I went to the town council to ask a few questions about handing this in and came away with a lot more information than I bargained for. Just as well because otherwise we would have had to wait to get the same feedback after we had already handed everything in but man, is this a lot of bureaucracy!

Overall Requirements

• We now need to change the name on the process from the previous name to our name
  • This in itself is a whole other ball game and needs a separate issue
• For handing in the projects, each project needs:
  • Not just the plans but 4-7 supporting documents such as calculations etc which were not specified at all in the letter the town council sent originally 🤦‍♀️
  • Each document has to be digitally signed by the technician/architect who is accountable for it (using their ID card)
  • Each document must have the correct 3-4 letter prefix to the document name, as established in a long excel document from the town council
  • All projects much be handed in on a CD and cannot be emailed in (❗️) and named as required

Ensure these are in hard copy:

• Requerimento to change the name
• Requerimento for the project filing
• Copy of CMB's original letter

Tasks

• Change of name for process
  • Fill out Requerimento to change the name
    • Fill in everything I know how to fill in
    • Fill in ARU (awaiting confirmation from architect)
  • Gather documents for changing of name
    • Notarised marriage certificate because of my own name change last year
    • Documentos que confira legitimidade - awaiting confirmation from lawyer on exactly what is needed here
    • "Certidão de registo predial" - Awaiting confirmation from lawyer that this is the same as the certidão permanente do registo predial which I have a copy of
    • "Certidão de registo Comercial (Constituição de sociedade)" - Awaiting confirmation from lawyer this is not necessary
• Fill out Requerimento for the project filing
  • Fill in everything I know how to fill in
  • Fill in section on date of architecture approval and phase of construction -Awaiting confirmation from architect
• Gather documents for projects
• Organise documents into correct folders
• Ensure each document has the correct prefix
• Ensure each document has the correct name (ours and not previous process name)
• Ensure each document has been digitally signed by the relevant technician
• Print hard copy of requerimento & sign
  + [ ] Scan up hard copy with wet signatures
• Ensure requerimento docs are in CD folder
• Burn CD
• Compile and hand into town council!

Second round of Tasks

Following a first response from the town council, the following need to be done for the additional projects demanded by the town council:

• External works: awaiting alterations from February to come in for review and agreement
  • Review project when it comes in
  • Requested changes made and approved
• Stability project:
  • Get budget
  • Agree work
  • Review project when it comes in
• Electromechanical project:
  • Get budget
  • Get information from pool people on machinery
  • Agree work
  • Review project when it comes in
• Gas project:
  • Get budget
  • Agree work
  • Review project when it comes in
  • Requested changes made and approved
• Water works:
  • Get budget
  • Agree work
  • Review project when it comes in
• Fill out new form for CMB (town council): https://www.cm-braga.pt/pt/0502/municipio/camara-municipal/apoio-ao-cidadao/requerimentos/item/item-1-8954/download (requerimento de junção de elementos)
• Confirm all projects are as per the form, print out form, sign and scan back up to digital
• Print out 2 'empty' copies of the form with just the key information filled out in case there is an error in how I have filled it out (can still sign new ones, scan them and burn the CD at the town council, but will have no access to a printer)
• Compile everything onto a CD (including scanned form)
• Hand in to town council

Last couple of projects

As per #44 (comment)

• Print out requerimento (I had already fully prepped this for the engineer to hand in)
• Sign requerimento
• Scan signed requerimento
• Review all electromechanical project documents
• Prepare all electromechanical project documents for CD
• Prepare all stability project documents for CD
• Burn CD with requerimento

Spreadsheet to track all project statuses for handing in: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JTJSRixoEBSfxUrZE-9k4-w9IzYnSPXHXi8v6EZg0JA/edit#gid=726363784

^{From http://www.grantland.net/}

We are purposefully working to renovate an _existing house rather than building a new one from scratch (which we have now proved would be just as costly if not cheaper and certainly much more convenient for us) and we have jumped through many a bureaucratic hoop in the process.

We finally got our architecture approved in September 2018 after having our plans for a gorgeous health-centred roof garden rejected (because it 'wasn't congruent with the rest of the landscape of the street' - this isn't the case but not a point to be argued any more) and having to resubmit our application. Note that the changes to be approved were: one tiny dining room extension (literally an extra 3m² and window sizing for half a dozen windows.
Approvals took 9 months with us having to work on the plans for 5 months before that because requirements changed and more information was needed than ever before (for example, internal changes don't have to be approved by the council, but these plans were requested anyway).

This approval has now come with a catch: a request for a further 12 projects that would have to be commissioned and paid for even if there was no change in that area (as an example, qualified personnel charge around €200 just for providing a request for exemption from a project requirement, let alone when a project actually needs to be created).

This epic holds all of the required projects and their status:

it would be useful for us to collect examples of Application Forms for people joining Co-living spaces to see what types of questions are commonly being asked.
Additionally it would be good to select one or two unusual but ultra-insightful questions
e.g: nelsonic/nelsonic.github.io#231

Nest in Copenhagen looks good: http://nestcopenhagen.dk/peek-inside
http://nestcopenhagen.dk/apply/


As usual, attention to detail is not the focus ...

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Pay close attention to the intent of the people running "Nest" ...
When they ask people what "size" of room they would like,
the <label> is "Which room size would you prefer in NEST?"
but the underlying podio form reveals the true purpose of this question:
what-is-the-most-you-are-able-to-pay-for-a-room-in-nest

The creators of Nest are clearly "filtering" for people who can afford to pay more.
The cheapest room is 5500 DK (which at the time of writing is €737 ...

this is relatively affordable for Copenhagen ...
where prices range from €400 to €1400/month depending on area...
see: https://international.kk.dk/artikel/what-are-typical-housing-costs )
https://housinganywhere.com/s/Copenhagen--Denmark

We will have 100% Transparent pricing and it will be both nationally and internationally affordable.

Following on from: #34 (comment)

We had a conversation with the electricians on-site and spoke about buying a step down power supply to test with the doors and so that the electricians can bring a sample electrical box to try at the house 👍

@iteles given that you/we have been #accepted to be in Startup School 2018! 🎉
what are your thoughts on going out to California for a Week in October (the week after Hamburg)
to meet/visit the YC peeps and visit other co-living/co-working spaces e.g RGB house #3

I would organise everything including flights, connections, accommodation and "activities" ...
(similar to the last time you went to US to visit me while I was still working for Groupon...)

I saw your post on Hacker News regarding your co-living space in Braga. I will be passing through Braga today and am curious about the neighborhood of the building. What is the address?

One of our Key goals @home is to be 100% Carbon Neutral and Energy Independent¹. 🎉
We will partly achieve this goal by having an array of Solar Panels #20 on the roof. 🏡 ☀️
This is fine during the day (and great on sunny days!) but as we all (hopefully) know useless at night! 🌃

If you're unfamiliar with Powerwall, watch: Fully Charged Tesla Powerwall 2: youtu.be/nWLzlrGGuxQ
The product page is quite informative and they have their own videos: tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall
A relevant/unbiased article on battery storage and Powerwall economics:
https://www.energysage.com/solar/solar-energy-storage/tesla-powerwall-home-battery/

While living in rainy London, I read many articles (both "media" and academic papers) and watched all the videos I could on energy storage² and concluded that at present the best price per kWh stored and value-for-money system (including the good App/interface) is Tesla's system! According to many reviews online the system has an excellent battery management system (BMS) which means that capacity does not decline significantly with age, so the "useful life" of 15-years

I have estimated that we will need Two Powerwall units for a total of 24kWh overnight capacity.

We will be ordering the units from Tesla in Portugal: https://www.tesla.com/pt_PT/powerwall

(obvs we are not going to put our battery investment outside the building...)


Specs in Portuguese:

Investment Payback Period?

Assuming that at "full capacity" we will drain the 24kWh stored in the Powerwall each night,
and a kWh price of €0.1649: https://www.edp.pt/particulares/energia/tarifarios/

And 200h/month (average) sunshine hours. (200 hours x 12 months / 365 days =) 6.58h/day

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-hours-Sunshine,braga,Portugal

On average it rains on 157 days each year. (note: most of the time it's not continuous rain like in England! more like intermittent showers and then the sky clears! Winter is actually relatively sunny!!)
https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainy-days,braga,Portugal

Conservatively, we should be able to collect enough energy from our PV cells to power the house during the day and fully charge the batteries for 200 days of the year.

Note: the sun still shines when it's overcast and solar panels still collect quite a lot of energy.
But for simplicity's sake, let's assume 200 days per year.

The "back of the envelope" calculations are: 200 days x 24 kWh x €0.1649 = €791.52 per year.
If the Powerwalls cost us €15k to install, it will take (15000/791.52 =) 19 Years to "pay off"!! 😮
(this does not factor our "cost of capital" which is currently 2% interest)

This is the "worst case" where there is zero sun for 157 days per year.
Obviously that does not happen. So a more realistic calculation is using 300 days:
300 days x 24 kWh x €0.1649 = €1187.28 per year. or (15000/1187.28 =) 13 Years "pay back".

Obviously these numbers aren't great from a purely financial investment perspective.
Investing the same cash in a portfolio of tech stocks will deliver a significantly higher return!!
So we need to "make the case" for "being the change we want to see" ...
and decide when to make the investment. (see "Next Action" below)

If you want to understand this calculation in more detail, consider watching this video:
Payback period for Tesla PowerWall 2 and 5kW Solar Array: 10 Years (conservatively)

https://youtu.be/Sc1rPLhkLQc

Baring in mind that we will have considerably more people in the house than the "average family"
I feel that 3 x 4KW is the minimum we should go for in terms of Solar Panels.
Note: Electricity Cost in PT is more than double that of Australia (11 cents/KWh vs 23 cents/KWh!)
So the cost of using "Grid" Power in PT is much higher see:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/418111/electricity-prices-for-households-in-portugal

The cost of Electricity might come down in PT in the future
given that "Wholesale" prices have dropped last year (because of the "renewables glut"):
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2018/04/12/portugal-renewables-are-driving-down-electricity-prices

But I would not "count" on the prices coming down in PT because EDP basically has a Monopoly ...
Further reading: https://smartexpat.com/portugal/how-to-guides/home/services/electricity

Next Action

• Determine when the appropriate time to make this investment decision is ...
  • baring in mind that we don't need to have the batteries installed at "launch" because nobody will book a stay @home on the basis of us having solar power storage and €15k is quite a lot to pony up before we need 24kWh over night!
  • my suggestion is that we re-visit this in April 2019 after we reach "capacity" and have had chance to gauge our energy usage over the winter months.

Note: my strong preference would be to use a Redflow ZCell (Zinc Bromide Flow Batteries)
Watch: Fully Charged Redflow ZCell batteries: https://youtu.be/4OHstY_kKUY
Read: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/can-redflows-home-flow-battery-really-beat-lithium-ion
Product Page: https://redflow.com/products/redflow-zcell
Sadly, at the time of writing (a) ZCell does not ship to Portugal (and there are no distributors in the country!) and (b) ZCells are more expensive than Tesla's Powerwalls.
But in "Phase Two" I will be using "Flow" Batteries for sure because Lithium is (relative) scarce!

¹Our plan is to combine Solar Panels with Energy Storage (initially in the form of Tesla Powerwalls, hence this issue) to capture enough energy during the day to power everything in the house and store enough to power to use at night. Once the Power Walls are fully charged we will supply the surplus solar power back to the Grid so we may end up being a net exporter of power. (TBD!)
We are fully aware that sun does not shine all year, so we'll be supplementing our on-premises Solar with Grid power from EDP Renewables edpr.com/en €0.16/kWh which comes from Hydro and Wind. Our reasoning for not relying 100% on the grid for power is three-fold: (a) demand for electricity is going to sky-rocket in the next 5-10 years with the accelerated adoption of electric vehicles (thanks Elon, Nissan/Renault, Hyundai, etc!) so we want to do our part in not straining the grid. (b) we are very keen on Energy Independence both from a resilience and security perspective. Finally, (c) We plan to have an Electric Smart Car (or similar "budget" electric city runabout vehicle, e.g: Zoe or Leaf ...) for people living in the house to use for short trips. This is a totally separate issue/decision, but it's "on the horizon" and we're planning for it!

²@dwyl we pitched to work with/for an Renewal Energy company and in addition to my natural curiosity for renewables I did a "deep dive" into the sector while preparing our proposal and pitch "deck" ... dwyl/hq#417 at the time this could have been my "Mastermind Specialist Subject" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(TV_series)#Specialist_subjects ...
I still retain much of the info in memory, so feel free to "quiz" me on it if you are curious! 😉

https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-1-office-perk-natural-light
via/comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17916582

It's fairly obvious that natural light is a must for home.
This HRB article offers nothing more than confirmation that people rate it highly in their choice of where to work and asserts that natural light is the biggest single contributor to workplace satisfaction, engagement and effectiveness.

The article mentions "The Spheres" see:
https://blog.aboutamazon.com/sustainability/bringing-the-spheres-green-walls-to-life

Amazon's "showcase" work environment in Seattle which looks really nice on the surface and is great for PR but where less than 1% of their employees actually work because most of staff work in sealed warehouses with zero natural light ... https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-share-their-horror-stories-2018-4

related to #8 Plants!

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/08/31/loneliness-is-pervasive-and-rising-particularly-among-the-young

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/exhausted-new-parents-turning-to-nap-pods-in-london-in-order-to-catch-up-on-sleep-a3926981.html
Does anyone else see any issue with this...? 😕

Besides the fact that this "article" is blatantly "Advertorial" ... 🙄

Sub-issue of #16 (comment) (Sauna)

Final tasks as of Dec-2019

• Fixing snags #20 (comment)
• Final EDP paperwork [dependency on #70 being completed]
• Get application hooked up for solar panels [dependency on having the internet working]
• DAPE to finish configuration of equipment remotely

Context

home is based in a city centre with good infrastructure. 🌇 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braga
We have access to the National Grid which provides a reliable/consistent supply.
We don't need to tie up capital on Solar Panels and storage (batteries) up-front
because there is no shortage of electricity in the Portugal - many other countries have regular/prolonged power cuts ... e.g Eskom's "planned blackouts" in South Africa: 🌍🔌🚫😕
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-31126033/south-africa-faces-power-crisis-and-blackouts

Portugal Renewable Energy Facts 🌬

Investment in renewable energy, specifically wind has been relentless!
In the 10 years from 2003 to 2013 wind generation capacity grew from 0.3GW to 4.73GW; 16x!

But the generation capacity does not even tell the "full story", the (annual) electricity generated by wind is even more impressive: from 0.48TWh to 12,19TWh; 25x!!

We will discuss the "grey area" (fossil fuels) below, these graphs are to contextualise the headlines.
The thicker grey line indicating consumption is significant; it shows the point (in 2015) when Portugal became a Net Exporter of Electricity.
For all the stats/metrics and ratios of consumption, export and efficiency, see:
https://tradingeconomics.com/portugal/energy-imports-net-percent-of-energy-use-wb-data.html

Headlines?

There is no shortage of headlines stating that Portugal generated over 100% of energy demand from renewables. e.g: Renewable energy generated 104% of Portugal's electricity consumption in March
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-renewable-energy-generated-electricity-consumption-march-greenhouse-gas-environment-a8289656.html

But this headline is deeply misleading. (bordering on "fake news"...)

Actual Energy Production:

The annual breakdown of energy production is far less than 100%:
https://www.apren.pt/contents/publicationsreportcarditems/12-renewable-electricity-in-portugal.pdf

• https://www.ren.pt/pt-PT/quem_somos/facts_and_figures/
• https://www.apren.pt/en/renewable-energies/production
• http://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/17-8652_GSR2018_FullReport_web_final_.pdf

Current Data

The latest energy consumption stats are available online: https://www.ren.pt/en-GB
for September 2018 only 33.8% of energy consumed was from renewable sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Portugal

Solar?

Solar Panels have always been high on our list of features that are (very) "nice to have". ☀️🔋
We budgeted for Solar in our original plan: /dwyl/phase-two/braga#financials
And if we can get a good quote (including installation) from reputable supplier, we will go for it!

Having Solar is not a "blocker" to opening the house so have not been a focus;
We don't need to be "energy independent" or spend €40k on panels, inverters and batteries for "MVP".

We have "planned ahead" when doing the electrical re-wiring of the house and the cables are all in place to get the solar energy from the roof to the basement next to the mains consumer unit (where inverters, charge controller and batteries will "live").
When the time comes to install the panels and supporting equipment, we expect minimal "disruption" to the house for scaffolding on the north wall and installation should be complete within a couple of weeks.

Todo

• Prepare Roof (Drone) Video to send to suppliers with RFP (detailed context of our requirements)
• Prepare RFP to send to suppliers.
  • Surface Area in m²
  • Sun Exposure estimate
• Send RFP emails
  • Follow up with phone call 2 hours after sending email.
• Get Quote for Tesla PowerWalls

Solar Panel Suppliers (in Portugal) ☀️ 🇵🇹

Our research indicates that Damia Solar are the best value suppliers in PT:
https://www.damiasolar.com/produtos/kit_energia_solar/kit-de-autoconsumo-solar-4000w-de-injec-o-zero_da1002_112

Most of the kits available include OPZS Batteries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opzs
this is a Lead Acid battery generally composed of diluted sulfuric acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid ... I think we will give it a miss.

Is Solar Worth It?

On purely economic terms, solar energy is a poor use of capital. 💸
The best-case scenario "pay back period" for an investment in panels is 8 years.
The reality is more like 12 years without government incentives.
Even if we assume near-perfect panel positioning we can only expect around 5 hours
of sunlight (on average) per day.

Average Sunshine Per Day

Thankfully there is decent historical data freely available online for sunshine hours:

https://www.worldweatheronline.com/braga-weather-averages/braga/pt.aspx

The lowest sunshine recorded (in the available data) is 147 hours (averaged over Jan - March)

Drilling down into the data we see that the lowest sunshine was January 2016 with 94.5h.

We need to account for this and plan to source our energy from the National Grid in January each year.

There are two reasons for this dip: seasonal variation in angle of incidence of solar rays
and fewer days in the denominator. i.e. February typically has 28 days.

A reality check on renewables - David MacKay

This TED-Ed talk gives a good overview of the arithmetic for energy generation:

https://youtu.be/E0W1ZZYIV8o

Relevant Reading

A book I have found particularly useful in understanding solar is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Electricity-Handbook-Installing-Photovoltaic/dp/1907670688

If you don't have the time to read a 186 page book, there are a few good sites you can look at:

• Basic Solar Math: https://livingonsolarpower.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/basic-solar-energy-math/
• Solar energy generated m²: https://www.quora.com/How-much-solar-energy-is-generated-per-square-metre
• Solar Payback Period: https://news.energysage.com/understanding-your-solar-panel-payback-period note: this calculation assumes government financial "incentives"; we have none.
• Renewable Energy in Portugal:
  http://solar-algarve.com/welcome-to-solar-algarve-for-solar-energy-solutions/grid-connected-feed-in-tariffs/

Related Background Reading and General Knowledge

• Warren Buffet doesn't want you to have solar panels: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/24/why-warren-buffett-wants-keep-solar-panels-off-you.aspx

#helpwanted

If anyone has experience of installing domestic solar panels
and has any advice/wisdom to share, please comment below!

From day 1 of us viewing the Braga House as a potential Home for Creative Technology,
I've been "dreaming and scheming" of how to wrap the entire building in plants
and make the first "reclaimed by nature" building in Portugal.

Instead of a characterless concrete block, I believe all buildings should look like this:

Cities should become carbon-neutral forests and looking out of a window should feel like nature no matter where you are. People will feel better, healthier and happier. This is why we are investing in researching all the plants #8 to "grow fresh air indoors".

Image credit: http://www.plantdesigns.co.uk/single-post/2017/04/05/Lush-Living-Walls

‘The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes’ is published in the journal Environmental Research on 6 July.
see: https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/-/it-s-official-spending-time-outside-is-good-for-you

The architect(s) we hired to help us with securing our planning permission for renovating the house were unenthusiastic about the idea of a "Living Wall" ... they didn't understand the "vision" of a carbon-neutral house that feels like you are entering a "secret garden". And instead they wanted us to paint the outside in "tones of grey" and make it look like every other bland modern box ... 😕
Sadly, we didn't have much of a choice for Architects, otherwise I would have considered an alternative who "gets it". I firmly believe that the future is buildings covered in plants!
And any architect who is not designing their projects this way will be on "losing side" of history.

"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." ~ William Gibson

Some architects are using Living Walls as a "feature" or "selling point" of their high-end buildings, e.g:

see: https://www.ansgroupglobal.com/living-wall/case-studies/douro-street

But it's more of a "token" than a genuine commitment to the idea.
I get the feeling that the Architects are afraid that if they cover the building in green,
the people won't be able to see their signature slabs of concrete and glass and they won't get any recognition for their hard work ... this is a narcissistic fail akin to software developers who keep their code "closed source" out of fear when opening your code creates orders of magnitude more value for you and the world!

We will be doing the "Living Wall Project" after we complete the interior of the house.
The outside of the house does not need to look incredible before we can open the house to friends/family/guests; this is very much a "Post MVP" enhancement which is why it's not even mentioned in the main README.md!

Todo

• Visit the Athenaeum Hotel in London to observe it in-person.
  https://www.athenaeumhotel.com/athenaeum-life/off-the-wall
• Visit Rubens Hotel https://www.rubenshotel.com/about/the-living-wall
  39 Buckingham Palace Road | Victoria, London SW1W 0PS
  https://www.google.com/maps?q=39+Buckingham+Palace+Road+%7C+Victoria,+London+SW1W+0PS
• Visit 20 Fenchurch Street: http://www.biotecture.uk.com/portfolio/20-fenchurch-street/

If you live in London and want to join us on our little field trip next week, please leave a comment below and we will be in touch to organise logistics. 💬

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19120208
tl;dr > noise kills deep work.

• 220m of skirting board at €1,452 + 23% VAT (€334)
• 27 door frames (4 attic, 7 top floor, 7 middle floor, 8 basement) - @nelsonic, let's check these numbers on-site later today! Price TBC once we triple-check doors

As soon as the flooring is in, skirting boards and door frames can go in (technically, door frames could go in first but there's a better finish if the floor is already in).

Questions/Notes

• Middle floor:
  • Do we want a door frame for the library, or just wall finishing? (I vote just wall finishing, but the skirting board has to be very well done around the corners and into the room)
  • So far, in the toilets, we have a white door frame planned for the entrance to the men's section (not the stall itself) because Carlos has been telling us it's mega difficult to cut those tiles that are already on the walls in such a way that we can just tile around the wall area - I feel we need to see the other door frames in place before we make this call (or a photo of the same ones in place), if it sticks out too much it might look awful
  • In those same toilets, we had a sliding door planned for men's section, but with a bathroom stall door and the wall we've now build for the urinol area, I think this will be bad UX, just one more thing to open (and spread germs) - I say we nix this. There should be nothing to touch between the urinols and the sink
• Basement: No door frame for the entrance to the double changing/toilet area, only for the 2 stalls themselves

Colours

With the wood-colour laminate flooring, I think wood on wood for the whole house might be too intense and certainly wouldn't work out in terms of the grey-tiled basement (for humidity purposes).

Our walls will be white but I'm proposing white door-frames and skirting boards in lacquered MDF, with wooden doors and floors for a similar colour effect to this:

We had a brief conversation with the electrician about any electricals that would need to be added to the dining room veranda extension #15

@nelsonic I believe our conclusion was that:

Light

It could do with one light point in the balcony area in addition to the rest of the light points.
According to the electrical plans there should be 4 light points in total - at least two already there and then 2 more to be created now that the wall has been knocked down. We'll have to check again on site as to wether it would make more sense to have two additional light points or one:

Original light plans which accounted for no wall at all to be left:

Positioning of two current light points, photo taken from the garden below:

Sockets

We determined that there were enough sockets in the main room and that we didn't need to make any further holes in/through walls in order to get more sockets in the balcony area.

We have big plans for home that allows everyone who spends time here to learn, create and grow.
This means some nice tools, equipment, furniture and lots and lots of books! 📚

The practical side of this 🤓 is contents insurance, which I know nothing about in Portugal yet! 🇵🇹

Tasks

• Research contents insurance providers
• Create a list of common requirements across all of them (information required for quotes)
• Apply for quotes

For the first group 'office hours' call, we need to have the following ready:

• Company 1-liner to remind everyone what you do
• How far along are you / quick summary of status of company
• Goals for next week
• Biggest obstacle/problem that the group can help you with
• What you hope to get out of Startup School

I will write a starting point for discussion.

Just opening this issue as "Todo" (note-to-self/reminder) to add a section on Nomad List to Readme.
https://nomadlist.com

https://nomadlist.com/braga

⚠️ WARNING: PLEASE DON'T READ THIS ❗️
(if you live for the "likes" of fake friends & followers ...)

The question of how we will "promote" @home online came up in casual conversation today ...
Someone mentioned using Instagram to post "stories" as a "good" way to share the mission ...

I made it immediately clear that we won't use Instagram to promote @home under any circumstances.
People protested arguing that it's "good for social outreach" and would not listen to reason. 🙉

The people in question are addicted to using Instagram and cannot see that it's a dystopia disguised by fancy filters that brainwashes people and is systematically causing anxiety and depression.

So ... rather than trying to reason with people verbally I will summarise the facts in writing.
So that I can easily refer to them when anyone else asks this question.
Hopefully by the end of this page you will realise why Instagram is a terrible idea
for "promoting" what we are doing in the Braga @home.
(if you still think Instagram is a "good idea", please share your thoughts via comments below).

@dwyl's Manifesto Clearly States:
"Your time should never be wasted."

If we base our decision to not use Instagram purely on the fact that it's encouraging people to waste hours of their lives, we would be complying with our first "Manifesto Point".

Time Spent in App: 53 minutes per day ⏳

According to similar web (reliable source quoted by recode), the average Instagram user spends 53 minutes per day in the app in 2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/6/25/17501224/instagram-facebook-snapchat-time-spent-growth-data

Note: you might not be the "average" user, you might (think) have your usage "under control", but the reality is that in order for this number to be the "average", there must be people spending considerably more than an hour per day mindlessly scrolling through the app...! ⌛️

By contrast the average person reads books for less than 20 minutes per day.
(not counting reading email, messages or "news" ...) http://time.com/2909743/americans-reading

Reading books is the single best time-investment you can make to improve your life. 📚
You can learn a new skill, practice your imagination/creativity or even find inner peace! 💭🌈
https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-reading-books-should-be-your-priority-according-to-science.html

People are passively wasting their time looking at manicured pictures of the world others want you to see. Completely ignoring the reality that there is still a lot of work to be done to help the billions of people in the world live sustainable, healthy and happy lives!

"Families in developing nations are paying half their income for water" ~ Water Aid 🚰 💧
Meanwhile people with iPhones are worried they aren't getting enough "likes" on Instagram ... 🙄

If you are a regular Instagram user, ask yourself a simple questions:

• "Is this moving me toward my goal?"
• Is there something else I could be doing with this time that would accelerate my progress?
• Am I forming a real human connection with like-minded values-driven people?
  Or am I just "liking" someone's posts as a proxy for a real relationship while sacrificing meaning?

Chose Meaning not Instant Gratification and Constant Distraction

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
~ Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

A Poor Substitute for Real Human Connection

We know plenty of people who check Instagram first thing in the morning before even greeting the person/people next to them and then continue checking multiple times during the day. They are addicted to checking the feeds, posts & "stories" of complete strangers - while ignoring the real humans in the same room as them - and use the excuse that they are "staying in touch with friends" to justify their behaviour.

A Machine for Anxiety, Depression and Loneliness

Instagram specifically has been identified as the "social media" most linked to depression.
People use the app/network to post artificial images of themselves and their "amaze" lives.
However it's been demonstrated as a major harm to people's mental health.
Instagram rewards use of filters to alter images, encourages flattering angles and
https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/social-media-use-increases-depression-and-loneliness

http://www.2oceansvibe.com/2017/07/25/instagram-influencer-accused-of-lying-to-her-followers-with-fake-travel-images/

Obsessed by the popularity of their posts, Children/Teens actively DELETE posts that don't get "enough likes". Some of the most popular apps on the Apple App Store in 2018 are "Facetune", "Snapseed" and "TouchRetouch" all specifically designed to re-touch photos with dedicated "selfie enhancement" features. Kids are being brainwashed that they have to present a "perfect" image of themselves.

https://www.businessinsider.com/teens-curate-their-instagram-accounts-2016-5
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-people-delete-good-Instagram-pictures-for-apparently-no-reason

"Instagram users reported a high negative impact on Sleep, Body Image, FoMo, Bullying, and Anxiety." https://petapixel.com/2017/05/22/instagram-worst-app-young-peoples-mental-health-study-finds/

"Social media use increases depression and loneliness":
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181108164316.htm

"using Facebook can lead you to feel a little bit sadder—a phenomenon popularly known as “Facebook depression.”
http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/is-facebook-luring-you-into-being-depressed

"Instagram ranked the worst Social App for causing Young people to feel depressed"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2017/05/31/instagram-depression/#4395b8197453

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/17/571443683/the-call-in-teens-and-depression

Further reading:

• US Suicide Statistics: https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics
• Loneliness is a serious public-health problem: https://www.economist.com/international/2018/09/01/loneliness-is-a-serious-public-health-problem
• Loneliness is damaging Britain. Can co-living help?
  https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2018/05/co-housing-and-loneliness
• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-britain-loneliness.html

You Will Never Read About this On Instagram or Facebook!

You will never see an article on the platform discrediting the social network or its' creators.
They actively filter (censor) any article about them using natural language processing and eliminate anything "negative" about Fb or any "executives" from people's news feeds.

• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/11/facebook-censorship-news-feed-trending-topics
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/14/facebook-invites-you-to-live-in-a-bubble-where-you-are-always-right
• https://www.newscientist.com/article/2113246-how-can-facebook-and-its-users-burst-the-filter-bubble

Facebook has an army of Public Relations people whose one job is to paint the company in good light.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/14/facebook-hired-pr-firm-that-wrote-negative-articles-about-rivals-nyt.html

It's the ultimate thought control experiment and people are falling for it en masse!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/17/russian-propagandists-targeted-african-americans-2016-election

It's often difficult for people to realise much less admit that their actions are part of the problem.
Each time you post on Facebook/Instagram you might think that you are "sharing your life" with others,
but the reality is that you are drip-feeding dopamine to people and perpetuating their addiction.

"Liking" and commenting on other people's posts is fuelling their addiction.
Read a book. Learn a Skill. Write a letter to someone telling them how you feel.
Don't waste your life giving your personal data to a sociopath who wants to control your mind!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/has-zuckerberg-like-frankenstein-lost-control-of-the-monster-he-created

Instagram is Facebook! (But Much Worse!)

Instagram is Facebook. It's not separate, it's the same. It's a sub-brand of the same machine!
All of the data and interaction is being fed into the same data mining aparatus and sold to advertisers.
Those advertisers are convincing you to buy stuff you don't need and addicting you to consumerism.

Facebook gives anyone who will pay them access to your data and allows any advertiser to micro-target you with ads including discriminating ones.
I've been saying this for years and now the New York Times is confirming it
Facebook shares your private/personal messages with over 150 companies:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html
https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/18/18147616/facebook-user-data-giveaway-nyt-apple-amazon-spotify-netflix

As Cal Newport says in Deep Work (page 209) "Quit Social Media":
"These services aren't necessarily, as advertised, the lifeblood of our modern connected world.
They're just products, developed by private companies, funded lavishly, marketed carefully, and designed ultimately to capture then sell your personal information and attention to advertisers."

Even Techcrunch has "lost faith" in Facebook:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/19/all-out-of-faithbook/

Instagram is one Massive Advert

It's clear to anyone paying attention that the "celebrities" are only using the platform to cash in:

This is the extent of the desperation:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/influencers-are-faking-brand-deals/578401/

Unless You Agree With Systematic Racism ... 💭

There is no "accident" ... it's 100% Deliberate.

• https://www.newsweek.com/naacp-facebook-instagram-boycott-russian-influence-campaign-black-voters-1262149
• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html

Helping People Connect in Real Life!

Part of @home's mission is to help like-minded people connect in real life.
Not to accumulate fake followers and "likes" from people addicted to pretty pictures ...

Instagram promotes non-presence and disengagement from the real world.
It encourages people to mindlessly interact with a screen for hours instead of connecting with the people around them. It's easy to allow ourselves to be convinced that interacting with screens is "OK" if you are alone, but the reality is you are swiping away your time/life and have nothing to show for it! If you're alone and bored, read a fascinating book or write in your journal. Passively consuming someone else's filtered (fabricated) photos is not moving you toward your life goals/purpose.

The @dwyl/@home app will help you to find and connect with like-minded people who share the same values and goals as you.

Put Destructive/Unhealthy (Passive) Habits "Out Of Sight"

Once people understand/admit that Instagram is making them anxious, depressed and lonely,
they can realise that the "1 minute" of "catching up with friends/family" is actually multiple minutes of manufactured mindlessness, voluntary brainwashing, product placement and ads!

Constantly checking instagram is an unhealthy habit that creates an artificial and temporary dopamine rush that distracts you from your real focus work. It destroys your concentration in the pursuit of instant gratification.

If you are unfamiliar with James Clear's Atomic Habits, read:
https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/self-help/atomic-habits

Essentially, if you are trying to give up sugar, the best thing you can do is DELETE it from your life. i.e. clear out all your cupboards of anything containing processed sugar.
That way in order to resume the "unhealthy habit" of consuming sugar,
you will need to consciously walk to the store to buy it.
Adding in this "barrier to consumption" is a system for encouraging you to follow through on your goals of cutting out sugar.

The exact same thing applies to digital sugar.

Blocking Instagram!

For the people who are unable to DELETE the App from their phone,
we will need to give them a nudge to not constantly check the app.
That nudge will be to force them to turn off WiFi on their phone each time they want to check instagram.

This will be "controversial" because most addicts have a difficulty admitting they have a problem.
That is why it's the "first step" in the "12 Step Program".

Instagram will be blocked by the @home router DNS. If people want their daily dose of narcissism disguised as "staying up to date with friends and interesting people", they will need to disconnect form the WiFi and use their mobile data. There are plenty of local cafes with "Free WiFi" international visitors (without data roaming) can visit to get their "fix" of scrolling through the feed.

Q: Is Instagram "All Bad"?

Quick answer: No. (obviously not!)
But that question misses the point entirely.
This is like asking: is "fire bad" ... Fire burns forests, but it also cooks your food and keeps you warm!
We cannot say that all fire is "good" or "bad" just that fire can be used for destructive purposes.

Instagram is designed to keep you scrolling. It's a "variable reward mechanism" AKA "FREE Slot Machine" that is meant to keep you coming back multiple times per day to "check in" and see the latest updates.

Q: Isn't YouTube also a form of Social Media?

Yes, YouTube is a kind of "Social Media".
It promotes passive consumption and makes it money from ads.
YouTube is simultaneously better and much worse than Instagram.
YouTube has many learning channels where you can learn Maths, Physics, Engineering and Computer Science for free! Content that is only available on YouTube and nowhere else.

We will be embedding our YouTube videos into our Learning Platform

We will be releasing regular learning videos on YouTube, but the main way of viewing the videos will not be through the YT app or website. We will be embedding the videos on our own Learning Platform/Website where:
a) no ads!
b) no auto-play
c) no sign-in with Google/YT account required. (so YT does not harvest your data or make suggestions)

Instagram Account/Name Squatter 🎉

This random guy is name-squatting the "dwyl" handle: https://www.instagram.com/dwyl

The fact that it's private indicates that they haven't quite understood the point of the social network.
But the fact that the @dwyl organisation cannot get the "handle" is a major blessing because it means that we have not been tempted to waste time using the platform!

We have this account: https://www.instagram.com/dwylhq

But we will not be using it. If anything, we will post one image pointing people where to go for real human connection and meaningful relationships.

Why We Don't Need Instagram

Instagram is a good way for people who make unremarkable things to spread the word about what they are doing. Unremarkable products/services need filters, likes and (fake) followers to project the perception of popularity and boost their reach.
We are building an incredible product, service and community that solves a real problem! We don't need to artificially promote our mission with curated photos and "stories" on a data mining network.

https://wordx.press/why-your-business-facebook-page-waste-time-money/

Co-Living is "Hot" We Don't Need Marketing!

Something people are consistently forgetting is that Co-living is in demand!
We are building something with market-clearing target price! (1/3^rd to 1/10^th the price of others!) and we will have considerably better features designed by the people who live in the house not some token box-ticking exercise by "strategic consultants".
https://medium.com/nguyen/co-living-in-2018-a-rising-trend-of-intentional-downsizing-and-communal-living-3cbd18a43c35

Finally, remember that:

"If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything"

Break free from the addiction to Zuckerberg's slot machines and create something meaningful that is remarkable and solves real world problems of shelter, hunger, water scarcity/recycling, learning and genuine human connection.

The Braga @home is fortunate to have around 400m² of outdoor space. 🎉
(for reference, a Tennis court 🎾 is 260 m², and no, we aren't building a tennis court ... 🙄)

Our plan is to have LED lights with PIR sensors around the perimeter walls so the outdoor space will be light whenever motion is detected.

There are many options for lighting products that will meet our needs, but for the purpose of guiding our research into this topic, we are considering two options:

1. Mains connected: connected to our external power source (which is still solar power but "fed" by the Tesla Power Wall at night) means they can be brighter (if needed) and stay on for longer without concern of running out of power.
2. Solar powered: Charge a built-in battery during the day can be wall-mounted anywhere without need for electrical re-wiring (which is considerably more expensive than the lights!)

I have included two sample products for illustrative purposes:

Solar: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078JZHNQ8/

Mains: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Ceiling-Circular-Bulkhead-Corridor-Warmwhite/dp/B07BBLJ44R/

Please Note: these are not the "security" lights, these are purely for visibility for people walking or "hanging out" in the garden in the evening. High (mains) power security lights at the 4 main doors of the house are a separate issue: #26
Also, for the sake of simplicity we are not considering the <option value="DIY">DIY</option>
at this time, because there are way too many other things we need to build in order to open the house, so this just needs to be a "store bought" closed source hardware for now. We will re-visit and "dissect" one of the units we buy in order to understand, reverse-engineer and improve the design, and a better Open Source!

@iteles if you have found nicer garden lights online or IRL, please share!

Todo

• Convert idea into 3D model / CAD design
  • Remove step 17 as it does not fit #30 (comment)
  • Increase height of steps 10 - 16 by 11mm to compensate removal of step 17. #30 (comment)
  • re-draw walls and attic hole to contextualise
  • draw hand rails
  • render the 3D design pngs for printing. see: #30 (comment)
• Request quote from metal-worker

October 2019 - Fusion 360 Re-Draw

• Re-draw the staircase in metal, wood and glass (28th iteration)
• Re-send design (link to online model!) to suppliers for revised quote

Some amazing designs in this list: https://casaeconstrucao.org/escadas/escada-caracol

Implementation Tasks

• Find a supplier
• Request quotes by sending drawings
• On-site visit to fine-tune quotes through questions and measure space
• Accept quotes and green-light work
• Frame made
• Frame installed
• Steps cut #129
• Steps assembled #136
• Moulds taken for glass
  Final floor boards to be put in (Carlos Pinheiro) separate non-dependent issue.
• Flooring adapted to fix pilar and steps to the floor
• Glass manufactured
• Glass installation booked
• Glass installed

Braga has been voted 2nd in the European Best Destinations 2019 list (a list of the 15 best places in Europe to visit, selected by travellers), only 3000 votes behind the number 1 spot, Budapest:
https://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/european-best-destinations-2019

🎉

One of the benefits of torrential rain during construction is that we get to see how the structures respond to the deluge of water. In the case of the Sauna's "housing", it is retaining water ... 🌧 💧

There is a full-width puddle inside the structure which is not draining:

@iteles should we:

• Ask Sr. Pinheiro about this? (and seek a remedy before the sauna is installed)
• Determine if the roof (yet to be applied to the structure) will prevent water ingress?

Related to #16

Our friend @jongold (Design Technologist @airbnb) lives in https://www.rgb-house.com 🌈 🏠 😍

https://www.rgb-house.com/hang-out

https://www.rgb-house.com/the-house

"Green Room"

"Red Room"

"Quiet Room":

Kitchen:

9 Bedrooms

What Makes it Great?

From the pictures it looks like they are living the dream!
But if we could distil it down to prioritised list of what makes it great, what would be in the "top ten"?

Ownership?

Is the house rented, co-owned or sole-owned by one of the house-mates?

From reading @PhilLevin's post on "handling finances in a large shared living situation (e.g. coliving)":
https://medium.com/@phillevin/handling-finances-in-a-large-shared-living-situation-e-g-coliving-2503592aff45
It appears that they are renting the house "from an external landlord".
If that is the case, who is "responsible" for communicating with and paying the Landlord?
presumably the landlord is "OK" with their conscious living situation ...
it's California, fairly "safe" they are.

What are their biggest issues?

Is everyone respectful of each other's sleep, nutrition & health needs or is it party/chaos all the time?

The existence of a "Quiet Room" suggests the RGB house-mates are keen on mindfulness & meditation. This is (often) a sign of (seeking) a higher awareness of themselves and others.

I wonder if they have a "cut-off time" for noise during the "working week" that everyone respects.

Does RGB-House use Loomio for participatory decision making or is this "too formal"?

What are the Biggest (or Most Difficult) Decisions that have been made?

For example, have they ever had to "evict" someone for being/becoming an asshole...?

How are new people selected? Is it subjective or is there a pre-defined criteria?
What is the basis for "rejection" of prospective applicants?

What are (or have been) the Biggest Disagreements?

Are there Rules or "Policies"?

e.g: can "my friend" stay over? (in the "Last Supper" photo, there are 15 people, how many are full-time?)
how long can "a friend" stay over before they are considered a de facto resident?

There 9 rooms and 11 people.

which means that there are two "couples".
How are bills divided?
Is it based on cost/people or is there an apportionment for a couple living in the same room?

Doocracy...?

The articles page https://www.rgb-house.com/articles has a few very interesting reads:

The first article in the list is Zarinah Agnew's "How to Nurture a Living and Evolving Doocracy":

https://medium.com/embassy-network/an-evolving-doocracy-3a6123f9b170

Failure modes of doocracy

Slack ...? 🙄

Good summary of "Doocracy": https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Do-ocracy

I'm really curious to do a more in-depth interview with people living in RGB-House (and similar).
And to find out if they think it would "work" if it were not in SF ...
It would be great to interview one (or more) of the "founders" and find out if they would change anything specific if they could "wave a magic wand" or had "unlimited budget".

Would it work if there were more people? or is there a "magic number"
(e.g: the size of a large-ish family) above which the thing "falls apart".

According to Allen et Al 2015 (see link below), having pure/fresh air in your working environment significantly improves cognitive function. i.e. having indoor plants makes you smarter!

Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments ~ https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924.pdf

Conclusion: Office workers had significantly improved cognitive function scores when working in Green and Green+ environments compared with scores obtained when working in a Conventional environment.

In addition to having a "herb garden" in the kitchen and a jungle outside,
we are going to have as many of the following plants as we can reasonably fit in the house:

• Areca Plam (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens AKA Dypsis lutescens) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dypsis_lutescens
• Mother-in-law's Tongue/Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata
• Money Plant (Epipremnum aureum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum
• Boston Fern (Nephrolepis Exaltata) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrolepis_exaltata
• Peace Lilly (Spathiphyllum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spathiphyllum
• Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbera_jamesonii
• Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum
• English Ivy (Hedera helix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix

https://youtu.be/gmn7tjSNyAA

https://youtu.be/lPNYdSZRSdg

https://youtu.be/9dG9K8IQo7s

Todo

• Take the list of plants to our local plant nursery to see how many of them they have "in stock".
• Check prices for different maturity/age of plants (we would like more "established" plants but they will be correspondingly more expensive!)
• Buy plants!! (budget: TBD!)
  • Add water resistant stickers https://www.averyproducts.com.au/water-resistant/outdoor-labels with following data:
    • Common Name (English)
    • Latin/scientific Name
    • What it's "good for" e.g: oxygenates air at night! (in the case of Snake Plant)
    • Date of purchase (or planting if available)
    • QR Code linking the plant to our "plant health manager" web app.

With the QR code on the plant we can easily keep track of it's location and when it was last cleaned or taken outside for Sun.

Please add plants to this list and ideas for how we can implement this quest!

Relevant Reading

• http://www.groomedhome.com/gardening/indoor/8-air-purifying-indoor-plants

One of our goals with this @home (and with @dwyl in general) is to produce regular video content
because we feel that video is one of the most effective ways to communicate.

@edwardcodes (our resident video editor in training) filmed and edited this "rough cut" video
of the "mid construction" tour of the Braga @home:

https://youtu.be/ZCnIGZsG5Lg

This video is a good "rough cut" as it removed ✂️ about 50% from the "raw" footage we took on the day in early December 2018. The 15:56 Minutes tells the story and shows almost all of the house. 👍
However it still feels like a full-length movie when what we need is a "trailer". 🎬
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_(promotion)

We have deliberately not made the video public because:

A) we don't want to distract anyone in the @dwyl community with this while the building work is still ongoing. We still have quite a few things to finish in the house (as you can easily see from the video), and we don't want anyone getting "hung up" on this very much "unfinished" state of the house.

B) we feel that we can cut the video down by 70-90% and still tell the same story.
namely that the house is a "building site" but we have a plan ... 15:56 Minutes is way too long. ⌛️

For an example of the types of "fast cut" and "double-speed" walking with L/J-cut audio transitions
without losing the "story", please watch the first 10 seconds of the following test:

https://youtu.be/xBqG0ENpVAs

By contrast, the "rough cut" takes 20 seconds to reach the same point in the walkthrough.

There are many opportunities to cut out entire sections and speed up movement.
Whenever Inês' face cannot be seen but there is still dialog, the video should be sped up by 200-400% with an L or J cut such that the audio continues but the video speeds up.

Todo

@edwardcodes your mission is to:

• create the "Trailer" version of this video.
• The video that we will publish needs to be 3 minutes long.
  (or 5 minutes at the very most if you feel you need to keep something specific);
  "Less is More".

For example:

• we definitely do not need to go through all of the bedrooms upstairs; one is enough.
• we can cut all of the pauses when Inês is not speaking or at least 3x speed them.

This "tour" just needs to be a "taste" not a "meal".

I can sit and write out all the "cuts" (with "in" and "out" points) that can be made to the 16 min video. But I feel it will be much more instructive if you, Edu, use your own judgement and video editing skills to cut the "rough" video down to a "trailer".
If you need "inspiration" re-watch Casey's "Make It Count" video:

https://youtu.be/WxfZkMm3wcg

Obviously the content of the Braga house under construction is not as "exciting" as Casey's "round the world in 10 days" for Nike ... where he clearly planned many similar shots in order to create a "montage" ...
But as an Editor, your role is to "tell the story" with less footage/time.
Keep the audience engaged and never let them be "bored".

I'm sure you have watched enough movies to know that fast cuts "pace" the narrative,
and I'm sure you have watched a "slow" drama movie that felt like they were "stretching" a scene ...
(this happens way more often in TV Drama where the producers need to "fill" 45mins TV schedule slots and so they have long "establishing shots" and "pause for effect" ... which is why I cannot stand the genre! it's pure time-wasting! 🙄)

If you can't remember a painfully slow movie, watch Woody Allen's "Match Point" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320 ... it's 2h 4min long and only needed to be 10 minutes.
Woody Allen stretched a "short story" into a feature film and it's painful for anyone who is not an ardent fan of his to watch this without falling asleep:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320/reviews?sort=helpfulnessScore&dir=desc&ratingFilter=1

Note: To be 100% clear I'm not saying that the "rough cut" is "painfully slow" for me ... just that it will be for anyone else who is not watching the love of their life on a tour of their favourite project! 😉

Point is this: 15 minutes is "good" ... cut it down to 3 minutes and it will be amazing.
If you get "stuck" ask a question! Upload another cut and we'll happily give you feedback!
If you want to sit with me and do the edit on one of our screens in the office (Geres/Tadim) just say so!
If in any doubt, communicate! We must release this video by the end of this week.

We have 27 m² of flooring in the kitchen.

It will have birch plywood countertops and furniture designed by our in-house carpenter extraordinaire (@nelsonic 🛠 💁‍♂️).

My preference for kitchen flooring is usually wood laminate, but for hygiene, cleanliness and durability, we made the decision in March 2018 when we were designing the kitchen (for the electrical plans) that the floor and walls would be tiled.

Flooring

When it comes to colouring, white would almost attract dirt 😊

I'm a real fan of the tiling we chose for the basement flooring, but they have run out of that tiling (Beton 'Fog')!
The lightest tiles from the same 'family' of tiles (Beton 'White') which we have used below are a good replacement though:

I did a little search to see how the grey looks with the wood:

I definitely prefer the lighter colours to the darker one:

So I propose:

• Beton 'White' tiles for the kitchen floor

As a person living @home wanting to safely enter/exit the building at night,
I need automatic lights to light the doorway and stairs to ensure I don't trip/fall.

The additional benefit of having safety lights with PIR sensors is that any motion will trigger the lights which is a good deterrent for opportunistic thieves.

Sample product: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DWS1HH8

We need 5 of these. (one for each of the 4 external doors) and one for the Garage door.

@iteles is it worth doing additional research to find a cheaper unit or should we just buy
I tried searching for "luz sensor" on Leroy Merlin: https://www.leroymerlin.pt/Site/Home.aspx#q%3Dluz%2520sensor%26npp%3D96%26catl%3D1%26p%3D1
but nothing useful came up in the search results ... 🙄
(I feel this is more of a vocabulary fail, because I've seen the product in the store!)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18164189

"I'm a software engineer in the bay area and have been thinking about moving somewhere cheaper (in USA or aboard) where I can live cheaply and focus on my own intellectual pursuits. I'd love to be in a place where the living costs are low and where there exists a thriving intellectual community (I've noticed cities near top academic institutions tend to create that sort of atmosphere but not necessarily). I'd prefer a place where English speakers are common enough such that I won't feel isolated by a language barrier. I haven't traveled too often and would love to hear from HN community about any places that match this general description. Thank you in advance!"

The next step for us is to get the electricians to come in and finalise all of their work, so that we can go ahead and close up all of the final walls and get things finished!

All of the electrical outlets, lighting and switches have been installed in all of the areas of the house.

But there are lots of little details to be completed aside from the final and ideally we will collect them in one place (here) and open issues on them each when they need to be discussed.

Final electricals list

• Finish hooking up shutters to motors
• Install emergency bell for reduced mobility bathroom (this has to be done before the porcelain goes in)
• Update data cable location to be next to the new front door
• Kitchen electrical plan - review and correct the things that have been done incorrectly
• Attic electrical plan #34 [wiring complete, must confirm exact locations as walls go in]
• Purchase transformers for doors so that there is a sample for the electricians #46
• Review ITED (telecommunications plan) & adjust
  • Add coaxial cabling throughout
• Review SCIE (fire safety plan) & adjust
• Purchase signage for fire safety & install
• Lighting throughout the house - picking & purchasing fixtures and fittings
  • Work areas
  • Sleeping areas
  • Communal/passage areas
  • Bathrooms
• Provide samples of the switches and plugs (in accordance with the samples we have already provided to electricians)
• Install all switches and plugs
• Exterior lighting
• Install door transformers and close this area off with in a box
• Bathroom electricals
• Create light in entrance way.

We need to finalise and buy light fixtures for:

• Work areas
• Kitchen
• Sleeping areas
• Communal/passage areas
• Bathrooms - moved to #72
• Final lights from #47 (comment) installed

@nelsonic We've spoken about this before and you've already done a lot of research into it already. Want to drop it into here? 😊

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose 🌹
By any other word would smell as sweet;" 🍬
~ Bill S.

Naming things is often the most difficult part of the project.
This is a widely known fact in the tech community see: martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html

Note: We're not suggesting that naming variables, functions or "Classes" in a given project is difficult, that's easy; just give things descriptive names based on what they do so the humans can understand the code! And let the compiler/interpreter worry about shortening the names ...
Naming software projects where you want a descriptive name that isn't "taken"... that's hard!)

You can have a super awesome project that has incredible innovation and creativity
and if its' name is off in any way (e.g: bland, uninspiring or unmemorable) or worse "taken" by some other project that has more "traction", most of the effort you made can be wasted. 😞

Note: I'm not suggesting for a moment that we are in the situation where the name of the project, or the lack of a good one for that matter, is affecting its' "success", just opening this issue to log that it's something we have thought about extensively and not yet found a satisfactory answer ... 💭

The name "home" has been our "working title" during development, a way of referring to the project internally. Most people have not given a thought to the name, and that's a good thing because we don't want naming to distract anyone right now. However some members of the @dwyl community have voiced a concern that "home" might not be a good "production" title. I see the point they are making; "home" is not exactly something we can trademark and get "brand recognition" for ... 🙄
At the same time, I get frustrated when people are dissatisfied with the name "home" but offer no suggestion of their own as an alternative. It's easy to say something is "bad" (or "not good" enough) whereas it's far more constructive/helpful to offer a suggestion for improvement. Mostly, I feel that people don't know they can make suggestions and that all ideas are very much welcome!

With that in mind, we are thinking of creating way of letting people anonymously suggest names and vote on the ones they like the most. Anonymous because we don't want it to be a personality contest where the person gets the votes, rather we want each name to be evaluated on it's own merits. 💡

Todo

Create a form that allows people to:

• 1. Suggest a Name Idea: 📝
  • Name*? Make a suggestion for a name. [max 20 characters?]
  • Why*? Give the "pitch" for the name. i.e. "home, because everyone already knows what it is".
  • Why Not? If you can think of any counter-argument for the name suggestion.

    This might not be immediately obvious to people, but as we learn from Adam Grant's book "Originals", carefully considering and dismantling people's "objections" during your "pitch" is the best way of showing people that you have already thought through their "it won't work because of xyz" argument and you aren't oblivious to the "downside" of your idea(s).
    see: https://github.com/dwyl/home/#why-it-will-never-work-risks-and-mitigation
    I think it's fair to not require people to consider the "cons" or "common objections" of their name suggestion, so we will make this field optional, but it's something we have to think about. We need to apply a "devil's advocate" to each name suggestion.
    For example: We need to translate names into various languages to avoid rude words. 😕

  • Any Other Details. Are any of the TLDs available? e.g: all variants of home.com home.etc are "taken" and it would be impossible to trademark the word "home" in any capacity.
• 2. Vote on the suggestions ✅
  • We need to decide if it's single candidate voting ("one person one vote for one name", i.e. the simplest approach to voting) OR if we are going to allow people to state multiple preferences in the order they prefer (more complex but also more representative)
    see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
    I have many thoughts on voting systems and can discuss them at length, but I want to hear everyone else's thoughts on this, is it worth the effort to record multiple preferences?
  • When displaying the list of name suggestions for voting, the list order should be randomised on each refresh to ensure that we are unbiased in the presentation.
  • Should there be a limit to the number of suggestions? (or a deadline for submission?)

Asking people to describe a fault with their name suggestion is like the infamous (and somewhat redundant) interview question: "what is your biggest weakness?"
People invariably attempt to give a quality ("I'm too much of a perfectionist") or if they are honest and say "procrastination" they try to "spin" it to sound like a quality, e.g: "I spend too much time analysing a problem which means I only get started on the solution quite late. This has played in my favour when selecting technology because it means I benefit from all the latest advancements and don't have to refactor any of my code before it goes into production" ... ⏳
In other words: they only do their work "last minute" before the deadline and it has "worked" for them.
I may be going off topic a bit here and @TomFrankly has a several great tips and videos on this subject.
But the point is this: thinking about things from a "Why NOT?" perspective is a great way to question your own reasoning for an idea and helping others to overcome the "FUD" they might have.

Obviously we run the risk of people making a suggestion and voting for "HouseyMcHouseFace" ... 😜
So we may need to "reserve the right" to not select the "winner" of the popular vote.

General Applicability of Voting System

One of the features we are going to need when fostering a community is the ability to present a topic and collect the votes of the members in an effortless and reliable way.
This might seem like a simple problem to solve, up-voting has been done in online forums since the beginning of the internet. But it's not that simple, especially if/when the stakes are high.
How do we prevent people from using email aliases to register multiple times and skew the vote?

Voting can be as simple as "what food should we eat at our community meal?" 🥗
to "should our country exit a common market?" 🙄

Estonia is a great leader in this area: https://www.zdnet.com/article/online-voting-now-estonia-teaches-the-world-a-lesson-in-electronic-elections
Interested comments on security in HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19352740

Obvs we don't need to build anything ultra-secure for capturing votes for the potential name-change of @home ... but we should still be curious about voting systems if we are going to use one in the future for making democratic decisions.

We don't need to consider generalising our voting system yet ... but if we do build something for this, we should at least consider the potential exploits an online voting system can subjected to.

Is there a viable Open Source tool we can use for this without having to write any code? 🤔

Undercounter lighting in the kitchen is super important as cupboards and shelves often create shadows on counters which can lead to people cutting themselves or to badly washed crockery!

Our undercounter lighting at our house failed so I thought I'd catalogue some of the research here for future reference.

Starting with Ikea options:

• LED strip (or from Ikea: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/integrated-lighting/omlopp-led-worktop-lighting-white-art-10245224/)
• More Ikea LED spotlights: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/integrated-lighting/ledberg-led-spotlight-white-art-70400924/
  
• Slightly brighter but also more expensive ones which we can also install without an electrician: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/integrated-lighting/omlopp-led-spotlight-white-art-70245179/
  

The design Beds for Home are each separate mini-projects which will be linked back into the main repo once "ready" for feedback.

This issue for the general research and discussion.

We were told that it was highly likely that we would need to change the roof at home and following on from #20 (and the issues we have been having with increasing the energy provision for home), we have been seriously considering a Tesla Solar Roof.

https://www.tesla.com/pt_PT/energy

However, two things have happened since:

• Further investigation confirmed that the Solar Roof is still in its infancy and the timelines for this coming to Portugal are both unknown and 'not any time soon' https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/24/tesla-solar-roof-tiles-where-are-they.html
• We managed to get a very trust-worthy and more experienced roofer who has gone up to the roof and confirmed that with a little TLC, the roof tiles that are there will last "another 50 years" because they're great quality

Given that the most cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly option is to leave the existing tiles in place, this is what we will be going with. However, there will be a few tweaks to make sure we're looking after our story-filled shelter: insulating the roof for more energy efficiency (keeping the attic cooler in summer as well as the house warmer in winter) and protecting the roof tiles themselves.

Dependencies on the New Roof

• Placement of solar panels #20
• Placement of climatisation machines
  • This can be done by removing a row of tiles from the existing roof but this may make the tiles below the structure more probe to falling off
• Finalising the pool
  • This is semi-dependent but ideally the roof would be completed because any falling roof tiles (according to the pool folks this is a very usual and probably occurrence) would damage the pool cover or lining
• Placement of attic windows
• Finalising the plastering and painting of the ceiling in the attic
• Finalising the flooring in the attic (a lot of rubble will come from opening the window holes so this would ideally not happen until the rood was completed

Tasks

• Confirm decision on moving ahead with work on the roof
• Organise timelines for roofing work
• Remove all roof tiles
• Lay down roof structure
• Lay down paineis sandwich
• Open holes for windows
• Install windows
• Finish off windows framing with peladur and insulation
• Build platform for external climatization machines
• Placement of solar panels
• Add guttering to roof #67

I was doing some digging around for shared spaces documentaries and came across http://onesharedhouse2030.com/

It's only a 10 minute short which is interesting to watch, but the most interesting part is that at the end they have created a survey.

Presumably the people who go as far as to watch the short already have an interest in shared living but even so, these results show what this subsection of the population is most and least willing to share:

I found this somewhat surprising as I wouldn't expect toilets to be what people least want to share! Though I note bedrooms don't feature here at all.
Having said all of this, only 65% of the people who took the survey would be willing to share their internet connection which is also bizarre to my (first world, fast connection) way of thinking.

Whilst this is a completely different group of people to those who might be interested in home, it's an interesting read.

My plan is to use the 3D Printer #37 to print the IoT cases prototypes.
But once we need to put the cases into our "production",
some of them will need to be water resistant.
3D printed parts are not water-tight.
see: https://www.fabbaloo.com/blog/2017/10/19/waterproofing-your-3d-prints

The solution (in my mind) to both "scaling production" (being able to produce multiple copies of the same design in less time) our cases and water resistance, is Vacuum Forming based on the 3D printed "mold" see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_forming

Mayku FormBox

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mayku-FormBox-Desktop-Vacuum-FBA180123UK/dp/B07GN1Y9FW

Watch the intro video: https://www.mayku.me

https://youtu.be/MTZ5FunrcDY

It's certainly not "cheap" at £500 (excl VAT) but I feel you're paying for the UX/user-friendliness.

If anyone knows of a better "hobby" vacuum former please share!

In-line with the "golden rule" we want to be proactive about accessibility @home (see: #23 )
with that in mind, I propose that we purchase a Wheelchair for UX testing ASAP.

e.g: https://www.queralto.com/pt/21565-cadeira-de-rodas-de-autopropulsao-dobravel-mod-alcazaba-mobiclinic.html

@iteles when do you think a good time to make this purchase is?
(is it likely to disappear from the building site if someone accidentally leaves a door unlocked...?) 🤔

There are a few laws around accessibility minimum requirements, but the problem with these is that they create token accessibility, where the requirements are met, but life is still made difficult for anyone who has disabilities.

This is a 'living issue' which needs more research and should capture all the areas where wheelchair accessibility needs to be specifically taken into account.

NOTE: There are many different types of disability of course and all of these should be taken into account throughout the house. If you have some thoughts on making other things more accessible, please open an issue!

Areas of thought

• Access to home
• Reduced mobility room
• Reduced mobility bathroom
• Access to kitchen (1st floor) - elevator & widening of doors
• Workstation in kitchen
• Access to co-working room
• Work station

It was this choice of mirror for a disabled bathroom in a London hostel (hung at 140cm) that prompted me to open this issue sooner rather than later given we've already been planning it into the build for so long!

February 2019 edit

Tasks

• Confirm air inlets with ventilation company
• Confirm how the shutter covers/boxes are to be made to work with these air inlets (with carpenter and ventilation folks)
• Shutter covers made and delivered to home
• Air inlets fitted
• Electricians connect all the shutter motors to the switches [80% done, some materials missing]
• Shutter covers/boxes fitted

We have a pretty intense exhaust system set up in the house to ensure that we are constantly renewing the air in the house and also removing any unnecessary smells/stagnant air/dust in the air and for relative humidity control.

In order to balance out the air we are pushing out of the house, there needs to be a way for air to move into the house, otherwise there will be a depressurisation and the exhausts will be working to suck air out at half of their usual effectiveness.

There are two ways to do this:

• Relying on people opening windows
• Air inlets

The proposal from our ventilation contact was originally to build air inlets into the walls, but we were able to discuss various options and his latest proposal is air inlets in the wooden structures housing the shutters on every window.

Open Questions

• What are the fire safety implications of these inlets?
• Are they one-way only valves?
• Do they have noise insulation?
• Why do we have to have them on every window?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17857129

Opening this issue so we can share our experience once we have launched.

We are fortunate to have a decent amount of back garden space: 6m x 25m = 150m²:

Note: this image does not do it "justice", at present it is still very much a "building site"!

Our plan has always been to have a Greenhouse where we can grow seedlings of edible plants.

The question we recently asked ourselves is: can we make the Greenhouse a multi-purpose space?

https://www.google.com/search?q=greenhouse+dining+room&tbm=isch

.this, but with desks on wheels and a few sofas:
https://www.humphreymunson.co.uk/botanist-greenhouse-summer-rosewood-london/

Goal

Our goal is to make a room which has:

• Plenty of natural light ☀️ (both for the plants and people using the room)
• A wide variety of plants 🌻 (both edible and "companion" / decorative; clearly labeled of course!)
• Shelves where we can grow seedlings 🌱
• An expandable table where people can work, have a meeting or workshop. 💻
• Lockable to avoid theft of plants or other greenhouse equipment. 🔐
• Ventilated to ensure it does not over-heat.
  • We will be automating the ventilation at some point in the future. 🤖

Relevant reading:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)

Todo

• Draw the greenhouse model in Sketchup to share with our construction foreman
• Send 3D model to foreman to request advice and/or quote
• Request more quotes for:
  • Concrete
  • Steel structure
  • Glass: #228
• Get the work done!

We decided to install a Sauna in Braga because the Health benefits seemed compelling. (see below)

Todo/Tasks

• Prepare final design/layout of Sauna Enclosure with sunken "machine room".
• Design location of Heat Exchanger Pumps (under the back staircase)
• Ensure that Wheelchair lift and passage is not blocked by the structures.
• Send to Sr. Pinheiro for feasibility check with his engineers.

Background Reading/Watching

"Frequent visits to a sauna were also associated with lower death rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/sauna-use-linked-longer-life-fewer-fatal-heart-problems-201502257755
"in the male population, moderate to high frequency of sauna bathing was associated with lowered risks of dementia and Alzheimer's disease." https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-abstract/46/2/245/2654230
Watch:

• Tim Ferris Evening Routine Sauna: https://youtu.be/eLYqhezACpc?t=299
• Hyperthermic Conditioning for Hypertrophy, Endurance, and Neurogenesis
  
  https://youtu.be/aHOlM-wlNjM
• more: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sauna+health

Read:

• https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12265/6-benefits-of-infrared-sauna-therapy.html
• https://tim.blog/2014/04/10/saunas-hyperthermic-conditioning-2/
• https://blog.bulletproof.com/infrared-sauna-benefits-detox
• http://www.finnleo.com/pages/health-and-wellness

Brochure:

Quote:

Price: €3,355

Answer all of these questions.

Opening this issue to capture the research into garden irrigation using a hose.
Most of the plants in the garden will be automatically irrigated,
however there are quite a few trees that will need to be manually irrigated in the dry months.

Our idea is to have a hose that can be uncoiled when needed and automatically recoil when not finished.

https://youtu.be/qSYJgC2AaK0

Our "local" garden centre sells these for €109 (20M) and €149 (30M):
http://www.leroymerlin.pt/Site/Produtos/Jardim/Rega/Rega-de-superficie/Suportes-e-enroladores-de-mangueiras/81954201.aspx

Cheapest I've found it online was:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hozelock-2590-Auto-Rewind-Retractable-Garden-30m-Hose-Reel-With-anti-kink/292829843609

Obviously, the Tesco "Outlet" on eBay does not ship to Portugal otherwise I would order it from them.
We could consider using a 3rd Party shipping service to forward the parcel from Tesco to us in PT provided it did not increase the cost too much.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-2403-0000-Auto-Yellow/dp/B078ZSXBCM/

The reviews are mostly good, but there are a couple of stinkers:

One of the reviewers on Amazon claims that the newer model of this hose is worse than older version:

I don't know this is just nostalgia ("everything was better before") or Hozelock cutting corners on material quality and design, but I really would like to know if the product is genuinely functional and durable before paying the money to buy it and spending the time to install it in the garden.

The older model appears to be this one: (Amazon helpfully reminds us that there's a "newer model")
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hozelock-Auto-Reel-30m-Hose/dp/B0046REBRQ

Handily the "older" version is slightly cheaper in PT €139:
http://www.leroymerlin.pt/Site/Produtos/Jardim/Rega/Rega-de-superficie/Suportes-e-enroladores-de-mangueiras/15074136.aspx

How You Can Help!

You can: Help us do the research and if you have experience with this, share your feedback!
It's been a long time since we bought a garden hose and have no idea if this is any good.

What we need is a good hose we can use to water the plants that won't be automatically irrigated.
And having a retractible one that "tidies itself" away is a must to ensure nobody trips on the hose.

Next?

We don't need to buy the garden hose for the next few months because the rain is taking care of watering the plants. 🌧 But we should return to this issue in the spring ☀️ time and decide what to get. 📆

We need to investigate if this is feasible in both cost and space.

E.g:
http://icoolsport.com/cartpage/viewproduct/977/iCool_Twin

@iteles here is the first draft of the Attic Electrical Plan:

When you have time to pair on finalising it, please come to my desk.
Thanks! ✨

I thought you might find this interesting.

https://althea.org/

@iteles iSent these to you via email so you can just forward them to the relevant people if you feel they reflect your idea for the veranda. If not, please sit with me so we can re-do them. thanks.