Homestead Mechanics
(Page 4 of 5)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Build Your Own House?
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Perhaps the ultimate achievement in the field of "homestead mechanics" is to build your own house.
No doubt this may seem to you to be such a terrific undertaking that it is a laughable idea, but in the immediate neighborhood of our Homestead we know of six people who have built their own houses. They range from a G. I. who is just completing a three room bungalow, to an artist friend who has, over a period of four or five years, built a house worth over $20,000.
Of course, in pioneer days almost everyone, with some community help, built his own house. At the turn of the century when plumbing, electricity and central heating became common, house building became more complicated and too much of a job for all but the most ambitious. Today, however, with the development of the factory-made utility unit which concentrates on the difficult-to-build bathroom, furnace room and kitchen, building your own house becomes something a handy man with sufficient spare time might consider doing.
This factory-made utility unit includes all the major mechanical components of a house. At one stroke, and for a predetermined price, the utility unit solves most of the costly and complicated installation problems involved in a conventional house. Additional factors which make house building simpler are radiant heating, which means a much simpler foundation, and new "panel type" exterior and interior walls which are simpler to erect.
Of course, a man doesn't have to build all his house - he can build as much as he wants to. But if he were to build every bit of his house he would be able to save nearly 50% of the cost. Perhaps the most practical reason of all for building your own house is the obvious fact that today it is almost impossible to get anybody to build one for you.
What About Power Tools? There are so many different power tools available now that it's pretty hard to decide which ones are just fascinating gadgets and which can be useful enough to justify their cost.
Maybe you'd like to have a lathe, a power saw or an electric drill in your work shop but you don't want to spend a lot of money for any one of these things unless it will more or less pay for itself.
One way to figure this out is by using a simple rule of thumb that says : "Don't buy any power equipment or machine unless the number of hours you will use it in one year equal at least 1/4 the number of dollars you pay for it." This rule is based on the assumption that almost everyone's time is worth $1.00 an hour and that the time the machine saves you will be used productively. Obviously, if this time were just wasted it couldn't contribute anything to the cost of the machine. We think you can safely apply this rule to any power tool you are thinking of buying and get a fair idea of just how much you really need it.
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