I'm a residential construction manager.

Don't do it if you want to keep your sanity. You might or might not save any money but any money you save wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Don't even consider it, if you don't have first hand experience at this it's not going to turn out well for you.

the first time a sub needs to ask you a question that you have no idea about, your going to be in trouble.

So many things have to be done in the right sequence and one sub sets up for another. all these things have to mesh together or your going to end up with one giant cluster fuck in the end.


You wont save a penny and forget about any kind of warranty. when the subs are gone and paid if the job wasn't enjoyable for them , they are not going to come back.

I contracted my house 35 years ago,being in the trades everyone involved was well known to me with years working together on jobs. I was on the job first thing in the morning to see who showed, there at noon to answer questions and check progress and at the end of the day to clean up and see who needed to be on call for the next phase. The house at 3000 sq feet was completed in 3 months and I was a total burnout.
Is it worth it? It was then as a young man, and is now as a retiree, those thousands of dollars saved compounded over the years. YMMV, especially dealing with unknown entities.

GPBST3 - Yes, it can be done, my wife and I did it - 30 years ago. We were both employed full time, teachers. This gave us the entire summer off. We built a 1650 sq.ft. ranch style log home.

Getting a construction loan was the big deal because I wasn’t a contractor. I was/am a shop teacher. A local credit union was our source.

We had few subs to deal with. They were an excavator (foundation hole and septic), mason (concrete block foundation and basement floor) and heating contractor (hot water baseboard heating system).

We did everything else ourselves with the help of some friends. One of those had roofing experience, the others were less skilled in the trades than I was.

We spread the subs out so they didn’t get in each other’s way and we could be flexible with their dates. A day different, or even a week, didn’t affect our calendar. Dealt with small contractors directly.

We did not had a hard date of “We will be done by ....” This helped a lot to reduce stress and construction moved at our pace. We lived locally (5 minutes to our apartment) and could work and then go home,shower,eat and sleep. I’ve told friends we worked 8 days a week when we were building.

We did all our own electrical work, plumbing, roofing, structure and interior work. When the house was done I did the landscaping and clean up.

We got to know the local inspectors. When in doubt we asked him to come out and look at the job and tell us what he wanted to see for the next inspection (we had 16 inspections). Obviously some won’t do this. They might in your case or maybe not. Ours got to know the quality of my work, liked it and then me because of it. Things went well after that.

Your situation may certainly be different. Having no hard “done” date certainly helped. Being in an area that is not micro managed by the town, inspectors and regulations helped.


For Skins - we did it, it worked out great. I am now sitting in the living room of that same house. My wife and I are still married and we wouldn’t live anywhere else. The house is now 2300 sq.ft. with an attached studio. Full basement has my workshop that is probably 2000 sq.ft.

So yes, it can be done. Some suggest an adamant NO, and that likely reflects some of the hassles of their locality. Not everyone lives where they do.

It probably took us two years of shopping for log home companies and me selling the idea to my wife. We probably saved 50% of the cost, maybe more by doing it ourselves. I know every stick and system in the house. I can fix or improve 90% of it.

It took us 16 months from breaking ground to moving in. Yes, I could and would do it again, only it would probably take longer.

I generaled 2 major remodels on my house. I loved doing it and wouldn't have it any other way. But I have many years behind me in residential construction. I also know many good contractors to hire to get the jobs done right. I think it would be a stretch for you have a good outcome if you have no personal experience in any residential trade.

Thanks for the feedback. I am in no way prepared or knowledgeable enough to take this on.

I am doing this right now. It has been a good experience for me. The thing I have going for me is that I don't have a time line. So i do get annoyed at contractors not being on time etc. but I can deal with it.

Jim