To Build a House

My Epic Saga in Custom Home Building

By: Ryan Haag

Narrated by: Ryan Haag

Most people dream of building their own custom home, customized to fit their lifestyle perfectly. But for Ryan Haag, life as a US Navy Officer makes building a custom home impossible. There is little point in investing in an expensive, customized home when the Navy sends you to a completely new location every three years. But a change in life circumstances suddenly gives Ryan the chance to build the home of his dreams.

Having prepared for years for this very moment, Ryan is soon awash in loan documents and building contracts, and buried deep in the often murky world of custom home-building. Soon it becomes obvious that this process won't be easy. Challenges abound, from shifty city bureaucrats who throw up roadblocks when least expected to a mortgage company and builder fighting with each other. All of Ryan's preparation is put to the test as he navigates the complicated process of building a custom home from scratch on a virgin piece of land and with a limited budget.

To Build a House explores the glossed-over details of home-building. This isn't a fancy home-building novel with an unlimited budget and expert building crews. This book shows what happens when it all goes wrong. Nothing comes easy in this home-building process. It's hard, exhausting work managing a project that will be your forever home. But nothing in life worth doing comes easy, and this book celebrates the success at the end of a hard-fought victory.

If you want a real story of a real person with real constraints navigating the process to build a home while balancing work, family, and just general life challenges, this book won't disappoint.

©2021 Ryan Haag (P)2021 Ryan Haag

It's like a good friend sharing insights

I'm preparing to build a custom home and this book helped to put some things into perspective. Overall, it was easy to listen to his story and it was as if a good friend is sharing insights during a challenging period of life. i would recommend listening to this book if you are about to build a house. The author seems to be a good family man.

This was a very well-rounded book. Entertaining to listen to and full of drama.

I very much enjoyed Ryan ‘s book! I laughed out loud, I cried out loud… His book was very relatable and well done! Not only is it a book on what to or maybe what not to do when building a new home… But it was more of a life journey during those years of Ryan’s life.
Highly recommend!

Fantastic Story!!!

Such a fantastic story on so many levels! At it's core, this book truly offers a deep dive into the building blocks (no pun intended) of building of home, highlighting all of the unique features you may not necessarily think about.... like crawl spaces. But this book goes so far beyond simple instructions on how to build a home. Ryan does a beautiful job of tying in all of the personal and emotional battles that come with building a home, in addition to the battles of life in general. This story made me laugh, cry, smile, and so many emotions in between. I'm honestly a little sad to be finished with the book, because it really felt like I was listening to a good friend during my drives to and from work. I hope to see more stories from Ryan in the future!

Great Story

Twists, turns, and a few tears…all the bases covered. Faith, perseverance, and wit get the author to the finish line of what can only be described as a daunting endeavor.

Must read if you are considering building a custom home

Great story and great details on a customer’s experience of building a home and how complicated that process can be. The author definitely gives you some great insight on dealing with contractors, city government, lenders and all the issues that can arise in a custom build.

Not what I was thinking

This wasn’t what I was fully looking for but the story was great. It kept me going and also has me looking forward to building my forever home now more then ever. Thank you for all the information and the ups and downs that now I know could come along the way.

Solid construction of details

This was very well organized book of with personal as well as construction struggles & successes. Very kind to keep the anonymity. I appreciate the specific details. Perhaps even more specifics would have been appreciated regarding choices such as cabinets, floor baseboards, HVAC, h2o systems, hardware, lighting, etc. I guess a book has to have some constraints. I’m sorry about Rebecca. Good luck with the Chapel, being Christian (former Catholic) myself, I’d love to incorporate something such as this in our build. Congrats on your son! Thank you for the list at the end. Glad you were able to be so productive during the lockdown. Keep being such an awesome role model for those kiddos!

Read this book before building a house!

Ryan Haag has done an excellent job of writing, and reading, a gripping account of everything he and his family went through trying to bring their Forever Home into reality. This is not a how-to guide for custom home building, but an excellent case study of Murphy's Law; What can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time. Despite many setbacks, delays, dishonest professionals, unexpected expenses, and personal tragedy, everything manages to work out in the end. But this cautionary tale is a valuable reminder to the rest of us that we should hope for the best, but plan for the worst if we decide to build our own houses. I had no idea it could be this complicated!

Ryan, my condolences for your loss, and for all the frustrations you and your family went through. Having recently visited the Hampton Roads region, I commend your choice of places to settle!

valuable in many ways...

This is a story of a man, a husband, a father in his quest to build a dream home with his family. It is valuable from a project mgmt. experience, life and family experience, construction experience and much more...
I highly recommend it!

Down to earth and real, not a pie in the sky

Wow, I guess I had initially wanted to build a house and was going in with starry eyes, but now I see clearly that it will be a long process and I should give it serious consideration before beginning. I also understand I need to adjust my expectations when working with others in the mortgaging loan company and the building company, even though they may sound reassuring. The truth is it is hard work, no getting around it, and it can be fraught with deception and harsh reality. I’m okay with that as long as I understand that is what to expect. Thanks so much for your insight Ryan - definitely the best book I have read on building a house.