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

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#131

Post by tomlagier » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:59 PM UTC

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 California is just as conservative as rural anywhere else. Vermont is the only state I can think of, maybe parts of Maine.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#132

Post by Nasrudith » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:00 PM UTC

sb057 wrote: post #51

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 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 precisely will letter bombs to universities and airports in one country lead to the collapse of global industrial society? The "best case" rationally would be an end to all physical package mail as an unacceptable hazard. Even if somehow achieved how the hell will that stop the inevitable reindustrialization as hunter-gatherers seek a greater edge over nature and rivals? They would eventually reach the top again and curse that goddamned idiot ancestor for the millenia of needless suffering.

Not to mention the ideas of "freedom" are laughably naive and historically illiterate. He is just yet another small rigid mind who demands that the world become something simple enough to understand instead of trying to understand all of its complexities.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#133

Post by stef25 » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:01 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…

Yeah, it seems like the people in that article didn't even do the most basic napkin calculations.

My estimate is: you could start a towed coffee trailer for 10-12K, about 8K of that on the trailer, the rest on some basic equipment and decoration.

Rent the espresso machine & grinder for 150 / month (including maintenance & repair) instead of buying for 8K. Food & drinks wholesale: croissants are 0.2, donuts 0.5, fancy Italian water 0.6 and they sell for at least 3x as much

As the article says, even the most deluxe coffee is cheap. I calculated a cost of 1.09EUR for a latte, including 10g of coffee, 300ml of fair trade milk, a bio degradable cup + lid + sleeve and takes 3 min to prepare.

The hard part is learning to operate a professional espresso machine and dealing with the local laws about food trucks.

But yeah, best not during a pandemic.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#134

Post by throwaway5752 » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:01 PM UTC

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…

This is one of the best and most insightful comments I've seen anywhere. As someone who has crossed a few domains with overlap in my life (so some limited knowledge of how ignorant I am in all of them) this would be a top candidate for most valuable life lessons, intellectual humility.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#135

Post by nwallin » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

> 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 until we staggered awake in the morning. >>>It was awful—and one of the best weekends I’d had in recent memory.There's a word for this: Type II Fun. Type I Fun is when you're having fun and you know you're having fun while you're doing it. Type II Fun is when you're absolutely fucking miserable the whole time, but afterwards you and any of your friends that were with you say it was the best time ever.

Lots of outdoor activities that are supposed to be Type I Fun end up being Type II Fun. Lots of activities that aren't supposed to be fun at all end up being Type II Fun. (basic training is a common example) I've heard Dwarf Fortress is Type II Fun, but I could never get into it.

This whole process of building the cabin sounds like a class example of Type II Fun to me.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#136

Post by atq2119 » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

Dirlewanger wrote: post #113

bserge wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He achieved nothing and also hasn't killed enough people. That's pretty much the difference. He's not a revolutionary, just a murderer.

So as long as you achieved something, your trail of blood can be as long as you like?

In the eyes of history, that does tend to be the case, unfortunately.

Think of all the former or current colonial and imperial powers, and their leaders. They have lots of blood on their hands, but most of them are viewed far less critically than they should be.

It would be good to change that, but it's an uphill slope, not least because you need to tackle current and recent world leaders as well.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#137

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

This article answered a lot of questions I didn't realize I had.

Yeah, I probably had a romanticized view of doing this as well, but it doesn't seem insurmountable -- perhaps doing it closer to a primary residence and working part time during the process.

For anyone who wants to read more, I recommend checking out Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Interesting read!

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#138

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

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…

There are parts of states that voted for Clinton in 2016 that are pretty rural, but the rural parts (including in California) tend to be more conservative than the main cities, as in the case of Colorado.

I doubt you'll find many rural counties in the US that went strongly for Clinton (as a proxy for liberal). That said, the area around many college towns--quite a few of which are pretty rural by big city standards--are often more liberal than elsewhere.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#139

Post by carabiner » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

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 dimensions again so that I'll only need one sheet. They can cut it there, but it's a rough cut with tear out on the edges. I need to recut it at home with a circular saw. Now which circ saw do I buy? What blade do I need to make it a fine cut? How do I do this in a studio apartment? Then sanding the wood and finishing it (I can't have too much VOC because I have cats and myself in a small apartment), each of those stages requiring research and many small steps, with other tools to buy (orbital sander, multiple pads, dust mask etc.). It took way longer than expected, the tools cost a lot, but I ended up saving maybe a few hundred bucks from buying a similar desk considering only the cost of materials.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#140

Post by claydavisss » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #6

They got the property for 3,000 and sold for 115,000 (with cabin) Where can you buy so low for so much land?

If you don't care about location, AT ALL, you can find land in Texas for less than $100 an acre. This includes a county that has no building codes whatsoever, you can literally build whatever you like.