Building your own house is a primal urge, one of those universal genetic drives like the need to provide for your family.

Building your own home is about desire, fantasy. But it's achievable; anyone can do it.

Building a house from scratch in the middle of a field is a bit like building a prototype car. As with all prototypes, if you're building a car you usually have the luxury of producing several prototypes before you arrive at the production line version - so the opportunity for changing things is quite rich.

Building design isn't trendy.

My parents had no money, but they had strong values that I've carried throughout my life - things like not going into debt, never borrowing money, never leveraging, paying your bills on time, keeping your agreements, selling customers the right things, treating employees right, and growing things.

I try not to live my life thinking about money because money doesn't make me happy.

Basically, I think that most people either make too much money or not enough money. The jobs that are essential and important pay too little, and those that are essentially managerial pay far too much.

I love to go to Washington - if only to be near my money.