Why Build a House?

Sunday, January 22, 2006

On days like this I definitely was asking myself  'Why am I doing this again?'

This is sure to be a question that we ask ourselves from time to time as this process unfolds. I guess there are some tangible reasons to consider, the main one being cost. Houses in our price range (well under $200,000) fall into either two categories: glorified trailers or complete wrecks. As we saw more and more listings for existing houses, we slowly came to realize that we were not going to find what we were looking for in the current house market. Heck, we couldn't even find anything to settle for. Glorified seasonal cabins, crooked old buildings with ancient wiring, decrepit windows and insufficient framing, and 700 square foot cubicles were becoming all too common.

An introduction

My favorite view on a gorgeous day.

My wife Anne and I built our house from September 2006 to November 2007. We used a kit from First Day Cottage, a company in Walpole, NH. But lest you get the idea that it was a bunch of pre-made pieces that we snapped together, this was only a kit in the nominal sense. We had to cut, nail, install, erect (hee hee) and finish every element of the house ourselves. Some tasks we ended up hiring out--the excavation and site prep, the foundation, most of the plumbing, finishing the floors and a few other things. But we did just about everything else, day after day, through all seasons and in all weather. It was a defining moment in our lives and a turning point for me personally. My life was instantly divided into pre-house and post-house periods, and no challenge that arose post-house seemed insurmountable anymore. Given time and some resources, we could achieve anything.