Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Day Zero

Alright, as of a couple hours ago, the funds are wired, the title is recorded, and the property is officially mine!  This is day zero.  Tomorrow begins the long, but hopefully fun process of building this place out.

Now that it’s officially on, I’m off to backfill and pre-date some blog entries which describe the process up to this point. But this day — day zero — is the official start of A House By The Park.

Book Review: Building Your Own Home for Dummies

There’s only so much books can teach you about the homebuilding process, but having no better leads for must-have guides, I picked up Building Your Own Home for Dummies from Amazon and read it cover to cover. I’m a slow reader and finished the whole thing in about four days, so it’s a refreshingly quick read for an all-encompassing reference guide.

The best thing about the book is that it’s applicable to people like me who are using architects and other professionals to build the house as well as those who are doing the design, general contracting, and even construction themselves. Wherever you fit in the spectrum, there’s useful and even essential information in here for you.

Everything from construction loans, to protection against liens, to steel vs. wood framing is covered. Besides the occasional oddball statement like “if you don’t currently use e-mail, take the time now to figure it out” or an explanation of Palm PDAs and Lotus Notes, the book seems plenty up-to-date. It’s also chock full of plugs for other books in the Dummies series, but hey, whatever.

If you’re going to buy this book and read it, I recommend keeping a highlighter handy to highlight any information you find particularly useful. It’s not the type of book you’d want to read cover-to-cover twice; useful, but not even mildly entertaining. In fact, I find that most jokes attempted in Dummies books make me feel slightly uncomfortable for the author.

All in all, my inner dummy appreciated the usefulness of this book, and I would recommend it as a good first read for anyone thinking about building a house.

Costs accrued during this stage:

Book: Building Your Own Home for Dummies$13.59

The last miscellaneous cost post

The last of the miscellaneous costs that don’t warrant their own blog entries have been entered and this post doesn’t really serve any purpose other than to get them into the system. If you have costs turned on, you should see them below. If not, move along now… nothing to see here!

Costs accrued during this stage:

Carpentry (Rivera 26 Remodeling)$11,497.50
Door hardware$44.94
Garage door (Select Garage Door)$2,016.50
Door hardware (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$1,387.46
Door hardware (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$1,381.23
Door hardware (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$371.89
Door hardware (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$190.81
Door supplies (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$185.53
Drywall repair and finishing (PJ Construction)$1,226.40
Flooring supplies (White Cap Construction Supply)$100.14
General site work (Brett Deerly)$2,102.40
General site work (Build LLC)$10,605.00
Debris removal (Take It Away Hauling)$1,090.00
Debris removal (Take It Away Hauling)$240.25
Honeybucket rental$125.71
Scaffolding rental$793.34
Honeybucket rental$125.71
Extra two months fence rental (National Rentals)$53.34
Full house cleaning (Complete Clean LLC)$2,120.00
Final geotech certification (Icicle Creek Engineers)$1,200.00
Miscellaneous hardware (Builder's Hardware & Supply)$95.90
Miscellaneous tools (White Cap Construction Supply)$11.82
Miscellaneous expenses$2,093.34
Miscellaneous expenses$1,863.74
Staining materials (Rudd)$105.90
Miscellaneous expenses$206.46
Site work (Build LLC)$2,637.50
Miscellaneous wood materials (Compton Lumber)$182.90
Entry floormat (American Floormats)$140.70
Door stops$163.08