Alright, alright … everyone has been begging for an update. I hear ya! So this post will serve as an overview of our experience building our own house so far.
First off, let me say, I couldn’t be more happy that we chose to build our own house, and not to hire someone else to do it. If anyone out there is sitting on the fence about this decision, let me tell you right now that YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE YOUR OWN GENERAL CONTRACTOR!
The benefits of building your own house:
It’s hard hard work, yes, but it’s also incredibly rewarding in a million ways. One of the biggest ways, of course, is to your wallet. Some of my other favorites so far are:
- Meeting new people and developing friendships
- Learning things you never would have if you weren’t building your own house
- An overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride in the work that you contribute to your own home
- Making little decisions in the moment that would have been left to someone else
- Watching the entire process and understanding what’s happening
- Getting to be the one who …. glued the floor, nailed the shingles, smoothed the cement, etc.
- Including your kids/family in the process
- Helping/encouraging other people who want to build their own house too
I have people ask me all the time how I am holding up, like this is the worst thing to ever happen to me or something. I just smile, because I know how truly awesome it is to get to be the one building my own house, and say “I absolutely love it.” And then I try not to, but usually end up rambling on and on about all these wonderful things I get to be a part of while they stare at me glossy eyed thinking how crazy I am….. and I am okay with that.
Regardless of how I feel about it, there are certainly some things that have been less than stellar. Like I said earlier, it’s hard hard work. Even if you don’t lift a hammer or a paintbrush, and all you do is the general contracting part of it, there are plenty of tough things to deal with. In fact, I would say the hammering and painting is the easy part because at least you have clear instructions on what to do. Dealing with people ….. now that’s a different story. Sometimes, I wish people came with instruction booklets.
Here are a few of the things that I would have liked to not have to deal with:
- Calling 15 companies and only getting 3 to return my calls
- Keeping all the dang paperwork organized (I have mountains)
- Having one person tell you something, and then calling back the next day and someone else saying nope they can’t do that
- Bad weather
- Hidden fees and charges
- People not showing up to work
Just remember, it’s all worth it in the end when you have saved $200,000. My dad joked with me a little while ago that general contractors don’t charge you money to build your house, they charge you money because they have to deal with all the people and companies. Well some days that statement feels more true than others. Some days I feel like I had to call 20 different people just to find that one perfect fit for me. Actually, most of the time it takes several days or weeks to find them.
So I would say, the hardest part about building your own house is having the patience to call and search through all the people you don’t want to work with, in order to find that one person that you do want to work with.
Thankfully, up until this point, I have been blessed to find a lot of really great and honest people to work on my house. I have had a blast getting to know all of these different people and have developed some real friendships. I would do it all over again in a heart beat.
Alright, now that you understand how I feel about it, and you are fully convinced to build your own dream home too, let’s have an update shall we??
How long it takes to build your own home- our timeline for a 4,000 square foot house
Farmer and I began actively planning our home in September 2015. In February 2016 we met with our first designer (we ended up using two different designers and were happy with both). At that time our goal start date was August 2016. We also started the paperwork for our building permits in February because I didn’t want to feel rushed with any of that. We broke ground on our home September 8, 2016.
In hindsight, our timeline was almost perfect. We had a lot of changed plans between February and September, including a few weeks where we had decided to hold off building for another year or two. If I had been moving forward that entire time, September to September would have been perfect. Because I took a month or two pause in the middle of it to reconsider, I felt a little rushed at the end when we were trying to get our permits complete, and start building early enough in the fall to have good weather. It all turned out fine though, and I am glad we started when we did.
Josh, the guy we hired to be in charge and to teach us what we didn’t know, said to look at this in three main parts.
- The foundation and floor
- The framing
- The roof
Each one of those things took several weeks, but when they were done it was incredible to know we had met the next milestone.
Originally we thought we would finish up the “first half” of the house around December 1, 2016. I call it the first half because I broke this build into two parts, with a planned break in the middle, so we could have some time to reassess where we were at financially, mentally, and any other important “ly’s”. So, up until the dried in stage is what I consider “the first half”. I will show you a picture in just a minute.
Everything in construction takes longer than you think it will, so gradually that end date got pushed back a few days at a time. Thankfully, we had really nice weather clear into November, so the timeline was not very concerning to me. Farmer and I really just wanted to have the roof on, and shingled, before bad weather hit. If we could meet that goal, we wouldn’t be worried about our house filling up with snow, and we would be able to work on things inside and protected from the storms.
Everything went smoothly until December. Just as our roofer was getting started, the winter storms hit hard. We had day after day of snow, freezing rain, wind, and sub zero temperatures. Our framers were able to finish up the last of the sheeting on the outside of the house in between snow storms, but it was much worse luck for the roofer. We put in the windows and doors in single digit temperatures just to get it all closed in.
The three weeks leading up to Christmas were miserable and full of frustration over the weather. If we could just have another 5 days of good weather, we would have finished the shingles and we would have met our goal of getting everything dried in enough for the winter weather. Farmer and I and the four kids were leaving to see my family for two weeks after Christmas, and the last thing I wanted to do was worry about the house the whole time. Not to mention, we had big (and secret) plans to camp out in our new house with the kids for Christmas. But that could only work if we had enough of it closed in to protect us from the weather.
Well … we got close. So close! But we didn’t quite hit it. On December 23, I told the roofer to go be with his family for Christmas. We had all but one corner of the roof shingled. But, it was good enough for me to still throw our Christmas surprise! We camped out all together in a big blanket heap in our “new house” on Christmas Eve.
Little Man (7) LOVED it, and said it was the best Christmas ever.
Sweetie Pie (5) also loved it, especially the part where she got to sleep in the same giant bed as her brothers and mom and dad.
Boss (2) liked the Christmas lights and thought the whole thing was really funny until he got cold.
Munch (1) crawled full speed in circles for at least half an hour pointing at everything.
Farmer and I …. well we loved it too. I can’t say I didn’t wish the fireplace was working, but it was definitely a Christmas I will never forget.
My wonderful and talented little sister in law came over to take some pictures of the house on Christmas. Here is what it looks like right now.
For the moment, we are taking a little break from working on the house because it’s still hovering around zero degrees. We do have a few more small things to finish up on the framing inside the house. We only have 2 out of 5 exterior doors put it. The rest are just boarded up to keep the snow out. And of course, there is the last corner of shingles we need to finish up. We also need to finish putting up the house wrap on the high gables. If we had good weather, all of that would probably take Farmer and I two weeks.
Because of the situation, the weather, the timing, etc… we are declaring this our half way point. We are taking a much needed break. We are looking at our finances and adjusting our budget according to what the actual cost of things has been. Farmer is getting some farm work done …. unfortunately he does have a real job he has to spend some time on occasionally, wink wink. But after 3 and a half months of building our own house, we are just barely shy of “dried in”.
There are a few things that have become glaringly obvious over the past four months that I wanted to pass along to you guys.
The first one is how beneficial it is to NOT be in a hurry. That is even more true if you are like me and have no idea what you are doing. You need to allow yourself the time to research and learn all that you can about each part of your home. You need to make phone calls to several companies. You need to compare things and consider pro’s and con’s to each situation. You need to find people that you can trust, and you need to be confident in your decisions. The more time you take to dedicate yourself to these things, the more money you will save, and the happier you will be with your decisions.
When I have rushed things or not had the time to research all of my options, I almost always find something later that I wish I would have done differently. I spend more money when it’s a last second purchase. I make bad decisions when I don’t have all of the information. I panic and stress out when I don’t understand something.
Do everything you can to provide yourself plenty of time. It will make an enormous difference for your home, your mental well being, and your relationships.
The second is that there are a lot of good people out there. If you look hard enough, you will find honest, hard working, and helpful people that really want to make your house building experience better. You DO NOT need to feel like you are alone. You are not building a house all by yourself.
I have had the pleasure to find several incredible people and companies that have done things for me that they didn’t NEED to do. I have had complete strangers do me favors. I have had secretaries sit on the phone with me for hours explaining things. I have had managers drive to nearby cities to pick up a part I needed asap. The list goes on and on.
Search until you find the perfect person/company for your situation. They are out there, you just have to find them. And don’t forget to check far away. Some of the people I have hired came from states away …. yes I said states! And maybe that perfect person is yourself. You won’t know until you have called every person you can find.
The last one is that it’s okay to do things differently than everyone else. Heck, you are already building your own house, why not throw a couple other things in there to confirm to all your neighbors how crazy you are.
I can’t tell you how many times someone has said “Really? You are doing it that way? Don’t you want to (fill in the blank)”. And at that point, I have to silence the people pleaser inside of me and remember that I have thought all of this through and I know what I want. It doesn’t matter if everyone thinks I am crazy for wanting hardwood everywhere, or if I should have pointed my house in a different direction, or if round looks better than square, or if I need two sinks in my bathroom.
This is YOUR house, do it the way YOU want to because YOU are the one who will be living with it.
Okay, is everyone still feeling good about this whole house building thing? Now you want to know the numbers, don’t you. Yes, I know, that’s what everyone wants to hear.
I get it! Budgeting for a house, especially one you are going to build yourself, is one of the hardest things I have ever done. How do you create a budget for something you know nothing about?
Well silly, I have an answer for you. You ask the Farmer’s Wife of course!
Our house is 3546 square feet on the main level.
We have a 400 square foot bonus room upstairs, built into the roof trusses.
We have a 754 square foot attached garage.
And we have 824 square feet of wrap-around covered deck.
That’s a grand total of 5524 square feet.
As of right now, we are just a few small things short of being “dried in”, and the rough in plumbing is almost complete. However, we do NOT have a well drilled just yet or a septic system put in. We have estimates for the two of those totaling around $17,000. So are you ready for the big number?? …… drum roll please …..
$138,088.07
That is the total amount we have spent on the house so far.
Remember that our house was estimated at $500,000 to have built. Our goal was to build this thing ourselves for $300,000. How do you think we are doing?
The things we have saved on so far have added up to a lot of dough.
$800 on house plans– We actually had two designers work on our blue prints. The first one took a trade for most of his payment. The second one dropped his price because I just needed some things finished up. Even with two designers, we were still more than $800 cheaper than the other guys I called to draw up custom plans.
$500 on septic system design– Shopping, shopping, shopping. One of the last guys I called ended up being $500 cheaper than the majority of my list. You should also be aware that he was $1000 cheaper than the most expensive designer. Yikes.
$3000 on wetland assessment– we had to have a specialist come out because there is water on our property. I was devastated to find out that is was going to cost me around $4000 for someone to come look at my property and decide if it was okay to build a house on. After making phone calls all day long, I expressed my despair to one of the secretaries. She then told me the name of someone I could call who wasn’t a certified scientist, but he could still do the assessment as long as it didn’t need further attention. The next day Mr. Dennis Beich showed up, did the assessment, and then went to bat for me so we didn’t have to file as a wetland. Relief doesn’t even begin to explain it.
$8,000 on excavation– We made a trade with a friend who did our excavation that ended up saving us $8000!
$500 on concrete forms– A friend of ours rented his out to us for half what it would cost us to rent them somewhere else.
$1,000 on concrete– this one was all about price shopping. The company we found was way cheaper than anyone else I could find. They also bent over backwards for me when I needed more concrete at the last second. Shout out to AAA in Moses Lake, WA and Poppoff Inc in Yakima.
$3,000 in framing lumber– I searched until I found the cheapest company. We bought most of our stuff through them. But I had a second company I compared prices with for most orders. When it was cheaper, I ordered from there. They both gave me free shipping on almost all of my orders.
$10,000 on labor– this is my best guess after gathering quotes from all around. The guys we hired were here from day 1 clear until putting in the windows and wrapping the house with plastic. They were cheaper than anyone I could find around here. We were lucky to find them at exactly the right time.
$1,500 on windows– the company I found was incredible. I actually had several other companies tell me that what I wanted for my windows couldn’t be done. Perfection Glass in Tri-cities, WA made it happen. Then when I discussed our budget with them and what we were trying to do, they actually worked with me on that. We saved $1,500.
$2,500 on roofing– I happened upon a good Samaritan while searching for roofing materials on craigslist. We got to talking, and I told him Farmer and I were going to roof our own house unless we found someone who would make it worth it for us to hire them. Everyone else was charging $4,000-$8,000 for the labor. He agreed to do it for significantly less, plus a discount on roofing supplies. Great guy!
$1,200 on plumbing– Our plumber knocked a huge chunk off our price because we agreed to provide the shower valves and tub and we let him plumb it on his own schedule. It wasn’t all done in 3 days, but we weren’t in a hurry and it saved a bunch of money.
$3,000 on roof trusses- We actually had a truss company lined up, but because of a scheduling conflict I looked into another company at the last minute. They were willing to give me a lower price to earn my business.
$700 on front door– Southern Front Doors was the cheapest I could find for the style that I wanted. And trust me on that one, I searched for two months! They even customized the paint job for me. Love those guys.
$1000 on tools– tools are spendy. Renting or borrowing from friends has saved us quite a chunk of change.
$1,200 on backfilling– That’s the number we were quoted to backfill around our foundation. Farmer did it in a few hours with the tractor.
Totaling $37,900
Okay so these are just the big ones. There are about a thousand other small ways or things we have saved money on.
I also want to bring up the general contracting fees as savings in my pocket. I know what 2 guys from around here charge as their “general contracting mark-up”, which is the fee to manage your job. One is 17% and the other is 22%, so let’s round that out to an easy 20% that I am saving by being my own general contractor.
That means that because we have spent $138,088.07 on our house so far, I have saved an additional $27,617.61 that would have been marked up as general contracting fees until this point.
$37,900 + $27,617.61 = $65,517.61
If you were wondering whether you would save enough being your own general contractor, you don’t need to wonder any more. These numbers are proof that we have already saved over $65,000 and we aren’t even half way done.
Okay, here is how I think we are doing.
I am super pleased with where we are at. I am not worried at this point about our $300,000 budget. I am not 100% positive that we can finish every detail for that price yet, but I am 100% positive that we can get it pretty darn close. In fact, right now I am really hoping that we can be in the house for around $215,000.
Now before you freak out, when I say “in the house” I mean that we can survive in it. I mean that we have 1 working bathroom, painted subfloors, and half a kitchen. You get what I am saying?
Farmer and I are absolutely planning on moving into the house while it is still being finished. I am actually really excited for that. I think it will be a fun new adventure, and I think the kids will feel like they are on vacation for a little while.
The really big budget items (with our budgeted amount) that we have coming in the near future are:
- Electrical- $15,000
- Hvac- $20,000
- Insulation- $9,000
- Drywall- $15,000
- Well- $9,000
- Septic- $7,000
Some of those numbers are pretty accurate and some of them are a bit of a guess at this point.
Now I know how important it is to all of you to have a detailed breakdown of the cost of things. Which is exactly why I created a new budget outline for you. I broke it down into sections, jobs, and labor and materials. Everything we have spent on our home so far is broken down into an easy to follow outline, so you can finally get a really good look at how much your home will cost when you build.
Ahhhh I am so excited for you! I know how encouraging it is to see what someone else spent on their home. Then you can go tell your husband or wife that you can do so much better than I did! Woohoo!
We should have a contest seriously. Who can save the most money building their own house? Yes, I love it! Beat me, please!
Okay sorry, I got distracted …. the FREE budget list is located on the checklists, schedules, and printables page.
If you don’t have your access code, never fear, just sign up here (yes, it’s free) and you will be on your way to a magnified look at my personal finances for the last 6 months, ugh.
If you are already a subscriber you can CLICK HERE to go check it out.
If you are new to the site, let me give you a quick rundown. I have tried to make it as easy to navigate as possible. I hate computers, so I assume everyone else does too. Everything is broken down into steps starting with, you guessed it, step 1: where to start when you want to build a house. Then you can follow the steps on through for a VERY detailed look at what Farmer and I (complete newbies to construction before all this) have done so far to save money and be our own general contractors. New information comes out about once a week, and you can always email me at farmerswife@farmhousefromscratch.com if you have any questions.
The checklists, schedules, and printables page that I talked about just a second ago, is for subscribers only. It’s completely free, I won’t sell your email address to anyone, I just need a way to contact you guys when I have something great to tell you like how to score free things on Amazon for your new house, or which company is giving 10% off on windows …. stuff like that which you will want to know. Just enter your email and you will get an message with instructions soon after on how to view the checklists, schedules, and printables.
Then finally, there is the videos and tutorials page. When you are building a house, videos truly are the answer. It is infinitely easier to understand something you can see from all angles on a video, with explaining and demonstration, rather than just text. The first video on the page, How to drive a tractor, shows you how simple it is to learn to operate some of that heavy equipment that looks so complicated. Can I let you in a little secret? My 7 year old learned how to drive the tractor last year …. It’s not hard guys. But it’s something that is nearly impossible to explain through typing.
If you were paying attention up above, it tells you that backfilling around our foundation was quoted at $1,200. All that means is pushing the dirt back up around your house… yep that’s it. Watch the video, learn how to drive a tractor with a bucket in 4 minutes, and save yourself $1,200!! Don’t know anyone with a tractor you can borrow? That’s okay. You can rent one for around $300 a day around here. You still save $900 all because you watched ONE of my videos.
If you are serious about saving the most money possible building your own house, you NEED to sign up for the videos and tutorials page. Each one of the videos I have created, and will create while we finish our house, shows you different ways that we have saved thousands on our home. You sign up once and gain access to every video I will ever create for this website. Without them, you are giving up a lot of opportunities to be a better owner builder.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the videos and tutorials page now.
I wish you the best of luck on your house building adventure, and I can’t wait to hear who saves more money than I do!!
~Farmer’s Wife
FREE checklists and schedules
Access to the resources I created that helped Farmer and I save over $75,000 building our own custom dream home.
Christina says
Thank you so much for all this information! I’m also a homeschooling mom so I know how valuable your time is and appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. My husband and are are about to embark on building our own house in a couple months. We live in West Richland so I appreciate the recommendation to go to Perfection Glass. If you have any other referrals that would be willing to go to the Tri Cities, I’d love it if you can share. Thank you!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
You are so welcome Christina!
It’s nice to meet people from my area. Perfection Glass was great, and I have a coupon from them coming soon for you guys. Many of the people I have used were from Tri-cities. I will do my best to get the “who should I hire” page updated with their information.
Stefani says
Thanks so much for this post! We have been struggling with the question to GC ourselves or not and then I saw the email for this post, maybe a sign? I’m wondering who you used for your framing materials? We are also in WA but on the west side and our bids are wayyyyyy higher, like 30k more. Thanks again for your insights!!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hi Stefani,
If it’s that big of a difference then it is absolutely worth paying the freight to ship things over to the west side! We used Ziggy’s in Moses Lake, but Marson and Marson lumber in Leavenworth was also reasonably priced. They were more willing to truck the materials long distances. Pro build was incredibly easy to work with and they are all over the place. I’d get quotes from this side of the mountain for all your supplies because I know most everything is way cheaper, even with extra shipping fees.
Stefani says
I will! You really don’t know how great of a resource this is. Thanks a million!
Carrie says
Omg I live on the west side. This is interesting, thanks for brining to my attention.
Amanda Zang says
Thank you for being so fearless and sharing your wisdom. I appreciate having you as a resource, and I will certainly share as we begin our journey (we will hopefully break ground in April or May of this year).
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thanks Amanda,
I can’t wait to hear about your build!
Tallia says
Hello! I love your site and all the information you are sharing with us! Thank you so much for taking so much time to give us updates and guides! I have a question for you…is it less expensive to build a bonus room into the trusses of the roof? How is that different than a normal bonus room (such as over the garage)? I am also wondering if there is a way to see your floor plan?
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hi Tallia,
We asked that question specifically to the truss company actually. The price difference of standard trusses vs trusses with the bonus room in was about $1,000. We decided that was absolutely worth it to be able to add an extra 400 square feet to our living space. Keep in mind that does not include the extra drywall, lighting, flooring, etc that we are putting up there.
The only difference between our bonus room and a “normal” one over the garage is just the location. The trusses on our home were taller than the ones on our garage so it was easier to fit a room in there. We had to raise the pitch of our roof from 5/12 to 6/12 to fit it. I don’t think it would have fit inside our garage trusses at all unless we made our pitch crazy high.
You can see my floor plan on the checklists, schedules, and printables page.
-Farmer’s Wife
Ashley Downing says
This is a great blog! While I don’t really need the tips or pointers, I just want to read about someone in a similar situation as us. We are on a much tighter budget, but I’m thankful that my husband does construction for a living so he can do 100% of the work (including HVAC, sewer, electrical and what not) without paying someone else. We purchased 6 acres in Nov 2015 and it’s a working progress. It will be a pole barn style home. We are currently continuing on the framing and are hoping to have concrete poured within a couple months (depending on weather).
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Wow, ya if you did 100% of the work, your savings goes up a ton! Nice job! I would love to hear what you saved when you are finished with the build. Good luck!
Laci says
Hi! We’re fellow build-it-yourself people. We were extremely fortunate to finish our house with over $90,000 in equity. We only contracted out roofing, siding, HVAC, cement work, framing, sheetrock, and spray foam insulation. It took us about 15 months from ground breaking to finish, but we moved in at 10 months. One of the ways we saved the most money was to purchase our cabinets off Craigslist. God blessed us with a painter who was given cabinets off an old job. We paid $3,000 for about $50,000 with of cabinets. We have them all through the the house. You just never know where you’re going to find a great deal. Good luck on getting your project completed and under budget!. It’s definitely worth it in the end.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Great suggestion Laci, thanks for the comment!
Kristina says
I’m so happy to have found your blog! We live in Washington as well, but north of Seattle. We’ve been saving for several years to either buy or build. I’d love to build debt free but it’s not possible for us considering the outrageous land prices here for an acre or so. Did you have the entire amount you needed saved from the beginning or a lump sum and then pay the rest as you go? And did you already own the land? I’m so excited to study everything you’ve written here!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hey Kristina, we waited until we had enough money to get into the house but not necessarily finish it. The finish work will be done over a longer period of time, as the money comes in. We did already own the land, but we had to get power, a well, and a septic system in addition to the house.
Bre says
I lived in Tri Cities doe 10 years, oh how i miss that sun. Anyways back to the westside where I grew up. Purchasing land now and hoping to GC the farmhouse of my dreams myself. Do you have a list of all your local suppliers? I have family in TC and it wouldn’t be crazy to use some of the suppliers from over their if not cheaper in my area.
Thank you. I also emails you a big thank you!!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Yes I do have a list of local suppliers that I liked 🙂 Send me an email and I will tell you all about them!
James R Thompson says
Very interesting article. I kind of wish I would have had the foresight to do something like this myself. The house we are in now is 1400 square feet, 3 bedroom and 2 bath with a 6 foot wide porch going around all four sides. No mansion, but I like it regardless. I hired out the concrete work, framing, septic and well. The metal roof, cedar siding, doors, windows, sheetrock work, texturing, plumbing, electrical, A/C work and interior appliances I did myself, with the help of my wife, and intermittent help from the kids. Took me 14 months, working weekends and holidays (I had a full time job) but after spending +/- $55,000, I had a house valued at $255,000 (what the taxing authority valued it at). Most satisfying feeling I’ve ever had!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thanks for sharing James! That’s an incredible amount saved. It’s a great motivation for the rest of us.
Val says
Hey Farmer’s Wife!
So, we have looked for approximately a year and half to purchase an existing home and haven’t found anything that we want to purchase. Started thinking about building a house ourselves. Did a search a few days ago and came across your journey! Soooo, now seriously thinking about building a house and being our own general contractors. Just like that – with encouragement from your site! We built our own log home, with a lot of help from my Dad, being our own general contractors in 1997…20 years ago. Should we do it again? You’ve got us wondering if maybe we should!?!?
Anyway, just wondering if the money you have spent so far included the cost of land? We are trying to determine if we can build a 2,200 sf ranch home with a day light basement for $200,000 plus $35,000 for lot plus $25,000 for well and septic for a grand total of $260,000. That’s $260,000 all inclusive – land, permits, concrete, framing, roof, plumbing, electrical, septic, well, flooring, cabinets, etc., etc, etc. What do you think? We would value any insight you have (and encouragement, too!)
Thank you!!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hey Val,
I will tell anyone and everyone that you should ABSOLUTELY be your own general contractor. I had high hopes for saving money, but so far we have met all of our goals even after making a couple rookie mistakes that cost us money. A year or two of organizing a house build is 100% worth $200,000 in saving to me! Is it to you? For some people that answer would be no, but for Farmer and I it was the difference in being able to build the house we wanted and needing to cut our house in half.
Just for a quick number overview for you …. Our house is 4,000 square feet with a 700 square foot attached garage and 700 square feet in covered porch. It was estimated at over $500,000 for the house alone.
We built on our own land- $0 Power lines to the house site- $3,000 Well- $11,000 Septic $9,000 Building permits- $4,000
We just moved into the house completely unfinished for about $225,000 and we expect to be able to finish it for under $300,000 total. The power, well, septic, and permits are INCLUDED in that total so if you subtract them, we should end up around $275,000 just for the house itself.
The savings is overwhelming to me. It makes me sick to my stomach that we almost hired someone to build it and would have had to come up with another $200,000.
Of course everyone’s situation is different and building your own house is not a great option for some people. But I haven’t regretted it for one second. In fact every day that passes I am even more grateful that we decided to do this with our little family. I absolutely think you can build that house for $260,000. You just have to be willing to shop hard and find the right people for the right price. They are out there, but it sometimes takes a lot of work to find them. You can do it!
I can’t wait to hear what you decide to do. Keep me updated!
Kristen says
Can I ask what it means to be your own contractor? Like just making decisions or do you need to know how to actually build a house and do the work? What is the difference between that and the people you hire for different jobs?
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Being your own general contractor means you do all the organizing and hiring. You do not have to do any of the actual building to be your own contractor and you still save 20% since you don’t hire a GC.
I had no experience with building when I started. I just learned as I went and asked a lot of questions.
You would be considered the “general contractor” and each of the people or companies you hire are considered “sub contractors”. For example, you would hire someone to excavate and pour your foundation. You would hire someone to then frame up your house. You would hire a roofer, an electrician, a plumber, and heating and cooling guy, etc.
you can save a lot of money just by organizing everything and everyone, and by hiring the subcontractors. You don’t need to do any of the actual building unless you are comfortable with that.