House On A Dime

If you’re tackling a major building or remodeling project for the first time, you probably feel a little bit overwhelmed.  To help make your project a little more manageable, you need to break it down into smaller, bite-sized pieces.  Here’s a list of the main phases of construction:

• Plans & permits (Don’t forget to PLAN!)
• Site Work (Make sure that your site keeps water away from your house…water is NOT your friend.)
• Demolition (Doesn’t everyone love to tear things up? What a great job for your teenage boys!)
• Excavation (Shovel, anyone?)
• Concrete (Something I DREAD!)
• Masonry (I’m not talking about the lodge, but bricks and stones.)
• Framing – Floor, Walls and Roof (I’ll be covering ways that you can do this in an energy efficient way – and save a lot on your utility bills!)
• Roofing & Gutters (Yes, gutters…they’re not just for looks.)
• Exterior Siding (Wood, vinyl, fiber cement, etc.)
• Exterior Trim (You can really dress up your house without spending a lot of $$)
• Doors (More than meets the eye…do want your rooms to be accessible?)
• Windows (Lots of options…some much more efficient and cost effective than others.)
• Plumbing (Most major plumbing work is best left to licensed plumbers, but there are definitely ways to save money here.)
• HVAC – Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (I’ll talk quite a bit about how to choose an HVAC subcontractor – many don’t have a clue how to properly design and size a system.)
• Electrical & Lighting (Another area that is best left to licensed individuals…having said that, I’ll be covering a lot that you can do yourself.)
• Insulation (It’s not just fiberglass anymore…think FOAM.)
• Drywall (The pros do it MUCH faster!)
• Interior Trim Carpentry (You can DO IT!)
• Cabinets (Custom or stock? Prefinished?)
• Countertops (Granite or Laminate?  Don’t answer too quickly!  I’ll be covering some good money savers here!)
• Floor Coverings (This has always been the most difficult decision for us to make.)
• Tile (Floors, backsplashes, etc.)
• Painting & Wallpaper (Learn to paint…buy quality painting tools.  Wallpaper?  NOOOOOOOOOOO!)
• Cleanup
• Landscaping (Remember the shovel I mentioned?  Don’t put it away!)

You might not be able to do everything on this list (yet), but almost anyone can clean up!  Even if you’re going to hire someone else to do part of the work, you can still save hundreds to thousands of dollars by doing the cleanup yourself.  If you’re remodeling, you might consider doing the demolition.  Obviously, the goal of this blog is to show you that, if you’re adventurous and willing to learn new things, you can do quite a few of these items.  Start with some small projects like painting, trim or tile, and your confidence grows, you’ll be jumping headlong into more advanced projects, and saving yourself a ton of money!  And, hopefully, having fun in the process!

“Building and remodeling without breaking the bank” can mean different things to different people.  Some of you might be building a brand new house, and want to find some ways to shave a few thousand dollars off of the cost, while others may want to do everything themselves.  Some of you might have a 3 month timeline, while others may be willing to wait years to have a “finished” house.  I hope to be able to provide information here that will benefit everyone.  We spent years on our house, but I also worked as the Project Coordinator on houses that were completed in as little as 58 days – so I’ve seen both sides.

If you’ve ever been involved with a building project, you know that your attitude is crucial, especially if you’re married!  You need to have a common purpose and common goals.  You need to think about what you want, and make a plan, before you start the work. Luke 14:28-30 says,

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t start until you have enough time and resources to complete the entire project…but you should at least be able to finish a phase of the work.  That was one of the secrets to our success…we took on smaller, bite sized projects.  We worked towards getting our house weather tight and livable, and then moved in.  It was much later that we added more space.

Which brings me to another thought – Sacrifice.  What are you willing to sacrifice to have the home of your dreams?  When we moved in our little house, we had 5 children, who all slept on two sleeper sofas in the living room.  They were at an age where it didn’t seem to bother them…as a matter of fact, it was probably quite an adventure!  BUT, if I were to try that now that they are all teenagers, the result probably wouldn’t be quite as pleasant!  We didn’t even have a bathroom door for over a year – I was forced to install the door when my sister-in-law refused to come for Christmas unless I got the door installed…which I did…Christmas MORNING!  All this to say, what are you willing to give up?  Are you willing to sacrifice, and if so, how much?  These are things that you and your spouse need to talk about ahead of time.  You might love the idea of “camping out” for a year, but your children may want their own room and their own bed…talk about it, think about it, pray about it, and make a plan.

Lastly, have patience! Have patience with others, have patience with yourself.  You will probably be learning new skills along the way.  Don’t demand perfection of others or yourself.  Be willing to stretch yourself to do something you never thought you could do.  When we started, I had a little background in building, but not much.  I started reading a lot of books and bought a lot of tools (I love Lowe’s, The Home Depot, and Amazon!), and wasn’t afraid to try new things.  I didn’t always do everything right…as a matter of fact, there were a lot of things that I didn’t do right at all the first time, but I learned and each time did better.  My wife and kids learned a lot about building.  The truth is, Elizabeth (who’ll you see me refer to as Didiba), is the creative one, and is usually the one that gets the ball rolling on projects.  I want to research everything so that its perfect…she wants to forge ahead and see progress!  It makes for a pretty good balance.

Patience, attitude and sacrifice – do you have what it takes to build your House On A Dime?

Just to whet your appetite, I thought I’d give you a little history of our first major house project, and post a before and after pic. When we moved to East Texas, we had a little over $6,000.00 and wanted to find a house for that price. We weren’t so much concerned with condition, but potential. We would spend Sunday afternoons driving down back roads looking for houses and property. Sunday after Sunday we’d drive, and we couldn’t find anything in our price range (no kidding, right?) One afternoon, we drove by this place.

Not very exciting, is it?  I didn’t even THINK about it, but Elizabeth thought that it had potential. Potential?  That place!?   But, we called and found out that the asking price was basically the price of the land, so we bought it…and we started demo…and more demo…all the way down to the studs from the outside (We wanted to leave the wood on the inside walls). We pulled out all of the old wiring and plumbing. We re-wired, re-plumbed, re-insulated, re-roofed, re-sided…re-everything, until we got the outside finished. We’ll post more “in-progress” pics later, but this is what it was transformed into after Phase One.

After a lot of patience and creative building techniques, including adding on 3 bedrooms and a bathroom (using awesome heart pine flooring from an old warehouse, and lumber that we had cut by a portable sawmill), we ended up with a very nice, very unique, 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. Here’s the final product.

Pretty amazing, right? This is proof that it CAN be done. Is it easy? Nope. Does it take a lot of work? YEP! Was it worth it? Absolutely!

This blog is about building or remodeling your house, saving money, and having fun!  When we bought our house and 3 acres for $6,000.00, we didn’t have a lot of construction skills.  But, through a lot of reading, trial and error, and time, we turned it into a beautiful 4 bedroom, 2 bath home that always received comments from our family and friends.  We sold the house 2 years ago for $146,000.00…not a bad return on our investment.  We recently bought another house, and will be blogging about our experiences right here!  Feel free to comment, and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty on your first project!