Building Your Own Home (Advice for an Idiot)
My wife and I want to build a 2-story 1400 sq. foot home in beautiful (and heavily regulated) Santa Cruz, CA. And when I say build, I mean we’d be doing the labor ourselves (barring foundation, electric, drywall and maybe plumbing). Due to a lack of experience, we’re aiming to keep this build as simple as possible: essentially a large box with a walkable roof on a stem wall foundation.
After reading a handful of books from Taunton Press; JLC and Black + Decker; watching numerous videos on YouTube and FHB; following Ian Schwandt’s home build; consulting with the building department; and working with Habitat for Humanity… we’ve convinced ourselves that this is doable, and perhaps even a smart idea given the outrageous costs of buying a home in this town.
What are we missing? We’re looking for advice of any kind (practical, anecdotal, cold-hearted, or blindingly optimistic, etc.). Ideally from people who have done this themselves.
Other details that may be useful:
• We’d like to complete the build in 12 months from breaking ground
• We have zero family in the area, but we do have an group of unskilled friends who think we’re crazy
• At some point while building, we might have a kid
• I might have the luxury of taking time off for many months
Thanks for reading.
Replies
I'll give you my perspective as a weekend warrior also trying to build an ADU in my yard all by myself.
1. Anything you do will take 5 times longer than you think
2. You will not really save money by doing it yourself (tools and time are expensive)
3. Buy materials from a real lumberyard and make friends with them
4. Get on a first name basis with your local code officer
6. there is a reason architects and engineers exist and charge for their services
My primary motivator for doing it myself is the fact that all the tradesmen in my area are busy helping the 1% build waterfront palaces, and my pissant project isn't worth their time. A secondary motivator is, you know, mid life crisis.
Ha! I'm sure there's some sort of undiagnosed midlife crisis fueling my dream as well. Ignorance is bliss for me I suppose.
I just checked your profile. Are you in Camden?? I grew up there and still have family in the area. The age old saying still stands: if you live there you either have three homes or three jobs.
When you say things take longer than you think, are there any phases of building that have been particularly challenging?
Yeah I’m in Camden, conveniently right around the corner from Rankins and Hammond Lumber. We relocated to Maine in 2018. I love it.
For the time thing, you have to account for your personal learning curve (aka incompetence). I have some construction experience, but it still takes forever to do most tasks. Lots of mistakes are made. It’s like anything else, without practice you just can’t expect good results on the first or even second try.
On top of that, just finding a span of time to focus is a challenge when your aren’t full time engaged. I’ve got two kids and a FT job, so… yeah.
I am lucky that I have family in the trades and can tap them for advice.
For me personally, I take immense satisfaction in doing things myself and that’s my primary motivator.
I’ve had a few bad experiences with GCs, but the flip side is that a good sub probably won’t pick up a one-off project for a homeowner if it conflicts with their steady work for a builder. So being your own GC can get iffy.
My ADU project is still in the drawing phase but I am in the midst of a remodel on our house. This appears to be a rite of passage up here in Maine, everyone I know bought an old house and spent their first few years of ownership fixing it up.
One detail I’ll throw out there… you can avoid a ton of foundation headaches if you opt for helical piers. This might not fit your needs, but it is fast and involves no concrete. It’s that way I’m going on my building, we already installed a deck on the house using them.
Thanks Tim. Good luck with the ADU.
Might want to consider Prefab or SUP panels. There is still plenty of work to do.
I did something similar myself a couple of years ago, along with the baby a few months before we broke ground. I hired help with the framing, roofing, concrete, brick, drywall, insulation, and grading/sod. Did the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, flooring, cabinets, trim, doors, and windows myself. ~3000 sqft, 3 full baths, 2 half-baths, took me just over 15 months while working full time and I lost 25 pounds.
The biggest lesson I learned is to ask a lot of questions and get very specific quotes when hiring out work. One example was with the foundation. We did ICF's and the quote included forming/pouring the spread footings and waterproofing. Except the quote didn't include the strip footings for the garage and porch, because the ICF guy didn't do those. I assumed when he quoted the footings it was for all of them. My mistake for not verifying, not too costly but slowed down the process.
The second is to plan as much ahead of time as you can. There are companies that design HVAC and plumbing systems for reasonable prices, even having a rough idea of where things should go can save a lot of time, and everything else has to work around these systems.
Things that took longer than I'd like were mostly on the exterior, air barrier and roof. I sprayed on a liquid WRB and used 2" of polyiso board with taped seams. If I did it over I think I'd use the insulated ZIP panels, it's expensive but would save a ton of time and the roof can be water tight as fast as you set/tape the sheathing. Instead of gables I would do a hip roof at a lower pitch, max of 8/12. We did a 10/12 it was tough to walk, and required purlins and piggyback trusses for the peak. Walking those wasn’t a whole lot of fun.
I had the wall panels pre-framed by the lumber co. If you go that route get the panels from a lumber company that does it in-house. Ours were built by the truss company and the quality of work wasn’t great. If budget allows I’d get engineered lumber for any tile or cabinet area walls, and pay extra attention to plumbing/squaring those walls. Just makes it that much easier to get a nice finish at the end when you will be in a hurry.
It was a lot of work but I’d do it again given the chance. I’d say go for it and good luck.
Encouraging! That's a lot of of work in a relatively short span of time.
"there is a reason architects and engineers exist and charge for their services"
There is also a reason good General Contractors charge for their services.
Ted, best of luck with your project.
Touché
Ted-
Send me a personal email and I'll send you some helpful check lists.
“[Deleted]”
Things to think about.
Financing. (while you build and live elsewhere)
Codes inspection. Engage the local building zoning and codes department and understand how finished the job has to be before they will let you move in and stop paying for two places.
I built my own 2000 sq.ft. house (moved in April 2021), I only subbed out the drywall, insulation, electrical, and heating. Everything else, from drawing the plans, excavating, foundation, framing, plumbing, siding, roofing, trim, etc. I did almost completely solo. My neighbor and his dad gave me a hand pouring concrete, installing the windows, and getting the longest metal roofing panels (40 ft.) up to the second story rooftop. So about 12 hours of extra labor. It took me 18 months working 7 days a week and cost about 300K, that includes the 1300 sq.ft. shop. I'm also 70 years old and it's not my first house.
That is awesome. Cheers.
Thanks! Some days were more fun than others. I bought a Kubota tractor with a backhoe and forklift attachment plus rented equipment when necessary.
That's truly impressive! Thanks for sharing the photo too.
Any tips on lifting walls as a solo builder? Did you use jacks? Heavy equipment?
I used wall jacks, pretty easy for one person to lift 30 feet or so of wall. This picture is the house behind the one I started in 2020. I converted an abandoned shop project into a Carriage House and lived in it while I built a small house on an existing foundation that had been sitting unused since 1998. Then we lived in that house while I built our present house next door. Worked pretty slick.
I did it and if I can do it anyone can. My son and I just completed our first house. Only 500 sf but don’t let the small size fool you…still took 10 months, a boatload of money and lots of help. We had an architect draw the plans so we would have detailed drawings and could ask lots of questions of them. We helped my nephew get his license during the build and he was a huge help (secret weapon #1) on everything after the foundation. A friend is a seasoned builder and agreed to ‘consult’ on the build (secret weapon #2). He would spend an hour or so with us every Monday morning pointing out mistakes, planning, applying needed encouragement plus tool lending and more. It was a huge but fun undertaking and we are all proud of the result. Most importantly, no one got hurt, my son still loves me and, thanks to buying a small drone we have a lifetime of captured memories. Picture it like running a marathon. Uphill. In boots. With a map written in another language. Whatever you do…don’t take it too seriously.