DAY 49
Week 7
CORINTH (Texas, USA)
Tuesday August 8th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 76 miles or 122 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 6943 miles or 11174 kilometres
So, just exactly what do you get for your housing money in Dallas. 
Any town that I have some time to spare, I'll go through new sub-divisions to check out what the builders are doing and what you can get for your money. So yesterday I spent several hours going through a couple of developments 16 miles (25 kilometres) Northwest of where I'm staying with my brother and sister inlaw. It's about 44 miles (70 kilometres) North of downtown Dallas - if there is such a thing now.
A couple of things stuck out:
(a) New construction is very cheap as compared to Boise. You get a lot more bang for your buck. Where as Boise is at $150.00 a square foot, Dallas is at about $85-$90 a square foot.(b) On a $225,000 house, the land taxes (council rates) run $500 a month.
(c) House insurance runs $150 a month.
(d) Electric bills on average on a 2500 square foot house run $250.00 to $350.00 a month.
(e) It takes an hour or more to travel anywhere here. Traffic simply gives me the shits big time. I reckon road rage was invented here.
I did find a really nice design, called the Spinaker, which I'm real inclined to have built wherever I may land. It's nice & open "easy flowing" floorplan which has the porches and verandahs that I love on a house. We'll see if I can get it built somewhere.
I was invited over to a mate of mines for a feed last night. Chris must have felt like he ran over a fat black cat considering all the crap dramas he's had over the last couple of weeks. He's just got over kidney stone surgery, his wife was Liberace'd yesterday (rear ended in the car) and his daughter was bitten by a cat. The way his luck was going, he'd be in the bathtub and get hit in the arse by a bolt of lightening!!!
Chris laid on a great spread of "Texas chicken" i.e. beef steaks, a couple of sherbets and a good natter. A great way to spend an evening.