Have helped manage a few houses my father (A GC and finishing carpenter) has built to live in every 5-10 years.
Before I was allowed to get a computer or enroll in comp sci, my father made sure that I learned to work with my hands a little too, so I had to be Junior GC..
Strategic Lessons:
- If you're interested in building a house, it might help to hire a GC who builds a regular house for a percentage fee to manage the build, learn from them, and then build your own. Most will be very happy to teach. You get 2 tries at a house on fit and finish.
- When building new, getting a closed shell (foundation, framing, walls, roof) is the most urgent thing to allow inside work to commence regardless of weather. If this gets missed in a shoulder season and you plan on building through the winter, it will present challenges.
- You have to build relative to the neighbourhood value, not what you can afford to build due to managing it yourself. Exception is if you're going to live there for 20 years.
- Lining up and managing trades is the name of the game. The more you look out for trades to get in and out easily, and care about their work, their quality of work goes through the roof.
- I would start with remodeling / extending an existing house before going through a new house. New builds are cleaner in some ways, but you will get a taste if it's for you.
- Alternative building methods (concrete walls, 3D printing) can be expected to have unintended side effects to traditional house building you should.
- Be strategic where you can save and do things yourself, vs have things done. There's often enough margin in just helping with prep and cleanup along the way plus doing a few easy things.
- Build to sell - build in extra entrances that are separate for basement suites, etc.
Reality:
- You have to be around all the time. Always when you're not planning to. Plan that in your commute and coming and going. Always better to build as close as possible to where you live. If not, where work.
- Clean as you go. All the time. Trades behave better on a site that's meticulous.
- Finishing is 60% of the value of a house. Keep that in mind. Everything can become more affordable when building on your own because labour savings are there.
- Managing your project schedule and budget every few days as a first timer will help a lot.