Y'all Been Checkin' Lumber Prices?

[deezler]

I don't have any problem with people being wealthy, and spending lots of money. I have a problem with them consuming an insanely disproportionate amount of the finite resources that we have left on this planet. Building materials, and fossil-fuel energy to condition the home. It is selfish.

 

[MossRoad]

Yet that is done at so many levels. While your post references cleaning staff -- the sentiment can just as easily apply to lawn care, home repairs (that don't require licensed individuals to perform).

Granted if a person is making enough money that the time spent doing those money-making activities could otherwise be spend making more money than it costs to hire the task out ....or would take up the only "free" time they have to be with family (e.g. they're potentially workaholics) then it makes quite a bit of sense. ...and in some ways isn't all that different than the buy vs. rent vs. hire discussions that frequently pop up here.

However, I doubt that's always the case ....particularly given how many people have never learned the basic skills to do some of those tasks.

So don't disagree with anything said, but the same line of thinking can also apply at much smaller scales too (all the way down to fast food vs. home-cooking) .... but I'm not going to judge since all these people hiring out things they don't know how to do just creates a lot of opportunites for everyone else to make some $$$ seeing as knowledge & skills can have every bit as much value as productivity or material goods (and that is by no means limited to book/academic/white-collar knowledge/skills).

Agreed.
Many yeas ago we thought we wanted a bigger house. My father drew up the plans and we took them to a builder. The builder, an old Amish fellow, sat down with us and went over everything and really liked the plans. It was something like 3000 sq ft. Then he looked around our current house: 720 sq ft, 2 bed, 1 bath.

He asked how long it took us to vacuum the house?
Oh, about 15 minutes.
He said it would take an hour on the new one.
He asked how long it took us to clean the bathroom?
Oh, about 20 minutes.
He said it would now take an hour to clean 3 bathrooms.
He asked what our utilities were?
We told him.
He said to at least double them, maybe more.
He asked how old our child was and if we were planning on any more?
3 and yes.
He said in 20-25 years the last one will leave for college, then you'll be 2 people living in an empty mausoleum.


Well, that kinda talked us out of that.

We purchase a 1300 sq ft used house and it's suited us well for the past 25 years.

 

[MossRoad]

I don't have any problem with people being wealthy, and spending lots of money. I have a problem with them consuming an insanely disproportionate amount of the finite resources that we have left on this planet. Building materials, and fossil-fuel energy to condition the home. It is selfish.

Yes and no. Wood is renewable. Solar, super-insulation, geo-thermal, wood heat, etc., can seriously reduce the consumable fuels. Most new large houses are way more efficient than old small houses. Silica sand for glass is very plentiful. Metal roofing lasts longer and can be recycled at end of life.

Sand for cement is becoming a hot commodity. You can't just use any sand for cement. There's starting to be concern for supplies of it world-wide. It also consumes huge amounts of energy to create cement, and is one of the leading causes of air pollution. So watch cement supplies and manufacturing to be on the radar for environmental and supply concerns in the near future.

I do have a problem with people that consume jet fuel in the amounts I mentioned above. That amount of fuel is just 1 person. There are literally thousands of college kids across the country that get pampered like that. Business jets are even worse.

Go to an airport in any major college town on a football weekend. Here, we have Notre Dame. It's nothing to see a couple hundred aircraft come in for a big game football weekend. Well over 100 private jets alone.

West coast school games are the most impressive. Many larger business jets. 3-4 hour flights. 1500-2000 gallons of fuel each way. Plane pulls up. 4 guys get off and hop in a limo. Pilot asks you to clean out the plane. 2 trays of uneaten catering in the dumper. Re-stock with fresh catering for the return flight. Game is a blowout, so people come back early and leave before end of 3rd quarter.

Remember that $3200 per hour number I gave above?

$3200 for 4 hours here.
$3200 for 4 hours back.
Limo, catering X2.
Game tickets $$$

It's nothing to see folks drop $10,000-$15,000 to attend 3/4 of a football game.

You can see why there's a kinda jealousy going on. And a bit of anger towards wealthy people when you see them wasting stuff, at least in your eyes.

So what's going to happen in the future?

When the little people outnumber the big people, well, we've seen that many times in history.

 

[Diggin It]

Add sugar to the list after the fire in the Baltimore Domino sugar storage and processing plant.

 

[deezler]

Yeah I mean, we can pretend that the increased efficiency of new home construction techniques makes it acceptable for 4 people to share 19k sq ft, but the world is literally burning and this house will consume a huge amount of energy, just no way around that. In Wisconsin winters no less. Sure, the wood framing can be replaced by new trees, but they were cut, transported, milled/kiln'ed, transported again, all powered by fossil fuels. And I agree about cement - that foundation is crazy massive.

Anyway I know not everyone agrees with me, so I'll shut up now. Just wish our country would stop celebrating personal consumption like its the end-all be-all of success. Again, I'm not hating wealth, but this is just wasteful and obnoxious behavoir that is unsustainable for human habitation of the earth.

 

[cqaigy2]

Agreed.
Many yeas ago we thought we wanted a bigger house. My father drew up the plans and we took them to a builder. The builder, an old Amish fellow, sat down with us and went over everything and really liked the plans. It was something like 3000 sq ft. Then he looked around our current house: 720 sq ft, 2 bed, 1 bath.

He asked how long it took us to vacuum the house?
Oh, about 15 minutes.
He said it would take an hour on the new one.
He asked how long it took us to clean the bathroom?
Oh, about 20 minutes.
He said it would now take an hour to clean 3 bathrooms.
He asked what our utilities were?
We told him.
He said to at least double them, maybe more.
He asked how old our child was and if we were planning on any more?
3 and yes.
He said in 20-25 years the last one will leave for college, then you'll be 2 people living in an empty mausoleum.


Well, that kinda talked us out of that.

We purchase a 1300 sq ft used house and it's suited us well for the past 25 years.

Funny, my wife and i had this discussion many years ago and it went almost exactly like your Amish fellow, except it was us asking each other the same questions. We decided to go with a smallish house and try not to be working just to pay for a house payment.

 

[Snobdds]

I don't have any problem with people being wealthy, and spending lots of money. I have a problem with them consuming an insanely disproportionate amount of the finite resources that we have left on this planet. Building materials, and fossil-fuel energy to condition the home. It is selfish.

No it's not.

See

the pyramids
The great wall of china
The great castles of europe

Nothing is finite and everything is adaptable.

A lot of tradesman are very grateful for "Selfish".

Being concerned with how others spend money, is not a reflection on them, it's a reflection on you.

 

[yanmars]

I am surprised more builders do not use steel studs. They are in our area priced less than wood. Are more uniform than wood.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I don't have any problem with people being wealthy, and spending lots of money. I have a problem with them consuming an insanely disproportionate amount of the finite resources that we have left on this planet. Building materials, and fossil-fuel energy to condition the home. It is selfish.

No... It is the American way.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I am surprised more builders do not use steel studs. They are in our area priced less than wood. Are more uniform than wood.

Agreed. But, they are going up as well. Now there is a coming shortage on insulation and drywall mud... Yep, drywall mud is in short supply.