first stone

Case Study: How two people (and legions of talented tradespeople) are building a new green home in British Columbia. (To find a specific post, click on the Index of Posts tab, above.)

To date (February 3, 2012) we've spent $776,230. We've also saved $247,757 by doing tasks ourselves and scouring back alleys, thrift stores, landfills and Craigslist for free and cheap stuff. Included in that total are taxes saved by building before the HST, buying used, and doing our own labour ($37,012.) By doing the general contracting, we have saved a minimum of $113,761 in general contractor's overhead on the total cost of building and $13,450 which represents the HST we didn't pay.
See the whole breakdown here.