Monolithic Dome Homes Offering

                      I am not endorsing this particular offering, because I am not in construction, and this is not what I do, but I did want to call it to your attention. It is indeed one of the housing options available to people, at least in certain areas.  In my own area, dome homes have not historically done well.  When it's time to resell, banks consider them risky and so they often resell, at least in Virginia for very little money.  When painting or repairs are necessary, finding the right contractor at least in Virginia, can be tough. My daughter considered a huge monolithic dome home with a basement when she was looking at pre-existing homes before her eventual purchase of a house. I loved it, but it wasn't her choice.



 Always do all of your own due diligence in any offering.  I do know that this will be of interest to some of you.


                        Author DW Pressler has announced that he is acting as the bank for a series of projects he is undertaking.  DW and his wife bought a number of lots in Florida for development.  His intention is to build monolithic concrete construction homes.

Directly from his post about these homes:

(These photos and the copy in large italicized print is the work product of DW Pressler)

The two bedrooms at the opposite end would also have a deck surrounding the entire structure.  Air Flow is crucial in a monolithic concrete structure so as to prevent high humidity that can cause mold and mildew.  This home if completed would have used dirt bermed on the sides for insulation.  Spray foam insulation in 1983 was both expensive and rarely used.  Today these homes will have up to 3 inches of 3lb closed cell foam applied to the exterior eliminating moisture and heat from touching the concrete while insulating.

No bearing walls is why these structures are considered indestructible.  This is the method of construction used by the Germans to build the bunkers on Normandy Beaches.  Those structures are still there after the Allies tried to bomb them in hopes of destroying them, they failed.  Post divorce the new owners began to tear down this structure.  First an excavator was hired and when the excavator bucket hit that gunite and rebar it bounced right back at the operator.  Second, a wrecking ball was brought in that too bounced off.  Finally concrete cut saws with carbide tips and this structure was cut down.  Six inches of gunite up to the 4 foot level tapering down to 4 inches at the top over #3 rebar every 12 inches.  Indestructible.

The Plan

You the buyer pick one of our lots in the Port Charlotte area (Fort Myers - Naples) on the west coast of Florida.  This area is the least expensive other locations in Florida are also available at a higher price.  20 acres south of Tallahassee, Rainbow Springs, Astor, Inglis, Marineland Acres, Inglewood, River Oaks East, Riverbend on the St Johns.  Your lot is possible but title to lot will be quit claimed to DRD Enterprises Inc of Davie if requesting my financing.
On our lots with $10,000 down and depending on extras and final cost of home approximately $1,000 per month for 10 years you own your home.  NO homeowners insurance is even more savings plus living close to off the grid in a home that you will not have to evacuate during whatever event comes.  

This home used port holes for windows but any style of window can be framed in and sealed once 3 inches of closed cell foam is applied to the exterior.
A 4 foot X 6 foot horizontal window was framed in on the first floor.  The main structure due to its arch strength allows a second story to be added either by concrete, wood, aluminum framing.  This structure if it had been completed would have had a deck encompassing the entire second level adding more living space.  Once your indestructible main structure is built adding additional modules is simple.  Due to no air leaks and exterior closed cell foam the interior then becomes a confined space and easily regulated with minimal used energy.  These homes will also include composting toilets (outlet for conventional toilet in foundation) and grey water system with a option for a cistern.

Gulf Access 

  SAVE $50,000 Pre Construction

 Inglis, Florida  Hudson Street

Will be going for permitting to build on one of our lots in Levy County, Florida  Inglis.  This lot has access to the Gulf of Mexico via Yankee Town.  Want to save and have input on floor plan and extras contact me and I will save you $50,000 from what this home will be sold for.  Remember Owner Financing No homeowners insurance saves you MONEY.


Cold Yet?  Come on down and live in Paradise without the fear of hurricanes and tornadoes.Monolithic Concrete Construction

_________________________________________________
  ( End of DW Pressler work product)

 He can be contacted at www.safedomes.com

David W Pressler      L 954 370 7944

Pitfalls in Preparedness: On Cars

                

This used car is for sale by owner.

            One of my adult kids has a job in finance. She has a perfectly acceptable car that is as reliable as anything else, and yet one of the frustrations of her job is that co-workers often tell her that her "car needs a tow truck" or its time to "go buy a new car".  It's as if buying a new car is an insulation to them against difficult financial times. If you have a new car, then you must be doing well. Looking as if you are doing well will help you continue to receive promotions or keep your job. This type of thinking is the equivalent of automotive magical thinking.  She used to simply accept this or make another joke, but it has become trying.  Yesterday, when someone she didn't know commented about her car as it sat next to a larger model BMW, she did.   "I'm going to make this quick" she said.   "#1, I have no car payment, and #2, my car gets 39 mpg.  In addition, I have decided to hold on to my house during the next financial collapse, how about you ?"   They didn't comment further.  Perhaps companies who are heavily invested in the perception of easily flowing money just can't think sensibly.

                     I have a lot of friends in the preparedness community who have bought vehicles they believe will help them with either rapid family evacuation or with looking the part of a survivalist.  First of all, any car you take on with a payment can be counterproductive to your preparedness. I suppose there are circumstances where buying an economical car on a short term payment that will be paid off quickly can make some sense, but a five or six year loan for a new vehicle cannot really be considered preparedness. About all you've done is become prepared to be poor in the days ahead, or become prepared to experience a repossession.  Remember that although it is your wish, you may or may not have fewer repair bills with a brand new vehicle. In addition, a car with a payment will necessitate a higher level of car insurance than you might buy otherwise. This is more money flying out of your household.  

                   Before buying a vehicle, do some consumer research.  You might want to seek a vehicle that has a six dollar oil filter rather than one with an oil filter that costs fifty.  Oil changes and filter changes add up.  Carefully analyze what you need a vehicle to do.  I need mine not only to have fairly good mileage per gallon of fuel, but I need it to have a good range.  I need it to go eight hundred miles between refuelings, and a few of them can.  Does your family of two really need an Escalade ?   What do you do with your vehicle ? What do you plan to do with your vehicle.

                 Next, take a look at your area used car dealers.  Some of them are scam brokers, but I know a few who aren't.  Some of them sell reliable vehicles that have been gone over with a fine tooth comb by a reliable mechanic. Sometimes this is your best alternative.  Does your area have a car auction ?   A couple of friends of my adult sons have done very well there also.  Take a look at Craigslist.  I have bought a back up farm vehicle and a couple of vehicles for kids on Craigslist from individuals.  So far, all the vehicles turned out to be excellent cars that were excellent buys.

                  Don't let the misperceptions of co-workers or neighbors make you feel that you need to overspend to keep up with their expectations.  Will they help you pay for that car when the economy collapses ? Will the company where you both work even be in business then ? Are they going to help pay for your food when your money for prepping continues to be diverted to that car payment ?

           Lastly, don't misallocate your assets.   If you're making thirty thousand dollars a year then you can't reasonably expect to buy a thirty thousand dollar car.  Whether you are a prepper or not, you shouldn't have all your assets in plastic and metal flying down an interstate highway in all weathers.  Cars are depreciating assets for the most part and they always will be.  Get what you need. Don't buy an eyesore, drug dealer's car, or a proverbial powdered do-nut cop magnet vehicle, but if your concerns are financial stability and preparedness, then don't overinvest in a vehicle either.    A car is a tool, a lot like a hammer, a mattress, a gun or anything else that is a consumer good.  Don't buy any of these things on impulse.

                    

Thoughts On Open Carry

Looks like an easy take to me, so long as you understand the holster release mechanism.

  Sometimes people with whom I am acquainted ask me why I have gone to the trouble of getting a concealed weapons permit. Why did I pay for and take classes, buy a specialized conceal carry holster, and pay for the license itself when I could have open carried my weapon all along ?   Sometimes I have answered flippantly and others I have answered seriously.  Sometimes I have said, "Because I am not a cop".  Other times I have simply told the truth which is a bit more complex. When one open carries you will be the first person the active shooter takes out. Not having a death wish, particularly when I am out and around with my kids, it makes sense to me to carry concealed.  Few expect a thin woman who could well be a simple housewife to be both armed and trained. Also, if I were to open carry, I am advertising that I not only have a weapon that could potentially be stolen and used not only on me, but on my family, as well.  I am also inadvertently advertising that I not only carry, but I carry a rather desirable weapon. I therefore never open carry, and I work hard to ensure that my concealed weapon is truly concealed.  This can be a tall order in Summer.

    On January 29, Newport News, Virginia police reported that a 37 year old man who was open carrying was forced to the ground by two African American assailants. They allegedly grabbed his gun from the holster and fled.   I have included the link below should you wish to see the assailants in the event that you believe you may recognize them.

     It is very important not to relinquish our weapon. We must all take as many precautions as possible in order to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.  Don't advertise your weapon by carrying openly. There are plenty of people stupid enough to risk being shot in order to obtain your weapon.   I like to believe that my situational awareness is good enough that anyone attempting such a thing would be shot in the broadest part of their torso. I cannot guarantee this, and so my weapon is always concealed.

        Please think about this.  Keep your family and others safe from others who would steal a weapon from a law abiding citizen.







http://www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-man-open-carry-gun-hip-robbed-newport-news-story.html

Why We Stopped Answering the Landline

          

    We have had a conventional telephone in our home for a long as we have been a household. When we built both of our farms,(one after the other) great consideration and planning was given to making sure that outlets existed in the places we would ultimately use phones, faxes or other devices. Sometimes, we have had two landlines, one for the household and another for my husband's business or for for farm business.

                  In the 1990s we got a couple of cell phones, not because we really used them, but because with a newly Type I diabetic child, we thought it prudent to be able to call for help, in the car, or anywhere else. At first, the cell phones were barely reliable. In the country we still have many places that are dead cell zones, or strangely automatic drop call zones.  As the years have passed the phones and the availability of cell sites have improved.  Today, all of our family has their own cell phones and we tend to call one another directly, while bypassing the landline. Months can pass before I actually need to make a call on the house landline.   We keep the house landline for a number of reasons.  First, the landline provides not only phone service, but sufficient electricity in the line to power phone service when the power is out.  Being able to call for help or report an outage is very important.  Secondly, the sheriff's office can immediately pinpoint the location of a 911 call, if we call them, and had to hang up.  A cell call can be triangulated for location, but not as easily and certainly not as quickly.  Thirdly, we have a coast to coast free call program with our landline which is quite cost effective.  I don't even mind the monthly fee we pay to the phone company to keep the number unlisted.
                There was a time when the security system here was connected to the landline phone, and would automatically call the sheriff's office.  Now, a wireless system to do the same exists.  The security system no longer depends upon the landline service.

               However, in the last couple of years I have rethought the landline phone.  Those creating databases of potential purchasers or mark,s no longer need a name with a number.  Calls are made in sequence and telemarkers or con artists will talk to anyone who answers.   We also get a huge number of calls from pollsters who want to know how we plan to vote in everything from primaries to presidential elections should they be held today.   I don't give opinions to people I don't know.  I don't talk to people who call and don't know the name of the people they have called.  I won't even talk to the NRA which calls incessantly to get additional funding and can't get my name or sex right.   So many calls we receive on the landline are time consuming and not really intended for us, that I no longer answer it.  Real calls come to my cell or to the cells of other family members.   Not answering the calls also has negative results.   I have an answering machine which picks up the first ten minutes worth of recorded messages.  I keep this because if the power goes out when we are away, we can call the house and if the answering machine message answers then the power is back.  We have a secondary voicemail through the phone company.  They pick up with a different message if our answering machine has ten minutes worth of messages or if the power is out.   It takes time to weed through both message venues. Calls can be so frequent that both message modes can be full in a week. The IRS scams I posted about clogged our landline message systems for a couple of weeks.

             Last year I made the mistake of looking into completing an additional college degree online.  When I reviewed details of the curriculum I found that this particular program would not be of interest to me, and so I have chosen against completing at this location.  On several occasions I indicated this.  I now receive five calls a week from a reputable university asking me when I wish to begin there.   No one seems to be able to successfully notate that I have passed on the opportunity.

This is the phone my parents began and ended their household with.  In all those years, it never malfunctioned. I replace mine, almost annually.

 

             So we have almost reached the point at which we can unplug the landline being almost assured that no one calling is legitimate or calling for something that might actually benefit us.   We keep the landline for the rare occasion in which we need to report a power outage, call 911, or call long distance free. We used to use long distance a great deal, but now with e-mail, not so much.  It is interesting to see the mode of communication that was so dear to me as a teen, fall into disuse, even in my own household.

            I still recommend you have and keep a household landline if possible, for the positive reasons I have mentioned above.  I hope you are enjoying the Information Age a bit more than I.