you might also want to check out Darren Barefoot up in Victoria (just north of you!):

http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/

he’s also home-building, and blogging the whole thing (“building our house” in the sidebar).

Cheers from Australia,

d.

Most of my site is not a blog. I am not a blogger, per se.
I only use the blog to answer questions and post items of interest to my readers, such as products, services, and how to estimate the actual cost to build in various states with various house designs.

The web site, http://www.byoh.com, is definitely written from the perspective of an expert who is trying to help people build. I am an expert and that’s what I’ve been doing since 1981, helping people build, WITHOUT a builder (a General Contractor).

As for the books, I really don’t try to sell books. That’s my publisher’s job. Besides, the income per book from Amazon and from my publishers, when they are sold by Amazon is miniscule.

I have my books on my site for credibility and to let people know that I’m not a “one house wonder”, as so many of these homebuilding web site creators are these days.

By the way, I give away my eBook when I could easily sell it. It’s a great 85 page, “step by step” guide with color photos.

As for Google ads, if it weren’t for Google, I would not be able to give away eBooks, the spreadsheet software, and a hell of a lot of my time. I may be altruistic, but I have my limits.

Besides, potential owner/builders enjoy learning about the homebuilding products and services available. I still do.

If it weren’t for advertising, we wouldn’t know much about anything.

If I sound defensive, I am.

Thanks for your time and good luck with your building project.
Carl Heldmann

Great great stuff there… and well designed too.

best,
mark

Anyway, I don’t mean to diss. I’m sure your site is great for what it is. Just backing up my comment that you “take issue with”.

I take issue with your comment; “there aren’t any well-written, well-designed, detail-oriented blogs about building a house from the perspective of someone who has never done it before.”

I have spent 27 years teaching people to build their own home.

My site, http://www.byoh.com (also, http://www.buildyourownhouse.com) is for people who have never “done it before”.

I also have a blog where I answer questions from readers.

I put my soul into this site and am still building it day by day. It is 100% free, including spreadsheet software, forms, eBook, etc.

I’m in my mid sixties now and racing to get as much info on my web site as quickly as I can, but unfortunately, I still have to work around my “day job”, which is a construction loan consulting firm for credit unions who make loans to owner/builders.

I will look forward to seeing your home building project be successful.

If I can help, please let me know

Carl Heldmann

For instance, I’m making my entire spreadsheet of expenses available online and within the blog posts themselves so readers can get a specific idea of what everything costs (Yay EditGrid! Separate post on this coming soon).

Can I just say thank you for this. As someone who keeps track of his own finances to an extreme (lets say German) detail, I find this type of stuff fascinating.

I keep a record online of my entire spending every year. I mainly do this because of two reasons I will not detail here because it would take too long and is irrelevant.

I have never built a house from the ground up – although one day I’d like to – and I would love to see start to finish what the process requires financially.

Great blog, I have been fixing my home for the last 2 months after a huge Maple tree fell on half of my second story. I can relate with a lot of your posts. Good luck in the process!

Kevin

James: Wow, $80,000 is a pretty affordable gut-job! Congratulations. If I could gut this thing for that price, I certainly would. I think it would be more like a half mil though.

Ali: Good idea… thanks for the reminder. Will try and do that today or tomorrow.

roj: Good question. I guess it was mainly because I’m so comfortable with WordPress now and I didn’t want to maintain two blogging engines for my two blogs. Not really an excuse, but that’s the reason.

My wife and I will be looking to build a house within the next two years and this blog will be a great help for all the things you need to know and that nobody teaches you.

Way to go!

Jeff

Given the previously made comment why wordpress and not expression engine for the new site?