Hi friends,

The biggest lesson I’ve learned about building stuff is not to get too attached to your plans.

Case #1: If the tractor company delivers the small excavator on Friday night instead of the big one, you might as well wake up early on Saturday, buy Home Depot’s entire stock of conduit, transport it via Volvo, and work outside over a 105°F weekend to get it put in the ground.

However, when they deliver the right excavator the following weekend, you should get your money’s worth by living out your childhood dreams:

I also learned that it’s common to keep the keys underneath the cockpit floor mat. Just sayin’

Case #2: If you’re thinking about purchasing a sloped property, you should talk with a geotechnical engineer early. They may tell you lots of interesting facts about soil. They may also tell you that your structures will need to have certain setbacks from slopes, which might just throw a wrench into your site plan.

tl;dr; I’ve got to either make more space for my workshop via a huge retaining wall, or try some crazier designs (like moving it 10 feet up in the air). For more deets and and the basics of landslides, see my full article: Massing II: Revenge of the Slope

As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions, just reply to this email.

Best,

Kevin