Overnight, Europe is at war since February 24th 2022. Putin illegally invades Ukraine and makes the entire planet stressed out about nuclear war. The 3rd and last World War, that wouldn’t probably take longer that 2 hours to have the entire planet’s life wiped out. I’m like, how did we end up here? What the actual fuck is going on? Is there just one mentally sick man to blame? Or who actually is at fault here, that all these innocent civilians have to die? Who’s responsibility is it now, that millions of Ukrainian women with kids, pregnant women are fleeing across the Ukrainian border towards western Europe escaping the shelling devastation? I estimate that the refugee count might rise up to 12 million women with children that are going to flood Europe. Just females are allowed to leave Ukraine. Men 18-60 years of age are ordered to stay and fight for Ukraine’s freedom against Russia. Well, not Russia, but Putin.
But is president of Ukraine Zelenskyy this innocent? Or all the previous Ukrainian presidents in that matter? All of them also have their share of corruption and fraud on their accounts. All of these “power hungry” people been drawn into this game. They are all interconnected mafia like establishment controlling wealth of unimaginable proportions after the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia’s oligarchs scratching each other’s back. What really is going on, we will never know. It’s a shady shady game full of lies, disinformation and fake news. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who to trust? Bottom line, there is a war forcing me to think about things I’ve never imagined I will end up thinking about before. Things like Denazification? Demilitarization of Ukraine? How was the Ukraine a threat? NATO is bad? What Propaganda? Another Chernobyl disaster?
I’m starting to get the feeling that Zelenskyy is emotionally blackmailing EU anyway. I’m starting to dislike his speeches too. I’m starting to get suspicious that there is something else going on under the surface between Putin and him. Maybe they collaborate together to get NATO and EU to their knees. Together they weaken EU and then they wanna take over. Destabilise the EU’s economy. Cutting off the much needed natural gas supply. We all gonna end up either cold of hungry. Or both. If Putin was able to blast residential buildings back in 1990 just to have a reason to start war in Chechenya, why should we think that they wouldn’t be able to do it again? Human life has no value for them. Genocide. Anarchy. Just power and wealth at all costs. Sacrificing their own people to blame it on someone else to then attack them. Us. The EU.
Do you think Putin is afraid of sanctions? Hell no! He doesn’t care about his own people’s suffering. He’s been preparing for this scenario for years. He doesn’t give a fuck, because they bough out so much gold to secure their own wealth. They don’t need Dollar reserves. They have Gold reserves. And while the Rubble is plummeting the Gold is going up. He won’t stop the war. He will keep going. And they knew this was coming. People are now buying gold more than ever before to secure their finances because of the uncertain future, which is driving the value climbing up.
After over a week of war in Ukraine, the NATO’s rhetoric still feels like the situation is not as serious as it looks. Is the Russian army falling apart? Is this 40 miles long convoy near Kyiv really stuck? Or is Putin just playing chess? Is the Russian army really weak with its outdated equipment and rookie soldiers? Or is the worst still yet to come? “Everything seems fine till it’s not” – is what I say.
Alright. I ain’t no politician or a war expert. I’m no pro-Ukraine, I’m no pro-NATO, I’m no pro-Russia. I’m not a pro-anything but pro-reno. I’m really trying to just mind my own shit. But this situation really is effecting me as well. It’s effecting everybody. Gas prices at record high, inflation gets worse, people worrying about their bank savings. Russian bank Sberbank went bankrupt already. Living standards are gonna keep going down as time progresses. Situation in Europe is very unstable. Future is uncertain. All thanks to dictator Putin. First Covid and all the complications that came with it. Interest rates going up. Inflation going up. Prices of everything going up. Real estate going up. Which doesn’t really matter right now, if it’s good or bad for investors. It already was difficult as it was prior the war to sell my house due to all the delays and rising interest rates. Now the war and everything gets even harder. Since the war started I had no showings. Forcing me to drop the sell price down. I’m pretty sure more and more people are getting scared of investing in a house that might potentially get bombed by Russians.
Because the war is like literarily around the corner. The City of Lviv is just 250 miles from my house! And I’m scared that Putin won’t stop at the NATO’s border. I’m scared that he’s gonna shoot some nuclear warheads towards the least protected eastern European countries like Slovakia, Poland or even my country of Czechia. Our government is already prepping the nuclear shelters. There is even a rumor that country of Moldova is next that Putin is planning to invade after capturing the whole Ukraine.
Putin’s regime is not stopping. Humanitarian crisis keeps unfolding. Refugees are fleeing to neighboring countries. Mostly to Poland, but also to Slovakia, Romania, Hungary. Some advancing further to Czechia, Germany, etc. War is at my door. And I’m just trying to survive while selling the property. I have not been posting anything lately because my project is pretty much stalled at this time. I made no new YT video, no blog posts either, because there’s simply nothing really going on. No progress at the house. Except for the job I have right now.
Last year, right before Christmas I’ve been thinking a lot. Trying to figure out how to move forward with the project, at least little by little. And I got this brilliant idea. See I have lots of plans for the future. I’m planning on building new houses out of LGS. Light gage steel framing. After I cash out this current house of course. Avoiding the wood or bricks all together. Wood prices going up. Brick building is outdated. So I conducted my research couple years ago on this steel building industry to see the possibilities locally. And I discovered there are couple of companies in Czechia that started manufacturing these steel profiles. One company is using Howick cold roll-forming machines and other company is using Scottsdale machines. This technology originates from Australia, New Zealand. And I realised the second company is in fact close to my house. About 10 minute car ride to the warehouse.
So last year right before Christmas I figured, what if I gave them a call to see if they are hiring. I could potentially at least get my hands on it and get some experience with it, while waiting till my house sells. I could even make some money for my basic needs. So I gave them a call and they hired me immediately. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple of months. Working at the assembly shop/warehouse. Assembling wall sections and trusses out of galvanized LGS profiles. Riveting. Screwing. My carpal tunnels killing me as fuck. But I keep going.
Alright, at first I was just taking it easy. I thought I would just make little money and get experience with it and just chill and workout on my handstands, etc. But. The owner offered me getting paid per assembled weight instead of just hourly wage. Getting paid per KG. Of course under the table. Cash. And as me being me, I like accepting the challenge. I started hauling ass at work. Assembling 3 times, 4 times more walls and trusses that all the other guys in there. Tons and tons of steel. So out of nowhere I set myself a new goal. To assemble 2.5 tons of steel a week. As the circumstances permits. See the production is not always at 100% capacity. And there are other people assembling as well. Too many people and not enough material in my opinion. But I totally understand the logic from the owner’s perspective. Some days I literally have to fight for the work.
When everything goes well I’m able to assemble over 800kg (2000lb) of structures per shift. On the bad days it can go as down as 0 and I just go home and rest my forearms and my wrists hence the carpals. But I am able to maintain my goal of 2.5 tons/week. Translated to money I’m able to make 10,000 CZK/week (heavily depending on current currency rate due to the war – it’s about $400/week at this moment, was more just week ago)
So I figured. Since I’m able to make this money I’m gonna put it to use. And I got this idea that I could actually use this LGS framing to build those deck frames around my house. So I asked the owner about this possibility and he agreed. We made a deal that he well sell me the material in exchange for my work, basically. And I still get some cash for living expenses.
So I draw it up for them. All the measurements etc. I have total of 6 terraces around the house. Each condo unit has 2. One larger one in the back and smaller one at the front. It’s not a small project. So they entered the data in the Scottsdale software and calculated the weight and cost for me. Not long after that I had it rolled out and formed and then I borrowed their big trailer and my neighbor used his van to haul it to my house. So at this moment I already have those steel profiles stored at the house. Pile of over 7m (23ft) long profiles that I’m gonna rivet together at the spot when I have everything ready.
LGS framing construction is the future.
And I keep hauling ass at work to pay it all off. I’m just 1 week away to have these sub frames paid off. And then I also need to have profiles rolled out for what’s gonna be the supporting structure. Or trusses (or whatever it’s called) that’s gonna get set in little concrete blocks in the ground. After that gets prepared and paid off I’m gonna start putting it together. So it’s probably gonna be another month or so before I get to it.
But there is nowhere to rush because the weather still won’t permit working outside and pour concrete. The ground is partially frozen. So I’m planning to start working on it at the end of March of beginning of April. If there won’t be no WWIII of course. Time just flies.
In the meantime I also gave it another shot at applying for that subsidy for insulation. See my current boss is providing those services to people as well. So I explained him my current situation with it. How my application been unethically turned down by the previous provider and how I got into this clinch with it, not being able to wrap it up. This is something I’m unable to finish without outside help. And he was so kind to offer to help. We sat at his office and I provided him with with all the paperwork I have available together with all the invoices and stuff. He said they might have it prepared for filing by the end of February. But as for now it looks like it’s gonna get delayed, because they are overloaded with work. So I’m just waiting. Again.
If everything goes well with the subsidy I should gain about 500,000 CZK ($21,000). The money I desperately needed long time ago to finish some jobs at the project.
So what I’m hoping for right now is: the war will not escalates and stretches across EU border, further damaging the economy; the subsidy gets approved and paid out; and a buyer will make an offer. So I can finally move on and start building new houses out of LGS and start really developing something.
Thanks for stopping by.
Peace to Ukraine. Peace to Europe. Peace to the World.
