Why the cost increase?


I went to buy materials for a speaker project. I also priced some T-111 siding on 8" centers, 5/8 thick, Ship lap.
I hadn’t picked up any sheets or anything in over 18 months.

48" x 96 x 5/8 wood siding was 19-26.00 and on sale 15-20.00 per sheet, NOW 74-84.00 per sheet.

MDF 3/4" 48 x 96" if you can find it. 45-55.00 per sheet it was 22.00 to 27.00 per sheet.

2x4x8 DF stud grade 1.99-3.00 per. Now 4-6.00 per stud,

There is no shortage but there sure is a LOT of price gouging. NOTHING changed. Just the price..

The quality is worse. The workers aren’t paid worth a crap...Why the increase?

I’m getting ready to finish my home out. WOW.. I might have to rethink this a bit..

The price all most tripled in 12-18 months.. This kind of stuff is NOT cool at ALL.

Just my opinion of course. Any projects you’re doing get put on hold or STOPED?

YES I’m very frugal. Money never came easy, and it leaves the same way..

oldhvymec
Fellas I’m fine, I planned for my future. It just happened a little quicker than I expected. BUT I want to share so physical working folks and non physical working folks understand.. AND never think I would have traded what I did, for someone else to do..

I enjoyed being a mechanic right up to the end, I really did.. I knew what I was going to do from age 12, never changed..

Like a tree surgeon, concrete workers, plasters, brick and stone masons, nurses, healthcare workers, glazers, carpenters, mechanics, farm workers, fire and police, iron workers, pile butts, drillers, equipment operators, miners, LABORS and any one I forgot, PLEASE forgive me. That 10-15% is the ones doing the work.. 50% of them do most or all of their own work and swap between themselves what they can’t do.

Teachers, Fed and few state workers, (not most) I got a real problem with.. No Work, No EAT....YOUR FIRED... No performance, no pay..
The grounds keepers have to show up to mow the lawns for the schools BUT the teachers don’t have to show up, or refuse to show up to teach people. OK..

I just want to see people paid for what they do.. Keep the grounds keeper get rid of the teachers that don’t want to work and keep the ones that do, along with more grounds keepers (to teach the kids TOO) ;-)

I’m having a tough time with the governments approach especially on the FED side to the shut down ..SS is still shut down and refuses to re open to the public. You or me cannot get a phone appointment. Paper work is to be sent in BLIND, no one will sign for registered mail. They won’t give their names on the phone..

They can’t speak English worth a CRAP, in an America SS office.. If I couldn’t understand Spanish pretty well, the last TWO times I couldn’t have understood the SS worker.. HER English was that broken, just horrible.. I told her to explain in Spanish if it was easier.. It was for me too. I got 1/2 of what she said as opposed to 10%

Ladies and gentleman we have an agency that is completely rogue as far as who is accountable to who.. A guard greets you at the door to tell you to call, to be told to send in (9 month and waiting) paper work to SS but not the local office, the one in ???? land. No idea what the response times are, 2-5 months..

So I'm clear what use to take 2 hours TOP in a SS office and maybe a 30 day wait, now takes over a YEAR!!!
14 months. AND they are getting PAID... I had to do this twice before. I was pretty easy.. 20K + they OWE ME..

Every other call you'll be hung up on. You'll hear the person answer the phone, laugh and hang up.

Who do you call to get the LAZY A$$ county off it’s DEAD A$$ and work for what they are being paid..

Any one person got an answer? ANYONE? Is there a congressman or woman or a senator or someone that can get this broken buggy going again.. The heck with the carrot, I say use the STICK...

Where is that crap stirrin’ Hoffa when you need him..;-)

T-111 10 foot 5/8 tongue and groove 159.00 a sheet. from 79.00 more than doubled... My income is 1/4 what it use to be.. LOL Glad I planned..

Regards
Sorry to hear about anyone's health issues just further evidence how badly universal healthcare is needed and how much good it will do both physically and mentally.
I like much to read the OP great posts reflecting his big heart...

I am sorry to read about his health problem and his battle with inflated price to build his sonic box opus....

My deepest respect....
Well thanks again for everyone’s concern. I’m better off than most.

Happier than most and blessed in spite of my own self.. LOL

I can report the sun came up and it is HOT, 104 degrees (F) in the shade on a dead lawn. :-)

Supplies are still in short supply and prices are NOT going down. They are stable, at this time. 

My only real issue is the SS thing.. They closed all offices May of 2020, and haven't been opened to the public sense. THAT is the real ticker for me. Not that it effect me so much but that they are ALL being paid to still come to work..

You would think they would be very fast with less than 1 in 1000 being let in the front door. Just people with NO SS numbers are allowed appointments.. So why is it taking so long to get things done. I'm at 10 months and waiting.. It's really time to flush that toilet. I want to know why offices designed solely for PUBLIC access to Social Security workers is closed. I MEAN NOT WORKING!!! They are inside the building but NOT greeting customers, with a big smile and "what can I do for you"?

Time to picket the joint and get a news agency or two down there to ask WHY people are in an office but NOT greeting customers.. 50 years I paid the PIG... :-) Master M..

Good to hear from zapaemi, welcome to AG.

jond, 100% on the healthcare issue

Master M always good to hear from you. Still tinkering away? A kindred spirit indeed. It’s humbling to know such people.

With great respect and regard to all.

I bit you adieu.
Master M always good to hear from you. Still tinkering away? A kindred spirit indeed. It’s humbling to know such people.
i am more listening music now than i am tinkering, because when some relatively good S.Q. is there we think less about the sound and more about the music content ...BUT..... 😁

Acoustic is like i said many times the sleeping princess in audio....

Proof: my last tinkering is improvising a new diffuser with 10 discarded junk cardboard empty rolls of absorbing cloth and a piece of fabric lace to filter the 10 tubes aperture....The 10 tubes are in an empty egg box...( i dont feed chicken then i must buy my eggs unlike the OP )

Result: more, way more richer harmonics....Incredible changes with a one feet by 6 inches large new Helmholtz diffuser in my room ( my fourth)...I already use 40 Helmholtz resonators which also diffuse some frequencies but the diffusers by the way i use the large mouth aperture with some filtering devices are more diffusers than absorbing devices even if they absorb some frequencies also.... They complement each other....And Helmholtz resonators need diffusers devices to harmonize all the scale frequencies in relation with the room/speakers...

I made it this evening in few minutes in spite of the fact that i was thinking for the last month that my room was finished....😁😊

Now all musical files are new again...I know that few people will believe a so greeat improvement with so low cost ridiculous materials... But acoustic is a science not a luxury materials marketing enterprise....

Lesson: acoustic is more than important, acoustic is the heart of audio, not electronic design by itself, even if for sure it is very important....We must choose good speakers for sure to begin with....but after designing them like the OP want to do, the audiophile goal is not reach yet, till the room is under control for this specific speaker....

By the way it is humbling for me also to know such kindness and creative spirit coming from many of you, especially the OP ....

All for just peanuts Master M..

I'm 100% with you, every situation, and every room is different.

The key is the attention to OUR OWN ears in our OWN ROOM.

No 3, are the same.. Left eat, right ear, or room.. :-)

Put up some pic let me see your new creation. It might motivate my lazy old self. 

Here is a good one. I been trying to figure out a sound change in the listening room I'm using.. Two weeks I been wondering what changed.

LOL I got new glasses, with MUCH taller and wider lenses. 

I put my old glasses back on and it was like magic.. :-)

One for the books and nugget to some.. Take off your glasses and listen.. It makes a difference.. LOL

With open ears and an open mind.. Thanks for sharing your nugget,

I think we ALL need a break from the C.O.L.  increases to everything.
Great low cost working solutions, (NOT TRYING) that produce quality results is the real name of the game.. 

Other than setting up the my last room, which is last on the house repair list. I'm very close.. A building storage staging shed (pretty easy).

I need to clear the room and set my equipment rack in the front wall.
Tune the 128 CF front in wall traps. Add a few trinkets. Paint and then hang the heavy acoustic curtain (diffuser/dampeners).

2 days max and forklift in the Elixirs, MB columns and GRs Servo system.. I'm thinking Christmas.

LOL it's only been a 37 year plan.. Everything is coming together though.

A lot of gear is leaving too. Time to clean up, and collect up.. I have quite a few vintage Mac pieces and a few other collectables.. Very conservative 50k 65 is closer..

I'm looking at a 5 acre empty lot, good soil.. 18 feet A.S.L. in the delta..
LOL There is a river boat I had my eye on for 20 years.. Like the old paddlewheel Riverboat.. Why not? Beach the BOAT on the 5 acres and have a hootenanny. Call it good.. :-) 20,000 feet of living space on that thing..

Regards
I think that's a great balance Oldhvy...enjoying the present and dreaming of the future.
What else is there, roxy54..

Here today, gone tomorrow, the only real thing is "right now" and my dreams.

Be well.