[soundman98]

Originally Posted by cjd

Want a job? I get the "friend because we hang out on the same internet forum" discount right? Though depending on the whims of the stock market, I might have some shares vesting for sticking around and being treated like shit after a company buyout which I've been pondering turning into a solar setup (if they actually have any value; depends on issue price being lower than today's price, and by enough margin to at least cover tax...) so that'd require a whole lot more rethinking. Starting to get nervous about grid stability.

I get building to the bare minimum, and shouldn't assume that just because you can get a 40 slot 60 breaker box today, that you could in '03. Not sure if that's actually what I'd want but it'd fit...
Just the minimum vs decent cost on the stuff I know about is easily 2+ weeks of grunt worker salary so it does add up.
Also the newer versions of our place are now going for $1.2m+ and are including upscale appliances; I haven't paid attention to the shingle choice, but some of the other exterior materials are higher grade now. Doesn't mean any of the work was done right though (roof! that one will piss me off till I die.)
This Sunday is off to a grand start. I should do something productive.

i remember we've talked about it before.. i think you're just too far north to make anything worthwhile-- i'd spend 4 hours a day driving just to get there and back...

and now, and potentially the next year or three (crystal ball says 'signs are unclear, check again later') is a horrible time to be doing pretty much anything in terms of renovations.

as we're all learning, manufacturing for everything worldwide had been running at 75%-95% capacity. and then all of it, including the shipping channels were shut down for a month. it takes time to spin everything up, and now they're somewhere between 50-75% behind on production, all the while everyone's been sticking around at home coming up with projects that need doing, raising demand for things that no longer exist even further.

the supply houses for everything are starting to run into significant problems-- they used to rely on tier 1,2,3 suppliers for 100% of materials that were prompt and helped keep costs low, but have had to resort to tier 4,5,6 suppliers for the last year-- costs overall have gone up, but they're generally less reliable suppliers that charge more. so costs from all the supply chain shakeup's are just absolutely running away. contractors have told me that a $250k new house 4 years ago would currently cost in the neighborhood of $1.5 mill now if built to the same spec... and that's assuming all the materials can even be acquired at all!

my boss doesn't hoard material due to our shops space constraints, but he's been starting to hoard specialty stuff, otherwise it's 3-6 months out when we actually need it. meter boxes and panels especially right now are like theme park cue lines...

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

“Specs” in your area must be a lot different then what they are over here. Generally spec houses over here are what the custom home builders do if they come across a lot for cheap. They are usually well built open floor plan homes. Everything is done in standard sizes to make it simple. Exterior footprint is usually close to square with a single ridge line on the roof, again to make things simple. It is all about building something quality without doing the things that take a lot of extra time. No vaulted ceilings, no transom windows, no sidelights, minimal amount of windows,

very different. 'spec grade' in the midwest is the lowest, cheapest material, pre-fab walls, roof rafters, and re-using the same plans dozens/hundreds/thousands of times.

walk around home depot, find the cheapest of any category, and that's what makes up a new spec-grade house in this area, sometimes they manage to get stuff that's even cheaper than home depot's versions of spec grade...

there are contractors around here that will build spec houses to a higher standard, but of course they cost more, build slower, and generally don't have as large of subdivisions. and when the typical house in the area starts at $250-300k, it prices most people out of the option to even consider anything more than spec grade. the biggest names in housing around this area don't even give customers an option to change stuff without upgrading to various packages that cost significantly more..

Originally Posted by JD001

Today I like to learn why the UK can't get it's act together. Since leaving the European Union and Covid shutdown we've gone from one crisis to another!!

Shortage of food, loo paper, now shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers.. due to the shortage of drivers we are running out of fuel at our petrol stations!!

People are panic buying!! Heard a story of one lady filling up her plastic shopping bags at the pumps!!

covid exacerbated things, but the EU exit really messed things up. there were some reasons, but not enough to justify it..

truck drivers have always been in demand in the US. main problem is that it's a hard job, for less than stellar pay(which, pay must remain low otherwise goods costs would need to increase significantly to pay for it), and for the last many years, it's been promised that they're all going to be replaced with self-driving trucks in the next year-- parrot that same story for 5+ years, and it really ruins the desire for any new recruits to join the ranks.