Buying forest land, implementing solar

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marty said:
swbluto said:
8x16, 8x12, 16x30
Rectangle? Why not build a round house? Or a Geodesic dome?
3cc65af57b9ee6a8f329acd0ea7489ff--geodesic-dome-greenhouse-dome-homes.jpg

Get a plan!
Definition of plan
1 : a drawing or diagram drawn on a plane: such as
a : a top or horizontal view of an object
b : a large-scale map of a small area

Needs to have potential to be converted into a rental property longterm. Considering that illegals are taking over the area, smallish domiciles are right up there alley. Todos las casitas! lol

Now that I'm thinking of it, with the lower incomes people have nowadays, a smaller domicile with a large yard would be especially attractive to single or couple renters, of which there are plenty. So I think a studio duplex (450 sq. ft.) with a yard would probably have no problems finding renters. I definitely know that was the case in Spokane, then again, that was a good location.
 
From steve's account of getting shot, it's become obvious to me that fencing in your immediate area is important, no matter where you are in this city! I was thinking that with the courtyard idea, but I think a relatively solid fence or some such would work. Haven't really seen a cost-effective durable privacy fence option for large areas.

I actually think it's mostly "this area" around here that tends to be dangerous, seems to be a poorer area in pockets, that seems to spill out into the country side? I'm guessing you probably wouldn't have to worry about getting shot in a conroe lake suburb.

"Life giving water, nectar of the gods, graham gave thirst and drank." I thought while drinking this oh so algid water, lol.

And of course my 20 year memory isn't perfect, lol.

[youtube]Z7QHC9R9A7E[/youtube]
 
It's gonna be pretty hard to rent anything, if that place is as bad as you say. Even if you get some body to look, they will look away with NO drinkable WATER, electricity and the worst thing of all, a place to relieve yourself. Maybe you could get a porta-potty to rent out or dig a big hole in the ground and put a seat over it. Do the solar as per the title and finish the well. Deep enough to get clean drinkable water. Could be 30ft or 300ft. Gonna be real hard without those basic necessities. I suppose a family from mexico might like it. Problem would be getting paid. Not the first time but maybe the second or third time. By then they will be in cahoots with the rest of the bad guys that are tying to kill you.

Sell it, you already made more money than the navy pay and you have enough to build a mansion now. Buy some more land where they don't mind you. Start all over, you've done it once, you can do it again. Just think, in a nicer place you might find your true HEB chick.

Dan
 
The real advantage of this location is that it's closer, cuts the distance to most commonly visited places in half.

The demographics are 20% mexican, so I guess I'll have to take a real good look at the area, lol.

I'm going to see where the powerlines are and then start sending letters.

It's interesting that the city itself has declined from 150 to 100 from 2000 to 2010. Interesting that it's declined so much while Houston itself has grown so much, despite it obviously being much closer than where I'm at right now.

However, I've heard that much of the retail developments that now exist didn't exist "back then", so maybe that's what drove the decline; lack of suitable nearby retail. And, it might be going back up? I saw that strapping young buck and that smoking hot babe in that area, so I think there's probably been in influx in recent years, lol.

Steve tells me with the local fair, once a year, out of staters and the rest of houston cleans out all the nearby residences and you get your stuff stolen and they haul it back out of state, lol.

Is that really a big problem that drove the population decline from 2000 to 2010?

In terms of highway access, it's not "as easy" getting to the bigger box stores and Houston with the winding single lane roads vs the wider straight higher speed highways around here, but it's definitely less distance, and I care about distance more than "ease". My neighbor travels to College station all the time, because it's so easy to get to with the highways; despite it being "easy to get to" (Two straight highspeed highways with one traffic light in the middle; easy), I never go there because it wastes the most fuel because it's the furthest option away! lol.
 
DAND214 said:
It's gonna be pretty hard to rent anything, if that place is as bad as you say. Even if you get some body to look, they will look away with NO drinkable WATER, electricity and the worst thing of all, a place to relieve yourself.

I figure mexicans would probably be the ones looking. And, neighbors are routing in water and electricity next year. And, sewer out here is commonly accomplished by "septic", and despite people supposing to get permits out here, it's commonly avoided likely due to the property sizes not being large enough to qualify (min 1 acre; the lots are commonly .25 acre). So I guess I'd put in some kind of illegal septic since I have no other choice. Steve tells me the septic parts cost a little more than $500?

It's true, with mexican renters, there is the possible problem of getting paid, lol. If not due to finances, then possibly racist reasons. Oh well, I'd find myself a nice elderly renter with a social security check, I don't think I'd have to wait too much for one of those applicants?

I do get the sense that renting in better areas where its easier getting "good tenants"(stable finances,etc.) is a more profitable arrangement for a landlord. Being a slumlord might be a little harder in terms of getting paid and all the costs associated with finding new tenants and eviction, lost potential pay, etc.

This new location... finding a chick... there's definitely more potential in the sense the neighborhood isn't an immediate disqualifier like it is here, lol. At least I think, I'd have to investigate.

It looks like the median pay, male and females, is 21-24k/year in this area. Age range looks normal (median age =34, not much different from the national average of 35), so not a bunch of poorly paid young people, but on the flipside, not a lot of old people like in this area. So, mostly minimum wage or near minimum wage working age adults in this area, 20% mexican. Well, well, well...

I suspect I'll encounter "poor people" dynamics just like here, but there's a chance the kind of racial tensions won't exist there like here. I'd have to investigate. Poor people don't seem to be a problem in this area, it seems to be the poor young illegal males that are the biggest problem. [Then again, maybe young males would be a problem everywhere... not just illegals. I wouldn't know, because I don't see a lot of young caucasian males in this particular area, but I've never been in a neighborhood where they are rushing you and firing off their guns right behind your backyard, so I don't think that's common even among young caucasian males.]

The ideal for this area is to pick a place within, I'd say, for a 400 sq.ft. residence, within 150 feet of the powerlines. A 2000 sq ft residence, 750 feet. That way, the electricity routing costs, after the credit, would be nothing or nearly so.

This new place, I have not seen any grimace from any local upon hearing its name, lol, UNLIKE HERE, lol.

So THAT's a GOOD SIGN, lol.

I've seen "shady looking structures" in the nearby areas though...

Has my guard up.

Then again, I've seen smoking hot babes, so... lol.

I just want to find some place where I'll feel safe working in my own backyard at night because that's the only time of the day to do manual labor 70% of the year, lol.

Unlike here, don't feel safe at all with the illegals and their iniquity coming out at night, hiding in the forest.

They hide during the day inside, then come out at night.

The police are nearby in this area. Might help quell the dissidents, but might imbue the area with an oppressive quality, depends entirely on the chief and the department. I've noticed when you're strutting around like you're hot stuff, the police wanna harass you.

And in a small town like this, they might not let up.

Back to this "strutting around", this is the kind of thing that attracts the attention of the cute girls.

Strut and swagger refer especially to carriage in walking. Strut implies swelling pride

Just like I mentioned, carrying the hunter's pride attracts the girls. It also attracts the popos, and maybe even my illegal young adult male neighbors, lol.
 
I'm not sure what a cedar fence would cost.

What about a smart siding fence? The cheapest water-proof siding material I know of yet.

$26 for 4 feet, that's about $6.50 per foot. Google search suggests $7/foot for cedar. I guess they're about comparable?

I would use that privacy screening if only it were durable.

With the knowledge there's mexicans in this new location, I'm tempted to cedar fence in the central area. Fences just seem like a waste of money, though, if they aren't intended to be permanent (When one moves).

I have a feeling they aren't as brash and bellicose as these guys, though, since the police station is less than a mile away and right off the main road.
 
You don't need a fence, you need a solid wall that stops bullets. ADOBE! You just dig so dirt and mix so straw, I'm sure there's YouTube videos. They make this in mexico so your stereotypical Sinaloa Cowboy hitsquad will know when they are beat.
 
Dauntless said:
You don't need a fence, you need a solid wall that stops bullets. ADOBE! You just dig so dirt and mix so straw, I'm sure there's YouTube videos. They make this in mexico so your stereotypical Sinaloa Cowboy hitsquad will know when they are beat.
And when will he have time to that. His keyboard is busy all the time. Even when it's time to do work, he is too busy with this thread. Gotta get that novel going, gonna make millions. Then he will have time to dig the pool and use the clay to build the wall. Wait isn't Trump gonna do that :mrgreen:

Dan
 
Dauntless said:
You don't need a fence, you need a solid wall that stops bullets. ADOBE! You just dig so dirt and mix so straw, I'm sure there's YouTube videos. They make this in mexico so your stereotypical Sinaloa Cowboy hitsquad will know when they are beat.

Oh, would clay and straw work? lol, because that's what I have. Going to be digging up a lot for the pool.

Dang, I don't know if I'll get the pool done this year. Needs to be started early in winter and I probably won't get the property somewhat developed until late January, assuming I find a seller somewhat quickly. Having access to a lappool everyday has been a dream of mine since it was literally a dream in Charleston,SC, lol.
 
DAND214 said:
Dauntless said:
You don't need a fence, you need a solid wall that stops bullets. ADOBE! You just dig so dirt and mix so straw, I'm sure there's YouTube videos. They make this in mexico so your stereotypical Sinaloa Cowboy hitsquad will know when they are beat.
And when will he have time to that. His keyboard is busy all the time. Even when it's time to do work, he is too busy with this thread. Gotta get that novel going, gonna make millions. Then he will have time to dig the pool and use the clay to build the wall. Wait isn't Trump gonna do that :mrgreen:

Dan

I'm too busy with paid work right now! Won't have freetime to do any serious work until early January.
 
He's not writing this, his writer is.

You know the elf on a shelf? So yesterday I thought up a Christmas product, oh too late, though.

TRUMP ON A SHELF! When someone is bad, Trump appears. You stay bad, Trump stays. You blame Trump on a shelf whenever anything happens.

I'd have made a fortune. Next year it'll be too late.
 
Dauntless said:
He's not writing this, his writer is.

You know the elf on a shelf? So yesterday I thought up a Christmas product, oh too late, though.

TRUMP ON A SHELF! When someone is bad, Trump appears. You stay bad, Trump stays. You blame Trump on a shelf whenever anything happens.

I'd have made a fortune. Next year it'll be too late.
Why wait? Time is money, remember? It might be a great idea. If they don't like him they can bury him, like him they can put him on the shelf.

I guess that is where this stuff is coming from. So who's name will it be under?

Dan
 
Wow, someone thought I was skilled enough to be called a writer. I'm flattered! lol. Someone should remind my college english teachers of that, lol.

Anyhoo, thought it was actually fitting this would be a "fallback property". Because, I wanted a property all my own that I could always fall back on, whether due to the wife taking the house or job loss or whatever... And now if I move, it's fulfilling its originally intended purpose even though that was really was an afterthought with the move. The primary reason for the move is "I want to build my swimming pool somewhere where I feel safe to swim!", lol. The fact it was much closer to the action was an obvious benefit.

So, yeah, kind of nice it's fulfilling its originally intended purpose so relatively quickly.

The other properties can be bought and sold, built upto extravagance,etc., but this one stays. It's a low-cost / low-tax-cost fallback. Let's think of it as "homelessness insurance", only $6000 to develop, and about $100 in annual fees.

Will have the basics, tiny house, shed and a place to garden. I'll leave the fence in place so as to help protect the empty shed and house, lol. (Obviously if I were to move back in, I really don't want to wait to install the fence all over again. It's there already, let's keep it there.)

It's secondary purpose is a trash dump. My neighbors apparently don't want money flowing into the neighborhood here, so I thought I'd help keep the property prices down, lol. That's actually a fairly wide complaint of minorities, gentrification (Because it tends to push them out), so ironically, I am actually helping them out, lol.

The more of an eyesore this property is in the neighborhood, the better.

(Coincidentally, that does seem like another goal of another property owner here. I wonder if he got embittered living here, too? Or is he purposely keeping property prices down like my neighbor claims for his own tax benefit?)
 
swbluto said:
Wow, someone thought I was skilled enough to be called a writer.

WHAT? NO!!!!

We thought of your WRITER as skilled enough to be called a writer.

So the idea was this works around Christmas to have Trump on a shelf. People would have them around the office, etc. Id have to send one to Trollobie. Times' up on Christmas. Next year? Maybe. We'll see.

Name its under? So I threw together some trance music as a joke, but trance fans were telling me it was good and I needed a DJ name. I looked up DJ Dauntless, seems they have one in Europe. I suppose I could be DethDauntless.

Or maybe DJ The Influence. Non trance music I could be the Influencial Orchestra. Trump on a Shelf could be from Influential Toys.

They could bury him, eh? I could market Trump tombstones. I put the correct year of birth. Choose the year of death you want.

The moneymakers are rolling out.
 
I'm finding as I'm learning German, that English is more semantically equivalent to German than to any of the "romance languages". Etymologies might be shared between english and many latin and greek roots, but german has the most semantic comparability and many homophones with english.

A way of saying that is that many words in english has a direct translation to german, whereas the same isn't true of spanish. "Driveway" has no direct equivalent, neither does road, they're often in the form of compounding distinct adjectives and nouns in the spanish language, whereas German often has a direct translation.

It makes sense... historically, european language can be divided between the romans and the visigoths. The english, being so much more closer to the visigoths than rome, would understandably share a lot more in common in terms of language and probably other cultural similarities.

For example, english, spanish, german:

Driveway, entrada de coche(Literally "car entrance"),Auffahrt

Come here, ven aca, komm her
 
I also thought with the HEB chick, it was interesting how symmetrical our original intentions were.

She wanted to find a guy with a place. (Because she was looking for a place for whatever reason, probably tenancy issues.)
I wanted to bring a girl home.

Match made in heaven, no wonder it worked out so naturally. We both had what we wanted.
 
The British isles were indeed quite Germanic. Anglo Saxon refers to a full community of Saxons who picked up and moved to Anglaland. This being before the Umlut, when E was A and all.

The H.E.B. chixk., the product of your imagination. You, the product of your writers' imagination. Why not symmetric.
 
Dauntless said:
The H.E.B. chixk., the product of your imagination. You, the product of your writers' imagination. Why not symmetric.

Hey dude, their desires were mentioned by a girl in a dream I had! The fact she had them in real life is no surprise! Nothing imaginary about any of that.
 
Dauntless said:
Name its under? So I threw together some trance music as a joke, but trance fans were telling me it was good and I needed a DJ name. I looked up DJ Dauntless, seems they have one in Europe. I suppose I could be DethDauntless.

Or maybe DJ The Influence. Non trance music I could be the Influencial Orchestra.

Oh, cool, we have a musical artist among us. With one person good at drawing faces, we need someone else great at making music, lol.

Btw, dude, if your music is good... consider playing some at concerts in live person and GET LAID! lol

Trust me, I'm not joking. Girls love the public performers, and by love, I mean sexually aroused, some will even ask you (Although I really couldn't tell if she was joking or not... I don't think she was joking about the implication she was sexually aroused though...).

Public performance, passionate love gazes... the things that sexually arouse a women. (The last one definitely arouses a guy, too, trust me. That sexual tension was helluva intense. The discernible effects of that tension lasted for like 3 months.... upto 5-6 if I include the crying "What great loss" sessions.)
 
Spilt a bunch of lentils on one time on the road, and now they're sprouting little leaves everywhere. Looks like a little patch of grass, lol.
 
I figure at the new place, I'll get the house built and electricity wired before moving in. And I'll consider getting the fence done first so I can walk outside in my own privacy so I don't attract unwanted attention from potentially hostile neighbors.

Not sure how much I'll contribute to the new house. Maybe 4K? $4000/$8sq.ft. = 500 sq. ft. Appreciably larger than most of what I've seen there, and it'd be a properly roofed house. I want to find a good coastal design...

I think I might try for a resale property.

220-E-60th-St-Savannah-GA-31405-1.jpg


Yeah, something like that. Sky blue with white trim. Or pastel blue?

That's apparently 1800 sq. ft., pretty large for a single story.

I think the look would look well on a 500 sq ft, yes, lol.

32x16.

The emphasis is on "it needs to look good". The design needs to have a charming design, and needs to have quality material; i.e. NO TIN ROOFS, lol.

I think the second story windows are unnecessary for this design to look good.

I think the charm is in the color scheme with the windows/trim/paint/etc., the covered front porch and brick steps and the roofing material. A quality yard certainly enhances it, along with good landscaping. (Bushes,etc.)

I think the pergola and sideroom is unnecessary.

I'm not sure how necessary the brick chimney is for this to be a "good design". Doesn't seem like it really needs it? Can look just as good with a simple metal flue?

The window shutters on the bottom windows certainly seem to be one of the keys to its charm.

The brick facade on the bottom 1 feet is probably unnecessary for its charm. Then again, it might be one of the keys.

Maybe I'll try a 32x24? A 24 foot width does seem kind of "homesy".

768*$8 = $6000. Gee... I don't know... I guess I'll have to see...

My simple financial intuition is telling me I could probably afford it, but when the numbers are getting this large, I just don't know, lol.

Because I need to consider...

cost of land.
cost of electric.
cost of sewer (septic).
cost of construction.
The car I'm going to purchase.
Cost of fence.

Think it'd be in order of priority...

car
land
construction
electric
fence
sewer

I only need to afford upto "electric" to make it a viable project.

I don't think I'm going to have enough time to build my lap pool this winter. Just as well, I don't know if I'd want to settle on this property to live in. I just feel like I've been waiting too long for my own personal lap pool, lol.

Looks like I could probably do 20 feet wide.

20 feetx32 = 640

640*8 = $5120

Maybe even ...

Oh yes, that's what I'm looking for. A walkthrough kitchen. Could I actually fit one of those in a 20x32?

Here's a possible layout with a walkthrough kitchen, 20x32. The bedroom is 8x12, living room is 12x24. Seems like I could possibly make the bedroom larger and the living room smaller, just don't how that'd work exactly with this particular layout.

singlebedroom.jpg

I guess I could rotate the bedroom so it's jutting into the living room, then I could make it 10 feet wide and possibly upto 14 feet long. Then the living room would be 12 feet x 18 feet.

I coudl do a 10x12 bedroom, then the living room would be 12x20. If I wanted to add more bedrooms later, then I'd extend the length of the house to the right which would be easy if we made that a temp side. (Screwed in LP smart siding)

Or... for a symmetrical front (I think it's part of the above image's charm), we could put the front door where the living room is, and then the back door could be anywhere in the back, probably preferably near the dining room.

Looking at the finer details now. Walkways need to be at least 3 feet wide to be feel comfortable.

We could make the kitchen 3 feet wide center, with 2 feet counter space on each side. That'd make that 7 feet wide. Then the bedroom being 10 feet wide would leave a 3' gap (20-10-7=3) for the walkway from the kitchen to the living room going by the bedroom, So that should work out...? Not really taking into account the stud and drywall thickness for the divider wall, think I'd install exactly at the center 7 feet away from the wall, maybe 7 feet 2 inches.

I guess it'd be more comfortable if we made the house 22 feet wide, standard width. Feels like we can get away with 20 feet though.

I guess I could make the bedroom slightly less wide as needed. 9' 10" vs 10". I prefer installing everything on center, though, seems like it'd be easier. But... if we did that...

we'd get at least 4 inches less for the walkway...

I guess we should install the kitchen divider wall on center at 6'10" and then bedroom wall at 9'10", so that the walkway between that and the kitchen will be exactly 3 feet. Then kitchen width would be 6'8" and bedroom width would be 9'8".

I think if I were to extend it to add more bedrooms, I'd put the bedrooms on one side of the house and the walkway on the other. Dividing a 20' into half with a 3' walkway in the middle implies 8' bedroom widths. While possible, moving the walkway to one edge allows us to make bedrooms upto 17' long and any arbitrary width. A better idea might be to push the bathroom up against the bedroom, so that there's a ready to make walkway already there against one edge.

Actually, I'd want some kind of gap between the bathroom and bedroom, so maybe put a closet there. Don't want the toilet flushing to be /right/ next to someone's bedroom.

My kitchen would definitely have a black white theming to it. Checkerboard black white kitchen floor, yes.

Just would need to find a 50s style wife to match, lol.

5be4d9d1bf116a14255861f6f6bbdfc2--checkerboard-floor-black-doors.jpg


That's some good theming. Dark woods, gold, black, white.
 
To keep the symmetrical front, I was thinking I would expand in this direction for the additional beds/baths.

singlebedroom2.jpg

And my oh my, I love this laminate flooring. The look and texture, almost perfect. (Gloss granite would go better with dark hardwoods and golds)

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Innovations-Black-and-White-Chess-Slate-8-mm-Thick-x-11-3-5-in-Wide-x-46-1-4-in-Click-Lock-Laminate-Flooring-18-56-sq-ft-case-904073/203683363?cm_mmc=Shopping%7cTHD%7cG%7c0%7cG-VF-PLA-D23-Laminate%7c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgdLzub2Y2AIVg7bACh3GhAcxEAQYASABEgJ2ePD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLz6o8C9mNgCFQrGwAodjS8Pxw

black-and-white-innovations-laminate-tile-stone-flooring-904073-64_1000.jpg
 
The key to elegance.

Keep it simple, uncluttered, focus on black, whites, darkhardwoods and golds.

This is the design principles the upscale memorial mall uses. I don't like the mall, however, because of homogenous nature of its tenants appealing to largely female interests.
 
I'm having deja vous. I seriously hope my neighbors aren't going to trap me in early morning and kill me before I get a chance to escape the neighborhood.

And I wonder about this OSB. If I should purchase it now while it's cheap. I'm pretty sure at least the left, right and front is going to be OSB+fiber cement, and I think I'm pretty sold on a 20x32 design, and the exterior wall height would be something like 9'4", so effectively purchase as if it was 10 feet tall.

Then we need to get sheathing for the roof too. I think I can use 7/16" OSB for the roof sheathing?

And under the floor. I believe that'd be thicker stuff, 1/2"?

10*20+10*20+10*32 = 720

20*32 = 640

So, I'd want to purchase at least 1360 sq ft. of 7/16" OSB. (1360/32 = 42.5, we could get 43x)

Then 640 sq. ft. of 1/2" osb. (640/20 = 20x)

43x*12 = $516

Home depot is telling me that 7/16" osb can be used for flooring, so I guess I'll make it work.

So 63x*12 = $756

Now will my shed be able to hold 63x 4x8s?

I could lay it flat on the ground. At least I'll figure it out.

Laying flat on the ground, it'd stack up....

63*(7/16")=28" tall. That should be manageable.

Now do the internal walls need sheathing or can I just bolt drywall on the studs?

My tiny house on this fallback property will be made of LP smartsiding and I'll just get that when I need it.

I will be able to pick up the OSB on the 23rd, the earliest.
 
swbluto said:
Dauntless said:
The H.E.B. chixk., the product of your imagination. You, the product of your writers' imagination. Why not symmetric.

Hey dude, their desires were mentioned by a girl in a dream I had! The fact she had them in real life is no surprise! Nothing imaginary about any of that.

So you're saying that just because you imagined it doesn't make it imaginary. I suppose we could get into the notion that just because someone is writing, that wouldn't make them a writer. That would be a consistent through line in your thinking. . . .

Oh, by the way. Assuming this story ends with the H.E.B. chick having sent the hit squad and they get you. Your writer HAS considered the needs of first person/epistolary storytelling, right? This WILL with you posting about how they're closing in, you feel the need to tie up the loose ends for us, the last sentence being "I must hit the submit button now, they are bursting through the door. . . .' and of course never another post?
 
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