Building your own home is one of the biggest things you’ll do in your whole life. It will cost more money than you’re generally used to spending and will have a much bigger impact on your enjoyment of life than simply buying a regular home. The impact is similar to getting married or having a child, and the process is not dissimilar: lots of pre-planning and organisation coupled with endless decision making and money worries, which inevitably brings a few stresses and strains.
If watching TV programmes about self-building has sparked your interest in building your own home, then you’re in for a bit of a surprise. The entirely pleasant revelation is that building your own home is much easier than you might think, and provided you follow a few golden rules, you’ll avoid the following common pitfalls and your project will get completed with little drama and worry.
1 HAVING AN INADEQUATE BUILD BUDGET
Beer budgets and champagne tastes don’t mix and on self-builds where you’ll be spending significant amounts of money, there’s a real risk that you’ll bust the budget or may not be able to finish the build if your finances aren’t under control.
For most self-builders, the desire to build their own home is underpinned by an obsession for something different such as making an architectural statement. It doesn’t matter what
