WANt to build your own home but not sure where to start?
Learn how to STAY ORGANIZED, ON BUDGET, and ON TIME with the "Build Your Own Home" online course
- Follow the construction of an actual home from start to finish through the eyes of a professional builder. See a complicated process broken down into realistic, manageable steps.
- Learn how to: choose the right lot, find and hire subcontractors, identify potential problems, and avoid costly mistakes.
- Discover pro insights on what to watch for during each of the 3 main phases of building: FOUNDATION, FRAMING and FINISHES.
- BONUS: Enrolled students unlock direct access to course instructor/pro builder to answer questions throughout your own personal building project!
Bonus Content
Lot Purchase Checklist
There are very specific things to review prior to buying a lot to build on. This downloadable checklist provides these items in one convenient place to make sure nothing is overlooked.
Lot Holding Cost Worksheet
Thinking of buying a lot for building a home in the future? This downloadable worksheet helps you organize the yearly costs for things like HOA dues and sewer availability fees to make sure you know what you are getting into.
Framing Checklist
This detailed checklist helps guide you through the structural quality review process.
instructor's bio
- Michael Luckado, Co-Founder of Open Book Build and ArmchairBuilder.com
- B.S. Civil Engineering & Construction Management
- 20+ years as a professional home builder/general contractor
- For nine years led a regional home building company as V.P. of Construction and Purchasing, focusing on employee builder training
- Built homes in multiple states to better understand climate and construction practices across state lines
Why take the Open Book build Course?
Launched in 2020
We finished building the house and launched the course in 2020. This means you get the latest concepts to help you build your own home.
Multimedia Experience
This self-paced course is presented through videos, articles, photos, and diagrams to give students a complete experience. The video/photos were captured daily on the job site as the home was being built.
Open Discussions
Discussions allow students to interact with the instructor and each other by asking questions and leaving comments, adding a deeper dimension to the content being learned. Because it's nice to hear from others in the same situation when you build your own home.
Build Your own Home Course Curriculum
Chapter 1: Find a Building Lot
Chapter 2-7: Hire Subcontractors
Chapter 8: Finalize Budget
Chapter 9: Insurance During Construction
Chapter 10: Develop Engineered Site Plan
Chapter 11: Obtain Building Permit
Chapter 12: Review Construction Schedule
Chapter 13: Let's Start Construction: The Foundation
Chapter 14: Frame Schedule - In Depth
Chapter 15: Final Schedule - In Depth
major Course topics
Budgeting
Hiring Subcontractors
Hiring Subcontractors
This lesson shares how we created a detailed budget for the Open Book Build to ensure all costs were included from the start. The success of any new home build comes down to a careful review of all costs.
Hiring Subcontractors
Hiring Subcontractors
Hiring Subcontractors
It's hard to find good quality trades people these days. Here we show the best methods used to find, screen, and hire the folks that get a quality job done on time.
In this lesson we provide a complete overview of the contracting kit used in the Open Book Build and explain how it's used to get the best price for each building activity.
Scheduling the Build
Hiring Subcontractors
Daily General Contracting Guide
This learning module shows how our Excel schedule template was used to build the home in under four months. The template has all the formulas to automate this task...here we show how we use the tool to get a home built efficiently.
Daily General Contracting Guide
Daily General Contracting Guide
Daily General Contracting Guide
Pro builders complete specific tasks each day throughout the building of a home to keep the project on schedule and per budget. This lesson shares the detailed tasks we used for each phase in building the Open Book Build prototype home.
Lot Selection
Daily General Contracting Guide
Lot Selection
There are many things to review prior to spending hard earned money on a lot to build your dream home. Here, we go through each item and show how a little upfront work can make the build process much easier.