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Let me get this straight. You are unemployed, living off credit cards, uninformed by any sort of news input, your an "artist" that somehow thinks you can do every professionals job that is involved with building a house. You have never actually built one but you seem to know how to do it cheaper than anyone else. You are pestering realtors and builder in an area you have never been to. What could possibly go wrong?
I do so tire of your incessant posturing and condescending commentary. There are so many other ways that you could illustrate your point without being so snide. It's not clever, just childish.
To the OP, it should be obvious at this point that an extended visit to ANY place where you intend to live is a prudent idea, assuming you have the means. If not, you will need to perform exhaustive research outside of visiting forums like this, where the online population is very small, marginally jaded, and clearly opinionated.
Moderator cut: .
Well, that hasn't been very much information for you to make such sweeping judgements on someone you know almost nothing about.
For all you know, the OP could be very talented, proficient, and efficient, and only recently realized where his real abilities and interest lies.
Really a lot of people are like that, especially in mid life. 50, in particular, is the age that lots of very successful people become entrepreneurs for the first time and go on to do far better than they ever did in their earlier careers. I know a half dozen guys who did just that that came to mind immediately. Some were doing well in their former professions, but felt unfulfilled in their work, while others were unhappy in their old jobs and followed their hearts.
For a fact, we are entering a new age of hand crafting. The Gen X and Millennials in particular seek out well made hand-crafted goods and choose them, even though they cost more. Custom millwork seems to be one that's hot right now, as the younger generations don't want large homes. They want smaller but more distinctively unique homes, and millwork, especially gingerbread is something they find desirable. So I don't see where where his plans are beyond realization at all. Despite your claim, you are judging him. Quit it.
One thing about life in Idaho is when a person can't find a job working for another, as often as not, he will create one for himself. I did just that myself 3 times, and know many others who did the same.
Another thing about life is happiness doesn't always center around possessing a lot of money. 'Enough money' really depends on many factors, but the old saying that money does not buy happiness is still very true.
I know a former lawyer who was extremely wealthy, and one day put it all into a trust fund for his children that he couldn't touch, quit his law office and became a professional horse shoer. His present income is less than a third of what he once earned, but he and his wife are content owning less of everything, and he's very good at his new profession, so he's very busy, and gets to travel all over the west getting paid for what he does well.
His specialty is corrective horseshoeing; he can correct a horse's gait, and his shoes can heal a valuable horse after a foot or leg injury. Once in a while, he offers clinics on this, and charges a lot to the veterinarians who attend. He's famous for some of his radical corrective horseshoes.
For him, the best thing of all is his opportunity to go riding in places he and his wife have never been before, and making the horses and their owners happy.
An old friend of mine is another; he was a dentist, and at age 41, quit it after a divorce, sold his home and everything in it, bought a small motor home and has spent the past 30 years traveling from one bluegrass festival to another, all over the country 3 seasons of the year, living on next to nothing from a small account he created when he quit.
During the winters, he lives in a tiny former bunkhouse on a buddy's property in N. Arizona that has an awesome vista in every direction. The bunkhouse is his. He built a storage shed in a swap for it.
His little savings account accrues enough interest that he's able to buy a newer used RV every 15 years or so, and the only things of value he owns are a couple of very good musical instruments that are very well played.
He's had an equally independent girlfriend forever who sometimes hits the road with him, sometimes not. And I don't know a happier person. Or one who has so many friends. He has close friends all over the nation, from north to south and east to west. Hundreds of them. Those who don't know him call him a dropout, but I don't know a more fully engaged person.
For both, a life well lived is much better than a wealthy life. Ain't nothing I can see wrong with that.
Last edited by yellowbelle; 04-19-2016 at 06:53 PM..
Reason: quoted post deleted
1) Please, let's stay on topic. I don't want this to turn into 500 pages of side-topic posts with my information buried and hard to find. I hope there are others who may find my journey, and results, interesting and useful.
2) 3 More reasons for moving to N. Idaho: 1) Much lower pollution, 2) Low crime rate (just stay away from the Spokane area - I wish I could help the people there). 3) Hopefully there is still Mountain Etiquette when driving. Going skiing the other day, the road was empty, really empty. I watched two cars about 1/4 mile in front of me through the whole 18 miles of Berthoud Pass. The second car tailgated the first for the entire trip. I had someone come up super fast, (probably had to slam on the brakes) behind me in Berthoud Falls (start of the pass). Tailgated me in a 35 mph zone (no other cars in sight). I went around the first hairpin as normal, they fell back 1/10 mile. Caught up to me by the next turn, fell back again. Each time he caught up, since there were no other cars nearby, he had to tailgate until he fell behind on the next curve. At the 1st Creek hairpin, I accelerated and left him in the dust. I was going 10 - 20 mph over the posted speed limit most of the time, but he still caught up by the next hairpin. Repeat 3 more times till the bottom of the pass. Last hairpin, totally blew him away and he was 1/4 mile behind after the turn. Caught up to me at the Mary Jane turnoff, and tailgated me to the parking lot. It was 8:15 AM. Once in the parking lot, he floored it to get to one of the, IMO, least desirable parking spots. There were 4 other cars in the lot at the time (holds at least 300). Neat people. I can't wait to get out of here.
T. Tim: OK. I hope you are serious. I owe you at least one beer, probably a few more by the time this thread is done. Mick Duff's it is. Thank you for your good wishes. I like your provoking posts - some responses, though, could use a bit more maturity.
javatom: Just about everything could go wrong. Just like my entire life. I'm used to it. I sincerely appreciate your realistic view. I'm probably insane. Oh, by the way, can you make a rocking chair like mine, just using photos for plans?
T. Tim: banjomike said "sweeping judgements". No, not really. I agree with you Tim. You came across nicely, not like javatom's reply (IMO).
banjomike: thank you for your open-minded, mature replies. I think you are cool. Care to join me and Tim for that beer? As for lawyers, I met one on the chairlift a few years back. From Chicago. Had to charter a plane for him and his wife for $55,000 since the wife's dog couldn't be cooped up in a kennel for the trip. He didn't seem particularly relaxed about it, though he could afford it. If I had the $55K, I could live in my home for 4 more years. Costs me less than $1000 a month for EVERYthing.
Tim, you hit the nail right on the head. "I don't understand why anyone would get bent out of shape by my comments". Really? I understand. Consider this: they are not grown up enough to take it.
OK, enough of this post. You wanted to know. My next reply should explain a bit more about me.
Judge all you want.
That is what most people seem to do best. They can't fix their own lives - they don't seeing themselves for what they are (yeah, pull those blinders down!, who cares about self-awareness). They insist on telling others how to live their lives. Is this a more "spirited" response like T. Tim likes? I wonder how many "mature" responses this is going to generate?
So, even though my next reply is not going to be "on topic", it seems the best place for me to post "my story."
Sure, Raven I'll join you & Tim any old time! At my age a guy always needs all the new friends he can get. My old friends are tipping over and going horizontal more and more these days.
Once upon a time there was a smart kid. Got straight A's without ever taking notes or studying for exams. He had no brothers or sisters and his parents cared for him deeply. They did everything they could for him, and all he wanted to do was to please them and make them proud.
Went far away for college. Boston was much different than Denver. Was once asked "what's Colorado" by someone on the street. Accredited Engineering School was tough, mostly due to politics. If you weren't female, attractive, and forthcoming, you had to struggle. Graduating class was only 205 out of the initial 497 Freshmen. I earned a 2.54 average; degree in Computer Engineering, one of ONLY FOUR available throughout ALL schools in the country at the time. Took several graduate level courses (700-800 level) as electives, though adviser said would be too hard and too much work. Did best in those. VLSI Design's grade was 85% final project - design a minicomputer. Mine had over 16,000 transistors, each one requiring a 2nd degree differential equation (advanced calculus) to model its responses. I earned a B+ for my 185 page paper.
I fell in love with Computer Graphics in school. Was way ahead for my time, doing 3D shaded renderings with specular highlights, shadows, textures, etc. It was 1984. Never received adequate mentoring in school - never realized that my software Senior Project, a 3D "realistic" rendering system, was on par with early 1990's Pixar and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory modeling. I wanted to do my own work, but could not afford a $100,000 computer at the time. Today's equivalent doesn't exist, since they were so "primitive" back then. My $75 tablet is 1000 times more powerful than that old computer.
Could had made a fortune "doing what I loved to do", but wound up working for companies who basically used me as a scapegoat. First job hired immediately, first interview, no other companies. 3D Graphics, my favorite. Political mess. 2 years and projects going well, then reassign to different manager who didn't understand what I was doing and how much it was helping the company. Got an ulcer at age 23. Lose job through no fault of my own, struggle to find work since an unemployed professional is an oddity and rarity (most see the warning signs and change jobs first). Repeat at least 10 times in 20 years. Spent 1/2 the time unemployed, looking for work with only the want ads in the newspapers and phone books for leads. Not like it is today with the Internet. No one to network with back then, didn't know that was how to stay employed. No one told me.
Got very depressed due to my situation. Some would call diagnose it as manic depression, but I disagree. Tried to find a solution to my problems.
One company I worked for had severe internal political/relationship problems. The owner bought everyone a book, "How to love your life, in spite of yourself" or something like that, by Ken Kesey. It didn't help. Them (a company of 8 people!) or me. I can't live with the "happy moron" approach to life. Ken described it as basically: a bus runs over your foot but you react with happiness and joy since "it will get better". I'd rather take LSD. Thanks, Ken.
How would you feel if a bus ran over your foot? Or life?
Well, it never seemed to get better.
My last job was the best one I ever had. Lasted 18 months. Was repeatedly told that when done with phase 1 (3D CAD Fire Sprinkler design including complex hydraulic design), I could work on anything I wanted to. Constantly praised for my work. So, my next assigned project was to port the system (stand alone Windows-based) into AutoCAD. I had no choice, though I PLEADED to be allowed to work on ANYTHING ELSE. AutoCAD, back then, probably still now, is the biggest PITA to program for 3rd party developers. It just doesn't work the way they say it does. However, I came up with an idea to "slice" the existing system "off" at the device level (MS Windows MFC and SDK), rewrite the code to be device-independent, so it could be ported to UNIX, or any other system in the future, and add a device dependent AutoCAD layer. This system was over 1,000,000 lines of C++ code, with little or no comments. Imagine trying to remember what page that neat poem was on, in a 16,000 page book, and you can begin to guess the complexity. Since it was my idea, Joel was put in charge of the project. During the 5 months we worked on it, I came very close to succeeding, but couldn't get AutoCAD to work the same way twice, in a lot of situations. Did build enough foundation to get the simplest automated procedures to work, though. I concentrated on making the system stable and reliable, while Joel bought a minivan. Joel used my foundation work to re-implement a simple procedure (probably 2 hours work) that impressed the customer, more so than my past 5 month's work building the foundation, that allowed Joel to "shine". I wound up on the customer's Moderator cut: . list, since he "couldn't see any results" from all the work I accomplished. The customer got tired of paying for this development, so he cancelled it. I estimate another two months, and I, and I alone, would have had the entire 1,000,000 line system working. I just needed more time. Since a trade show was coming up in 3 weeks, we had to "bust our butts" to get stuff done for it. Joel was assigned a minor task that took him 3 days. I was given a task that had sat on the boss's desk for over a month, who said when showing me it, "let's see if we can decipher this." I had to contact the customer repeatedly to determine what he wanted, which kept on changing. He did know he wanted the new feature for the trade show, though. I became stressed and seriously ill, and was fired for not completing the work on time. A friend in the company told me, 6 months later, that they were still working on "getting it right". And I was given 3 weeks and blamed for their mistakes.
I NEVER WANT TO WORK FOR ANOTHER COMPANY FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE. IF THERE IS NO WAY FOR ME TO SURVIVE, I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO KILL MYSELF. BUT I LOVE LIFE AND LIVING, AND WANT A CHANCE TO BE HAPPY, PEACEFUL, AND CONTENT. THAT WON'T HAPPEN IF I'M DEAD.
So, I have tried many ways to re-invent myself to make a living. Real estate investing (let's take advantage of everyone, right?), remodeling, warehouse work, woodworking, tile work, USPS, UPS, Home Depot, 100+ more lousy ideas. I even re-financed my home, took $40,000 of the profit to live off of and purchased over $10,000 worth of woodworking equipment to start a stairway parts company. Had enough time to make parts, or market the business, not both. Long before Internet marketing was feasible and profitable. No problem making the parts, but had no time for marketing. I failed. Could have earned $10,000 per stairway, easy.
Time passed. Mom and Dad helped out with money. More time passed. I went skiing a lot, and didn't really enjoy it. I wasn't there. Down and depressed all the time. Still managed to take what little money I had to fix up the house. It looks nice, I think. Everyone told me I couldn't do it. I did it. Uh huh. My psychologist neighbor tells me he wouldn't want to do electrical work since he can't understand it - it's too complex for him. Gee, once you eliminate the ground and neutral wires in your thinking, there is only 1 hot wire to deal with. Seems pretty simple to me. Plug a 20 amp motor into a 15 amp circuit, what happens? Seems pretty simple to me.
Mom passed away. Due to my depression, I never found a girlfriend I wanted to "take home." Mom never had the chance to even make a dinner for me and a girlfriend. No grandkids. Only a son who probably dragged her down. She died basically due to stress.
I have given up on finding a woman who is my "soul mate." I'd rather be alone than go through what I experienced in the past just to have a girlfriend. Regular friends would be nice, though.
Dad had macular degeneration, diabetes, and early signs of dementia when I was forced to sell their house. 3 years earlier, and I could have netted $100,000 more. At least it was enough to pay off my house. Dad came to live with me, and we lived off his Social Security while I took care of him. He started falling a lot, getting hurt, and I started to call the emergency room people by first name. Got a walker and modified the house to make everything safe for him. Was reported to the county by a social worker for my efforts. His dementia quickly got to the point where I had to constantly supervise him or else risk the consequences. It was a violent and angry time for him, and took everything out of me. I didn't know what to do. Kaiser advised taking him to Emergency if there was a problem. Now, they have a WHOLE WING in the new hospital for cases like his. Not then. So, Dad went to Emergency. He spent 4 days there, folding towels. I found a nice, secure, assisted living room for him ($4000 a month). They transferred him from Emergency to a temporary home for 2 days, before the new place was ready for him. He fell the first night, broke his left hip, and a new nightmare began.
Oh, yes, I learned at an early age to take everything personally, and it effected me greatly. Always reacted to what happened. Remember Ken and his LSD - loose a job, someone dies, tragic catastrophe, no matter what: "Gee, I'm a happy moron - it's going to get better." Yeah, right. Win the lotto? That might help make me feel better, but it won't make me happy.
Fight to get the deposit on the new place back (over $8000). Spend $20,000 on rehabilitation since the Kaiser Doctor is an ass. Fight to get that back. Meanwhile, Dad is no longer Dad. His mind is mostly gone, though he does remember stuff before I was born. I think he sort of knew who I was.
Finally got Dad into one home. Didn't work out and they, yes, they blamed ME. Gee, what's new. Go ahead, I'm used to being a scapegoat. Fight to get Dad out (if they didn't want him, why didn't they let him go?) and get money back, yet again.
Meanwhile, there is not much left of this Raven. A few loose feathers, but mostly plucked and hung up to dry. How do you keep going?
Got Dad into a better place. Dad got lots more medication, turned him into a nothing. Still many emergency room visits. 2 Years go by. Drained every penny he saved for retirement and, heaven forbid I say it, my inheritance. HE AND MOM WANTED ME TO HAVE THE MONEY. Started looking for ways to sell my home to an investor, then re-purchase it so I could still live in it and finish the remodeling (basement still to do). Wow, talk about ripping people off. Glad I never pursued real estate investing. Sure, you can make a lot of money, and Moderator cut: . over lots of people in the process. Anyone hear of the Golden Rule? And, not the one my beloved neighbor, Milton, quoted: "those that have the gold make the rules."
Sure seems that way, though.
I pleaded to God to take Dad. He was deteriorating and it was a nightmare. Plus, I pleaded for God to take Dad before the money ran out. The month before I had to sell, Dad died. On the 2nd. Have to fight in court for the last month's rent ($3500). Moderator cut: . . I don't care any more. Let them keep it. Gee, why don't you take every last penny I have?
For two years, I visited him every other day for a few hours, and told him I love him a lot.
Dad's brother came for the funeral. Otherwise, I would have been the only one there.
Got some insurance money and managed to live for a few years. Stayed in a dark cloud all the time. Everything effected me too much. I did my best, yet it wasn't, and never seems to be enough.
Why am I not good enough for you, God?
Why does it feel like you are laughing at me, God?
When is it going to get better? Or is it going to be like some of my relatives, dying with mental illness because they simply wanted their life to include some happiness they saw others experiencing?
So, I ask for help. But it doesn't do any good. No matter where I turn.
And, now the money has run out. But, of course, I'm finally "coming back to life" and want to make a go of something. For me. Maybe when I'm all better, I can find a way to help others, too. No one should have to go through what I did.
White Ravens stand out like sore thumbs. They are shunned by "normal" ravens. They become loners through no fault of their own.
They do their best to stay sane, no matter what others say, think or do.
And they try their best to find a way for their life to work. Something that brings them joy and purpose. A way to find peace, happiness, and contentment.
One option, since it costs about $1000 a month for me to live, is to get several part time jobs to pay the bills. Commute in rush hour, wrong, rush DAY, traffic, and stand in line to ski 4 runs a day, where the powder gets packed after your first run. Learn to feel good about this existence. WalMart will hire me. They'll hire anyone. But, I don't want to work with retarded people, no matter how much WM is doing "good" for them.
So, I can buy a house I love in a place I hate with the money from my house. Ha ha. I can even become a "rich" person in those towns. Not for me. I don't care what you think - Northern Idaho is my best choice to live on a planet I don't want to live on any more. I can afford it, there are mountains, skiing, and less people. I'm ready to move today. Forget visiting. I'll take my chances. Sorry if you don't like my reasoning. Remember, I'm insane.
I looked at new homes over the weekend. For $750,000 you can get a nice ranch with 10' ceilings, poor hardwood floor installation, and cut-yourself-to-shreds-sharp tile corners in the bathrooms. Plus, your master bathtub window is 15' away from the next house. Neat, your neighbors get to watch you from their dining room. The area, Leyden, CO, is against the foothills. Neat views of the mountains and Denver. Pity you have to climb up onto your roof to see them. What do you get for $750,000 in Idaho? Yup. I can see why a lot advise to stay away.
I can do better myself. Whatever I have done myself, no matter if I have experience or not, I have done better than paying someone 3x to do it for me.
Can you make a rocking chair like the one I made? Sam Maloof was charging $26,000 EACH. Now he's dead. What do you think they are worth NOW? Search auction houses for "Maloof Rocker" and see.
It's no different with this house idea. I can do much better than the professional builders. They are in it to make money, just like engineers who design bridges so they barely stand (did you know this? costs too much to over-engineer). I have all the time in the world, or at least the next few years, to do it right. Even if I have to tear out my first try and do it again, I will still save money and wind up with a much better result. I just don't want to build the entire house from scratch. Can you blame me? I'm lazy. Just want to do the "pretty work."
But I've grown weary of trying to fight everyone who doesn't want to work for me simply because they can't be bothered.
That's where doing it myself comes in. I can't get what I want, or I'd buy a new home.
And, my ever changing ideas are finding a solution. I hope.
The modular home builder said it would cost $150 - $160 a square foot to build a "luxury" home like I want. I was then quoted $150 a sq. ft. for the same house, without interior finishes or fixtures. Yeah, right. By bye.
Realtor who apologized to me? Silence. By bye.
2nd Builder? Out of more than 35 initial contacts so far? "Sorry, too busy to even look at your plans (one JPG image)." Glad he's doing well. By bye.
DIY Frame kit supplier? Check Google maps. They have a "factory" on an empty lot. By bye.
BUT,
There are a lot of new homes in new communities for sale. Not what I want, not enough land, but a simpler option.
The $750K home rep. said a lot of people are buying homes with the least expensive finishes, then tearing it out and putting in what they want. Obviously, not in a $750K home, though. Though the installations had a lot to be desired, they did use premium materials.
I first though this an insane idea. Throw away how much in finishes? Thinking about it, it's probably less than $10,000 worth of materials, and a bunch of possibly inferior labor. Read on.
So far, I have found 5 different new home builders, for around $200K, I can get a 2-story, open floor plan, vinyl floor crappy kitchen cheap carpet unfinished basement house. Tear out all the crap, put it in the basement or sell it on craigslist. Maybe get a couple of $1000 back. Get rid of the vaulted ceilings to save heat and put up a couple of walls so I can make built-ins, pocket doors and curved casings. Yeah, so I get cheap vinyl windows that will have to be replaced in 10 years, and have to tear everything down to the subfloors. I'm still getting a new home. Probably will void the warranty. I don't care. I can fix everything myself. Even a cheap furnace and water heater will last 10 years. Structural issues and I get an attorney and wind up with a new home for free. See: Colorado Expansive Soils Lawsuits. Still will have enough money left to make what I want, plus live for at least 5 years without an income, though that is not the plan. 5 years will give me enough time to figure something out if my current ideas bust. Still like the stairway parts business, and once set up, the Internet will do my marketing for me. Now, it's realistic for a one person business. Mike (working 14 hours a day, 9 days a week) grossed over $250,000 a year, in 2006, but had his wife to manage the business. I only need a few customers to make a decent living. Plus, I'll have all the rejects from my design ideas I have made for my home to use as "samples."
Some of the $200K homes even look nice from the outside. Can put up extra porch posts, corbels, swags and fishscale molding since these cheap neighborhoods don't prohibit that sort of thing. Paint it right, and everyone will envy it, not hate it. Sure, it will be worth double per square foot than any other home in the neighborhood. I don't care. Someone will want to buy it when I eventually sell it. Can also sell it when I'm done, and will make a nice profit for two years labor and a bunch of skiing in between. I won't have a turret, or octagonal rooms. Or a 3rd floor attic room. Oh well. Though I'm sick of it, life is about compromises. At least I'll have a NEW BUILT HOME, and LOTS of money left over (I guess at least $80,000) to TAKE MY TIME and decide what I what to be when I grow up.
This is the best plan I have had for my life. I'm sorry if it doesn't quite live up to someone else's standards, but again, I'm insane.
So, when I get my new home, everyone (I'm tired of being a loner) is welcome for that beer. Heck, I'll even make a prime rib dinner for everyone. I'll be able to afford it.
Besides, you can tell that I like to write. Sorry about the fragments, just short on time. Document my house journey: another book that might sell. I thinks I have a powerful need to use goodly Englishes in my bookses, bain't?
And, maybe, the builder I started with ($85 a sq. foot. seems like a bargain, now), might work out, though I doubt it.
About that depression? Did you ever go to the grocery store wanting to buy something you used to be able to afford, but couldn't? How did that make you feel. How would it feel if you could not only afford to get what you want, but something better? I think a lot of these psychologists are full of something.
So, this has been an interesting journey, so far. For some reason, I'm still positive I'm going to wind up with some sort of "Victorian" house; I will continue to post my progress here. Hopefully this thread will close with photos of my new home.
Thank you for reading all this. Writing it has been a kind of therapy for me.
Have a good everything, everyone!
A White Raven
Last edited by yellowbelle; 04-24-2016 at 01:23 PM..
Reason: inappropriate language
The neighbor's home has a "Sale Pending" sign on it. Why get a realtor, when a MLS listing service will do? There is one here, if still in business, that charges only $2500.
Won't see the sale price until after closing, whenever that is. Asking $298,000 for a 1100 sq. ft. 1955 ranch with full basement. Four people drove by yesterday in 2 hours. Oak flooring with rust stains (wet carpet soaked nails, telegraphed through wood, floor ruined forever in living and dining room. bedrooms OK since no carpet was there), mismatched kitchen cabinets (solid hickory below and unknown 1970's plastic veneer on particleboard on top), vinyl kitchen floor, newer stove and dishwasher, 1970's dated bathrooms, 1/2 finished basement. Fancy new bay window in living room. 20+ year old solar hot water system. Nice neighbor - I miss him already. 92 years young, still mowing lawns and super smart.
This one took a long time to sell. 14 days on market. I was wrong, thought it would take longer. Just amazed.
Porcelain tile and solid maple cabinets? Nicer looking oak floors than I saw in the $500K homes I looked at over the weekend? Full finished basement with nice looking but cheap 3/4 bath. I should ask $350K for mine.
I'm thinking about making a few "quickie" floor medallions with my scrap wood. Parquet patterns. Maybe even use the router to run a stringer in contrasting wood (jatoba or mahogany) along the border of the living and dining room. Rout out the rectangles for the medallions. Epoxy the medallions, sand lightly and finish. Easy work. Easy $5000+ more when I sell my home. Estimate 7 full, long days to complete. Good idea for a business, as long as you don't screw up someone else's floor. Not for me. I have extra oak I can use to make planking in case I blow it.
Of course, if prices keep going like this, I'm a fool to sell. WalMart, traffic jams, and a ruined lifestyle. Trade offs. Argh!
"Just-Released Stats Show Colorado's Roads Are Getting More Dangerous"
Westword
In 2014, there were:
• 451 fatal crashes; 20 crashes higher than occurred in 2013.
• 488 persons were fatally injured; a 1.5 percent increase from 2013.
• 168 speeding-related fatalities; comprising 34 percent of all fatalities.
The counties with the highest number of traffic fatalities were: Weld (54), El Paso (53), Jefferson (44), Denver (42) and Adams (33).
I live in Jefferson and drive to Denver regularly. Or used to.
Not much to report this week. Fixing up stuff in the house, and spinning more wheels.
I talked with another Realtor - I think she will help. Still trying to find options for builders. Oh well, more repairs tomorrow.
Best wishes to everyone,
A White Raven
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