The desire to design build and occupy your own home may be inborn or may be inspired by old movies. Whatever the reason that you need to design build and settle into your own home, you can find an almost infinite number of choices today. In case you don’t know, kit homes are houses that are built using a kit assembled by a company and shipped to the site. Many kits are designed to be assembled by the owner with limited assistance from contractors while others are more elaborate and may need expert assembly. Kit homes are not a new idea. More than 100,000 kit houses were built in the United States between 1908 and 1940. Most were ordered through catalog retailers, the majority from Sears and Roebuck. Today, the modern kit home owner can choose from almost any style home to design build and brag about. Perhaps the most well-known type of kit home is the log home. There’s something about the need to design build and settle a home that says “log cabin.â€ Many of these homes are built as vacation homes. The most technically demanding kit home may be the timber frame home which uses no metal parts. The frame is fit together in the ancient ways with wooden pegs and lots of know-how. Geodesic dome homes now come in kit form. These are said to be easier to construct than most of the others although there is a learning curve. Panelized construction is also available in kit form. This type of building uses some pre-fabricated assemblies. Many types of kit homes can be customized when ordered. That’s where the design part of the whole design build and live idea comes in. Remember to be absolutely sure that you have contracted for the home that you really want. “Read the specifications and the contract carefully so you know exactly what you are getting.â€ With any kit home, check out local building codes to ensure that the home you build will be a legal one. Also make sure that your bank is willing to issue a mortgage for a kit home. With planning and work, you too can design build and pioneer your own home. NoneNone