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I finally hit my 100 hour desk build mark and it changed my plan entirely
I was dead set on buying a $400 standing desk frame from that big online store. Then I crossed 100 hours of work on my current plywood build over six months, and realized I only spent $62 total on materials. That number shocked me into keeping my cheap setup and just fixing the wobble with a cross brace from the scrap bin. Anyone else track their hours on a project and change course because of it?
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tarajenkins28d ago
...and that's the thing about tracking hours, isn't it? It forces you to really see what something is costing you compared to what you'd pay to replace it. I did something similar with an old dresser I refinished a few years back. I kept a log of my time on a scrap of paper taped to the side. After about 15 hours of sanding and painting, I realized I had maybe $20 in paint and supplies into it. A similar piece at the store would have been $200 easy. Made me rethink how quickly I write stuff off as junk.
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michael_craig28d ago
Yeah that 15 hours at minimum wage already puts you over $100 in labor alone if you value your time at all. So really you saved maybe $80 on that dresser, which is still decent but less of a steal than the $180 difference you saw. I made the same mistake with a old bookshelf I stripped and repainted. Took me like 20 hours because I kept messing up the paint. Had to redo two whole shelves. When I added up my time at even $10 an hour, I basically broke even against buying a new one at IKEA. Still glad I did it though because the piece is way sturdier than anything I could have bought.
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