Personal Experience: How We Built a House and Spent 4 Million Rubles

Marina moved with her husband and two children to the countryside to a house they designed and built themselves. Of course, the children's lifestyle has changed dramatically: now there is always something to do—interior decoration is not yet completed. We asked Marina to share her experience and tell how to build a house quickly and within budget.

Marina Vagin is an architect-designer who shares her experience of home decoration in her Instagram account marisabel_v

How they decided to move to the countryside:

We made this decision in September last year. We sold our apartment and built a house over the summer. Here, the environment is completely different, even sleeping feels different. I like the feeling of closeness to nature, and it's also good for the kids: they forget about gadgets and spend more time outdoors.

Why they decided to build the house themselves:

This was my little dream—to design my own house. I prepared all the drawings, and friends recommended a construction crew. We built a 128 square meter frame house quickly—only in three months.

Our house is almost entirely wooden: a frame made of pine + insulation. The facade and interior finishing are done using false timber (also pine), the ceiling is also wooden. We fully entrusted the material procurement to a construction company and didn’t regret it.

As a result, on the first floor we have a kitchen-living room, hall, and entrance hall, a bathroom and utility room. On the second floor—children's room, bedroom, and bathroom. This floor is a mansard, so the ceiling height at the top point is 4000 mm.

Total budget:

We spent four million rubles on building the house and its interior decoration. I decided to conduct an experiment: build a beautiful and comfortable house with minimal costs. Everything is going according to plan!

All expenses on the house can be seen in the estimate by clicking the link.

Where we managed to save money:

We took some of the work on ourselves. For example, interior finishing: after the house was delivered, we immediately laid laminate on both floors, installed plumbing fixtures, put in a kitchen, and moved in. Now I paint the walls myself (they are made of false timber, water-based impregnation, so there are no odors), install doors and baseboards.

It was harder with windows: only one company agreed to make panoramic windows. My husband and his friends installed them themselves—this was their previous experience as installers. It turned out great, and it's not cold in winter.

On the roof, we also saved money—metal roofing is cheap. The structure of our house is also simple—a typical gable roof.

Also, I prepared the design project myself and immediately planned all the furniture. We buy it gradually as our budget allows. We bought a lot at discounts and promotions. Some items were found in IKEA.

Decor was harder to handle: often I find interesting things in unassuming small shops. Most items we make ourselves from budget-friendly materials, mostly from wood.

5 Tips for Everyone Who Wants to Build a House Themselves:

• Only work with verified companies, check their portfolio and talk to customers.
• Prepare a design project yourself or with a designer to avoid mistakes.
• Monitor prices on finishing materials—often stores run sales.
• Take some work on yourself, such as painting walls—it helps save money.
• Learn more about construction.