Buying forest land, implementing solar

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Actually, let's look at that true love article again.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rediscovering-love/201601/is-true-love

Is This True Love?

"When a relationship has the potential for long-term devotion, my couples tell me that they felt that their early connection didn’t follow the usual pattern. Each responded differently than they expected and in ways that were immediately intriguing. They had a sense of surprise that felt off-kilter in a special kind of way."

Yep, definitely a sense of surprise! It definitely felt unusual in an intensely rapid and deep way.

veryone starts a new relationship with some kind of physical attraction. That’s natural. But intrigue is different. There’s a unique kind of interest in the way that potential partner moves, or the sound of his or her voice.

Yes, her voice. I definitely emotionally resonated with her voice, just as she did with mine.

My couples who found true love tell me that one of the first things they noticed when they met each other was that time and timing just didn’t come into play. They truly remember that time did stand still.

Time freezes, yep. Definitely, although I can't say I know what that really means

Couples who have stayed in love for a long time tell me that both of them felt as if something were transforming inside of them, a kind of awakening they had not often felt before, like they made an energy together neither had known in the same way before.

Yes, like a world I never knew before.

They expect that fear of loss is supposed to accompany every new venture, but persist nevertheless.

I guess maybe that was my problem, I had no sense of "fear of loss" (Never knew the feeling, dude), but I'm clearly experiencing it ever since! lol. Even then, as undesirable as loss is at times, I'm not afraid of that kind of loss.

The feelings of certainty in a potentially long-term relationship are different from the very beginning of more typical relationships. Though they include mutual attraction, there is much more. My long-term couples tell me that they felt almost immediately grounded, quiet, and serious, totally convicted that they would end up together. It was as if fate had intervened, telling them that their unbelievable connection was real and they could trust its promise.

Yes, it was an unbelievable connection and it definitely felt fated.

In relationships that harbor the potential of true love, people almost immediately feel the desire to confess and share everything about themselves, whether negative or positive. They just don’t want to hold anything back. They feel immediately courageous, wanting to know and be known, no matter what the outcome.

Never really hiding anything, yes.
 
swbluto said:
Actually, when the gas station was looking at me like she was interested... I actually became angry.

So now it's inanimate objects pursuing you. Steven King would be proud. But just think of the style that a whole gas station could support you in. I know, it's beyond interracial, but think of the inspiration you'd be to. . .certain types. I mean, I'd have never known a gas station was a 'She.' You're born for this.

Meanwhile, I woke up too early this morning, so I was left thinking about the idea you used to see in the comic books when some superhero tells the bad guy 'If ONLY you would use your powers for good, instead of evil.' There you have what the women are after chasing the bad boys. But of course they become victims of the evil or they succeed and then lose interest. What could anyone want with a woman who likes bad boys?

And what is Taylor Swift looking at? She seems fascinated. I mean I know I would be, but. . . .
 
Dauntless said:
swbluto said:
Actually, when the gas station was looking at me like she was interested... I actually became angry.

So now it's inanimate objects pursuing you. Steven King would be proud. But just think of the style that a whole gas station could support you in. I know, it's beyond interracial, but think of the inspiration you'd be to. . .certain types. I mean, I'd have never known a gas station was a 'She.' You're born for this.

Meanwhile, I woke up too early this morning, so I was left thinking about the idea you used to see in the comic books when some superhero tells the bad guy 'If ONLY you would use your powers for good, instead of evil.' There you have what the women are after chasing the bad boys. But of course they become victims of the evil or they succeed and then lose interest. What could anyone want with a woman who likes bad boys?

And what is Taylor Swift looking at? She seems fascinated. I mean I know I would be, but. . . .

Wait... so this badboy thing is about liking "evil guys" who don't have their best interests in heart? Is being selfish and putting their own best interests ahead of others really "evil"? Evil is very subjective, dude. Putting your own best interests ahead of others also doesn't necessarily mean at the expense of others... with girls, at least with some girls, it seems their best interests is also the girl's best interests, for this is exactly the kind of thing that arouses the emotions, the drama, which girls are addicted to. Soap operas ain't popular with a certain gender for no reason.
 
[youtube]ru2Mk72_2HE[/youtube]

Definitely feeling this song at the moment (Starts at :45). That strongly rekindled sense of loss continues to linger, lol.

Particular resonation with "The heart wants what it wants".
 
Okay, so better understanding of status markers like handbags and high falutin cars.

The purpose is to impress others and to assert higher status and "I'm better than youness". The idea is by possessing especially expensive relatively exclusive possessions (Due to their expense), you assert belonging to a better group than those who can't afford such status markers.

Is my understanding on this concept about right?

I think it's silly myself, and not something I'm wasting money on, but I feel like I can finally understand why some girls want to spend that dough and not just for "no reason".
 
It's always some cute girl who shows interests that's remind me of the HEB chick and makes me go on a "great loss binge", lol. God dang... lol

And this dog is a keeper. The neighbor came rushing towards my encampment thru the forest silently, and my dog suddenly picked up the scent/sound/something, followed it and started wondering thru the forest and started barking at presumedly him! lol...

It was right on where I assume the "drug trail" is, yes.

If they associate "Get near his place, get barked at"... maybe they'll stop getting close...
 
I wonder if I could buy a parcel a bit closer to 1488 or conroe... Might be a 2 years from now kind of thing. Build the pool and house nowish, next year, try to sell, then move. Will have to think thru the logistics.
 
swbluto said:
Clearly that's never happened to you? I pity you.

swbluto said:
While I know that some people are doubters and sometime I felt like telling them to F OFF

Sometimes, I can't get over how people just don't get it about what they say on the one hand, then say on the other hand. Ah well, the joy of postmodernism. Getting to just laugh at it all.

swbluto said:
The purpose is to impress others and to assert higher status and "I'm better than youness".

Yeah, and me with none of that to impress them back. So why is it that type that comes for me? So obviously the wrong, but why would they. . . ?

swbluto said:
Is being selfish and putting their own best interests ahead of others really "evil"? Evil is very subjective, dude.

What you DO putting your own interests first can be very evil. And often is.

swbluto said:
Build the pool and house nowish, next year, try to sell, then move.

The WRONG pool, as with what you're trying to build, will make the place hard to sell. Save the pool until you're somewhere you intend to stay awhile.

swbluto said:
. . . .. . . .started wondering thru the forest and started barking at presumedly him! lol...

It was right on where I assume the "drug trail" is, yes.

This is going to drive down property values at best. But is this going to end up on CNN or just the local news?
 
Dauntless said:
This is going to drive down property values at best. But is this going to end up on CNN or just the local news?

Having 25 mexican neighbors living next to you on one lot and getting close to you and hiding in the brush with the sole purpose to intimidate you (By gunfire within 200 feet, making machete slicing noises within 100 feet,etc.; they live about 1000 feet away so they have to travel over here...) is going to drive down property values at best. The watch dog, I've been finding, is just a necessary precaution.

If only I didn't have my generators running... or maybe I could push them a bit further back... the dog could maintain greater awareness? He hasn't thwarted all their approaches.

Btw, property values for this particular area are pretty much driven down as far as they practically can, lol. Apparently it's a goal of some residents, according to my neighbor, to reduce taxes. (Possibly by deterring otherwise interested buyers whose additional demand might push up the prices...)

Making a property hard to sell, however, is a good consideration to have.
 
In looking around the area, it looks like waterfront lots for lake conroe start at $30-45k, and lake conroe non-waterfront lots in general start around 12k-15k.

Not finding anything close to 1488 so far at $45,000.

Well, it might be kind of cool aiming for a waterfront lot. I bet there aren't a lot of 5 mexican families living in one residence in THAT neighborhood, lol. (When there's cheaper hoods around...)

Well, specifically searching for 1488, I get mostly 2+ acre listings, and the one I can find that is particularly close to 1488 (A mile away) is 2.62 acres for $99,000. I get the impression there isn't a lot of available vacant subdivision lots in the area, appears getting a subdivision lot in that area probably means buying an existing home (Might not be out of reach if there's a mobile there, seems you typically find those going for 30-40k in the greensheet paper). It seems that vacant lots are available abundance in Lake Conroe, which might explain the opening of this large lumber supplier mcCoys just recently in Lake Conroe.

I see that land/real-estate is the expensive shit I really got to save my pennies for, lol. Makes me think I have a new motivation for higher levels of income, not simply beating my navy peers (Which I successfully did last year, and definitely this year), but living closer to desirable commercial areas! Living next to a body of water is of questionable benefit when one could affordably install a pool. (Although, the idea that the property will appreciate over time is mostly unquestionable. If I were to choose between a land lot and waterfront lot for investment, waterfront hands down. Intrinsically more limited supply and perennial demand.)

If I were to become a homebuilder, what is the barrier of entry, exactly?

For this particular neighborhood, the barrier of entry is the landprice, the home, and the cost to install electricity(Anywhere from $600-$7000 depending on how close you are to existing lines), water($5 a foot? I don't know.) and presumedly some kind of septic. Don't know, haven't paid attention to that detail, though my neighbor sure has. (I guess he has a septic? Just got inspected by county 4 months ago.)

And, in other neighborhoods, there might be permit fees additionally which can be substantive. And minimum requirements, which might impose additional costs if the minimum isn't minimal.

This is of consideration when one is limited by cash on hand and is locked out of the credit markets (Or, one chooses not to do for ideological reasons). I personally don't think building additional residences for resale is necessarily a bad thing to fund with a secured loan, for the loss is limited to the house/land (I would assume). However, for my own personal residence that I live on, I would never have a loan on it if it can be avoided, for the loss isn't merely limited to just the house/land, it means YOU'RE HOMELESS! lol

That thought wasn't a laughing matter just half a decade ago, but thankfully it is now, lol. It seems I've [mostly] avoided that trap so far... and practically no risk of lapse. [Although, if my van went belly up right now... it might make buying a new vehicle difficult... and operations might become hard...]
 
Automation...

It increases production, so more goods are produced.

However, the amount of goods consumed/demanded will depend on the distribution of income.

If incomes are driven down by forcing people into low paying "service work", demand will go down.

Thus production will go down.

If automation essentially makes incomes more inequal, then demand will go down for mass manufactured goods.

However, if the amount of wealth to the top 10-20% goes up, then demand for their particular demanded goods will go up. (Luxury vehicles, land, homes, art, luxury goods, etc.)

It seems my products mostly sell to the top 20% judging from where they live in Houston, so I see my products are a part of this "luxury demand". And, why I've been making a killing so far this year, lol. I'm essentially doing business with the top 20% essentially making me join their ranks. :D
 
Guy has a $600,000 magnolia listing. Mentions "Great for a machine shop or home-based business" making me think the previous owner was operating a machine shop home-based business.

Makes me wonder what his products were and who his clients were. I wonder how he markets. (cold calling, cocktail parties, online listings, newspaper ads, former friends and associates in an oil company he used to work for, etc?)

My clients are people all across the united states, some of them business owners, others just well-heeled mothers.

His clients are... hmmm.... local oil companies and the wealthy ranchers? Could explain the 600k residence (Pretty ritzy for this area).
 
Figured it out. So, imagine a guy, the arcetypal hunter, snags a humongous bison, a vast achievement back in the day. How would he walk around? With pride and cockiness. This huge bison could not only feed himself, but potentially a spouse and their children. Would a women of child bearing age with instinctual motherly ambitions find this appealing? You make the educated guess.

Yep, that's exactly how I was walking around when the gas station gal spotted me. Yep, so be the successful hunter and you'll get some eyeballs, lol.
 
swbluto said:
Figured it out. So, imagine a guy, the arcetypal hunter, snags a humongous bison, a vast achievement back in the day. How would he walk around? With pride and cockiness. This huge bison could not only feed himself, but potentially a spouse and their children. Would a women of child bearing age with instinctual motherly ambitions find this appealing? You make the educated guess.

Yep, that's exactly how I was walking around when the gas station gal spotted me. Yep, so be the successful hunter and you'll get some eyeballs, lol.

The bison gets the eyeballs first. Kind of like how the early worm gets the bird. And of course the women also hunted, a bison was brought down in an endurance hunt. So the gas station woman was hunting bison, eh?

There's my educated guess.
 
So, cost is mostly comprised by frame+sheathing+siding. The less costly things are the drywall and roof shingles.

With a 10 ft exterior wall, a 900 sq ft. house in its lowest possible exterior lineal distance shape, a square, would be 30x30 and the exterior lineal distance would be 120 ft implying a siding area of 1200 sq. ft.s for stucco at $6/sq ft and vinyl at $3/sq ft.

That implies a siding cost of $3600-$7200.

The framing itself would be around.... $1000...?

The sheathing, at $13/32 sq.ft, would cost $400 for the exterior walls, and an additional little above 1800 sq. ft. for the roof and floor, would mean another $600-700 for that.

So...

Framing = $1000
Siding = $3600-7200
Sheating = $1100

As you can see, siding is expensive!

I think I might be inclined to go with smart-siding wood sheathing. Basically doubles the sheathing cost, at $25 for 4x8 vs. $13 for 7/16 osb 4x8. It'd be equivalent to, in this example, a $1100 siding option.

Here's what it looks like.

lap_beauty_shot_1.jpg


I would actually prefer stucco, but considering the exterior area of my courtyard house design, that's a pretty expensive option! The exterior lineal distances would be... 56+56+76+76=264 feet and the interior lineal distance would be 32+32+48+48 = 160 feet, so total is 424 feet. Exterior area of 4240 sq. ft., for stucco at $6/sq ft, that's around $25,000. For smart paneling at $25/32 sq.ft.($.78 sq. ft.), that's $3312.

In this example, looks like I could construct a 900 sq. foot house for $3500, with the internal walls, drywall, flooring, insulation, doors, windows, etc., I'm guessing it'd be about $7000-8000 to construct. Funny enough, that's immediately affordable which would almost seem hard to fathom. Hard to believe I could build a standard small new house with the cash in my pocket at age 30, lol, so there might be something wrong with my estimates.

(Of course, it's also possible, I'm just plain filthy rich, lol. I guess my "minimize your expenses and accumulate savings" ethos might have something to do with that. Of course, windfalls are pretty instrumental too.)

dscn0972_0.jpg


Now, this smart paneling might just work well with the terra cotta/clay roofing in this color/direction. It looks flat enough, almost. At a distance (i.e., from the street), I bet those vertical lines are barely perceptible. And, if they really are bothersome, I'm guessing I could (affordably?) fill the gaps with filler and paint over.

Okay, well, it's been settled. The first iteration, 12x16, will use smart siding. That settles the nagging "What am I going to side with?" question.

In the final product, I'm seeing the bottom 2 feet being sand stone, then sand colored paint then with terra cotta roofing. I'd want to preview the idea first, doesn't always work as well in real life as it seems like it could.
 
In a house with multiple people, the only rooms that seem necessary to separate are the bedroom and bathroom. A garage/workshop might also be good to separate. For the first iteration, since I'll be by myself, I won't even bother. The living room will be the kitchen, the garage, the bedroom and the bathroom all rolled into one, lol. I would like to separate the workshop, at least to a particular place/corner in the room, so I don't easily lose my tools here there and yonder and can't find them when I need them ASAP.
 
Someone in my most recent dream mentioned (One girl out of 2)...

"Longterm dating is rare nowadays!"

And "You need a job and a place to stay."

Is this true? Let's google it. Dreams have been known to be preposterous, but mine tend to be unusually insightful for some reason.

Long-term relationships are well and truly dead in 2017, and here’s why

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/15/long-term-relationships-are-well-and-truly-dead-in-2017-and-heres-why-6378703/

Bam. Proof, dang... my "dating" dreams are one helluva of a good source of information (Including the ones involving the HEB chick). Not calling anyone names, but Dauntless's comments seem to be pretty negativistic in a way that tends to be suggestive in a false kind of way.
 
Dauntless said:
swbluto said:
Figured it out. So, imagine a guy, the arcetypal hunter, snags a humongous bison, a vast achievement back in the day. How would he walk around? With pride and cockiness. This huge bison could not only feed himself, but potentially a spouse and their children. Would a women of child bearing age with instinctual motherly ambitions find this appealing? You make the educated guess.

Yep, that's exactly how I was walking around when the gas station gal spotted me. Yep, so be the successful hunter and you'll get some eyeballs, lol.

The bison gets the eyeballs first. Kind of like how the early worm gets the bird. And of course the women also hunted, a bison was brought down in an endurance hunt. So the gas station woman was hunting bison, eh?

There's my educated guess.

That's a good guess. The woman, lacking the strength and endurance of a man necessary to bring down a bison, hunts for the man who can hunt down the bison.

Of course, that analogy fails when women can hunt for the metaphorical bison (i.e. career women circa 2017). But, it's an instinct in many females regardless.

It seems, though, many women prefer NOT being a career woman and those who pursue that option at the exclusion of dating, tend to fail in attracting men. I.e., the opposite of a "hot woman".
 
Dang, another thread had your best bet. You won't even need siding.

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/16/a-half-loaded-gun-an-underground-bunker-and-1000-hidden-bikes-found-at-fountain-valley-homeless-camp/
 
Despairing at the thought of having ribbed boards and my neighbor said there'd be likely bonding issues with filler, he suggested checking out if they had different styles. Went to the site and sure enough, there's a flat panel style. Yeah! Definitely looks better than the vertical board look, and competitive with the horizontal look. On a courtyard house, I'm betting flat would look better than horizontal lapping with the terra cotta roofing.
 
ooo ooo ooo... yeah baby! I now have the funds to try out this "buy broken vehicles, fix them and resale them" game. Used car prices are pretty suppressed though, so margins are a little tighter here. Just an idea. Seems like I can only put so much of my money into the kind of capital assets I'm thinking of. Though, getting into a heavy machinery kind of business seems intriguing.
 
And, pretty sure this dog is simply not affectionate. Neighbors dogs just start sniffing and licking. This dog has not licked once, ever. I don't know if this means he's an "antisocial dog", but he seems to follow me occasionally, and tends to follow my lead, so he's not completely non-social in an autistic way. All my past dogs I've owned would lick. This is the very first one I've met that apparently doesn't.\

Granted, for a large dog like this, it's very possible it was trained that way.

In general, he doesn't seem affectionate.

He ripped down the big box from the table I was hiding the ripe bananas in and he gobbled them all down. Well, that was his provision for the next two days so looks like he's starving for 2 days! He'll survive.

I like giving him all my overly ripe and bruised bananas. I don't like those. Seems to cause acid reflux.

I said I never would lay down non-trivial-amounts-of coin for a dog. But, now...the idea doesn't seem /that/ absurd. It doesn't seem like I'll easily find the dog I want at the pound (a dominant, playful, affectionate dog - those tend to be keepers. Just like the HEB chick, *weep*, lol.), though, it's possible that it's there. I guess I should make a concerted effort to check out the pounds first.

Neighbor says I have a knack for making money. That's what lots of girlfriends have implied by suggesting that their boyfriends should be getting to know me, lol.

While driving down the main north-south state highway nearby, was stopped by a bus and saw a SMOKING HOT mom picking up her 3 children and they appeared to live in a tinroof 300-400 sq. ft. tiny house judging from the father in waiting standing in the front lawn looking at them. Damn, I see no huge house is required to pick up the babes, lol.

(That's not why I want a courtyard house; I want it for the roman luxury and the sheer beauty of having a pool and beautiful central garden being the centerpiece no matter where one happened to be.)

There was one other such young couple in town, but the girl appeared porcine, so I assumed it was representative of their "class" as opposed to "their generation". But, seeing the smoking hot babe, I'm convinced it's a generational thing, I just didn't know the great recession had hit Houston's younger demographics like the rest of the country.

So, my starting off with a tiny house is entirely appropriate for my generation. Starting off with a normal sized house like I could probably afford would actually be the anomaly. But I think that's always been the anomaly for 30 year olds? Most 30 year olds in yesteryears had largish mortgages on normal sized houses, not own it outright.

The fact I could afford such a house this young, especially for this generation, suggest I'm well on my way of getting my dreamhouse. Just got to HUSTLE and WORK HARD! It helps to cheat "the system"(big banks, big bank owned insurance companies,big bank owned government,etc.) a little bit. :p [It helps precisely because "the system" is designed to sap your wealth. Minimizing my "system" expenses is all part of the cost minimization ethos and subsequent savings maximzation.]

After christmas sales are over, the efforts to increase income will definitely be underway having a proper office setup in the house.

3 years to having my courtyard house actually seems fairly realistic at this point. In lesser forms, 2 years seems probable.
 
Thinking about building an 8x12 shed to be used for temp housing. It seems like it'd be faster to build than a 12x16, and I don't have a lot of time right now to be building and it's getting cold fast! That wood stove would be an awesome thing to have, lol.

But, I'm thinking I should just deal with it. It's just hard to use the computer with frozen hands, and I need to use the computer, lol.

The mornings are now in the 40s.
 
Looks like HD OSB is down to 12.85, from 13.35 just a week ago and 17.25 a month ago. How low can you go? yeah, yeah, yeah, how low can you go? lol.

Why is OSB prices important ask? It limits how much house your money can buy, big time! I don't think smart siding is getting any cheaper, however, seems like $25 is the price floor. It actually looks like it's $26 now.\

Here's an easy way to think of the relative cost of siding and sheathing...

4x8 is 32 sq. ft.

vinyl @ $3/sqft is $96 per 4x8.
stucco @ $6/sqft is $192 per 4x8.

Right now, 4x8 7/16 osb is $12.85 at home depot. So, as you can see, standard siding is EXPENSIVE! At least 8 times the price of sheathing (right now).

[Intuiton check... does stucco really cost $192 for a 4x8? If stucco is really concrete, that does seem a bit much... maybe my $/sqft estimates are off, I didn't actually calculate it, I just gleaned figures from a google search. The figures do often seem a bit inflated above and beyond actual material costs.]
 
And, right now, it appears my dog is chewing on a amputated deer leg. He seems to enjoy it but he almost smells like a rotting corpse, kind of unbearable being around him now, lol. It's curious as to how this younger deer died (It's a smaller leg)... dog attack? The active neighbor hunter?
 
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