Octopus Overlords

Lately I bought a tv and a AC. 6 months before that I bought a air crisper I use every day. Before that I bought a cheap gaming PC. Every major purchase I make it basically changes my life. I'm *really* careful with my cash.

Closed on the new house on Friday. Took the family on Saturday and when I pulled the van into the garage, the rise on the apron from the sidewalk to the garage was so steep that we bottomed out the van (the van is significantly lower than a typical van because it's modified for wheelchair use). Sigh.

The van appears to be OK, but I had a contractor out yesterday to give me a quote on tearing up the sidewalk and apron and smoothing out the slope so we can actually park in the garage. Going to get at least one more quote, but at this point it looks like at least $5K.

$38K on a new roof. Yay labor and material shortage!

Replacing the deck is on hold until the roof is done but looking at $10-20K. Looked at the synthetic polymer stuff but it is insanely expensive now. $40K estimate. Since roofs are good for 20-30 years on the long side, doesn't make sense to put in a forever deck.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:52 am Closed on the new house on Friday. Took the family on Saturday and when I pulled the van into the garage, the rise on the apron from the sidewalk to the garage was so steep that we bottomed out the van (the van is significantly lower than a typical van because it's modified for wheelchair use). Sigh.

The van appears to be OK, but I had a contractor out yesterday to give me a quote on tearing up the sidewalk and apron and smoothing out the slope so we can actually park in the garage. Going to get at least one more quote, but at this point it looks like at least $5K.

Might I offer an alternative...

Where were you a month-and-a-half ago when I could have used that?!

Turned the TV on last week. Hear sound but the screen is black. Messed around with it for a while but all signs point to LED backlighting being dead (it's a TCL Roku TV). I actually got that TV for free, so whatever, but apparently the universe really wants us to have an OLED TV that we've been eyeing since before COVID...

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:17 am Fucking Samsung appliances.

I love Samsung TVs but their appliances are hot garbage. I bought a Samsung dishwasher that only lasted a few years before it needed replacement (and that was after several repairs).

Never again.

Looks to be a summer 2022 trip to Ratworld. I mean Disney World. We just closed on refinancing the house, and the punchline ought to be enough to afford such a thing, It seems we'd be going with a family of 5, and the internet tells me renting a passenger van for drive there will be around $750 for a week. I'll have to look into the cost of renting an RV large enough for 10...doing that might be more cost effective than driving there and getting hotel accommodations.

Looks like my next future item will be a router.

gilraen wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:09 am Turned the TV on last week. Hear sound but the screen is black. Messed around with it for a while but all signs point to LED backlighting being dead (it's a TCL Roku TV). I actually got that TV for free, so whatever, but apparently the universe really wants us to have an OLED TV that we've been eyeing since before COVID...

Buying an OLED was one of the greatest purchasing decisions of the pandemic.

We’re getting 3 custom oak bookcases delivered for our living room.

Oh and also it's possible we will be buying a house in Ormoc (the town where we had our wedding reception in the Philippines). My wife is dispatching her sister to check it out, if it seems worthwhile, the cost will be about $100 per month.

My wife is also talking about purchasing a lot and constructing a 20-unit apartment complex. We really need for some of her existing investments to start producing profit, however. I want to see such projects be funded by other projects she has started. Apparently her chicken/egg farm will roll into the black sometime next month. I want the Manila condo to fund itself via Air BnB, but it won't be complete until 2024. I don't know what the rental market is like in Ormoc, or what it would take for this house to be desirable property, if it even is (I do not have any fond memories of Ormoc outside of the the coastal resort areas -- most of the city I thought was a pit).

Following my wife's plan would also disrupt our kid's childhood. I told her I wanted a stable environment once the kids went to school -- she jumped the gun and we bought a house earlier than was necessary. But now we're here, it's an excellent community, the 'hood is loaded with kids the same age as ours, and the schools are decent. It meets my requirements of where I want to be for the next 15 years. But I need a job to keep us here. And that's been elusive for a long time.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 9:52 pm We’re getting 3 custom oak bookcases delivered for our living room.

Did you spend a little extra like I suggested to get the cursed ones?

We always eat dinner in front of the TV so we're thinking of getting one of those coffee tables with the top that raises up. I guess a nice one is around $500. That would be our xmas gift to each other.

In terms of really major purchases, we're about to drop $3k on countertops and a backsplash for our house in Lansing. It will then be ready for market, and the $15k that we've put into it will raise its value from $70k to $130k, according to the realtor who's overseeing this. If we go into the spring with a large enough war chest to overhaul our own house, we'll be talking about REALLY major purchases.

My wife wants to renovate our kitchen, including granite or marble counter tops and backsplash. I think Menards has counter-tops that are stone-like but more affordable, and they have the backsplash.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:03 pm We always eat dinner in front of the TV so we're thinking of getting one of those coffee tables with the top that raises up. I guess a nice one is around $500. That would be our xmas gift to each other.

Definitely make sure to test drive it as well as you can. I got one many years ago without really trying it out. Turns out that when it's fully up, it's too high for using while sitting on the couch; and if I lower it, then it's not locked in place and it just settles immediately.

Ditto.

TheMix wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:16 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:03 pm We always eat dinner in front of the TV so we're thinking of getting one of those coffee tables with the top that raises up. I guess a nice one is around $500. That would be our xmas gift to each other.

Definitely make sure to test drive it as well as you can. I got one many years ago without really trying it out. Turns out that when it's fully up, it's too high for using while sitting on the couch; and if I lower it, then it's not locked in place and it just settles immediately.

Thanks for the warning. We'll most likely buy online because who goes to furniture stores anymore? But I'll look for height specs.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:34 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:16 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:03 pm We always eat dinner in front of the TV so we're thinking of getting one of those coffee tables with the top that raises up. I guess a nice one is around $500. That would be our xmas gift to each other.

Definitely make sure to test drive it as well as you can. I got one many years ago without really trying it out. Turns out that when it's fully up, it's too high for using while sitting on the couch; and if I lower it, then it's not locked in place and it just settles immediately.

Thanks for the warning. We'll most likely buy online because who goes to furniture stores anymore? But I'll look for height specs.

So I just checked mine. I haven't used it in many years. It's not quite as bad as I'd remembered. Part of my issue is that my couch is very "comfy" (i.e. soft and you settle in a bit). As a result, the table top reaches about upper-chest high. So I end up feeling like I'm just shoveling food into my face.

Here's what it looks like.



PS. Ignore the dust and the ghost in the window.

We just placed an order for furniture for the new family room. That was a big hunk of cash, but we're very liquid at the moment given the equity we had in the house we just sold. Of course, we're told to expect it in about 20 weeks . . . .

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 10:51 pm A/C, purchased in 2015 a month after we moved in, quit blowing cold today. The place we bought it has evening service, so we were actually able to have a service guy make it out around 7. Needs new parts. No place that has them will be open until Monday.

So three adults and three dogs will be headed down to a La Quinta for the weekend.

High of 95 today. Guess what just quit working?

Oh, and for the future, I highly recommend making sure that labor is covered as part of the warranty. My A/C is parts only. So I'm looking at some nice labor costs. Again.

We've got a cascading series of purchases. The Mustang Mach-E GT has led us to decide to use one car worth of the garage for the car instead of storage. We've got stuff in the garage from my parent's estate that needs to go to other family members, stuff from my cousin who keeps working abroad and stuff from my mother-in-law in addition to all of our stuff. So we decided to get a 10x12 shed built in the sideyard for $6000. Once that's in, we'll need to buy some rhino racks to make use of that storage.

Once that's in place, we can move stuff out of the garage to free up the space and get things cleaned up enough that we can install the charger for the car. That may require the installation of a subpanel for some unknown amount of money as well as around $650 for the charger.

New car.

Needs to be able to haul fam plus large black goat/dog, and occasionally a bike.

And to be used for my new daily commute (35-40 miles per day), so preferably a hybrid or at least not a guzzler.

All in a seller’s market like I’ve never seen.

Oh and I need it in 2 weeks.

IDK how much I've said about this here, but we have an offer on our Lansing house, and once that sells -- which the seller wants to be on 4/29 -- I'll have a lump of money to set a lot of repairs on our real house in motion. As Slartibartfast put it, "I have 1,000 glaciers poised to roll over Norway!"

New windshield after that freak hail storm a few days ago. Luckily it was only one window, I expected to see all the windows cracked or worse on both vehicles. Window film on my bedroom window saved it because it was getting blasted extremely hard, and most of the neighbors lost their windows on that side of their buildings. The guy that installed my window film was a real piece of work, but glad I had it done now in retrospect.

Plumbing work continues. When the second floor bathroom pipes were installed, they didn’t let them dry completely before trying to connect to the toilets and showers. So pipes to both toilets and showers leak where a pipe was pulled or twisted during installation. Stupid rehab job.

em2nought wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:25 am New windshield after that freak hail storm a few days ago. Luckily it was only one window, I expected to see all the windows cracked or worse on both vehicles. Window film on my bedroom window saved it because it was getting blasted extremely hard, and most of the neighbors lost their windows on that side of their buildings. The guy that installed my window film was a real piece of work, but glad I had it done now in retrospect.

Window film? Is that a darkening film like in cars?

New glasses. I know it isn't a new car, but for me, $75 is a major purchase!

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:55 pm New glasses. I know it isn't a new car, but for me, $75 is a major purchase!

I think my last pair cost me around $600. I am very good at supporting the economy. Yeah, that's how I'll frame it!

Zenni. Zenni is the only reason I have glasses sans any form of vision insurance. If only Zenni did dentistry - I could use a set of $200 teeth.

We ordered some new living room furniture to arrive sometime next year. And of course, immediately after that, the little section of front porch roof started leaking into the garage. I'm not looking forward to that bill.

Well the offer on our Lansing house fell through, so I'm back to contemplating no major purchases in the near term. Might have to go into debt for the front porch, though. It's really deteriorating fast.

TheMix wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:58 am Window film? Is that a darkening film like in cars?

It's a 3M film 8mil(i think) safety/security film, not sure which one though https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00016724/ It has a tiny bit of darkening to it, but you can put an additional layer of darker and or reflective tint over it which is what is on that one window which is my most exposed window. It has a UV layer too I believe.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 2:45 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:55 pm New glasses. I know it isn't a new car, but for me, $75 is a major purchase!

I think my last pair cost me around $600. I am very good at supporting the economy. Yeah, that's how I'll frame it!

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 2:50 pm Zenni. Zenni is the only reason I have glasses sans any form of vision insurance. If only Zenni did dentistry - I could use a set of $200 teeth.

That's where I've been getting my glasses as well. I've been really happy with them.

What is $200 teeth? A set of teeth removed from road kill?

My denture appliance failed several years ago...it became more painful to wear than chewing with just my incisors. When I first got it (maybe 15 years ago?) it was $2500. The punchline on a replacement was $25K...and that was with friends and family discount. My dentist friend left his practice a year ago to become a teacher, so...no discount.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 5:37 pm What is $200 teeth? A set of teeth removed from road kill

Still better than what you get on a disability income with medicare. I have two molars - in my entire mouth - that meet. That single square quarter-inch of chewing surface is it. And I won't be getting better insurance. Unless Medicare adds dental, I'm one bad tooth away from a liquid diet for the rest of my life.

So, yeah. I want the Zenni of dental.

And I can't even express the pure fucking rage I feel about our dental system, and about the Republicans who keep blocking adding dental care to Medicare. And it isn't just me. It's also about 20% of adults over 65 (and guess what insurance most of them have?) I've just got the lucky genetics to have lost all of my teeth younger.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 5:44 pm Still better than what you get on a disability income with medicare. I have two molars - in my entire mouth - that meet. That single square quarter-inch of chewing surface is it. And I won't be getting better insurance. Unless Medicare adds dental, I'm one bad tooth away from a liquid diet for the rest of my life.

So, yeah. I want the Zenni of dental.

Maybe try a set of those snap on veneers. There are several companies making them. I've seen reviews where people say they can replace their partials with them and eat with them.

Veneers need teeth to place them on. You can't put them on nothing.