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We quit our jobs to build a cabin

outsideonline.com

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Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#71

Post by julienchastang »

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…

Maybe Vermont? Speaking for Colorado since I live here, apart from the urban "Front Range", Colorado is incredibly rural. One county to the west of Boulder (where I live) is Grand county (the size of the American state of Delaware) with a population of 15,000 people. Apart from the ski towns, rural Colorado is definitely on the conservative side of the spectrum, politically.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#73

Post by rsynnott »

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…

As another European, I'm not sure this is just an American thing (though it's maybe more pronounced there). Most European countries also have some degree of urban/rural political divide, with rural being farther right.

Even here in Ireland where we don't really do extremes of politics anymore (we don't have a hard/nationalist right in the same way many places do) there was a double digit percentage difference on the abortion and same-sex marriage referendums between rural and urban areas.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#74

Post by spanhandler »

CydeWeys wrote: post #54
Havoc wrote: post #26

I think they misjudged the timescale and the complexity added by slope. Good outcome though so clearly wasn't too badly misjudged. Youtube channel Wild Wonderful Offgrid [1] built a much bigger absolutely gorgous house...but on flat terrain and over two years. The other thing I've noticed is that many successful projects have pretty permanent "temporary" accomodation on site that take the pressure off needing to comp…

That's a good point. Buy an old RV for a year, place in it onsite, and live in it as necessary until the structure is inhabitable, and then sell the RV, hopefully at not too big a loss. It can be a towed RV even, whatever those are called.

A tried and true pattern I've seen is "build the barn, live in the barn, build the house".

And then sometimes the house is also sheet-metal-clad and looks pretty barn-like—it's just better sealed and insulated and has a few more windows :-)

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#75

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#76

Post by azernik »

stef25 wrote: post #62
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...

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 office workers on break, which... yeah.

(I write operations software for food-service businesses, so I'm fairly familiar with the market dynamics.)

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#78

Post by mdavidn »

look_lookatme wrote: post #63

It 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…

YouTube's recommendations may be more a reflection of your watch history than a shift in content or a change in the algorithm. I have not seen any van life, off-grid, or tiny home videos on YouTube.

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#79

Post by bserge »

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

Re: We quit our jobs to build a cabin

#80

Post by tinyhouse »

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…

Don't know about Colorado but agree about Vermont. Very progressive state. They also have great local food which is rare for remote states.
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