There's no place like home... especially the one you build with your own hands

Since Catty asked about my reference to building a house in my recent Thursday Think 'n' Share, which made me realize that I haven't mentioned it at all on my blog. "The American Dream" is a nebulous concept that means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but for many of us, one component is owning your own home, and even more than that, building a home (or having one built) that is what you want it to be. Back in December, I reviewed Eric Brende's book Better Off, and in that book he mentioned attending The Shelter Institute in Bath, ME. I did some research and, after my girlfriend had read Brende's book, mentioned the Shelter Institute to her and suggested we might consider that for our spring break instead of going to Italy. To my surprise, we barely even had to discuss it: she loved the idea!
One of the courses that The Shelter Institute offers is the "Design/Build class, which runs either two or three weeks (or as a once-a-week Saturday class for quite a few weeks). The premise is to take participants through all aspects of building a house, from drafting the plans, all the aspects of siting, heating and insulation (including passive solar), wiring, plumbing, different building materials, foundations, framing, financing options... pretty much everything. It's classes plus hands-on workshops: as their website says, "Students walk away from the course with all the design tools necessary to build a house." Many participants come in with little or no previous knowledge, and that seems to be okay. I've worked with some woodworking tools before, but I would definitely put myself in the "absolute novice" category. The Institute also offers courses on post & beam construction, a 1-week course building a small house, and various shorter workshops on specific aspects of construction (for instance, a 2-day workshop on concrete countertops or on working with contractors, or on wood finishing... all sorts of stuff.
There definitely seems to be a certain amount of emphasis on "green" building, at least to the extent that the building techniques attempt to work with nature rather than against it, using passive solar, for instance, to avoid the need to burn a lot of fuel to keep warm (or cool). The primary emphasis, though, is really on self-reliance. Building your own home can be cheaper than hiring someone else to do it for you (and cheaper in the long run if you design for energy efficiency), with some care can give you the home you want, and besides that there's the great satisfaction that comes from that accomplishment of building your own home. When it comes down to it, though, even if one doesn't come away from The Shelter Institute feeling capable of building a home and making it work out right, I'm sure that it will give a lot more knowledge when it comes to talking to contractors and getting them to build a home the way one wants it built.
I'm sure I will have a lot more to tell you after we spend two weeks in Maine this March, but this is the view from this side of things.

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