Search

Budgeting for Your Small House

Tara Miller
Mar 23, 2017
4 min read

Budgeting for your small house building project is, well… daunting and even this small word feels like an understatement. I know. I have done it many, many times. I have drafted up the budget for our own small house at least a dozen times while we made changes before and during. Getting an exact budget is never going to happen. There are too many variables and too many projects, products and services that can and will change depending on stock, availability and the market. You can budget for your poured foundation but then you start calling and no one is available for 2 months and by then the cost of concrete has gone up. Or the contractor whose estimate you accepts is no longer taking calls and now you have to start over with a new estimate and a new guy. Or the lighting you had planned and have fallen in love with before you even started building, but failed to purchase because of X, Y, & Z, is now out of stock and there is NOTHING, nothing that you like as much for that price, Humph! You have to stay fluid and ride the wave but here are some tips to creating a rough budget that can adjust with you.

You can start here: http://www.building-cost.net/Valuation/Start

This website will pump out a very rough report based on your answers but you can’t get specific. There is no option to say “but I’m choosing Ikea cabinets for the kitchen and they are on SALE and we’ll save $1000”, sorry. So take this report with 3 grains of salt. Use it to start to build your budget because it will give you break downs on each category: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, framing, etc. You know what you are capable of and where you will shop and who you will hire. Whittle away your budget where you know you will do your own work or where you want to splurge.

Shop early and often

Products do go out of stock (remember that lighting I mentioned?) but, you know what, new ones also come in that you may love more or can afford more of so you can splurge elsewhere. Discover where you are willing to settle so you can spend where it matters to you. Do you love a functional but beautiful kitchen? Then settle on hall lights, railings and walls (ear mark the ship-lap for a later project) and spend it on custom doors for your Ikea cabinets, gorgeous lighting and stunning tile. If you don’t really cook, downsize your kitchen. That way it can still be beautiful (for appearances, if you like) and you have the extra money for the living room or large patio you have been dying for. With a small house you don’t need that much more for any one thing but you will need to compromise if you have a budget under $75,000. Frequent shopping will allow you to become familiar with prices, function and availability.

The cost of land

Do not forget the cost to purchase your land. You cannot build a house without a place to build it. This may be the most expensive one thing you will purchase for your small house and you may not be able to mortgage it without mortgaging your own build. Be sure you get the soil tested before you purchase because not all land can be built on. I repeat get the soil tested BEFORE YOU BUY. Not all land can be built upon and if you buy first you may end up holding a dud.

Get a free takeaway from several local hardware stores. We have a great ACE Hardware 15 min. away and our take away from them for our beekeeper’s bungalow was $20,000 for framing, foundation, windows, doors, siding, roof, and porches. This was pretty accurate though the final numbers are not in yet. This was great but we have purchased from other stores so we did get takeaways from them as well. Our ACE delivers which was very helpful and delivery charges were not included in the take away. Ask about these incidental charges when you get your take away so you can include them in your budget.

Use your friends and family

Do you friends or family have skills like plumbing or electrical? Ours do so we leaned on them for assistance in exchange for Girl Scout cookies, home cooked meals and IOUs. Even if they can’t physically help you they may be able to get you discounts, deals or the name of a reliable contractor (worth its weight in gold). Our friends have also volunteered to help because they were interested in learning from us and to be able to ask for our help in the future planning a house or building on their lake property (that’s a favor I look forward to).

The original Beekeeper built with a $55,000 budget.

Lastly, research it online

When I started my budget I had an advantage that someone had already built this house and provided their budget of $55,000. This was helpful. It was a place to start. I knew we weren’t building ours the same and there would be lots of changes but having an idea of a budget was very helpful. If your house hasn’t been built before start at the Building Cost Calculator provided above and tweak from there. You will get it and if not feel free to email me at contact@rtshistorichomes.com. I’ll try to point you in a good direction.