The reason why you can't have a house isn't that you don't make enough to build one, it's that the people you elected tricked you into thinking "muh codes, zones, and environmental review" brought you safety rather than serfdom.
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>It’s true that you don’t need much expertise to build the house but electric and plumbing does need some, no? You don’t need to sell the property perhaps but how did you get labor? Surely you didn’t just do it all yourself.
No I literally did all of it including the electrical extension to the pole.
>Not sure where you live, but in my area -even if it's a great house- it would not end well.
I exploited a rarely used "loophole" since there was no "commercial" business on the house and it was fully DIY, and got it legalized through the county. Since there was no commerce it didn't interact with and trigger most of the regulations that were only legitimized on the basis they were regulating commercial activity. I have this explicitly stated on my permits that established the legal occupation of the house.
>So what you are saying is that you build a cheap house by breaking the laws and local regulations? Next logical step would be to just barge in the neighborhood house and live there for free.
I did not break the law. I exploited a loophole. My county issued me a closed permit explicitly acknowledging I did not break the law and that my house was legalized. To trigger building inspections in my county it can only be forced if there is compensation or commercial intent for building or use of the house, but you have to use a special process to record this with the county affirming you're the owner and the builder and it's a non-commercial non-rented domicile.
That’s a pretty cool rule! I think it’s actually super awesome that this dude did this.
The question I have about this is whether you would need to get inspections and permitting done if you ever tried to sell the house?
If that's the case the loophole only works for the owner/builder and the next person to own it is going to have to scrape it clean and rebuild entirely. If you ever wanted or needed to sell it sounds like this would complicate that process by quite a bit either way.
I have to say, pretty cool all told if you managed this!
I helped my uncle build his house, the only thing he didn't do himself was dig the holes (foundation and well), pour the concrete, and tape the drywall. Everything was inspected by the county and passed. We could have done those as well, but is made sense to hire someone for those parts considering the experience/tools of family/friends, and how long it would take working only Saturdays.
I miss living where I have lots of family around. There are things I'm forced to hire out that I know how to do just because I can't make a few phone calls and get a dozen people to help next Saturday.
You can't just throw random trash together but there are simple "standard" ways of doing things with standard available wires and pipes and fittings and as long as you follow common practices you will be 95% of the way to a code compliant install. It is only when you want to do something in an unusual or shortcut way that you may run into real compliance problems.
Certainly don't try it if you are completely clueless, but reading a diy book or watching some diy instructional videos will get you pretty far and show you how standardized most residential construction is with hardware store materials.
We have some pretty heavy-duty local township bureaucrats.