I LOVED it when I built my house! ALLLL the way back in 2003, and all by myself too

A lot of the things you mentioned can be included in the cost with the builder, although they usually charge a bit more for the privelidge. It does however do away with having to move into a cold un carpeted / tiled with sand or cardboard boxes as a driveway!

As far as the payments go, when I did it (and it is the norm, but then again every company is different) you are given a fixed price contract, and at certain parts of the building process (siteworks, concrete pad (well that's in Perth), brickwork, roofing etc) you do a periodical payment before or after each section is completed. Then by the time the house is finished, you are fully paid up! Key handover and the house is yours.

In Perth you can get house and land packages, so the land and house are all rolled into one mortgage. I think if you buy land first, you will have mortgage for that (unless you can pay for it outright) and then the house will be on top of that...IYKWIM....You'd see a mortgage broker probably to help with that stuff.

I loved the building process and would love to do it again