Contracting a house without a professional builder is one of the most time consuming and intellectually and emotionally challenging tasks a homeowner will ever experience. Retired University of Rhode Island professor of biology Frank Heppner started rehabilitating old houses in 1977, and began the job of contracting his own house, one of the first modern design domestic structures in southern Rhode Island, in 1979. In this book, he describes the background preparation that was required for the job, and how the real estate market and the landscape shaped where the house would be located and how it was built. This is not a how-to book, but explores how family, job, personal background, local history, and chance play a role in the self-contracting process. There's an old saying in the real estate business, "There are only three important things in real estate; location, location, and location." This is absolutely true in self-contracting, so the book also explores how the residential real estate market has developed over the past 40 years in southern Rhode Island, and discusses how location considerations can affect self-contracting anywhere. If you are thinking about contracting your own house this book will be an invaluable assist in helping you decide whether you want to take on this enormous, yet gratifying task.
About the Author: FRANK HEPPNER was born in San Francisco, and for 41 years was a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Rhode Island. He was part of one of the teams that developed the first computer simulations of bird flocks in the mid '80s. He built his first model airplane when he was five, and his first scratch-built HO model train boxcar when he was 13. He loves trains, and has ridden over 500,000 miles by train around the world. For many years he was a volunteer pilot for the Civil Air Patrol. He has written five books and over 60 scientific articles. He first became interested in real estate and house construction when he came to Rhode Island in 1969. His first taste of self-contracting a house was in the late 70's when he co-contracted the restoration of a 175 year old estate in Wickford. He started construction of the house that is the subject of this book, Daylight in 1979. He has been active in civic affairs in Rhode Island, including the North Kingstown Conservation Commission, the South Kingstown Public Housing Authority, where he served as Chair for many years, and he was the Chair of the Friends of the Kingston Railroad Station, a volunteer group that restored the historic structure.