I would love to have a home that would be so efficient the cost of utilities would be almost non-existent. I'd use solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling to run most of the house's needs. I'd recycle the rainwater for showers and to water the vegetable gardens outside when needed. The whole thing would be crazy insulated to retain the temperature as efficiently as possible.
Speaking as someone who had three (of ten) projects on the LEED awards list in 2005, sustainability is a noble goal but unless you've got a serious power generator (your own personal wind farm, a noteworthy waterfall on the property), going for zero is a fool's errand. The real-world, technical term for your sketch is a ground source heat pump. a company I used to work for was the leader in GSHP design for the pacific northwest. They're pretty conventional once you get over the installed cost (2x-5x conventional heat pump designs). They also work better if you hang the radiator in a lake rather than digging into the ground. The real-world, technical term for your waste-water ambitions is greywater. "crazy insulated" matters a lot less than passive solar design. What you'll discover when you dig into it is that all these things can be accomplished without going crazy... but the guys who do it tend to not wear it on their sleeve. The goal is to make something efficient while also livable.
Ok, I've mentioned a few times that I'm looking for employment, but not having much luck. You seem to have had many enviable jobs. If I could ask you for your opinion, given your experiences, how does one either make good connections to get interesting jobs and how does one create a solid and versatile skillset? All my skills are in teaching and writing (which you have shown that you are proficient and experienced in). I learn quickly and I feel I have a lot of experience, but I don't know how to convey it well enough to get jobs I'm applying for. Any ideas?
"Getting hired" is its own special hell. It's fair to say the game has changed substantially since the last time I did it the way you're talking about, which was 2000. I'm in an industry where I get referrals. I get call backs from friends. It's who you know. The rest of the world is kind of like that, but in order to get there you have to get past HR. The trick is to know someone who is actually in a position of hiring you (while recognizing that the guys wading through resumes are mostly looking for reasons not to). Smaller companies are easier. What do you want to do and where do you want to do it? How old are you? How much freedom do you have? Just so you're read this. don't know how applicable it is but it still gets quoted from time to time.
Yeah, HR is the problem. I feel like I do well in interviews and that has been a major factor in getting most of my jobs. Right now, I'd like to get work as an admin at a university, or even a decent community college so that I could get reduced tuition on classes and some benefits (hopefully). I used to be an English teacher in Vietnam, where I was doing pretty well for myself but in the end, I didn't foresee myself doing business there forever and I found that I wasn't interested in "going native" despite the very comfortable lifestyle I was able to maintain. I think admin work in admissions or international programs would be a good transition for the skills I acquired by working with Vietnamese students who were set on becoming international students, by way of helping them develop the skills necessary to pass things like the SAT or IELTS exams and showing them what kinds of things to look for in a university. I also was looking into recruitment before I left, but not much came of that. Long term, I'd like to get into the Foreign Service on the public diplomacy track, because it seems like a great way to keep traveling while getting paid fairly well to do it. I'm preparing for the exam process, which I'm told is very long and byzantine (their words). Best case scenario, I'd get hired a year and a half from when I complete the exam process, which is spread out over a long period of time. A more realistic scenario is that I'll have to try several times to get in. One of the people that told me that was a longtime ambassador to several African nations over the course of his career. I feel like at this point, I'm on the other side of your link. I did just that and I had great experiences, but what I found was that I actually had too much freedom and now I want to start laying down some groundwork so that I don't wake up in 2033 wondering why I don't have any savings. As for my current level of freedom, I'm not bound to anything. I have no debt, but I also have limited money and cash flow. So I'm definitely willing to relocate, I'd just like to have a job before I do it. Edit: I forgot to add, I am 28.