First, if you do a lot of the work yourself, "valued at" and "What it cost to build" are two very, very different numbers. Never forget that news articles will

First, if you do a lot of the work yourself, "valued at" and "What it cost to build" are two very, very different numbers. Never forget that news articles will tend to be lazy about "Oh, XYZ cost that much new, OK, add that in..." when someone like Steve is going to have a better line on used equipment at a good price, or perhaps some sponsorship deals. Second, he's a big fan of the "nickel generator" projects - something that, once done, will generate some trickle of income more or less indefinitely on minimal additional labor. And he's got a lot of those in various forms. Third, he lives simply. Quite so. And he's been around for a lot of years. All those add up to both a lot of connections, and likely a decent stockpile of cash for projects. I met him some years back. Great all around technowizard! How much do people on HN regularly spend on a house/car?