Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with homebuilding

Has the cost of home building gone up or down?

BirdD0g — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:03:42 -0800

I'm going to be building a modest split-level home this spring – 1900 sqft – in Madison, WI. Should I expect the cost of materials to be lower or higher than it was to build the exact same house 6 months ago? Essentially, I found a $205,000 spec house on the market that I like, but want to build it in on a different lot (with the same builder). According to the contract, cost of materials and labor is about $8,000 more than it was to build the exact same home 6 months ago – a 4% jump. I know petro is way up, but I still would have expected overall material prices to be waning.

I'd guess I'd just like to have some solid knowledge about material costs when we sit down for final negotiations so I know where I'm standing.

Construction Blogs

Chrischris — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:58:58 -0800

Residential construction industry blogs? I'm interested in keeping up with the latest trends and developments (actual construction processes as opposed to, say, financial and zoning issues) in the residential construction industry, but have been having a difficult time finding them. Are there blogs out there which do for construction materials and techniques what mags like Fine Homebuilding and Toolmonger do?

Pros and cons of cedar shingles?

bondcliff — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:31:54 -0800

What can you tell me about cedar shingles? We're thinking of siding our new house with cedar shingles, which will be in the 'burbs of Boston. I love the look of new, unpainted cedar but I'm concerned with the look of the house over the long term. I know down on Cape Cod all the houses have sort of a faded look to them, which is fine. But in-land the cedar shingles seem to darken as they age. They look almost dirty, mildew-y.

What about bugs? I don't like 'em and I'm told bugs think cedar tastes like ass and will stay away from it. Does this change over time as the wood ages? Will the bugs eventually take up residence in the walls?

Please, tell me about your experience with this type of siding.

House building advice sought

bondcliff — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 08:15:42 -0800

Has anyone here ever rebuilt their home or built a new one? Lots of advice needed. More inside. We own a not-so-great house in a great neighborhood on a GREAT chunk of property in a suburb of Boston. It's a 1930s bungalow converted into a Cape with un unfinished upstairs. In adding the upstairs, they added a couple feet onto the downstairs, raising some ceilings and not raising others. We need to duck down to look out the windows. Most of the rooms are dark but to replace the windows would require some structural changes. We want larger rooms. We want a front porch. We want an upstairs. We want to take advantage of the lake view. We want light. We want a playroom for The Critter. We want a kitchen that would give Alton Brown a stiffy. We want a workshop. We want an attached garage. Adding all this on to the old house would probably cost as much as building a new house.

Given the (lack of) structure in the house (2x4s where there should be 2x8s in the basement, main joists cut in half to make way for plumbing, 2 inch thick rusted lally columns, wiring by MC Escher, etc) and the general layout of the house, we're thinking it might be cheaper to tear the whole thing down and build a new one.

Lotta questions:

Assuming the permitting process is done and things go somewhat smoothly, how long does it take to build a new, average size home?

What's the best option for finding living space in the meantime? Renting a home? Buying one and hoping we can resell?

Anyone have any experience with green homes? We'd like to reduce our energy costs and cut down our environmental impact. Still, I'm torn between being a good little hippie and wanting room for the home theater and retro video game room. Is it possible to do both?

Where the hell do we start? Find a builder first? An architect? We're not opposed to finding a stock home plan but we're picky and may want to go with a custom designed home.

Where do we find an architect? How do we find one we'll like? Ask around, I suppose, but there must be a Big Book -O- Architects somewhere.

Any book recommendations for this process? Most of the books I've seen have to do with building the house with your own two hands or else they're books of "1000 Home Plans You'll Love!!!"

There must exists some new-house blogs.

We're not interested in building it with our own hands. Well, I am, but it's just not possible for a number of reasons.

I have a ton of other questions, none of which I can think of right now. Basically we're thinking of tearing down our home and building a nicer one. We need all the advice and/or help we can get. Thanks.