We quit our jobs to build a cabin • Hacker News Board

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#161

Post by kyleblarson » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:16 PM UTC

hodgesrm wrote: post #103

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.

The house we had built was in Mazama but we live between Winthrop and Mazama now. A couple of years before we bought our property a man in the community was killed when the snowload collapsed the roof of the rickety shop he was working in at his home.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#162

Post by chepaslaaa » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

lowdose wrote: post #85

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…

You underestimate your bodies strength. There are people of 98 years that do a full triathlon, so there is no excuse for you not to able to do that. You can do anything when you put your 10k hours in, but not on the first try. If mountain biking is your dream buy a Trek with electric motor in it. They can give you extra lift till you accelerate to 75 km/hour with a dongle of $120. Instant pro biking experience withou…

I agree with the fitness argument, but the safety argument is a legitimate one. I live in a mountain town with a big mountain biking community, almost everyone who pushes themselves in that sport will be dealing with injuries at one point. It can be as benign as a torn ACL or a broken clavicle, but I'm also friends with a guy who broke his pelvis (he completely healed and is a great athlete, I've seen him do a 360 on telemarks last winter) and worked with a guy who's currently in a neckbrace after breaking 2 vertebra. Those last two people are both lucky they didn't die.

You don't need to be a great mountain biker to go dangerously fast, it's very easy to become overconfident, and the downhill nature means that you might also fall from certain heights on top of already carrying speed, and not necessarily on soft dirt, maybe onto rocks or into a tree. It's a gnarly sport.

The commentator you were talking to should at least go on some mellow bike rides or something.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#163

Post by rainyMammoth » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

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 think this slightly misses the point. You should still do it yourself if you enjoy the process of learning new skills and challenging yourself to build something new from scratch.

I would bet that most people that try to build a cabin do it more as a passion (with bad calculation on timing and cost estimates) than as a way to save money.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#164

Post by asurty » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #119

I knew a real estate agent who specialized in cabins and mountain properties. He had a constant inventory of what he called "Divorce Cabins". They were half-finished DIY cabin builds or renovations that turned out to be way more stress and work than the couples expected. This tended to lead to divorce, which lead to a forced sale of the property. Experienced contractors would pick them up at a discount, finish the wo…

This is exactly why I decided against purchasing a cottage (thats what we call it up here in Canada).

I realized I would be spending at least 4 hours in traffic every weekend to double my house work.

Instead why not just put all that time in making my home in the city as habitable as possible?

Maybe some day but it would have to be a permanent and only residence.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#165

Post by treis » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

bfostbfostbfost wrote: post #47

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

For renovations I try to do as much work as possible, eg tile removal/replacement, backer board removal/replacement....let the plumber come in to a clean and prepped worksite for a valve sweat....he’s in and out ASAP, I’ve saved budget from just throwing money at a GP contractor to do everything, and I get to do the non-expert stuff myself. But I think that the schmo vs pro divide is real when you get to electrical,…

>But I think that the schmo vs pro divide is real when you get to electrical, plumbing etc. HE’S the pro, and I’m the Schmo.

IMHO, this is backwards. Electrical work is twisting wires and screwing them down. Plumbing is gluing or clamping stuff together (unless you're sweating copper). The actual mechanics of doing it takes little skill and pros aren't going to be that much better/faster than you. The real difference is the amount of knowledge the pro has of codes and how things need to be. However, the concepts for residential are pretty straight forward though and relatively easy to learn. You can pick them up starting with simple stuff.

Compare that to something like drywall. Your drywall finish work is going to suck compared to a pro and they're going to do it way faster than you could.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#166

Post by atwebb » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

azernik wrote: post #76

stef25 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I've spent the past few weeks considering starting a coffee truck thing. Better bookmark this.

I think that would be less bad than trying to start a normal cafe. Part of the business case for food trucks is that the capital expenses are so much lower than buying and configuring a fixed space - the trucks themselves are more or less mass-produced, and servicing/cleaning can be taken care of by an specialist contractor. Now wouldn't be the time to do it, though, most of the coffee business is commuters and offic…

Wouldn't now be a great time? Drive to different neighborhoods kind of like an ice cream man for adults (you could also have ice cream). Many, many planned developments aren't within walking distance of a coffee shop and a few bucks for some normality might fly. I've always thought the idea had legs, you can offer hot cocoa in the winter and setup a mobile fire pit for smores.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#167

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

A common theme among stories like this: they pledge to take breaks and keep from burnout. Then they launch into it and immediately forget to take breaks. Then they get frustrated, overtired and make more mistakes.

The breaks have to be scheduled like anything else, or they won't happen.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#168

Post by soneca » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

tomlagier wrote: post #148

soneca wrote: post #118

I enjoyed a lot the reading, but the title is misleading. Not everything went wrong, they even list things they feared could go wrong and didn't. By the end of, it went mostly right (except for spending more time and money than expected). Not a bad story, on the contrary, but I was interested in reading about the learnings of pursuing a dream and things going actually wrong. What you do next? Try again? Try another t…

My wife and I did this. We quit our jobs to travel for a year, got 6 weeks in before it was clear COVID wasn't going anywhere and we needed to return. We came back and decided that since we had a nice travel fund and no jobs we should use that buffer to explore career choices and places to live that we hadn't previously. She is now attempting to become a full-time food photographer, I'm still in software but working…

Oh shit.. Covid is making a lot of dreams go wrong indeed. Adapting to the circumstances while keep the core of changing your life seems a smart way to deal with it.

There is nothing in the link you posted, btw. Not sure if a typo or you just didn't publish the site yet

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#169

Post by chepaslaaa » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

carabiner wrote: post #139

dleslie wrote: post #105

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…

I built a desk and was amazed at how quickly a simple piece of wood on metal legs became. What kind of wood? There are a billion types. Ended up with baltic birch from a specialty lumberyard. What size? A little bigger than old desk; not too hard. Ok, which piece of wood do I get at the lumberyard? It comes in standard sizes. Oh, I'd have to buy two huge sheets, so I would have a ton left over. Let me adjust the dime…

You probably had fun, learned something and will use the tools again.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#170

Post by markkanof » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:20 PM UTC

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #65

the-pigeon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Building one structure is a series of low skill tasks. Building many structures (or any given sub-specialty, e.g. plumbing) on a predetermined schedule and budget and making money doing it without charging so much money that you get undercut out of business is what requires skill. For N=1 you rarely have to be a pro to do it right.

Not really sure why you are being downvoted. My own experience aligns with what you are describing. For most residential work a homeowner can do a solid job as long as you are handy and willing to spend a little time familiarizing yourself with building codes and the appropriate techniques. Being a professional means being able to estimate accurately, meet those estimates, manage multiple jobs, etc.

If timeline isn't the most critical factor a homeowner can do an excellent job. Often even better than the professionals because you will be willing to spend extra time and attention to get everything perfect.