I was lucky enough to find a special book early on in our house planning adventures. I love to read so I rented every book I could find about owner building from the library and devoured them all in a day or two. There was one particular book that I just couldn’t bring myself to take back though. I kept re-checking it out until I had maxed out my renewals. Then I read it 15 more times in hopes that I could memorize the whole thing before I finally took it back, several weeks late, and had to pay a fine. I should have just bought the dang book. Stupid me.
That book is The Owner Builder Book by Mark A Smith. It’s hands down the best Owner Builder handbook out there if you ask me.
Anyways, I am telling you this because there is one piece of advice that really stuck out to me in his book. He said “give me 1,000 hours!” 1,000 hours of planning that is.
1,000 hours?!?! That seemed like a little overkill to me. He also said that every single hour spent planning, would save you more money. He had a specific number for that, but I must not have committed that to memory as well as I thought.
Once I started actively planning my house, it became obvious that his statement was 100% true. When we began building, it was EVEN MORE evident because every day I was painfully reminded of the little things I hadn’t planned out. I had no idea it was that important.
Which is why I am devoting an entire post to it today. I would guess I gave right around 1,000 hours to planning our house, and every single day I still wish I had done more.
Of all the things you will do to build your house, the planning stage is the very most important. If it is done correctly, it will result in more money and time savings than anything else you do.
Perhaps the hardest mental obstacle to overcome in this area is the lack of knowledge of those of us who have never built a house before. I asked myself this question probably a million times before we broke ground: “How in the world am I supposed to plan something out completely, when I have no idea what the process is or what the project requires?”
It can be a scary thing to take on, but it absolutely CAN be done. It takes time and determination, and a few friendly people to give you professional advice along the way. I am living proof that you can plan (and build) your own house, and save a whole lot of money in the process ($200,000). But that is a post for another day!
Today I want to get you fired up to spend as much time as you possibly can PLANNING out your house. More than just your kitchen layout and what flooring you will have, I am talking about every tiny detail. From the ground up guys. In fact, I think everyone looks at planning their house completely backwards. It makes so much more sense to plan your house from the outside in, because the bones of the house are what determine the finish. Anyways…. that’s another post for another day also! Sorry I am getting off track! Let’s get to it.
- Time: Things left unplanned will easily take three times as long when you are trying to make decisions in the moment. There is extra stress and extra people around when you are in the middle of building a home. You have other people’s opinions thrown at you. You don’t make as educated of decisions and therefore end up changing your mind or forgetting things. This in turn ads even more time wasted. Time is money. Which brings us to #2…
- Money: Everyone knows impulse buys are more expensive or wasted money completely. You will almost never find anything on sale, be able to negotiate prices, or have plenty of options to choose from if you are in a position where you need something right then. If you don’t plan ahead, your days will be filled with “run to the store to grab ____” or “oh shoot, we need a bunch more of ___”. Not to mention the gas money involved when making trips to the store multiple times a day.
- Relationships: People always want to know “how Farmer and I are doing” and “if we are still happily married” as they laugh and share horror stories of back when they built a house and it nearly ruined their marriage. It’s all about the planning guys. Plan it out, don’t rush things, and communicate, and your house building adventures will actually bring you closer together with the important people in your life rather than farther away. We have LOVED building our own house together.
- Quality: The only way to get quality materials and tradesmen on your house combined with great prices is by giving yourself PLENTY of time to shop, compare, plan, and negotiate. If left to the last minute, your budget will only allow you to buy the cheapest stuff you can find. I can pretty much guarantee you will be disappointed with the quality of the things you find on a moments notice.
- Mental wellness: You will literally drive yourself crazy (and everyone around you) for an entire year if you try and jump into a project like this without planning it out thoroughly. You will be stressed. You will have more things on your plate than you can even accomplish in one day. You will forget things. You will neglect your other responsibilities. These things are not “maybe’s”. They are facts.
I literally can not stress enough the importance of planning out your new house. It may seem like a ton of work. No, let me rephrase that. It IS a ton of work. But it is necessary and it is absolutely worth it.
If I had it all over to do again, I would use all of the lists, papers, and drawings that I created the first time through, and I would use them to plan more thoroughly and more deliberately. It will in fact, directly effect the amount of time and money you save by way more than you can imagine.
Just right now, as I am sitting here at my computer thinking, I can come up with over $10,000 that we could have saved with better planning on my part. Some of them were things I didn’t know needed to be planned. Some of them were things I didn’t plan out well enough. Some of them were things that needed changing later on. And some of them were things I knew I should plan, but I put it off because I thought it wouldn’t matter until later.
If you are in the planning stages of building your house, I have something to help you out today with the most important part in your building process.
Plan Your House the course is a 21 day e-course walking you through every detail that needs to be planned for your build. Every day has checklists and planners to help keep everything written down and organized in the best way possible. No more stressing whether or not you forgot something. PYH tells you what you need to plan, and when you need to plan it.
***Update: Special holiday sale on PYH will be November 25-27
You can also check out Where to start when you want to build a house for some more planning information.
And be sure to check out my Backward Planning Strategy.
I am a stay at home mom, with four littles hanging on my arm, almost no higher education, and certainly no experience in construction, and I did it. You can do it too. So now let’s do it together!
~Farmer’s Wife
FREE checklists and schedules
Access to the resources I created that helped Farmer and I save over $75,000 building our own custom dream home.
Barbara says
How do you feel about using online resources such as HomeAdvisor for searching for professional hires?
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hey Barbara,
I tried using them twice. I do think it is a nice idea on their part. They are trying to make it easier for us. It didn’t quite work that way for me. Here were my problems:
-The area that I live in. I think because I live out in the middle of nowhere, they had a really hard time finding people for me. If I lived in a big city I think it would have been a different experience for me.
-I had better luck with other avenues. I don’t like finding people to hire, in places where they have paid to put themselves. That doesn’t mean that advertising is bad. Obviously people have to get their name out there and that is just fine. I just mean that I preferred to find people and companies to hire by talking to people, asking friends, asking other sub-contractors, etc. When I went down a phone book list, or a google list, or a Home advisor list, I ended up with way more “duds” then “keepers”. It just didn’t help me out very much.
With all of that being said, I think if you live in an area with more options you would have a much better experience. And since you want as many options as possible to shop from when hiring someone, it could be a great resource for you. Give it a try and see how you like it. Just make sure to do your homework afterward and get references before hiring anyone.
Barbara says
Thank you! My thoughts exactly ! The 3 builders I have contacted so far were not even on the homeadvisor list, but word of mouth has them highly recommended…. go figure.
Meeting with 2 more tomorrow and then on to the task of hiring a draftsman.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Awesome! Good luck!
Deborah Hayden says
I do floor plans and because I am new in my area, I have to use Home Advisor to get my name out there. As a designer, I am constantly promoting the planning stage before the homeowner sends the plans out for bid. I wish I could use word of mouth instead. If my client Michelle sees this, I hope she responds. I’ve been drawing her future home for over a year (off and on). I’m not cheap, but I am saving her thousands of dollars because I can send her a 3D rendering of what the house will look like when it is done, or pretty close! Word of mouth is best!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thank you Deborah! I completely agree. I am sure your service is wonderfully helpful too!
Whitney says
I keep hearing how much you need to plan, the problem is I don’t know what I need to plan for.
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Hey Whitney,
I am working on some more planning resources. I know that was one of the hardest parts for me also. I will send out more emails as soon as I get them finished.
Barbara in AZ says
I started my plans on my own over a year ago. I just hired my builder and architect, I’m way too old to be a complete DIY build. They were blown away with my sketches. I asked, “what do people usually bring in when they want you to build for them?” The owner flipped my papers over to the blank side and said: “there, that’s what they give us.” I don’t know how it works, but I DO know what I want. I also know WHY I want what I want. So, that’s the relationship I have with them. I’m very pleased so far with everything they’ve given me. I’m relying on them to do the structural stuff, I’m doing all the finishing myself. So, that’s one way to do this. I know it will cost a tad more to hire the contractor, but I also know my limitations. When my architect sends me plans, I know exactly where every outlet and water pipe is supposed to be, so that’s a huge advantage. She’s great at helping me figure out every square inch, I moved a wall just to give me exactly 60 inches in a bathroom! I already have some of my doors, cabinets, etc, which I have collected over the past year, so making the house fit what I have is essential. Buy things you see that will fit what you are doing, then design around them. I spent $120 at a Habitat Store on 6 doors that will be so awesome in my house. That’s ridiculously inexpensive!!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Oh my gosh thank you so much for sharing! You are doing it exactly the right way! You will end up with exactly what you want and you will save a huge amount of money. Way to go! Keep us updated on your progress, it’s inspiring.