Maybe
it's HARD WIRED INTO OUR GENES. .
At a
certain stage in your life YOU JUST GOTTA BUILD!
— For some people it's even a reoccurring affliction!
It's
SCARY though because building a house is complex. These days we can't
just kick a bear out of the cave or tie a bundle of sticks together and
call it home. Modern life involves some pretty complicated things like
electricity running though wires, hot and cold pressurized water and
sewer lines we want to make sure run downhill. It is all too easy to
make expensive (and sometimes dangerous) mistakes and almost nobody is
master of ALL the skills necessary to build a modern house.
Does
that mean you have to leave it to "the experts"? Not if you build a
simple small house or cabin. The framing of a small rectangular house
is something almost everyone can do. Building a simple post and beam
foundation will not tax your skills. Most people get a great deal of
satisfaction and confidence from starting small with the building of a
small simple home. What you do beyond that — whether you do your own
plumbing and wiring, insulation, interior finish, or go on to build a
larger house — these will depend on your interest, time and skills.
Whatever
jobs you do in constructing the house, the place where you will save
the most money and make the greatest difference is in the planning and
design phase of the project.
Early
design projects:
- Picking the building site
- Determining how light will fall on the house and
which rooms face which direction
- Planning the roads and driveways and how you
approach the house
- Clearing and preparing the land (usually means
hiring dozer time)
- Determining water, power, phone and septic
systems
- Planning the house shape and layout and
preparing construction plans
- Finding a builder or local building expert and
determining a working relationship.
No
matter what construction tasks you plan to take on yourself, there are
some that are best not attempted by the typical owner-builder. These
include:
- Large concrete pours - they are critical,
unforgiving and involve some non-intuitive tricks
- Drywall - hanging is best done by a burly 20
year old; finishing is much harder than it looks. Use a different
interior finish (such as wood boards or drywall put up with battens
over the joints) if you want to do this task yourself.
John C. Raabe
Country Plans LLC
5010 South Inglewood Dr.
Langley, WA 98260