I built my own home back in 1995 without the help of contractors. I didn’t do it to prove anything or to make a point at all; I just wanted to make a nice place to live for my family without the high mortgage payments. I paid cash or traded labor for as much of the materials that I could. Most of the time, I used whatever money I could get from credit cards.

I dug the foundation out with a pick and shovel. Then I constructed the cement forms and poured the cement. When the foundation was finished, I started the first floor by putting on the floor joists then covering them with plywood and wafer board. I then built the walls that included the door and window openings.

I also did most of the plumbing and electrical systems while the walls were open and exposed. I constructed the stairs and started the second floor. After the second floor was finished I built the roof and enclosed the whole house to keep the snow and rain out. I put on metal roofing and installed all the windows and doors.

I then built all the interior walls and finished the electrical wiring and the rough-in plumbing so I could have it inspected before the sheetrock walls were put on. After the first inspections passed, I closed in all the walls with drywall.

I also sided the outside of the house with vinyl siding and trim. It looked great. I built kitchen cabinets and started all of the interior finish work. I then installed all the appliances and electrical systems.

I passed my second round of inspections with the plumbing inspector, electrical inspector, and the building inspector.

I had all of the flooring and carpeting installed by professionals. When my house was finished, I still had one final inspection to get the occupancy permit. After we got the occupancy permit we moved into our home. We consolidated all of our debt from credit cards into one home mortgage loan with low interest. We had a good amount of equity in our home from our hard-earned labor.

My total cost of building materials was right around $60,000. The final appraised value of our home was $140,000 when we moved in.

It was only after all of my building experience that I realized how much the cost of labor is and why contractor built homes are so expensive to buy. The price of construction labor has increased so much over the last twenty years that people who make average to good incomes cant afford average homes.

Banks have had to get dangerously creative and take many chances so people could have homes. Wages haven’t been able to keep pace at all with the inflation of homes or anything else and that’s the main reason why we are in this financial crisis.