Happy Friday, friends! It has been a hectic week for us so far. Well, honestly, with a newborn every week seems hectic. :) What is that saying… “The days are long but the years are short.” And I know that to be true so I’m trying to soak in this short time with my third and last newborn baby. I wanted to share a little today about my first owner build experience when I was just Mom to one child….

Getting ready to pour the foundation slab

Shortly after I graduated college I found myself living with my parents but wanting to own a home. I was 23 years old, had a 4 year old son, and I yearned to finally give him a place with his own bedroom and a yard to play in. It was the end of 2005 and early 2006 during my search and prices were awfully high as the housing market was ripe here in north Florida. I couldn’t find anything in my price range that checked off all of my boxes (mind you, I have always had my head in the clouds). My parents had built three homes during my childhood (one of which they owner built and the other two they were very hands on with) and I had watched as my grandparents owner built a lake home. Needless to say, I was around construction projects all the time and building my own home struck my fancy. I quickly switched paths to looking for land and was lucky to find a ready-to-build lot in a nice subdivision which I purchased in February 2006. For the next year, I saved every penny I could and in the spring of 2007 I went to a home designer and made a few changes to a stock house plan I pulled out of a magazine. We revised it a few times over the course of a couple of months and once it was what I wanted, I started the building process.

My mom looking at the home during the framing phase

For my starter home I chose to go the owner builder route mostly to save cost. I was a single mom with a middle class income meaning I had more time than I had money. I was fully willing to sacrifice to make this dream come true. As an owner builder you are in complete control of the cost of the home so you can save, basically, as much as you desire. (I gathered three bids from local contractors before building my home and the cheapest bid I was given was $80,000 more than my final cost to build.) I read a book on home construction and soon I got started pulling my permits and calling subcontractors to get work lined up. Through phone calls and meeting folks in the industry I found a couple knowledgeable “consultants” who were willing to answer some basic questions for me when I ran into roadblocks. I also routinely hassled my parents and grandparents who regularly came to my build site and helped to monitor.

My dad and my son getting those doors ready to paint

We officially broke ground in July 2007 and in early January 2008 I was moving in (I think my official Certificate of Occupancy was actually dated for February). All interior painting, trim work, and landscaping was done as a collaborative effort by myself, my parents, and my brother. When the home appraised for the closing I had earned $110,000 sweat equity. For a young twenties single momma, that was worth all of the hours I had spent on the project.