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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: GregHutch on October 09, 2020, 01:20:31 PM
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I do have a question: At the end of Skin Games Harry winds up with a lunch box full of diamonds.
So: Why does he say at the end of Battleground that the castle renovation will have to be done on a limited budget?
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I do have a question: At the end of Skin Games Harry winds up with a lunch box full of diamonds.
So: Why does he say at the end of Battleground that the castle renovation will have to be done on a limited budget?
You are not a house owner, are you? 😉
An old castle is probably not that cheap to renovate/maintain/furnish/run without rent being generated ...
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IIRC, Jim stated that Harry has about 2mil of diamonds and I doubt he would want to ask Mab or Molly for more a loan. Those interest rates have to bite big time.
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The diamonds are not exactly essy to sell in large quantities if you need a lot of money fast.
But Harry is a knight now and marriage to a rich heiress is the traditional way for impoverished nobility to improve their financial position. ;D
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Papa Raith needs to give a dowry.
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You are not a house owner, are you? 😉
HAHAHAHA Spoken like a true home owner!! Everything still has two weeks to completion and will cost twice as much!
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IIRC, Jim stated that Harry has about 2mil of diamonds and I doubt he would want to ask Mab or Molly for more a loan. Those interest rates have to bite big time.
JB is the definitive authority on all things Dresden, what will happen to Murphy's share of the diamonds? Mab has probably already answered the interest rate question ... marriage to Lara. I still feel that Molly will be the one to betray Harry.
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Papa Rait needs to give a dowry.
Who else thinks that Papa Raith will be VERY generous with Lara's dowry? ;)
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Indeed, Lara is not going to settle for her hubby living in a damp drafty mess.
Of course she probably won't pay a dime for what Harry really wants, which is a headquarters for his own powerbase to vie with Marcone, Lara, and heavens forbid, the WC.
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You are not a house owner, are you? 😉
An old castle is probably not that cheap to renovate/maintain/furnish/run without rent being generated ...
In had a friend who described owning a house a bit like owning a whore.. ::)
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I do have a question: At the end of Skin Games Harry winds up with a lunch box full of diamonds.
So: Why does he say at the end of Battleground that the castle renovation will have to be done on a limited budget?
Because Jim decided that the diamonds only amount to 2 million IIRC and that's just not that much when fitting out a whole castle (and paying property taxes).
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Because Jim decided that the diamonds only amount to 2 million IIRC and that's just not that much when fitting out a whole castle (and paying property taxes).
The taxes alone on owning the amount of Square footage his boardinghouse took up in Chicago would be a large dent on its own. And he's not rolling in income either.
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He needs to negotiate a good dowry/allowance from his fiancée.
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He needs to get an investment adviser.
Toot advises to invest heavily in pizza futures.
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The taxes alone on owning the amount of Square footage his boardinghouse took up in Chicago would be a large dent on its own. And he's not rolling in income either.
Maybe he'll get lucky and the events of BG will have made property values in Chicago plummet.
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He needs to get an investment adviser.
Toot advises to invest heavily in pizza futures.
Maybe he'll get lucky and the events of BG will have made property values in Chicago plummet.
Becoming a franchise owner of pizza restaurants in a city with property values that plummet after a major attack would be the smartest move in investment on Harry's part. The wild Fae would agree. Then he truly would be The 'Za Lord.
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Just a few thoughts on Castle Dresden:
(1) I don't think Harry will lack for the money to build out Castle Dresden and a limited budget can go a long way. He has the services of the only honest contractor in the State of Illinois.
(2) The City of Chicago would have to be able to find the castle in order to put a tax lien on it. I see no reason that it can't be veiled by confusion/avoidance wards to prevent service of process.
(3) Lara's dowry ought to cover quite a few supplies and renovations. Mab is old fashioned enough to include this in the price if the wedding actually happens.
(4) Pizza delivery guys go EVERYWHERE and no one really pays attention to them. Just saying.
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Becoming a franchise owner of pizza restaurants in a city with property values that plummet after a major attack would be the smartest move in investment on Harry's part. The wild Fae would agree. Then he truly would be The 'Za Lord.
I could see Harry becoming owner of Pizza S’Press, it is a local chain (anyone else hear of it in their hometown, no) and there is a line to extent in BG and Toot has already adopted the livery and logo of the firm. The livery was provided by Winter, I doubt Mab would be happy to use someone else’s sigil in relation to warriors of winter as that could be used against them, so she probably owns the IP and therefore the chain. We know Winter is loaded.
Can’t think of a better wedding present for Harry from Mab especially given Harry explains to Mab in BG the neuromancy involved in binding the Little Folk. She would see it as a smart move consolidating the Winter Knights Power over the Little Folk, given how useful they were.
This would make Toot very, very happy. lacuna not so much, and would give Harry a source of both income and pizza. He was worried how he was going to afford all the pizza and wanted to bill Marcone.
One thinks of dowries, but a wedding is also for gifts for the happy couple.
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Any dowry would only be Lara giving a gift to Lara. She controls Lord Raith after all. On several occasions we see that Lara has complete control of the entire Raith holdings.
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Becoming a franchise owner of pizza restaurants in a city with property values that plummet after a major attack would be the smartest move in investment on Harry's part. The wild Fae would agree. Then he truly would be The 'Za Lord.
Yeah, but he'd run the risk of his profits literally being eaten up.. ::)
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Yeah, but he'd run the risk of his profits literally being eaten up.. ::)
It is not a risk if it is a certainty. :)
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It is not a risk if it is a certainty. :)
Not only that but I bet Toot will have to join Weight Watchers. :o
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Not only that but I bet Toot will have to join Weight Watchers. :o
Or he gets even more followers. All the little folk everywhere on earth will go to Chicago.
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Any dowry would only be Lara giving a gift to Lara. She controls Lord Raith after all. On several occasions we see that Lara has complete control of the entire Raith holdings.
Yeah, but old man Raith is still sort of there and I like the idea that he's impotently screaming his rage when she makes him give Dresden something he (Raith) considered important or valuable ... like maybe the portrait of Harry's mom.
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Yeah, but he'd run the risk of his profits literally being eaten up.. ::)
but think about how much more the little folk would be bound to him, they'd owe him for the pizza. That might be a fair trade of the profits..
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Harry currently has to buy a lot of Pizza, if he cuts out the middleman, he saves money, and he can recoup what he is paying out by having the Little Folk deliver flyers. As stated it ensures the loyalty of the Little folk
The Little Folk will gladly spread the word, if that word is Pizza.
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Harry currently has to buy a lot of Pizza, if he cuts out the middleman, he saves money, and he can recoup what he is paying out by having the Little Folk deliver flyers. As stated it ensures the loyalty of the Little folk
The Little Folk will gladly spread the word, if that word is Pizza.
Yes and no, because Toot insists on the top ingredients and they do not come cheap.
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He doesn’t need to, he can supply the Little Folk at cost, at the moment he is paying the pie house a slice a profit with each pizza. If the number of pizza’s are constant, elimination of the profit element brings down the overall cost to Harry . He is still charging his mortal customers the same so is getting an income that way.
Just don’t let Toot do the accounts.
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IIRC, Jim stated that Harry has about 2mil of diamonds and I doubt he would want to ask Mab or Molly for more a loan. Those interest rates have to bite big time.
Two million is one tenth of the $20 million that Nicodemus said they could easily get. The diamonds were split 5 ways, and then Harry split his 1/5th with Murphy. That's an annoying amount because it should be way higher. Like 5 to 20 times higher. I think we've all seen/been party to the conversations about how much the diamonds should be worth. Here's Priscilla's math on how much the diamonds would be worth. https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/273l6q/skin_game_spoilers_money/chxf3vf/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/273l6q/skin_game_spoilers_money/chxf3vf/). I tend to agree with her. Now, you would still have a limited, but large, budget because you probably can't just sell all the diamonds at once, especially when you consider that there are four other sellers out there unloading these diamonds. Five if Murphy's share doesn't end up back in Harry's hands.
Jim also said the reason for the diamonds was to move Harry past having money problems and into the mo' problems mo' money brings.
But Harry is a knight now and marriage to a rich heiress is the traditional way for impoverished nobility to improve their financial position. ;D
:)
In had a friend who described owning a house a bit like owning a whore.. ::)
Was it a rent house? Because I get that analogy.
And he's not rolling in income either.
This. He doesn't have a job anymore.
Maybe he'll get lucky and the events of BG will have made property values in Chicago plummet.
They would make the average value plummet, but the value of an intact and fortified residence would probably skyrocket. I'm not sure if they take actual value into account for tax roll appraisals.
But renovating a castle has to be insanely expensive. How many people do you know who have experience building, maintaining, or repairing a castle? I'd expect that alone to make it expensive. The materials aren't going to be cheap either. Granted, Harry only has to fix the roof/ceiling in a single room, but maintenance is also going to be expensive. I've seen estimates ranging from 1 to 5 percent of the market price of the castle.
Harry might be able charge a fortune to people who wanted to rent a room from him. The castle's going to be really safe. It's coming and going that would put residents in danger.
This all would be a lot easier to figure out if we knew how big the castle is.
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But renovating a castle has to be insanely expensive. How many people do you know who have experience building, maintaining, or repairing a castle? I'd expect that alone to make it expensive. The materials aren't going to be cheap either. Granted, Harry only has to fix the roof/ceiling in a single room, but maintenance is also going to be expensive. I've seen estimates ranging from 1 to 5 percent of the market price of the castle.
I feel like the answer here is Svartelves. They'd know how to fortify it/rebuild it. It seems like they don't know that Harry broke Thomas out (or that Thomas was even broken out), so you'd get the added bonus of Harry feeling guilty/awkward as they did the work and expressed gratitude for his role in saving the city.
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Harry already has a ready supply of compatible building material, the stones of the ruined lighthouse on Demonreach have a very similar warding, he can use those for repair AND to create a interior safe room for Maggie, two layers of warded stone.
It’s almost as though someone thought he might need it.....
The other repair job will be the cottage on Demonreach, make it a little less basic and a little more comfortable, plus use the rest of the Stone to expand it a little as a fall back position.
Whilst the Castle is perfect for standard training, the island would be better for combat training, or to stash other fugitives from the White Council, so fixing up the cottage also needs to be done.
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I feel like the answer here is Svartelves. ...
Yeah, pretty sure they aren't going to help Harry with anything right now.
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Yeah, pretty sure they aren't going to help Harry with anything right now.
They helped Harry getting the castle.
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Yeah, pretty sure they aren't going to help Harry with anything right now.
Depends on if the theory that Evanna helped out with cornering Marcone because Harry cleared things up offscreen is correct or not.
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Depends on if the theory that Evanna helped out with cornering Marcone because Harry cleared things up offscreen is correct or not.
Or maybe Mab and Lara cleared things up. Harry only did his duty here because Lara borrowed Harry from Mab. We tend to forget it because Harry wanted to do it himself but in Sidhe terms and maybe also in svartalves terms Lara was the responsible one. She has to handle the diplomatic fallout and she was quite confident she could.
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They helped Harry getting the castle.
Actually she only confirmed that Harry did not have a place anymore.
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Actually she only confirmed that Harry did not have a place anymore.
“There was . . . damage to that apartment during the attack,” she politely lied.
Evanna literally lied or was selective with the truth to get help Harry.
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Or maybe Mab and Lara cleared things up. Harry only did his duty here because Lara borrowed Harry from Mab. We tend to forget it because Harry wanted to do it himself but in Sidhe terms and maybe also in svartalves terms Lara was the responsible one. She has to handle the diplomatic fallout and she was quite confident she could.
They do work that way, it's how Listen survived Bombshells.
“What about the turtlenecks?” I asked.
“What of them?"
“Will you … deal with them?”
Etri just looked at me. “Why would we?"
“They were sort of in on it,” I said.
“They were property,” said the svartalf. “If a man strikes you with a hammer, it is the man who is punished. There is no reason to destroy the hammer. We care nothing for them.”
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Evanna literally lied or was selective with the truth to get help Harry.
That's some seriously squidgy gray area there. Would Evanna attempt to explain why Harry is not welcome as a guest in Molly's apartment or would she take the easy and more diplomatic way out by telling the selective truth?
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That's some seriously squidgy gray area there. Would Evanna attempt to explain why Harry is not welcome as a guest in Molly's apartment or would she take the easy and more diplomatic way out by telling the selective truth?
that's what I thought too. She found better purpose supporting Harry's claim than denying it when she didn't really want him there .
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One question, what happened to Etri? Evanna was his second, but Etri just vanishes from the narrative.
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One question, what happened to Etri? Evanna was his second, but Etri just vanishes from the narrative.
I was wondering the same thing, was he killed in battle? Or is he busy elsewhere and Evanna was just acting rep. Titania wasn't there but Sarrissa was for example.
I believe Evanna was lying to help Harry, he pointed to her to confirm that the apartment was damaged and unlivable. She confirmed it, though we know it survived the fire, unless it was damaged later in the attack. I think she meant they could no longer make him welcome because his home there was no longer livable.
What I am wondering is why Harry is contracting Michael to help him make the castle livable and not the the elves? Yes, I know friendship and all, but the reason Harry had hot water and modern light and heat was because of elf technology/magic. Now Harry might not mind taking a cold shower when it is ten below zero in the winter time, but he has a daughter now, who might.
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He'll need help for the lights and electricity, but plumbing(even hot water) is old tech and not something that he'll hex.
And as I said in another thread, Harry probably has a salary as the Winter Knight, he's just been too stubborn to ask for anything from Mab. Once the thought hits him that it's part of the deal he already made and his just due, it can most likely cover his expenses at the castle and the diamonds will do the renovations. Molly has an eight figure expense account, Harry can make do with a seven figure one.
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Yes, I know friendship and all, but the reason Harry had hot water and modern light and heat was because of elf technology/magic. Now Harry might not mind taking a cold shower when it is ten below zero in the winter time, but he has a daughter now, who might.
With more space and a property he owns all of, hot water is achievable without help. Put a tank of water on an upper floor, heat it with fire magic, gravity feed it to showers on the lower floor. He'd have to charge it up manually every time, but that's not that big a deal to take care of the kid. People used to boil kettles over an open fire to have hot baths.
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With more space and a property he owns all of, hot water is achievable without help. Put a tank of water on an upper floor, heat it with fire magic, gravity feed it to showers on the lower floor. He'd have to charge it up manually every time, but that's not that big a deal to take care of the kid. People used to boil kettles over an open fire to have hot baths.
Yes, and often there was someone in the home, with help to do all of the work. It takes time and effort, something Harry won't have a lot of. I imagine he will reengage his Brownie Cleaning Service.
There was a show several years ago, it showed on PBS, it also was on BBCAmerica, families trying to live like they did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was way more difficult than you think, even with magic I imagine.
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He'll need help for the lights and electricity, but plumbing(even hot water) is old tech and not something that he'll hex.
And as I said in another thread, Harry probably has a salary as the Winter Knight, he's just been too stubborn to ask for anything from Mab. Once the thought hits him that it's part of the deal he already made and his just due, it can most likely cover his expenses at the castle and the diamonds will do the renovations. Molly has an eight figure expense account, Harry can make do with a seven figure one.
Yes but his salary is payable in Bitcoin (the modern Faerie Gold)
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Yes but his salary is payable in Bitcoin (the modern Faerie Gold)
That's what Paranoid Gary is for.
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What I am wondering is why Harry is contracting Michael to help him make the castle livable and not the the elves?
Did he, or was it just suggested? Anyway, Michael could be the general contractor and the elves could be sub contractors for all those parts. Also, Harry might not trust them or they might be unwilling.
And as I said in another thread, Harry probably has a salary as the Winter Knight, he's just been too stubborn to ask for anything from Mab.
Jim has said he doesn't.
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Means he probably has right of requisition, then. He might be able to order Sidhe to help- if he is willing to trust their work.
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I was wondering the same thing, was he killed in battle? Or is he busy elsewhere and Evanna was just acting rep. Titania wasn't there but Sarrissa was for example.
I believe Evanna was lying to help Harry, he pointed to her to confirm that the apartment was damaged and unlivable. She confirmed it, though we know it survived the fire, unless it was damaged later in the attack. I think she meant they could no longer make him welcome because his home there was no longer livable.
What I am wondering is why Harry is contracting Michael to help him make the castle livable and not the the elves? Yes, I know friendship and all, but the reason Harry had hot water and modern light and heat was because of elf technology/magic. Now Harry might not mind taking a cold shower when it is ten below zero in the winter time, but he has a daughter now, who might.
Harry trusts Michael and they will work very well together. Working with the svartalves will be far more expensive and tricky. He might still hire them for some stuff if he can get the money.