Homemade house?

[Wolf-Kim]

Just curious if anyone on our selfsufficient board built their own house. Either had contractors make it or truly built it with their own hands.

I'm hoping to build a house in Virginia, in the blue ridge mountains, and was curious.

Hubby's family has 3 generations of electricians and I've helped my mother remodel bathrooms and whatnot.

*shrug*

 

[2dream]

Several people have -

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2019

and while I am at it

Lots of info here and can't wait to hear your ideas on building.

 

[lorihadams]

Ooooooo i live in VA, where are you planning to build?

 

[dacjohns]

Hey Kim,

We had a contractor build a pole barn and we finished off the inside for a "temporary" house. We've been in it for 10 years.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Thank you for the welcome. I enjoy this site, hopefully it will grow a bit more with time.

Well, we are not sure where in VA we want to be. Our grandparents have a mountain house in Ararat. We hope to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We live in the Sandhills of NC now and when my husband and I are able, we're moving to the mountains! Because we want a decent amount of land, to do our garden, farming, and hunting, it seems to be more economical to purchase the big piece of land and then build the house. Which we have ideas on how we want our house anyway, so any existing house would undergo renovations.

That is an interesting idea Dave. Never thought about that. Do you have pics of your place? I'd be interested to see how it turned out!

And I figured since that we may be building a house, might as well do as much we can ourselves, because if you break a house down, many of the projects are fairly easily DIY.

 

[FarmerDenise]

My family built our own house. We tore down 3 old barns (with permission of theowners of course) and used the old handhewn beams and other usable lumber to buid our house. This was more than 30 years ago. Then we could build it without all kinds of permits etc as long as we built it onto an exististing structure. My GM had an old falling down barn on the property. So we removed the falling down part and attached our house to the part the remained standing. GF had some experience with building houses and we relied on his advice and the library.
Now we know that we made lots of mistakes and my parents are living with them. But it was a great experience for us all. The house is very big and beautifull to look at.
These days with the internet information highway, I think it is a lot easier to educate yourself on how to do things right and avoid the pitfalls my parents experienced. Not to mention the whole permit thing makes it harder to do anything too unique or totally wrong (which my parents did on more than one occasion). Although I am no friend of permits, I think it is government's way of making more money off my hard work to spend foolishly.

 

[TanksHill]

We built our own home by contracting it out. A traditional stick framed home in a somewhat urban environment. We lived on the property in a camper and watched over everything. This helped prevent theft, flaky contractors as well as simple planning mistakes. We did a bit of the work ourselves but mostly took care of site clean up and organizing deliveries and such. I think the subs respect your involvement.

I think if I ever did it again I would go with some kind of kit. May be a log cabin or something new and green that pieces together more easily. There are some great alternatives today. I guess it all depends on your properties accessibility. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Beekissed]

We built three different log cabins using only a chainsaw and axes for cutting tools, as well as draw knives for peeling the logs. They are all still standing and in use. The oldest was built in 1978, the next built in 1981, and the last was built in 1993. All are on the same property/area.

 

[big brown horse]

Bee, did you treat the logs in any way? I am really interested in making a log home for my chickens (to practice so I can make a bigger one for the horses or for me.) and I am worried about the rain we get here.

Anyone have any input?

FD, do you have photos?

 

[dacjohns]

Thank you for the welcome. I enjoy this site, hopefully it will grow a bit more with time.

Well, we are not sure where in VA we want to be. Our grandparents have a mountain house in Ararat. We hope to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We live in the Sandhills of NC now and when my husband and I are able, we're moving to the mountains! Because we want a decent amount of land, to do our garden, farming, and hunting, it seems to be more economical to purchase the big piece of land and then build the house. Which we have ideas on how we want our house anyway, so any existing house would undergo renovations.

That is an interesting idea Dave. Never thought about that. Do you have pics of your place? I'd be interested to see how it turned out!

And I figured since that we may be building a house, might as well do as much we can ourselves, because if you break a house down, many of the projects are fairly easily DIY.

Someday, if I remember, I will put some pics up. There are a few scattered around on BYC in the show us your house thread (it's an old thread). I think I have one on SS showing our woodburning stove. I'm feeling lazy right now and don't feel like looking for them.