Welcome to Farmhouse From Scratch! Farmer and I are on the adventure of our lives building our dream home, on our dream property, debt free. The only way that was possible was for us to be our own general contractor and do it all ourselves. Come follow us on this adventure and let us teach you how to build your dream home for a fraction of the price that it would cost for you to hire a general contractor to do it.
The purpose of this site is to help others like us. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to build the house they have always dreamed of for a price that is actually possible. Our dream home was quoted at $500,000. We could never afford that without going into some serious debt. We are shopping, haggling, negotiating, trading, and searching until we find quality materials and service for the lowest prices possible. Our goal is to build our home for $300,000. Yep, that is $200,000 less than it was quoted for. We have already saved over $65,000 and we aren’t even half way done.
Come watch us do it!
I have arranged the posts into “steps” to try and make it easier to follow. You can follow the steps in order to know what you should be doing next and inside each step are additional posts you can click on for more detailed information.
Go ahead and start with Step 1: Where to start when you want to build a house
Then here are the other steps I have written so far:
Step 3: Hiring a Designer/Architect
Step 6: Permit requests and assignments
Step 7: Shopping for sub-contractors
Step 8: Shopping for materials
The checklists, schedules, and printables page was created to make things easier to keep track of. There is so much information to sort through when building a house. Lists, schedules, plans, and other organization tools are so helpful when you are dealing with such a huge amount of paperwork and information. Sign up below for FREE unlimited access to all of the checklists, schedules, and printables I have created to help you save money and stay organized. There is even a detailed cost breakdown of our home for you.
If you live in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, or Utah be sure to check out the Who should I hire page. It outlines the people I hired after doing months of research on the best deals and the most reliable service. It will save you a lot of time when searching for who you should be hiring to do each job on your home.
If you are looking for extra help CLICK HERE to visit the extra help page with a videos and tutorials option.
If you are having trouble finding something on the site or you have any questions that I have not answered, please feel free to email me at farmerswife@farmhousefromscratch.com
I want to help you have the home of your dreams too, let’s do this!
~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.
Kenneth Harrison says
I applaud you in your endeavor of being your own contractor. I am a veteran, 40 years in the business, general contractor. The absolute one thing one needs to know is when a sub is being honest or not. If you’re not experienced in how that shower pan is supposed to be then he may cut a corner or two. These type of items are not inspected normally by the local inspector. Or is the driveway sloped enough so that it won’t “pond” water when it rains? These are just a few things that an inexperienced person wouldn’t just know right off the bat. But again, I love seeing people do what you’re doing, at least they find out that being your on contractor isn’t as easy as one may think.
Good Luck!!
farmerswife@therealfarmhouse.com says
Thanks for the comment Ken! I always love to hear thoughts from the professionals. And you are right, being your own contractor isn’t easy!