Building the Foundation: My Journey Through the First Phase of Dream House— Kabir Narayan Jha
Living without much support or resources can be challenging, but I believe in making no excuses and focusing on execution. As a software engineer who loves project management, I decided to create a life safety asset for my family — our first dream house. I learned valuable skills in planning and management during my time at Capgemini, which inspired me to share my journey of building this house, including the successes, failures, and everything in between, through this blog.
I started planning my first house at 24, but real execution, especially around finances, began when I was 25. I approached this project phase by phase, starting with planning the required finances, materials, and costs. I owe a lot of my planning skills to the N2K project at Capgemini and my senior manager, Anand UV, who supported and guided me without ever making me feel like I was just a junior. He taught me about finance and other essential aspects.
After planning the finances, I documented everything in an Excel sheet to track the details. The first phase focused on laying the foundation (Neev) of the house. Although I exceeded my budget by ₹35,550, it was a valuable learning experience. Prices may change in the future due to inflation, but this is how I managed the planning. I hope my journey serves as inspiration for others.
Here is the High Level, Budget and Forecast, also includes the end result, Which i got after completion of first phase of the project.
Below is the detailed payment plan for the foundation, including dates, amounts, and notes.
I’ve broken down the payments into materials and labor. The section below provides a detailed plan, separating the material costs from the labor charges.
Labour Cost:
Material Cost:
Here is the breakdown of material costs.
After planning the finances at a high level, I used Excel sheets to track actual costs since they often differed from the budgeted amounts for materials and labor.
That covers the finances — now let’s move on to the exciting part: how the foundation was built. I’ll share the progress and some pictures too. The foundation was laid on a 150 Gaj plot, which is where my house will stand.
The first and most important step was to thank the supreme powers for their help and ask for continued support in building the foundation of the house. We performed a worship (Pooja) for this purpose.
After the Pooja, Day 1 was focused on digging and marking the areas where cleaning would begin.
After marking the areas, we cleaned and dug out the foundation spots to prepare for the work.
The next step involved setting up the bricks for the foundation and all the work done by the engineers. I’m not skilled in that area, but they did a great job.
During this time, nature helped us with rain, which made the foundation stronger. Thanks to the supreme powers for their continued support. Once the concrete structure was complete, it looked like this.
The final step is shown below. This image shows the completed foundation.
I learned a lot about managing finances and working with a civil engineering team to complete the project. Once the first phase was done, I felt very happy and satisfied. It took about 30 to 50 days, which were quite hectic and stressful.
The next phase involves filling the foundation with sand and other materials. I’ll share the details of the finances, management, and planning for that in the next blog. If you found this blog inspirational, please share your house plans and progress with us at info@wakeupcoders.com.
Thanks for reading my story. If you loved, do checkout my Book and YouTube for more amazing real experience-based content.
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