Milton

[Jake Larsen]

Yes, It was totally ridiculous. This place was really tall, really steep roofs with a lot of zigs and zags - the roofline above and on the garage below had to have framing modified to flow together right, a first floor arched walk through had to be built under it, which required moving windows, lots of stucco, paver design had to be redone leading up to the new walkthrough, all new copper gutters had to be fabricated for 2nd floor and the deck, modifications on every part we touched were pretty crazy. We hated every minute of it since everything was tedious - the neighbor saw it and wanted to do the same thing - we told the contractor only if we’d get twice as much, and one coworker said nope, not at any price would he work on another. Lol

Funny enough I am currently working for a guy that sounds remarkably similar. We’ve been building for 4 years on this place. Sunk 18mil into his “ranch” so far, still chugging along. These guys exist, it’s just hard for me to wrap my head around there being enough people like this to drive the micro economics of the housing market in an entire sub region.


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[TaperPin]

Funny enough I am currently working for a guy that sounds remarkably similar. We’ve been building for 4 years on this place. Sunk 18mil into his “ranch” so far, still chugging along. These guys exist, it’s just hard for me to wrap my head around there being enough people like this to drive the micro economics of the housing market in an entire sub region.

Yep, I’m always amazed at money. I know a few guys in Colorado that were small contractors and in both cases the hobby ranches grew large enough the wealthy owners made them an offer to be a personal contractor to live and work on the ranches full time. It seems if there is a big main house and at least a ranch manager’s house, bunk house for hired help, mother in law house, and a few guest houses, that it makes it financially viable to build another house for the full time contractor/carpenter. It sure seemed like a good gig - mostly remodeling, but maybe 1/3 new square footage. You’d have to really get along well to become an employee and move onto the property! Lol

 

[Loper]

Without insurance companies, none of it would exist. I wonder about the future of those kinds of places…at what point does the cost of insuring one of those properties go up enough that the construction loans lose their viability?

I can’t help but wonder if some of these insurance companies are getting some kind of assistance from FEMA when these natural disasters hit.

We need a moratorium on developing and building in our state. I’m not opposed to growth but damn they really need to fix more of the infrastructure before they keep going. They got to do something about this flooding. The Withlacoochie is still rising days after Milton. Sorry to get on a soapbox. I love this state but when I retire in 8 years we’re gone.

I agree. The building / development / sprawl is getting way out of hand and needs to stop before all of the state is permanently ruined. Once a building or road is built on undeveloped land it will never go back to what it was. Sometimes I think about running for public office with the same motto as John Dutton from Yellowstone, “I am the opposite of progress”.