[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by John_W

I went the extreme route in 1980, the home below came completely out of my brain. I drew the floor plan and took it to a residential designer, you don't need an architect's seal in Florida unless it's commercial property, also since it was one story I wasn't worried about load bearing. He gave me 7 sets of blueprints for $265 with a spec sheet of all the items needed to build the house. Then I bought a lot in a subdivision that had underground utilities and was in the section of Pensacola I wanted to live, it was $15,000 for a 120' x 150' lot.

I took the blueprints to a building supply company and the salesman gave me an estimate for everything I needed. Drywall, windows, 2 x 4s, sliding doors, roof shingles, fireplace, etc. Got appliance estimates, cabinet estimates, plumbing and electric estimates. Then I went to a job site where they building the most expensive homes in Pensacola. I found one that was being framed and asked for the supervisor. He agreed to do the job and gave me an estimate of $2700 to dry in the home and he gave a referral for a slab crew.

I took everything to my bank and I requested a construction loan for $50,000. I had a job with the Federal Government as a GS 13, so I had good income and I was able to get on straight 2pm to 10pm shifts at work. The bank approved my loan with 4 draws and to be able to inspect the home before each draw.

To make a long story short, I went to the job site everyday from 7am to about 1pm. We broke ground and 11 weeks later we moved into the home. I did all the inside painting, including the woodwork and doors. Did all the outside landscaping, going to a commercial nursey and picking out shrubs is fun. I also put in a 18 x 36 pool and a privacy fence. The home construction came to $52,000, pool was $8,000, lot was $15,000, fence was $2500, total cost $77,500. I lived in the home for 18 months and then sold it for $129K. In Florida you don't need a contractor's license if you don't sell the home within the first year.

Other than framers and slab work, many of the jobs are no different than a person remodeling their home. I was able to get referrals or drive around and look at other job sites and find craftman. If you know the order in which every job has to be performed, then you can be a general contractor of your own home. You can do so more without big money being spent. I had 5 ceiling fans, central vacuum, a trash compactor, wallpaper in the kitchen and baths, cast iron plumbing fixtures, intercom with radio. I was able to walk around with a foam can and fill all the corners and T's with insulation before the vapor barrier went up. When you do everything yourself, it's so much nicer.

Here's the home just after completion. I bought a 100 yards of sod and plugged the entire yard front and back for the cost of one pallet of sod. Within a couple months it's solid beautiful grass. I kept every tree that wasn't where the foundation or driveway was going to be built. I hate it when builders strip the land of all trees before building.

for $51,000 , I flipped a golfcourse house for over twice that profit after 2 years and I’m a guy that if somebody finds a tool in my home it’s because someone left it lol I respect your work ethic though