Among the the advantages of using a kit to build your own house are efficient use of material, quality control, and considerable savings of time involved in construction and the management of the project. Depending on the amount of prefabrication, site work is significantly reduced – after the foundation is finished a completely prefabricated home can be move-in ready in as little as two weeks.

There are many options for home building kits. Using standard stick built construction methods, prefabrication can be as little as panelizing the structural components (wall, floor, and roof framing) to building a complete modular home in the factory. In addition, home building kits are available that use alternative building methods – primarily post and beam construction, structural insulated panels (SIPs), log home construction, and prefabricated steel framing.

We are working with a few companies to prefabricate custom home designs with green home building options, and can provide a variety of construction options and design features. Please contact us now for our most current information on custom prefabricated options.

My do-it-yourself building dream started in high school. My uncle was one of my heroes and happened to be a carpenter – so I naturally gravitated in that direction. I took every shop class I could in school and loved working with wood. Later, in my 20′s, after starting a family, the dream to build my own house started to take root. I wanted a small place in the country to raise my children – a place big enough to have a shop and a garden. I was interested in building with wood, stone and other natural materials, energy efficiency, and passive solar design – green home building before its time

Everybody’s dream is different. One of the best parts of building your own house is to cultivate your own dream, to tap into your creativity in order to express your personality and best meet your needs. What is your dream? What will it take to be a successful owner builder?

Lifestyle Assessment – Put Substance To Your Do-It-Yourself Building Dream

There are many questions for an owner builder to consider at this stage of consideration of building your own house. Here a a few to help you get started:

* What is the extent of personal and family needs that must be addressed?

* What values do you want to consider and express in your home?

* What style or combination of styles are you drawn to?

* What options for materials and construction methods are suitable for your project?

* How much home can you realistically afford?

* What resources do you need to be a successful owner builder?

Moving On – Put Structure To Your Do-It-Yourself Building Dream

Do-it-yourself building can quickly turn into a nightmare if you don’t have the resources and understand the process of being an owner builder. It is easy to get anxious and get the cart before the horse. It is easy to miss an important step or overlook critical details. So, lets begin to look at the rest of the outline of the process required to build your own house.

Step 2. Plan – The Preparation For Building Your Own House

In order to get your dream in motion, the next step in do-it-yourself building is to fully plan every detail necessary to build your own house. Thorough planning requires consideration of many aspects and will save you money, time, and headaches – here are four primary areas.

* Home Building Loans

* Construction Lot Selection

* Home Design Plans and Specifications

* Home Building Cost and Estimating

Additionally, the planning stage is the place to consider green home building principles and whether a home building kit or some form of prefabrication is appropriate.

Step 3. Build – The Construction Management For Building Your Own House

After thorough planning of your do-it-yourself building project, adequate construction management is crucial to avoid a nightmare and make your dream reality. Building your own house requires t construction management in these primary areas.

* Choosing materials and suppliers

* Choosing and working with subcontractors

* Scheduling for efficient progress

* Financial and quality control

Lets now look more thoroughly at step two of the do-it-yourself building process and more of the details of each area of consideration. Lets go to the Plan.

Once your dream begins to take shape in your mind, it is easy to get ahead of yourself – ending up with one of the nightmares I am sure you have heard of. At best, without thorough planning, you can easily end up not getting what would best meet your needs – and most likely spending more money than is necessary. It’s easy for an owner builder to get excited and want to start digging that hole, and pounding those nails, and painting those walls, and moving into your new home. But wait – the foundation of your dream needs to be built first. Learning how to build your own house requires that every aspect of the home building plan gets down on paper in a manageable form.

The Home Building Plan Is The Foundation Of DIY-Home-Building

I hope you are starting to get my point that building your own house, although requiring an understanding of building methods and construction procedures, first and foremost requires an understanding of planning and management. It is actually a skill that most of you can bring to the table of do-it-yourself building from another area of your life. It is also a skill that, once learned and practiced more thoroughly during the course of building your house, will transfer back into those other areas of life.

Moving forward then, becoming an owner builder requires a home building plan with four primary areas of focus.

* Exploring and obtaining the most appropriate home building loans

* Choosing a construction lot for building your home

* Establishing home design plans and specifications

* Determining home building costs, budgets, and estimates

Already in the dreaming phase of do-it-yourself building we encourage you to thoroughly consider the extent of your needs, the values you would like to consider and express, the style you like, the material choices and appropriate building method, what you can afford, and the resources you need. Now it is time to work out the details of the home building plan on paper.

There are many questions about building your own house that need answering at this point. The questions you started raising in the dreaming stage now, in the planning stage, must be answered. This is where your real foundation is laid – where the details needed to build your house are established. It is where your decisions are narrowed down, including whether you have the necessary time and energy to do it yourself or if you should hire a contractor. Either way, the following questions need definitive answers to establish the foundation of your home building plan in order to achieve the desired results for your project.

Establish Your Home Building Plan And Prepare To Build Your Own House

* Where do you want to build your house and what are the considerations involved in choosing your construction lot? Do you have a real estate agent?

* What home style, method of construction, and material options will be most suitable for you? Do you have a designer or will you design your own house?

* Is a home building kit or other form of prefabrication appropriate for your project?

* What green home building principles can you incorporate in your home?

* What are your specific needs and the necessary budget to accomplish your goals?

* Do you have adequate income, job history, credit rating and construction loan information to pursue a home building loan? Do you have a lender?

* Who will make up the rest of your team to help build your house – subcontractors, suppliers, owner builder consultant, etc.?

* What are the local and uniform building codes that will affect your project? Have you considered the process for obtaining the necessary building permits?

* What management tools will you use for scheduling, accounting, and other aspects to facilitate the actual building process for efficiency and quality control?

Once these questions are answered you are well on your way to understanding the basic formula to be your own contractor. With thorough forethought and adequate answers you can rest assured that you have made the best decisions for choosing your lot, house plans, lender, and building team. You will also know exactly what it will take to manage your project and will be ready for the next step.

You will be ready for the hands on construction of your home building plans. You will be ready as an owner builder to jump into the construction  management. You will be ready to Build.

Building your own house without a solid management system is like pouring the foundation of your house without cement. Like cement added to sand and stone solidifies the concrete, a management system added to thorough planning solidifies the foundation of your diy-home-building project.

Building Your Own House Grows Out Of The Planning Process

If your planning is complete, the construction management that is required for do-it-yourself building just becomes a hands-on extension of the process. The management process to build your own house takes each area that you have planned and puts them into orderly action. Using simple construction management tools, care is taken to make sure every detail of your plan unfolds in a efficient and effective way.

Building your own house involves management in these four primary areas

* Choosing materials and suppliers

* Working with subcontractors

* Scheduling for efficient progress

* Financial and quality control

In the planning stage you found and bought your perfect lot, decided on and modified your house design plans to meet your needs, chosen the materials and methods appropriate for your project, established home building costs and a budget, found a home building loan, and established the team to help you get your home completed. Now it is time to take action and start building.

Establish Your Management System For Building Your Own House

Just like the planning phase of diy-home- building, the management phase has many questions that need answering. Here are some of the questions related to the construction management – answer these and you have finalized the foundation to build your own house.

* How do I manage my team and effectively schedule sub-contractors?

* Where and how should I use contractor contracts and forms?

* How do I make sure things are up to code and deal with building inspectors?

* What checklists do I need to cover all the bases and maintain quality control?

* How can I best deal with conflict that arises?

* How will I facilitate complete and efficient delivery of materials?

* What is the best way to maintain financial control and deal with loan draws?

* Is it beneficial to use home building software to help manage things?

* How do I maintain adequate home building insurance throughout the building process?

From here, we can go into further detail concerning building your own house, and the planning and management required in do-it-yourself building. The following links will take you to further discussion of each area of owner builder consideration.

* Design your own house

* Building materials and methods

* Home building kits

* Home building costs

* Home building loans

* Green home building