Loutfard's journal

[guitarplayer]

What app are you using?

[loutfard]

What app are you using?

"Too good to go" seems to be the most popular one by far over here.

[loutfard]

I started looking up a bit more on the real estate situation in the city and surrounding area.

Buying or renting a permitted small living unit is very much possible. It's also very much over the budget we want to spend. In that case, we'd better stay at our current place.

Should we buy a place under 300 m², but with plenty of space for a separate smaller living unit/tiny house/shed conversion/, we immediately bump into a problem: getting a permit for any of the following:
- building an extension with a living function: unlikely
- converting an existing non-living auxiliary structure to a living function: very unlikely
- splitting out a smaller living unit of the existing house: impossible, unless > 300m² to begin, and at least 110 m² left after

Should we succeed against all odds at passing this hurdle , there's the next problem: creating two rentable or sellable units:
- We should get a five-year renewable permit for letting the small unit only, on the condition of living in the larger unit as the natural person owners.
- The larger unit needs to be at least 110(!) m². The smaller one needs to be 27m² at minimum.
- We can't sell neither the larger or the smaller unit. They're only split using a temporary permit.
- We can't get a permit for letting the larger unit.

Should we rent a larger house with an existing smaller living unit, we can live in the entire house together with other renters, but:
- We can make no physical separation between the larger and the smaller unit.
- We can't live together with students.
- We have to all be in the rental contract as natural persons. We cannot be owners and renters at the same time.
- We have to all have our primary residence registered on the undivisible site. This means we are liable for each other's debts.
- We can't have for sub-entities separate utility counters, separate doorbells, separate entrances, mailboxes.
- Bedrooms can't be locked with a cylinder lock.
- No subletting allowed.
- Not allowed in the bedrooms: fridge, microwave, ...
- No multiple kitchens allowed.
- Nothing else allowed that hints at the place being split up. An unusually high rental price is such an indication.
- ...

There's a few conclusions if we want an unusually cheap housing cost within the territory administered by the city authorities. We might want to:
- look for an owner-resident of a wide non-townhouse plot willing to let us rent a spot for a somewhat movable unit.
- double check permitted cheap alternatives, like concierge/janitor/caretaker roles.
- purposely ignore the law

The most likely solution though would be checking possibilities outside of the city authorities' geographical reach.

[Jean]

how is your plan of hosting urofest doing?

concerning your issues, if it's like switzerland, the way to go is to ignore the law while avoiding to cause any inconvenience to your neighbourgh, while maintaining a way for official who might see what your doing to pretend they didn't see you doing it.

[loutfard]

how is your plan of hosting urofest doing?

Definitely not off my mind. I can't say a lot about it yet though. A bit of work still needs to happen around there before we can comfortably receive a group. Let's see if we'll allow EFTA residents to also participate

concerning your issues, if it's like switzerland, the way to go is to ignore the law while avoiding to cause any inconvenience to your neighbourgh, while maintaining a way for official who might see what your doing to pretend they didn't see you doing it.

We're quiet, respectful people and generally get along very well with neighbours. Having what would colloqiually be called a vinegar pi**er rat us out could be enough though.

I see his image in front of me. It's an early retired, somewhat frail village oriented man in his late 50's/early 60's, pissed at those moving by cargo bike and train and those intruders from outside village, pissed at his wife for having forgotten to buy beer on her Saturday shopping trip. He'd be hooting at you in his car, motioning you to cycle elsewhere because he wrongly thinks that's where you have to cycle. He might eiter pretend or really try to force you off the road because he knows best. Then he sees you turn into your driveway. That afternoon, he strolls along and looks for anything suspicious. He notices my wife stepping into a tiny house. He decides that cycling to the supermarket and stepping into a tiny house are sufficient proof. Now he is convinced. Surely we must be some of those greens who say hi to black people, have homosexual friends and eat vegetarian. That's enough to inform the police... about the tiny house. That should take care of them!

My wife usually doesn't like the uncertainty of illegal arrangements depending on other people's benevolence. I don't mind and even enjoy _if_ we have optionality. We don't have that with real estate ownership though. That comes with awfully high transaction fees. Do know that without some serious trickery, we'd have to pay about of all kinds of 15% transaction fees on any real estate purchase?

We live in a wonderful place now, just too big and expensive for my taste. Lots of my net worth is locked into it, at a huge opportunity cost. My wife is willing to go along with me searching for something smaller, as long as it's quiet and within reasonable cycling distance from the city we live in now. I can't really expect her to go far beyond that..

[Jean]

does this man actually exist?
also, the authorities he's going to report you to need to care about it.
Maybe you could make children, and make them pay you a rent to lower your housing costs

[loutfard]

does this man actually exist?

I thank you for your compliment when it comes to my literary skills.

also, the authorities he's going to report you to need to care about it.

They do. Even if they dislike this kind of man.

Maybe you could make children, and make them pay you a rent to lower your housing costs

No.

[disk_poet]

I did some research for Germany and it seems like the same situation. Lots of rules and regulations that make it a huge investment to make an “official” tiny house work. There are ways to ignore the law or stay in some grey area but I too find it somewhat stressful if I’d be dependent on it.

[bos]

concerning your issues, if it's like switzerland, the way to go is to ignore the law while avoiding to cause any inconvenience to your neighbourgh, while maintaining a way for official who might see what your doing to pretend they didn't see you doing it.

To add to Jean's comments. I am from the region of Brandenburg and have seen this happening. Some people do have a tiny houses in their garden that are on paper an atelier. Some people even secretly live in their Kleingarten/Allotment house (small garden that is not part of your house and you can legally only put a shed on it)

[urgud]

bos: Same thing is happening in Denmark. Plus, people are building way larger dwellings than the ordinary limits (usually 50 m2). No property taxes on these, either, but it's looking like there's might be political/legal intervention in this grey zone area.

[loutfard]

Trusted relatives are letting a cheap apartment in their home. Their priority very much is trusted tenants over high rent income. Different city. Within walking distance from Brussels central square. Would cut almost two hours a week from my commute, but add three to five for my wife. Financially, this would mean 700-800€/month extra savings short term, and a path to selling my house medium term. This would also give my wife and me a chance to share the responsibility for housing in a much more balanced way. I'll need to discuss this with her...

[loutfard]

Weight update:
- 20231120: BMI 31.6 (I thought it was lower, but something was wrong with the scales.)
- 20240114: BMI 28.1

I am aiming for BMI 22.5. I've lost about 0.065 BMI per day on average for the past eight weeks, holidays included. If this pattern holds, BMI 22.5 is in sight by mid-April.

I'm starting to feel confident this works really well for me. I loosened the fasting a bit during the holidays, eating when visiting friends and at simple restaurants on holiday. I almost naturally got back into intermittent fasting afterwards. It feels like I'm successfully co-opting my absent-mindedness and laziness to be my allies.

[delay]

Weight update:
- 20231120: BMI 31.6 (I thought it was lower, but something was wrong with the scales.)
- 20240114: BMI 28.1

Congratulations on your weight loss!

I made it from 30 to 22.5 last year. Then I overate unbelievably in December and only gained 0.8 BMI. A six hour eating window works effortlessly compared to a diet or more exercise.

[jacob]

A six hour eating window works effortlessly compared to a diet or more exercise.

If you want to dial it up another notch, use a 1 hour window or even less. I suspect it's not the added fat-burning time as much as how much the stomach can physically hold during the eating period. Six hours is after all enough for two separate meals, like lunch and dinner. One hour is not.

[delay]

If you want to dial it up another notch, use a 1 hour window or even less. I suspect it's not the added fat-burning time as much as how much the stomach can physically hold during the eating period. Six hours is after all enough for two separate meals, like lunch and dinner. One hour is not.

Thanks for the tip! I've done two hour windows. They work, but are a bit harder to stick to than than the 6 hour window.

Not sure about the stomach theory. Outside of crazy situations (like all-you-can-eat spareribs in my student days) I don't remember reaching that limit. My stomach can consume more food in an hour than it is healthy to eat in a day.

My favorite explanation for the success of eating windows is the "mode" theory. This says after 8 hours without food the body switches from "processing food" mode to "cleanup" mode. So if I have a 6 hour eating window, I spend 24 - 6 - 8 = 10 hours in cleanup mode. The cleaning works in longer cycles sometimes taking weeks to reach the stage where it flushes out excess weight.

[loutfard]

Housing update. I seem to have found an interesting plot of land:
- 75k€ asking price, or a hair over 87k€ including notary, regional transaction fee (12%) and similar legal extortion. Strangely enough, it's even been on the market since some time. Chances are I will be able to shave a few k€ of the asking price.
- 200 m², 60m² of which can be built upon. This is atypically small a plot.
- for semi-detached housing
- in a less posh city 20km from where we live. Real estate prices are 50-75% lower there.
- in a quiet and green street
- 20 km/35' by direct train+ folding bike from wife's workplace. Her six one-way commutes would take 3h30' a week instead of 1h now.
- 85 km/2h by direct train+ folding bike from my workplace. My two one-way commutes would take 4h a week, hardly more than before.
- 2 km to a well-connected railway station
- Temporarily putting up a trailer on the land might be possible.

I have the skills, connections and time to build a simple, small and frugal eco home on this plot. Could be a nice project. More predictable than renovation, so easier on my dear wife's nerves. Near enough to be able to take the train or bicycle there.

Selling my current house would free up over 400k€ of locked up capital. Letting it would create a fairly inflation proof 1500€/m income stream, or initially 700€+/m after mortgage, maintenance and taxes.

I must present this idea to my wife...

[loutfard]

Mostly food update.

My wife loves vegetarian martino spread. It's fairly expensive at the supermarket, even though the ingredients are very cheap - mostly carrots. I improvised a diy version based upon a few recipes found online and what we had in our fridge. She loves it. About 1€/kg diy, compared to 11€/kg for the store bought one. About 72€ a year in recurring savings. Healthier. Customised to our own taste. In a glass jar if that's how we want it. What's not to like?

Chocolate. My wife is a chocolate lover. I suspect that might be what drew her to Belgium in the first place Our supermarket regularly runs a promo on big brand chocolate callets, chips usually used as an intermediate product for culinary hobbyists. 7€/kg for super high quality dark chocolate. Not the energy containing carbohydrate that some barbarians call chocolate. The real thing.

A recurring pattern is emerging of better food on a lower budget. I estimate all small efforts combined cut at least 3000€ off last year's food budget. That's 100k€ less early retirement portfolio required. My wife accepts and appreciates me leading by example on this. She sees a clear pattern and direction. This has helped open her mind on the far trickier subject of housing.

[loutfard]

Sigh. I've found a few interesting spots in a city 20 km from where we currently live:
- 50-70% cheaper as a rule, with some interesting very livable "ugly duck" properties even lower than that. Hardly any ugly ducks come on the market where we currently live. These have all been gentrified.
- safe and clean
- good public transport to where we currently live and she also works: 10 minutes by train, 3 times an hour until 11pm (1 am on weekends), and a 27 minutes by bus until 1am (2:30am on weekends). She has to go to the office only twice a week.

My wife has vetoed in seconds this with a simple "not enough things to do there". This adds to a long list of vetoes:
- not an appartment
- no renovations or very little
- not the 70 m² apartment on the empty top floor of my parents
- not the spot within 5' cycling distance from our current place because it's a bit too close to the railway
- no housemates
- no airbnb while we are away
- not the nearby city
- not in Brussels
- not the nearby countryside with an excellent public transport link

So the place must be:
- a house for the two of us
- with very little renovation work
- 60 - 70 m²
- within 3 km from where we currently live
- within 3 km from the railway station

I see very little room for living cost improvements with these parameters. I've asked her to suggest some alternatives, but her only "alternative" to the city center where we currently live is "the expensive suburb of this same city that I like". The opportunity cost for my personal portfolio is most of the returns on about 450k€ of equity I have in the place.

[Jean]

I think that's a way to ensure you'll blosom to your full career potential

my gf had similar wishes, but in addition, she wanted me to be able to stay at home.
I have no advice, but i imagine it's frustrating, and in that case, i can tell you that you're not alone. Hope that helps a little.
Time might make things easier.

[guitarplayer]

- 50-70% cheaper as a rule

wow, 50-70% is a big difference who such close proximity. What would you attribute this to?