Y'all Been Checkin' Lumber Prices?

[goeduck]

In his spare time, my dad used to inspect houses for HUD. Took me along as a kid and young man. While it was interesting, I really think his intention was to show me all the stuff that most people don’t notice, let alone even think about. Great lessons.

My favorite part as a kid would be we’d walk into a room and he’d hand me a large marble. We‘d set it down on the bare floor and see if it rolled, how far, how fast, and in what directions, etc… then we’d go in the basement and see why.

Fresh paint on basement walls and floors usually pointed to dampness/mold. 1st floor floor joists painted white in the basement often indicated past fire. Same with freshly painted attics.
Knobs and tubes. Cobbled wiring. Lead paint. Asbestos floor and ceiling tiles, and attic insulation. Windows that weren’t square. Gaps under both interior and exterior doors that weren’t even. Crumbling foundations. Cracked floor joists. Uneven roofs. Gutters that weren’t sloped right. Water damage. YIKES! I could go on.

Great lessons. Thanks, Pops!

Exactly. My inspector was 60ish with grey hair to prove it. Very organized and very thorough. Not that I just fell off the turnip truck, but I appreiciated his knowledge. I told him a few things he did not know, but he told me many more that I had not thought of. Surely an under appreciated profession if done right. Gotta love a professional that knows their business.

 

[ultrarunner]

Knob and Tube had been good for me because it eliminates competition.

40 years a no knob and tube issues when the knob and tube is unmolested

View attachment 758830My first subdivision, 8-per acre. “Z-lots” a sort of shared driveway. One garage in the front, the other in the back. Minimum legal setbacks. Then I got to help on one that covered a square mile with a park, then another about half a mile away.

View attachment 758835
Again minimum legal 2-0 setbacks, 12 to the acre condos, 800 1000, and 1200 sf. .

They liked that, so more “Z-Lots” on a larger chunk of land so we could really optimize the concept. I was building four of them in 28-days, slab to C of O. Supers o other subdivisions were taking 6 to 8-weeks. Once I figured out that if you’re dried in, you can work all night and not get dinged for the noise ordinance, it was easy. You just give bonuses to the subs, and spend 8-hours a day on the phone herding the subs, and fourteen hours onsite. Somewhere in there the girlfriend decided she had enough. (If I ever decide I want another one, she will have grown up an a farm or ranch. They are much more understanding and used to dawn to dusk, and then some.)

They liked that so I got a four square mile project, a mix of z-lots and condos.
I started to feel like a nickle *****. I didn’t go to Engineering school to build tract homes. Felt there had to be something more meaningful.

Took a 65 to 70% cut in pay, and moved to central Idaho to design and build fish exclusion screens for irrigation diversions, to keep the salmon and steelhead in the river. Not nearly as lucrative, but I could sleep at night again.

Yep... finding comparability seems to be the age old struggle... several of my cousins grew up rural but only having grandparent farmers yet they married farmers and doing well... only being a generation removed.

On the other hand cousins that gree up on the farm wanted nothing to do with it... job and condo in the city where leaving on vacation as simple as locking the door...

 

[MossRoad]

View attachment 758830My first subdivision, 8-per acre. “Z-lots” a sort of shared driveway. One garage in the front, the other in the back. Minimum legal setbacks. Then I got to help on one that covered a square mile with a park, then another about half a mile away.

View attachment 758835
Again minimum legal 2-0 setbacks, 12 to the acre condos, 800 1000, and 1200 sf. .

They liked that, so more “Z-Lots” on a larger chunk of land so we could really optimize the concept. I was building four of them in 28-days, slab to C of O. Supers o other subdivisions were taking 6 to 8-weeks. Once I figured out that if you’re dried in, you can work all night and not get dinged for the noise ordinance, it was easy. You just give bonuses to the subs, and spend 8-hours a day on the phone herding the subs, and fourteen hours onsite. Somewhere in there the girlfriend decided she had enough. (If I ever decide I want another one, she will have grown up an a farm or ranch. They are much more understanding and used to dawn to dusk, and then some.)

They liked that so I got a four square mile project, a mix of z-lots and condos.
I started to feel like a nickle *****. I didn’t go to Engineering school to build tract homes. Felt there had to be something more meaningful.

Took a 65 to 70% cut in pay, and moved to central Idaho to design and build fish exclusion screens for irrigation diversions, to keep the salmon and steelhead in the river. Not nearly as lucrative, but I could sleep at night again.

As my dad would say…

 

[tom3]

Wow. Four houses a month on slab. We spent a couple winters in Florida lately, do a lot of bike riding, see a house started, slab poured, post out front with all the permits. Come back next winter and the house is just under roof. I don't see how anything gets built down there.

 

[cqaigy2]

I'm all for high density housing with close access to most used facilities. Less of a foot print, lower carbon hit etc. I wouldn't live in one, but i'll promote the idea.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I had a good older friend, he had 10 kids!! Then when we would drive down the road and he'd complain about all the houses gobbling up all the land!! One day I told him, you had 10 kids, where did you think all of them were going to live??

Folks breed like rabbits, then wonder why all the land is going to housing!

SR

 

[JasperFrank]

I just bought 4, 20 foot 2x4s for less then $13 each.

 

[civilian]

I just bought 4, 20 foot 2x4s for less then $13 each.

A bit long out the back, huh? Jon

 

[JasperFrank]

I had flags.

 

[cqaigy2]

Man, you coulda posted in the Hauling Things thread.