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We quit our jobs to build a cabin

outsideonline.com

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Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#51

Post by sb057 »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #37

Reading this, I am reminded of an observation made by the Unabomber in his infamous manifesto. He pointed out that the industrialized, corporate life was making us miserable and depressed. What people really want and need to be happy is to struggle with real problems they care about, and then overcome them through hard work. That is the only way to satisfaction and happiness. He was a smart guy, it's too bad he went…

>He was a smart guy, it's too bad he went apeshit and killed a bunch of people.

He killed three people, one of which was arguably unintentional. Further, he has continued writing[1] and appears perfectly lucid, even into his 70's. You may disagrees with his ends and means (I do), but I find it curious that out of the hundreds of political revolutionaries who used terror and murder over the centuries, Kaczynski is viewed especially through the framing of insanity.

[1] https://fitchmadison.com/product/anti-tech-revolution-2020/

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#52

Post by spanhandler »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #30
carabiner wrote: post #3

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little…

Best I can tell, tiny homes are mostly just very expensive, more-instragrammable Mobile homes, kit-prefabs (A-frames, say), or RVs (depending on how they're built) for people whose class-self-image would be threatened by living in a Mobile home, RV, or prefab. It's not about cost-cutting.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#53

Post by ghaff »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #30
carabiner wrote: post #3

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little…

What a sensible minimum size is depends on the use of course, but at some point, you're giving up a dedicated library/office, room to entertain, a spare bedroom, room to put up guests, storage, a nice kitchen, etc. You don't need all that of course and I'm not suggesting most people really benefit from having a 5,000 square foot house. But at some point, the house starts to seem cramped and you're not really saving all that much cost. Even 1500 square feet versus 400-500 square feet is enormous in terms of usability.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#54

Post by CydeWeys »

Havoc wrote: post #26

I think they misjudged the timescale and the complexity added by slope. Good outcome though so clearly wasn't too badly misjudged. Youtube channel Wild Wonderful Offgrid [1] built a much bigger absolutely gorgous house...but on flat terrain and over two years. The other thing I've noticed is that many successful projects have pretty permanent "temporary" accomodation on site that take the pressure off needing to comp…

That's a good point. Buy an old RV for a year, place in it onsite, and live in it as necessary until the structure is inhabitable, and then sell the RV, hopefully at not too big a loss. It can be a towed RV even, whatever those are called.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#55

Post by the-pigeon »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #40
kyleblarson wrote: post #11

I purchased land in the North Cascades area (Methow Valley, about 3 hours Northeast of Index where these guys built) in 2007 with the intention of building a weekend home myself. I prepped the property myself and ran the main power. It was a junk show and I quickly learned that the best approach was to continue writing software and pay pros to do the job. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My wife a…

I find the opposite. If you want something done right you have to do it yourself. I try to only pay for labor when it's low/medium skill labor paired with a capital investment I don't want to make (e.g. getting new tires on my car and an alignment) or when I'm paying for a member of a professional club for their reputation and club membership (e.g. a lawyer or realtor)

Building a solid structure is a high skill job! Not as complex as building an application but definitely comparable.

I think some people fail to understand how hard it is to be a good contractor. Just like software engineering it requires a lot of education and a lot of experience.

You won't get it right your first few tries no matter how smart you are. Just like no software developer ever got things right when they were first learning to code.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#56

Post by julianeon »

Seems like they should have documented the process much earlier.

It could have gone viral, with people following the developments, plus pictures, week by week.

I could easily see that cabin, in a bidding war, going for $150,000.

Then sell an ebook documenting How to Build Your Own Cabin for $100, to bring in an extra $50,000.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#57

Post by rsynnott »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #30
carabiner wrote: post #3

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little…

> My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little to nothing to do with my house size.

If your electricity is used for heating/cooling, it likely has a lot to do with your house size.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#58

Post by FrojoS »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #30
carabiner wrote: post #3

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little…

At least in Germany, afaik, it is partly a building code thing. Afaik, it counts as a mobile home, so you don’t need permission to build it, even if you never intend to move it.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#59

Post by ghaff »

krn wrote: post #41
julienchastang wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rural American Midwest can also be quite inexpensive. Of course, you have to put up with harsh winters, hot and humid summers, poor secondary education, living 3 hours away from the nearest natural grocer (though maybe you can raise your own chickens and grow organic food) and conservative politics. I do find the bucolic landscapes and slower pace of life appealing at some level, however.

> and conservative politics A European here. Does such a thing as a liberal rural state exist in the US? Could Colorado be considered as such? Edit: I forgot about Vermont, which looks and sounds[1] a lot like Northern Europe to me. But can rural lifestyle and liberal politics be combined with warmer climate in the US? Maybe rural California? Edit 2: After reading all the responses, it seems that I should be looking…

Rural Colorado (e.g. not Denver/Boulder) is fairly conservative.

Vermont almost certainly comes closest. (Where Bernie Sanders is from.)

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#60

Post by eezurr »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #37

Reading this, I am reminded of an observation made by the Unabomber in his infamous manifesto. He pointed out that the industrialized, corporate life was making us miserable and depressed. What people really want and need to be happy is to struggle with real problems they care about, and then overcome them through hard work. That is the only way to satisfaction and happiness. He was a smart guy, it's too bad he went…

I imagine in his mathematical, logical head, he figured the publicity and thus spread of his personal philosophy would do more good then the harm of killing a few people.

Historically, people don’t weep over And usually don’t consider the suffering of others while enjoying the fruits of labor of people who sweated blood and died in the process of building something (spiritually or physically) great.

I feel dirty thinking like this, yet I’m fascinated by imagining what it’s like to walk in another persons shoes

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