If you had $4M, would you spend $2M of it building a house?

[dobig]

I see you didn't do the pool. That was our favorite addition we added 2 years ago. Our property has a gas well so the free gas for heating the pool made the difference. Taking a dip at 7 am on a cool fall morning with the pool at 88' is surreal. Looking at the pic I think we need to add an outside TV to the deck gazebo just so we can watch Jaws on some floats late at night. It gets so dark and quiet at night back in the woods I can imagine that feeling extra creepy.

 

[street]

To us living peacefully back in the woods is 'real livin'. Looking forward to hearing updates from the Op and interested to hear if it turns out to be everything they wished and hoped for.

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I agree 100% with your posts. You described well a private playground and vacation spot you live on full time. I can relate to that nothing more special then owning and enjoying a place like yours.

 

[rmcelwee]

How do you feel about emergency response if that should become necessary? We take that into account when we consider where we might move. Each of us has required an emergency trip to the ER. Nice to know it's reasonably quick. Also our emergency response personal and equipment are pretty much state of the art.

Without a doubt, that will be a necessary at some point. I rushed DW to the ER a month ago (turned out to be nothing) but the long very curvy drive at night was not optimal. I guess we will live like humans have for the past 500,000 years instead of how they lived for the past 50 years in that regard. I've known several people who would have been dead had it not been for rapid response. The trade off is I will get to watch the deer walk by my window as the massive heart attack takes my life.

Reminds me of the old joke - "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather — not screaming in terror like his passengers."

 

[rmcelwee]

I see you didn't do the pool. That was our favorite addition we added 2 years ago.

Very nice! If we were going to do a pool it would have been so much better to do it during the build instead of afterwards. I tell DW that I will just buy her one of those $200 inflatables at Walmart to put on the back porch. I actually am happy that we have not had the stress of one more thing to worry about during this build. The pool might have been the one thing that pushed us over the edge.

 

[street]

rmcelwee, What you are buying is an investment and just blowing dough. I see being just fine in buying what you want and you will be happy.

People die everyday of heart attacks and live in large cities and not far from the best hospitals on earth. I want to die with my boots on anyway.

 

[TripleLindy]

How do you feel about emergency response if that should become necessary? We take that into account when we consider where we might move. Each of us has required an emergency trip to the ER. Nice to know it's reasonably quick. Also our emergency response personal and equipment are pretty much state of the art.

While I probably should consider emergency response more, I put more emphasis on access to high quality care. There’s peace of mind in knowing that there are literally thousands of specialists in every field in our area, along with the proper facilities for treatment. Having been through multiple ortho procedures and with another one on the way, I appreciate that I have a selection of highly qualified experts to choose from.

 

[dobig]

Without a doubt, that will be a necessary at some point. I rushed DW to the ER a month ago (turned out to be nothing) but the long very curvy drive at night was not optimal. I guess we will live like humans have for the past 500,000 years instead of how they lived for the past 50 years in that regard. I've known several people who would have been dead had it not been for rapid response. The trade off is I will get to watch the deer walk by my window as the massive heart attack takes my life.

Reminds me of the old joke - "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather — not screaming in terror like his passengers."

Brother, the stuff you and me will see and experience is more than worth that extra year we might live bedridden with a bunch of tubes sticking in us because we got to the hospital on time.

We bought our place from the estate of a man who passed away after a tough battle with cancer. Apparently in his final days he made a mad dash from the hospital so he could take one more ride around his beloved woods. He got it.

 

[Koolau]

Without a doubt, that will be a necessary at some point. I rushed DW to the ER a month ago (turned out to be nothing) but the long very curvy drive at night was not optimal. I guess we will live like humans have for the past 500,000 years instead of how they lived for the past 50 years in that regard. I've known several people who would have been dead had it not been for rapid response. The trade off is I will get to watch the deer walk by my window as the massive heart attack takes my life.

Reminds me of the old joke - "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather — not screaming in terror like his passengers."

Yeah, it's a calculated risk, I suppose. We live in a bedroom community a bit further from ER help than living "down town", so, again, a calculated risk. The good news in our situation? We are close to a fire station with complete ambulance service. When DW went into cardiac "distress" the ambulance was there in 5 minutes and had her hooked up to monitors with telemetry to the hospital ER. Turns out it was A-Fib with tachycardia. Much more scary than dangerous as it turned out.

 

[dobig]

Very nice! If we were going to do a pool it would have been so much better to do it during the build instead of afterwards. I tell DW that I will just buy her one of those $200 inflatables at Walmart to put on the back porch. I actually am happy that we have not had the stress of one more thing to worry about during this build. The pool might have been the one thing that pushed us over the edge.

The hot tub is for the back porch. In winter that was our second favorite investment.

 

[AudiDudi]

The hot tub is for the back porch. In winter that was our second favorite investment.

Nothing like sitting outside in the hot tub when it's 5 deg outside watching the stars and your hair freezes. Then the 10 ft walk thru a couple inches of snow in your barefeet to get back inside.

 

[dobig]

Nothing like sitting outside in the hot tub when it's 5 deg outside watching the stars and your hair freezes. Then the 10 ft walk thru a couple inches of snow in your barefeet to get back inside.

Yup.

 

[Koolau]

Nothing like sitting outside in the hot tub when it's 5 deg outside watching the stars and your hair freezes. Then the 10 ft walk thru a couple inches of snow in your barefeet to get back inside.

Aren't there spas that charge extra for you to leave the hot tub to dive into the snow? Not my idea of fun - or health, but I guess some call it "invigorating." Heh, heh, so is a cold shower and that's free.

 

[AudiDudi]

Aren't there spas that charge extra for you to leave the hot tub to dive into the snow? Not my idea of fun - or health, but I guess some call it "invigorating." Heh, heh, so is a cold shower and that's free.

I believe there are those type of spas. Your body retains enough temporary heat that the snow does not feel cold, nor the outside temp - for a few seconds

 

[Jerry1]

Without a doubt, that will be a necessary at some point. I rushed DW to the ER a month ago (turned out to be nothing) but the long very curvy drive at night was not optimal. I guess we will live like humans have for the past 500,000 years instead of how they lived for the past 50 years in that regard. I've known several people who would have been dead had it not been for rapid response. The trade off is I will get to watch the deer walk by my window as the massive heart attack takes my life.

Reminds me of the old joke - "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather — not screaming in terror like his passengers."

I was looking a property in near Asheville and went a little further away from the town. We saw a business chamber of commerce building and stopped in for a chat about the area. Yada yada, and eventually I asked about the nearest hospital. There wasn't one close. I asked, what do you do in an emergency. I'll never forget the response I got. She said "you know, some people just don't make it." She couldn't have been more matter of fact about it if she tried. There's a whole lot of people in this country and on this earth that are not at all close to emergency services. Still, I do prefer the proximity to an ER that my current abode affords me.

 

[NW-Bound]

I was looking a property in near Asheville and went a little further away from the town. We saw a business chamber of commerce building and stopped in for a chat about the area. Yada yada, and eventually I asked about the nearest hospital. There wasn't one close. I asked, what do you do in an emergency. I'll never forget the response I got. She said "you know, some people just don't make it." She couldn't have been more matter of fact about it if she tried. There's a whole lot of people in this country and on this earth that are not at all close to emergency services. Still, I do prefer the proximity to an ER that my current abode affords me.

When I bought my 2nd home in the high country 21 years ago, we liked it so much that we thought we would live there in retirement, and sold our metropolitan home. Only in the 2nd week of staying there, I realized the nearest hospital was 40 miles away. That would be where we would get grocery, have medical services, etc... Ugh.

And my neighbors up there who had been living there for 25 years are now near 90. They both develop problems over the years of course. She had to go to another larger town to see a cardiac specialist 134 miles away. That's still closer than going to the metropolitan area. And the husband could no longer drive, and she had to drive herself.

 

[Koolau]

I believe there are those type of spas. Your body retains enough temporary heat that the snow does not feel cold, nor the outside temp - for a few seconds

Heh, heh, I step out of the shower and feel cold!

 

[skyking1]

We are two hours drive or 1.5 including a ferry ride from Seattle and all that medical stuff.
Also a 20 minute life flight ride and they have a helicopter based at the local hospital. We will pay the insurance for that.
Membership - Air and Ground Medical Coverage - Life Flight Network

 

[Koolau]

We are two hours drive or 1.5 including a ferry ride from Seattle and all that medical stuff.
Also a 20 minute life flight ride and they have a helicopter based at the local hospital. We will pay the insurance for that.
Membership - Air and Ground Medical Coverage - Life Flight Network

Yeah, one reason we never really considered any other Island than Oahu was the need for air ambulance for any serious emergency. Just a few years back, one of our air ambulance providers lost a plane. Likely cause was crew disorientation.