Robin Lindeen-Blakeley

TITLE

Coastal design : a guide for builders, planners, and home owners / Orrin H. Pilkey, Sr. … [et al.].

PUBLISHER

New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1983.

SUBJECTS	Building, Stormproof.
	Coastal engineering.
	Dwellings — Design and construction.

Space, style, and structure : building in Northwest America / Thomas Vaughan, editor ; Virginia Guest Ferriday, associate editor.

My husband is a bridge carpenter.  He and his brother contracted out and built another investment property in the same area, so I will use their expertise and experiences in my endeavor.

What barriers and support systems exist

I think the biggest hindrance to my dream is thinking that I am not capable of going forward with this.  It is that part of my mind that likes to say it will take too much money or time or I really don’t need it.  Or that it can’t be done because it will tie me down too much in one place, when maybe what I should be doing is traveling the world instead.  Or that maybe I should be less selfish and work on causes I feel strongly about like promoting world peace by being an activist to help establish the U.S. Department of Peace or work on policy to ignite the United States Institute of Peace.  Or that I should get into politics to address and advocate for family friendly social policies.  I have so many dreams to start and complete and I may not be that driven.

I do have the goal to finish my undergraduate degree online, so that is one barrier to both time and money that I will need to be cautious about.  We would also probably need to hire someone who lives on the coast and is closer to the area than we are to oversee the building construction, since we will most likely going to continue to work at our jobs in the Portland Metro area.

I have many support systems in place.  The property is already septic approved and has road access.  My husband is very knowledgeable about building houses and would be an extra set of eyes and ears for this project, so that I wouldn’t feel taken advantage of  or have the lone responsibility for seeing the construction through to completion.  My sister-in-law and brother-in-law live in the vicinity and would be helpful to remind me of what a great place it is to live and also be closer to to share in visiting and doing things together.   Our credit is respectable, so I think financing would be another support system that would be easy to place.   We are mostly out of debt, so unless the unexpected happens, we are not tied down in that way.

Analyzing my needs and desires and comparing options

I will propose that I don’t really need a beach cottage.  I could as easily put in an RV hookup and park a travel trailer there instead.  I do desire to have a beach cottage there.  These are my two options.  The size of the beach cottage will be the main drive in cost, so square footage options are what will need to be analyzed.

I have set up a financial management page connected with my online banking which is a good way to keep track of most of my income, expenses, assets and liabilities online. Most of my investment and retirement accounts are now synced in one place.   It was not transferable to my blog, so I did an Excel spreadsheet for output and upload.  Both these were good exercises, as I found that I really should be watching the budget more closely and have it documented where I see it anytime I log into my accounts online.  I also found that I should be collecting about $167 more per month loaned money from my three children to stay away from “eating into” my savings account for my monthly budgeting.  It also forces me to look at where I can spend less in certain categories.

My husband and brother contracted the building of an investment beach house in 2007 at the cost of $75 per square foot totaling $212,000.  At that time a more custom home would have been $100 per square foot.  If I were to build a cottage in today’s construction prices or within the next 10 years, I would probably be looking at contracting out for $100 per square foot minimum.  I searched the question online “how much does it cost per square foot to build  Oregon cottage” and found a great article titled How Much Does it Cost to Build a House in Oregon.  In the Portland area a custom house would be about $120 per square foot.  There is an estimator spreadsheet that is included. This will be a great source when looking at final plans.

In summary my personal spreadsheets below have two data option scenarios for building a cottage.  I think using a dedicated software spreadsheet like the above referenced one in the previous paragraph will be a more accurate way to project and vary scenarios when I am ready to attempt this project.  I know I will have to save more money and spend less to make this dream a reality and have a comfortable lifestyle.   This research has me excited to begin my path forward on my dream of a cottage at the coast.

Budget Data

Spreadsheet showing monthly budget before dream

wages		income	4113
school loans & 529 plans		expense	425
tuition books fees		expense	275
auto loan		expense	171
auto fuel		expense	250
auto insurance		expense	210
house insurance		expense	96
groceries		expense	938
electric		expense	350
water		expense	52
phone		expense	315
trash & recycle		expense	55
internet		expense	75
clothing		expense	15
haircuts		expense	15
entertainment		expense	938
credit cards		expense	100
savings		income	5780
investments		income	676
retirement		income	9482
TOTAL INCOME			20051
TOTAL EXPENSES			4280

monthly budget showing preparation for dream scenarios – first column basic cottage route and second column more custom route

wages		income	4113	4113
school loans & 529 plans		expense	425	425
tuition books fees		expense	275	275
auto loan		expense	171	171
auto fuel		expense	250	250
auto insurance		expense	210	210
house insurance		expense	96	96
groceries		expense	938	938
electric		expense	350	350
water		expense	52	52
phone		expense	315	315
trash & recycle		expense	55	55
internet		expense	75	75
clothing		expense	15	15
haircuts		expense	15	15
entertainment		expense	938	938
credit cards		expense	100	100
savings		income	5780	5780
investments		income	676	676
retirement		income	9482	9482
permit fees		expense	50	100
engineer/architect		expense	75	150
contractor		expense	100	200
fill dirt/equipment		expense	25	50
materials		expense	200	400
total income			20051	20051
TOTAL EXPENSE			4730	5180