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Building Your Own Home? Read This First!

Building a home is an exciting yet challenging adventure, especially if it’s your first. The scale of the project may appear daunting at first, but as you embark on the task and the puzzles start falling into place, you witness your dream unfold before you. Before you start building your home, here are important tips to consider. Follow them to avoid the pitfalls many first-time home builders make.

1. Avoid Customization Overkill

The beauty of building your own home is that you customize a lot of stuff, including choosing the color and thickness of the grout! While it’s wonderful to tweak things here and there, to give the home your signature in terms of taste and style, going overboard with customization could be counterproductive.

2. Set Aside a Contingency Fund

Even if you’ve budgeted for the new home build to a T, there will be extra costs you’ll have to incur. You may change your mind about some stuff, such as the kitchen countertops, or perhaps you now want your bathroom to have a jacuzzi. Well, these updates will cost a bit more than you had budgeted for. It’s your home, and you want to enjoy everything in it for as long as possible. This is the time to decide what you want, rather than have to remodel sections of it just two years on. Another thing you’ll want to take into account is pests. If you’re building on new land there is a possibility of pests getting in during the building process, so you’ll want to remove them before you get settled in yourself. If you find this is the case you’ll want to find a professional pest control company that offers expert services local to you like Aptive pest control TX. So while it may not be the first thing you think to budget for, it is something that you will need to consider.

3. Comparison Shop

Single-sourcing isn’t the way to go when building your home. Always compare the costs of various items from different suppliers. Of course, cost alone isn’t the only crucial metric when comparing items. Quality and durability are other factors. Also, new is not always the best, as attested by the fact that, according to FracTracker, most incidents in a home are caused by pipelines that are less than ten years old.

4. Accident Proof Your Home

The best time to accident-proof your home is now; and here’s why. According to Rick Davis & Associates, there are over 11,000 accidental deaths yearly in Texas. Use materials that will minimize slipping and tripping accidents to accident-proof your home. Also, ensure you have a fire extinguisher and a smoke alarm.

Other ways to accident-proof your home include installing outdoor lights, ensuring there are no holes or cracks on walkways, using nonskid flooring in areas such as the bathroom, and installing a sturdy grab bar in your shower or tub.

Install a carbon monoxide detector near every bedroom and ensure there’s a phone and a light or lamp near every bed. As for the kitchen, keep flammable items such as curtains and towels away from the oven and burners. In the living room, ensure passageways are clutter-free and phone cords, extensions, and lamps don’t obstruct foot traffic.

5. Buy a Clean Parcel of Land

There are several factors to consider when looking for a piece of land on which to build your own home. These include zoning, deed restrictions, location, utility sources, and easements. Scrutinize the land closely before buying to ensure there are no unforeseen costs. For instance, if there’s a structure on the land, removing it will add to your costs.

If you notice such structures before buying the land, negotiate for a discount to factor in the cost of removing them. If you’re building your home in rural areas, you’re in luck. According to Successful Farming, sales of rural farmland were stable throughout 2022, and the trend is expected to persist in 2023. Buy a piece of land without encumbrances, one that’s affordable and ideal for building your new home.

There are many advantages to building your own home. First, you get to build it exactly as you want so it meets your needs. Second, since you’re building it (or a contractor is doing it for you), there are no hidden problems. For instance, you definitely won’t use hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead-based paint. Rather than buy an old home, how about saving some money by building your own?

Story of a Table

by Ashley

small square kitchen table with four chairs

When my ex-husband and I first separated back in the summer of 2018, I left a lot of the joint marital possessions behind. When I moved out, I took my bedroom set (which was a hand-me-down from my Dad), some patio furniture (which I used as indoor furniture initially since I had none), and most of the kitchen stuff since I was the cook in the family. But that was it!

In those first months, things were very tight financially. I made two immediate purchases that I considered necessities – a new bedroom set for my kids (bunk beds + dresser, as I’d left theirs behind with their Dad) and a washer/dryer. I figured we could slooooowly add whatever else we needed in time.

Making Do

That meant we did not have a kitchen table. Instead, we had a kitchen island and two barstools. Each night when we had dinner together, the girls each sat on a barstool at the island, and I stood at the island with them. That is how we had our family meals for months and months.

Maybe 6 months into this living situation, one of my friends moved away and offered to give me her old craft table. This was not a huge or fancy dining room table situation. It was scuffed and a little wobbly and had paint marks on the top. But it was a table and four chairs. I was THRILLED at the generous offer and snatched it up as quick as I could!

Combining Lives

It was maybe a year after that when my now-husband and I moved in together (I was in a rental home and he joined me about mid-way through my lease). I was still making do with our old craft table + kitchen island. But he had a lovely kitchen table set and that became our primary table. My craft table was now a secondary table. We used it in the breakfast nook and it became the place where the girls did their homework. But we never ate there anymore. My now-husband’s table took its place.

In Summer 2020, we got married and bought our first home together. Both tables came – my husband’s (now a little beat up, itself), and my trusty craft table. We’ve still used the craft table for kids’ homework and my husband’s is where we eat all of our meals.

New Horizons

Since joining lives, we’ve verrrrry slowly added new pieces here and there. I wrote in this post about how our formal living room came together spending very little money out-of-pocket (instead acquiring most of the things second-hand).

But I’ve turned my sights on that old craft table and think it’s now time for an upgrade. While I still love my husband’s original table and fully plan to keep it as our primary table, I want our formal dining room to get a formal dining table it deserves. As it is, my husband’s table (I guess I should just say “our” table at this point? Lol) only seats 4 comfortably. If there are children we could squeeze in a few extra chairs, but the table does not have a leaf to extend. It’s a square table, not a long rectangular one, so it’s tough to fit additional people on each side. And, being over a decade old now, itself, it shows its age. It’s perfect for regular usage, but I want a more traditional table (long, rectangular, with a leaf for added length) that we can use for special occasion meals like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or when we have guests over for dinner.

Savings Plan

Because I love myself a challenge, I’m using this desire as a motivator to cut back in our budget and trim off excess. I want to save up for a new dining room table with the goal to be able to buy one in cash in time for our Thanksgiving dinner! I actually started saving last month, so that gives me 6 months of savings time between now and the goal purchase date. I don’t have an exact table picked out yet, but will probably start window shopping soon just to get an estimated price range so I know if I’m on track with my savings. I hope to save up between $1200-1500 in that time. That’s a savings rate of about $250/month, which I think I can do if I squeeze the extra out of my budget! Last month I’d set aside $200 so I’m a smidge bit behind, but I think I can catch up.

In the coming week, I plan to take a hard look at my August planned budget to see where I can pinpoint areas with heavy spending. I know I can likely do better on our grocery and eating-out budget, and with extras like clothing purchases and entertainment. After I’ve had a chance to really dive in, I’ll report back with my savings plan!

If you had a big savings goal, what is the first budget category that you would try to trim or cut back?

Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!