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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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All Episodes
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Now displaying: March, 2018
Mar 28, 2018

The kitchen stove is a visual and functional focal point in many kitchens. And there are several options from which to choose.  This week’s mini-lesson will give you an overview of many of those options, including, ranges vs cooktops, plus electric, gas, induction, convection, and dual fuel cooking.  This lesson should help you choose the best stove for your new kitchen.  We’ll also talk about the very basic differences between cooking with gas versus cooking with electric.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Mar 21, 2018

I’ve been wondering for a while now about the current trends and rules for crown molding, baseboards and other types of interior trim and molding. In my internet search, I didn’t find a lot of articles on the subject.  There’s some information defining the different types of trim, but not a lot of hard and fast rules to go by.  In this week’s episode, we're going over the few rules that I did find, I’ll cover whether it’s acceptable to paint the trim in different parts of the house different colors and I’ll discuss some less traditional trim options that you may not have heard of or considered. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

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Mar 14, 2018

This week I want to give you a quick update on the status of my project.  My structural engineer finally completed my foundation plan (kind of), I got the official plot plan done and my POA approved my design.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Mar 7, 2018

I’ve hesitated to do an episode on the cost of construction because homebuilding costs can vary greatly from house to house and region to region.  But, “How much does it cost to build a house?” is a question that comes up a lot.  So I decided to give you some information collected by the National Association of Home Builders.  They did a cost of construction survey which asked builders from around the United States to break down their construction costs for the typical home they built in 2017.

This week’s episode will cover a lot of numbers that you cant possibly remember, but I want to give some points of reference for our own project. 

I’ll not only share the average cost for each major category of the building process, such as site work, framing and the foundation, but I’ll also tell you what percentage of the total cost of construction each segment represents. 

Here are some quick averages: 

The average single-family home built in 2017 was 2,776 square feet, so almost 2800 square feet.

The average lot size was about 11,186 square feet.

The average construction cost of a typical single-family home in 2017 was $237,760. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

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