Money money money... money!

Sigh... when I started this post I had no idea I'd be running into Liza Minnelli.

And when I started this project I had no idea I would be where I am with SIPs, the solar choices I made... and the budget I have to get there and achieve my goal of gorgeous, affordable, off grid modern design.

This dream began with the realization that dragging a shipping container out to our land was not practical. Though recyclable, we would have spent 7k at the end of the day for a... metal box. Not an investment. Not insulated. Not passive solar. Not... ok you get it.

So then we explored metal buildings... and couldn't resolve the insulation issue.

Then we discovered SIPs, kidnapped some architects (in my real life I'm a bandit), and committed to investing in a home to enjoy for generations. (That's sideways speak for: Pony up, Copeland, at the end of the day it's a lot of money.)

So, without further ado, I dispatch my estimated and actual costs (which will be oft revised as estimated costs turn into actual figures):
(I'll put estimated figures in blue, real figures in green so you can see what is what. I also remind all readers that prices vary in everything, this is just what it costs to build a casa ti in central Virginia in winter/spring 2008!)

1. casa ti kit house: $22,537.91 for a 1,200 s.f. modern house kit.
   
2. shipping: $1450 per truck to get from northern to central Virginia
   
3. engineered drawings: $1,910.00
4. poured concrete foundation: $15,000
5. labor: $5,200
6. sheet rock: $4,000
7. wiring: $5,700
8. walls: $2,200
9. windows: $8071
   Original quote: $9,051.39: I waited until they had a 20% off sale to place my order, made some adjustments to the door, and hence my costs were: $7,689 + $59 delivery charge + $368ish tax: see the post "Get Yer Windows" for details on how to save money and bring the price down!
   
10. plumbing: $4,500
11. contractor: $8,000 (a bargain!)
12. well / rainwater collection: still working on it, looking to be around $8,000
13. solar / solar heat / batteries, etc. / radiant heat (I will go into this in depth later): $20,000
    
14. roof / membrane / one green roof / cladding decisions: Galvalume, we are not adding the green roof (although you certainly can on the north side of the casa ti, that was in David Day's original idea) because we are using that for rainwater collection.
    

 

Systems Design

We have been working on systems design for the past weeks.

Unfortunately, as perfect as the casa ti is, it is not designed to house off grid systems. We *may* have to tweak it a tad to fit in everything...

Keep your fingers crossed...