I Want to Build a House By Myself

I recently got the chance to visit George Washington's Mansion in Mount Vernon for the second time and it sparked a hidden interest inside myself, architecture. Between that visit and now I've been daydreaming and nightdreaming about building my own house by scratch by myself or, if one ever comes into my life, my wife.

My plan is, in the distant future, to rent an apartment to stay in for several years as my house while, in my free time, slowly working on my house. I've thought about it and, honestly, building a house doesn't seem like all that much work and wouldn't take that much time, just money. I plan on going slowly and dedicating a portion of my paycheck for buying materials. Buying all the materials at once is bad as it would require a loan, but if I buy just enough wood for one room at a time and take a month on that one room, it couldn't be that financially devastating.

My only big dilemma that I have, albeit only in my head for now, is permits from the city and connections to the plumbing and electricity of the city.

In my dreams I picture a two story square house with an open courtyard in the center, also a basement. I imagine a small home theater, I have extensive knowledge of AV and electronics and this isn't really that expensive. As for seating, two wooden platforms with 5 or so theater style seats on the bottommost platform and a couch in similar style as the seats on the upper platform. No windows in this room. As for the screen, a projector is the way to go and as for media, I want to put the video players, VCR, DVD, Blu Ray, adding as technology develops, somewhere near the seats, preferably embedded in the wall, wired up to the projector. I'd also love to have an AV outlet in the wall to plug in other various devices.

I have an extensive and ever growing video game collection and I would like to have a room to house this. I would like this room to be separate from the home theater, as I want the walls to be almost covered with video games, dating back to the 70s. Plus, a big HD projector isn't the best way to go with some of these expensive games.

The kitchen is another thing important to me in making a house. It's important to me to have a huge amount of counter space. Another thing that is important to me is consistency among dishes and appliances. The appliances don't have to be the same brand, as long as they are the same style, preferably a mix black plastic and silver stainless steel, a very popular design right now. The Tupperware must all be the same brand and the same style. Silverware must all match, besides specialty knives, which should match the appliances. Of course plates and bowls should match, besides certain specialty dishes, like punch bowls. Right now I'd prefer something that's not the traditional white plate, I just don't like them. A black plate would be kind of cool, maybe with like a silver trim.

I would love my master bedroom to have focus on a cool, calm color like blue. Also, it must have much empty space.

I don't have many preferences about the bathroom as long as it's functional and not done in brown of any sort. Medicine cabinet, fitting piece of art, bathtub with shower, sink with a decent about of counter space, as well as matching "appliances" such as the shower caddy and toothbrush holder.

I want the basement to be a wide open "party area". There should be a bar area, I don't drink but it's still good for snacks, with a decent sized tiled area around it with one or two small table with two chairs each. Most of the room should be carpeted. One TV mounted on the wall, whichever is the newest type of TV at the time, LCD for now. I'd prefer if the land valleyed in so that there could be a door to the outside where the pool would be. Around this door would be another decent sized tiled area which would be against the wall and have a closet next to it which would house pool storage various other things on the upper shelves.

The backyard is important to me. There should be an in ground pool and possibly and in ground hot tub. There should be a lot of finely groomed grass but it's also important to have a decent sized "pool" area where it's not grassy, connected to the good sized deck. This place would have the grill, the lawn chair, the pool, etc. And should be nicely lit at night and should have decorative plants and art to give it variety.

Well, just wanted to share my dream for the future. I know it probably won't happen, but it's something to work for and something to dream about. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky enough to be able to afford a large piece of land and start building...

 

Try this for inspiration; www.simondale.net/house thats his first house using only a chainsaw, hammer and chisel. The picture is his first home, follow links on his page for more fun.

Go to; lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com Lloyd has been into housing for 40+ years. His book Builders of the Pacific North Coast is a dream book to me.

Taste may vary however.

 

Get a job as an architect and do construction work in your spare time, it's a good way to learn the skills you'll need. Outsource the HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical work, as will be required about anywhere, and be in your best interests unless you know what you're doing.

You'll have to apply for permits and get it approved at a couple different phases by city inspectors. Or you can build way out in the sticks where it won't matter so much, but I still recommend having someone with a couple years experience do your plumbing and electric and HVAC.

 

Residential plumbing and electrical are pretty easily doable if you aren't a complete moron and are willing to spend the time checking the regs.

 

New homes have to go by code. you get an old house and fix it, only needs inspected. and you can usually swing by that..

 

I agree with the out in the sticks comment...fuck the city regulations and build it the way you want..buy land in an unorganized town with no bylaw cop wannabes

 

i want to live in a world that will let me, without having to indenture myself to anything, improvise my own shelter and make of it my permanent residence too. and by letting me, i mean; won't come along later and tear it down, or encourage someone else to do so.

i don't think we will always live in a world that will prevent that. i just would rather have that now, then all the glory or anything else, none of which is adiquite compensation for being economically coerced by reality into having to live where i can hear other people's televisions and radios.

 

that sounds very nice, but I feel that youve overlooked one important thing. the actual building of it. you;re talking about electronics and carpets and decorations and stuff. you should try having an apartment first, you can do all that stuff.
otherwise, here's your itenerary
http://www.saybuild.com/checklist.html

 

I know that I'm overlooking the actual building of it. This is a dream of mine and I'm sure any good architect will tell you that you have to envision the finished home decored as you imagine and then design a blueprint and devise ways to make it happen, not the other way around. This goes with almost anything, like if you're composing music, you'll get better music if you have a melody in your head and then work out a way with time signatures, keys, and whatever to make it happen than if you say "I want a song in 4/4, switching to 3/8 every 6 measures and in the key of F".

Also, I have thought a little about the building, but telling you about that is even more boring to read than what I posted, especially since the actual building of the house is near identical to building any other house, I'm just planning on doing all labor by myself.

As I've said before I have fairly extensive knowledge of electronics and plumbing can't be too much different.

I do want room to sprawl out, so I'll probably end up buying open land in the country. And yes, I know about code and I'm willing to comply with it. I do think I should be allowed to break it if I only put myself in danger, but I don't feel like fighting that now.

As I said before, this is a far distant dream of mine.

 

you can do this, but your homes still need be inspected. If you want insurance on the dwellings..

old fuse box houses cant even get fire insurance here, has to be converted to breakers..

 

fuck the rich insurance companies too

you wont be able to afford insurance anyways if you build out of the local fire departments service area

 

I know car insurance is required in Ohio, which is retarded, but is home insurance? If not, insurance isn't important to me. I still don't see the point in it, you end up paying more than you get back. You pay them money and when something happens they decide whether or not to give it back. I'd prefer to put a separate fund of a large some of cash into a bank and also buried around my yard and hidden in my house in the form of quarters as they cannot be burned and are heavy.

 

home insurance is not required, only if you want it..

 

OK, well screw home insurance.

 

If you plan on building this home with other peoples money (a mortgage) then yes, it needs insurance and it needs to be inspected and yes, it needs to meet the minimum building codes no matter where it is built, including in un-organized townships.

If you are not getting any loans to do it, then the electrical system will still have to be inspected and approved before it is hooked up.

The health department (depending where you are) may also be required to inspect any septic system, outhouse or other means of disposal.

As for all the rest about how a home should be planned and talking to this person and that person and the vision and blah blah blah...

Knowing the realities is the first step. The fact that you said you hope to be 'lucky' enough to get a chunk of cash to be able to afford a piece of land speaks volumes.

 

So what you're saying is that if I build a home entirely with my own money, step by step, slowly but steadily, I don't need an inspection on anything but electrical and plumbing?

 

In the right area, yes... but not plumbing... the septic... that is where the plumbing goes to.

If you are in an organized area, then the plumbing would be part of the normal building inspection.

 

Septic is part of the plumbing. So you're saying the requirement is a partial plumbing inspection and electrical inspeciton.

 

Either you are trying hard to mis-understand, or you are going to need to learn a lot before attempting any of this.

The septic system is where the waste products out of your plumbing go.

The plumbing refers to the WHOLE water supply and waste system.

In an urban environment, there are no septic systems, all the wastes go into the municipalities sewage system.

You only need the electrical inspection if 1) you are in an organized area (city/town/organized township) and 2) if you are hooked to the electrical grid.

 

Oh don't worry, I know what a septic system is. I was just saying it's PART of the plumbing system, so, for simplicities sake, a plumbing inspection and electrical inspection are in order. If you're going to get your septic system inspected it's best to have a good plumbing system all around because it's all connected.