Daniel Jett - Create Your Dream Home on a Budget: Practical Advice, Inspiration, and Projects

W e found a paper in a box of memorabilia Daniel had written in high school that listed his top three goals for his life: get married, have lots of kids, and build his own home. Ten years after high school, we met, and as we fell in love, these quickly became our dream!

Over the next seven years, we focused on growing our contracting business, which centered on insurance work on water-damaged properties as well as kitchen and bathroom remodels, until we could afford to build our home. During that time, we also looked for land and spent hours perusing house plans.

One day, we were chatting about a lot for sale just up the road from us. Daniel mentioned that he had driven by it, and while that lot was not what we would want, there was a vacant lot at the very back of that road that he instantly lovedand knew I would too. It was located on a cul-de-sac, and three beautiful oak trees stood right in the center of it, immediately causing us to dream of swings hanging from their branches, our children happily playing in the shadows cast by their sweeping canopies. We searched the county appraisers website to find the owners information, hoping to draft them a letter to see if they would be interested in selling to our family. The very next day, Daniel called me and said he was right next to their home visiting a customer and wondered if I thought it would be a good idea to stop by and talk to the owners about their property. I told him they would either love him or shoot him, so he should talk quickly.

I told him they would either love him or shoot him, so he should talk quickly.

Turns out, the sweet elderly couple had purchased the land almost thirty years ago with the dream of building on it themselves, but it had never worked out. They loved the idea of a young family building their dream home on it and initially agreed to sell to usthen changed their minds. We went from being on cloud nine to feeling crushed. Pieces of land like this one are almost unheard of where we live in St. Augustine, Florida, where everything is high and dry. This had beautiful trees on it, was relatively close to town, and, most importantly, was not even five minutes from Daniels parents.

However, we did not lose hope. We waited six months, then unbeknownst to me, Daniel reached back out to see if the landowners would reconsider. Surprisingly, they said yes! My birthday, which happens to fall on Christmas, was the following week, so, as one of my presents, he surprised me with a copy of the signed contract and a brick with a key attached to it, symbolizing the home he was going to build for me.

As excited as we were to finally begin this process, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and how our lives were about to change. We began finalizing our house plans as we attempted to secure financing and researched materials and subcontractors, trying to get all the pieces into place.

One night, while browsing the Architectural Designs website, we noticed they had added a client album featuring customers homes. One housebuilders description included a link to an Instagram account filled with construction pictures. Until then, I had only used Instagram to add filters to my photos and had never heard of growing your platform or social media marketing. However, I knew we were going to be doing a lot of the work ourselves on our new build, so I decided to start sharing our journey, thinking others may be interested in what we were doing. Im a goal setter, so my initial goal was to gain five thousand followers by the time we finished our home.

As one of my presents, he surprised me with a copy of the signed contract and a brick with a key attached to it, symbolizing the home he was going to build for me.

Shortly after our first post, we closed on our loan and began our build. Our general plan was to hire subcontractors for anything we did not know how to dosuch as rough plumbing and spray-foam insulationand then do everything else ourselves. We planned on doing lots of DIYs, sourcing materials from Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, architectural salvage stores, and back rooms of warehouses. We knew there were projects we would not finish right away but figured that after we earned our certificate of occupancy, we could finish the rest as we were able. It would be a nice homenothing over-the-top, nothing worthy of a magazine coverand it would be ours, and we would save so much money doing it ourselves.