that's a bunch of b$!!!!

I’m a little reluctant to get too detailed with cost on this blog. Maybe too much (personal) information? And I don’t want to seem like we’re “bragging”. If anything, I’m a little ashamed to be building in this economic climate while some are struggling. In some ways, it’s a little crazy to be building in this economic climate since who knows what could be happening to our own jobs. On the other hand, we’ve lived a financially conservative life, have no livestock (how a childless friend refers to children…), and hold a huge amount of home equity having lived in the same house for nearly 20 years. Now is our time, or so we believe. And if everything goes to Lubbock in a handbasket, we can carry the note on the lot for a good while if we need to.

I want to talk about money because that’s an important part of building a house. Therefore, I’ve come up with a way to talk about the bucks without talking about the specifics. We have a total budget for the project, but I’m not going to tell you what it is. So what I’ll do is “normalize” everything to that total budget. All that means is that whatever I’m talking about budget wise, I’ll divide it by our total budget (the normalization) and, to make things easier, multiply it by 100 (Bonus! This normalization also works as a percentage!). I will call these normalized dollars builder-bucks, or b$ for short. Yes, “bS” is intended. Draw your own conclusions.

So say, for example, our budget is $150,000. If the land cost us $50,000, the land would have cost us 33.33 builder-bucks, or b$33.33: $50,000 divided by $150,000 times 100. Got it? Great! You are now normal(ized). Let the b$ begin!