If you've been following along for a while, you may have noticed that we have build our own home, 6 times now. Our current farmhouse being our 6th and last. I hope my sharing this process will help you learn how to build your own home too!
I hope this inspires you to go ahead with your dreams and build your own home. It is a step by step process and can take a whole year if you are doing a lot of the work yourself. But, it's so worth it economically and is so satisfying!
If you have any more questions or concerns, please leave them in the comments below! I always answer questions weekly;)
Our goal was to pay off our home by building in sweat equity to each home through our own labor then selling and rolling the profit into the next house. We did this 6 times, each time rolling all the profits to the next home. Each home we sold had a smaller and smaller mortgage till we built the 6th house free and clear.
Mortgage Loans
You may wonder how a bank would loan us money to build our own homes without being professional contractors.... Good question! Before we began this journey we have bought and sold 2 homes and had a nest egg. So our first DIY built house we needed under 100k to finish.
Our local credit union has been great to work with. They have a building department, and the manager of that department had built her own home to, and was familiar with the process. The local credit union too the unfinished house as collateral for the loan and lent us the money to finish at a very reasonable interest rate.
Finding Land
We always looked for the best deals on land, I've learned over the years that you make your money when you buy. So, buy low and sell high;) I also always looked for land to build on in the county (except for 1 lot). County building rules are much easier to deal with than cities, plus you get to drill your own well and not have to pay a water bill. You also get to put in a septic and not have to pay city sewer bills... Win, win in my book! It may cost a bit more up from to put in a well and a septic, but not having those bills each month makes it SO worth it!
Our fist lot was only $40k for 1.5 acres. Our second lot was even less at $19k for 1 acre, but it was all hill, and we built on top! Our third lot was only $35k for 1.5 acres but it was an odd triangle shape, and we made it work great. Our 4th lot was a house we helped our parents build in town and was 40k at the time, which was a great deal.
Our 5th house was listed at 75k for several years... I went and knocked on the owners door and offered them 40k, they countered at 50k and it was a deal... This lot was much closer to town in a great location. And our final 10 acre farm was offered to us by a friend at a fair price, and we couldn't refuse!
Drawing House Plans
Our first 2 home builds were from plans I found online. But after talking to framers and other contractors, I learned a few money savings tricks to build more square footage for less money! Those tips are, bonus trusses (framers don't charge as much for this and you have to buy trusses anyways), basements (you have to put a crawl space in in Idaho anyways so may as well go 4-5 more feet down), and building plans that work with materials...
Most sheeting for homes ate 4x8 feet. The most economical 2x4's are 8 feet long. When you draw or buy plans that use that are drawn using these same measurements, you have less material waist, an save money. I buy graph paper to draw my vision on and each square measures 2 feet by 2 feet. Then I take that drawing to a draftsman.
By our 3rd home build I had dreamed up the plans, and drawn them (keeping material measurements in mind) on graph paper. I took these plans to a contractor who drew them per county requirements for me, at a very little fee. (I paid him $500 to draw those plans, which saved us money already.) Later I used a local draftsman to draw the plans I've dreamed up and give them.
Buying Building Materials
We hired that same contractor to do the foundation, framing, roofing and siding on that house. We purchased the materials, because contactors are happy to buy materials for you, but they will mark up the price by their 10-15% fee. So if your building materials cost you say 100k, you pay an extra 10k-15k if your builder buys them for you.
You really don't have to know a whole lot about building materials when you start... The building supply stores and reps can answer almost all your questions (or your draftsman, county inspectors, and subcontractors will too)!
We have 3 local building supply businesses in our area: Home Depo, Ontario Building Supply, and Franklyn Building Supply. I took my house plans, made 10 copies of them. And made an appointment with a building rep at each of these building supply stores. I gave a copy of our plans to each rep. They measure out the walls, windows, stairs, doors, trim, drywall, insulation, roof trusses and sheeting... And they each gave me a detailed report of needed materials, and their costs.
I go line by line (and page by page) through each of these, make sure they are all bidding the same materials... (for example if you are using hardy siding, make sure they are all bidding the same siding, trim, doors, windows, floor joists and sheeting, etc. So you know you are comparing apples to apples.)
I have negotiated for lower prices by showing them their competitors prices on certain items. But for the most part, I just make sure that the lowest bid does in fact include all the materials that the other bids include, then I'll go with the best deal.
You can buy your time, doors and windows through your building supply company or through a specialized trim and window supplier.
You will also need to get cabinet bids. You can get these from your building supply provider, or from Home Depo or Lows. You will meet with a kitchen and bath designer to design your kitchen and bathroom cabinets and order them. The picture above is my kitchen design done by the Home Depo.
Hiring Out Subcontractors
As we act as our own general contractor, we don't have the skills or ability to do a lot of things including: excavating, well drilling, septic placement and hook ups, licensed trades like plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Plus framing, siding, drywall and roofing are such big jobs we just hire them out so the get done well and fast.
To hire these contractors, I talk to everyone I can in the building industry... Including the building supply store reps! Once you find one good honest contractor, he will be able to refer you to several more good honest contractors. For example, our last framing contractor was ready to go, but I didn't have the concrete guy picked out yet to poor our foundation, so I asked my framing contractor... He gave me his friends info who was a concrete contractor, and I used him.
We hire contractors for:
- Drafting Home Plans
- Excavation
- Well Drilling and Pump Installation
- Concrete - for the foundation, garage slabs and porches.
- Framers
- Siding
- Insulation: We are a professional insulator... It costs the same as buying insulation and doing it your self.
- Roofing
- Electrical - Including a temporary electric for building.
- Plumbing
- HVAC - Heating and cooling.
- Drywall, hang, tape and texture.
- Painters. We painted our first several homes ourselves, but hiring a painter makes such a wonderful difference! They do an awesome job, and it saves you SOOOO much work!
- Counters, if you want granite or quarts counters.
- Carpet. This ins not included with the other material bids.
After drywall is done and painted, we are done hiring out work, and we do the rest of the house. My husband, kids and I do the cabinets, trim, doors, and flooring. We did however hire out the fence, sprinklers and metal edging for landscape this last time;)
Building Site Prep
To get your land ready to build on you will need to do a few things: Get a temporary power pole set up and hooked up to electracy. You can do this with your electric contractor and the power company.
You will need to put in a rough road or driveway. Your excavator can help you do this.
You will need to get water to the build site. Several contractors will need water to do their jobs. So we always drill our well and put a temporary pump on it for contractors to use.
You will also need to rent a porta potty so that contractors can use the bathroom while they are working. In Idaho this is a law, and just common courtesy to your contractors... Treat them well and they will treat you well!
That's it for site prep! On to Excavation, then concrete, and framing!
Building Inspections
Your city or county will have a building permit that you purchase before you start. It costs a couple thousand dollars but pays for inspectors to inspect each step of the way to make sure your house is being built to safety code.
City or County inspectors will be called at the end of each contractors job and they will give you a pass or fail... To either fix something wrong (the contract will fix any problems with their work.) Or they give you a pass to move on to the next step!
My contractors always called the building inspector when they were done to get an inspection. I don't pay my contractors till their work passes inspection;) That's an important tip, if you pay contractors before passing inspection it may be hard to get them back very quick to fix it;)
Building Process Step-By-Step
- The first thing we do is get professional drawn house plans.
- Get building material bids, and contractor bids! Make sure you have finances all set before you move on.
- Buy the land.
- Fill out paperwork as the owner to get a building permit from our county. We have to get a perk test (dirt test) by our excavator for the building permit.
- Site Prep (see above)
- Excavation - then inspection.
- Concrete forms - then inspection, before concrete foundation pouring. They can also pour concrete for the porches or garage at the same time. Some prefer to come back later and do those tings. But you need to pour your garage floor before framing. Then the concrete will need to be inspected before you move on.
- Building Materials should be delivered to the build site for the framers to use.
- Now comes the fun part... Framing! This is so fun because now you can watch your house go up! My last framers built our house in 6 days... They had about 20 guys all working and were amazing. Plus no floor creeks... They were so good!
- Roofing & Siding - Framers will get everything ready for the roofers and siders to come cover up the houses bones. It's important to be on the roofers and siders schedules RIGHT after framers are done so your houses wood doesn't get rained on or wet. The weather really takes a toll on raw wood, so get it covered up by the roofer and siders ASAP.
- Rough Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC. These contractors are all licensed trades that each need to call in for their own inspection after they finish. States have specialized inspectors for these trades to make sure they are safe. These contractors will work around each other or you can schedule them around each other. Make sure they all pass inspections before you pay them for their "rough-in" work. The "finish" part of their jobs is done after paint and drywall.
- Insulation! Your insulators will need to get into the house and start their job after the utilities are finished. They do a seal up job before main insulation. this seal job will need to be inspected before they can do the main insulation. It has to do with fire safety. After all the insulation is done (except attic insulation, if you are using traditional insulation (spray foam is different). Blow in attic insulation is done after drywall is complete, because it sits on the drywall.
- Drywall!!! This is such a fin part of building, when you can see the rooms in your house really take shape! We always hire out drywall because it's such an overwhelmingly big job! Drywallers will hang, tape and texture your drywall.
- Hang doors and install trim! If you are putting in wood or tile floors , you will wait to install those baseboards till after the floors are in. But have the baseboards laid out on a tarp on a flat surface for the painters to paint;)
- Paint! This is another fun part... Hopefully by now you have chosen your paint colors! If you can afford it, I highly recommend hiring out to a professional painter. They will do all the caulking (which is a HUGE and tedious job) and do a beautiful job painting your home.
- Cabinets! Time to place your kitchen, bath and laundry room cabinets! My husband did finish carpentry when he was 23 for a year, and so he learned how to do this... BUT it's not hard. You will set your cabinets and level them, making sure they are in the right spot before attaching them to the walls and floor with screws.
- Counter Tops - We hire this out to the local granite/courts shop. They will come measure your counters and make sure that the counters fit perfectly, and they do the installation too!
- Finish well pump, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. Your electrician will come hack now to install all the finishes like light switches, and lights at this time. Your plumbers will come now to install the faucets and water heaters, etc. Your HVAC will come now to place vent covers, and make sure everything is working right. They will all need to get inspected before you pay them the finish fee, which was part of your original bid.
- Flooring: We like to install wood floors and tile in all the wet areas. We do all our floors except carpets, then have LOWS come and install carpet (usually in the bedrooms).
- Cleaning. Your home will be so dirty by this point from construction dust. Most people like to hire this out to a professional. It's a lot of work but we do it ourselves.
- Final inspection for your occupancy permit!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!