Justine Schmidt and Josh Paul, both University of Fairbanks employees, purchased a plot of land and decided to build their own home in Fairbanks, Alaska, amidst a challenging housing market. Despite lacking construction experience, they dedicated years to researching and constructing their dream house, saving a significant amount of money compared to purchasing an existing home.
Josh Paul in July 2022 working on the beams that the floor — and whole house — would eventually rest on.originally aired on “Marketplace”While biking near their rented home in Fairbanks , Alaska , Justine Schmidt and her partner, Josh Paul, stumbled upon a plot of land that spoke to them.
“It's at the end of a dead-end road, it goes right up against state land that there's a bunch of trails on,” Schmidt said. “And we were like, that’s a great spot.” At that point, it had only a roughed-in driveway, but Schmidt and Paul saw it as the perfect location for their future home. “It was pandemic time, so we had a bunch of, you know, pent-up energy and had saved some money. So we were like, 'Let’s do this.'”Josh Paul and Justine Schmidt in September 2022 after putting up the first wall panel on their new home.
Schmidt and Paul, who both work at the University of Fairbanks, purchased the land in May of 2021. Though they both lacked construction experience at the time, they decided to design and build a house themselves. “Josh is a very good researcher,” said Schmidt. “He spent many, many hours on YouTube University, learning how to do all the things.”“We built basically a large box,” said Schmidt. “But it is, like, exactly what we wanted.”the median home price“It was essentially both of us having part-time jobs — like at least 20 hours a week for two years, on top of our normal jobs, so that definitely cost something,” said Schmidt.
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