Friday, February 16, 2007

Construction Specs spreadsheet

I've been avoiding this spreadsheet. I'm an end results kinda gal...and this spreadsheet is never ending. One of the critical pieces of information needed in planning, bidding, and constructing a home is a detailed construction specifications sheet. I've been putting it off for too long and this is the weekend to tackle it (I think). I'm not saying it will be done in a weekend, but a lot of it could be.
This spec sheet covers everything going on inside the home (ceiling height, closet sizes, door hardware, electrical outlet locations, sink fixtures, lighting fixtures, windows, insullation, EVERYTHING...). At least it's a rainy weekend. A four day weekend even. I took today off work (Monday - Holiday - no workee). I got a massage yesterday, have food stocked up, downloaded more tunes, and the treadmill is in the dining room... I'm ready... for the spreadsheet.
Some helpful websites: Saybuild.com - very good info. They also have a sample spec sheet you can download. Building Cost estimator - very rough estimates but some good information on what makes a house cost more.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Like Running for Chocolate...

Busy weekend. Zach and I started out pouring beer at our local Micro Brew Festival. Pretty fun; however, the next night was better since we got to taste some beers. One of my favorites was the 100 Meter Ale (Eugene City Brewery), and the Dry Irish Stout Collaboration Brew (Ninkasi Brewing Co.). People's Choice winners: 1st: Calapooia Brewing Co. Albany, OR (Chili Pepper IPA) 2nd: Ninkasi Brewing Co., Eugene, OR (I forget which of their beers won) and 3rd: Wakonda Brewing Co., Florence, OR (Beachcomber's Ale).

Today....I ran in the Truffle Shuffle (2 and 4 mile Run/Walk). It is a good
fundraiser AND it comes with a dark chocolate Truffle at the end. I ate mine much later, after MUCH stretching. My training consisted of signing up Friday afternoon and drinking beer Saturday.

My
niece's husband, Dave, inspired me to torture myself, I mean run. He recently completed two half-marathons! I would love to be able to do that. My god, that is 13 miles!! I chose the 2 mile version today and ended up finishing at 28 and something minutes. My first mile was 11 minutes and then my right leg went kinda numb (I think it was the 100 Meter Ale's fault), so I had to walk for a while. Next time, I will be better prepared.

House Progress: Zach is still plugging away at the "calculations" to verify that the house won't blow down, fall over, or lift off in the event of heavy winds/snow loads/etc. (my understanding)...

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Well, 160 trees later

Weekend of planting....Okay, well, Zach was busy this weekend. I had all the intensions of helping him... I just got distracted. He loves it, really... He planted some western red cedar, ponderosa pine, giant sequoia, douglas fir, and grand fir. Most of them were planted by the creek, river, and along a certain fence line (to help block some neighbors).


Then my sister calls, who was on her way to town with "something to show us". I knew. She had a new addition to the family. Her first real vehicle....It is a sweet ride, Jeep Liberty. We took a couple rides, ate lots of food, laughed, watched a couple of superbowl commercials, drank....great weekend.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Change is good


I have always liked change. I proceded with my quarterly office remodel today followed by a small change to this site. You may see more changes in the future, so don't get attached to any specific layout or color. There are many template options from Blogger that are available at the click of a button. I could easily see myself changing the fonts, colors, and templates often.

I've been trying to fit more onto my site like small spreadsheets on the sides. There is a good blog that I've been following, savvy saver, which is pretty interesting.

I'm going to try and keep a log of the associated costs for building a house for a couple of reasons. For one, it is a good record of what we spent our money on. Two, I hope to help educate others because after searching for months and months I found it nearly impossible to get an idea of what it costs to build a house. I realize there are many unknowns, but something would be helpful.

Tomorrow, we get up at 6:00 a.m. to get in line to buy seedling trees at the annual tree seedling sale. They have good trees and they are reasonably pricesd. We usually end up buying 50 - 300 (Ughh, then we have to plant them!).