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, their lifestyle has changed dramatically: now there's always something to do inside — the interior decoration is not yet complete. We asked Marina to share her experience and tell how to build a house quickly and on a budget.

Marina Vagina is an architect-designer expert who shares about home decoration on her Instagram: marisabel_v

How We Decided to Move to the Countryside

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

Deciding to Build It Yourself

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 — in just three months.

Our house is almost entirely wooden: frame made of pine + insulation. The facade and interior finishing are made from false board (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, hallway, and entrance hall, a bathroom, and a utility room. On the second floor — a children's room, bedroom, and bathroom. This floor is mansard, so the ceiling height at the highest 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 convenient home with minimal costs. Everything is going according to plan!

You can view all expenses for the house in the estimate by clicking the link.

Where We Managed to Save Money

We did some of the work ourselves. For example, internal finishing: right after the house was delivered we laid laminate on both floors, installed plumbing fixtures, put in the kitchen, and moved in. Now I paint the walls myself (they are made of false board, water-based impregnation, so there's no smell), install doors and baseboards.

With the windows it was more complicated: only one company agreed to make panoramic windows. My husband and his friends handled the installation themselves — they had 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 is also simple — a typical gable roof.

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

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

5 Tips for Anyone Who Wants to Build a House Themselves

Only work with verified companies, check their portfolio, and talk to previous clients.

Prepare a design project yourself or with a designer to avoid mistakes.

Monitor prices for finishing materials — stores often run sales.

Take some work on yourself, such as painting walls — this helps save money.

Learn more about construction in general.