Our price for concrete was just over 7k, and that was adding on a few extra yards for waste. My uncle will be helping and he's been pouring basements since he was 15. We're paying for concrete only in this one. Between my uncle and us, we have all of the perimeter drain, rebar, and waterproofing materials required. The basement will be staying unfinished for now. We have a backhoe at our disposal and a bobcat here, so we will be doing all of the excavation as well. We have construction workers of all types as friends and family, so we won't have a shortage of extra hands. It only took 4 of us to finish the basement at my in-laws a couple years back. There basement was 160 sq. ft. smaller, but a walkout and 3 ft knee walls. Their cost was $6k and they hired out some of the work. We are trading logs for the insulation, so no cost there. Our insulation man is also the Amish man who cuts all of our lumber. Once again, we're paying about $.20 a board foot lumber, and most of that has been traded in logs that he in turn sells to the local furniture maker. Our trusses and the rest of the framing were estimated at $6k from the Amish lumberyard. So that puts us at $13k. We have over 1000' ft of electrical wire and two 200 amp main breakers, so worst case scenerio is we might have to buy another couple rolls. 1000 ft rolls are $450. Say 2k tops for boxes, outlets, switches, and there is already electric service to the area. There is also a waterline trenched in, that we had done when they first dug the well when we moved in, knowing that we would most likely build back there in the future. It just needs to be connected to the well and line run there to the jet pump in the house. We have all of the extra materials and pump required to get water in to the house already. Pex for water supply will run under $1000. I'm still under $15k here I think. We already have an outdoor furnace and the duct work to get it through the majority of the house. Say another $1k for conservative estimate for more duct work if we need it. I don't think we will though. No A/C, because we've lived without it most of our lives, I don't see any reason to spend the money on it now. It can easily be hooked up though in the future. #2 metal roofing runs about $90-100 a square. So approx. $3-3.5k for the roof. Let's say we're at $18k here, because I don't want to add up anything else. That leaves approx. $17k for everything else or any added expenses that I didn't include. I'm not including cost of our time, because we can't afford to pay for ourselves. We have friends and family that have offered to help if we need it, and I think there are a few that will dedicate some of their weekends and evenings to helping on a regular basis.

Well, it got colder than predicted last night at my house, I should have covered more! Luckily all my potted stuff was in the heated greenhouse. I've had my weather station so long, that that particular model is discontinued. I liked it because it was wireless and battery AND solar powered. There are several really good models out there now. For maintenance on mine, all I have to do is change the batteries once a year and while I'm up there I clean out the rain gauge. The hard part really is just the initial setup and getting it connected to your computer. There's software you have to install too, which connects to WUNDERGROUND and you can get that off the WUHU Yahoo groups page. A good place to start looking for a station is ambientweather dot com, once you find what you like you can google the brand and see if you can find it cheaper elsewhere... Kevin

Kim, You will be farming and gardening in a very unforgiving climate there, so perhaps their desire to wait for the rain comes from their knowledge of how tough Spring planting can be without the rainfall. I'm just guessing about that. I am sorry that your planting plans are a mess and aren't conforming to what you wanted, hoped for and expected. Please hang in there and don't stop believing.....even with a late start I bet you have a great year. It is unfortunate that your promised helpers are not available. Grrrrr. I hate empty promises. I wish you lived closer to all of us too. If you did, we'd caravan out to the farm and help you plant onions. Don't be too hard on yourself over the onion planting. Just do what you can do every day and be thankful for the progress you're making. I noticed that almost nobody in my area (or nobody who lives on roads we drive along so we're able to see their gardens) has their onions in yet, likely because most everyone here gardens at grade level, so their soil still is too wet. I am grateful for our raised beds because even though their soil also is wet, it was dry enough for me to get the onions planted last week, and today I'll be able to plant a lot of other stuff. So, even though I feel late here (and I am late compared to most years) apparently I'm ahead of everyone else who gardens around me. We all have to work with what we've got and, depending on one's location, it seems like we're either too wet or too dry.......sort of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears......it is hard to find that planting window when things are just right. Bruce, Our cats wipe out the moles and gophers, so they don't bother me either way, but it is stunning how many mounds I see on other people's property, particularly the ones with sandy soil. To some extent, our large amount of clay saves us from the moles and gophers, and the cats do the rest. If only that were so with the voles, but they tunnel completely underground at night, often hiding the entrances to their tunnels in adjacent woodland or areas of the neighbor's pasture with tall grass, so the cats have to hunt really hard to find the vole holes. I cannot let the cats out at night because of the coyotes, but I bet if the cats could be outside safely at night, they'd control the voles too. It would be tempting to use the poison for the gophers if only you didn't have grandchildren (or pets?). I noticed the sudden appearance of gopher traps, and all sorts of poisons and repellants on the store shelves in the last week or two, so clearly rodent season is underway now. For years, back when the garden fence was only 4' tall, we always had bobcats in the garden. I knew they were lurking there hoping to get birds, house cats, squirrels, bunnies or rodents, but I don't think I realized how many voles they probably were controlling until we raised the fence to 8' in height to keep out the deer. Since that effectively kept out the bobcats too, it was about a year after the raising of the fence that I realized we 'suddenly' had a huge vole problem. I wish there were a way to keep out the deer and allow the bobcats back in. It would sort of freak me out to drive up the driveway and see a bobcat just sitting there in the garden right in the middle of all the plants in broad daylight, but now that they are gone, I miss their varmint-controlling efforts. I don't understand everyone's obsession with moles either, but then, that's because our lawn is clay and we don't have moles. Maybe if we had moles tunneling everywhere in the lawn, they'd drive me nuts. I don't know. Also, we're rural and I could care less what our lawn looks like. We're not trying to maintain a pristine green carpet that impresses all the neighbors. I can understand that folks who live in suburban neighborhoods where there is a ton of pressure to have the standard perfect green carpet of grass would feel like the moles are ruining their lawn and, by extension, their lives. That whole obsession with perfect green lawns in housing subdivisions is a real thing, you know, and it amazes me how much time and effort people put into feeding and watering a green lawn and controlling the weeds just so they can mow it once or twice a week. It seems like a lot of work for nothing (by nothing, I mean that the standard green lawn doesn't produce food or flowers and doesn't support much wild life). When we lived in the city, we had the standard beautiful green lawn in the front yard, although I replaced as much of it as I reasonably could with ornamental planting beds. We had St. Augustine ('Raleigh') and it was so pretty, but I'm glad we aren't trying to keep a lawn like that green through all of OK's hot, dry, drought-filled summers. As our shade trees here get larger and larger, more and more of our bermuda grass lawn is being shaded out and replaced by ground covers, and that thrills me. That was my plan for the bermuda grass all along---to shade it out. I don't miss the green carpet of grass at all here. Our city back yard always was more garden than lawn grass and that was good---it gave me places to plant things that weren't green lawn, so I always spent more time in the back yard than the front yard even way back then. Nowadays I spend all my time in the garden that I possibly can, and resent every single hour of mowing that takes me away from my garden. It is funny how kids and grandkids take it so personally when someone else has offended their parent or grandparent, and those kids have long memories too! I guess that makes us stay on our best behavior when the little ones are around. Looking out the window I can see that it is dawn outside (pun intended). I've been waiting forever for the sun to come up, and finally that moment is about to arrive. Planting day at last! After today, the onions will not be alone any more. Dawn

Re: "There aren't any new developments that even come close in terms of architectural quality in our city, and neither in terms of pricing." That tells me that the proximity to trains has been already figured in to the price, which means that if its a nuisance a buyer can put up with it can be a great way of getting an otherwise great place in an otherwise unaffordable neighborhood. Sounds like you did your due diligence and decided to go for it - pls report back once you are moved in and tell us how it's working! I bought a house immediately adjacent to tracks after thoroughly checking it out, incl calling them and asking if they used herbicides. They didnt - they mowed. For about 5 yrs anyway, then they started doing massive amts of herbicide spray which killed off entire trees and half my yard, - needed to file complaints w/ state environmental regulatory agency which got them to reduce but not eliminate the applications. Im planning my exit strategy, moving as soon as I can. Too bad, cos I otherwise liked it and the noise didnt bother. In my price range, I cant get the perfect house so the question becomes what I can put up with, and what I cant.