Back in 1995, I built my first home without the help of any contractors. I didn't do it to prove anything at all, I just wanted my family to have a nice place to live without the high mortgage payments. I paid cash for all of the materials that I could. Most of the time, I used credit cards.
I began the foundation and dug it out with a shovel. Then I built the cement forms and poured the cement. After the foundation, I started the first floor by putting on the floor joists then covering them with plywood. Then I built the walls that included the window and door openings.
I also did most of the electrical and plumbing systems while the walls were open and exposed. I built the stairs and started the second floor. Soon I built the roof and enclosed the whole house to keep rain and snow out. I put metal on the roof and installed all the doors and windows.
I then built all the interior walls and finished the electrical wiring and the rough-in plumbing so I could have it inspected before the sheetrock walls were put on. After the first inspections passed, I closed in all the walls with drywall.
I also sided the outside of the house with vinyl siding and trim. It looked great. I built kitchen cabinets and started all of the interior finish work. I then installed all the appliances and electrical systems.
I passed my second inspections with the building inspector, electrical inspector, and the plumbing inspector.
I had all the flooring and carpeting put in. Once my house was finished, I had one final inspection to obtain an occupancy permit. After that we moved in to our home. We consolidated all of our credit card debt into one home mortgage with low interest. We had a lot of equity in our home from my hard-earned labor.
My cost of materials was around ,000. The final appraised price of my home was 0,000 when we moved in.
It was then that I realised how much the cost of labor is and why modern homes are so expensive to buy. The price of contracted labor has increased so much over the last two decades that people making average to good incomes can't even afford average homes.
Banks have had to get really creative and take a lot of chances so people could have homes. Wages haven't kept pace at all with the inflation of homes or anything else and that's the biggest reason why we are in the financial crisis.
http://www.make-my-own-house.com
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