How much does it cost to build a house these days?
The numbers you find on-line can feel daunting. It can seem like people spent a LOT or they found everything second hand and it was all free.
I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about what it costs to build an average size house these days. We decided we wanted to present real numbers on what we spend on this house build. We are building this house ourselves. For this phase of the project, the garage with an apartment over it, we are spending extra money on things like pre-built wall panels, pre-built trusses and having someone else build the foundation to save time at the site. September 2024 seems far away, but it is less then six months from when I am writing this and the foundation won’t even be finished until sometime in May.
We have had so many blow downs due to heavy winds.
In a way I am relieved. If they fall down now, they won’t fall on our house.
I’m going to give a little run down on expenses so far.
Architectural Fees
- Aura Doak Architect, PLLC
- Buying CAD Pro
- Buying a new computer to run the CAD program on
$3,499.00
Septic Design
- Septic Designer
$750.00
Driveway
- Crushed Stone
$5,846.00
Power Installation
- Install Three Telephone Poles & Run Wire to Poles – Pole installation by a private contractor – this was less expensive and faster then going through CMP
$11,900.00
- Electrician to hang a meter and do what CMP needed before power could be connected
$3,295.55
- CIAC (Contributions in Aid of Construction) Tax – CMP
$975.00
Excavator Usage and Rental
- Rental of big Excavator
- Rental of my brother’s excavator (ongoing, we just paid up front)
$19,800
Fuel for Tractor, Excavator, Chainsaw’s
- I don’t have an exact amount for this. This is a guess.
$1,000.00
Total spent so far:
$47,065.55
Upcoming Expenses that are Known
Wall Panels
- We purchased wall panels through Hancock Lumber
$21,555.00
Roof Trusses
- We purchased roof trusses through Hancock Lumber
$8,992.58
Foundation
- We have hired a contractor to pour the foundation and the floor for the garage
$28,500.00
Window’s
- Marvin Essential Window’s six sets of double casement window’s
$10,840.00
Total of expected costs:
$69,887.58
Total cost’s so far:
$116,953.13
To read more about building our house on a smallish budget click here.
To read about the compromises we have had to make in our design click here.