A good way to start your budget is to use the Construction Manager spreadsheet that I created to take a first pass a what the total cost for your project will be.  I left the costs from my project in the spreadsheet to give you a rough idea of what your costs might be.  Here are some steps to follow to create a construction budget for your new house:

Decide how much square footage you need for your livable space.

Figure somewhere between $75 and $100 a square foot for your cost to construct depending on the quality of materials that you use.

“What order do the major steps involved in building a house?”

This is second nature to an experienced builder but if your building your own house for the first time this can be one of the biggest sources of anxiety.  The importance of understanding this can not be under estimated.  You have to be one step ahead of the process to avoid  lulls in your progress, keep your subcontractors on schedule, order your materials on time etc.  Below is a list I created that is mostly in chronological order to help you get familiar with the steps.  Keep in mind some of the steps can happen at the same time and this list isn’t perfect for your project but will give you a great starting point.  Be sure to download the Build Your Own House spreadsheet that I created, it includes this list with more detail including scheduling tips.

Due to the increase popularity of concrete counters over the last few years the market has been flooded with great products.  For instance Quickcrete has come up with their own concrete counter mix.  I wish I had had this stuff when I did my counters since it’s is a specially formulated to be flowable which is great because you won’t end up with any voids in the front and side edges of your counters.

When I was considering concrete counters in our last house I found a couple of great videos. You can get the DVD’s below at the authors websites listed in the Resource Links Below.  I’d recommend getting both these videos since their approaches are drastically different and you can decide which works best for you or use some of the techniques from both videos.

• Building Concrete Countertops by Buddy Rhodes
• Concrete Countertops by Fu-Tung Cheng

Additional links to information about concrete counters:

• Concrete Exchange – DIY and Professional Concrete Countertop Products
• Buddy Rhodes Concrete Countertop Mix
• enCounter – Concrete Countertops
• Concrete Decor
• ConcreteCountertops.net

One of the best decisions I made when building my own house was to use a Tankless Hot Water Heater.  You’ll enjoy as much as 40% energy savings over a traditional tank-style water heater because you’ll only heat water on demand rather than constantly reheating 40+ gallons. That being said although these are more energy efficient that are not necessarily more economical since they may cost twice as much. It would take the life of the heater 15-20 years to experience enough savings to justify the extra cost.

Rinnai Tankless Water Heater

Here is a list of advantages of a Tankless Water Heater vs Tank Style Water Heater as I see them:

• Endless hot water and up to 40% energy savings
• Space savings, you can install a tankless in a variety of places
• Most models have commercial-grade heat exchangers
• Clean, fresh hot water, no sediment from your tank
• Consistent tempature for your hot water
• Tankless Water Heaters are “Green” using less energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions
• Many models offer digital controls for precise temperature control
• Won’t flood your garage because your tank burst
• These things are tough, most have a life span of 20 years or more

These units are so energy efficient that if you replace your old tank style heater you can get a $300 tax credit from Uncle Sam if you put your Tankless Water Heater into service between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. There are several reliable brands to choose from some of which I’ve listed below.  I would personally recommend a Rinnai, I’ve had extremely good luck with mine its a R85 .  It will be on the higher end of the price scale but worth every penny. Here is a list of the top brands to compare:

• Rinnai Tankless Water Heater
• Rheem Tankless Water Heater
• Bosch Tankless Water Heater
• Noritz Tankless Water Heater
• Paloma Tankless Water Heater

Don’t forget to read my post on plumbing tankless hot water heaters. Here is the latest on what Consumer Reports has to say about  Are Tankless Water Heaters worthwhile? This is focused more on replacement of and old tank style heater rather than new construction but provides an interesting contrasting opionion.

There are a couple of plumbing considerations to be made to be sure that you maximize the life and performance of your tankless water heater.

First, if you have hard water it’s a necessity with a tankless hot water heater that you add a water softener to your system.  It will protect your tankless water heater from scale build up in the heat exchanger and lines.  After time scale buildup will reduce energy and restrict water flow.

Second, I would recommend finding a plumber who can install a Manabloc system with your Tankless Water Heater.  The Manabloc system provides a cost effective distribution manifold for a plumbing system.   This system will allow hot water to reach all the faucets and showers in your house more quickly since each has its own line.  Think of this as a electric circuit breaker for your plumbing system.  You can also turn each individual line off at the manifold making repairs very easy.

ManaBloc and PEX Plumbing System

It won’t add cost to your project and in some cases with the right plumber it will be more cost effective than traditional PVC pluming.  Since the lines are flexible no joints are required between the source and the outlet so your chance of having leaks is much less likely.

This system uses flexible piping called PEX Plumbing and it is the future of the plumbing industry. PEX piping has been used in hot and cold water distribution systems and for hydronic radiant heating in Europe for decades.  PEX is much more resistant to freeze-breakage than copper or rigid plastic pipe.  Another benefit of plastic pipe is its small environmental impact compared to other materials, never hurts to be green.

Here are a few resources to do some more research on this product:

PEX Supply

PEX Information

PPFA

Build Your Own House

I created this excel spreadsheet that contains planning tools to help you build your own house or do a major construction project.

• Detailed Estimation of Costs
• Learn The Major Milestones of a Construction Project
• Create Shopping Lists
• Plan Sub Contractors
• Calculate Mortgage Payment (Including Taxes, Home Owners Insurance and PMI Insurance)

Download Now>>

• Create detailed estimation of costs
• Track your costs during a project
• Learn the major milestones of a new construction project
• Calculate Mortgage Payment (Including Taxes, Home Owners Insurance and PMI Insurance)
• Manage your subcontractors
• Create and print documents that you will need such as your spec sheet for your bank
• Create Shopping Lists

Chances are if your considering building your own house you have been planning and dreaming about what you want for years.   There are several options for developing your house plans when building your own house.  There are endless sources for house plans online that come with just about everything you need to build a house.  The challenge is that you will inevitably want to make changes to these plans.   Some builders will do your plans even if they aren’t building the house for a fee.  I worked with a designer while building our house.

Plans for Building Your Own House

I’m happy to share the designer that I worked with if you contact me.  Your probably thinking that it would be to expensive to work with a designer but in many cases  its as affordable as buying a set of plans online.  This also gives you the opportunity to customize your plans with the help of a professional.  Trust me its worth every penny.

In my case my designer charged me $.50 per square foot so for the same price that it would cost to buy a construction ready set of house plans online I got a complete custom design that fit perfectly on my lot. Find someone locally to work with that seems like they will be patient.  You will go through several rounds of edits even if you have a clear idea of what you want.  Most likely the will start with the particulars of your lot including your setbacks etc.

Try your absolute best to get all your changes done during the planning stage.  It’s allot easier to make changes with your designer than with multiple sub contractors.  Even if you get to the point where its going to cost you to make revisions with your designer its worth every penny.  Making changes once you have multiple subcontractors involved will become very challenging.  Since much of what they do is interrelated it’s very important that they are all working from the same page.  It can also protect you from having to pay for redo’s that were a result of a change that wasn’t on your construction plans.  Never communicate a change to a subcontractor verbally.  Meet with them write it on their plans and have them initial and date the changes on your master set of plans.

Here are a few things to consider when creating your plans that you may find helpful that won’t add significant cost to your project:

• Limiting your west facing windows will help greatly with energy efficiency
• It’s hard to error on the side of adding to much light, add more than you think you need
• Same thing with electrical outlets add more than you think you need, especially in the garage and the kitchen
• Add a water faucet that is connected to your water softener in the front of your garage to wash your cars with (No Hardwater Spots!)
• Consider adding some outlets in the eves of your house if you do Holiday lighting every year with a switch inside the house
• If you plan on storing things in your attic make sure it can support the weight or it will sag after time