Background

I have been on and off about my “OrthoTown” project but finally found some motivation to update some of these essays I wrote back on my secondary blog on Urbit. I have taken down my Urbit blog and am transferring things over to here.

Essay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9W2XqzNlJs&ab_channel=ArmchairBuilder

This video is general is informative in what it would take financially to build a home, especially comparing building “horizontally” vs “vertically”. This would be important in understanding the economics of a hypothetical town, especially if one were to build homes and buildings from scratch. Please note that prices have likely inflated in the past 2 years so anything from the video is ‘outdated’ and it doesn’t describe a location either so one may have to increase the cost of labor if one is in a state like CA or NY.

Based off of this video a 3 bed 2 bath ~1200 sq ft would only cost $80,000 in materials alone. So it looks like labor is the vast majority of costs as that is “affordable” compared to buying new… at the very least several hundred thousand… If it were possible then volunteer workers (such as those who want to live in said town in the future) could be used but the consistency and quality of labor may be variable. In that video he says you can choose what labor to do and what not to do… He quotes an additional $82k for labor (seems low from a laypersons perspective). That is $162k, and totals to of 200k with $32k of foundation costs. Doesn’t include permitting, utility hook up etc. His theory is that adding stories is more cost effective. He quotes the “Cavallari Plan” with 2158 sq ft and 4b and 3.5 bedroom is only $117k more which is almost doubling the sq ft (82% increase) while only increasing the cost by 46%. No need to build extra foundation, roof shingles, plywood, trusses, attic insulation, footings, foundation walls, foundation waterproofing when you build vertically instead of out/horizontal. Labor is $121k and $28,800 foundation totaling to $288k total.

So that would be $200Mk/1200 sq ft to come to $165/sq ft vs $288k/2000sq ft to come to $95/sq ft… You can even use an elevator if you don’t like stairs…. So conclusion is 1. Build vertically. >2 story design are recommended to save money 2. Add living space above garage 3. Finish basements which costs only $40-$50/sq ft which is a lot less than either $165/sq ft for the ranch and $95/sq ft for the two-story.