Hindsight is 20/20

[Lancer]

Ever do something which seemed like a good idea at the time?

Sold a good motorcycle to buy an engagement ring for my first wife.

After a long hard fight to quit smoking I got back together with an ex gf who smoked. "I'll just have one." Five years later I was able to quit again.

Anything?

[Dinner]

I wish I never started smoking.

[Lancer]

Its the most difficult thing to quit. Still a smoker Dinner?

[Lancer]

...sorry to offend, was not my intention.

[Lorizael]

I have an 800 post thread in the Barbarian OT dedicated to my screw ups. Go read if you have nothing to do for a few days.

[Tuberski]

I got out of the Navy 20 years ago this year, I could be retried for 5 years, right now.

ACK!

[Lancer]

I have an 800 post thread in the Barbarian OT dedicated to my screw ups. Go read if you have nothing to do for a few days.

Sounds exciting. Can you break it down to maybe 2 of the all time worst? Particular attention can be paid to how you should have done different if its not made obvious by the telling. Thanks!

[Lancer]

I got out of the Navy 20 years ago this year, I could be retried for 5 years, right now.

ACK!

I hear that! I'd have gotten out of the army in '97 with 20 years in, but in a lot of ways I'm glad I got out.

[Lorizael]

The big one is: I should have actually put effort into my work back when I was still in high school. Should have applied myself, gone to a real college, all that jazz.

[Lancer]

I know what you mean. I got a GED and joined the army the day I turned 17, and that doesn't help much later in life. But! Here we are. Hmm, just realized that reinforces the point.

[Aeson]

I've got a lot of them, half of them are dealing with our well/pump ...

- We drilled down 40 feet and only had 6.5 gpm, so we went 80 feet, and still only had 6.5gpm ... so we went 100 feet and still only had 6.5gpm ... should have stopped at 60 or 80 feet and stopped wishing for more water.

- I chose a 1hp submersible because I figured the well would end up better later as it widened out in the water bearing sandy layer. Also, the tests we had done made me suspect the driller's pump wasn't actually the HP they claimed it was. I think it was a 1/2 hp pump, they said 1 1/2 hp. The 1/2 hp would have explained why we didn'tget any more than 6.5 gpm, but I didn't have a way to be sure. A 1/2 hp would have been plenty at the pressure/application we end up running it. (It may have also avoided the later electrical issues.) I had planned to run sprinklers at > 60psi directly off the pump. We ended up putting an elevated water tank up on one of the nearby hills instead, and using drip irrigation at ~ 10psi ... so didn't need the 1hp pump in any case.

- We brought out an electrical line that was supposedly good enough to run a 5 hp pump on. I hadn't spent enough time looking at the plans the electricians had come up with. They had #4 wire and #6. I was thinking the #4 would go from the road to the breaker, then the #6 from there, but it ended up being installed the other way around. It wouldn't even start the 1 hp pump. (We're finally getting a transformer put in. And some bigger wire. Might have to wait until after the roof is on though.)

- I picked up a generator to run the pump off of ... no real regrets there other than it would have been cheaper in the long run to just run the new line out and put a transformer (but not really an option since I didn't have the money for it at the time). The generator itself has done pretty well, especially considering it's P14000 price tag.

- We put in the irrigation system and got ready to plant, and then the well promptly dropped to around 1 gpm, which made irrigating a lot more expensive (both time and money) than it's already inefficient self. I was out here 18 hours a day babysitting the generator. 6HP gasoline engine to start a 1HP electrical pump, run it for about a minute, then wait 15 minutes and do it all over again.

- About the irrigation system ... we bought some of the PVC pipe at this one hardware store. I told them I wanted the molded PVC pipe that joins together without fittings. They said they didn't have any and I ended up buying without the molded joints, and instead got the fittings. I should have kept to my plan and gone looking for the molded pipe. The pipe and fittings we got instead was nearly useless. We had leaks and leaks at every joint. We ended up having to replace it all. (Though on the bright side, these pipes will be used as vent pipes for the septic system in the house. They do ok as long as there's no pressure.)

- Now the well is about 15 gpm, and has been for the past couple years. There's been a lot of sediment come out of the hole over time, so it's widened out where the water source is (~30 feet down was a sand layer) and much more reliable. So it's good we went down 80 feet so the well wouldn't have ever filled in up to the pump. But 60 would have been fine and just as much water. This isn't a regret in and of itself, but it means we could have also gone with a 1/4 HP jet pump for a lot cheaper. It wouldn't have given us as much water, maybe not any at the low point, but that would have saved us some money most likely since we wouldn't have even tried to irrigate that year. Planted something that didn't need much water instead. Focused on other things.

The house:

- I would have built one level, larger footprint, smaller overall sq m, further away from the property lines. Dealing with property lines near the house causes problems. I was in the mindset from the US with wood frame houses, where land is expensive, and building a second floor is cheap.

Other things I would have done differently:

- Get into Facebook gaming. I spent 2 years writing mind-numbing articles about refrigerators and pergolas to make ends meet. Ended up selling the websites I had made when they were finally becoming profitable (on a "minimum wage for hours put in" scale). Had to go back to the US for a winter to rebuild. It wasn't until I got so fed up with it that I spent a month saying screw it and just playing games that things changed. Now I make a lot more playing Facebook games and building websites for them.

- Take the family to Anda or somewhere fun at least a couple times a month. Preferably once a week when there's not something else (Fiesta, other holidays) going on. It's not a big expense, but is a lot of fun. Even at the lowest times we had enough money for the gas there and back. I still struggle with this, mostly because I'm sorta a homebody and the multicab has been having a lot of problems.

- Buy a new multicab last year. The one we have has been great. $3k for 5 years of mud bogging and off-roading. (Not that the roads here are much better.) But last year it was getting a lot of rust problems so we had the whole body redone. Replaced the tires as we have to do every 18 months or so. Some electrical work. Several new components. But it's been a never-ending list of repairs since. We're nearing the point where it would have cost less to replace it last year. But at the same time, nearing the point where we can afford to upgrade. I keep looking for an older Toyota Hilux with a full bed. Mostly here there's only newer models with the extended cab and a short bed.

[Lancer]

Yeah. Life is full of such lessons isn't it. They can be mind boggling do to their quantity over their seriousness. Every one is a lesson though, and that's worth something too. Forethought, reaction time and concerns, then dealing with those decisions. Been there, done that.

[Lancer]

Regarding the house, the more you increase square footage by going up the less the roof costs per sq foot of living space.

[Aeson]

Yah, the roof does get less expensive. However the posts, beams, and (second) floor get more expensive if going concrete, and it requires a lot more wood for the construction. Which option ends up more expensive would have a lot to do with how the roof is built. In our case, the roof will probably end up running about P300k for 170 sq m (120sq m footprint). If I went with a 180sq m footprint the roof would end up 252 sq m, which would put us closer to P450k. So we'd get less overall floor space, but save quite a bit of money.

The full 240sq m would have pushed the roof to 306 sq m. Assuming the layout was such that the ridge height wasn't significantly different (wings rather than monolithic) then that would put us at somewhere around P540k for the roof. That extra P240k is pretty close to the costs we put into the second floor beams and flooring.

I do like having the second floor just for the view and airflow, but could have lived without it. I will of course realize how silly this bean counting is while relaxing in a freestanding hammock on the balcony once the roof is on ... though at nights I will question my rush to get the roof on and block out stars

[Lancer]

In the 4 story I tried to use the spiral stairwell as a chimney to draw the warmth out of the closed 2 sides 1st floor kitchen and it works, usually. There are doors on the rooms all the way up but the 4th the stairwell just opens onto the floor. Also made it so that even if all the windows are closed on the 4th there's still draw on the stairwell from the eve vents and a ridge vent, However, this might work better for your case, cooling the house and drawing out the heat.

Google image this...

clerestory roof

...and it will even give you truss designs that aren't much different than normal trusses. If you face the opening away from the normal wind direction it will also protect windows from rain and draw heat out of your whole house and pull air in through the windows, if they are open. Same thing in my kitchen. If there are no open windows the stairwell chimney effect is cancelled. Heat can't rise if it doesn't have a place to draw from as you know I'm sure.

I don't know if you have a mosquito problem there but google image this if you do...

hammock with mosquito net

I have one on order through Amazon though I haven't pushed the 'buy' button yet. Mostly because the problem isn't too bad on the ocean and we don't really need one. Plus, Pa Mente isn't in Oregon to put it in an LBC box. Btw, I have some sugar free lipton lemonade iced tea mix coming in the next box which should be here any day, its already late.

In Oregon I had a welder build a steel frame for a 4'X4' skylight and welded hinges to it, then mated up a good 4'X4' skylight with lots of small screws. Then on a slightly pitched roof I built a raised 2"X8" roofed in rim to accept the Skylight and screwed it in only with the hinges and put the hinge side towards the wind. It could be screwed shut in the face of a storm. So, with the bed somewhat under it and the skylight raised I could still sleep under the stars. It also drew out heat which really isn't a bonus in Oregon on the coast. No idea where you might find such a thing here though. Maybe City Hardware? Could ask a red shirt if it can be ordered.

While that may seem like an expensive option you could make the skylight 2'X4', and the raised rim and roof it over until you had the money to buy what you needed. Then there's always this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9MhAM_NkqM

Sounds like quite a project you have going there, should be nice and big. There's a white slaked lime putty in 4 gallon cans cheapest at YYs on CPG that might help in the last stage of wall finishing and provide some free color until you're ready to paint. You can look it over better next door at Builderware but it costs a lot more. That said, I have some for the refractory ingredients in the pizza oven mortar mix but haven't tried it on a wall yet. That will happen in the tunnel when we get caught up and I'll know more them. Paint here isn't very good, and the cement walls have to be sealed first of course. I'm sure you know a lot of this stuff, just saying in case you don't.