Stampie's Grosh Mahal

Congrat's bro .....will we be seeing you in an upcoming episode of ' Homestead Rescue' staring Marty Raines and the crew in the not to distant future?.............just goofing YOU got this be careful

Ok I'm back in Jacksonville.  First let's update the list of piorities.

1) Ditch culvert.  While it doesn't look bad I actually hit the bumper on the Suburban coming out today.  Might do a temp something or go perm.

2) Better E36 M3 accommodations.  Let's just say it's hard to look at your phone while you hover over a hole.  I'll integrate solar/battery and rain water collection.

3) Internet.  Will probably do a phone and simple solar in a acrylic tube up in a tree.   There was a big difference between 3 feet off the ground and 6 so 30 should be great.

4) Sleep/Storage.  Still thinking about this.

Now the back story that I promised.

A few years ago Lil Stampie, Grandma Stampie, and I were just sitting around talking and somehow a shop came up.  We talked a little and I did a quick design but then looking at it said that if I were going that far it would make sense to go all out.  It planted a seed in my mind and I casually looked for properties around Jacksonville.  About a year ago I decided that I already own this house so maybe I should just build a shop in the backyard and be done with it.  That turned into a design that took up 90% of my backyard, had me moving cars around on wheel dollies and finally I said there's no way the city will let me do that.

I continued to look in Jax for land but it was way out of my budget.  One day I said you know I could move a little outside Jax so let's look at 301 (State road to the west of Jax).  Damn land out there was expensive also but I kept looking south on 301 until I got to Gainesville.  All of a sudden land got way more reasonable.  I text Dyintorace and he was very encouraging about the area.  He's been major help this whole time.  I can only assume he wants me to move there so that property values will go down.

I quickly came up with about 5 properties that were good.  One really stood out but it was of course the most expensive.  A month or so later I noticed that property disappeared from the listings.  While at the Challenge in October I thought you know it's not far from here we should go look at it on the way out.  A quick stop and there's still a realtor sign at the road.  I took a picture and a few days later called and left a voicemail.  With spam callers and such if I'm leaving a voicemail for someone that doesn't know me I'll normally text them also explaining why I called.  Got nothing until a few days later I get a text back saying that the property had wetlands and only about 1 acre was buildable out of the 8.72.  Then "hard sell".  I expressed my interest and asked if I could walk the property.  This was early in the week and that Thursday Hurricane Nicole was passing over the area.  I really wanted to see how the property drained but she didn't get back to me by Friday so I drove down to at least look at it from the road.  I get there and can see the creek on the neighbor's property draining.  Ditch is a wet but not bad from the road.  Since I didn't have permission to walk it I drove back to Jax only to get an email from her that afternoon saying that I could walk it.  Damn it.

Next week she says that she has a wetland report and other stuff she can send me.  I tell her that I'm going back that Friday so it'd be great to look at them.  No word from her so I go back and walk it this time.  It's pretty dry but I can see where water is pooling in areas.  Sure enough after I get home she sends me the wetlands report and a survey.  I'm interested so I call the wetlands report people and discuss it some.  They'd have to do a final assessment and that would take 2 weeks once I gave them a deposit.  I figure things are going well so I try contacting the agent again and get ghosted.  I'm like wtf I'm trying to make her money and I get nothing.  Suspecting that she doesn't have the listing anymore I ask her.  Nothing.

One day at work my customers (husband and wife) happen to be realtors.  I mentioned my problem and they said I should call her office and ask for the listing agent (I might have that term wrong but basically the head person).  I call week after Christmas and he's out of office so I leave a voicemail.  Nothing.  Week later I call again and he's on the phone but I can leave another voicemail.  I explain that I had done that the week before and not gotten a response.  Nice lady ask if maybe she could help.  I think f it let's see.  I explain that I'm interested in the property but at this point I'm wondering if it is even listed still.  I tell her that I understand the issues with the property but I think I'm the perfect buyer for a property with those issues.  I hang up not expecting much.  Have I told you guys that I'm stubborn?

What do you know?  Couple of hours later I get a text saying that she's sorry she didn't notice my other texts.  Ok let's move on.  I tell her that I'm interested and can she see if the seller still wants to sell.  She said she would try to contact them and find out.  A week later she says that yes they would sell at $70k.  I think it over the weekend and come back at $65k and the realtor says she thinks it can be done.  She contacts me the next day and says that will work and sends me a formal offer sheet.  Some minor things but ends up I get 60 days with every out in the world on my end.  Great lets get things started.  I contact the wetlands people and give them a go ahead.  I contact the surveyor and ask if they can update the survey once the wetlands are finalized and we're good.  

Enter the county environmental lady.  I get an email from the realtor saying I should talk to this lady about the property.  I email the lady and pretty quickly get an email back saying that she really is glad I contacted her.  I got a feeling that she was holding back in her email.  I give her my number and got a call a few minutes latter.  She began with what I call the come to Jesus speech.  She explains that there's wetlands, that it's in a special area of the county that they want to protect and leave as natural as possible.  Basically tells me enough that any reasonable person would say yep I'm outta here.  I start telling her what I want to do to the property.  Tell her that I want to keep it wooded.  That I wanted to build off grid.  Wasn't planning on a well and other than my house and shop was going to leave it like it was because that's what I liked about it.  I remember her saying "people don't normally come to us with ideas like this" and she meant it in a good way.

She and I walked the property a couple of weeks later and there was some give and take but it went well.  I even thanked her as I figure she scared off the other potential buyers and allowed me to get it way cheaper.  I get the wetlands assessment back and the final survey.  Build area is tighter but still doable.  A couple of weeks ago I give the go ahead and ask to move up the closing.  It got moved to Wednesday and you guys know the rest.

In reply to Stampie :

Congratulations you stubborn S.O.B.

In reply to Stampie :

Nope. I want you to move here so I can learn how to enter half-Challenge cars!

Sorry I missed you... work got nuts.

In reply to dyintorace :

That's easy.  Hit the for sale section every 5 minutes.  If something comes up say "I'll take it!" and then figure out how to get said Piece half way across the country and running.

In reply to a_florida_man :

No biggie.  There'll be plenty of times in the future.  All you missed was me freezing my ass off and E36 M3ting in the woods.

Congrats.  Having a shop makes all the difference in the world.

Congrats man. I love Tampa, but I'm ready to run back north. This place is getting waaaaaay too crowded for me. 

This is exciting! Great work with the Bureaucrat.   

Thanks for adding the back story, really great to hear!

vicariously subbing. 

It's Camp Stampie!!!

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

It's Camp Stampie!!!

Today's activities:

9am How to identify wild game tracks on your property
10am Distilling 101
11am Designing your own off-grid solar-powered bathroom
noon How to reheat food without a microwave
1pm Identifying resellable parts when walking the JY
2pm Rebuilding a quadrajet 101
3pm nap time
4pm Clean the drainage ditch
5pm Pick a project car to work on tonight
9pm Whiskey round the fire

In reply to hobiercr :

You ain't right but way to accurate.

Here's my temp bath design.  Put some solar on the roof and use the same roof to collect rain water.  It doesn't give a lot of area.  If I just have a 4x8 roof it'll get ~70 gallons of water a month.  So I'll either extend the roof larger with overhangs or use the temp living quarters roof also or both.

Yes I know I have a water tank on my composting toilet but how else you supposed to know that it's a toilet vs just a sink like oval? Also last night I text the neighbor scraper to look out for some sinks.

Idea for E36 M3 accommodation...

I know this won't sound creative or grassroots, but it's a viable solution that is really quick..

Have you considered a temporary Port-O-John?

We rent them regularly for construction job sites. It's usually about $75 per month.  They keep it clean- that would include weekly cleaning service. 
 

I know it's not as creative, but it would be a simple solution in the short term. 

So, question: In going off grid, how are you going to power this shop? Generator? Go full Colin Chapman, and use only hand powered drills and such? Solar?

Incredibly neat thing you're doing, by the way.  What's your work commute going to look like?  Are you going to maintain another residence? How is insurance working-I'd have the fear that you're on a flood plain, and thus uninsurable.

I'm watching with interest.

I need to move.....need a bigger workspace!

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

I'll power with solar/battery.  I hope to do it in a way that it's no different than a grid connect house.  Meaning I'm not going to be running around turning off lights behind people.  I'll have 240 but most of my stuff is battery hand tools.  Right now I'm in employment limbo so commute can be anything.  I'm not totally sure on timeline but for now I plan on keeping my Jacksonville house.  Long term plan I'll sell it and move to Gainesville full time.  Flood plain was one of the issues limiting space on the property.  I'm guessing half the property is 100 year and the other half is 500 year.  The problem is the wetlands and their setback takes around 75% of the 500 year flood plain area.

In reply to Stampie :

Interesting. I got married to air tools so long ago that I forget how viable battery systems are now. Admittedly, I sort of figured you'd be ham strung being solar only,but I'm not really up on the viability of modern solar and house batteries.

So, is a cistern off the shop roof in the plan?

I had experience with an eco toilet back in my Colorado days that was a large box containing vanes that rotated every now and then to stir up the E36 M3, and needed no water, and at worst, infrequent draining. You had to walk up a small set of stairs to get up on the thing, and it was weird when the vanes activated, but compared to an outhouse, smelled really nice, and was a good solution to the no water problem. (This may be exactly what you are planning, or you may have a better solution, just rambling, really.)

This is gonna be so cool, congrats stampie! If I may ask, why separate buildings instead of like, one single big one like those barndominiums? Looks? 

Stampie said:

It's done. Now I can go get naked in the middle of my 8 acres. 

BE SELF-SUFFICIENT, BE YOUR OWN CRYPTID

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Currently I plan on a 16x16 "utility shed" right off the shop. It'll house a 2000ish gallon water tank and the solar electronics. Mr. Joshua turned me onto electric car battery cells. You can get 5.3kw Tesla cells for easy under $1k each. Toilet wise I'm still looking. Kinda leaning towards a bucket under a panel with a normal seat bolted down. I'm not a fancy type but I'm still looking at stuff. 

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

Several things. I want my home life separate from the shop life. To the point I'm planning the house so that you can't easily see the shop. I'm also not wanting shop smells in the house. Lastly it looks like the shop will be in the 100 year flood plain because of space. 

How does cistern water work? Will you need to have a filter system after collection?

In reply to Norma66-Brent :

Some pre tank filter and some post.  My plan in a nutshell is first run off diverter to get the first dirty water off the roof not going into the tank.  Then I'll go into a centrifuge type filter.  Basically a 55 gallon drum.  Input angled so that it goes along  the wall and slightly down.  Output is a 90 elbow pointed up at the top of the drum and in the middle.  After that dump into large water tank.  Take off with a well pump feeding several cartridge filters then hitting a UV filter.  That should do it.

I good friend of mine has built a lot of cisterns down in the islands. One thing I remember him mentioning was that he split the volume needed into two separate tanks. That way when its time to do maintenance you only lose half your water storage at a time.  The systems he made were basically concrete boxes under the houses.