For Rent

Chapter 5: Upgrades from a Commuter Town

The following day, after recharging the construction bots' batteries, the pair realizes there's still one last restoration to make. And Billerica has been busy contacting the owners of the remaining derelicts in town, hoping that one would sell it.

But unlike all other purchases of derelict housing, Billerica makes it in Karine's stead. For the same sum she bought the first derelict yesterday. Which she begins restoring, but something bewilders her after restoration is complete, when the time comes to carry out upgrades to the multigenerational house earmarked for the mayor's request, Kavula:

"Twenty tons? Teal paint doesn't weigh that much! Even accounting for different paint chemistry, and possibly multiple layers, with twenty tons of paint, you can paint the entire neighborhood multiple times over, in and out!" Karine appears reluctant to commit the existing materials stockpile to painting the exterior walls teal, over the weight of the paint. "It seems like these bots are very weight-inefficient for painting jobs!"

"Usually, here, when people ask for a house of a certain color, they refer to the outside walls. I guess, I can always order teal paint if that's what you want"

"But only if it's less expensive than twenty tons of what you called construction materials" Karine makes her conditions clear.

Twenty tons of construction materials cost us T1600. However, while I can use the blueprints to determine the area to be painted, and, from there, the quantity of paint, there remains two variables to solve for, she seems to go deeper in thought.

It turns out that Taladuan paint covers more or less ten square meters per liter on stucco. She can then determine the cost of the paint.

"It appears that buying paint is cheaper than twenty tons of materials"

"You thought you were clueless about construction? You're learning even faster than I initially believed!"

Realizing that paint doesn't count towards the HCP's star system, she repeats the same exercise with the other upgrades available to her for the first star, of which the HCP allows her to have only one. Designer closets, crown moulding or a grand fireplace. Apparently all estimated to use 30 tons of materials. My home on Earth has all three, so what purpose does the Senate have to limit contractors to one upgrade in a Chinese menu for any given HCP-built unit? A puzzled Karine ruminates before she can definitely rule the grand fireplace out. However, I know that weight efficiency isn't everything.

"I wonder how cold this region can get, or how climate control works... right now, I lean towards either the designer closets or the crown moulding" Karine can't seem to decide.

"The first star upgrade, right? Ask yourself which one is the cheapest"

She then repeats the costing exercise with the other two, comparing the cost of crown moulding as well as designer closets for all 3 bedrooms, against the cost of 30 tons of raw materials. But as she seems to research the cost of crown moulding, she comes across a supplier of crown mouldings that sells them by the kilometer. One km of crown mouldings would cost T5500 from that supplier, and weigh about a ton, she sure as hell isn't going to need a kilometer of crown mouldings...

Overbuying can do a project in. This appears to take 150m of crown mouldings, so I might be willing to buy up to 150m lot size if volume rebates are available. Man do I hate volume rebates! They encourage waste, especially when people tend to focus on the unit cost as opposed to the total cost, when it's the total cost that makes or breaks you in job costing, Karine ruminates while she shops crown mouldings. I can't take for granted we'll need these later.

"So why is it that the proposed upgrades all seem to use much fewer than thirty tons of materials, yet all require that much if we don't buy the components readymade? I accepted that crown mouldings were going to be the cheapest option for this home"