am i crazy, or just dreaming?

I've decided that I am going to design and build my own home. Everyone thinks that I must be crazy...but all of the books that I am reading say that IT CAN BE DONE! Perhaps it is just marketing spin, to get us to buy more books on home construction and spend lots of money on do-it-yourself tools and materials at the local hardware stores. It does have a good solid history to back it up, though.

People have been building their own homes for thousands of years. As far as I can tell, it was only within the last couple hundred years or so that we started to outsource all our homebuilding work to specialized "contractors". Don't get me wrong - I understand the advantage of hiring contractors. For one thing, you don't have to get your hands dirty. On top of that, a contractor who specializes in one certain trade will obviously have more experience than the first-time home builder. He's likely to have the right tools, and get the work done quicker. But can you depend on that contractor doing quality work? Work that is as high quality as if he were buildig it for his own family? This is hard to find.

If you're within city limits, there's a good chance that you don't even have a choice but to hire a contractor who is licensed and insured. In that case, the only buildings you're going to be constructing are doghouses, birdhouses, and perhaps dollhouses (if you have a daughter and lots of patience). And if you live within a historic district, there's even a chance that you'll have to run your doghouse designs past a design committee.

So we made sure to pick up a piece of land that is big on potential, but little on code, licensing, approvals and inspections. Yep, you guessed it. We're planning on building our own place out in the country. My confidence seems to fluctuate based on my location. When I am at home reading books on green building and alternative building methods, I am ready to take on the world. When I trudging across our rough piece of land, searching for the perfect building spot while picking up a collection of tick and chigger bites, I have my doubts. On the bright side, the world is full of bizarre homes built by crazy people, so at the least I'm in good company.