Building a House

[Foxglove]

Alright, so I've decided that I want to build my own house. Now, clearly this won't be happening for at least 5yrs if I'm lucky, 10yrs if I'm not so lucky. Besides saving money, just wondering what I can start doing now to prepare myself for this adventure. Obviously looking into what area I want to be in, land cost, supply cost etc. Is there anything else I can be focusing on in this early stage of planning. Permits for building? Drawing a plan? And all that jazz. I don't know how I want to go about this yet. I would much rather build the house myself instead of having to pay all sorts of people to build it for me. These are just my thoughts right now. Thanks.

Edit: I found this site by Rona. Seems pretty extensive but I still like knowledge from people with possible first hand experience. http://www.rona.ca/content/build-house_projects