all doom & gloom, again..., page-8

Has anyone ever renovated an old period house to sell? Whats happened so far is a lot like that process (at least the way an old house reno should be done):

The first steps in the old house reno process are all the structural stuff:

- adding/modifying rooms
- ripping up/out anything that needs replacing
- re-blocking
- re-wiring
- removing/replacing rotten woodwork
- possibly re-roofing

Now at this stage of the process the house looks like a bombsite. A lot of money has already been sunk in, and it doesnt look like there is much to show for it.

Try to sell the house at this stage and see what you get for it!

Its not until the plastering and painting is done, the floorboards get polished, the fixtures/fittings get installed, and the landscaping gets finished off that the house looks worth much more than it originally was.

So where is SSN in this process? In my estimation we are $40-50M down and all the structural stuff has been done or is being completed, but it still doesnt quite look pretty because we dont have the pretty numbers yet. With the money spent so far:

- finished off the last couple of North Stockyard wells
- bought the original Fort Peck acreage
- bought additional acreage since
- shot 3D and found maybe $1B worth of conventional targets
- drilled or re drilling 5 appraisal wells and obtained a helluva lot of data that will be used to drill subsequent wells and get better results
- established contracts to hire 2 rigs for a bunch more drilling

You very rarely see people selling a house thats just completed all the non-visual structural work but not commenced or finished all the visual stuff that gets the big $$$s. if it ever happens they lose money big time on the project, and they only do it because they absolutely have to (cant see the project through because they've run out of money, or other life circumstances have changed).

If you could chart a house's price while it goes through such a house reno project it would probably look like SSN's chart does right now, at the stage where all the structural stuff is being completed.

Ironically while it is rare for people to sell off half finished house reno projects, it is very common for stock investors to sell off at the equivalent time in a company's development.

Be your own judge of course, but thats where I reckon we're at. The hard work (by the company, and by all of us who have been patiently waiting) will soon be completed. Imo selling SSN now would be like selling off that half finished house reno project...

Cheers, Sharks.

PS: maybe watch an episode of the block to visualise what the above looks like.