andrechapelon5. It's in Iowa. NOTE: I have nothing against Iowa, but you have to drive about 2,000 miles to see stuff like this:
What...homelessness? He he. Enjoy your view living in a tent, because that's all you could afford.
andrechapelon There's are several problems with the house you pictured. 1. It's a McMansion, which basically means it's more of an attempt to engage in conspicuous consumption than to actually provide shelter. 2. It would cost an arm and a leg to heat even allowing for excellent insulation. 3.It would be a royal pain to keep clean. 4. The architecture sucks. Eye of the beholder. 5. It's in Iowa. NOTE: I have nothing against Iowa, but you have to drive about 2,000 miles to see stuff like this:
There's are several problems with the house you pictured.
1. It's a McMansion, which basically means it's more of an attempt to engage in conspicuous consumption than to actually provide shelter.
2. It would cost an arm and a leg to heat even allowing for excellent insulation.
3.It would be a royal pain to keep clean.
4. The architecture sucks. Eye of the beholder.
5. It's in Iowa. NOTE: I have nothing against Iowa, but you have to drive about 2,000 miles to see stuff like this:
I must have missed something. While I understand that your points could justify buying a 1200 sq ft house instead of a 3500 sq ft house, I do not understand how they support the notion that the 1200 sq ft house is WORTH as much as a 3500 sq ft house.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
mmmm--The home we have is about 1600 sq. ft, has a full basement and has a double garage which is more storage for stuff than cars......
And we are about 200 yd from both the CN and CP mains---heeheehee
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
I see why people are moving in droves out of California. 550K
1,200 square feet is a good size garage in Iowa. Cost here ~ $150,000.
Here's what 550K will get you in Bettendorf.
They are? Then how come our population exceeds that of Canada?
4. The architecture sucks.
Andre
Weighmaster Andre, Your biggest problem may be if your scale home is built on pink or even blue foam. More than likely the state of California has declared foam to be a carcinogen and a danger to scale rodents. The HOEPA may need to be called to replace it with a more benign material, such as Model Power Grass Mat. HOPETA may picket you if any scale rodents are endangered in the process. All in all, a PITA, even dealing with government agencies, which, as everybody knows, can not be compressed or reduced in scale. Gary
Andre,
Your biggest problem may be if your scale home is built on pink or even blue foam. More than likely the state of California has declared foam to be a carcinogen and a danger to scale rodents. The HOEPA may need to be called to replace it with a more benign material, such as Model Power Grass Mat. HOPETA may picket you if any scale rodents are endangered in the process. All in all, a PITA, even dealing with government agencies, which, as everybody knows, can not be compressed or reduced in scale. Gary
I hate to burst your bubble, but pink foam is available at the local Home Depot. It never has been outlawed. The reason for the lack of the stuff out here was lack of demand, not government fiat. That seems to be changing. There's a house a couple of doors up from us that is getting a new roof which was insulated with pink foam. Interesting construction method. They used 2x4's to build up pockets in which to lay the foam over the old sub roof, inserted the foam between the 2x4's and built a whole new sub roof on top.
As I mentioned earlier, we just put a new roof on our place. As for dealing with the local building department, it was totally painless.
I will remark that it was a lot easier in one respect than for the HO equivalent. We got rooftop delivery of the roofing materials for $25. Given that the weight of the material was about 2 1/2 tons, that's dirt cheap. Take that, M.B. Klein.
Sir Madog Andre, just look at it from the other side. A decent kit of house of this size will cost you, say, twenty bucks. That´d make $ 13,170,060 for your 1:1 scale house in kit form. You are a lucky man, as you paid only $ 550,000 for it - already built up and with features you need to add to your kit...
just look at it from the other side. A decent kit of house of this size will cost you, say, twenty bucks. That´d make $ 13,170,060 for your 1:1 scale house in kit form.
You are a lucky man, as you paid only $ 550,000 for it - already built up and with features you need to add to your kit...
Good point, but didn't pay a thing for it. My wife inherited it from her mother. Her parents built the thing in 1950. Total cost (including land) in 1950: $7500. Since we moved in in 2001, we've had the house re-wired, re-plumbed, replaced the old wall heater with central heat and put a new roof on it (passed final inspection yesterday).
There are several advantages to HO scale buildings. You don't need to maintain them the way you do full sized ones. It's physically less demanding when you do. HO scale shingles don't weigh 34 kg (75 lbs) per bundle and you don't have to pay over $300 to rent a dumpster for construction debris.
ATLANTIC CENTRALI live in a fully restored, 3750 st ft, 1901 Queen Anne with a six car detached garage (with 800 sq ft train rooom above), built in pool, 1 acre of land, 900 st ft wrap around porch, slate roof, etc, etc.
Sheldon,
Are you looking for a pool boy?
Come to think of it, the first floor of my garage is 1200 sq ft. It only cost $40,000 to build. For another $40,000 I could turn it into a nice house.
Sheldon
andrechapelonOur house is roughly 1200 sq ft in size in 1:1 scale. With 8 foot ceilings, that works out to 9600 cubic feet of liveable volume. In HO scale, that works out to .0146 cubic feet (9600/658503 - HO occupies 1/658503 of the volume of the prototype). That 9600 cubic feet is worth roughly $550k in the current depressed real estate market in Monterey, CA, or about $57.29/cubic foot.
That's over 6,000 square feet, 6 bathrooms, and a theater room.
andrechapelonThat 9600 cubic feet is worth roughly $550k in the current depressed real estate market in Monterey, CA, or about $57.29/cubic foot.
Well personally, I think your getting ripped off in any event. I'm glad I don't live there. $550,000 for 1200 sq feet? On how much land? Here in Maryland, not the cheapest place in the country by any means, a 1200 sq foot rancher on an acre or less is about $325,000 tops - and it better have a granite kitchen and be completely up to date for that much.
Here, $550,000 will buy you a 3,000 sq ft of McMansion in a nice quiet subdivision, possibly on an acre or two.
I live in a fully restored, 3750 st ft, 1901 Queen Anne with a six car detached garage (with 800 sq ft train rooom above), built in pool, 1 acre of land, 900 st ft wrap around porch, slate roof, etc, etc.
I would not place its value above $1,000,000.
I make a fair part of my living off investment properties and the rest as a residential designer and construction profressional.
Happy to not live in southern CA, Boston, Chicago or any other over priced real estate market.
Housing is not sold by the cubic foot. It is priced by what the market will bear.
1200 square foot houses here in Charlotte range from $80,000 to $250,000 depending on the neighborhood, and 1200 sq ft condos in city center high rises can approach a million.
You also need to consider the era in which this railroad you are placing said house. Then you need to find the value per square foot data for those particular years and do an adjustment to the price cost. However, if you said home was designed and built after the era of the railroad in which it was set, then essentially you will be homeless on your railroad.
Robert H. Shilling II
IRONROOSTERFinally you need to pay for the model in HO dollars
Aren't most of our homes only worth HO dollars these days anyway?
(BTW, that 1200sf house in sunny CA cost WAY more than a 3500+sf house in America's Heartland)
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright
MisterBeasleyBesides, did you ever try to grow tomatoes in pink foam?
(Raises hand) Guilty...
I don't think it was the foam though that was the problem... more likely the Instant Water...
C'mon, we all know the real estate mantra - Location, Location, Location. The trouble is, Monterey is pricey land, probably fertile, with a pleasant climate year-round.
Suppose your home was, well, down by the tracks. We have a lot of rail lines on our layouts, and chances are most of our housing is both on the right side of the tracks and on the wrong side. Add to that the cold, damp "basement" weather, or maybe that oppresive "garage" heat in summer, and the "location" factor explains most of the price differential.
Besides, did you ever try to grow tomatoes in pink foam?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
andrechapelonNow, if we take that $550,000 and divide it by 658,503, a model of the house I'm living in should only cost about 85 cents [...] There's something seriously wrong here.
Answer #1 -- The difference is the architect's "Selective Compression" design fee...
Answer #2 -- The difference is Inflation.... (get it?)
I have to take issue with your analysis.
Most of your volume is air which is free in any scale.
You need to figure the volume of materials in the full size house and compare it to the volume of materials in the scale house.
Then you need to add a weighting factor based on the average density of the materials in the full size versus the model.
Finally you need to pay for the model in HO dollars.
Paul
Monterey? I'm from Spreckels, ever make it that far inland?
Our house is roughly 1200 sq ft in size in 1:1 scale. With 8 foot ceilings, that works out to 9600 cubic feet of liveable volume. In HO scale, that works out to .0146 cubic feet (9600/658503 - HO occupies 1/658503 of the volume of the prototype). That 9600 cubic feet is worth roughly $550k in the current depressed real estate market in Monterey, CA, or about $57.29/cubic foot.
Now, if we take that $550,000 and divide it by 658,503, a model of the house I'm living in should only cost about 85 cents (and fully built up at that) using the identical pricing criteria per cubic foot of the full sized original. And a model is pretty bare bones. I'd like to see an HO scale model house with central heat, hot and cold running water, double pane windows and hardwood floors. There's something seriously wrong here.
Now watch. At least half the responses will assume I was actually being serious about this.