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Build Your House Yourself University

Wish you knew more about the biggest investment you will most likely ever make? Build Your House Yourself University (byhyu) will teach you to save money and make smart decisions about the construction of the place you and your family will call HOME. We will help you understand residential construction— simplify and demystify the design build process. You’ll come away with successful strategies for building your own house, with or without a general contractor. Become an educated consumer, even if you prefer to buy, rather than build a new house. Complex construction jargon and best practices will be explained in easy to understand terms. It’s not the typical DIY (do it yourself) show. You will learn how to MANAGE the labor, not DO the labor for your new house. Join me, Michelle Nelson, host and fellow informal residential construction student. I’ll share the research I find on home design and building as I prepare to build my home. Together, our community of future home builders, will learn the tips, tricks and trends of experienced contractors and industry experts. I’ll interview owner-builders and construction professionals. During our mini lessons, I’ll inform you about framing, flooring, windows, insulation, kitchen cabinets and countertops…almost anything having to do with new construction homes. You’ll hear about energy efficiency and green building too. There will be product reviews in which you will be introduced to cutting edge, as well as, tried and true products and services. And in keeping with the university theme, episodes will end with short, fun quizzes. If we do our due diligence BEFORE we start construction, we will actually start construction with the most difficult part of the project behind us. Let’s put in the time, effort, preparation and research BEFORE we break ground and building our homes will be much easier and more enjoyable.
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Now displaying: December, 2017
Dec 27, 2017

The refrigerator is one of the hardest working, most used appliances in a house. Back in the day, all we had were refrigerator units with freezers on top and the main choice we had to make was color.  Remember harvest gold and avocado?

Today, we have so many choices in refrigerators that I thought I’d do a quick episode covering the pros and cons of each style of refrigerator to help us choose the best fridge for our new homes. 

We’ll talk about top freezer refrigerators and bottom freezer refrigerators, french door refrigerators, side by side refrigerators, counter depth fridges and full refrigerator columns. Plus I’ll tell you the rule of thumb for the amount of fridge space you need in cubic feet.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Dec 20, 2017

A few weeks ago I had to go to my architect and tell him I had completely forgotten to add a very important space to our new house.  It hadn't even crossed my mind until I saw my husband putting up our Christmas decorations.  He’s the Christmas decorator, not me.  And he is quite the decorator.  He goes all out, so we will definitely need a dedicated space for our Christmas decor.  Just a couple of weeks ago we added a Christmas nook to our attic in our house plan. 

The episode this week will give you a few quick tips to help you design and build a house with the holidays in mind.  Putting in a little extra thought and planning before we build will make holiday decorating a lot easier and more enjoyable for years to come.   Now, I’ll be referring to Christmas for most of these tips, but these ideas should be helpful for those celebrating Hanukkah and other seasonal holidays.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Dec 13, 2017

If you’re like most of us, you’re dreaming of a spacious, well-organized master closet.  A walk-in master closet is what most people will opt for, but if you’re limited by space or budget, you might have to go with a reach in closet, also called a wall closet. In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about the advantages of walk-in closets vs reach-in closets, whether flat shoe shelves, slanted shoe shelves or shoe cubbies are better, and we’ll go over the different materials used to fabricate closets. 

Plus we’ll go over pro terms:  Wall hung closet systems and Floor mounted closet systems

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Dec 6, 2017

I want to give you an update on my project and the private Facebook group and give you a few things to think about when designing your house.   This week we briefly talk about window design and how I got a second opinion on my house plan.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

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