Like that Dick Proneke guy up in the out back ?
Chances aren't good.

I could if my wife isn't involved!
The only part that would get me in trouble is cutting the rafters if it wasn't a simple roof.
Electrical is somewhat easy as is plumbing. The only thing that I would need is someone to tie in the sewer.
I know I would get burned out by the time I would need to insulate and sheetrock.

Insulation is easy.

Sheetrock, on the other hand, is almost more art than skill. It takes quite a bit of practice to get even halfway good at that.

Rogue,

I agree insulation is easy, I just know I would get burned out by the time I got to it.
I gotta say RockWool is so easy to install and it would be my go to in this scenario. But I would rather spray foam.

I just finished a 24x30 detached garage. I did it pretty much 90% all by myself and I have never done anything like it before. However, I did not do the concrete foundation, I hired a contractor for that.

The fun part was doing the electrical. I drew up plans on CAD, got the electrical permit and did it all myself. I was proud when it passed inspection.

Hardest part was doing the 18x9 garage door. Wow, did I have a tough time getting that to work. I would recommend hiring a garage door company for that. Although I got pretty good at winding those 4 springs.

Those hundreds of YouTube videos are helpful but they all leave a lot of detail out of them. Much better to find a retired carpenter and hire them to help you out.

I have no skills that would even allow me to begin something that ambitious. I have friends who can do all that stuff and call on them to do small projects for me. I freely admit I do not have the skill nor do I want to learn at this stage to build things.

Knowing none of my friends went to trade school for any of this I always asked them how they got the skills needed to build garages and pour cement slabs and everything else they do. In every case they had someone in the family that had a construction business of some sort that they worked for when young and picked stuff up.

My mom and dad ran a tavern and all the uncles worked at the local brewery. Guess what skills I picked up?

I suppose I could, but it would be poorly finished and full of ugly mistakes.

Assuming my old back holds out.

And it would take years.

So, realistically no, and I have no interest in doing it.

A house that I trust would keep standing? Sure. A house that was functional and met applicable codes? That's less likely.

Sort of depends on whether or not subcontractors are allowed. That would surely affect the 9 month limit.

Being retired I would have the time now to work on it 100% of the time.

As far as having the skills -
My wife and I built our log home in ‘87 & ‘88.
We broke ground in August 1987 and moved in December ‘88. (16 months). This is a log home kit, 1650 sq.ft. Ranch. 3br, 2 1/2 bath. Full basement. Septic system. Well.
Contractors used were - excavator for foundation hole and septic system. Mason for block basement, chimney, another for concrete floor. Well driller for well. Electrician for power to meter base. HVAC guy for hot water baseboard system install.

We built subfloor, log structure, set trusses (26’) built up the rest of the roof. We then did the stud walls, wired the house, plumbed the house, installed the shingle roof. 120+ sheets of drywall and mudding. Installed flooring. Built kitchen cabinets and tiled the counter. Installed the appliances.

The house also has better than a thousand square feet of covered porch. The basement is mostly mine, being a workshop.

Wife and I were both school teachers at the time, so we did have the summer off and that helped. We did work on it while teaching as well. We had a few “house raising” parties with friends assisting. They were 3 day weekends. Two or three of those.

For the building loan I was the primary contractor. Finding a bank today that would do that might be a problem. We had 16 inspections. We did build to code.

I believe it could be done in some areas of the country. Permitting and code requirements vary so much that in some places it would be no problem and in others it would not happen in a million years.

Certainly being skilled with tools helped. Having or being able to buy tools needed also helped.

And uh, being a Shop Teacher helped too.

We live in the house still.

Umm...can I build a few practice homes first?

Yeah if I were single I’d build a dog-trot with sliding barn doors over both sides of the breezeway. I have done framing, siding, plumbing, a little concrete work(I’d put it on poured piers) sewage, well drilling, but I haven’t done electrical besides pulling wire for my dad when we built the house in NC when we first moved there (85) so I’d need help with that. And I’ve never done roofing, but it can’t be too hard

Easily since i'm in the construction business, built my first house by myself with very little help only when I had to. still living in it. passed every inspection the first time. I was 28 years old. foundation, framing, plumbing , wiring, hvac, insulation, roof, siding, cabinets ( i'm still a cabinetmaker) paint, drywall, finish, only thing I didn't do was carpet.

After watching three dozen home inspection vids on Y.T.,

I find it hard to believe I could trust someone to build a house for me.

how do people find someone that they trust to build a house for them ?

I either know how to do it or could figure it out but there is so much tools and other equipment that I don't have that I'm voting no.

For example, I worked with a mason for a couple of summers and am confident that I could finish a slab and lay some block. But I don't have forms, floats, trowels, etc. and buying all that stuff would probably be a wash versus subbing it out.

I know of two people who just did that. One of them is a retired police with no experience at all. Someone told him apparently that he could do it. It took him more than two years and living in an RV but he's just finished. He had some learning pains.

The other is still working on it but it seems he has more building experience.

Absolutely if I had the 9 months to focus on the work I needed to accomplish and wasn't distracted by work and family.

Then again I'm a commercial site manager and have done and am in the process of putting a large addition on our home, so I may be cheating a bit....

Yeah I suppose I could as long as I have the right tools at my disposal. I'm an architect so I know all of the details and have done a lot of my own work around the house with rough and finish carpentry, plumbing, and some electrical. I've done some roofing and insulation work. The electrical service is what I would have the most learning curve on. Connecting to utilities (water, sewer, power) might also be pretty tough.

Yes, I could manage. Do I want no, NO.

My almost s.i.l. decided to build a house in California , she was 56 at the time.

$700,000. Was what she had set aside.

She had the land already.

Then the pandemic hit them wildfires and very wet weather.

She moved in last week, after five years and $1,450.000 , all in.

Oh and building any dam thing in CA these days is a protocol nightmare.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

how do people find someone that they trust to build a house for them ?

Go to the inspector in the area you are wanting to build and ask him who (builder) they have the least fails with. Or, who would you use to build?