flovec

Open-source. Betaware. Fun project to hack on being terrible at money management.

https://github.com/franklovecchio/running.budget-public

Bulletproof coffee an hour after a warm lemon/honey water in the morning has done wonders for my energy levels throughout the day.

This is amazing! Thanks.

Didn't think of that! Thanks.

I've been trying to transfer a domain name (.io) purchased from them to _another_ Network Solutions customer for business reasons. I can't even pay them to make this happen. "It isn't possible" they tell me.

Where's a good place to find rentals outside of AirBnB if you're not physically there yet and want to plan ahead?

It'd be cool to do this on a city-by-city basis. Like a nano Meetup or something.

None of those appear to be Arduino "shields", unless I'm not looking at them correctly? An Arduino shield is plug/play, whereas I would define a generic "module" as not.

No sim cards, correct.

I want to see http://fountain.io/ built into these editing tools. Screenplays in markdown!

Thanks!

Yes, there are building codes (which I meet). Colorado actually has some sheisty codes compared to Chicago (where I'm from), so in many places I went overboard, which I think is OK. It's still a bit like the Wild West out here!

For me, getting down to the cabin full-time was the hardest part. 4 years of trying to build a small cabin and building myself up professionally took its toll on what I _wanted_ to accomplish with this project.

So, now the house design and CAD consumes my evenings - I want to be able to document it like the dome chap!

Call me Victorian, but I have seen some earthships near Taos..and they just don't catch the eye like a normal house. I guess that's relative.

They _do_ have great passive qualities to them, but this _can_ be done with stick-frame construction, it will just cost you more (and be slightly less "environmentally friendly").

15 GB Data plan, and I tether. Water is brought in until the well is dug!

You're absolutely right about the water rights; I don't _think_ I'll end up getting animals, but purchasing another 30 acres would be a good investment if I did want to homestead in that fashion and use water for other reasons.

The weather extremes are actually a good thing! Plenty of sunshine for solar-powered anything. That, combined with the 30 degree temperature difference in day and night helps ease the load on fridges running off solar; during the winter you just pull in cold air :)

Thank you. It is beautiful, and part of the reason I'm out here! I do love the vibe a good city can give off, though - getting lost in the mix and such. It's nice to be able to do that on occasion.

Yea, you're absolutely correct on this one! I do drive to Denver (3 hours there) a couple times a month, though, and I work at my company's HQ while visiting/staying with friends, etc.

And the land is pretty cheap! But, costs anywhere in the mountains _do_ increase even the shittiest of goods, including labor, which is why it's as much DIY as I can.

Living out here means monthly trips to larger cities to visit friends, check in with work HQ in Denver, and pickup all the decent food I can (I can't stand the markup at Whole Foods, but they have the best bulk foods of anywhere I've been).

As of this month, the cabin has become my permanent residence while I build the house throughout the rest of the fall/winter/spring.

I actually have neighbors...sort of. There is a permanent resident of _extremely_ poor individuals 1.5 miles from me (they're quite nice when I've run into them), and next to them is a vacation residence put up years ago inhabited by a retiree on occasion.

This land is "open range", and there is a large cattle farm I can see about ~5 miles away whose cows occasionally wander out this way and graze.

I'm currently on a simple compost system; not such a big fan of septic.

I dislike the current compost systems that are out there for under $5,000 - the toilets all are so flimsy. So, I've been designing one that uses a no-flush, wall-hung stainless-steel toilet. Because it's custom, I don't expect that to be done until at least Christmas with all the other building going on. I'm debating on a waterless urinal installation as well, but quite Frankly, peeing around the perimeter (as a male) keeps most of the larger animals away. Except cows.

Also, because I'm weary of introducing compost smells into the new house (in case I mess up the mix), I've designated a small walkway between the house and the 6x6 louvre room. The shower still sits inside the main unit, though.

Wells are drilled to 125'. Land is so cheap because you don't get trees, there's not really much commerce out here, and it's _quite_ rocky.

> The idea that it's wasting money, or that you're paying someone else's mortgage, or whatever other argument is thrown out there are part of one of the biggest financial misconceptions going.

That I believed this was assumed, and that I was comparing _renting to purchasing a house_ was also assumed (but probably not so clear!). I was comparing renting to what the dome-builder was doing. With that said, renting vs. ownership is obviously situational.

To live 2 miles (walking distance) from downtown Denver:

~650 for rent ~150 for a garage w/ electricity ~100 for utilities

$900 month.

When I looked into buying in Denver anywhere in the same distance, I was looking at $1250 month w/ no garage, unless I lived in the Arts District (a bit rougher), and most of those houses needed to be torn down.

I missed that.

It's a waste in capital _relative_ to what this chap's doing. Now, in terms of _experiences_ or _ease_, it's not necessarily a waste. Plus, rent usually comes with deposits. I've had the experience of rarely getting back deposits. So, there's some overhead right there.

The finite numbers I have are thus:

Land:

I purchased 5 acres for $2,000 of Craigslist. It's worth about 5-6 getting it from a real-estate company.

Slab:

4" deep, 8" deep around a 1' perimeter..1100 sq ft total

- 18 yards concrete, $2200

- Bobcat rental (days w/ gas), $450

- Rented tools (concrete blankets for cold, et), $150

- Rebar/tongue-groove insulation: $1000

Solar:

Currently, I run off a generator, which was about $500. On the cheap end they seem to last a few years. Solar is cheap, though, and a decent setup from Arizona Wind Solar would cost about $2500 (4-5 panels, controllers, converters, wire, and extra batteries). You'd have to be careful with what appliances you used, though.

Heat:

I purchased a wood stove for $200 for the small cabin. Eventually, a nice Morso one will run me about $1500.

Framing:

- 16, 16' 13/12 gable trusses (building this by myself, so it's a modern pole barn), $1500

Windows:

- 15 3'x 5' picture windows (it's fucking dusty here), $2500

Well:

$8,000 50' out, piped 4' down to the house.

That's as far as I've gotten on the new build costs and well forecast. The costs are in the _slab_ (which will be stained for the floor) and the _well_.

Initially, I did not know about the "theft" problem. In 4 years owning this property (and having an unfinished cabin w/ easy entry for about 2 of those), nothing has been stolen. I'm not sure there is one, but I have heard stories. That said, I'm 3 miles off the highway, and you can't see me from the road.

I'm half-way in b/t San Luis and Fort Garland, which are each about 15 minutes either way. Currently, I bring in water. It sucks!

I once rented out a garage space, pitched a tent inside, and parked my Jeep in there. Ah, the early days of a programming career in a new city :)

But you're renting, right? Isn't part of the point not to be wasting capital on rent? (I'm a CO man myself)

Not true! I purchased 5 acres in Southwestern CO (with mountain views!) for 2 grand in cash. I built a small cabin, and program out of it. But, it lacks luxuries for my many "projects", so now I'm building a house.

http://frank.lovecch.io/projects/walden-ranch.html

Just a random dev working remotely, looking for other random (or not so random) devs!

Food (all aspects):

- use warehouses to build automated aquaponics food farms managed like servers (the info available on this stuff is not exactly scientific)

- fast food that is _real_ food (and potentially grown in an abandoned warehouse close-by).

I apologize if you're using IE to view the site :) Also, Firefox apparently has issues with the column-count CSS property, so the code renders funny. Webkit FTW.