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Build Your House Yourself University

Wish you knew more about the biggest investment you will most likely ever make? Build Your House Yourself University (byhyu) will teach you to save money and make smart decisions about the construction of the place you and your family will call HOME. We will help you understand residential construction— simplify and demystify the design build process. You’ll come away with successful strategies for building your own house, with or without a general contractor.

Become an educated consumer, even if you prefer to buy, rather than build a new house. Complex construction jargon and best practices will be explained in easy to understand terms. It’s not the typical DIY (do it yourself) show. You will learn how to MANAGE the labor, not DO the labor for your new house.

Join me, Michelle Nelson, host and fellow informal residential construction student. I’ll share the research I find on home design and building as I prepare to build my home. Together, our community of future home builders, will learn the tips, tricks and trends of experienced contractors and industry experts.

I’ll interview owner-builders and construction professionals. During our mini lessons, I’ll inform you about framing, flooring, windows, insulation, kitchen cabinets and countertops…almost anything having to do with new construction homes. You’ll hear about energy efficiency and green building too. There will be product reviews in which you will be introduced to cutting edge, as well as, tried and true products and services. And in keeping with the university theme, episodes will end with short, fun quizzes.

If we do our due diligence BEFORE we start construction, we will actually start construction with the most difficult part of the project behind us. Let’s put in the time, effort, preparation and research BEFORE we break ground and building our homes will be much easier and more enjoyable.

Copyright: © BYHYU.com 2016

Latest Episodes:

Lighting 101—Recessed lights, LEDs, and More—BYHYU 103 Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

I love lighting fixtures. I’d have a beautiful chandelier in almost every room of the house, if I could. But there’s more to lighting than pretty fixtures. Lighting is first and foremost functional. I briefly covered lighting in episode 25 called “8 Kitchen Design Mistakes to Avoid”. Mistake #6 was “Going Light on Lighting.” That’s not what we want to do in the kitchen or any other place in the house.

In this week’s mini lesson, we’ll go over the basic rules to follow when choosing lighting for your new home. Now, an electrician or lighting designer will be invaluable in making specific suggestions your project, but today we’ll cover some general guidelines.

As with most guidelines, experts sometimes disagree. I noticed when doing my research that one website might have slightly different guidelines and advice than another. So the tips and rules that I’ll outline today may be just a little different from what you read or hear elsewhere, but this information should help give you some basic, practical tips that will get you on the right path to a well lit home.

We’ll talk about the different categories of lighting, where to put warm white light as opposed to cool white light, and we’ll go into what size recessed lights (can lights) are best and how you should space them.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Project Update— I Contacted the Building Inspector—BYHYU 102 Jan 31, 2018

Show notes

Although I haven’t started the fun, exciting part of the building process yet, I made an important phone call this week and introduced myself to the head building inspector. In this week’s episode, I’ll give you a quick project update.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Hot Home Trends 2018— Lessons Learned at Design and Construction Week —BYHYU 101 Jan 24, 2018

Show notes

Many of the trends that I saw at this year’s Design and construction week are a continuation of the what I saw in 2016 and 2017. I’m finding that homebuilding trends don’t typically change abruptly from year to year. So the trends that I talked about in episodes 5 and 55 still hold for this year. But this week we’ll talk about a few new trends for 2018.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

My Favorite Homebuilding and Design Tips— What I’ve Learned Over the Past 2 years— BYHYU 100 Jan 17, 2018

Show notes

To commemorate our 100th episode, I want to give you some of my favorite homebuilding and design tips that I’ve learned over the past 2 years of this podcast. I’ve learned so much, but these are some of the most relevant things.

We’ll go over 50 tips in this week’s mini-lesson, but since this is the 100th episode, it only makes sense that I give you a list of 100 of the most important pieces of homebuilding knowledge. So we’ll go over 50 tips today and I’ll send you 50 more tips and tricks if you email me at info@BYHYU.com.

All you have to do is type the number 100 in the subject line and as a thank you for helping me get to episode 100, I’ll send you a PDF of a list of 50 bonus tips, plus the 50 tips that we’ll cover in today, so you won’t have to take notes while listening to this.

You’ll end up with a list of 100 of my favorite bits of homebuilding information. Now don’t worry about me spamming you. I wouldn’t do that. So just email me at info@BYHYU.com and put the number 100 in the subject line and I’ll send you the list of my 100 favorite homebuilding and design tips.

Before we get to the first 50 tips, I want to sincerely thank you for your loyalty and support and for encouraging me to keep the podcast going with your awesome reviews and kind emails. I especially want to thank you for sharing the show with friends, family and coworkers by text, email and on social media. You are the reason the show is doing so well. Since I’m not great with social media, I’ve been counting on you to spread the word about the podcast and you’ve done that, so thank you.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

info@BYHYU.com

Solar Power/Solar Panels 101—BYHYU 099 Jan 10, 2018

Show notes

“Solar energy" harnesses the energy of the sun to power your house. A 2017 report from the International Energy Agency says that solar energy has become the world’s fastest growing source of power– marking the first time that solar energy’s growth has surpassed that of all other fuels.

Most people who want to install a solar panel system are motivated to do so either because saving the planet is important to them and/or because saving money on their utility bills is important to them. Either way, solar panel systems are tremendously beneficial.

This week’s episode will give you a basic overview of solar power systems, including the pros and cons of the different types of solar panels, the average cost, and the amount of maintenance needed. We’ll also talk about leasing solar panels.

Before our mini lesson, we’ll go over a few pro terms: On the grid, zero energy homes, and off the grid.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Refrigerators 101—BYHYU 098 Dec 27, 2017

Show notes

The refrigerator is one of the hardest working, most used appliances in a house. Back in the day, all we had were refrigerator units with freezers on top and the main choice we had to make was color. Remember harvest gold and avocado?

Today, we have so many choices in refrigerators that I thought I’d do a quick episode covering the pros and cons of each style of refrigerator to help us choose the best fridge for our new homes.

We’ll talk about top freezer refrigerators and bottom freezer refrigerators, french door refrigerators, side by side refrigerators, counter depth fridges and full refrigerator columns. Plus I’ll tell you the rule of thumb for the amount of fridge space you need in cubic feet.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Quick Tips For Designing Your House For the Holidays— BYHYU 097 Dec 20, 2017

Show notes

A few weeks ago I had to go to my architect and tell him I had completely forgotten to add a very important space to our new house. It hadn't even crossed my mind until I saw my husband putting up our Christmas decorations. He’s the Christmas decorator, not me. And he is quite the decorator. He goes all out, so we will definitely need a dedicated space for our Christmas decor. Just a couple of weeks ago we added a Christmas nook to our attic in our house plan.

The episode this week will give you a few quick tips to help you design and build a house with the holidays in mind. Putting in a little extra thought and planning before we build will make holiday decorating a lot easier and more enjoyable for years to come. Now, I’ll be referring to Christmas for most of these tips, but these ideas should be helpful for those celebrating Hanukkah and other seasonal holidays.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Closets 101 — BYHYU 096 Dec 13, 2017

Show notes

If you’re like most of us, you’re dreaming of a spacious, well-organized master closet. A walk-in master closet is what most people will opt for, but if you’re limited by space or budget, you might have to go with a reach in closet, also called a wall closet. In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about the advantages of walk-in closets vs reach-in closets, whether flat shoe shelves, slanted shoe shelves or shoe cubbies are better, and we’ll go over the different materials used to fabricate closets.

Plus we’ll go over pro terms: Wall hung closet systems and Floor mounted closet systems

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Project Update— Windows and Second Opinions— BYHYU 095 Dec 06, 2017

Show notes

I want to give you an update on my project and the private Facebook group and give you a few things to think about when designing your house. This week we briefly talk about window design and how I got a second opinion on my house plan.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

16 Effective Tips For Finding and Hiring a Good Subcontractor—BYHYU 094 Nov 22, 2017

Show notes

I recently wrote a guest blog post for a home improvement site called Kukun. I thought you might like to hear the tips that I gave them for finding good subcontractors. I’ve covered many of these tips in several previous podcast episodes, but I want to go over all those tips in one single show so you can reference this week’s show notes when it comes time for you to search for your subs. Plus I’ll give you a couple of new suggestions.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

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