Persnickety's world famous cost-tracking spreadsheet
tinycastles
15 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (160)
persnicketydesign
15 years agodaniele4618
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Garden Costs
Comments (37)Personally, I just can't think of the cost...because if I do, it defeats the purpose. I get enough harvest to share with everyone in the neighborhood, but if I kept it all, I'd be WAY ahead of the game. But I'm not, because I like to share. Fencing- Might have been around $60 last year. Black Plastic- around $80 (gag!) for a 100 x 20 roll. I realize this year that I can get at least 2 years out of it by reusing last year's and doubling some to eliminate the holes (because I dig diff't pattern beds every year) Seeds- don't ask. I'm a sucker for a pretty package. Potting soil for a winter-sower: about $40 annually between flowers & veggies. Onion starts: $30 I think this time For what I spend to DIY, I could easily save more/spend less by going the grocery-store route with the amount that I actually keep for my own use. I need to learn to can & freeze. Maybe I need that Food Saver they were just advertising on QVC yesterday...($90) It's a hobby. And I like it. The only ones getting any 'savings' from my venture are the people at work that take the offerings in the kitchen. Sigh....See MoreWhat REALLY drives up the cost of a build?
Comments (32)I consider 3-D programs to be an excellent part of the designing process, but they can't be taken outside to see how the sun shines into the kitchen at 5p nor can you line the walls with paint chips to determine which is really the color you want. Home Designer Pro can do exactly that. In fact, it will show you how the sun will shine in any part of the house at any given date and time. Of course, you have to be able to tell it the building site's lat and long and the house's orientation on the site. The program has provisions to accept that information and also terrain data, if the site isn't flat. There are also digitized paint and wall covering samples that can be loaded into the program. They are available from several major manufacturers at no cost. I can't say how accurate the color rendering is, though. And, I've noticed that no matter how good the program, most people still don't see that the bathroom door will slam into someone shaving at the sink, or that there's no room to walk behind the dining room chairs, or that the overstuffed recliner cannot be carried through a 32" door. That is primarily because people don't think about those things unless they train themselves to do so. Reading a few good books on design helps. Studying random stock plans in order to find as much wrong with them as you can helps too. Many of them are so bad that you can make a sport of it. Once someone grasps the concept of how not to design a house, using roof off 3D views, such as the "dollhouse view" helps immensely. Good software lets the user place correctly proportioned furniture and people into the 3D visualization to see what works and what doesn't. It is a great tool for someone willing to take the time to learn it. Home Designer Pro, which I use isn't cheap. Its suggested retail is $500. In the scheme of things, as in building anything other than an econobox house, it is a bargain considering how many expensive problems it can help you to avoid....See MoreHow are you tracking costs?
Comments (150)me too........me too! if you are still sending them, then please send one to me! thank you so much!! cloud-stepper@comcast.net...See MoreWhat's a track / tract home?
Comments (25)FWIW - the notion of tract housing has been around since the earliest cities. They may have been made of mud brick instead of ticky-tacky, but master planned communities in what can be likened to tract housing existed in the ancient Near East 4000 years ago. The following is an except from the LA Times: Archive for Thursday, September 25, 1997 Urban Planning, Circa 2500 BC By Thomas H. Maugh II September 25, 1997 in print edition B-2 Call it Irvine by the Euphrates. Its actual name is Titris Hoyuk, it is in Turkey, not California, and it is more than 4,000 years old. But this city of 10,000 souls bears more than a passing resemblance to Irvine and Long IslandÂs even more famous Levittown. Like those two cities, Titris is a planned community whose founders sat down and drew up detailed blueprints before the first shovel of dirt was turned. It may very well have been the worldÂs first planned community, emerging in the Bronze Age as civilization spread throughout the Near East. But despite its age, Titris would seem familiar to a Long Islander or an Orange County resident. Its streets are regular and evenly spaced, its dwellings could have come from a cookie cutter and its population was homogeneous. "Evidently, the conception of what was urban in 2500 to 2200 BC was not all that different from what is considered urban today," said archeologist Guillermo Algaze of UC San Diego, who leads a team that has been excavating Titris....See Moreche1sea
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agotwogirlsbigtrouble
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agosweetpea_to
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agothe_orchardhouse
15 years agothe_orchardhouse
15 years agojessdmiller
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agoblack-thumb
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agosoccer_2009
15 years agoyeager
15 years agoblack-thumb
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agosoccer_2009
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agoshamrock_71
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agocroftonmom
15 years agominnesota_bliss
15 years agowfiedlingjr1
15 years agoktanner
15 years agoblack-thumb
15 years agobexnjon
15 years agodanie47
15 years agodanie47
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agolyno
15 years agomarthaelena
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agomarthaelena
15 years agosnellingsfamily
15 years agosnellingsfamily
15 years agobamagirl2009
15 years agopersnicketydesign
15 years agoangeleroy
8 years agorusticraven
8 years agormverb
8 years agoqbryant
8 years agoBoomerSooner
8 years ago
MagdalenaLee
8 years ago
someday soon
8 years agobry911
8 years agosomeday soon
8 years agobry911
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Related Stories
20 Holiday Essentials to Get You to New Year's
Sail through the holidays without a hitch by having these gifting and entertaining necessities at the ready
Full Story
persnicketydesign