About Us & What’s in For You…Welcome to BYHYU BYHYU 001

This is the “About Us” and “What’s in for you” episode. The introduction.  The first day of school— where you will be told what to expect throughout the year.  You’ll find out who should listen to this podcast and why.  

In short, know that you will learn about residential construction so you can save money, become an educated consumer and build your dream house, with or without a general contractor. If you put in the time, effort, preparation and research BEFORE you break ground, building your home will be much easier and more enjoyable.   

Episodes might include:
-Pro terms— where complex construction jargon is defined and simplified.
​-Mini lessons— about home design and building.
-Product reviews—  covering tried and true and cutting edge building 
 materials.
​-Interviews— with owner builders and industry experts.

Welcome to Build Your House Yourself University (BYHYU)— I’m your host and fellow student, Michelle Nelson, and together we’ll learn about residential construction and demystify the building process, so you can build your dream home, with or without a general contractor.

In this first episode, I’ll tell you who this podcast is for and what to expect from the show.  
  
Build Your House Yourself University will help you design, plan and manage the construction of your dream home. 

I’ll explain complex building concepts in simple, easy to understand terms. I think of us as a community of informal residential construction students, myself included.  

I want to demystify the building process by revealing the secrets, tricks and tips of experienced builders and trades people.

So whether you are a prospective owner-builder who wants to build your house with little or no oversight by a general contractor, or whether you are someone wants to hire a builder, but wants to be able to make educated decisions about the construction of your new home, this podcast is for you.

And guess what?  This podcast is for me too because I want to learn as much as I can about residential construction before my husband and I start building our dream home. And I started this podcast because I thought that the research that I’m going to do would be helpful to others.

My thinking is…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 the rest of the project will be much easier and more enjoyable.
  
Ok, so what this podcast is not… this is not typical DIY show.  We won’t focus on what I call the “hammer in hand” approach of construction (although we will give some insight about what types of projects are suitable for laypeople to tackle).  

I work full time and I don’t have the time, talent or, frankly the interest, in doing the physical work on my home. 

So byhyu will focus on us learning to coordinate the labor and laborers of construction, but we won’t go into how to do the actual labor ourselves.

Instead, what we’re gonna focus on is understanding the management of the design build process. 

I’ll be talking about energy efficient and practical house design, financing, permits and inspections, as well as hiring, scheduling and managing subcontractors.   

I’ll also introduce you to cutting edge and tried and true building products and services. 

Whether you want to hire a builder or not, listening to this podcast will help you become an educated consumer.

Now let’s talk about the format…

At the start of most shows, I’ll define a construction term, what I call a 
Pro term, so we become familiar with industry lingo and better understand the language of our subcontractors and inspectors.

-There will be mini lessons on residential construction, mostly taught by me where we’ll about roofing, foundations, framing, countertops, etc.

-There will be episodes with interviews with industry experts and experienced owner-builders.  


Product reviews— sometimes I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned in researching different building and design products and sometimes we will have guests from various companies who will introduce us to their products.

And finally, at the end of most episodes there will be a 2-3 question quiz about the info that was presented during the podcast… remember I’m calling this Build Your House Yourself UNIVERSITY, so I think quick quizzes will be kinda fun.

Ok, so here’s the disclaimer…

I’m no expert and I’m gonna be learning right along with you.  So, if its expert advice you want, you should talk to an actual expert about your specific project.  

This podcast won’t be able to give specific recommendations or advice for your individual house plans.

And even the industry professionals that we will talk to can only offer general information, and that general information may or may not be appropriate for your house, so take what your hear in this podcast as our opinions and  our best attempt at sharing what we’ve learned or experienced, and NOT definitive recommendations for your project.  

In fact, if the information that you hear on the show is contrary to what you have learned or experienced, I want want to hear from you.  

There’s often more than one way to do something.  So I want to hear about your opinions and solutions to building challenges-- what you have found in your research.

I’d like BYHYU to become a community where we share our knowledge.  And since I’m a student just like you, I’m interested in learning what you’ve discovered— just like we would in a study group.  

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done some of my best learning in study groups, where peers get together and simplify complex concepts. That’s the idea behind this podcast.


Well, that’s it for our first episode.  If you just stumbled upon this site and think it will be of help to you , you can go ahead subscribe to it in iTunes (for free), or sign up below so weekly podcasts and posts will automatically be sent to your email inbox.  That way you’ll always be able to find us.


I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stumbled upon a podcast or blog, loved it, did not subscribe, and forgot the name of the site, and was not able to find it again.  So, frustrating!  Subscribing will help you avoid that frustration.

Thank you for stopping by.   I look forward to us learning  about house design and building together.