money saving tips

Money-Saving Tips for Home Builders

jchait — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:10:36 -0400

If you're building a new home vs. buying a pre-built home, there are some ways to keep costs down.

1. Do much of the work yourself: If you have building savvy, or arm muscles and the ability to learn, you can do much of the manual labor on a home yourself. If you have no clue, of course, you'll want to work with someone who has a clue. Still, a lot of time and thus money is spent on stuff that anyone can learn to do - setting up equipment, bleaching wood, painting, clean-up and more are easy tasks to learn. Even if you're totally inexperienced you can learn to put a roof on a house if you have an experienced helper - trust me.

2. Sponsor a workshop: I knew many people in New Mexico who got their homes built by sponsoring learning workshops. You hold a weekend workshop that say, teaches folks how to build straw bale. People come, they help build, and sometimes will even pay you to do so.

3. Build with competent help: Hiring someone who has built your type of home before is essential. Hire a contractor who has a track record of staying within budget and timeframes. Don't hire some bloke who only has "cheap" going for him, and no established record. This mistake could cost you more in the long run.

4. Use recycled and reclaimed building materials.

5. Timing is everything; you can save money everywhere, but if you don't plan and time your home building right, you're in trouble. Delays cost more than other mistakes. If an electrician shows up and you're not ready for him, you're paying him for his time twice over. If you have to stay at a motel, because your current lease is up, you lose money. Plan, plan, plan. Then have someone else go over your plan.

Green Homes for Less Money

jchait — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

CNET is one of my favorite websites - mostly because they always offer the best tech advice in town. If you buy a camera or pda they reviewed, you know what you're getting. Because I adore them so, I was happily surprised to see a cool green home article and photo gallery at their site the other day.

The article, Green homes on the cheap, walks through writer Martin LaMonica's home, pointing out the green (and cheap) ideas he's put into action.

Some of the highlights:

Heat: Martin discusses the pellet stove he installed last year. This was a really cool deal to read about for me. When I lived in Humboldt we had no electricity related to heat. The only heat we had in our on-the-beach home was a wood stove. It saved us lots of money, because at the time wood was cheaper than California electricity, but wood is also a hassle. Being on the beach means wet, cold mornings, every morning, and fighting with also damp wood is no picnic when you're freezing. We considered a pellet stove at one time, but moved before we decided. Martin's tips on pros and cons of a pellet stove are great to read.

Energy efficiency: More and more people are realizing that using power correctly is just as big a deal as what sort of power you use. Martin discusses this important topic.

Other topics include, solar chargers, toys, window shades, water barrels, and composting. I loved this article and all the photos were a great touch. This is a must read if you're dreaming of greening your own home, or even if you're dreaming of building from scratch.

[old school wood stove photo via stock.xchng]

Build A Green Home for Less Money

jchait — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:59:46 -0500

Green building doesn't have to be overly expensive. Using smart green home design, and other tactics, you can build a great eco home that won't completely break the bank.

Overall, most people overestimate the cost of building green. Still, in some areas you will spend more in the beginning, but remember that part of green building is reaping those money saving rewards related to water and energy use later on.

You can use the following tips to lower the costs.

Plan ahead: When building my own house, the single most expensive thing was that I was building with a poor planner. You need to plan everything. I was working with a great designer and we had good ideas, but because we didn’t plan tasks to correlate properly we lost many weeks worth of work time. For example, make sure you schedule inspections, material deliveries, and extra help at the appropriate times. Our house went over schedule by months - and that's a large loss of money when you consider land payments, current rent, and building supplies. If you're hiring a home builder make sure they have a great track record.

Get your whole team together early on: Research surrounding green building shows that when you involve your contractor early on in the design process, the whole project goes smoother.

Don't separate "green" from not green construction: Assume from the start that smart green home design is the norm and research shows that your costs will stay lower.

Use green design suitable for your situation: You may have your heart set on straw bale, but if that's not typical where you live, or it's unreasonable to do, try other eco design strategies - some more suitable to your community, land, and materials available.

More green building money saving tips tomorrow.