Building your own house?

[BeckyW]

When people say they built their own house, what does that exactly mean, I know a girl that says she saved a lot by building her own house but I know she didn't sit there laying bricks and nailing walls up, so what did she mean

[Dutch383]

They picked a design and had somebody build it for them. DUH.

[OZchix]

People often refer to tradesmen (ie: carpenter or bricklayer) as 'builders'. In reality a builder is only the person that coordinates the tradesmen and is not always a tradesman.
When people say they saved money by building their house, they mean they took on the role of the builder, coordinated the trade contractors, architects, engineers and certifiers (ie: getting the design drawn by an architect or draftsman, dealing with the engineer to make the structure stand up, getting the drawings approved through council or certifier, organising quotes, appointing the contractors that will be doing the work, drawing up the contracts for the work, booking them in, supervising them on site, also dealing with workplace health and safety requirements and licensing requirements through to completion)
Most people that choose this option (who aren't from a construction background) will keep a close working relationship with the carpenters on site as these are the guys that are generally there from beginning to end, and will turn to them for advice and/or guidance through the process (which is generally repaid with a carton of beer at the end of each week if you are a good sport!)
It can be a very stressful time (but also very rewarding) if construction is not your day-to-day but the trade off is that you are not paying the price for having an individual there to do this role for you. In a lot of cases you can even get a builder on board to handle the major construction (structural, electrical, plumbing etc) and then you can take on dealing with contractors like cabinetmakers, painters, tilers etc that do the cosmetic work. This way you are getting the major stuff done properly (with the least amount of fuss and without learning the jobs of an engineer and/or carpenter) and you can save the builders margin on the finishing trades.