[deleted]
We quit our jobs to build a cabin
261–270 of 402 posts
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#262I 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 used to do everything myself. Then I got a job far from family. I can no longer call a dozen family members with different skills to help on any project. I do things alone, which means it takes more than 12 times longer. Plus I miss the excuse to get together with the family often when called to help someone else out.
I still do things myself, but I'm more and more looking to just hire the bigger things done. I know how to do it, and probably would do it better. But I don't have the time.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
Even in Vermont, a lot of the rural area is conservative. Consider that ~1/3 of the population lives in the Burlington Metro area, add in a bunch of other small college towns that are more liberal and you can see why Vermont votes more liberal. Indeed the rural parts are probably more liberal than other parts of the country, but you'll still see quite a few trump signs and places the vote strictly Republican/More Con…
Although only one county in the state, Essex, went for Trump--which is in the extreme northeast of the state and, unsurprisingly, is the poorest county in the state.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#264PSA: There are uneven feet ladders for sale.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#265Earlier 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…
> Navy Seals talk about that being tired is just an emotion like feeling happy. Its all about your mindset.
But it isn't really. Even taking that statement at face value you're still talking about people who are selected for their physical skills and then spend much of their prime training and preparing physically like their lives depended on it. Because it does. But they suck at many other things and they do have an excuse to not be able to do them.
One person cannot "specialize" in too many things and downhill extreme mountain biking is not a thing to do half-assed without risking your well-being. Getting the skill and the physical strength to do it is both time consuming but more importantly very risky.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#266It does not surprise me that these guys are writers. This reads very much like a project intended to produce a content product as much as a cabin. It's romantic and they have plenty of meticulously framed videos and photos. Maybe they did some youtube videos with dramatic moments -- maybe even the moment they open the piece with -- anger, violence, frustration boiling over. But now they are taking woodworking courses…
I've also noticed a lot more ads those types of programs. I'm wondering if the bad economy has made adds on youtube more affordable and get rich quick programs more attractive.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#267I 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…
Aside from loving the writing style, I'm glad I read this article and this comment. I was half-heartedly planning to do something like this myself. Despite having zero construction or engineering experience.
I'm stumped how stuck one (I) can feel when building something for the first time. The meaning of know-how became seriously deeper after trying electronics. Needn't be fancy but you have to know, gut feeling, that you know.. know that it's not difficult to think about it.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#268Earlier 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…
Getting my house remodeled I realized that the contractors do probably 50x as much math as I do on a daily basis, and I'm the one with a math degree. Go figure.
You did trig fights ?
ps: school should make kids build more stuff, you get real use case for a lot of mathematical thinking out of cute stuff hands on.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Type II fun is just fine, as long as it doesn't veer into type III fun.
I want details.
I'll propose that type III fun is when you're having fun while you're doing it but afterward you're absolutely miserable as a result, such as after a night of hard drinking, or a weekend of nonstop sleepless gaming.
Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 "ther…
> My dad was smart enough to farm out that work. What I find curious is that this viewpoint, while widely shared in trades, is not a universally shared value in tech. Many in our industry will prefer to write something themselves, or rewrite an existing project, rather than farm that work out to an expert or adapt to what they already have. Particularly in my segment, video games: it's all well and good to write a ga…
It is hard to look at something and realize that even though you can you shouldn't. I'm a programmer, I can write the engine. Several years later I have an engine. We have many new languages all the time for similar reasons, someone thinks they can write one (generally better) and forgets about all the effort it really takes and maybe they should do something else.