I've had two bespoke homes built for me in the Tokyo area and bought two cookie cutter homes in southern California. For custom homes, the amount of details an

I've had two bespoke homes built for me in the Tokyo area and bought two cookie cutter homes in southern California. For custom homes, the amount of details and things to consider for the structure itself is enormous. Each area is a specialized skill, from the paperwork and inspections, the waterworks, electrical, ventilation, lighting, accessibility, and more. We worked with the architect for over four months, making him earn his pay to fit everything to our requirements. While we were quite demanding, the wife was an architect in California and I run software projects, we were sympathetic and tried to give clear change requests along with reasoning. During the build, we visited the location regularly and was allowed to make last minute decisions. Again very aware to make sure the changes were trivial and straightforward. While we settled on wood frame house (with ceramic sidewalls), we also looked at steel and concrete. I think the most compelling concrete build is this "Hebel House" with the use of aerated concrete. This type of concrete provides insulation along with other concrete properties such as resistance to fire. For homes with modern amenities, there's too many specialized knowledge for one person to do a build in a reasonable time frame. There are firms with a team that can help with the build. And it's important for the most important stakeholder, you the owner, to be fully involved but also work with the experts.