Yea a guy has to have a garage if for nothing else to have a out of house work area to use.

Two summers ago I got a old ~1940's era 14' x 20' granary (built like a wood fortress out of oak, redwood and cedar!) for cheap and started remaking it into a nice year round workshed.

The first summer I had it I poured a concrete slab setup for floor heat then gutted the whole thing. After that it got remade with a nice upper level storage area plus redone to be well insulated and even air conditioned with a old 12K BTU window AC unit I got at an auction for $2 I remade into a wall mount unit!

Last summer I got the interior paneled and painted plus I built a mini oil burning boiler for it that heats it and the old house too so it's now comfortably year round usable.

It still needs the floor epoxy sealed and the workbenches plus storage cabinets built but at least it's a place I can work on small outdoor stuff in year round since my big shop isn't heated.

I can either gut some of my shed to make room for the bike or build a decent garage. Currently my truck and my wife's truck occupy the driveway and my bike is in winter storage. This sucks as this past weekend was beautiful and suitable for getting out on the bike. Paying bike storage in the winters is stupid. I see a heated garage in the future as we have natural gas.

Just railroaded my own thread off topic.

Ron

 

Just railroaded my own thread off topic.

Seems pretty on topic to be being avoided cost by DIY is very much a part of what a person values their time at.

Back when I was married my Ex and I started the new house project. Her view was that I (not her) should get a huge loan, $150 - $200K, to pay for the project (< $50K in materials) being done by contractors and then I should go back to work for the next 20 years to pay the loan off ($250 - $350K repayment value).

Kinda explains why now that we are divorced she makes $50+K a year yet lives paycheck to paycheck with little to show for it (has even had to borrow money several times, from me 'the unemployed bum', so far) and I don't really work at all yet am still making gains in life.

I'm not sure what most people think but to not have to waste $200 - $300K and be stuck for the 20 years of your life, in a job you may hate and have no way out of in order to pay for it, living in a old semi fixed up trailer and working on your own for a few years shouldn't be too hard to justify. It wasn't for me. Especially so being I have the skills and resources to do such a project on my own even it take several years to do.

A 500% - 700% interest rate on work time done by you to pay for work being done for you seems like a pretty high price to pay in my book.

 

Kinda explains why now that we are divorced she makes $50+K a year yet lives paycheck to paycheck with little to show for it (has even had to borrow money several times, from me 'the unemployed bum', so far) and I don't really work at all yet am still making gains in life.

Opens another interesting can of worms. I know personally no shortage of people making a decent wage, for example 60 - 75K. Not really bad but they carry 40K in debt like credit card debt and literally live paycheck to paycheck. My own brother is one such example. Champagne taste with a beer pocketbook I call it. They lose a job and within a week they are in trouble. That brings us back to what time is worth and when unemployed I guess it matters not what you figure your time is worth.

 

literally live paycheck to paycheck

There's a three step solution to avoid that pitfall:

1. save
2. save
3. save

 

There's a three step solution to avoid that pitfall:

1. save
2. save
3. save

That covers that well enough. When I knew my wife and I had retirement coming up the number one priority was to be debt free. While we have a nice income in retirement it is nowhere close to what we were bringing home working. I did not want to work till age 66 1/2 but wanted to retire at 63 leaving me with out of pocket medical to pay till 65 and Medicare kicked in. Anyway, the biggest thing making retirement possible was being totally debt free.

Ron

 

My career consisted of projects with long lead times to completion so progress, success and accomplishment was not an every day thing. Hobbies and doing my own repairs were a way of fulfilling the sense of accomplishment that I was not getting on a daily basis on my job. My job paid very well but I really enjoyed looking at the lawn I mowed each week.

 

There's a three step solution to avoid that pitfall:

1. save
2. save
3. save

To a lot of people 'thems four letter fighting words right there'.

To be honest the only reason my new house, and finish work on the old house too, are about two years behind schedule is because my ex insisted that 'I get a real job' figuring that if I made more money she would have more to spend.
Sort of didn't work that way.

House projects went to a near dead stand still while I worked fueling trains for a while then eventually ended in the oil field making crazy pay. Her spending money however didn't really change much. Mine however did!

 

Mine however did!

Really? What sort of stuff did you spoil yourself with?

 

Really? What sort of stuff did you spoil yourself with?

Much of the updates and improvements to the old house were paid with it. Same with all the major new house construction work. Paid off credit cards plus bought land from my dad.

Flew the wife and daughter to Turkey for 3 weeks without me. Paid for her dad flying home before that too.

I made two attempts at paying off her credit card debts only to have her turn around and spend more than I put in for my actions.

Bought 5 - 6 million shares of penny stocks.

Added a bunch of tools and equipments to my collection.

Put a pile of cash in savings.

Basically invested heavily in myself and my future and treated my family well but did not give the ex much of any extra spending money from start to finish.

 

Sounds like you're livin' the life, @tcmtech. You should pass your 'deets' to Robin Leach.

 

This is a question which always fascinated me. Just as a channel check and point of reference I am a retired electrical engineering type. While electronics put beanies and weenies on the table for my entire career it was also a hobby. My other hobbies are a love of the shooting sports and motorcycle riding. Oh great, an engineering type with a fetish for Harley Davidson motorcycles and guns.

Many of those who take the shooting sports seriously hand load their own ammunition. This may be for a number of reasons ranging from making the most accurate ammunition for a specific rifle to saving on the cost of ammunition. When figuring cost of hand loading ammunition we can figure the cost of brass, smokeless powder, the primer and the bullet. Essentially all of the components involved in making ammunition. There are people who actually try to make an argument for figuring in their time.

Now I retired during 2013 at age 63. While I was working my company billed out our engineering hours at about $200/hr. Sure wish I was paid that much. The point being that was a billing rate for engineering hours. That was all it was. I leave work and come home. I mow the lawn for two hours. Should I bill myself and if so how much? After mowing the lawn I visit my gun forums, electrical forums or even motorcycle forums, now what is my time worth? How about if I am sleeping? What is my time worth?

I just do not quite get or understand people trying to place a monetary value on their idle time. Leisure time is just that, leisure time. There is no way to place a value on time spent enjoying a hobby. It would be like adding a monetary value beyond component cost to a few hours of hand loading ammunition. I helped my neighbor upgrade to 200 Amp service. Never calculated my time or what my electrical skills were worth. My neighbor does snow removal, salting and plowing. I never have snow in my driveway. Life is good.

Ron

I spend a lot of "surplus" time on ham radio....but I also earn a lot of money writing about my "surplus time" activity. So I don't know.

 

Sounds like you're livin' the life, @tcmtech. You should pass your 'deets' to Robin Leach.

AHH Champagne wishes and Caviar dreams!!
Max.

 

I spend a lot of "surplus" time on ham radio....but I also earn a lot of money writing about my "surplus time" activity. So I don't know.

A Hobby which turns a profit. I enjoyed ham radio for several years having gotten my novice ticket in 1963. Great hobby and anytime we can earn money with a hobby all the more better.

73's
Ron

 

A Hobby which turns a profit. I enjoyed ham radio for several years having gotten my novice ticket in 1963. Great hobby and anytime we can earn money with a hobby all the more better.
73's
Ron

Ever recieved a QSL from a HA ..?
Max.

 

Ever recieved a QSL from a HA ..?
Max.

Forgive me Max but who or what is a HA..? My little ham shack did have QSL cards plastered to the walls. While all of my old gear is gone, mostly given away to young aspiring hams, I still have an old Post Korean War era R-392 receiver. Ham radio was really an enjoyable hobby.

Ron

 

AHH Champagne wishes and Caviar dreams!!
Max.

More like dollar store tea and canned soup realities.

 

I served in Tripoli with the Royal Signals, and we had our own HAM station for some amusement when off duty, 5A1TP there were only a Very small handfull of HAMs with with a Libyan call sign, so when one of us would sign on it was usually chaos trying to answer everyone that wanted a HA Libyan QSL.
I don't have one of ours but his guy, I believe he was probably with the US forces there.
Just a couple of native Arab local operators apart from us.
All in Morse of course.
Max.

 

Thanks for sharing that QSL Max, pretty cool.

Ron

 

I know personally no shortage of people making a decent wage, for example 60 - 75K. Not really bad but they carry 40K in debt like credit card debt and literally live paycheck to paycheck. My own brother is one such example. Champagne taste with a beer pocketbook I call it.

I see too many people living like there's no tomorrow; driving new cars, living in a house they can't really afford, going on frequent expensive vacations (because they deserve it). Most of them will be on the work-til-you-die retirement plan.

I saved for retirement, but ended up getting hurt in an auto accident and having to retire several years earlier than I planned and before I got around to taking full advantage of maxing out retirement contributions.

Anyone thinking they still have time to save for retirement should think again. You're just one careless/drunk/high/distracted/bad driver away from a disabling injury...

 

Anyone thinking they still have time to save for retirement should think again. You're just one careless/drunk/high/distracted/bad driver away from a disabling injury...

Then suddenly you find yourself in trouble. Kathy and I were fortunate in that we have been able to realize our plan but I have no shortage of friends less fortunate. Most of us never expected to live this long and here we are. While we were never quite frugal it is nice now to enjoy doing the things we wish to do and not worry about the cost. All it takes is one accident to upset the entire apple cart.

Ron