Mikecla

Congratulations! You are doing what I originally planned to do with the house in Palermo. I built a house 25 years ago on a $64,000 budget, so I anticipated doing the same when I came to Maine to retire. However, my wife selected a house that was a little more complicated, one with six different roofs for example, leading me to believe this was going to take a little more than my personal labor to accomplish. My next step was to serve as my own contractor and to sub the work out, however, after seeing the trouble in-laws have had with subs in Maine, I thought I better assign it to a builder. He will do 90% of the work leaving me to do all the flooring (hardwood and tile), bathrooms and kitchen tile work, engineered stone hearth and fireplace and the wrap-around-the-house deck. Later on I’ll finish off the bonus room above the garage and basement.

Thanks again for sharing your photos and insights to the local trades and suppliers, I’ll keep them in mind.

Interesting that you have done this with a $125,000 budget. I'm having a house built in Palermo, just down the road from Belfast and I won't even remotely come near that price. Assuming you are personally digging out the foundation (no help from an excavator), blasting, pouring the concrete, doing all of your own framing, roofing, mechanicals, insulating (with Icynene no less), sheet rocking, and finish carpentry, materials alone may even exceed that price.