assets, etc. more newbie questions

[Brian Craft]

Ok, some more simple questions:

Seems like "assets" are things you hold long-term, while expenses are things
you consume. So (from the perspective of your bank account) a book would be a
transfer to an asset, and toothpaste would be a transfer to an expense account.

Is that right?

How about nails? Or other things that go into your house? Seems like could put
them in a "house" asset, or you could call them an expense since you basically
consume them. How about a water heater?

How about clothes? I guess there's some arbitrary judgement call having to do
with how long you expect something to last. 

Does this have something to do with the time scale on which you are accounting?
So if you're accounting on a timescale of years a water heater would be an
asset, but if you're accounting on the timescale of decades a water heater
would be an expense?

All these are small for me, and so not a big deal how I account for them.
But here's a big one:

Fabric. Seems like an expense, because you consume it. But what if you're a
quilter (by hobby), and have thousands of dollars of it? Seems like a raw
material worth thousands of dollars would be an asset. You do consume it, but
at roughly the same rate that you replenish it. Is the consumption rate an
"expense" and the fabric stash an "asset"? How do you keep track of this?

On the other side, Dave says a liability is money you owe but haven't paid.  So
a credit card balance is a liability. Does it become an expense when you pay
it? Seems like the credit card balance would consist of transfers to expense
and asset accounts. Paying it off would be a transfer from a bank account. So
in some sense it does become an expense (or asset), but you'd never have a
"credit card" expense account (except for the "credit card interest" expense).

b.c.