I can only tell you what has worked for us. After talking to several people that built their own house, everyone of them recommended building the garage or the workshop first. Those that built the house first had to use the house as a workshop until they got one built. You have to have tools to build with. You have to have materials. If you have never built anything before, it is best to practice on something much more simple than a house and work out your mistakes on that.
We had a travel trailer to live in. We purchased one of those metal portable carports and had the sides brought down to the ground on 2 sides and then used tarps on rope for the ends. That became the temporary place for tools and materials while we built the workshop. It took us 6 months to build that and we still do not have the siding on. We have the plywood and the tyvek on there. As soon as we got it to a point that we could function in it, we started the house.
That was Mar 2003. We moved into the house June 2004. We still have no interior trim up. The cabinets are all temporary workbenches. We still have subfloor where the wood floors are supposed to be as Dh is still working on the wood floors. We have no interior doors up yet and are relying on old tablecloths on rods. We still have to get the siding on the house up too and the rear deck. We are putting wood on the ceilings and I have insulation showing right now. So, as you can see, after 18 months, we still have a long way to go.
We have spent so much time on building that there wasn't time for gardens and chickens etc. We now are having to take time out and do that stuff if we are going to survive. I also have had to go to work to bring in money. We have gone through the savings and equity money and 401K money. Our place is paid for, but we no longer have a wad of money to fall back on.
We could not afford to have a house built by a contractor or even to act as our own contractor. We looked at mobile/manufactured homes and decided that we had never seen one that was 20 or 30 years old that looked worth having, so that wasn't an option for us. That left building ourselves. If money were not an issue, we would have had this house and shop built. But, money was an issue and usually is for most people.
You can do it. We had a bunch of building books. There were days that we spent hours reading and with chalk drawing on the floor and the pencils drawing on the wood and the walls trying to figure out what to do. We invested in a couple of tools that I would highly recommend. A good pneumatic nail gun and compressor,a good circular hand saw, an 8 ft level, and an 18V drill. Also nice was a DeWalt 12 inch sliding chop saw with stand. We used that a lot! Our neighbor down the road is building his own house and hasn't even started as he is relying on used materials to cut the costs drastically. So, he has piles and piles of materials laying around on pallets and under tarps. After a year, he just got the wood for framing the outer walls, so this route can be done, but takes time too.
One of the building books we read said that you should figure on 2-3 man hours for every square foot of a garage/workshop building that is simple. Figure 3-5 man hours for every square foot of house depending on the size and style. It is taking us longer.
