May 06, 2005

• I'm doing that right now. You'll invariably find yourself needing help, and you'll get to find out who your real friends are. The biggest piece of advice I have is that you WILL want a nail gun if you plan to do wood frame construction. Go ahead and budget it in. Also try to plan your time budget so that you don't feel rushed.. it makes a lot of difference. A little rain on the framing is not a big deal.
• rolypolyman - I don't suppose you are doing a blog about it? Know of anyone that is? Anytime you care to send an email - creamcitian@yahoo.com - I would really enjoy to hear any of your stories/experiences. Thanks for the response.
• You will want professionals for part of it, I can assure you. At the very least, have professionals lay the foundation and then you can start doing the framing. If there's one thing that you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO GET FUCKED UP, it is the foundation, and I wouldn't trust even the handiest guy I know to handle that part.
• middleclasstool - i figured i would need someone for that, digging the hole and laying the foundation properly - but thanks for verifying that. rolypoly - followed your link and found your weblog. Weird, today I was taking a break from work outside and saw some bees going from flower to flower and was thinking how great it would be to have a hive, and then i read your weblog.
• Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual & if Metafilter ever goes back online check out the userpage of willpie. He recently asked a question about buying a house and someone linked to a good blog about building a house. Also check garage sales for tools. Good luck. *back aches at just the memory of laying sheetrock*
• mlis - gracias!
• Maybe consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity for a while. That will give you some valuable and relevant experience. And if it turns out you just hate doing construction, better to find out in a situation where you can quit if necessary.
• Neither of us are handy ... [we can do it if we] find the right books to help. Um... seriously, this isn't a troll? You've got to be kidding, right??
• Our local college offers classes on all aspects of construction including basic framing, electrical work, and plumbing. I have taken a few classes and I loved them. Check to see if there is a construction certification program at a college near you. You might want to see if a similar genre of classes is offered via community education. I completely agree with the Habitat for Humanity volunteering.
• I second all the advice others have given, but I would say you are asking for a lot of trouble. I just got done building an addition that doubled the size of my home. I bought the home from the guy who built it, and he did the heavy lifting on the addition. If you're not handy, you're talking about more than doubling the time it's going to take you. There are miles of distance between those housing plans and where the hammer meets the nail. If you really must, I would do a couple of things: build small, as small as you can feel comfortable with. I would also find professional help whenever and wherever you can get it. Someone recommended to me looking for people with building skills who are working off a debt to society through a local church. I would also go to a temp agency.
• You might want to consider making a house that doesn't look like ordinary houses. Also, and this is important: who designs it? You could find an architect willing to design you an easy-to-make house. They can do that shit.
• Don't overlook the pre-fab kits available now, or the 'alternative construction' options. Pre-fab has a bad rep, but there's been a lot of work in the last few years in developing kits that are both cost effective and designer-award worthy. It's a hot area in schools of architecture - crossing good design with energy conservation to maximum effect. There are also ways of building a house other than wood-frame, and some of them lend themselves to do-it-yourself. Straw-bale, for example, is something I've been keeping my eye on - a user friendly construction curve, but also amazingly impressive durability and insulation qualities. Not to say either will eliminate the need for professional help at some point, but it might change the demands on your skills to something you're more comfortable with.
• Straw-bale is awesome!! What my suggestion would be is to buy a fixer-upper and get yourself trained in the small stuff first, rather than start big. Plus, you might be able to make yourself a nice profit if you sell and do it again until you feel like you know a little sumpin' about sumpin'. That way, you won't get taken to the cleaners because of your naivete when you start building your home. Just my $0.02.
• Two things: i)middleclasstool is right, and not just because you want certain things like the foundation (also *wiring and *furnace*) done right, but because you can SUE them if things go wrong. Seriously. ii) you didn't mention any such inclination, but I thought I'd throw my $.02 in for straw bale construction. It means cheap, durable building materials -- often people are able to customize a house with the same money as a prefab house out of standard building materials, and they're the perfect start to an environmentally friendly dwelling, too. (yes, you can be a lawyer with a conscience)
• Whoah -- that's what happens when I wait too long after previewing! Love the straw-bale support in this thread!
• Creamy, I don't want to be the wet blanket here, but this gives me pause: Neither of us are handy and find the right books to help. This is a *house* you're talking about, not one of those multilevel planters for the front yard. Building a house is not only incredibly complicated and requires experienced builders with skills that take years to acquire, they are subject to inspection and approval from local authorities AND they typically represent a family's single largest financial expenditure. Do not make the mistake of assuming that the desire to do something can translate into the ability to do it. Example: I consider myself, having been a homeowner for the past 15 years or so, to be at least partially competent around the house. I decided a couple weeks ago to install crown molding in my dining room, and I'm not ashamed to admit that, despite having the right tools and plenty of desire, this task proved to be beyond my carpentry skills - WELL beyond. After completely destroying the second 10 foot length of molding, I (once again) realized that just because a task is typically performed by guys who do not always command huge salaries? Doesn't make it *easy*, or book-learnable. I don't do my own surgery, I don't represent myself in court, and I don't do my own finish carpentry - because I can't. Be sure you can, Creamy, is all I'm saying, else you're in for world of expense coupled with disappointment.
• I don't have much hands on advice to offer, but I can say that my parents did about 60-70% of the work on the 3000 sqr ft house I lived in from 6-13 so I know it can be done. The caveat, Dad was an engineering school dropout. The had pros pour the foundation, install the major plumbing and furnace and the majority of the framing work. It was a good 3 years of their life when that was all they did. Every night, after work. All weekend, every weekend. We moved in while much of it was still incomplete. I was 7 so it was not particularly inconvenient for me, but I don't know that I'd be all that excited about doing the same thing as an adult. There were still loose end that never got done until they had to prep it to sell. They spent a lot of money on quality that didn't translate into higher resale value when it came time to move - stuff like all oak trim, custom windows, etc. I'd 2nd the advice to buy a nail gun and follow up with buy a good quality table saw and learn to love Home Depot/Menards/Lowes because you will spend at least as much time there as you do actually working on site. Having spent a fair amount of time retrofitting on the money pit I bought 5.5 years ago, I'd say, if you don't love handyman projects, RUN! Run while you stilll can. I had no prior experience, and have managed to * completely remodel 2 bathrooms * replace 6 windows * install approximately 15 new electical fixtures * hang 2 new outside doors * rip down lathe & plaster, rewire, drywall and repaint in 3 rooms * replace 1 kitchen faucet, 1 bathroom faucet * retile a kitchen * replace a water heater * repaint 11 rooms * arrest the settling problem in the SW corner * + misc tuckpointing, concrete repair & assorted other plumbing nightmares I hated doing most all of it, my results have been mixed and I haven't gained significant additional resale value, though the lot itself has done well due to the RE bubble.
• rolypoly man, you think the shit's going to ht the fan that hard huh? Damn, I guess it's putting your money where your mouth is.
• I think the problem is two part, 1) can you take several months off from work? what bank is going to finance you?, 2) can you learn to build from a book? I support myself doing various sorts of carpentry and construction and most of what I know I learned from books or by experimentation. More than once i've gotten a job and then immediately went to the nearest bookstore to figure out how to do it. So it's certainly possible, however, learning how to build things from a book is a skill unto itself. And at this point you aren't even sure you are handy. Modern stick built houses are designed for the construction trades not someone like yourself, Timberframe houses require considerably more skill and experience. You might look into cob, abode or strawbale. To varying degrees those methods require less skilled labor. also you didn't say how big of a house you were thinking of building. 400 sq feet is alot different than 1200 sq feet. I would do a google search on cob and staw bale, not because I think you should build a house that way, but rather because alot of those homes are built by people starting out where you are now. So you can get an idea of what is involved. good luck
• I use to be a builder, way way back, and can assure you that this will a) save a lot of money if you do it right and b) will be a pain in the arse beyond anything you have ever experienced. Have you thought about building an unusual house, ie, one made out of the surprisingly efficient and strong bales of hay? This is not a joke, such houses do exist and are very good. Or perhaps a geodesic dome? Neither of these designs require the same sort of help that a normal timber-brick frame building does, except in the former case where you still have to build the roof as per normal. Anyway, good luck.
• The bale of hay house, I might add, is sealed and given a foundation as normal. You wire the bales together around steel posts, then seal them, render & plaster. No need for insulation evar.
• Fuck hay, build it outta sticks. That big bad wolf guy lives miles away, don't even worry about it. oink.
• Shuttup foo, those hay houses be de fuckin wave o de futum.
• i love monkeyfilter! Some excellent responses. My one concern about straw bale is the basement seems to be much harder to construct. Excellent ideas about planning and taking courses/volunteering. And thanks for all the warnings, too. It is one thing to expect it to be a lot of work, and quite another to experience the "lot of work".
• What fes said. I'm not entirely sure you realize what you're getting into. As a homeowner myself, watching professionals do their thing has made me deeply respectful of the knowledge, skill, and experience I don't possess, and which you can't get by paging through a book (and I speak as one who thinks books are the greatest thing around). You could find yourselves in a big hole, financially and literally, and wonder what you thought you were doing. It is one thing to expect it to be a lot of work, and quite another to experience the "lot of work". This isn't just a matter of "a lot of work." It's a matter of getting everything right. Screw up the wiring and you're in for a world of trouble.
• They will be required to hire a licensed electrician to do the wiring, I should imagine. As with, I think, plumbing, you need to get pros to do it to pass safety code or whatever it is called in this particular locality. Electrical wiring I'd say is pretty much universally controlled by strict regulations as to who is qualified to string it. There are always regulations of some sort; I'm sure that it is not much different in the US than it is in Blighty or Oz when you have to build a dwelling. The actual structural construction process - that is apparently acceptable to be done by harnassed dogs, the Irish, or any other suitable sentient or goadable worker including monkeys. If you are happy that your monkeys can lay a straight course of bricks and mix mud, then off ye go. I will add, that much of building can be a lot of fun, as long as you are not working for the man and can do it your way.
• I don't think the US requires a professional to do the wiring or plumbing, but everything must be given an official inspection along the way to be sure it's up to code.
• That may vary from state to state or town to town, however.
• wow. just... wow. and good luck.
• I would suggest 1) I second the volenteer for Habitat for Humanity suggestion. Do that for a while to get the hang of things. 2) Have builders put up the basic shell of the house. Finishing the house and putting up interior walls and finish work will be more than enough work for anyone. My parents bought an old house 32 years ago and my dad (and I once I was old enough and then not me once I was old enough to move out!) did most of the work and he just finished the last room this winter. Let a professional do the structural stuff. There is more than enough satisfaction to be found from putting up drywall and laying floors and picking out fixtures.
• the middleclasstool is correct. In NJ, for example, even the most basic wiring (replacing an outlet) by law must be done by a licensed electrician.
• A real house? Or a unibomber-style house? I am very handy, and there's no fucking way I would attempt to build a real house, no matter what, under any circumstances. If you want to break up with your fiance, there are much cheaper and easier ways to accomplish that.
• Unless you really feel your time is worth very little, I advise against the Menards' thing. Sure, it costs less. How much less? Maybe $100k less. Okay. But you could easily be looking at using 2 years' worth of free time to do this. Two YEARS. If someone offered you that much time, right now...how much would you pay for it? My advice: wait out the housing bubble and pick up something cheap a few years from now. So many people will be upside down in 3 years and so many foreclosures will be happening that there will be some sweet deals at auctions. And even if you have to go to 20 auctions to win one that you like, or 50, it would STILL TAKE LESS TIME AND HASSLE AND MONEY than what you are considering.
• If you still feel that you just gotta go through with this, here's what a couple we know did. They wanted to build their own house. Nothing complicated: a box with a roof. No basement, no garage. She knew a little bit about building houses. He knew nothing. They did, however, hire a pro carpenter to work with them. He showed them what to do and how to do it. They were basically the labor. It still took years and it was difficult to get the things they hired out done on time. For example, they couldn't get the foundation guys to show up. It's more profitable for foundation layers to do several jobs at once, like in a subdivision. Because our buddies just wanted a single foundation, the company kept blowing them off because, basically, a single job just wasn't worth doing. Multiply that by your electrician and your plumber and whoever else you need, and it gets real frustrating, real quick. But good luck! Natural Home magazine has some good articles on straw-bale construction and building very small homes.
• Also check out Dwell magazine for some really great 'pre-fab' housing ideas!
• the only thing about the whole housing-bubble thing is - i'm not sure there is one. sure, housing prices are skyrocketing and all, but ppeople have been talking about the bubble bursting for years now, and nada - not a thing has happened...
• Having just built ~150 square foot multi-level deck and a 1000 gallon koi pond, I can tell you that any project that takes more than a weekend or two to accomplish can put a lot of stress on a relationship. Working so hard and constantly with other people during precious 'non-work' time requires immense amounts of trust, patience, communication, and beer.
• mmmmmmmmmm beer
• creamy: the reason the bubble has maintained is twofold. 1) interest rates staying stable and low. This is coming to an end very shortly, and you can see the rates drying up 2) financing has been extended to people for interest-only mortgages, which now comprise 15% of total mortgages and much more in some areas. These are motherfucking dangerous and will lead to problems like mad in a few years.
• The line of credit mortgages are also dangerous, because it is so easy to access the money you've been paying off. Want a hot tub? Maybe a greenhouse? New roof? Just hit the line of credit (and up the rate you need to pay later on)
• Well, check this: Green living recipes of a sort. For: adobe, cob, rammed earth, cast earth, strawbale, cordwood, lightweight concrete, etc.
• I actually am pretty handy and my wife and I plan on doing this ourselves--when we retire. Building a house will be a full-time job for two people. And in most areas you will have to work at a certain pace, to seal the place up before is is exposed to too much weather, to keep your tools and materials secure from theft or vandalism, and for insurance purposes. As a half-way measure, how about buying the land and building one of those garages with a small apartment? This could give you practice with less at stake, and a place to live to while you construct the house later on. Or a place to live while you watch someone else construct the house! Finally, check out my friend Ana Maria's book ( http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/m-n/NowGoHome.html ) which has a nice, unromantic essay on how she an her partner built a home from one of those log cabin kits.