Locate the load

The Exposure Line

01 / 07

Example cycle · Read only

Roof survey walkthrough

Current buildPaid pre-purchase roof survey for older terraced houses

What carries too much load

One employer covers everything we earn. If that contract ends, the household has no second root.

What the wealth is for

Time that is ours on weekday evenings, and the option to move city without asking permission.

What must be protected

Nothing before 6am, nothing after 8pm, and Sunday stays untouched. No money borrowed for this build.

People in this cycle

Involved

Jerome (decision maker), Ada (helps with the survey visits on two Saturdays)

Example working record. This is how this household's Exposure Line reached its locked exposure — raw material, signals, questions, candidates, boundaries, decision.

01 · What the household put on the table

Spoken, four minutes, transcribed and then edited by hand
Everything we earn comes from one contract. It has been fine for six years but the company has been quiet about next year and I keep thinking about it at two in the morning. I have been up ladders since I was nineteen — I can tell in ten minutes whether a roof has five years left or fifteen — and nobody has ever paid me for that on its own. Ada helps at weekends. Weekday evenings are not available, that is when we eat together, and Sunday is not moving for anything.
Written to the field
We are not borrowing money to try anything. If it needs a loan it is not this cycle.
Prompt — Never tested
The roof report idea. Friends say it is a good idea. No stranger has ever paid for it.

02 · Signals surfaced

EARNING
One employer currently carries the whole of household income.
Traced to: “Everything we earn comes from one contract.”
Confirmed by the household
CAPABILITY
A judgement skill about roof condition exists but has never faced a paying stranger.
Traced to: “nobody has ever paid me for that on its own”
Confirmed by the household
TIME
Weekday evenings and Sunday are not available to any new build.
Traced to: “Weekday evenings are not available … Sunday is not moving for anything.”
Confirmed by the household
DEPENDENCY
The contract's renewal is decided by someone outside the household.
Traced to: “the company has been quiet about next year”
Corrected by the household
FUTURE
The household expects to know about next year's contract within months.
Traced to: “quiet about next year”
Dismissed — wrong

03 · Questions worth answering

If that contract income stopped for 90 days, what would change first in the household?
Asked because: It separates an uncomfortable dependency from one with immediate household consequence.
Nothing in the first month. By month two we would be into savings and I would be taking any work at all.
Has anyone outside the household ever paid for roof judgement on its own?
Asked because: An untested capability and a demonstrated one are different exposures entirely.
No. Friends have had it for free. That is the whole problem.

04 · Candidate exposures inspected

INCOME CONCENTRATION

Locked for this cycle

All household earning power depends on one contract the household does not control.

Why this surfaced: High household consequence, a single dependency, and no tested alternative path.
If this became stronger: The household would have one demonstrated way of earning that does not route through that contract.
What must be protected: The existing contract, weekday evenings, Sunday, and no borrowing.
What Nexus still does not know: Whether the roof judgement has real demand outside the circle of friends.

UNTESTED CAPABILITY

Parked on the Wider Horizon

A real skill has never met a buyer, so its value to the household is unknown.

Why this surfaced: A capability named repeatedly, with praise only from people who owe a favour.
If this became stronger: A stranger has used the work and said what it was worth to them.
What must be protected: Saturday mornings only; two visits at most.
What Nexus still does not know: Whether buyers want the judgement or only the paperwork.

AUDIENCE ON BORROWED GROUND

Parked on the Wider Horizon

The only route to local buyers is two community groups owned by someone else.

Why this surfaced: Reach exists, but the household owns none of it.
If this became stronger: A way to reach the same people that does not disappear if a group closes.
What must be protected: No paid advertising.
What Nexus still does not know: Whether those groups are actually the source of enquiries at all.

ONE-PERSON LADDER WORK

Rejected by the household

Every part of the work requires the same person to be physically present.

Why this surfaced: Named as a constraint on both existing and possible work.
If this became stronger: One step of the work performed by a second person.
What must be protected: Ada's weekends stay voluntary.
What Nexus still does not know: Which step is even transferable.

05 · Protected boundaries

No borrowingNothing that requires a loan, an overdraft or a card.
Weekday evenings stay oursNothing scheduled between 6pm and 8pm on weekdays.
Sunday untouchedNo work, no visits, no writing.
The existing contract is not endangeredNothing that competes with or embarrasses the current employer.

06 · Locked exposure

Locked exposure: One employer covers everything we earn. If that contract ends, the household has no second root.
What stronger would mean: A second earning path that strangers have actually paid for, demonstrated at least once, without risking the first.
Protected boundary: Nothing before 6am, nothing after 8pm, Sunday untouched, and no money borrowed for this build.
Why this cycle: We keep circling the same 2am thought. If we do not test it this month we will still be guessing in a year.

Do this next

Put the household's reality on the table, inspect what surfaces, and narrow it to the one exposure this cycle will answer.

Return when

One exposure is locked, with what stronger would mean and the boundary being protected.

Gate · Three lines are required: what carries too much load, what the wealth is for, and the boundary being protected.