Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Cost Estimating is Kindof Fun and Kindof not Fun!

So we continue the shopping extravaganza of building a house. It only took me about 2 hours of interneting to find out general costs for many house things. While we are still planning to reuse many things we need hard numbers for the bank. Here's what I came up with from a contractor supply website:
sliding patio door, 10 closet bi fold doors, 4 interior doors, & 6 standard windows ($2480 ish)
Insulation ($1291 ish)
kitchen cabinets ($1400 ish)
fridge, stove, wash/dryer, dishwasher, waterheater ($4000 ish)
cork floor in the kitchen ($210 ish)

oh and I almost forgot the really fun one... county permits and impact fees!!!! ($7072)
Water $1052.00
Sewer 1579.00
Streets 1414.00
Parks/Rec 765.00
Power 1462.00
Land survey 600.00

So our grand total at this point is: $29525

We are anxious about the bid from the lumber/trusses/roofing guys. Because that is definitely going to be our biggest one.

The thing that I have spent the most recent chunk of time on is trying to find out what size water heater we need to get to create enough hot water for the radiant floor and for regular household needs for 1200 square feet. The guy at http://www.homeenvy.com/db/3/213.html suggests that a 40 gallon gas fired hot water heater will do the job!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cactus Caper!!!!!



















A very sad thing has happened... Russ made this really great cactus out of bicycle rims. He spent over 40 hours making it and attached it to this giant rock in our front yard. We were looking forward to moving it to be a part of our straw bale house property when the time came.... but no, someone came to our house with a power tool and removed all 12 bolts and Russ's work of art from the rock. SADNESS!