The Force Awakens [SPOILERS! DO NOT ENTER!]

[Zayne Carrick]

Spoiler

She was lonely and couldn't sleep so she thought of this island and ocean

And that's perfectly fine for someone living in the desert. I'm living in snowy Urals mountains and dream about ocean, islands and beaches pretty often too.
Too much speculation on this point.

Another interesting thing is how The First Order, being much weaker than Empire in every aspect from size to men to resourses managed to build Starkiller Base. I think that maybe 90% of it was build by Empire[read another Palpatine's doomsday weapon] and rest 10% were slowly finished by The First Order over 30 years