cmonkey's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Fish wrote:
Thu Sep 28, 2017 4:18 pm
@cmonkey - Congratulations on the new job, working from home, and no alarm clocks!! I haven't regularly used an alarm clock in about 8 years now. Don't drink coffee or any other kind of caffeine either. It feels very FI even if the portfolio says otherwise. 8-) Also, +1 to Allagash's comment praising the wisdom of your life vision (i.e. knowing you want children before it's too late).
Thanks Fish! What you said about 'it feels very FI' rings a bell with me these past couple of weeks. I hardly feel "employed" now. All of the bells and whistles of a job have disappeared with my new job - commuting, stupid coworkers, an actual workplace. I wake up and each day is my own now, its just that I need to log on the computer and do this development work each day.

I've left the house 2 times since I was last in the office, which was 3 weeks ago. It's marvelous. :D

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

October 2017 Update

We've made a lot of progress over the past 4 months. FI funds just topped 150K and networth is approaching 300K which includes our paid off homestead.

Expenses have stayed pretty consistent this summer, except for September, which saw us put in a patio so we could build our greenhouse on top of it. :D


Expenses/Savings

Total Spend - $1848.47
Total Savings - $8203.27 ; 82%

Time to Bills Only - Accomplished!
Time to Bills & Food - 4 Months (-11)
Time to TTM Expenses - 21 Months (-9)
Tim to 3% WR - 31 Months

TTM Expenses - $12363.64(+ $494.25)
Total FAI - $5903.10 (+ $1011.51)

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Greenhouse!!

Hopefully I didn't disappoint anyone with my greenhouse build. I made up plans to build a nice attached, lean-to greenhouse, but in the end we decided to go with a kit greenhouse after thinking about the resaleability of our house in a few years if we decide we want to move. With this kind of install, we can just take the kit with us and we are left with a nice patio, which is easy maintenance for all those lazy homeowners who might be turned off from a custom greenhouse.

I had to to rent a jackhammer again and dig out at least a ton of concrete footings from that concrete slab I dug out last year. I also had to level this area which meant removing a whole lot of dirt!

In all it took 2-3 weeks of work.

Here's from before :

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Now :

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Jason

Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Jason »

Sharp.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Stats look great! Harbor Freight greenhouse?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:40 pm
Stats look great! Harbor Freight greenhouse?
Thanks. :)

It's a Palram brand bought through Wayfair. It's pretty decent, but the plastic is thin. I'm going to hook up a furnace duct and vent it into the greenhouse to see if we can keep it heated, along with a small space heater and lots of bubble wrap!

If anything, it'll extend our season by at least 2 months each year I think.

dagiffy
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by dagiffy »

Outstanding! I love your life. The greenhouse isn't shabby, either. I see a LOT of those in my line of work when driving up in the mountains in Humboldt county, CA. Seems like if you hooked it up to a heating duct it would grow year round?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

dagiffy wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:17 pm
Outstanding! I love your life. The greenhouse isn't shabby, either. I see a LOT of those in my line of work when driving up in the mountains in Humboldt county, CA. Seems like if you hooked it up to a heating duct it would grow year round?
Thanks dagiffy. :) Hopefully! We get cold here in the midwest, so it'll be a stretch. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

vexed87
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by vexed87 »

Awesome greenhouse. Can't wait to see what you do with it :D

Have you thought about heating it (with a rocket stove or somesuch) and growing through the winter?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

@vexed, Thanks! We have a few things in there already and I also built a couple "planters" and have some greens started. Arugula, lettuce, spinach and mizuna. I'm going to try keeping them going.

I'm going to run a furnace duct to it to see how warm it will stay. I also have a bunch of bubble wrap and am going to double layer the walls and roof. Also have a small space heater. The rocket stove isn't a bad idea though and I have a lot of wood. I'd need to figure out how to do the chimney....

vexed87
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by vexed87 »

I've seen cool projects where it all runs underground, so you might be digging that lovely patio back up. :lol:

Head over to permies.com for some ideas!

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jennypenny
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by jennypenny »

If you keep pots of water in the greenhouse, they'll heat up during the day and release the heat at night. You can also line the floor with material that will do the same.

vexed87
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by vexed87 »

Painting the floors and surfaces exposed to direct sunlight black would help a lot too, but perhaps might cause overheating in the summer, maybe put a black tarp down in colder months?

Kriegsspiel
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Kriegsspiel »

Turn your "lot of wood" into a Jean Pain pile up against the wall of the greenhouse and run tubes of water through the greenhouse then coiled up in the pile?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Yea there are lots of neat ideas out there. The best one I saw was a guy that had PVC pipe laid out under the floor of his greenhouse that collected hot air from the peak of the greenhouse during the day. It heated up the gravel bed which released heat at night. I think that was his only source of heat and he was in Minnesota or somewhere similar.

So far my greenhouse is staying 10 degrees warmer at night than the surrounding air without heat. It is nestled in a SW corner so its a heat trap, getting up over 100 even when it's vented. The space heater added another 5 degrees on when I ran it one night - but it cost me like $1.50 for just the one night. :|

vexed87
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by vexed87 »

Jean Pain technique is awesome, but thinking about it, it's probably less useful at heating water in winter months as composting naturally slows down in the winter. It might work if your pile is big enough and well insulated from the elements. I've never tried it myself, so I might be wrong!

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

I'm already figuring out how to do it. :) I really wish I had looked at this idea before putting down the patio because the patio is a perfect heat sink for something like this, being brick and all.

It wasn't too hard to put down and I'd only need to dig part of it.

Kriegsspiel
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Kriegsspiel »

ffj wrote:
Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:09 am
That's a great excuse to build a rocket
This is a good idea. Yes.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

I don't have too much of an update on the financial side other than we are at 160K in FI funds and forward income is basically flat over the past 2 months. I've been deploying my IRA funds into lower yield stocks which is putting a drag on our FIA value and will be doing so going forward with an emphasis on safer stocks that are growing their dividends instead of turnaround stocks with higher yields. The end result might be a bit longer to retire, but overall a lot better.

I'll likely do an EOY update.

Life is plodding along pretty well right now, just been enjoying the new job. Staying in PJ's for days on end and all that. :lol: Expenses have been the same/slightly up in October/November and way down so far this month. We are socking away a LOT of money right now. I've maxed out the HSA for the year and an IRA for the both of us. Will be doing the same through January-March next year too, so our brokerage account is basically flat to slightly up.


An update on my greenhouse - I haven't built the rocket stove yet, but I did finally find a 30 gallon drum I can use. I also have a lot of old brick that I need to clean up . I'd like to build something that I can place in a sort of box and move around with handles on the side. But now my greenhouse is so full, I don't have much room for the stove. :lol: I'm also not sure that it'll be much use during the night because the fire will die down very quickly so I need to think about the design a bit. I think next summer, digging out the tile and putting down a heat sink will be very beneficial.

For now I am just using a small space heater. With the bubble wrap, its able to maintain +40F to outside on low setting. So far it's cost me about $30-$40 to keep it heated since the end of October. Expensive, but its super fun!

All the pelargoniums are blooming and our rosemary plant is blooming too. I also have WINTER SALADS!!!

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Gilberto de Piento
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Looks great! What outside temperatures are you working against?

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Thanks Gilberto. :) I need to share updates more often.

Our lows have been in the 20's, with a few nights getting down near 10 F. Highs are in the 30's lately so pretty seasonable.

The southwest corner we have this in tends to stay about 5 degrees warmer than away from the house even at night so that is helping a lot. I also have supplies to get a geothermal duct into the greenhouse, but I just need to stop being lazy and do it. :)

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