That'll be one more than I have ever bought. Mostly, like the Republican thing, so I can say I have never bought a lottery ticket.
Think it over. Twenty, forty years from now you may regret it. Can't get this cherry back with surgery.
I often buy one for fun when I'm back in L.A. at my parents house.
Screw setting up a foundation and all that. There's already other organizations good at that stuff. I'd just give a chunk of it to the Gates foundation, and then take the rest and live like a fucking king.
I have only bot lotto tix indirectly, as a form of social bonding at work. It is pleasant to entertain oneself with all the things that you could do with tens of millions of dollars though. With enough money, and the right ideological bracing, you could really upset some applecarts.
If you did actually win the lottery, it would be very wise to retain the services of a competent tax/estate-planning attorney, accountant and financial planner from established, full-service firms. Trusts are usually a good way to go (esp. in terms of estate planning, and versus other options like custodial accounts, that is, if you want some minors to benefit.)
Before you let your mother retire, make her jump through a few hoops. Nobody should get something for nothing. "Mom, if you meet our criteria, I can make it so you'll never have to work again."
You could buy John Edwards' house.
When I was in San Jose recently, the paper had an article about which Silicon Valley folk had recently cashed in the most stock options, so we've been playing a similar game: "what would we do with 14 million dollars in stock options?" (If my husband explained them correctly, unlike the lottery winnings, the options gains wouldn't be taxed, because technically there is no change in price so no capital gains. Can that be right?)
Since my chance of ever having stock options is even lower than than my chance of winning the lottery (because I might actually buy another lottery ticket someday), I've had fewer of the burdensome thoughts. Or maybe it's just that 14 mil is small change compared to the powerball jackpot.
If my husband explained them correctly, unlike the lottery winnings, the options gains wouldn't be taxed, because technically there is no change in price so no capital gains. Can that be right?)
Typically people exercise them and sell them in the same transaction, to there's no capital gains. You get taxed on them the same as your regular income.
6: Stock options are not tax free, barring very aggressive tax maneuvering. But there have been plenty of articles about newly minted millionaires and the inteesting things they do with their time and money. And also plenty of unwritten stories about the ones who don't make the articles (usually because "expensive apartments and lots of drugs" doesn't make compelling copy).
I always found it interesting that all of the increase in the Gini coefficient during the 90s went away if you ignored Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and King counties.
If my husband explained them correctly, unlike the lottery winnings, the options gains wouldn't be taxed, because technically there is no change in price so no capital gains. Can that be right?
My understanding, based strictly on reading a couple articles during the dot com boom is that when you exercise stock option (even if you don't sell the stock) you have to pay tax on the difference between the option price and the share price at the time.
I once read a suspense novel that began with the no-doubt-true statistic that 9 out of 10 lottery winners end up declaring bankruptcy within a decade. The unkind joke I keep hearing when I tell people about this statistic is "well, if they understood money, they wouldn't be playing the lottery!"
3: The social aspects are fun to watch. Every time someone adds a few bucks to the office pool the other's shares drop in alleged value and a few of them actually moan and groan about how much money they've "lost". Fascinating.
the options gains wouldn't be taxed, because technically there is no change in price so no capital gains
No, they're taxed. If you immediately sell the stock you get by exercising the option, your profit is treated as regular income. However, if you hold on to the stock for at least a year (and also wait 2 years from the time the option was first granted to you), then it's treated as capital gains income, which is only taxed at 15%.
8 - basically, yeah. You also have to include Manhattan, but those locations accounted for something like 80% of the 1990's increase in wealth.
8: source for Gini stat? That's fascinating.
Boys and girls, you would be *shocked* to know how many corporate executives in this country: (a) don't already have a stockbroker; (b) liquidate their ESOP shares immediately in a "cashless" transaction, where the broker they have hired just for that purpose fronts them the money for the exercise and the taxes (and charges them margin interest for its trouble); and (c) immediately take the money and blow it on whatever, rather than investing it in something else.
Most recently saw it here, linked from DeLong. Google also accounted for a huge percentage of the increase in California tax receipts, as described here.
15: every option plan I've ever been in offered free "same-day sale" where the brokerage retained by the company will front you the money required to pay the exercise price and whatever the required tax withholding until the transaction settles. Minus the "blowing it on whatever", this is also almost always the wise thing to do.
I know a couple, one of whom was an early big tech company employee and the other someone who sold a company to a big tech company for $X mil--they bought a ranch in Wyoming or Montana or something like that and are cranking out babies.
A couple of years ago I met one of these fabled monsters, someone who'd made millions daytrading in the late 90s and retired before he was 30. He divided his days into "time-units" of 15 minutes each and tried to maximise productive time-unit expenditure. ("6 units for a nice dinner, 3 units of reading, 3 units of online gaming: okay, room for improvement tomorrow.") In other words, he was completely depressed. A really nice guy, though. I felt bad for him.
I had one former dot-commer as a student last year. Story: made gazillions by 32, now spends his time and money taking courses in divinity schools & philosophy departments.
One of my high school friends had a step-brother who made millions day-trading. Last I heard he had retired from that and was setting up a program to teach others how to daytrade. I guess that's one way of giving back.
(His dad, by the way, is a very famous student radical from the sixties. Strange the way things work out sometimes.)
17: But if you had your own broker already, you could do the same deal with him or her, and he or she would probably give you a bigger break on the commission than the brokerage the firm has arranged things with.
I'm not suggesting that it's always wise to hang on to the shares of a company just because you happen to work for them, but my considerable anecdotal experience leads me to believe that very few ESO exercises are rolled into some other investment. I could be wrong, but if the exercisers are such astute investors, why aren't they keeping their business with their own broker? Of course, if you're just a mid-level manager at a tech firm, who has lots of options, but not much in the way of extra income to invest, it may be the smart move to take the money and pay down your mortgage or credit card, but my suspicion is that many people who avail themselves of their option cashing-in opportunities are of the get it-spend it mentality.
A coy way to ask, Ogged, but of course qualify for my friends-and-family art consultancy rate.
The Lady runs her office pool. To the extent there is a conversation, which ain't much, she says that there is no problem, she buys thirty tickets for the pool and five for herself, and if she wins a solo, the separation paperwork is all in order.
I tell her there are two possible outcomes with a win:a instant thirty way split or years of lawsuits followed by a thirty way split.
I screwed up buying tickets for tonight because of my lottery inexperience- for the hell of it, I actually picked numbers myself instead of quick pick. I did two sets of numbers, then there is a column at the end of the ticket that says "number of draws." Ah, well, two of course, so I filled out the bubble. The cashiers says "four dollars" and I say "whuh?" Seems they now have an option to play your numbers for subsequent drawings, which is what that column indicates. So now I'm entered for tonight, and also for Friday when the jackpot will be $600,000 because someone will win it tonight. Tax on the stupid indeed.
22: Huh. I don't think I've ever paid a commission on exercising options, and I also don't think that any company I've worked for would have let me move my options to my own broker and conduct transactions that way. I assumed that the brokerage houses (SmithBarney and ETrade) handled the options for free in the hope of people opening/keeping accounts there.
I'm just an engineer, though, and it may very well be that things are handled differently in Silicon Valley than the rest of the world.
My personal opinion is that Enron dramatically illustrates the folly of keeping large chunks of your net worth tied up in the company you work for (i.e. if you lose your job because your company goes under, that'd be a really bad time to also lose all of your savings), and think that selling your options is almost always the right choice. Unless you're ten cents above water or something.
I can't believe I'm going to be the first to comment on how Ogged's financial planning, like his romantic scheming, tends to get a bit ahead of itself. This means I'm not getting a check, right?
I like to be prepared for all eventualities, Labs.
Sad commentary on myself and the state of the nation: I'd be much more excited about the lottery that awards a lifetime of high-quality health coverage.
So what's the best get-rich-quick scheme for the smart, verbal, and lazy demographic?
When you win, sign and xerox your winning ticket, first thing. No one wants to tell the story about that fish getting away.
The best way to get utility from the lottery is to buy the ticket, tear it up, and then watch the draw in relief as your numbers don't come up.
My mom is on the phone with me right now asking why I didn't buy ten tickets. Ten times more likely to win!
Ten times more likely to win!
This reminds me of when the lottery in the place I was living at the time changed the rules so that instead of picking six numbers from 1 to 36 you would pick six from 1 to 48 instead. The marketing slogan was, "Even more chances to win!"
Yeah, it's a good thing the government runs the lotteries so people don't get ripped off.
31: Confidence schemes? I'd suggest software engineering, but am not sure if "verbal" rules that out. Possibly selling financial products or services.
20: That's totally what I would do, except all kinds of classes, not just divinity and philosophy. I'd find a good foundation to piggy back onto. And I'd buy a little studio in Manhattan and another in London and another in Delhi. And maybe I'd open a bookstore/cafe in Oakland. Yeah, that would be awesome.
I poked my head into Stacey's today and saw this: Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns.
31: Confidence schemes, financial services, marketing, and other related activities aren't what I'd call smart and verbal, exactly, although a moderate dose of smart and verbal seems to help. But too much smart and verbal is a handicap. And the ass-kissing is way too much work.
I think I'd learn languages and climb mountains.
I wouldn't tell anyone I won but immediate family who would be sworn to secrecy. I imagine you have all sorts of sketchy types coming after you if you go on TV with a giant novelty check.
I too read somewhere that some remarkable % of people who win a lump sum lottery prize blow through it in a few years - give it to sketchy types, relatives, bad investing, strippers, drugs, booze, gambling, cars, etc.
A few years ago my wife and I came close to hitting one of the multi-state lottery jackpots by matching the five regular numbers. We won a sizable-to-us prize but not what I'd call fuck-you money, so no charitable foundations, and we still have to work for a living.
Looking up the numbers a couple of days after the drawing and realizing we had a winning ticket was probably the most exciting part. Depositing a six-figure check in the bank was also fun.
I don't have any good stories about what happened to the money, because we didn't make any crazy or stupid purchases (unless you count law school, which I sometimes do). We also bought some real estate. The rest just got spent on mundane living expenses.
If anybody reading this wins tonight and is interested in my unsolicited advice, here it is: don't tell everybody right away. Wait a couple of months, at least until the money's in the bank. I say this because a number of people at my wife's job heard stories she'd won the big jackpot and were asking her why she still worked there. She didn't like the idea of being the subject of rumors at work, so she regretted having told anyone there. I told only relatives, so I didn't have that problem.
23 and 28 are wussy. You should cut us all nice fat checks, Ogged. Especially me.
Ogged should buy one very extravagant lunch in Stockholm
You know what I would do with a ton of lottery money? This is God's truth.
After setting myself and my immediate family up, I would start a research foundation to study the Mongol Empire, and I'd have all the primary texts translated which either have never been translated or else were badly translated a century or more ago. Especially from Persian, Syriac, and Arabic. If there was money left over, I'd commission a deluxe atlas of the Mongol empire.
But I would hire no Lurs for any of these jobs, because the Lur cannot be trusted.
I've never bought a lottery ticket. For myself.
I have felt forced to buy some for relatives in the last few years, when I've been told they'd prefer it to some weird thing I might otherwise offer as a gift. Apparently they like it. It's some hideous game they want me to play about what's worth valuing in life. I had to be instructed in the procedure.
I write this not having read comments to date. I realize it can be read as snotty, but no. Just incomprehension.
It'd also be fun to finally indulge in some of life's simple pleasures. You know, the ones you always tell yourself, "one day...", but never seem to get around to. Like snorting coke off a hookers ass.
Well, if *I* won the lottery, *I'd* share with all of *you*.
In 44 I forgot to add that my advice does not apply to ogged. Should he win, he must blog everything about his new lifestyle: the BMW shopping spree, the harem auditions, etc.
If I won the lottery, there are two things I would do immediately: buy somewhere to live and lock up 50% of the money in conservative investments that would be difficult to touch for at least ten years.
Sorry. I just realised that that's pretty boring.
I vote house with solar panels and maybe a windmill: owning property and not paying utility bills for the rest of my life would rock.
19: You met Hugh Grant's character from About a Boy?
"You know what I would do if I had a million dollars? I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities..."
"Samir, you're missing the point."
52 goes for me as well. And so does 53.
Aside from rent, the ten largest expenditures I've made in the past five years have all been either presents for other people or car repairs. I have no valuable assets except some stock my grandpa left me in his will, but I also have no debt. I don't think I'd be in danger of blowing all the money if I won the lottery.
Yeah, but Ned, do you play the lottery?
I do when my dad suggests that I do. So far, twice.
Jackmormon: in it to win it.
I'd throw out my roommate, pay off my parents' mortgage, buy some ridiculously-but-not-completely-ridiculously-priced stereo components, and then call up Jay Rosen for advice about how to finance independent, aggressive, investigative journalists. I might fit a couple lavishly drunken karaoke adventures in there, too.
Lottery fantasies make for great conversations with people you're just getting to know. And I honestly find it very comforting every time I realize there's not a lot of major stuff I'd change about my life. Small pleasures, worth a dollar ticket here and there. Although, I can't remember the last time I actually bought one.
I want to cash the big novelty check. Of course, the amount they put on there isn't right- the "$375 million" is $221M lump sum, then you have to withold 35% federal and x% state.
If you live in a high income tax state (Mass, 5.3%), should you establish residency in a no income tax state where the lottery is also located (Texas?) before cashing in? I think it takes 6 months to establish residency, but a 6 month wait on cashing the ticket is probably worth an extra $11M.
Is 50 legally binding? She probably didn't even buy a ticket.
Results: 16-22-29-39-42 Mega number 20
It seems that I have not won. Indeed, I have not matched a single number correctly. What are the odds???
By "won the lottery" I also mean "bank error in my favor", "won Yahoo's NCAA tournament pool", or "became an internet celebrity somehow and managed to get a $500,000 advance for a TV show to showcase my one-of-a-kind comic stylings".
63: You're lying just so that you don't have to share, aren't you?
On behalf of America, ogged, I offer my condolences.
Indeed, I have not matched a single number correctly.
In some lotteries, that actually means you win something.
67 -- However, that is not true of this lottery.
Holy shit, ogged, you picked them before they were on my TV- you should have played those.
I got one number on 2 draws, but I was also in an office pool.
I vote house with solar panels
Houses with solar panels are great, though I suppose I should have won the lottery first before getting mine.
40: Well, how rich and quick are we talking?
47:John I know a guy who translares Urdu as a hobby. Is that anywhere close to Mongol history? Don't feel like googling, I just remember the wavy vertical lines. His day job was designing medical filtration diagnostic equipment. He was one of of the few geniuses I have ever known, but he brought Hawaiian pot to the Midwest in the early 80s, so naturally I worshipped the ground he walked on.
Now of course, I am surrounded by brilliance.
I want very little I don't already have, new monitor DVD-writer, but I apparently have a lot already, cause winning the lottery might just get me out of debt. Maybe.
54: If you need an architect for that house, drop me a line.
Actually, once dull financial security measures were taken care of (debt-free and college fund, baby!), my fantasy has long been to be my own developer - every architect's dream. I'd build low-income, low-energy (zero energy if I won 9 figures) homes right in the middle of the city. Probably some other similar stuff (convert abandoned RR bridges into housing, for instance).
Is this dull or cool in the eyes of non-architects?
63: Sorry you didn't win. I was really looking forward to the harem audition stories. "Potential Concubine #10 isn't conventionally pretty, but her butt is really boyish. Should I add her or not?"
"Urdu" is heavily Persian influenced, and descends from the Mongol word "ordo" (which is also the ancestor of the English word "horde"), but Urdu came along as a literary language too late to be of much interest for Monmgol studies.
75: It's way, way cool. I love projects like that. I totally drool over the magazine stories about how X couple hired an architect to build them a house for $100k and he did it out of corrugated aluminum and paper pulp, or something. I would love to do something like that someday, but I've no idea how one manages to afford that plus someplace to live while it's being built. But hey, if you have the answers and want a job, drop *me* a line.
52: see, I find that weird, because I sure as hell wouldn't trust myself with that kind of money (~200 mil) over the long term. I'd buy myself a 200k/yr annuity or something, buy some real estate, and give the rest to a charity with such an obvious high welfare/$ return that I'd never feel the slightest guilt about all the coke-off-hookers'-asses my annuity would afford me.
In other words, totally pwned by gswift.
No, what you do is arrange to loan it to a charity for X length of time; they get to use the principal to generate income, and then when you need it, you can take over the income and let the principal revert to them when you die. Or something like that.
that I'd never feel the slightest guilt about all the coke-off-hookers'-asses my annuity would afford me.
Did you know, X. Trapnel, there was time when I thought you were a woman?
Not to say that women don't snort coke off hookers' asses.
My windfall plans remain unchanged.
The idea with making it untouchable for ten years is to weed out the unscrupulous advisors. I wouldn't trust myself to know what charities were good to give to on a first look-see, nor would I trust the first money managers to advise me unselfinterestedly. Probably the only person I'd trust to give me financial advice in the first year or so after my hypothetical lottery win would be my (stoic, careful, mathematically minded) father.
We built a low-energy/solar home and it turned out very nicely. Not Zero-Energy, but with a kilowatt of panels on the roof, lots of good insulation, and passive solar hot water, heating/cooling/utility bills average about 60 bucks a month.
I'll do the Arabic part of John's Mongol project.
Y'all can afford to build houses? I so need to move.
Gonerill's the only person who's actually built one, I think. Everyone else is waiting until they win the lottery.
87: I have no idea what I'm talking about, but don't you suspect that land + building would be cheaper here than buying an existing house?
Not that I'm ever going to actually do this, mind. I just fantasize about it. Maybe if I get a job....
I saw these two twentysomethings frantically filling out lotto cards at a Sheetz tonight. I thought, how strange, as no one I know even plays the lottery, and I felt bad that some tragedy had befallen them, and they, now desperate for cash, had made a last-minute dash to the gas station in hopes of instant salvation from their plight.
I didn't know about the MEGA millions thing. I shouldn't make up stories about people. Maybe they just wanted the bling.
89: Well, developers make money doing "take land, add house, sell." So it has to be a little cheaper. But they have big economies of scale with contracting and permitting and such. There's also the need to live somewhere that has undeveloped and developable land: i.e. the sticks.
82: how curious. Perhaps I need to do more commenting Becks-style.
(convert abandoned RR bridges into housing, for instance).
So copshow. I want to live in one of these.
I'm kind of intrigued by geodesic homes.
My dad claims to have known someone who lived in an old submarine, on land.
Also to have known someone who wanted to keep a submarine in his back yard, so he could throw rocks at it occasionally (this person having served on a sub).
I think Chinese would be of greater utility than Syriac for the Mongols. Just saying.
From gswift's link in 95:
Timberline Geodesic Dome Homes use our unique and patented SteelStar connector system that assures you can construct your dome with precision and confidence, even if you've never built anything before. Our easy to follow illustrated Assembly Manual and pre-cut, pre-drilled color coded lumber virtually eliminate the possibility of confusion or mistakes.
Uh, really? Having done a bit of tech support-type stuff, my faith in Jane and Joe SixPack is not so unwavering. But it looks cool, nonetheless. What are you waiting for gswift?
(I, for one, await ogged's check, so I can live in hypocritical liberal opulence. All are welcome for meet-ups and the like, of course. Just tap the seekrit Mineshaft rhythm on the drawbridge chain, and we'll open right up.)
John, I have a colleague who studies the Uyghur empire in his spare time. Could you spare him a couple of mill to do you some general background?
My wife does not share my intrigue with the buckyball house. My taste is all over the place. I also dig log homes. That's the kind of thing I'd like to build near some good flyfishing.
97: True, but John can probably do the Chinese himself.
My suggestion for your winnings: Back when I worked at battered women's shelters, one problem was that women would come in with literally nothing but the clothes on their back, and we would give them donated stuff, but for obvious reasons, no one donates socks and underwear. So during my one and only lottery phase (a friend's nearly 60 year old uncle was about to be turned off his farm unless he could come up with some large sum of money within 6 months, so I played the lottery), I used to fantasize about setting up the Hilzoy Underwear and Socks for Shelters foundation.
It would be very, very useful, and very, very appreciated. I bet homeless shelters have the same problem.
a friend's nearly 60 year old uncle was about to be turned off his farm unless he could come up with some large sum of money within 6 months
So, um, how did things turn out for him?
I too read somewhere that some remarkable % of people who win a lump sum lottery prize blow through it in a few years - give it to sketchy types, relatives, bad investing, strippers, drugs, booze, gambling, cars, etc.
yes, but on the other hand some of them waste it.
OT, but 300 is increasingly a slow motion train wreck from which I can't look away. Check out the newest clips. In "Xerxes" we find out the emperor is the world's largest Mexican, and the shot of the Greeks working on the wall in "Fight In The Shade" looked uncomfortably like how I imagine an opening scene for a gay porno.
OK, the Mongol project is set. I'll start playing the lottery this week and get back in touch once I have about $10 million.
OFE, Uighurs of what period? The pre-Mongol-Empire Uighurs are cool.
106: 300 is increasingly a slow motion train wreck from which I can't look away
It occurs to me that a lot of people are surprised by this because they haven't seen how ridiculous the graphic novel was. I remember an acquaintance from a comics store pushing that book at me with "isn't this great?" enthusiasm, and seeing the Spartans in bondage gear and thinking "Christ, Miller's lost his mind and they're so going to make a movie out of this shit."
Leonidas is still the worst. It's like the director told him, "Think 'ancient warrior' plus lots of meth."
looked uncomfortably like how I imagine an opening scene for a gay porno
Not that there's anything wrong with that...
And going even further OT, I'd like to formally register a complaint about having to wait until 23rd April for the next episode of Heroes. After the last 2 episodes being so good, that's really not fair.
(This is the TV complaints blog, isn't it?)
As for the lottery - nothing wild - build a house, buy a boat, travel the world, etc. Probably have another couple of kids too.
A gay porno version of Thermopylae with Frank Miller's masculinity fetishist aesthetic would pretty much be the hottest thing ever for male-fanciers.
Asilon, one of these days someone's going to have to speak to you about this having of kids.
My mom said it doesn't get any worse after four, but she had the comfort of religious faith.
a friend's nearly 60 year old uncle was about to be turned off his farm unless he could come up with some large sum of money within 6 months
So, um, how did things turn out for him?
About that time, the Duke boys...
It didn't get any worse after 2, really. And I think the comfort of huge amounts of money, paid help, etc, would help immensely! You're probably right though, a dog would be more sensible.
Than the prospective kids? It works for most dogs and most kids.
I'm kind of intrigued by geodesic homes.
Calling Ric Ocasek "Homes"
108: At the time, I remember, the easiest way to make your average comics nerd blush was to pick up his copy, flip through it, and say "Wow! This is pretty hot!"
Some of those Amazon reviews are a hoot: "This is manly, hot-blooded stuff here ... Frank Miller was made for manly, hot-blooded stuff."
Frank, Tom of Finland called. He wants his manly, hot-blooded stuff back.
I'm kind of intrigued by geodesic homes
My brother-in-law built one for his family. More like a half dome, actually. Vast interior space.
I've thought that a fully spherical, rather small buckyball would work very well on an unused water tank platform, high above the ground in an urban neighborhood. However, when I imagine climbing the exposed stairs at night, maybe in driving sleet, perhaps assisting someone in high heels, suddenly aware of how visible one would be, it occurs to me I'd want to cover the stairs, but that would create its own hazards—someone waiting in the tunnel, etc.—and would spoil the visual effect.
Clearly the kind of boy's dream of cool I've become too old for even as a thought experiment.
I had a friend who lived in a geodesic dome house until she and her husband divorced. It was crazy cool on the inside.
You'd need a really big tree, but the same thing as a tree-house? Shade in the summer, sun in the winter, and a little more visual protection from the snipers you seem to be worrying about.
Snipers? Only in a metaphorical sense. We fear embarrassment and exposure much more than actual physical danger, us urinal-addressers do.
Ah. Hadn't figured out the problem.
It occurs to me that a lot of people are surprised by this because they haven't seen how ridiculous the graphic novel was.
Totally. I read his Batman stuff and some Sin City, but never 300.
Those 300 clips crashed my browser, gswift. I'm just going to assume that they're as terrible as the trailers.
If I won the lottery there'd be a ridiculous amount of money spent on musical instruments and cameras.
The rest would be the usual: build a nice house, travel the world learning languages, acquiring new skills (the more archaic and impractical the better) and having fun ... plus, fund a group of ninja-like assassins* to venture out from my desert fastness to wreak my terrible revenge, etc.
* or, more accurately, Assassin-like assassins ...
109 - Oh good! "Company Man" kicked ass, but I haven't watched Monday's yet.
Another vote for the converted railroad bridge house being a hella cool project. My grandfather made some bank in the early '60s and spent a chunk of it installing a great deal of passive solar gadgetry into his suburban Boston house, but that lacks the awesome vibe of having a beautifully designed house incorporating rusting-out 19th c. technology. Steampunk!
The lighting is very weird in the movie clips. And there's an awful lot of bad bullet time.
And men in leather underoos.
78: It's way, way cool. Yes!
As for where to live while building, there are lots of solutions, but "not someplace with crazy-high housing costs" is a good start. But, depending (a lot) on how the house is built, you're only paying construction loans for like 6-9 months - after that, you move in and just have a regular mortgage.
If you're doing this on a lot of land, you could buy/build a tiny structure to live in on-site. This is actually ideal for any kind of country location, since you're out there for the nature, and you want to learn about your site intimately. Then, of course, you have a guest house at the end of it.
98: The majority of people find mechanical things infinitely more intuitive than technical/electronic things, so I think your tech support fears are (largely) unfounded. Home kits are surprisingly close to being just bigger versions of Erector sets. Much more frightening are amateurs who do their own plumbing & wiring. There's a reason cities make that shit illegal.
Here's a site I'm really intrigued by - twin bridges, buth abandoned. The immediate environs are industrial, but it's adjacent to a nice old ethnic neighborhood in a town near Pittsburgh. You can paddle that creek to the Ohio River, and from there to Downtown.
This bridge would be amazing - right above the Allegheny River, 3 miles above the Point - but it's slated for a rail trail.
It's a little low. I was thinking you could sling something underneath it, and live like a true troll.
I also dig log homes.
A friend of mine grew up in one of those, her family built it themselves from a kit. She loved it.
The majority of people find mechanical things infinitely more intuitive than technical/electronic things
I believe this (except for the "infinitely" part) based only on my own experience learning Newtonian mechanics versus learning [whichever category of basic physics includes some discussion of electro-magnetism], but I'd be interested in hearing more about it.
129: Living under a bridge has come a long way.
whichever category of basic physics includes some discussion of electro-magnetism
It was just called "Electricity and Magnetism" at my school. I like it: direct, and to the point.
Depending on location, building costs for custom homes are @ $300 per sq. ft. A developer can build the same for @ $150 per sq ft, because of economies of scale. YMMV, depending on local availability of subcontractors, etc. Land is generally not more than 1/3 of the cost of the completed project, but again it will depend on location. You would be surprised how much resistance you would get from your urban renewal project mentioned in 75
Much more frightening are amateurs who do their own plumbing & wiring.
Hey, Mr. B. did both in our last house, and nothing flooded or caught fire!
Nothing flooded because of the plumbing.
JRoth, do you have any photos of the sort of thing you're talking about? Give me something to replace the Dwell solar house issue with as my lottery-winner-house fantasy.
116: At the time, I remember, the easiest way to make your average comics nerd blush was to pick up his copy, flip through it, and say "Wow! This is pretty hot!"
God, I wish I'd thought of doing that.
135: Well, you've said that Mr. B is pretty handy - anyone who can build (not assemble) cabinets can do basic domestic wiring & plumbing (I have). I was talking about people who are at their limit with kit-assembly. Also, wiring & plumbing from scratch is a much bigger deal than redoing in an existing house.
134: My job for 4 years was affordable housing in urban neighborhoods - I know whereof I speak. Not that it would be all sunshine and roses, just that I know exactly how to go about it, and successfully.
Also 134: $300/SF is more like custom mansion range (at least in western PA, where land is cheap but labor rates and materials are pretty typical for non-luxury regions). But big builders can't match that quality for $150. A tract builder comes around $80-100, but the comparable custom quality is... under $200? Because you can't actually get anyone else to build that shitty, so it's not apples to apples. But to reach $300/SF, you're looking at a lot of costy materials that don't scale up that cheaply - a granite counter is a granite counter, maybe you save 15% by buying 50.
Anyway, B in 54 was talking about alternate housing technologies that are in the sub-$200/SF range.
All that said, the only real route to an inexpensive house is to build a small one, and build it well. A walk-in closet in a high-end house is worth over $5k. You can build a small house (big enough for 2-3) for 10X that, but you won't get a walk-in closet.
137: I'm not aware of any examples of RR bridge housing, and so far I haven't gotten as far as sketching anything myself, but this gives an idea of the concept: a "parasite" house built onto the stair/elevator penthouse of a warehouse in Rotterdam. It was actually one of the sample houses in the Green Houses exhibit at the Nat'l Bldg Museum a couple months ago.
129: Did you just happen upon that image, or do you know what it is? It's the great Kinzua Viaduct, one of those amazing 19thC feats of engineering - it was for a long time the highest/longest viaduct in the world, IIRC. Until a few years ago, you could take an excursion train over it. Then - tragically, when they were about 20% done rebuilding it with new steel - a microburst came down the valley and blew it down. They've kept the wreckage in place, and you can now wander around the ruins. Haven't been, need to soon.
139. Since we were talking Lotto winnings, I assumed McMansion. Other than that I would agree with your cost estimates. But in my experience even well planned, beautiful projects get alot of NIMBYs, even when it renovates a neighborhood. The law of unintended consequences, yuppies move in to the previously blighted neighborhood and price out the locals, even with dedicated low income housing.
I didn't know. I just googled "railroad bridge" images. I was actually thinking of some of the big old viaducts out in the western U.S. Very sad that it's wrecked. Was it vulnerable because it was being rebuilt, or might it have happened anyway?
Not sure if this got posted, but an interesting article about a lottery winner. Comes off well except for the whole "I won because of using common numbers and my own seeekrit system" bit. If it helps you sleep at night that you helped cause your own windfall, whatever...
142: No, they had realized that it was vulnerable, and started to rebuild it. The storm was totally freaky - basically a 30 minute event on a normal summer day (this is NW PA, where they don't get actual tornadoes).
The rebuilt portion withstood the storm.
If I win the lottery I'm gonna get me some of them million-dollar babies. I hear you can get a three-for-one deal.
I'm building a James Bond villain(ess) fortress in the middle of San Francisco Bay with my winnings. Pneumatic tubes will be worked in there somehow.
Although there's something wrong with a plan where you end up with three babies don't get any sex out of the deal.
I figure I'll have enough left over to buy some sex.
In fact, teo plans to teach the triplets to snort coke off hookers' asses.
Then they're going to write the sequel to PK's book.
