You Can Fix It Yourself!
Wildwind - the home a Dream built
If you’re someone who prefers to Do-It-Yourself, like we do or if you’re someone who wants to learn how You Can Fix It Yourself then welcome! You will find many things here on this site to help you achieve what it is you want to achieve with your do-it-yourself projects from A to Z.
We’ve pulled together a whole host of topics, articles and solutions to your problems, so feel free to look around.
We built this site because my wife and I are hard-core DIY’ers who can fix most anything and most people who put up sites like this, haven’t a clue of what they’re talking about. Not us! We’re the type who will work at something until we get it done, even if folks say it can’t be done.
The Proof Is In The Pictures
We’re not just talking out our ARSES here, because my wife designed and helped me build (though I did the majority of the work as this was our agreement. I retired early, she’s still working) our three-story dream house on the western slope of the Sierra.
It took us three years to get to the “final occupancy” stage with the county. We only hired the contractors we needed to: grading and foundation, sheetrock and insulation, roof trusses and installers, of same; HVAC and carpet — we DID EVERYTHING else ourselves, without prior construction experience. We could do this because we’re determined, we used laws of the universe to help us and we both have mechanical know-how and common sense. And we take ACTION on our dreams!
Living on the western slope of the Sierra just this side of Lake Tahoe brings us some winter weather from time to time. Here’s a shot of our completed dream house, Wildwind, (with wrap around decks) from the far side of our land. That’s my wife up there on the third floor in her office building our websites!
My wife laying sub-floor with me (main floor over garages, etc.)
October 2000, rains would be coming we had to get the roof on!
Installing great room windows
Here’s a slide show of our progress. I started framing in March of 2001 and October of that same year was when we got the trusses installed and the plywood laid. My wife, son and I then spent the next few weeks shingling the roof. I remember having to quit for a day or two because it was raining. We got it completed right before the main rains hit. Then we moved indoors.
I spent a goodly time first running the DWV (drain, waste, and vent pipes) and hours upon hours laying in the copper plumbing. We created a self-circulating copper line that feeds back in the hot water heater and this serves us up hot water at the far end of the house in a few seconds. We didn’t put the kitchen on this line because it was only 26 feet away from the hot water heater and it takes a longer time to get hot water there than it does in the master bathroom.
Wiring was next and I was very careful with that. In fact, I did such a good job, the county signed me off very quickly. I have multiple service panels in my house and several dedicated circuits, as well as running a couple of those two-way and three-way switches. (They are not fun!)
Next came telephone lines, cable lines and computer back runs (long before we knew about wireless). Then we moved on to HVAC, sheetrock, and insulation. Then painting, cabinetry install, flooring install (cabinetry builds in the kitchen and the wet-bar in the great room) and after all that, decks.
The interior takes a lot longer to complete than you would believe. I don’t recommend building a house yourself to any but the most determined, it is a hard won task, and it takes several years to recover.
It did for me anyway, but then who knew how big the darn thing was! The bottom floor and the main floor themselves equal over 5,162 square feet and that doesn’t include the loft (full sized and regular ceiling) and my wife’s office/studio.
We are living proof that if you decide to DO SOMETHING you can do it.
You just have to decide to do it. Once you decide, and you commit to it, there is no stopping you. Period.
So what Do You Want To Do Today?
