Re: Plans vs. kit

Posted by Laszlo on Sep 14, 2006

Plans are only cheaper if you consider your time to be free. But when I was building the 16LT for my wife, I was a contractor. Every hour I was working I was bringing in income. The time it would have taken to drive all over the place collecting pieces parts would have easily cost me more in lost billable hours, gas and wear & tear on the car than the difference in price between plans & kits. Ditto for the time to cut the wood. And if one uses power tools, there's the power bill and the wear & tear on the tools.

Now if you really enjoy driving around shopping and cutting wood, you can consider it therapy and assign it a monetary value equal to a psychiatrist's hourly rate, calculate it that way and maybe get a major financial gain from the plans.

The point is, if you look at all the actual costs, the hidden as well as the up front, there is no real difference in cost between the kits & building from plans. You either pay the dollars for the kit or you pay the dollars in lost financial opportunity for your time. This may sound too cold-blooded and money-centered for a lot of builders, but if all you go by are the prices without including the total cost, you could be making the wrong decision. As one of my bosses once said, "It's not what I'm paying that's the problem, it's what it costs me".

So get whichever makes more sense for you, but look at the whole picture - don't get hung up on just the prices.

Have fun building,

Laszlo

In Response to: Re: Plans vs. kit by Petewp on Sep 13, 2006

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