Category — budget

Things I want to consider as we start to get real numbers:

• Flooring: what about varnished plywood?
• Roofing: many barns I see have asphalt shingles.
• Kitchen: IKEA may be an option…
• Shoji screens: replace with one moderate-sized framed opening looking over the open space?
• Possible postponements:
  • Basement (except for the bath & plan for fireplace)
  • library built-ins & fireplace (plumb it, though)
  • back patio
  • screened porch (still need deck)
  • library terrace

These are only my thoughts. I haven’t discussed them with Bill much, but I wanted to get them down so I don’t have to dwell on them.

This was our first design meeting after our rather eye-opening meeting with Bob Burnside. We talked about our budget, and the current expected cost (if you trust the Means books) and the fact that they don’t match each other. They’re not nearly as far off of each other as Burnside’s estimates, but he was working pretty much off-the-cuff. I just didn’t realize that we were so far apart internally, which is why I was so surprised and disappointed.

I am still disappointed. We started this project several years ago with the idea of having an advanced, energy-efficient structure, even if we have to have modest interiors. It’s a trade off I’ve been willing to take. Now I am learning that not only can’t I afford a medium-priced refrigerator, it’s likely that I won’t be having a superinsulated house, at least not one like I expected to have.

I feel like we’ve gotten on the wrong track — we’ve been focusing on the floorplan and what we want and would like to have, and have forgotten that we have to be able to afford to build the thing. I suppose we can consider the current plan as “near-final” and what we will eventually end up with. But that means we have to figure out what to put off for later.

And we’ll decide that later. Nothing like putting off hard decisions.

In that light, we asked Bob to go ahead with the construction drawings, as we can have no real idea what the house will cost to build until we get real bids, and real bids needs real drawings.

Kitchen and Laundry

We currently have GE Profile appliances in our kitchen, and they work and look ok for us (except the over-the-range microwave, which first burned out the lamps and then stopped heating after only 6 years). So with that in mind, and reserving the right to change out as models/features change here are my appliance selections:

As for the range hood, I really don’t know. It depends a little on what the ventilation system requires, doesn’t it? I mean, I really like this hood (it’s $2500 on sale) but I don’t know if its mechanics are appropriate. I’m looking for something to handle the smoke from steak seared in cast iron pans, stainless steel or stainless + glass, with some good lighting.

Bathrooms

This is more difficult, as I haven’t been able to spend much time looking at vanities, sinks and so forth. I have, however, picked the toilet (I figure we’d get all four the same):

Toto CST744SL Two-Piece Elongated Toilet (“Drake”) Mfg Page. The list price is about $500 each (including the “soft close” seat) — web sources are about 40% off that. (Buying 4 from Faucet Direct, to name one, would cost about $1300 shipped.) Color: Cotton White.

I’ve been keeping a couple of scrap spreadsheets with this info on it. I’ll try to get it put together better within the next week.

I just got an estimate from Cribley well service. To sink the well and hook up a pump to the house, it will be $4,500 to $7,000 depending on the length of the trench and piping, the pump chosen, etc. It’s only valid for 30 days, but it’s something to start with.

To go further with this, we need to determine what our water needs are (for determining gallons-per-minute required from the well) and if we want a constant pressure pump or not. Higher gpm + constant pressure cost more.

They also included a quote for a water softening system ($2k) + reverse osmosis drinking water filter ($1k), but it’s much too early to try to figure out what we need until we actually can test the water. The test well was on Parcel D, with 390 mg/L (about 23 grains/gallon, according to wikipedia) calcium and 1.9 mg/L iron.