ᐅ Do-it-yourself work – what tasks did you take on, and would you do them again?

We also had quite a lot done by professionals. Our own work was limited to painting (including eaves), laying carpet, and installing network cables.
We also had the exterior landscaping done shortly before moving in, up to the stage of preparing the lawn for seeding, so that we could enter the house without tracking in too much dirt. Further landscaping, including flower beds, is now our responsibility.

Considering how much the professionals took their time figuring out the order of installation and tiling in the bathroom (tiles, drywall, and large shower tray), I wouldn’t want to handle the waterproofing and tiling myself as an amateur. If a tile falls off, the shower tray could be ruined, resulting in a costly repair of around 1000. It’s better to leave it to those with years of experience who can stand behind their work.

I see it the same way as Musketier.

We only did the painting, carpet installation, and most of the landscaping ourselves. For the first two tasks, my husband took three weeks off work. We didn’t want or couldn’t have done more than that. Apart from an electrician, we don’t have any professionals in the family, and we wouldn’t have dared to tackle tiling or other more complex work on our own. If you have no experience, it’s better to leave it to the experts.

With two full-time jobs and two small children, there simply isn’t much time left to do a lot by yourself. You’re just glad if you can spend an hour in the evening with the kids. My husband was also at the construction site every evening, because there were things to organize and plenty of small tasks to take care of. On this point, I have to agree with Skaddler: We preferred to spend whatever free time we had on shared activities and relaxation. We still had enough stress.

For comparison: We know someone (also involved in construction) who wanted to build their entire house themselves. By now, after spending all their vacation, weekends, and evenings at the site and hardly seeing their wife and children, they have subcontracted at least some of the work. Today, they say they wouldn’t do it the same way again because time with family has become much more important, and after two years, they are physically exhausted.

Certainly, it is possible to do some things yourself, possibly with professional guidance. I have the utmost respect for anyone who works a lot on their house. In the end, you should realistically assess what you can and want to do (technically, physically, and in terms of time). It is definitely a rewarding feeling to finish and deliver quality work. But whether you can actually save as much as you imagine is another question.

Bauherren2014 schrieb:
My husband was also at the construction site every evening because there was this and that to organize or to take care of all the little things that come up.

In that sense, I would also include self-performed work as: planning, planning, planning, organizing, obtaining quotes, reviewing, comparing, making decisions (you have to make a huge number of decisions for a house like this, some of them completely trivial...), you could even call it project management... arranging financing, monitoring payments, keeping an overview. And so on and so forth.

And it really is a lot of work! It takes a lot of time and can sometimes be frustrating.

Bauherren2014 schrieb:
...if you have no idea, it’s better to leave it to the experts...

I agree.

I have already described my own work here:

https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/Haus-selber-bauen.10836/page-4#post-70508