My wife and I are still in the planning stage, but the book has been helpful and so have some of the downloads in the download gallery: ownerbuilderbook.com/gallery. There is a lot to think about and I'm hoping my wife and I cover all the bases too.

Hello,

Been reading this site a lot lately as well as having almost finished the book.

My wife and I recently purchased some land. We've had the soil test and survey done. Next week we should be getting our preliminary house plans. Once we get those we'll go to the county to get our septic system design.

Once we get our plans we'll also start getting real estimates. We've talked to a few people about pricing, but nothing concrete.

We're going to be selling our house fairly soon as well. Paying our current mortgage and a construction loan would be kind of tight, so we'll either buy a small house to rent afterwards or rent for a while.

Once we sell our house we'll have a bit of money. Would it make sense for us to go ahead and have the driveway, homesite, and drainfield cleared with that money?

Also, since we're not in a big hurry right now (waiting on plans and then on county) are there things we can do ourselves as far as putting in the driveway that will save us money? It's going to be a fairly long driveway (500ft).

I sincerely appreciate this site and all of the valuable information it provides. If there are any OBs in the Richmond or Charlottesville VA area I'd love to talk.

Thanks,
Nick