Getting Organized for Self Building

Unknown to many people, home construction requires serious organization. A well-planned house construction project will result in good success, accomplished more cheaply with less waste of time and resources. More importantly, self-building easily lends itself to more organizational options that make the entire building process very convenient for the owner. One can decide to build his house alone by himself and family, or do it with a building group. However it is necessary to consider all the advantages and disadvantages of the two options, and decide on the most suitable before getting into the project.

Participating in a building group, if one decides to join one, needs guidance. It is even possible for anyone to organize a building group round his own friends and colleagues who
have similar needs and interests. Finally, there is need to train for self-building, either as a group or as a lone builder. This is a simple practical short-time training that can be arranged to take place within the free time available to the participants. The training program is packaged to give full understanding of the building process, production of the building plans, preparation of the building materials and construction of the building itself, etc. Such training can be arranged with consultants who have had experience in self-building and in the utilization of the chosen building materials.

This section concludes with a few instructions coming up in the next post. Keep in touch, ask questions or make some comments. Anything just that I may know that you are there.

First thing first

Self-Build Approach requires, first of all, self-belief. Home building, even where all the cash is laid on the table, is a venture that can never be accomplished in a couple of weeks and done with. Indeed, I dare say that, in the best of circumstances, no building project can be accomplished from nothing to finish within three months. Land must be procured, building
design must be approved, materials must be purchased, actual construction must take place and the building given the necessary finishing, in order to make the house livable. All these processes take time and commitment to achieve, in view of so many other demands that are vying for our time and resources. Particularly in self-building, one must be resolute and be encouraged by God to be able to accomplish this vital project.

Self-building as a strategy for home ownership has provided a face-saving solution for many nations of the world. In richer countries, the lower income people that cannot wait for county apartments have taken it upon themselves to engage in this program, which have always received encouragement and support from the relevant governments, while well-to-do members of the society employ self-building to construct homes that they boast about on completion to friends and relatives as their own personally built homes. Imagine
how much less homeless people we would have if more people would take the steps to build their own homes!

Hoping that these opening paragraphs have not been a discouraging element for those who really wish to give the idea a trial, I lay bare the realities of the construction or creative so that the enthusiast will be well prepared from the onset. I also anticipate that you will subscribe to this blog to continue benefiting from the nuggets that we share.

Ready to BUILD?

A famous hip-hop song starts with these lines:
"Ready or not, here I come.
You can't hide....."
This is the mood in which I start this series of posts that I seriously hope will spur many of us into action on this most sought after dream: Home Ownership. Shelter for all is a major issue of concern for the United Nations body, and in countries where government intervention in housing supply is inadequate, home ownership is a critical problem.
Most of us, when considering the issue of home ownership, have always thought of only one or two approaches: either to work endlessly for many years in the hope that we might save enough to get a loan somewhere to lay down for the commencement of our housing project. Another way for those who do not have so much patience is to try to get fund by “any” means, which might include illegal methods, because the large amount of money required for decent a house is hard to come by. Yet one of the most viable and easiest ways to build affordable homes, and which have been successfully used in many advanced and developing countries of the world is Self-Building. It is important to understand fully how this method works and how it can help those in need of shelter.
In this series of posts which basically takes us through the steps to home ownership, I shall attempt to break down the complex process into simple activities that will make it ease for aspiring home owners. It is advised that readers subscribe to the blog in order to have subsequent posts arrive automatically in their email inbox as they are posted. If you have any question or need further clarity, do not hesitate to enter them in the comments box. I will try to respond to all.
Ready or not? Let's go!

Self-building now on DPC Links

We guide you to build your own house with affordable materials

Self-building is for everyone, and is possible anywhere. It is a passion to be pursued and goal to be attained, if the United Nations "shelter for all" password would ever come anywhere near reality. However, leaving the global scene, let us consider how self-building affects you as a person. Your own house, if and when you have one, is your own personal location on the surface of this vast earth. That is, it gives you a specific identity among the nearly 7 billion inhabitants of this earth.
Your home serves several other functions like business home-base, financial security, and a place where you can raise your family to your personal taste. Why not try self-building? It makes the process of getting your own house fun and affordable too. Visit my website www.dpclinks.com today and see what ways you can benefit from the affordable housing program we have put together there.

DPC Manor Gardens

God has something to say..... That's the song that came to my mind as I woke up this morning. And in addition to this, there is the joy of positive expectation in my heart! Yes in deed, God is up to something again!
I know you will excuse my spiritual inclination now since you might have known that I am a minister of the gospel. And if you didn't know that before, it's time you did. However, this is not the real issue at the moment. It's just that I had a dream a couple of days ago after which I had certain encounters with people that got me thinking deeply about the manner in which our affordable housing program should run. First of all, from the kind of response I have been getting on this blog, or lack of it, it appears that not many people are particularly keen on the affordable housing program that I am trying to promote. Perhaps this is a thing for the future? Like next week or next month or next year..... But what's up right now?
Well, I realize that, from all circumstances around me and the leading in my spirit, I should commence a new housing program now. It's long overdue anyway. So I sat the necessary long hours and produce a project package which I call DPC Manor Gardens.
DPC Manor Gardens is a strictly-for-profit property development program that should be able to net over 300% profit for all investors in the next 18 months. It is aimed at developing a fully-serviced high brow residential estate in Ibadan which is blended with a few medium and low density houses that would be ready for sale to prospective buyers within the next 12 months. I just completed the powerpoint, and will soon have the pdf ready for interested investors to signify their intention to participate in the high-yield venture. Meanwhile, I will try to upload the ppt to the Selfbuilders International page on facebook. Please link up to get a preview.
Let's have your comments and/or questions if you have any. Thank you.
www.facebook.com/pages/Selfbuilders-International

Let's Get Started.

Hi there. Let me introduce myself again: My name is Ladi Joseph Oluwarore. I am a development consultant based in Ibadan, Nigeria. I created this blog for you and other people who desire to have their own shelter through affordable means. This has been my passion for about two decades now, and through the initiatives that I pioneered successfully, several cooperatives have acquired their own estates, many of which are fully occupied by owners and tenants today.

After the brilliant success of our Happy People Cooperative Housing Estate in Ibadan in the 1990s, I have been approached by several positive minded people to collaborate on another venture into property development, particularly for affordable shelter. I thought deeply about the results of the previous program, its strong points and shortcomings, and decided that whatever has to be done in the future must be a great improvement over our past achievement.

This is where we are now: Getting started. I need to elaborate clearly on the procedure that will take us to our dream quality environment, which I believe should serve purpose of providing either economic benefits for each participant or meeting the shelter needs of those in need. In some cases, the two benefits will be achieved.

If you are ready to go with us, I would like to inform you that our program will begin by building from the socio-economic to the physical. Of course we all know that this is an inverse procedure to the normal. Yes, that is the nature of our program because we want all stakeholders to be involved and have inputs from the inception. By this, I mean that we follow the next steps one after the other.....
(1) First, we get the future neighbors and investors together,
(2) Then we get the land and associated resources,
(3) Next we get the techniques of developing affordable housing,
(4) And finally, we develop the high quality estate that we desire.

It is imperative that willing participants indicate their interest by giving accent, making comments and contributions, and leaving their email addresses on this blog. We must start with a group of not less than 10 people, of which I am one, and in which three other people have expressed strong interest. Will you join this highly beneficial program? Please indicate now.

Options: Will you build alone or with a group?

Building your own house is a task that can be accomplished by the average person as long as he or she has the desire and necessary enthusiasm to do it. Have you made up your mind about this very interesting project? Once a decision is taken, you can move ahead to choose out of the two options: whether to build your house alone or with a group of people with the same need, desire and enthusiasm.
A note of clarification here: the aspect of building alone is never really strictly by yourself. You are still likely to involve your family and friends who will constantly share ideas and assist you with some site work. This approach is however significantly different from building with a formal group of people that is created specifically for the purpose of home construction or similar developmental project. These two approaches will accomplish task, with varying degrees of factors and success.
In my next post, I shall be talking about some of the advantages and disadvantages of using one approach or the other. See you around!