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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

#201

Post by vitaflo »

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…

Agreed. My father is a carpenter and I helped him build our family cabin when I was a pre-teen. We did mostly all of the building except putting up the trusses and finishing the roof. My dad was smart enough to farm out that work.

Now I write software and I work with a lot of people who dream of going off in the woods and building a cabin, as though it's the same as building software. I have to remind them that "there is no undo". "Measure twice, cut once" is a phrase for a reason. You can't refactor your cabin half way through building. Surprisingly many of them never even considered these things, let alone the tricks or techniques needed to do a good job.

I think a lot of white collar workers see what blue collar workers do as perhaps difficult physically, but not mentally. But that couldn't be further from the truth. And this is especially true when you're trying to piece together an entire cabin by yourself.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#202

Post by marktangotango »

janee wrote: post #182
sushshshsh wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet there are people who have built cabins in Alaska with nothing but some metal and a lot of ingenuity and muscle. I think that if you have to build a cabin that conforms to certain building guidelines, bank standards, codes, mainstream retail expectations.... then for sure you are going to encounter expenses and risk. But I really hate this notion of "just pay someone to do it correctly", because this propositi…

> And yet there are people who have built cabins in Alaska with nothing but some metal and a lot of ingenuity and muscle. You're forgetting time. Not sure if you've seen "Dick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3fUIoXQ5A ). It's a great watch, and a good example of what I think you're referring to overall...that said it looked like an extremely hard way to build and from persona…

I was going to post this, glad I scrolled down. My kids love watching that too.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#203

Post by snarf21 »

nwallin wrote: post #135

> The first thing he did was host a long-weekend work party to fix it up. I flew up from my home in Oakland, California. With a group of friends, we tore out exposed nails, cladded interior walls, built a deck and an outhouse, and hung shingles. At night, covered in sawdust and grime, we drank too much and huddled around a propane stove to keep warm, eventually falling asleep and breathing in noxious fumes all night…

I agree but I wouldn't even call it fun per se. I like to camp. The camping trips I remember most are the ones that rained the whole time or had some other disaster happen. All the other trips were fun and great and relaxing but they all blend together eventually. It is the shit shows you still talk about 20 years later. This is so important to the human condition to try, to learn, to expand, to explore, to grow, to empathize, to commiserate, to laugh

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#204

Post by opportune »

Nasrudith wrote: post #132
sb057 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 vie…

He is viewed as insane because the goddamned Manson family had a more coherent plan than him and their idea was to start an "inevitable" race war with a frame up by murdering people. If they pulled off framing successfully indefinitely it could have theoretically worked, stupidly unlikely as it would be. Cycles of revenge and misattributiation of individual actions to some collective other are real things. How precis…

His plan was that by threatening people into publishing his manifesto and drawing attention with the bombings he would sway people over to his cause (the fallacy here being that if only people were exposed to his ideas, they would agree with them). Of course he was deluded in that sense but it’s a pretty common theme among extreme ideologues.

I don’t think his ideas are as laughably naive as you think. He was an accomplished mathematician who was disgusted with the societal rat race and thought many aspects of technology were making life worse, and I actually tend to agree with that. But he was also a nut job who killed innocent people

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#205

Post by brewdad »

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…

Best you could hope for would be a small college town in an otherwise rural area (Or Vermont, as you say, though I'm not as familiar with the details of their politics). Even in the most liberal US states, once you leave the urbanized areas conservative views dominate. OTOH, even the most conservative states have liberal cities or at least liberal neighborhoods.

Liberal/Conservative in the US is very much an urban/rural divide at this point.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#206

Post by luhn »

thwarted wrote: post #145
luhn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really shouldn't be saying "you could do it if you really tried" to people when you don't know their situation. Maybe they have a bad knee. Maybe they have a chronic illness. Maybe they don't have the money to spend. It's not a personal failing to be unable to do something, and it's toxic to take that attitude.

"Don't encourage anyone because they might not be able to do it" is the shittiest and most toxic attitude I've ever heard.

Interpreting my comment as "don't encourage anyone" is an extremely uncharitable take. Support their endeavors, celebrate successes, be empathetic of failure. Don't tell them "no excuse for you not to able to do that."

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#207

Post by grugagag »

janee wrote: post #182
sushshshsh wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet there are people who have built cabins in Alaska with nothing but some metal and a lot of ingenuity and muscle. I think that if you have to build a cabin that conforms to certain building guidelines, bank standards, codes, mainstream retail expectations.... then for sure you are going to encounter expenses and risk. But I really hate this notion of "just pay someone to do it correctly", because this propositi…

> And yet there are people who have built cabins in Alaska with nothing but some metal and a lot of ingenuity and muscle. You're forgetting time. Not sure if you've seen "Dick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3fUIoXQ5A ). It's a great watch, and a good example of what I think you're referring to overall...that said it looked like an extremely hard way to build and from persona…

Absolutely. In Alaska time is a resource that widely available but other resources are harder to find. I wonder how far is the next hardware store.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#208

Post by nfriedly »

chepaslaaa wrote: post #169
carabiner wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I built a desk ~10 years ago. I had fun, learned a lot, and haven't used most of the tools since then.

I think part of what I learned is that it's worth it for me to pay a professional.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#209

Post by 0xffff2 »

D13Fd wrote: post #180

Why didn't they just add a well so they didn't have to do seller financing? I also feel like this story isn't complete until they do the follow-up about whether the seller financing worked out. That's a big risk.

The word "permit" is suspiciously absent from this story, and adding a well would most certainly have required permits. Probably a lot of things they did required permits, but if the narrative is accurate it doesn't seem like the permits were actually acquired.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#210

Post by ornornor »

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…

How did you do all that in a studio Appartement? In particular how did you deal with the dust and space requirements while this is a work on progress and you also have to love, cook, sleep there?
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