Super Budgeting Tips For Building Your Own Home

are some tips to help you budget when you buildthe most conspicuous places, you should be able
your own home.to live very comfortably in a house, wholly, or at
Concrete slab construction is cheaper than woodleast partly built by yourself, with the help of your
joist and sub floor construction.family and friends.
Asphalt tile is a cheap durable flooring materialWhatever you do, let it be done as well as your
which comes in many attractive colors.skill and your ability will permit.
Radiant panel heating, instead of a forced airNever knowingly do a poor or slipshod job,
furnace, will be less expensive and is reasonablyespecially when you are building a house. Besides
satisfactory.causing you trouble later it will be difficult and
Forced-air heating is cheaper than heating withexpensive to remedy. Do the best piece of work
steam or hot water. Gravity warm-air heating isthat you possibly can do.
cheaper than forced air.Be thorough in your foundation work; just
Group your plumbing as close together as youbecause it is out of sight do not conclude that it is
can to save on the piping. Asphalt shingles are theunimportant.
cheapest—built up roof next, then shingles,Take special precautions in your roof work,
shakes, rigid asbestos shingles. The mostremembering that water will always run down hill
expensive are slate and tile.under the influence of gravity, and sometimes up
Copper flashing is more expensive than galvanizedhill when the wind blows hard enough. Fit your
iron.windows so that they operate freely.
The copper is more durable, but the galvanizedDo your plumbing so that it will not get stopped
iron will probably last as long as the rest of theup, or if it does get stopped, have clean out plugs
roof, perhaps longer.at the proper places. Solder the joints in your
An open cornice is cheaper than one that iswiring carefully. Join wires only in boxes.
boxed in.Thoroughness in every detail pays big dividends in
The more moldings and the larger they are thelater satisfaction and especially in freedom from
more expensive the cornice. The appearance of arepairs. Repairs seem always to be needed at the
simple cornice may be more pleasing than anmost inopportune times.
elaborate, expensive one.People who have never traveled often think that
A roof with few or no valleys is cheaper than athings are universally done the same way they
complicated one. A hip roof does not add much toare in the old home town.
the cost, because the extra you spend on theThose who travel and observe find that there are
roof is saved by not having to build the end wallsmany acceptable ways of doing most things.
so high.Don't be afraid of inventing something new, or
Avoid dormer windows since they are expensivesome new way of doing; in this way lies progress.
and often leak.To follow slavishly the accepted way stops
When you do your own work, you can oftenprogress and results in stagnation. As a Chinese
afford to buy better materials than when you hireworker once said to his friend who was
the work done.interested in being up to date, "Don't try to tell
The amount of labor required is usually the sameme how to do this; my grandfather taught me."
whether you use cheap materials or the moreI have traveled and built buildings in many parts of
expensive kinds; in fact, the more expensivethe world, particularly in the Orient, and I have
materials often require less labor than the cheaperfound many alternative ways of doing building
stuff, and you get a better house using the bestwork, some of it superior to our own, and much
materials.of it just as good.
Some things may not be done with the precisionAnother tip to save money is to use a mortgage
of professional craftsmen, but if the color schemecalculator when you purchase land or property.
is good, and the defects do not happen to be in