No offense intended. I'll wager you are the one of very few on this board who could make that statement. Most people have other jobs and just arm themselves for emergencies. To advise that an ordinary untrained, inexperienced lone citizen attempt to clear his house of potentially multiple armed, desperate, hyped-on-drugs criminals, is just bad advice.
I spent a year in Vietnam with a "loaner" M-16 (20" barrel, 1:12 rifling, clip-on bipod, fixed stock, open front flash hider), a bunch of mags, free ammunition, and a machete. I've had handgun training--beyond just the CHL class--and a concealed handgun license for eight years. I've shot many rounds under imaginary panic situations. I consider myself slightly above average in capabilities and willingness to use deadly force. I have Texas Law Shield legal defense coverage. There are no children in our house normally.
If scumbags break into our house in the night, my wife and I will get on the floor on the side of the bed away from the door, we will call 911 on a cell phone (the alarm company may also, but I won't depend on that) and wait with 14 rounds of .45acp in a SA XDM45 and 9 rounds of .45acp in a Colt XSE, both trained on the bedroom door. If we don't hear a siren and see flashing lights, I assume whomever comes through that door is planning to harm us, and we will not wait to find out. My wife will shoot low; I'll shoot high, to provide hits in the gut and chest. An invasion at some other time will have us with only the XDM and having to respond immediately, but that would not be a house clearing operation.
Every person's situation is different, but the general advice that is given by self-defense trainers and law enforcement is to not try and clear your house of criminals. Even though you know the house, most people are less capable of prevailing in a violent encounter than the criminals in their house.
