Building your own home?

[Marcella]

DH and I have been planning to put our townhouse on the market and buy a new (for us) home. We know that right now we could probably buy a house that we would be satisfied staying in for a few years. We don't think we could now afford buying a house that would be our "home" for many years to come, that we could grow into, etc. However, because we have totally outgrown our townhouse, it's not in a great area, etc.. we are very eager to get out of here in the not so distant future (I really don't want to stay here any longer than another year, TOPS!)

So, my DH suggested possibly building a house. Not building in a development, since we tend to not be a fan of the more modern, cookie-cutter kind of houses, but rather.. buying a plot of land, and then starting to build a house on the land ourselves (well, not me personally) ;) This is what DH's parents did years ago. They had a plot of land given to them, and then my FIL with several family members and contractors actually built the house, and they still live there 35 years later. My DH is VERY handy (worked construction all through college) and most of his family members have experience with construction, and they know people who build houses, etc.

On the one hand, it scares me to death than this project would take forever (since DH and his family members do work full time!) and that we'll end up being stuck in this house longer than we want to (not to mention we really need the equity in our house to buy or build another.. which is an issue we could probably work out), and that there will be problems, etc.

On the other hand, I like the idea of custom designing a house to our preferences, individualizing it, and DH swears we'll save a lot of money doing it this way. I don't know if that's true or not. Also, as DH points out, we could build a house that's large enough and finished enough to move into, but then eventually add on to it, etc (we'd be looking at buying at least 2 acres of land). So, there is part of me that really likes the idea of doing it this way.

I'm wondering if anyone here (or anyone you know) has ever done this. We've been looking at magazines of home designs, and I have to say.. some of them are incredible, very different from anything I've seen in "developments", and DH swears that some of these homes could be built for half the price of what you would pay to purchase them already built.

Any input, positive or negative? Thanks. :)

[Bobbie]

By sister and BIL are pretty far into their house construction. My BIL, Dan, currently works on a framing crew and he has built many homes for various builders. He's also handy in other ways. They negotiated a deal with a builder that not only got them a great discount on their lot, but the builder is letting Dan handle various parts of the construction himself. He and some buddies did the framing, painting, laying the tile, etc. etc. He's very involved with the subcontracting and is saving a ton of money, yet he hasn't taken on the huge undertaking of building the ENTIRE house. And as far as their loan officer is concerned, their home is being built by XXXXXX builder, so there are no issues from that standpoint. Maybe you could find a builder willing to work with you in similar manner?

[Carmen]

I have a good friend who did what you are talking about (sort of.) She and her husband bought 3 acres of land in Kingsville, just northeast of Baltimore, when they were first married. It took them almost two years of jumping through hoops to get all the approvals and everything for the road and the sewer pipes, but during that time, they paid of a huge chunk of the loan they took out for the land.

Then, after they had gotten all their permits, they started building. :D Her brother-in-law used to work for one of the big builders in that area, so they did select a cookie cutter house, but it's off by itself in the middle of the woods. It isn't like sub-division hell. :lol:

I found this link on UW last year, and have really enjoyed watching the progress as they build their dream house. Here are the plans and pictures of the construction along the way!

http://house.diederichwedding.com/

[Dennis]

I've never done anything like this, but I had a friend who built an addition by himself. The thing that amazed him by the time he was done was how long it took. It was just one room - about 30x25 or so - and I think it ended up taking him about 4 or 5 months.

Dennis

[Katez]

I don't really know alot about building houses, but I knew when my sister had hers built, it was really involved and took a long time. DH and I were out looking at houses today and the realtor we were with mentioned that buying land and then building a house takes on average about two years of planning and building, so that goes along with what Carmen posted. I think it takes a long time from start to finish.

Personally, we are at a point where we wouldn't want to invest that much time, but if you can wait, you probably would save $$. And just to share.....the last house I bought, we added an addition to and saved some of the money by sanding the drywall, painting and doing the finishing work around the windows and doors ourselves. Before we were even half way through, we were ready to kill each other (or at least I was ready to seriously hurt him! :lol: ) I swear I will never go through that again....it wasn't pleasant, and that was only one room. On the other hand if I had family who were willing to do it with my husband and I didn't have to do any of it, I might consider it.

[Marcella]

Thanks for the input everyone. We haven't decided which way we'll go with this.. but just to clarify, to save some time, we would likely build the house in "stages"... we'd build just enough for us to move into, and then continue to add additions to it when we had the money. There's no way I'd want to wait two years for the house to be in "liveable" condition. This was 35 years ago, but my ILs house (that they still live in) took a few months, but this was with a lot of help (which we would hopefully have as well).

Anyhow, hopefully we'll make a decision in the coming months!

[Rav77]

We moved in Nov. 03 into a house that we built in Pasadena, MD. I think the hardest part has been dealing with our builder (I complain about him all of the time). However if we can sub-divide our property we will be doing it all again. I love that we picked "almost" everything out in our house and everything is where we want it to be. I can give you the name if you would like of who not to use in Maryland :lol:.

We bought our property while we still owned our old house (we lived there until we moved) and only paid on the interest to our new house. If you would like more information I can give you the name of a great bank in the Catonsville area.

What area are you looking at buying land in ?? Good luck !

Jaimie

[Mrs.Greevy]

well, in the next two years my parents, my two brother's their families, my sister her family and myself will be building houses.

My father bought land and is giving us each 2 acreas to build (we are very very lucky and blessed) This next year my two brothers and my parents will be building their houses, and my sister and I will be building our houses next year.

it is very scary and exciting, but it is nice to know that this will be our last house.

I am very interested in hearing other peoples experiances.