Our Biggest DIY Yet: Self-Contracting our Home Build

our decision to self contract

Yes, you read that right. We are taking on our most ambitious DIY project ever: self-contracting our own custom home build.

You may be thinking, “What does that mean?” and “Are you crazy?!”

The short answer: yes, we are probably crazy 🙂

We are also determined and ~~a little~~ (ok a lot) stubborn. We are willing to put in the hard work to make our dream home a reality!

SElf-contract inspiration

One of the things I love most about blogging/social media/Instagram is the endless amount of inspiration out there from extremely talented, smart, innovative, hard-working people!

*Jessica and her husband designed and built their beautiful home on the lake in Texas. You can see more of Jessica’s home on her blog, The Old Barn, and on her Instagram account.* She now sells her floor plan as a construction set that you can purchase!

Over the past few years I have been following along with several bloggers who have self-contracted their own homes from the ground up.

As we have dreamt of building our own dream home, these individuals have been so inspirational and educational as they share their own home building experience. The ups, the downs, the struggles, and the victories. They don’t sugarcoat how hard it is going to be, but I have been so inspired by their hard work and dedication. They prove that it can be done!

I have included photos their homes with links to their blogs and/or social media accounts, so be sure to check them out!

What does it mean to self-contract?

So what exactly does it mean to self-contract your own home build?

The short answer is that instead of hiring a builder, we will be acting as our own general contractor.

*One of my very favorite people to follow on Instagram is Brittany from Thorn Cove Abode.* She designed her home to look “old” and every single detail is perfection. Watch her stories and you will fall in love with her and her family!

Does this mean we will be doing the actual physical “building” of our house? No!

We will be acting as the general contractor, which means we will oversee, coordinate, organize, and manage the entire building process. This includes all of the planning, budgeting, scheduling, subcontractor labor, county permits and inspections, and the buying and delivery of building materials.

When you think about all that goes into building a house, it’s a daunting task to take on. And we are definitely not naïve to how hard it is going to be.

Noell and her busband Daniel built their house from the ground up with their own two hands. Literally! They took DIY to the next level and shared the entire process on Jett Set Farmhouse Blog and on Instagram.

why we decided to act as our own contractor

So why in the world did we decide to do it? A few main reasons:

Cost Savings: Home builders/general contractors generally charge a 15-25% fee (and rightfully so!) on top of construction costs. Just for the sake of easy math, 20% on a $300k home is $60,000. That’s a lot of money! You also have to factor in any “sweat equity” DIY work you take on yourself. The cost savings will allow us to build a home with instant equity that stays right in our budget.
Be in charge of every single decision. Any fellow type A personalities out there? This can be both a good thing and a bad thing, because it means that all of the responsibility falls on us (scary!). Something goes wrong during consutrction? That’s on us. Scheduling conflicts with subcontractors? That’s on us. Failed inspections or budget problems? Yeah, that’s on us, too. You get the point. But it also means we have control to make every decision, allocate our money where we see fit, and build a house to our exact wants. (This is the complete opposite of our experience with building our second home).
It seems like the next step and a challenge that we are excited to take on! We have renovated a foreclosure, and we have built a new home with a national builder. When we sold those houses we saw the huge rewards we reaped from our hard work and DIY equity.
Another beneficial factor for us is that my brother is a contractor (in my opinion the most talented and knowledgeable out there, and I’m not just saying that because he is my brother!). He has existing working relationships with subcontractors that he knows, trusts, and works with every single day. We also have him to help guide us and to direct our 823462387462387 questions to about the building process. I think he’s sick of us already 🙂

Brooke and Henry are the pros when it comes to building your own home – because they have done it more than once! They are a wealth of knowledge and share their homebuilding journey on the Plank and Pillow blog as well as on Instagram.

self contracting FAQ’s

Whenever I share that we are self-contracting our own build, I get met with a lot of confusion and a lot of questions!

Is this legal? Yes, but laws and regulations may be different depending on where you live. In our county we are legally able to act as our own general contractor. We are bound to all of the same laws/permitting/regulations/inspections/etc. that a hired general contractor would be required to adhere to.

Can you get home financing? Yes, you can, but it is much harder (not many lenders will do this), and you will be required to put down more money up front.

Can you really save money? Absolutely! The largest cost savings is the contractor fee, which is generally 15-25%. There are potentially additional cost savings on building materials and any DIY work you chose to complete yourself.

Is it worth it? That depends! If you would rather pay the contractor fee and not have to worry about the stress or responsibility that comes along with building, then self-contracting is probably not for you. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! A good general contractor is worth his weight in gold.

Chelsea and her family are self-contracting their home on 10 acres in middle Tennessee. Isn’t it beautiful? They are so close to being finished and you can follow all of their progress on Instagram.

The bottom line: If you are willing to put in a lot of extra time and work in order to build your dream home, then you may just reap the rewards in the end!

Stay tuned!

Our front elevation! Isn’t she dreamy? : ) We dreamt her up and designed her on paper ourselves, and then worked with a draftsman to make our house plans come to life.

Stay tuned as we dive in and bring our dream home to life out at Cedar Creek Farm! For better or for worse I will be sharing the good, the bad, and everything in between!