Budgeting Your Log Home - Creating a Checklist

If you've read my first article, BUDGETING YOUR log HOME: Where make you start?, you've got a very basic overview of the process. However, there are still a number of inquiries I'd wish to address. Again, many of these inquiries will come up up if you construct any usage home, but I'd embark to think the log home proprietors happen themselves deeper in the decision-making procedure than person dealing with a usage builder. After all, the differences go evident immediately as the proprietors have got got got to happen their ain manufacturer.

Unless you have a pocket full of cash, you're going to have to follow the building loan mentality throughout the budgeting process. I be after to give a whole article to the building loan, but this chase will function as a preliminary measure before going to the bank.

The biggest portion of your budget will be the purchase of the land. With today's new building market - especially in New Jersey - the natural land represents 30%-40% of the sum undertaking (of course, in other states the land won't be so much but your overall costs will be less, too). It assists to purchase the land first so you cognize how much money you're going to have got left over.

Then you need to calculate out how much to put aside for your excavation, your driveway, and your septic system. Before you can get to this number, it assists to engage a civil engineer to pull up a study and secret program plan (you'll need the study for the mortgage company anyway). This volition cost you a few hundred dollars. The secret program plan will diagram where the house will travel (and footmark of the house), the length of the driveway, where the septic and well will go. With this document, you can travel to the excavator for a quote.

Since most log homes be given to be built in rural areas, you will probably have got to put in your ain septic and well. The excavator who makes your driveway will most likely be the 1 who will delve your septic. The well driller volition probably be a different company. These are both "wild cards", because the cost of the septic will depend on how well the land percs (short for percolate), and you don't cognize how deep your well will go.

Once again, the engineer will program a septic plan which will have got to be approved by the county (in most states). The cost of your septic could range anywhere from $10,000 - $30,000. If you are setting the house manner back from the road, you must budget for that extra-long driveway. And if your batch is heavily wooded, you will have got to pay extra for tree removal; retrieve that you need to unclutter plentifulness of space to suit both the house and a large country around the house for the machinery to maneuver. You also have got to see a space to set the logs after delivery.

Once the location and footmark of the house is determined, you may need to utilize a different contractor for the foundation. Foundations are not provided by the log home maker (with rare exceptions). There are respective ways to go: you can construct on a slab, a crawl space, or a full basement. You can utilize a block foundation, a precast foundation, a poured concrete foundation (these are the chief choices). Poured concrete is the most expensive. These days, many people take precast foundations for log homes, because they are so accurate and don't necessitate a footer. If you travel this route, you'll have got to engage a Mason to pour the flooring after the precast foundation is erected. Remember that if you take to construct on a slab, you're going to have got problems routing your wiring, because this is normally done from the basement.

Your log home maker is going to give you a quote for the package. Many people desire the maker to quote on a "turnkey" house or at least a weathered-in shell, as a matter of convenience. However, this mightiness not be the manner to travel if you dwell in a different state from the mill. Bash you really desire to pay transportation for plywood? In the end, having your contractor purchase timber locally could salvage you thousands of dollars, even it it's a small less convenient to cipher it initially. Your local detergent builder will gladly give you a quote as long as he have a good set of preliminary programs to work from.

I started with a simple check listing to screen out my budget. Luckily, I establish a contractor who was willing to take over the undertaking and engage his ain subs; his itemized quote helped me visualise all the elements that went into the project. Then I added bombers that I hired separately (excavator, mason, landscaper, etc.). Here are some line points that went on the checklist: Air Conditioner, Appliances, Builder's Profit, Doors (interior), Doors (exterior), Driveway, Electrician, Fireplace, Flooring, Foundation, Furnace (or Boiler), HVAC Installation, Insulation, Inside Trim, Kitchen, Labor, Landscaping (Grass seed), Lift equipment, Light Fixtures, Logs, Lumber (plywood, joists, 2x6s), Mason, Permits, Plumbing, Plumbing Fixtures (sinks, bathtubs, toilets), Roof, Sanding and Staining, Septic, Stairway (if not included in log quote), Tiles (kitchen & bath), Utilities, Well, Windows.

Depending on your occupation site, you may have got other expenses. If the flatcar motortruck carrying your logs cannot do it to the site, you'll have got got to do commissariat to off-load the logs elsewhere and have them brought in. If you are put manner back from the road, you may have got to pay for telephone poles, or pay for the trenching. Also, your detergent builder may necessitate that you convey powerfulness to the land site for his tools (most allow you a few years of generator power, but not for the whole job).

It took a piece to fill up in all the spaces on my check list, but once I started looking at each undertaking individually, the undertaking as a whole made sense. Actually, the log package was the easiest portion to deal with. In our case, the maker provided the logs only (and the design), which came out to less than 1/6 the sum cost of the house (not counting the land work). For the rest, the costs are like any other usage home; then the inquiry goes "Who makes what?". After all, a small perspiration equity travels a long way.