Have you ever wanted to build your own home? Do you think you can? What is stopping you?

I am a General Contractor and I have worked on homes where the home owners were an intregal part of our labor force. I would say to any of you who are considering building your own home, that it can be done and if you do it yourself you can do much cheaper than it would be if you hired contractors to build it. There are however many, many things that you must be aware of before you attempt such a project.

You will first need to get a home owners building permit. This can be done, but you must pass a general building test before they will issue it to you. Once you have the permit, your house will be inspected every step of the way and you will need to comply with all national and state building codes.

If you miss any of the steps along the way, say on your foundation, and you pour the concrete without first having an inspection done to show that you have followed all codes in preparing your foundation, the inspector can force you to jackhammer all of the concrete away and start over. Also, if you drywall the house before certain inspections are complete, they can force you to remove the drywall so that they can inspect your framing. This is not something that you want to consider doing lightly.It takes alot of studying beforehand as well as alot of diligence and hard work.

I have always wanted to build something the only thing that has stopped me is the lack of money but I have been an active part of helping my friends build and remodel their houses and other projects.

Not only could do it, but want to. I am saving up for a piece of land and want to build a straw bale home. This is truly energy effecient because of the mass of the walls and traditional to my area (Texas).

The walls will be covered with adobe with exposed beams. Solar panels will be ordered last after the "power room" with batteries and all the items are set up and I can move in.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.