My Home

So yeah, as I mention on my website, I built my own house. It took a couple of years, a whole bunch of trial and error experimenting, and more excruciatingly painful smashed thumbs than I care to remember. But that aside, I have a dirty little secret to share: It wasn’t that technically difficult.

By “technically difficult” I mean, of course, that building a small, simple structure like my home isn’t rocket science. You build boxes – a big box for the living room, smaller, satellite boxes for the kitchen and bedrooms, and in my case, another box on top of the lower boxes for an upstairs bedroom/den. 

Then you wire and plumb it. There is some minimal technical expertise required for this, but if I can do it – or hire someone to help me do it – so could just about anyone else who’s handy with tools. 

I’ve used tools all my life, so I at least had that going for me. For the things I didn’t know about house building – which was a lot – I asked questions. No question was too simplistic or simple minded; I asked anyway. I got some strange looks, but eventually I got the job done. 

I knew I’d done a good job when a former roommate, a man who had spent his life in the construction trades, gave me a thumb’s up on the work I had done. He’s gone now, but I still recall his casual comment with pride.