Problem
Housing Construction Cost Variables
Your friends, Elijah and Valerie Foglesong, want to build their dream house, They identified tentative costs, but they cannot afford the $414,717 estimated cost. You will use Goal Seek to determine an estimate of the total finished square footage they can afford. To help provide more flexibility in their decision making, you will create data table listing various finished square footages and their effects on the base house cost and total cost. Finally, you will create another data table showing combinations of square footages and lot prices to identify total costs. Although a builder's overall house design specifies the square footage, the Foglesongs can use your data tables to help guide them in their decision.
A. Open e06m 1 House and save it as e06mlHouse_LastFirst.
B. Use Goal Seek to determine the total finished square footage to meet the total cost goal of $350,000.
C. Enter a series of total square footages ranging from 1,800 to 3,600 in increments of 200 in the range D6:D15. Apply Blue font and Comma Style with zero decimal places to the series. Enter references to the base cost and total cost in the appropriate cells on row 5.
D. Complete the data table using the appropriate input cell. Apply custom number formats to give appropriate descriptions to the second and third columns. Apply these formats to the headings: bold, center, and Blue font.
E. Identify the square footage, base price, and total cost that come closest to their goal. Apply Blue, Accent 1, Lighter 40% fill color to those cells in the data table.
F. Copy the square footage substitution values to the range H6:H15 and remove the fill color. Enter these lot price substitution values in the range I5:K5: 90000, 96000, and 102675. Format these values with Accounting Number Format with zero decimal places and Blue font.
G. Enter the reference to the total cost formula in the appropriate location for the second data table.
Complete the data table using the appropriate input cells. Apply a custom number format to the reference to the formula cell. Apply bold and Blue font color to that cell. Apply Blue, Accent 1, Lighter 40% fill color to the total price in each column that comes closest to their goal.
H. Format results in both tables with Accounting Number Format with zero decimal places.
I. Create footer with your name on the left side, the sheet name code in the center, and the file name code on the right side. Adjust the orientation, margins, and scaling to fit on one page.