Originally Posted by jwalker77
Reading over yall responding to PRB for overseeing his home build, yall must think im a lunitic for planning on building my own and not borrowing money. Granted, itll not be a $350k home. But, dang, when did America make the full switch to the country who does nothing for theirself? It wasnt too many generations ago everyone built their own home, or family and community did. Our country has really gone to crap. Independance is dead. Everybody preaches about self dependance and all that, but where is it? We would rather overpay for somethingbinferior than have to do a little work for a better product. Crazy world wr re e living in today.


It’s funny you bring this up. I agree completely. Zbrann should probably hear this as it’ll give you a glimpse of what GC’ing entails.

I waited till I was 52 years old before we decided to build our own home. I knew going in that it was going to consume every spare, waking minute I wasn’t at my paying job. I am fortunate to come from a construction minded family so I had a lot of experience to lean on. If you’re thinking of doing it yourself here’s some tips. Be 100% prepared to go before you ever break ground. A bank will require it so here’s an overview. You’ll need everything from the land to build on, perk test if necessary, permits, city/county driveway connection approval, a driveway built, utility pole installed and operational, water set, drawings complete, a framer hired to give you a lumber list, pick out your windows, doors, garage doors, shingles, exterior finishes, appliances and bathtubs. Now start hiring and pricing all your subs, block/brick man, concrete guy, plumbing, framer(already hired), electrical, hvac, vinyl/gutter guy, gas, window/door setter, insulation, sheetrock, painters, flooring, cabinets, countertops, trim/doors/finishes, stair guy if necessary plus you’ll need to pick out and purchase all light and faucet fixtures, flooring coverings, colors, cabinets, tiles, and anything else you want. You’ll also have to deal with city officials, utility folks and such as it arises if necessary. I probably left some stuff out but you get the idea. If you are not completely prepared it will overwhelm you quickly and greatly slow down progress. We unfortunately built at the height of the lumber price craze and slow suppliers. I had our windows, doors, garage doors, brick and such ordered before we ever broke ground and fortunately things arrived as needed.

I done everything on our home from cutting down my house pad down 3 to 4ft and building it back up 6 to 7ft, plus driveway, to all my trades minus gas, set my windows and doors, built my cabinets, laid all flooring, painted, all trim work including coffered ceilings, built our staircase and such, plus all kinds of nicknack stuff. I also got my own subs and ordered every single thing we used to build our home. My framer gave me a lumber list and I took off from there. I won’t lie, it was quite an undertaking and we worked our tails off but I couldn’t be more prouder of what we accomplished. Would I do it again? Absolutely NOT! Lol.