How to Survive Do-it-Yourself Home-Building
Over two years ago I came to my husband with the notion that we could build our own home, and sub-contract the jobs that we couldn’t. He looked at me like I had just asked him to paint the ‘Last Supper’. I could tell that this was going to take some convincing. Considering that I was expecting our sixth child, home-schooling our two oldest, and helping run our business, I knew that this was not going to be easy; but I believed that the hardest part of all of it would be to convince him that we were capable. I whole-heartedly felt that we were. Always remember that ignorance is bliss.
After much begging, pleading, and convincing, we moved forward by contacting a friend who is in the “business”. He shared the ins and outs with us, as to where to start, and the steps from there. The first course of action was to have a plan. We looked to our friend to help us with that. We had an idea, which was drawn up on some paper, as to how we wanted the lay-out of the house. We gave these drawings to our friend, and within a couple of weeks he had contacted us back to come look at the plans. He had made some changes, and had some suggestions, but ultimately the decisions were ours. Some of his ideas were great, some did not coincide with what we wanted, and so we nixed them. Hind-sight is 20-20, and there were things that I wish I had changed or added. These items came up during the planning phase, yet I ignored them, somewhat afraid to speak, somewhat afraid to make changes. These were my first lessons in do it right the first time, and do not be afraid to say I don’t like that, as you can not take the roof off once the shingles are on.
Once the plans were in place, we made a trip to our local courthouse to apply for permits. We live in a small town, so the cost and details of this were minute. This is one of the first things that will be different for all home-builders. Our county was concerned very little with us as home-builders, but I can not imagine that all towns operate the same way, and for that matter some may be more laid back. I know for a fact that a neighboring county has no Building inspector, you apply for a permit and that’s that. Building permits have their good side and their bad side. They can cause headaches when all work must cease until the inspector can come out and inspect before work can move any further, but on the other hand you know that the standards for a safe building will be met when he comes to inspect.
Your next course of action will be to decide on your sub-contractors, or as they are usually called, “subs”. We found that the best way to find trust-worthy, hard-working subs is by word of mouth, and always trust your gut feeling. We learned many lessons on this path. If it appeared that a sub was taking too long, then he probably was and probably needed a little prodding to get to work. We also learned that if you are not satisfied with the work, then you will not be any more satisfied when the sheet rock is up, so you need to stick to your guns about construction being made right. About this time we started hearing the comments, “you will either end up divorced, or your marriage will be stronger”, anyone we told that we were building our own home had to add their rendition of this prophesy. So far, the latter has been true.
After we hired subs to excavate and pour the foundation, we found framers to come in and frame the house. We chose to have the house “dried-in” right away, so that we could stay inside and work on jobs when the weather was uncooperative. About this time they were putting our roof on, and so, here goes the roof story. When the plans were drawn up we wanted a steep roof pitch. It was one of those details that was really important, at least to me anyway. So when I walked out of the house just as they were putting the last layer of tar paper on, and saw that the pitch was far too low, You could hear me sucking the air in. In my ignorance I was talked out of this detail being corrected, at least for the moment, but as each row of shingles was placed on the roof, my regret grew. To this day, it is one of the biggest sources of contention for me and this house. I just try not to look at the roof when I am outside, and pretend that it is a high-pitched roof when I am inside.
After the house was “dried-in”, all work slowed down. Mainly because we arrived at the point where we took over. My husband is trained in electrical and plumbing, so those were his areas of expertise. I would be helping to pull wire and hang insulation. So we embarked on a long, slow road, as I continued to keep up my other obligations and my husband worked his full time job. At night we would work until we couldn’t stand anymore. The house slowly made it’s way to habitability. Once all of the tedious jobs were completed the dry wall experts would be called in, then we would move onto painting, fixtures, and so on.
We moved through the slow work, as fast as we could, but it still seemed to take so much time. Once the drywall was installed everything picked up again. Vanities, sinks, tubs to put in place. electrical fixtures to install, walls to paint and floors to install. At this point things seemed to come together much quicker, and before long we were moving furniture into bedrooms and personal items into cabinets. It was a long time coming, but the rewards were worth it.
Well, the house isn’t completely finished yet. There are no doors on any of the closets, one bathroom is still unfinished, but our marriage survived, as did our children. I do not know that everyone could take on what we did, but I think that it is doable if you have the right attitude. We have our regrets, but would do it all over again if given the chance. It was a learning experience that was worth the effort, so with that said, let me bid you, happy building!
