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We quit our jobs to build a cabin

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Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#101

Post by vidanay »

stef25 wrote: post #93
vidanay wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, building a cabin isn't a fundamentally complicated project. Think. Measure. Measure. Cut. Nail. Repeat.

Kinda like building a web app. Think, estimate, write, compile, deploy, repeat. On a serious note, there's so many similarities between building a house and a web app. Without a proper plan and a blueprint, preferably by an architect and not the contractor - forget about it. Client never knows what they want. Small changes (KILL ME NOW) can take huge amount of time and impact things that don't seem connected, which t…

Building a cabin is more like programming a game of tic-tac-toe. They weren't trying to build the Burj Khalifa on an as-you-go basis.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#102

Post by thefounder »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #81
MikeTheGreat wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> find a youtube subscription that satisfies the urge to tinker on a particular topic. I think my life got measurably better when I pivoted from "I want to do this myself" towards "It's just as satisfying to watch someone else do this". Downhill extreme mountain biking is really cool. And fun to watch. And expensive. And requires much more physical fitness than I've got. And dangerous (esp. given my physical fitness…

I think my life got measurably better when I pivoted from "I want to do this myself" towards "It's just as satisfying to watch someone else do this". So true! Works for a lot of things. It's why I stopped playing dota.

Ha ha! I bet you spend less time warching than you would spend playing so that is another big win(for me at least).

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#103

Post by hodgesrm »

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…

Don't know where you are in the Methow but my parents lived there for many years near Winthrop. The neighbor at their first place was building a do-it-yourself cabin with massive logs. He was killed in an accident when one of them rolled over him.

There's bad outcomes and then really bad.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#104

Post by Steltek »

duxup wrote: post #38
drewrv wrote: post #29

This reminds me of a similar article I once read: "I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life." https://slate.com/human-interest/2005/12/my-coffeehouse-nigh...

Those stories always get me. Anyone who has worked in food service in any way knows that it's brutal. Liking a thing, coffee, coffee shops, or anything ... very much does not mean you'd like making it / running something making that thing. Personally I like video games ... I code web boring apps... for reasons.

I've heard the same about craft brewing. Personal microbrewing is fun: you can use whatever small scale apparatus you've hacked up and recipes are whatever whimsy strikes you. Actually trying to scale up and sell to people means legit industrial tools, annoying consistency and reproducibility, and spending 90%+ of your day cleaning everything like a maniac.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#105

Post by dleslie »

My family owns multiple cabins, mostly built by family members with the occasional framing and finishing work by friends of the family and/or a local contractor. The one my father owns was framed and roofed by contractors, but the closing, finishing, deck and float construction, and 30 years of repairs and renovations were done by himself and us kids. It sits on a steep hill, so putting a 60x20ft deck on 15ft stilts was no little effort for him with only the help of a bunch of actual children.

The major caveat: prior to my generation, the entire family was involved at some level in construction; from owning and operating to general labour.

It's _not_ a simple task, and the level of skill and intelligence required is something I think is often misunderstood or wholly overlooked by my peers in the tech industry. There's a kind of snobbish belief expressed by _some_ that because they can grok a complex software system they should be able to build a house; but that's a bit like believing that because you are able to write you should be able to easily be a sculptor. There may be shared core concepts, like the story being told and the ideas being conveyed, but the skills and knowledge involved and shared are few.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#106

Post by nekochanwork »

petargyurov wrote: post #22
nekochanwork wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built a tiny house on wheels. My house totaled about $55K, due to my preference for premium materials and contracting out work that I did not feel comfortable doing myself (e.g. wiring a 50amp power box). My house was built to be on grid and could be parked in any trailer park. I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage. Off-grid homes are more expensive due to the need to install solar panels, d…

> I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage How?

I planned to park my house in a trailer park, and purposefully built my house to have the same kind of hookups as an RV or manufactured home.

For power, I installed a 50amp RV-style power inlet to my house. I ran a 50-amp cable from from the power pole to my house.

For water, I was able to connect a standard drinking-water hose from the water line to the inlet into my house.

For natural gas, I ran copper flex tubing from the gas meter to the gas inlet in my house. I ensured that all of my gas appliances had the correct orifices.

For sewer, I drained all of my water fixtures (two sinks, shower, and toilet) through the floor, connected them to a common drain line, and through a sewer hookup below the house.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#107

Post by turtlebits »

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…

For me, it is being off-grid. No $300 bi-monthly water/sewer bills (that's base charge w/o using any water). $7k - 10k in property taxes yearly. Huge heating and cooling costs for large living spaces.

I do not especially like tiny houses on wheels, but I think I could live comfortably in an 800sf small house on a rural piece of land.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#108

Post by rexpop »

hinkley wrote: post #67

I usually just roll my eyes at stuff like this, despite being dangerously close to the stereotype (however, most of my family is working class, so I actually worked with my hands before becoming a developer), but this line made me angry: > Sometimes, during those months of toil, our anger burned so intensely that we thought the boards we threw into the woods might never land. To paraphrase Gandalf, next time throw yo…

Read past the break, asshole.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#109

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#110

Post by Kwantuum »

duxup wrote: post #38
drewrv wrote: post #29

This reminds me of a similar article I once read: "I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life." https://slate.com/human-interest/2005/12/my-coffeehouse-nigh...

Those stories always get me. Anyone who has worked in food service in any way knows that it's brutal. Liking a thing, coffee, coffee shops, or anything ... very much does not mean you'd like making it / running something making that thing. Personally I like video games ... I code web boring apps... for reasons.

Same. Video game development is some of the hardest, most thankless, woefully unstable software job there is. It's not worth it.
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