Confessions of a Self-builder

So men’s brains are different to women’s. We’re good at reading maps and women are better at finding things. Self builders, like developers, must have different brains from ordinary folk as they see things as they’re going to be rather than as they are. I’ve tried to explain practically every house I’ve ever planned to build to estate agents but it’s only when it’s finished that they stand there and exclaim “Oh I never realised it was going to be this good/this big etc. etc”. Quite apart from the fact that that means they can’t possibly be doing the best job of selling the place, it brings their initial valuation into question. I build lovely individual homes but I’ve come to realise that I have to go the whole way including landscaping and even furnishing, in order to sell them. And then when I do, owners, even 25 years later, still refer to it as “Your house”.