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 did my own excavation with a pick and shovel. I made all the cement forms and had the cement delivered and poured. When the foundation was all dry and completed, I started putting on all the floor joists and covered them with wafer board and plywood. I then built the outside walls that included the rough openings for doors and windows.

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.

Next, I put up all the interior walls and finished the electrical wiring and the rough-in plumbing so I could have those systems inspected before the sheetrock walls were hung. After the first inspections passed, I enclosed the walls with drywall.

I also covered the outside of my home with vinyl siding and trim. It looked really good. I had kitchen cabinets built and started all of the inside finish work and trim. I installed all of the electrical systems and appliances.

I passed my second inspections with the building inspector, electrical inspector, and the plumbing 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 cost of materials was around $60,000. The final appraised price of my home was $140,000 when we moved in.

After all of my building experience, I realized how much the cost of hired labor is and why contractor built houses are so expensive to build. The price of contracted construction labor has gone up so much over the last two decades that people earning average incomes cant afford average-sized homes.

Banks have had to get really creative and take a lot of chances so people could have homes. Wages haven’t kept pace at all with the inflation of homes or anything else and that’s the biggest reason why we are in the financial crisis.