Octopus Overlords

Default wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 9:14 pm

Holman wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:15 pm

coopasonic wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2024 7:28 pm $3500 for a new trumpet for the kiddo heading to high school.

Ouch.

They offered 0% financing and she passed...

Wow.

Our high-school senior has been playing electric guitar for a couple of years and asked us for a bass (which he wants to learn) for his birthday. A good starter bass is about $1000.

You can get a decent one for far less than a grand. Does he have a scale length or body style in mind?

I was wrong about that price. My kid did some research, and he and my wife found a very good one for just around $300.

I was out of the loop because I don't really understand music. But I enjoy hearing my son learn guitar and bass riffs.

Holman wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 9:27 pm I was wrong about that price. My kid did some research, and he and my wife found a very good one for just around $300.

I was out of the loop because I don't really understand music. But I enjoy hearing my son learn guitar and bass riffs.

Today my son bought his cousin's trombone for $250. A new one would have set us back over $1K.

Holman wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:15 pm

coopasonic wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2024 7:28 pm $3500 for a new trumpet for the kiddo heading to high school.

Ouch.

They offered 0% financing and she passed...

Wow.

Our high-school senior has been playing electric guitar for a couple of years and asked us for a bass (which he wants to learn) for his birthday. A good starter bass is about $1000.

Not sure where you're sjoping for a bass but amazon has them for around $30

Supposedly those things are super popular. I never got that. Ther are cute ya but I always saw them more as embarrassing.

Daehawk wrote: Mon May 06, 2024 3:44 am Supposedly those things are super popular. I never got that. Ther are cute ya but I always saw them more as embarrassing.

My dad liked his, and so did his great grandkids. I just saw where someone had taken one of those new floppy fish toys for cats, and tied it to the back of their infant to provide the infant "fake" human pats on the bum to get them to fall asleep. https://www.romper.com/life/sleeping-fi ... s-to-sleep

Jeff V wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 10:52 pm

Holman wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 9:27 pm I was wrong about that price. My kid did some research, and he and my wife found a very good one for just around $300.

I was out of the loop because I don't really understand music. But I enjoy hearing my son learn guitar and bass riffs.

Today my son bought his cousin's trombone for $250. A new one would have set us back over $1K.

BTW, my parents spent $250 on my trumpet in 1972. Inflation is lagging in the musical instrument field.

Gas pressure washer. Electric is not cutting it.

Carpet_pissr wrote:Gas pressure washer. Electric is not cutting it.

What are you trying to clean that electric can't handle? I have a 2300psi electric washer and it's great for most things around the house. Does it have enough pressure and flow to clean the second floor exterior of my house from the ground? No, but I'd rather call a professional for that misery job anyway. My only problem with electric is having to get electricity wherever I'm working. I have 200ft of garden hose, but not nearly that much extension cord.

I just blasted my 10yo paver sidewalk clean over the weekend and it looks like new. I've also been using it to clean my deck for years, and recently bought a soap foam attachment to start using it to wash my car. A power washer is an incredibly useful tool, but you definitely have to be careful about how you use it on certain surfaces.

Largeish concrete driveway, front walk, front porch. Backyard large composite deck plus screened in porch, concrete patio all around pool. Large outdoor brick chimney and surrounding seating which always gets mildew. Various seating all around that gets mildew.

I’ve done all that with an electric but it just takes too long.

Sounds like you need to be adding a mildew treatment to prevent having to do it so frequently.

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue May 07, 2024 7:24 pm Sounds like you need to be adding a mildew treatment to prevent having to do it so frequently.

Yes, agreed.

I usually spray the worst places with oxygen bleach and let it sit. But the humidity here is off the charts so it’s going to be a yearly thing no matter what I do probably.

I cleaned a circular drive with a small electric pressure washer once. It took me two days, it was literally an inch wide stripe cleaned on each pass.

The condo in Manila was supposed to turn over to us in August, but they sent a notice saying now the turnover day is around Xmas. That saves the kids from having to go to the Philippines this summer (and they were happy to hear that!) December is close enough to the house in Ormoc turnover (still expected late Feb). If MiL comes back again late this year, then maybe the wife and I can spare the kids, go there to furnish both properties while mom takes care of the kids for a few weeks.

Jeff V wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 3:58 pm The condo in Manila was supposed to turn over to us in August, but they sent a notice saying now the turnover day is around Xmas. That saves the kids from having to go to the Philippines this summer (and they were happy to hear that!) December is close enough to the house in Ormoc turnover (still expected late Feb). If MiL comes back again late this year, then maybe the wife and I can spare the kids, go there to furnish both properties while mom takes care of the kids for a few weeks.

I like the idea of buying an efficiency condo unit someplace in Asia leaning toward Thailand or maybe Philippines. Is your unit in a huge complex? I sort of worry about getting a place where the fees eventually climb way up like they have here. I know they're very very reasonable right now in Asia, but the idea of lots of future maintenance worries me. Just watched a video of a huge complex in Thailand that even has four bowling lanes. Just look at the last complex in this video, amazing amenities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg745-TTF0U With those windows where they are those folks must not have seen my Thai buddy bowl.

Does you new condo have mini-splits, or still the old school air conditioners like most of the Philippines seems to have still?

em2nought wrote: Tue May 07, 2024 11:29 pm I cleaned a circular drive with a small electric pressure washer once. It took me two days, it was literally an inch wide stripe cleaned on each pass.

Exactly. I’m done with that bullshit.

Luckily the Karcher I had that died was still under warranty and they are sending me a new one, which I will keep in box and sell as new to fund my gas purchase.

Thing had an induction motor, too, which was supposed to equal: long life. And brushless to boot. The previous Karcher I had, a much lower model without the induction motor, lasted 12 years and I abused that thing. Literally left it outside in the elements for a couple years.

I just dropped $600 on a new lawnmower, after trying unsuccessfully for 3 weeks to get the broken one fixed. No authorized Ryobi service centers within a 90-minute drive, nobody local would touch the thing. So screw it, I need my grass mowed.

If I do somehow find someone who can fix it I'll sell it, but in the meantime I've got a nice shiny new one. Different, more reputable brand (Ego). 5 year warranty on this one and no service center bullshit - something goes wrong in 5 years you call them and they fix it.

I do love it so far though. Cuts much better than the old one. My wife has cut me off from buying records for a couple of months since I splurged for the higher end one with self-propel and the dual blades.

em2nought wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 6:56 pm

Jeff V wrote: Wed May 08, 2024 3:58 pm The condo in Manila was supposed to turn over to us in August, but they sent a notice saying now the turnover day is around Xmas. That saves the kids from having to go to the Philippines this summer (and they were happy to hear that!) December is close enough to the house in Ormoc turnover (still expected late Feb). If MiL comes back again late this year, then maybe the wife and I can spare the kids, go there to furnish both properties while mom takes care of the kids for a few weeks.

I like the idea of buying an efficiency condo unit someplace in Asia leaning toward Thailand or maybe Philippines. Is your unit in a huge complex? I sort of worry about getting a place where the fees eventually climb way up like they have here. I know they're very very reasonable right now in Asia, but the idea of lots of future maintenance worries me. Just watched a video of a huge complex in Thailand that even has four bowling lanes. Just look at the last complex in this video, amazing amenities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg745-TTF0U With those windows where they are those folks must not have seen my Thai buddy bowl.

Does you new condo have mini-splits, or still the old school air conditioners like most of the Philippines seems to have still?

It's new construction, so I assume it has modern conveniences. IIRC, the condo we rented as an AirBnB last summer had hotel-like AC units that operated from the wall thermostat or a remote control. It's on the 11th floor, overlooking the swimming pool. I'm not sure what other amenities the building has, but it's in the Greenfield shopping district, several high-rise shopping malls nearby (we stayed in a hotel in that are once).

To own property in the Philippines, you must be a citizen of the country. The day before our last visit, my wife went to the Philippine embassy in Chicago to reaffirm her Filipino citizenship (so she is a dual citizen now with 2 passports).

Kraken wrote: Wed May 01, 2024 9:20 pm

TheMix wrote: Wed May 01, 2024 6:00 pm

Kraken wrote: Wed May 01, 2024 5:26 pm Offer signed and tendered. They have 36 hours to respond. I'm not real optimistic because we came in substantially below their asking price, but our agent believes it's a fair price -- and as far as we know there are no competing offers on the table.

Good luck!

Dude rejected our offer but dropped his price by $5k. Tomorrow we will go up by $5k. We learned that he rejected two previous offers that were both lower than ours. Our agent showed them our prequalification letter, which says that our limit is the amount we're going to offer tomorrow. She explained that we aren't rich young people making an investment, but an old couple looking to retire and stretching as far as we can go. If necessary I'll go up another $5k, which puts us $5k over our official limit, and that will be our final offer. He doesn't need to know that we have a newer prequalification letter that's $25k higher than the one he saw.

I believe that we've already offered more than this house is really worth, and he would be smart to accept our final offer. The house has been on the market since his wife died last Thanksgiving, which is a very long time in this market.

Is asking for a seller's credit a possibility? That got us our house without much problem. Wish I would have done it on houses I liked better though.

Jeff V wrote: Fri May 10, 2024 3:57 pm
To own property in the Philippines, you must be a citizen of the country. The day before our last visit, my wife went to the Philippine embassy in Chicago to reaffirm her Filipino citizenship (so she is a dual citizen now with 2 passports).

I thought foreigners could buy "condos", but that's it? Nothing that includes a piece of land pretty much just like Thailand.

IDK what a sellers credit is.

We're almost at the end of the 2-week hiatus that the seller's agent asked for. Our previous offer was nullified when he didn't accept it within 36 hours, so there's nothing officially on the table. The next move is his. We are prepared to resubmit the same offer if he's inclined to accept it.

Meanwhile, I've applied for a new HELOC on our existing house because the draw period on the old HELOC ends next March. Once that's approved I'm going to start making repairs and improvements to this house preparatory to putting it on the market. It needs a ton of renovating, most of which we won't do until after we move out, but there are some minimally disruptive jobs that can be done while we're still living here. For example, according to realtors the #1 improvement for ROI last year was a new garage door. We could use one. That's not expensive and it's super easy, barely an inconvenience.

My girlfriend is about to replace her door, and I am stunned at how expensive it is. What do you consider inexpensive to be?

JCC wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 9:04 am My girlfriend is about to replace her door, and I am stunned at how expensive it is. What do you consider inexpensive to be?

A new front door was the #2 improvement in terms of ROI so it's probably worth it.

I've never investigated, but on our 109-year-old house it's a safe bet they'd have to replace/rebuild the whole entry frame since our door includes two side windows, sizing wasn't well standardized back then, and nothing in this house is square/level. I assume it would be wicked expensive, possibly five figures. I would consider anything under $1,000 to be inexpensive.

My parent's installed a door with a beautiful custom pane of frosted glass. It was $5000. Doors are expensive.

The new HELOC is on hold for the moment. I started e-signing today and noticed the interest rate is 8.4% (prime -0.1). Their salesperson offered to match the rate on my old HELOC, prime -0.7, so that benchmark number ought to be 7.8%..

Yeah, I think a double garage door is about $2k at least. At least that's what my girlfriend's lower quotes are hovering around.

Mrs Skinypupy decided she wanted a shed. So I spent yesterday finding a few friends to help me lug this 410 lb box out of a Costco, into a pickup, and dump it on the side of my house.

I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

Skinypupy wrote:I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

Cut the weeds/grass as close to the ground as possible, throw down a layer of 3/4" crushed stone and rake it to make a relatively level surface (that will drain well), plop down your shed and call it a day. Unless you want to spend a lot of time digging or know how to run a Bobcat yourself, trying to actually level the dirt and get it compacted yourself will be a nightmare.

Kraken wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 2:32 pm

JCC wrote: Sat May 11, 2024 9:04 am My girlfriend is about to replace her door, and I am stunned at how expensive it is. What do you consider inexpensive to be?

A new front door was the #2 improvement in terms of ROI so it's probably worth it.

I've never investigated, but on our 109-year-old house it's a safe bet they'd have to replace/rebuild the whole entry frame since our door includes two side windows, sizing wasn't well standardized back then, and nothing in this house is square/level. I assume it would be wicked expensive, possibly five figures. I would consider anything under $1,000 to be inexpensive.

Having decided solar is out our next item is replacing the front door and garage side door. We also need new weatherstripping and a screen door for the new front door. I was thinking around $2,500 for the work.

Skinypupy wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:40 am Mrs Skinypupy decided she wanted a shed. So I spent yesterday finding a few friends to help me lug this 410 lb box out of a Costco, into a pickup, and dump it on the side of my house.

I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

I hope it wasn't a metal shed by Arrow? If it is I'd recommend lots of silicone caulking with a dab under every screw in the roof, and a bead where each sheet of roof metal overlaps. Oops, nevermind it's a Suncast resin shed.

JCC wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 9:39 am Yeah, I think a double garage door is about $2k at least. At least that's what my girlfriend's lower quotes are hovering around.

I think the extra cost of an insulated garage door is a worthwhile choice depending on how the house is situated.

disarm wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:46 am

Skinypupy wrote:I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

Cut the weeds/grass as close to the ground as possible, throw down a layer of 3/4" crushed stone and rake it to make a relatively level surface (that will drain well), plop down your shed and call it a day. Unless you want to spend a lot of time digging or know how to run a Bobcat yourself, trying to actually level the dirt and get it compacted yourself will be a nightmare.

Yep. We’ve got a guy coming to rip everything out, level it, and put down the gravel.

With my complete lack of building aptitude, I’m seriously considering hiring someone off Taskrabbit to come build the thing.

Skinypupy wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:40 am Mrs Skinypupy decided she wanted a shed. So I spent yesterday finding a few friends to help me lug this 410 lb box out of a Costco, into a pickup, and dump it on the side of my house.

I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

I was looking at getting the same shed. I'm looking forward to your impressions.

New hot water tank on Wednesday. One that came with the house still works, but it's over 10 years old and can't be drained for service because of so much sediment (previous owners apparently never serviced it). Rather than waiting for it to die, we're swapping the existing 50 gallon tank with a 75 gallon tank (two pre-teens incoming).

Skinypupy wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:40 am Mrs Skinypupy decided she wanted a shed. So I spent yesterday finding a few friends to help me lug this 410 lb box out of a Costco, into a pickup, and dump it on the side of my house.

I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

I’ve been in the market for a plastic shed for years, and one caveat that has stuck with me: if it’s summer/hot, you can’t just let these sheds sit in the box, or worse, laid out in the heat/sun while you take a week or two to figure out how to grade a site, or just procrastinate. They will make assembly much harder due to warping.

I noted this well for myself because that sounds exactly like something I would do.

Yeah, when I say I'm going to do something, you don't have to nag me every 6 months.

Kraken wrote: Mon May 13, 2024 9:42 am Yeah, when I say I'm going to do something, you don't have to nag me every 6 months.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Mon May 13, 2024 9:33 am

Skinypupy wrote: Sun May 12, 2024 11:40 am Mrs Skinypupy decided she wanted a shed. So I spent yesterday finding a few friends to help me lug this 410 lb box out of a Costco, into a pickup, and dump it on the side of my house.

I now get to clear out an huge overgrown patch of weeds that used to be our “garden”, level the ground, and try to actually build this damn thing.

That’s gonna be a fun project.

I’ve been in the market for a plastic shed for years, and one caveat that has stuck with me: if it’s summer/hot, you can’t just let these sheds sit in the box, or worse, laid out in the heat/sun while you take a week or two to figure out how to grade a site, or just procrastinate. They will make assembly much harder due to warping.

I noted this well for myself because that sounds exactly like something I would do.

Good point. We do have it stored under the new carport so it's out of the sun. It's on the east side of the house and is shaded by a fence, and it's not terribly hot here yet (mid-70's) so I think we'll be ok for a little bit.

But yes, I definitely need to get moving on the project sooner rather than later.

We’re placing an offer on this house tomorrow morning.

It's only been on the market for 2 days. We drove out here on Friday of Memday weekend because it will surely be gone by Tuesday. Another one that we were considering actually sold while we were driving. In this market, anything desirable at a realistic price sells within days, or even hours.

When we started our search 15 months ago I told our agent that we want a country house near a city, and this fits that bill. The only thing that really gives me pause is that I will also be the sole owner of a long private road that constitutes my driveway.

Sweet, man. And a two car garage!

Like everything about that house except the furniture. Love all the wood, and the fact that it's almost a detached garage just in case you ever get one of those fire hazard EVs. Wish you luck, hopefully everybody else decided to skip searching over the holiday weekend.

Kraken wrote: Fri May 24, 2024 10:01 pm We’re placing an offer on this house tomorrow morning.

It's only been on the market for 2 days. We drove out here on Friday of Memday weekend because it will surely be gone by Tuesday. Another one that we were considering actually sold while we were driving. In this market, anything desirable at a realistic price sells within days, or even hours.

When we started our search 15 months ago I told our agent that we want a country house near a city, and this fits that bill. The only thing that really gives me pause is that I will also be the sole owner of a long private road that constitutes my driveway.

Congrats, Kraken! Sweet place, and it’s got a killer garage. Looks ready-made for a nice shop out there. Time to start honing your wood working skills! Have you always been in Western Mass, or is that a relocation for you? I always thought you were closer to Boston.