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

[BigMac]

First thing I would do is find an area where I want to live, and by a piece of property there. Once you by the property, you can decide what kind of house you want to build. Or, decide what house you want to build, and by property to suite it. Need property first. Then, are you actually going to build the house yourself,are you a carpenter?. Or do you mean you you are going to be your own contractor, and organize the building of your house. Can be a real headache. Lots of things to think about before building

[Foxglove]

Well, I already know what kind of house I want to build, so property in an area I want to live in would be the second step. Yes I would like to build the house myself, clearly not by myself because that would take a long ass time, one person building a house, lol, but who knows, maybe I just might. (save for the excavating and foundation) How many people can look at their home with the satisfaction of knowing that they built it themselves and did a fine ass job, not many I reckon, but I want to be able to do that.

No, I'm not a carpenter, but one day I could be, a lot can happen in 5-10yrs. Besides, carpenter is just a title, you don't have to be a carpenter to know how to build something. My father is neither a plumber nor a carpenter and he turned his crappy unfinished basement into a rec room with walls, all his electrical (but he's an electrician) a fully working bathroom and a bar with stools etc, he did everything himself. One just needs to be a "handyman" to do said things. Granted a house is a much larger scale, nonetheless one does not need a title to do something. I use to build all the time in shop class in high school and in my uncle's wood shop in his basement. So some brush up classes wouldn't hurt because high school was like seven years ago, haha.

But anywho, I can do anything I put my mind to, and I want to build my own house one day. So I figure, now is the time to start preparing and getting ready so that I can actually manifest what is in my brain. And who knows, maybe I'll be fortunate enough to marry a carpenter or handyman and then we can build our own house together, haha.

[zedex]

Buy property now. it is already too expensive for what it is, but it ain't going to get any better. Then, buy the tools and a portable sawmill. Next, buy felled trees in pole form and build a log cabin. During the time between buying the land and tools, learn how to work the sawmill and make the cuts for stacking and learn chinking. You will also need a dry kiln with which you dry the poles and kill any insects in the wood. After a week or so in the kiln, you can add preservatives to the poles. A kiln can be built on the cheap. Just something to consider.... sounds like a lot, but it ain't.