People ask me this more than anything else: how did we build our own home? The short answer — we planned to GC it ourselves from day one. The longer answer is two full-time jobs, spreadsheets after dinner, and a few years living with my parents to make it happen. Here's what it really looked like.

This is probably the question I get asked most often. Not what flooring we used. Not how much our house cost. Not even what paint colors are on the walls. It’s simply: “We want to build a house someday. Where do we even start???” Here’s the general order I’d recommend based on our experience.

Before we got into this process, I honestly thought a “septic system” was just one thing you install and move on. Turns out, there are actually several different types—and which one you can use depends almost entirely on your land.

We didn’t build our house the “right” way—but it worked. Here’s how we managed a custom home build while working full time and doing things differently.