.

Karan