Corie Richter - The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Home and Saving Thousands on Your New House

The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Home

and Saving Thousands on Your New House

By Corie Richter

The Complete Guide to building your own home and saving thousands on your new house

Copyright 2009 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
1210 SW 23rd Place Ocala, Florida 34471 Phone 800-814-1132 Fax 352-622-1875

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SAN Number: 268-1250

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Richter, Corie, 1947

The complete guide to building your own home and saving thousands on your new house / author, Corie Richter.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-243-6 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60138-243-X (alk. paper)

1. House construction--Amateurs manuals. 2. Building--Superintendence--Amateurs manuals. 3. Contractors--Selection and appointment--Amateurs manuals. I. Title.

TH4815.R53 2009

690.8--dc22

2009032343

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the people of New Mexico who patiently taught me so many of the old and new artisan skills, including the craft of adobe and green building. Most of all, I learned to love the people, ethnic diversity, slow pace, and realities of life.

Table of Contents

Introduction

C ongratulations! You are about to embark on the journey of your life. It will be exciting, frustrating, and tiresome. It can make you wish you never started, question your sanity, and drive you to tears, but building your own home will undoubtedly give you great joy and a sense of accomplishment, confirm your strength of character, and leave no doubt in your mind of your ability to complete any task you choose to take on.

This tome will assist you in determining the extent of your involvement such as how much of the physical labor, or sweat equity, you can contribute and help to avoid the pitfalls, acquaint readers with the nuances of home building, and alert the potential home builder to the most efficient practices.

Think of yourself as an artist with a blank canvas, taking the first swipe with a brush and making the picture in your mind a reality. This book contains all the knowledge you need to make informed decisions, including advice from those who took on the same challenge. Building a home is not the easiest project you have ever tackled, but it will be the most rewarding both emotionally and financially.

Constructing your own abode reflects your personality beyond the color of the walls or window treatments. If it has always bothered you to have the washing machine and dryer disturb your quiet office, it is your prerogative to arrange the room placement differently. Are your childrens bedrooms too far from the playroom? How about the washing machine? Why is it always in the basement if all the clothes to be washed are upstairs? Tired of going up and down to do the wash? Change it! Your only limitation is your budget.

Think of the building process as a journey. Within the pages here are your detailed road maps to get you through the trip unscathed. It takes you home. Home is where we create our sanctuaries, our personal escapes, and the reflections of our individuality. Home is typically where we spend the majority of our time, where we can relax and be who we truly are. Because all these ingredients are so important in the integration of what a home is to each of us, it is equally as important for our home to be warm, comfortable, and inviting.