Honestly, I really enjoyed most of the build process! It was a dream of ours for a long time, and I have always been fascinated with architecture and design. I loved working with the architect and felt like a schoolgirl getting a gold star when the architect or builder thought one of my ideas was good. I specifically remember meeting the builder at the site one day to design the over mantle for the fireplace with the finish carpenter, and the house was filled with tradespeople, all working to help us create our dream home. I felt like pinching myself! Of course, it wasn't all roses and sunshine, but the good feelings definitely outweighed any issues that cropped up.

Now, so much about our house makes me happy. It is hard to explain, but it just feels "right" for us. I guess that is the true benefit of building a custom home. And, I would TOTALLY build again, except for the fact that I love this house too much to move! :) Maybe a vacation house.....(lol!)

I would love to hear this as well. I was thinking about staying off this site for a while because I was feeling the same way. It might be nice to hear how "it was worth it" as well.

I came to this forum in 2003, bought land in 2004, built in 2006 and have been living in a great house since. Currently in dream stages of building a retirement home.

Give yourself plenty of time, include painstaking detail in your specs and shop out your allowances before you sign and you'll be fine* It is very satisfying to live in a home designed around your lifestyle.

*Assumes no bad luck during the build.

This is a great question.... We just started the process ourselves (just got the first set of drawings). I would love to hear more from those who have gone through this experiment.

Since I'm doing most of the work myself, I've enjoyed every step of the way, from designing the house to doing finish work.

If I had had someone else build the house, there's still one thing that would bring me joy- our location. Every day I look out the windows at our lovely, private piece of property and appreciate what we have. I also get a lot of joy out of our tiny utility bills, the result of putting a lot of study into site orientation, insulation, and HVAC equipment selection. The comfort of a properly designed and built house has to be experienced to be appreciated. A custom house, designed for the people living there can offer things that most existing or builder's model homes can't. Our house fits US; our want's, needs, and quirks. It was also designed for us to age in place, as, quite frankly, we're getting up there, and want to stay here until we leave toes-first.

We are in the final stages of building a new home. If the rain will ever stop so the land can be graded, we should be in within the next couple of weeks.

Honestly, most of the build process has been very enjoyable and we would certainly do it again if we have the opportunity. The most important part for us was finding the right General Contractor.

We were fortunate to be able to tour a home he had recently remodeled and speak candidly with the owners about the process. We were also able to tour the GC's own home, which by pure coinsidence just so happened to be same plan that we had been dreaming of building for several years! We met with him several times for hours before we even signed a contract just to make sure that we would all work together well and that our vision was basically the same. We never felt rushed or pushing into signing with him.

The biggest issues we've had were mostly weather related and resulted in delays and some extra costs. But, we were also knew to prepare for some unexpected costs. There have been some issues where sub contractors didn't do things the way we had agreed, but our GC was always quick to get them corrected.

Many of our allowances were in my opinion too low, for my tastes. But, I never found that I couldn't come in at or under budget if I truly wanted to do it. Research, preparing well in advance and keeping things organized on Pinterest really has helped us.

We've enjoyed the whole process, well except the permitting stage. We are building in San Luis Obispo county in California which is noted for being difficult in that area. We were lucky with our architect who also happened to be an engineer and was very familiar with the building codes here. He recommended two builders that he thought we could work well with. We chose the one with his own crew who also worked on site. It turns out that our builder went to college for art and worked selling his sculptures. He has a good eye for design and has been such a help! We are at the point where insulation is being installed and hope to be in by mid to late August. I haven't loved all the decision making, but my husband(who retired just as we started the build) has loved every step of it. Our greatest joy right now is walking down the hall from the garage to the great room and seeing the ocean view from our huge picture windows. I love imaging living and working in the various spaces in the house-I 'll have my own craft room and can't wait to get creative again. We've been living in a rental, with only the things we needed unpacked, since Nov.1st. It's getting old. Overall, this has been a positive experience so far!

Cz_scrap: wow your house sounds incredible! Ocean views??? My dream home! Hope you and your husband enjoy!

Mushcreek: I've read some of your replied/threads and your house is the epitome of labor of love! Wow! I applaud you for all the research, thought, & care that you've put into designing and building your home. I can't wait to see the finished product. Good luck with the final touches!

Like most of us building, I have taken pictures at every phase of the house build, from the empty lot, to the hole being dug to the garage doors being installed. I enjoy going through them occasionally to see the progress.

We both husband and wife love anything and everything about house be it the plan, the construction process, the thought that goes into the design, the feedback-- my DH more so than me. He is a civil Engineer and me an Electrical Engineer and we both love solving issues. Although we did need some nudging to start thinking of our dream home, I think of he building process akin to pregnancy and child birth and the people around you have to live with it.. we as parents discussing constantly about the home, and I find GW a perfect outlet to vent my feelings . The outcome is always beautiful in every case to the parents :-)

I love the result and the fact that it just fits us and the way we live. We don't have any spaces we won't use every day (even our guest room is also the tv/media room when unoccupied.) I love looking out the windows from the living room, from the dining room, and from the tub (even though we still need to do final grading and planting, so it is still a moonscape.) I guess mostly I loved seeing it go from being lines on a page to a read 3D object made to live in! (I didn't love spending what seemed like years of Saturdays running between paint store, tile store, plumbing showroom, appliance showroom, lighting store...)

Think of all the things you wish were different with where you live now...when you build you have the chance to erase those frustrations. I think the longer you work on the plans to forsee issues the happier you will be with the result. Its a lot of those little things- like a handy light switch, window placement, and being able to have things where I need them that make me happy that we decided to build.

Getting a newspaper on our driveway just after the basement walls were poured..

Glenn_KS how funny!