HOMEBUILDINGPROCESS.COM
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ABOUT ME
Welcome, friend! My name is Bill Fricke, and I look at myself as someone who may be considered to be just an "average" person, with an "average" family. My wife’s name is Julia, and I have three children: Jessica, Matthew and Jonathan. We’ve had the range of pets over the years, but have ended up with cats. My vocation for most of my life has been a manager for a major retailer, and, like you, I try to "get by" financially the best I can for my family.
Before my oldest child, Jessica, was born, it was becoming apparent to me that the "American Dream" of owning a house was becoming more and more elusive for most people, especially for first-time home buyers. That is even truer today due to rising land and material costs, stagnating income, and generally uncertain economic conditions.
As a young couple, my wife and I tried numerous endeavors to supplement our income. These included such of the usual things as part-time jobs, home parties, multi-level businesses, and even the occasional garage sales. We would try whatever came our way just to help "take up the slack." And, like most people nowadays, both Julia and I worked, not because we wanted that, but because we had to.
The cost of buying a house in our earlier years of marriage was lower than it is today, of course, but even then it still seemed too much for us. Additionally, as we explored our buying options, we became more and more aware of the wide variances in building quality, material expense, property characteristics and other things that made a house a "home" that were out there.
We looked into buying pre-existing homes versus new construction. We considered speculation homes already built compared to custom homes not yet built. We also checked into some of those "first-time-home-buyers" subsidized housing programs and other deals to find an economical way to get into a house.
What I hope you can get a sense of is that we spent a lot of time doing a lot of homework looking into getting into a house, and we eventually started to feel, well, more and more uncertain, frustrated and discouraged. That was because none of our options seemed to be the "right one" for us . . .especially concerning cost. Due to our particular financial situation, either prices seemed too high for the quality we would have expected, or the quality we expected were in houses that were just out of our reach. We found ourselves just spinning our wheels. There had to be a better way.
It was at this point that my wife’s parents offered to intervene and help us review our options. They didn’t want to come across as imposing their views on us, but they saw us testing the waters for ourselves and that we might be ready for some help. And we WERE now ready for any advice they could give.
They suggested that we build our OWN house! You see, they had built EVERY house they had ever lived in since they had been married. They explained that we could SAVE MONEY – a lot of money by building our own home. For years they owned and operated their own excavating business, and, as a result, had the benefit of always being around construction people. They associated with general contractors and subcontractors. They, thus, came to understand the steps involved in building a house. . . .
Before my oldest child, Jessica, was born, it was becoming apparent to me that the "American Dream" of owning a house was becoming more and more elusive for most people, especially for first-time home buyers. That is even truer today due to rising land and material costs, stagnating income, and generally uncertain economic conditions.
As a young couple, my wife and I tried numerous endeavors to supplement our income. These included such of the usual things as part-time jobs, home parties, multi-level businesses, and even the occasional garage sales. We would try whatever came our way just to help "take up the slack." And, like most people nowadays, both Julia and I worked, not because we wanted that, but because we had to.
The cost of buying a house in our earlier years of marriage was lower than it is today, of course, but even then it still seemed too much for us. Additionally, as we explored our buying options, we became more and more aware of the wide variances in building quality, material expense, property characteristics and other things that made a house a "home" that were out there.
We looked into buying pre-existing homes versus new construction. We considered speculation homes already built compared to custom homes not yet built. We also checked into some of those "first-time-home-buyers" subsidized housing programs and other deals to find an economical way to get into a house.
What I hope you can get a sense of is that we spent a lot of time doing a lot of homework looking into getting into a house, and we eventually started to feel, well, more and more uncertain, frustrated and discouraged. That was because none of our options seemed to be the "right one" for us . . .especially concerning cost. Due to our particular financial situation, either prices seemed too high for the quality we would have expected, or the quality we expected were in houses that were just out of our reach. We found ourselves just spinning our wheels. There had to be a better way.
It was at this point that my wife’s parents offered to intervene and help us review our options. They didn’t want to come across as imposing their views on us, but they saw us testing the waters for ourselves and that we might be ready for some help. And we WERE now ready for any advice they could give.
They suggested that we build our OWN house! You see, they had built EVERY house they had ever lived in since they had been married. They explained that we could SAVE MONEY – a lot of money by building our own home. For years they owned and operated their own excavating business, and, as a result, had the benefit of always being around construction people. They associated with general contractors and subcontractors. They, thus, came to understand the steps involved in building a house. . . .
" . . . but wisdom is found in those who take advice" (Proverbs 13.10).
