Rain and More Rain

It rained every day last week. It rained most days this week. The forecast says rain until next Tuesday. Nothing was accomplished on getting my dad's old truck running. I didn't get much done on the cabin either. I was able to scout trees for some lumber. It looks very good on that front. It looks less good on the financial front. I could get the foundation, walls and roof done, but with the hospital bills I'm still paying from January, I don't see how to do the extra things the county wants done. However, I still need to talk to them in person and see what the minimum requirements are. Maybe there's some wiggle room that would let me defer some things until later.

News was better on the French front. Divergente and The Hunger Games arrived this week. I ordered cheap, used paperback copies of them in April. I've seen Divergent on television but not the Hunger Games. I've started Divergente. So far it's following the movie fairly closely.

The other good news is that I had an idea for how to fix book 2 of the B'vellah War series. I also had an idea for the cover for AoE. I'm hoping the ideas work.

Have a great weekend.

Boss Week

In case anyone was wondering, Putin is still a boss. The link is a news article with video of him driving a big truck into conquered territory. That could be offensive to some. When it comes to Putin, I don't pass judgement on the morality of his actions. I just show him doing things like a boss.

Speaking of bosses, Trump moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Certain people didn't like that. U.S. presidents always promise to move the embassy in an attempt to gain votes, but only Trump actually kept his promise. Because he's a boss.

Ben Bender at ninety-three years old hit a hole-in-one at golf. Because that's what bosses do.

I was able to drop by the county planning office and pick up the paperwork for the cabin. The building permit is going to run from $90 to $280, depending on whether several inspections are included in the $90 fee or whether they're separate. There's no explanation of how it works. I'll have to ask them to clarify later. They gave me a folder of papers showing all kinds of things I need to do and the various rules. My general plan was to do the foundation, walls and roof then work on electrical, wiring, flooring and all those other things later as I was able to afford them. I figured it would take several years at least.

The building permit is for one year. If construction is not finished in that time, a one-year extension can be filed. That's all. The things they want done are too expensive to do in two years on top of the hospital bills I'm still paying off. Part of my plan was doing it without debt. I would have a place to live without having to pay rent, and it would be paid for. Now I'm wondering what to do.

Something I was going to do to save money was mill part of the lumber myself. There are four beams I could do. I was also going to do the siding. Something I wasn't a big fan of was making the flooring. I'd considered it, but it's time-consuming. It takes a long time to cut all that lumber, and for floors it would need to dry 45 to 60 days. I may have to do it anyway. To save time on building, I could do all that before filing the permit. I could also cut some joists for the substructure that goes between the foundation and the flooring. The same size joists go into the ceiling, too, to support the roof. With the disc problem in my back, I'm not sure how I would handle and move all those boards. A big part of the plan was using lifting tools in one location. The trees this stuff would be cut from would be scattered over a wide area.

Making all those things would save money, but it wouldn't be enough to pay for all the things the county wants, although I really need to find out what the absolute minimum is that they would let me do. There might be things I can get away with not doing.

I'm rethinking it a bit and trying to figure out whether it's something I can do while meeting government restrictions.

Have a great weekend.

Cabin 2

Last week I was talking about maybe building a little cabin. An important step for that done is getting my dad's old truck running. This is something I've been wanting to do anyway. With a new battery it cranks up but lacks the power to move. I've been ordering parts to do a tune up on it a little at a time. This week I changed the pcv valve and the spark plugs. It didn't fix it. The next step is changing the fuel filter, which is located underneath the truck and is designed to be changed while the truck is on a lift. Since I can't drive it to a garage, I'm not sure how I'm going to get it changed. I need to raise that side of the truck up, and I don't know if it has enough power to drive onto ramps.

I've been doing tons of research for the cabin. Financially, a pier and beam foundation makes the most sense. Nine to twelve piers at around $60 each would cost in the $600 to $700 range. That's 12" diameter piers on 2' by 2' foundations in three or four rows. Mathematically, nine should work, but I'm wondering about adding an extra row for greater stability.

Like I said last week, I have a disc problem in my back and would need a way to lift heavy things. I've found some tools. The big one is this 1-ton chain hoist. If I could rig up a cable or rope between two trees, it would lift anything I need including 20-foot beams. I'd never have to be trying to hold a long, heavy board while nailing or drilling. Another device is this material dolly for moving plywood and drywall panels. It holds up to 500 pounds. A companion device I might not need is a board lifter. Once the plywood or drywall panel was moved into place, a panel hoist would lift it up wherever I needed it, including up to the ceiling. I could make the ceilings and never have to lift anything except a drill. Same for the roof.

Something else I found was a miniature chainsaw mill. YouTube has videos showing how chainsaw mills work. What this mini device would let me do is make my own lumber. I don't want to make all of it, just certain parts like the beams. They would have to be 20 feet long. The only one I could find online was $97, and I need at least four of them. Too expensive. The mini mill is $25, and I already have a lightweight, electric chainsaw. The mini mill also solves another problem. With the doctor bills from January, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to afford to build even a bare bones structure. It finally occurred to me that I could use the mini mill to make boards like this for the siding. I was going to use cheap, vinyl siding that would cost somewhere around the $650 range, depending on the cabin's size. Making the siding would save enough to be able to buy these tools.

I still don't have it all figured out, but I'm getting closer.

Have a great weekend.

Cabin?

Not far back I mentioned transcription as being a possible side gig I was looking into. There turned out to be a catch. The hourly rates are based on how long the audio files are, not how long it would take to transcribe them. It could end up paying something like five dollars an hour, depending on the job. It could be higher or lower than that. I'm keeping it in mind, but it's on the back burner.

 

I've been needing to move for a long time. My ideal house would be some kind of Victorian with awesome finishes. Not being rich, I've been looking into another possibility. What if I could build something like a cabin? I call it a cabin. It would be a small house kind of like a tiny house but bigger. I decided to see how much it would cost for the bare minimum.

This week I created a spreadsheet and started putting materials costs into it. I can type in the dimensions of the cabin, and it calculates the cost of the roof, foundation, walls, etc., and adds them up. Some of it is surprisingly cheap. I have two columns. One calculates for a one-story and the other for two. It's looking like I can build something in the 500 square foot(46.45sq m) range for somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500. The spreadsheet is only an estimate and still needs tweaking.

Keep in mind that's a bare minimum cost for something the size of a small apartment. That's for a foundation, sub flooring, exterior walls and a roof. It wouldn't include water, electricity, insulation, drywall, plumbing, wiring and all the things like lights, light switches, flooring, sinks, appliances, etc. It also wouldn't include the cost of a building permit. I need to visit the office in my county that processes those and see how much it would cost to get one. The internet tells me it's between $100 and $1,500 and is usually based on the cost of the project. I'm pretty sure I'm at the bottom end of the spectrum. :)

I'd mostly be working on it myself in the evening. There's a problem. I have disc problem in my back. I can't be lifting heavy things like boards and beams. I would have to rig up a system of ropes and pulleys and a counterweight to lift things for me. The build sites I have available have trees, so that shouldn't be too hard.

If this gets past the planning stage, I'd put it on YouTube. It would start within the next few weeks. The plan would be to build the minimum and add the finishes over time. Where I live, if you generate your own electricity, the electric company has to pay your for the extra. A solar farm is a must. No electric bill, plus they'd be paying me to finish the cabin.

Have a great weekend.