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Here we go again...diy building project
For those of you who I haven't "met," hi! I'm vic, a one time poster, sometime lurker, and hopefully renewed contributor. I enjoy decorating, photography, yoga, and running. Oh and I hope for world peace 
About 5 years ago my husband and I built (I'm throwing myself in there very liberally, I take pictures and buy things, my husband handles the hard jobs) a small house (seriously small, 24x28) that we planned to live in for a few years then build a bigger house and convert that into a garage (seriously, it's Klassy, concrete floors with drains and all!). After a long wait, we've finally started the building process for the "big house" a 2100 square foot colonial that my dh designed and will be doing the majority of the labor with.
Here's the view outside my window right now, it makes my house dirty tracking it all in, but it will be worth it in the end.
and just because, here's the "little house"
Re: Here we go again...diy building project
Welcome! That little house is adorable! Is it really so small? It looks very spacious from the outside. I think it would be a shame for it to be a garage...do you have need of a guest house or artist studio?
Congrats on the groundbreaking for the "big house"!
Yeah, it's really small. about 900 square feet including the loft upstairs. We can't do anything else with it, there's a random law in the town books that says there can't be more than one kitchen on a property. It's designed to be carriage house style to fit with the colonial big house. Hoping it adds to the property value incase we ever decide to sell
And thanks for the congrats
Welcome back! I never realized your "little house" was that small! It's so cute! I remember some of the interior photos and it seems much bigger.
Good luck with the new construction! I can't wait to see it all start coming together!
That is so weird that you can only have one kitchen on a property. No in law suites, guest houses, etc. at all?
I remember when you built the little house - how cool that you are building the big one! I remember "helping" you pick porch lights a long time ago
(That's me, weeping for my house lol.)
I can't wait to see progress, Vic! I had no idea you guys started. And I'm impressed Mr.Vic designed it! Tell him he's WELCOME to come here and design me a house.
TTC Baby #2 - BFP on 12/14/11 @ 10DPO - CP confirmed 12/18/11
BFP #2 on 1/13/12
Welcome back! How exciting to be working on the big house. How long do you think it will take? Is your DH DIYing everything or are you going to hire some of it out? Is it a nights and weekends only thing or does he have more time to work on it?
I know so many people IRL and online who want to buy land and do the exact same thing but it never happens. Kudos for making it this far! When I was a kid my parents built a house (my dad is a carpenter) in the country and we lived in a trailer home for 6 months...which is the most amount of time they town would let us have a trailer on the property. It was a ton of hard work and only nights + weekends didn't end up working out but we were under a tight time crunch.
We're hiring out the foundation work (though DH did all the excavation work). We're doing a modified crawl space/slab combo rather than a basement. To do a basement we would have had to blast out the bedrock - which the cheapest quote was for $40,000. yikes!
He'll probably also hire out insulation (spray foam), roofing (maybe, haven't decided on that one, depends on budget and time), and drywall (time consuming!).
It's a night and weekend project, though he works 4 10 hour days in the summer months so it's a 3 day weekend project. We have 1 year from the day we close on our mortgage loan to get the Certificate of Occupancy. It took about that much time last go 'round with a smaller house - but this time some of the biggies are already done (driveway, well, septic, electrical service) so that should help a bit.
Yes! So many people forgot how difficult it can be to get permits for all of that and get it installed.
Cool. Well I agree hiring out spray foam and drywall are a good idea. Roofing is easy to DIY but back breaking. You have to be experienced with flashing and have a big enough crew to knock it out in a weekend as well. I would recommend hiring out the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC as well unless your DH is very skilled in those areas. Can I ask is your DH in an of the trades? Sounds like a very handy guy.
Good luck. You'll both be very busy for the next 12 months!
He's not a contractor, he's just good at that kind of stuff. He did all the wiring and plumbing in our current house with no issues.
Roofing depends on whether his dad and brothers are available when we get ready to roof. The four of them stripped and replaced his grandmother's room in a weekend last year so if they are around, we could easily roof it ourselves.