How to Survive Do-it-Yourself Home-Building

It started out as a suggestion, but quickly grew into full-blown house plans. The dream of building our own home, was heading towards a reality. With five children, and one more on the way, everyone we told of our plans looked at us like we were crazy, and maybe we were. Maybe we still are, but we've learned a lot and wouldn't trade any of it for a contractor-built home.

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.