Nope! I've built the first and last home of my life.

So I hereby bequeath you all the building I could do but won't: Have at it, and enjoy.

And if your husband has an appreciation of dogs, horses, sking, dark beer and Grace Slick, he can come stay with me till your next house is done.

Maybe you've found a new calling in life, but perhaps for the sake of your marriage you could help others;) I'm with Oruboris, you can have all my building aspirations as well. It's great though that you love it so much.

You are not alone. And it doesn't even matter if the first one was a horror or a happy build.

There is something about deciding on a particular design, and seeing the lines on paper become walls and halls for spaces planned, that for some of us becomes addictive. Not to mention all the things you learned about during (or after) the build that you wish you could put to use in the next build...

We moved in Dec. 2007 and I'm already thinking we should remodel the kitchen... I don't have an urge to build again but I could see some re-doing of the house.
I second what mcbird said - you should look into making this a career. During our build, we dealt with a lot of salespeople at the showrooms who simply did not really care or offer good insight. A person who really has a knack for this would be valued by many home builders. We went with a husband and wife builder team. The wife helped out a bit with making connections to the showrooms, etc. but she was not *really* invovled. I would have loved to have a person who provided more support with choosing colors, textures, design, etc.

Nope.....next time I move, it will be to the graveyard!

Ha-ha MAincoonkitty - that is funny!!! I have to admit that the 1st house we had built wasn't a custom home - I think it would be called a spec home so we only picked out a handful of things and then whatever wasn't picked out, the builder just put the basic fixtures, etc in the house. Well, we are in the planning stages of our 2nd home and I feel that I cannot handle this kind of stress again - nor my husband. So after this, we will stay put.....hopefully!!

I fully agree with you. I love the process. Each time we build or remodel, we learn so much more. The one thing I didn't imagine I would feel is that I hate that we don't have to do any of the work on this build.

Our last one was tear down that we re-built on a budget so we did alot of the work ourselves. This one is a custom build that I only had to say what I want, as long as it fit the budget. When I actually did work on the house, it was like putting my heart and soul into it. Hopefully, it will become more "me" as the build gets further along.

I will agree....I'd rather do it from scratch than to remodel.....done both serveral times....going to build again (out of necessity of getting older and need to down-size because of health), but I'll admit, it was a lot more enjoyable building while I was "single".....I did everything as I darned well pleased and got what I wanted......now, I am married to someone who "has the answers to everything" and this house that we built after we were married in 2001, has never felt like "mine".....and I know the next one will be no different, so am not at all looking forward to doing it.

We have started doing a bit of up-dating in the kitchen and already sick of the mess that it is making and the disagreements of what we are going to do.(guess that is what I get for marring an architect). I really wish we could find something already built that would suit our needs, but handicapped accessible homes are hard to find.

Nope, this is the very last!!!
I do have a cousin that loves building a house, living in it for about 3 years and then building another house.
He has built and lived in 6 houses in about 20 years.
He just loves the process and excitement of it all.

"Ha-ha MAincoonkitty - that is funny!!! I have to admit that the 1st house we had built wasn't a custom home - I think it would be called a spec home so we only picked out a handful of things and then whatever wasn't picked out, the builder just put the basic fixtures, etc in the house. Well, we are in the planning stages of our 2nd home and I feel that I cannot handle this kind of stress again - nor my husband. So after this, we will stay put.....hopefully!!"

Yep.....having to pick out everything from scratch, even down to the door hinges, is exhausting. I just want to sit on my porch, with a nice cold drink in my hand, and do nothing for a while.

Nope...this is my last. It's the 3rd house we have built and it is my forever home. I am 50 now and getting tired of living in temporary homes (for us, older model single-wide mobile homes) and having no free time after work or on weekends (this latest build has been going on for 5 years now). I am enjoying it to a degree but there are so many other projects that have been calling me for a long time and I have just had to ignore them. I want to learn stained glass, I want to spend more time reading or painting or gardening. This is it....LAST house. I don't want to lay tile anymore, or pull wire, or crawl around under the house installing pipes, or hanging drywall, or any of that hard stuff. I just want to enjoy it.

Gotta confess... I'm feeling the itch again. Seeing framing going up around town always piques my interest. I even took an introductory course in architecture this summer to see if it might be a option as a second career.

I guess there are worse things in life to aspire to...