I want something cheap man, cheap!

We wanted our new house to be efficient, and I always get cold feet (literally), so we opted for a radiant heat system in the floor.  This was a major upgrade and there are plenty of short sales and foreclosures here that I couldn't help but use in price comparisons.  To convince ourselves that this upgrade and building our own house was actually going to be wise financially, I've been looking for ways to cut costs.

I thought to myself: "Hey, I can paint.  I've painted plenty of houses in my day.  Why not paint my own?"

So one of my first questions when meeting the builder for the first time was can I save some money on the construction costs by doing some of the labor myself.  The answer was a yes, and my contract now has a "sweat equity" column that includes painting, trim install, flooring install, and the final site cleanup.  I'll be using my paid vacation time to work on this stuff, so it's a sweet deal.

To augment my savings, I've turned to one of the greatest benefits of moving to Bozeman:  I now live in a town big enough to have it's own Craigslist.  So far I've picked up 50 sq ft of tile for the entry way, several trunk loads of beautiful river rock for landscaping, and 20 gallons of dry wall primer which I just moved in from the outdoor shed because I don't want it to freeze.  Did I mention it starts getting cold at night here in September?  I had a line on some brand new bedroom ceiling light fixtures, but the seller must have gotten arrested or something because I can't get a hold of him anymore.  So anyways, if you're in the area reading this and DON'T have a warrant out for your arrest, let me know if you've got 1500 sq ft of wood laminate flooring you want to get rid of ;-)

Selecting the Land

Houses from this era came in both
colors, gray and beige.

So at the request of one of my co-workers (thanks Patrick) I've decided to start a blog about my experience building a house.  I grew up in houses that were either in the countryside or on the edge of town, so looking at most houses in Bozeman made me feel a little claustrophobic.  I didn't want to look out my future living room window and have a view that in any way resembled the less than awe-inspiring current view of my neighbors condo:

There are astounding views in all directions here in Bozeman, but you need one of two things to see them:  

1.  A house taller than your neighbors

2.  A house that faces either a public park or school

We were fortunate to stumble across this lot while out for a run in one of our favorite subdivisions, Valley West.  It backs up to a school, and with the living room and kitchen windows facing this direction we will be rewarded with stunning views of the ever dynamic Bridger Mountains.

Limei looks cold because she is, this was taken back in early spring of this year.