Not many people I talk to about our building experience make it through the conversation without asking something about living in our house unfinished. Everybody wants to know
“Why?”
“What’s it like?”
“Isn’t that the worst thing in the world?”
So since we just passed the 1 year mark of living in our home unfinished, I thought this was a great time to give you guys a hard shot of the honest truth…. in case you plan on doing something similar.
First off, if you don’t know HOW unfinished our house is, you can CLICK HERE for a detailed look at what we moved into one year ago. We have been slowly working on things since then, but the plan was to get moved into the house and then take our time finishing it a little at a time. This was the only way we could make it work without going in to debt. So between waiting for money to come in, Farming, and having a long and miserable pregnancy, things haven’t changed a whole bunch since we moved in. In the last year we have:
- Finished our bathroom
- Almost finished a second
- Worked on siding
- Poured more cement
- Put up several interior doors
- Put up fans in all the bedrooms
- Brought in new appliances and started painting the kitchen cabinets
- Waterproofed some of the deck
- Landscaped one side of our house
Notice how most of those things say “started” or “worked on”? Yeah, that’s about how this year has gone… lot’s of starting, not a ton of finishing. Sometimes that’s just the way things go.
Honestly though, it’s all about attitude and what you planned for. Farmer and I knew from the very beginning that this was how it would be. We were (and are) totally fine with it (most of the time). If you plan to take your time, then it isn’t nearly as frustrating when something takes three times as long as you thought it would.
It’s totally different than hiring someone who says they can have the job done in a week and it ends up taking them two. That is harder for me to deal with than taking months to finish a single tile job that I knew would be completed “when we had time”.
Also, it’s important to stay positive and light hearted about it. We get plenty of negative comments about how awful it must be to live in a house like this, or who we don’t just hire someone to hurry up and finish it. And in response we just smile and tell them it’s definitely been an adventure, but we are enjoying the ride. When I complain about the things I hate about living in an unfinished house, I end up focusing on those and getting impatient. I have to try hard to remember the things I love about it, and then I very rarely get stressed out about the situation we have put ourselves in.
So, with that being said, here is my list of the things I hate and the things I love about living in an unfinished house in case you are considering a similar road.
What I hate:
The noise
This is easily the #1 thing that drives me bonkers about our house right now. With no flooring in, nothing on our walls, and only a few interior doors, our house is ridiculously loud. We chose an open floor plan, which was exactly what I wanted. I do not regret our floor plan for one second, but it does make the noise problem that we have right now a little worse. The fact that I have 5 kids under 8 couldn’t possibly add to the noise problem too, could it? But seriously, we have started implementing “whisper time” because someone talking loudly in the living room can be heard throughout the ENTIRE house. And Little Man’s boots running across the kitchen …. oh don’t even get me started on that. Noise, noise, ALL the time in my house.
That nothing looks “nice”
I am not a “cute” person. I don’t spend any time getting ready in the morning. I live in jeans and a t-shirt and hat. I don’t like knick knacks. And I am not good at decorating or making things look great. So the fact that my floor is just painted, and my kitchen is pieced together out of someone else’s cabinets doesn’t bother me. However, Farmer and I (mostly Farmer- it drives him nuts) do like things to look clean and tidy. Unfinished things don’t look clean and tidy. For example, our windows have no trim on the inside yet. So you can see the yellow foam around the edges that we sprayed in to seal them. You can also see some of the window sealant that squished out around the edges. This is not a problem except that it LOOKS like it needs to be cleaned. Until we have all of our flooring in and our trim on, nothing will really look clean or tidy.
Some of the things we have had to put together for short term use- may have actually cost us more money
We are learning as we go. Most of this stuff we have never done before so of course there will be lessons learned. That’s one reason I really wanted to start this website. I wanted to pass on the things that we learned and made mistakes on, so you guys don’t all have to make the same dumb mistakes.
There are a few things in our house that we either thought wouldn’t matter as much as they did, or that we thought we could save some money on right now by doing something short term and then fixing it in the long run. They didn’t all work out the way we wanted them to. I have two examples for you.
- We wanted a huge propane tank so that we could store plenty and only have to fill up every couple of years. Huge propane tanks cost a lot of money. So we decided to wait and just use the little tiny ones for now, until we got a few of our other more important things finished first. Well between all of our trips to town to get our propane refilled, and the fact that it’s more expensive per unit in tiny containers than it is buying in bulk, it would have been so much easier and less expensive in the long run to just get our huge propane tank in the first place.
- We weren’t 100% finished with our insulation when we moved in. The biggest reason for that is actually that we ran out of blow in when we were doing it, so we just decided to finish it another day. Well one day turned into weeks, just like so many of our projects do. Then we started getting our power bills and they were OUTRAGEOUS. We had no idea that a few inches of insulation could make that much of a difference. Well after two months of power bills triple what they should have been, we headed to Lowe’s for more insulation. After that, our power bill went from over $700 to under $200. Yes, we definitely lost money on that decision!
The money waiting game
This one is really just hard for me every once in awhile. Again, we knew we would be taking it slow. We knew we would be waiting for money to come in to finish each project. That was the price we were willing to pay in order to not have to take out a loan. But every once in awhile, when I get everything figured out for a project, and I know just what we need to have and do to make it happen, and then we have to wait for another month or two for enough money to come in, that’s when it gets hard. Patience it a tough thing to master, and I definitely don’t have mine under control 100% of the time.
No shelving
This is something that I didn’t think of. We didn’t finish any of our closets before we moved in, so we are relying on dressers and bookshelves to keep all of our stuff on. I am embarrassed to admit how much stuff we have on our floor because it’s waiting for our shelves, rods, cubbies, and drawers to be built into our closets. This is one thing I really wish we could have finished before moving in.
Alright, enough negativity! Let’s talk about the things that I love about living in an unfinished house.
What I love:
Unfinished floors and kids
Remember when I said that having unfinished floors (and 5 kids) makes our house ridiculously loud? Well I have a love hate relationship with my floors right now. I hate the noise but ….. I LOVE not having to worry about them. Kids wanna ride scooters inside? No problem! Making duct tape roads for their trucks to drive on? Go for it! Dragging a stool all the way across the kitchen and leaving a huge gash? I don’t even bat an eyelash!
It’s not just the kids either. When Farmer and I have to move furniture or appliances, I don’t have to worry about the inevitable dents that would have gone into my hardwood floor if it was already finished. It’s just been soooo nice to not have to worry about our floor (or any other finish work) getting damaged. I may just wait until my kids are all older to put in the flooring! ahhh maybe not, but it’s tempting.
The money- having no mortgage
Perhaps the one thing that I think about most often with our house is how grateful I am that we found a way to do it that we could afford. Everywhere I look I see money saved. I don’t care that our house isn’t finished yet, because it means that we don’t have a mortgage we have to pay each month. It means that we own our house free and clear. It means that if we don’t have money this month, that’s okay! Everything can wait until the next month and we won’t be charged ridiculous amounts of interest. This reason alone makes all of the craziness that we have gone through over the past two years worth it.
Finishing a project myself
Farmer finishes more projects than I do, but when I do finish a project myself it is incredibly rewarding. I love to look at something that I created or made happen. In an unfinished house, the projects are all around us. Right now we might be spending a lot of time STARTING projects, but someday those projects will all be finished. I really am enjoying the ride, even if this ride is going to take several years.
Being able to see if there are problems before the finish work gets ruined
One last thing I have enjoyed about taking our time and living in an unfinished house is that we can see the problems when they arise and before they have destroyed anything. It gives me piece of mind to know that something is working correctly before we cover it up with finishes. Take a water heater for example. We put one in a closet inside our house. That closet doesn’t have carpet yet. If it did, we wouldn’t have been able to see as quickly if that water heater had a leak or problem. Thank goodness it didn’t! But it’s things like that that I am glad we can take it slowly and make sure we aren’t having problems. Once we finally get around to finish work, we certainly know that everything is working the right way and won’t be damaging our expensive finishes.
So what’s the overall assessment? Well, even with those few things that I really hate, the good far outweighs the bad in my opinion. The one thing that trumps everything else is that living in an unfinished house is what allowed us to build our dream home mortgage free.
Yes, we have a million projects that will take us a few years to finish until our house looks like everyone else’s, but who cares! It’s a fun ride, and we can take it at our own pace. Not having a house payment, or a rent payment is freaking awesome! And I would highly recommend this strategy to anyone else who can make it work.
Has anyone else moved into an unfinished house? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
~Farmer’s Wife
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Angelia says
AWWWH! What an amazing attitude. We still haven’t built our new home, but I am in the middle of a bathroom remodel I’ve done all on my own (except for some plumbing I didn’t want to purchase all the tools to do, so it made more sense, financially, just to have the plumber do it) and even though it’s taking MONTHS to do the bathroom, I’m saving $5,000 doing it myself. Saving that amount, doing it myself and learning along the way is worth every bit of extra time it’s taking. We have a new sink and new toilet installed and it’s taking me five-ever to get the Hardi backer and tile up….don’t care.
Thanks for your example of being positive and modeling patience. Thank you as well for these insightful, informative posts.
Many blessings to you and yours!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thanks for the sweet comment Angelia… glad to hear we have similar attitudes about this!
Melissa Sisk says
We’re still getting ready for the building phase as well and we’ll be starting with a finished shell (converting an old preschool portable building into a house) but this is a nice reminder that all the slow parts add up to something wonderful when all is said and done.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
That is so right Melissa!
Robert Johnson says
Farmer’s Wife,
I have had multiple houses built for me in the last 15 years but I have gotten to the point where I want to be my own GC. You have inspired me and helped me to believe that it is possible with a lot of preparation and hard work. I can’t thank you enough for the information that you have provided, it is going to be invaluable as I develop my plan for building a house that I would otherwise not be able to afford if I had a builder do it. Thank you again for your inspiration and insight!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thanks for that nice comment Robert! Glad I could be of some help.
Laurel says
Oh yeah, I’ve experienced the living in an unfinished house thing. My childhood home remodel started when I was 9, and wasn’t done when we moved out at age 18. Now, my husband and I are in our seventh year of marriage, and due to living expenses in the PNW, seriously contemplating building our own place. I have a little hesitation considering I lived in a construction zone for so long and loved/hated it. One thing was having my poor parents clothes on the couches for a month (my mom says she never did so much ironing in her life) and their bed in the living room for two. Oh and how much drywall dust and dirt had to be constantly cleaned up. Having no driveway is no help. However I loved learning along the way and there were perks! We spilled hot wax on the plywood floor? No biggie. We stuffed messages in the walls for someone to find 100 years later, we learned what cool stuff you could make out of wire castoffs from the electrician, we found out how amazing cedar shakes smell and how they can make your whole garage smell like a lumber mill; what stem walls and rebar are for, and how big a dirt pile you can get when you add on a room.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
There are definitely awesome things about it and also hard things about it, but seriously if it means you are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars building yourself and on interest from not taking out a mortgage, I don’t see how it’s not worth it. Just my personal opinion haha, but I know plenty of people out there don’t agree with me! Where are you building at? I am in central WA, so we should be fairly close to one another.
Kendra Disney says
I loved reading this! We are building a barndo and we are moving into the shell with utilities. We won’t have any sheetrock or interior walls. I’m looking cheaper to beginning or journey. We won’t be debt free but our mortgage will be significantly less than if we hired a contractor to build it turn key. I’m very happy about that!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Sounds awesome Kendra! We would love to see some project photos sometime!