Lumber has been a huge cost for us. Thankfully it came down by $10K before we had to purchase but we probably made that up in the purchase of all the brackets our supplier forgot to add.
We thought we’d save some money by delivering the lumber ourselves because there is no sales tax in our state but if we had the provider deliver it to the state we are building in, we would have to pay the tax. Honestly, it was thousands of dollars. The problem with this plan, I guess I should say one of the problems, was the outrageous gas prices. Diesel being the most expensive, was the fuel our truck needed.
All we had to haul the lumber with was a sixteen-foot car hauler. I was shocked to see how little we could load because of the weight. Pallet after Pallet towered over us at the store of OUR lumber. Jer and the provider picked through what was most needed for the framer. I immediately tried to find a flatbed truck to rent but all the contractors and farmers rent them out for the summer. That first night of delivering wood, I went home and cried.
It’s been a hot summer and Jer was now going to have to work in the heat, day after day, taking load after load. If the framer wasn’t there, he would have to unload by himself, including very heavy beams. I felt horrible about all the work and time this was costing Jer. It was stressful and I got really sick and missing a week of work while Jer traveled back and forth. Then he got sick. On top of that, we were in the mix of getting ready to move and still do our jobs.
Jer drove there nine days in a row before getting sick. This took a minimum six hours and then another couple hours a day to go get another load from the supplier. Just when we thought we were done, we’d get another call from our framer telling us what the supplier had missed but he needed asap. Many times, it would be one piece of lumber and thirty more brackets.
Nineteen trips later, we think we had it all there. We had hoped for the framing to be done and inspected so we could head up Labor Day weekend to work on the windows and siding but our framer and his team got sick. Ugh!
Maybe it’s a good thing. We haven’t had any down time in months. Being sick doesn’t count. I keep trying to encourage myself because it feels overwhelming. Yet, things are moving along and every nail, piece of wood, and bracket belongs to us!