Tales of Everyday Life

So, house hunting. We found a great house. Fits all of our needs & wants. Sat down and did the financials and, well, we can afford it, but it limits the idea of moving in the 1st place. We wanted to do "lots" of things in Orlando because our little town doesn't offer those things. But new jobs = a slight pay cut and higher house payments mean, not as much money to do lots of stuff. A little bit of the grass is greener lol. We put in a low ball offer and another person put in a better offer, so we were declined, but realized it's for the best. Now, we have houses that are lower but might need some work. That's fine, we did work at our old house. We are now looking at "needs" and not wants. e.g. Newer roof, HVAC, big ticket items we want to pay for now.
Plus we have a surplus of cash since we sold our other house. Now, we can buy cheap, put some of that money into renovations and have a low house payment and "upgrades" that we want.
 
Rhino78 said:
So, house hunting. We found a great house. Fits all of our needs & wants. Sat down and did the financials and, well, we can afford it, but it limits the idea of moving in the 1st place. We wanted to do "lots" of things in Orlando because our little town doesn't offer those things. But new jobs = a slight pay cut and higher house payments mean, not as much money to do lots of stuff. A little bit of the grass is greener lol. We put in a low ball offer and another person put in a better offer, so we were declined, but realized it's for the best. Now, we have houses that are lower but might need some work. That's fine, we did work at our old house. We are now looking at "needs" and not wants. e.g. Newer roof, HVAC, big ticket items we want to pay for now.
Plus we have a surplus of cash since we sold our other house. Now, we can buy cheap, put some of that money into renovations and have a low house payment and "upgrades" that we want.
Click to expand...

Find a fixer upper in the best school zone you can, even if you have no kids or your kids are grown, and you will get a 1.5x return on the same renovations than on a similar house in a shite school zone.

And never leave yourself house poor. 30% of take home as a mortgage payment AT MOST, but 20-25% is preferable.
 
Ulf Murphy said:
Find a fixer upper in the best school zone you can, even if you have no kids or your kids are grown, and you will get a 1.5x return on the same renovations than on a similar house in a shite school zone.

And never leave yourself house poor. 30% of take home as a mortgage payment AT MOST, but 20-25% is preferable.
Click to expand...
Correct. That's why we lowballed the other house. If they said yes, then it was right I our preferred range. We were not budging or going higher. Wife has 2 math degrees, she gets our budget down to the penny lol and she's not even "Druish".

1780508647400.png
 
Ulf Murphy said:
Find a fixer upper in the best school zone you can, even if you have no kids or your kids are grown, and you will get a 1.5x return on the same renovations than on a similar house in a shite school zone.

And never leave yourself house poor. 30% of take home as a mortgage payment AT MOST, but 20-25% is preferable.
Click to expand...
We didn't want to go that route because we just did that last time.
We have a few options, one, fixer upper with new roof, HVAC and the pool was just resurfaced. Probably needs new flooring, kitchen upgrades etc.
Then there is a house in the same range, but has some decent upgrades, like flooring, but no pool. We have to do less to this house and maybe add a nice above ground pool.
So, we have options which is nice.
 
Ulf Murphy said:
Find a fixer upper in the best school zone you can, even if you have no kids or your kids are grown, and you will get a 1.5x return on the same renovations than on a similar house in a shite school zone.

And never leave yourself house poor. 30% of take home as a mortgage payment AT MOST, but 20-25% is preferable.
Click to expand...
I got so lucky with my current house (got it in '21 when the market was scorching hot, I visited and put in an offer less than 6 hours after it'd been listed, and they liked me cuz I was a veteran).

For context, the town is about 15,000 people has two elementary schools,one intermediate school (4-6 grades), one middle school, and one high school.

I live directly across from the high school/football field, less than a quarter mile from my kids elementary school, and about a third of a mile from the middle/intermediate school. Plus, there are three parks/playgrounds within a half a mile, and the local aquatic center (which is BADASS, has waterslides, a lazy river, two different pools, and an indoor pool) is right next to the high school. It's also less than a mile from the tourist attraction main square area. It is quite literally the perfect spot in a perfect town to raise a family.

I will have zero trouble selling this place to another young family when it's time.
 
osubuckeye4 said:

:ROFLMAO:

Man, I feel like he had to have spent as much time practicing his spiritual wardrobe loadout speech as he did training for the fight.



Someone needs to make a Bryce Mitchell action figure and then start selling all the accessories as secondary purchases. You'd make bank! You got the sandals, the sword, the shield, the belt... can't forget your belt! (breastplate sold separately)
Click to expand...
you gotta get back into mma buckey. we been bagging on Bryce for years, dude is hilarious. and he's a preaching flat-earther. there's so much wtf dude in everything he says that you can't help but to ask for more.

And...broham is creeping with @Tito Orcheese and @Nubbynubb76 down there in Darkansas. Peep these lyrics Buckey
 
Brick said:
This encapsulates my approach pretty well. I think after we die, there is nothing. Just oblivion, we are gone. Some people find that to be crippling (guy on the left), I find it to be liberating (guy on the right). No higher purpose, no reunited with loved ones, nothing like that. So I just live a good life, 'cause this is what we get, and probably all we get.
Click to expand...

I've been both guys several times throughout my life. I'm currently the guy on the right, but I was very recently the guy on left.
 
  • Love
Reactions: ABB
Anyone have any advice or recommendations on a riding lawn mower? I've decided to use a portion of my recent winnings on a riding lawn mower. I'm thinking about a zero turn mower. My property is only 1/4 acre but it has a lot of bends and a few trees to get around. Those zero turns look pretty slick. I also need a small one so it fits through my fence into the backyard. I don't think 52" ones will fit.

Anyone have a mower that they really love?
 
cmvideo75 said:
Yeah, I mean Jesus could have just been the 'woke' guy back in the day. Preaching all the goody-goody stuff that the world needed to hear. But the world doesn't like woke people, so they killed him lol. Then to his followers he becomes a martyr and 'the son of god'. And they had good PR so here we are.
Click to expand...
The historical thing to consider is that in and around the time of Jesus (0 to ~33AD), Judaism professed the coming of a messiah. A dude was rolling into town to clean this motherfucker up. 2 others were crucified along with Jesus, and anywhere between 300 and thousands of others were crucified that year alone. Everyone was saying they were the messiah and the Romans were quick to put down dissent.
 
cmvideo75 said:
Anyone have any advice or recommendations on a riding lawn mower? I've decided to use a portion of my recent winnings on a riding lawn mower. I'm thinking about a zero turn mower. My property is only 1/4 acre but it has a lot of bends and a few trees to get around. Those zero turns look pretty slick. I also need a small one so it fits through my fence into the backyard. I don't think 52" ones will fit.

Anyone have a mower that they really love?
Click to expand...
get a zero turn.
it's worth it
1/4 acre really isn't much, you just getting lazy
I had an acre (but maybe only 1/2 really had to be mowed every week, the rest maybe once a month (or less). Doing the whole thing on the riding lawnmower was 2 hours. On the Zero turn about 40 minutes (tops). WAY WAY WAY WAY faster. and way less trimming (i'm lazy). also lets you change patterns every week where the riding lawn mower is maybe this way or this way and you end up getting ruts.

Not the very bottom models, but up just a hair into "almost commercial". the difference will be obvious in quality.

I always try to cut without a bag (mulching, honestly just throwing it) but the bagger is worth it if you have leaves and fall cleanup.

Cub Cadet is fine for residential lawns. You're going to need a pretty small one to get thru gates and such (limiting factor usually) and for 1/4 acre (10,000 square feet ish) that's not huge anyway. looks like about 3 to 4 grand ish. (probably last 20 plus years). the tank style arms are fine (also keeps the wife off of it and running into stuff). The steering wheel isn't necessary, the arms instantly make sense (to men anyway, women get confused).

honestly most of the low end models are all pretty similar, just get a brand that can be worked on/get parts. (i.e. don't buy it at home depot/walmart/etc).
 
a riding lawnmower is gonna cost you 2grand to 2500 and last maybe 10 to 15 years (tops) and it's so much slower, you have to back up all the time (and press some button for "safety") to get around things like trees, tight corners, etc

once you go zero turn, you're never going back.
 
Rhino78 said:
We didn't want to go that route because we just did that last time.
We have a few options, one, fixer upper with new roof, HVAC and the pool was just resurfaced. Probably needs new flooring, kitchen upgrades etc.
Then there is a house in the same range, but has some decent upgrades, like flooring, but no pool. We have to do less to this house and maybe add a nice above ground pool.
So, we have options which is nice.
Click to expand...
Your insurance with an above ground pool in Florida will be stupid high because of hurricane damage and then water damage from a broken pool. Do not do that.

In ground pools in Florida are $70k to start these days, and will always hold value here, and the other upgrades are better upgrades. New Roof/HVAC and in-ground pool means you have 10+ years to save for/do the floors, bathrooms and kitchen. The one that has the internal upgrades is not as valuable, imo.
 
bconcrete said:
I got so lucky with my current house (got it in '21 when the market was scorching hot, I visited and put in an offer less than 6 hours after it'd been listed, and they liked me cuz I was a veteran).

For context, the town is about 15,000 people has two elementary schools,one intermediate school (4-6 grades), one middle school, and one high school.

I live directly across from the high school/football field, less than a quarter mile from my kids elementary school, and about a third of a mile from the middle/intermediate school. Plus, there are three parks/playgrounds within a half a mile, and the local aquatic center (which is BADASS, has waterslides, a lazy river, two different pools, and an indoor pool) is right next to the high school. It's also less than a mile from the tourist attraction main square area. It is quite literally the perfect spot in a perfect town to raise a family.

I will have zero trouble selling this place to another young family when it's time.
Click to expand...
That's awesome.

We relocated to Florida in 2011 when the property market was still coming back from the 2009 collapse after the financial crisis into the best school zone in our county. The family that owned it before us had just finished a complete renovation adding a pool, 24x16 great room and a chef's kitchen, but he received a forced transfer and they had to move. Got lucky.
 
Not sure where you are in life changes and how much you would really use a pool. But not having a pool is great too. lower insurance, no futzing with it, no gross water/chemicals/cleaning/etc. I mean if you use it all the time, great, but lots of pools just look pretty in the sales ads and then go bad over time. I don't miss getting rid of the hot tub at all. (and i wasn't even the one who had to "maintain" it).

Also I've read that insurance has gone CRAZY in florida (justifiably so IMO) so make sure you get a hard quote before signing on something.

Also HVAC has gone crazy expensive (like what hasn't) esp for high efficiency areas like Florida, so a new HVAC is worth way more than you probably think.
 
LoneCowboy said:
Not sure where you are in life changes and how much you would really use a pool. But not having a pool is great too. lower insurance, no futzing with it, no gross water/chemicals/cleaning/etc. I mean if you use it all the time, great, but lots of pools just look pretty in the sales ads and then go bad over time. I don't miss getting rid of the hot tub at all. (and i wasn't even the one who had to "maintain" it).

Also I've read that insurance has gone CRAZY in florida (justifiably so IMO) so make sure you get a hard quote before signing on something.

Also HVAC has gone crazy expensive (like what hasn't) esp for high efficiency areas like Florida, so a new HVAC is worth way more than you probably think.
Click to expand...
I pay $1,000 month for taxes and insurance in Florida in a non-flood zone with hurricane rated windows and doors, and a wind mitigation study to prove the tie downs. I live 2 miles from the beach at 60+ feet above sea level. $600 month in taxes and $400 month in insurance.

Under DeSantis' new property tax rebate, I will save $300 a month on property taxes. Can't wait to vote yes in November!

These went crazy for Florida, but I have neighbors from NJ that were close to $2k a month just on taxes. It is a matter of perspective.
 
Ulf Murphy said:
My entire life I have been a pessimist, and prepared accordingly. That has lead to multiple bouts of depression and even some undiagnosed bi-polar where I can watch a comedy that has the morally good ending and I have to struggle from completely breaking down. Or hear a song that reminds me of one of deceased parents and makes me sob. I'm not in that place now, but I am not far from it ever. What have you done to help it?
Click to expand...

This is me as well, but I'm currently on the upside of things. I really don't have anything too profound to offer as far as advice. This last bout was probably the worst it's ever been for me, but one day I said to myself, "Wtf! I'm done letting this shit dictate my life," and my mind just fell in line immediately. It was quite odd, but simple as that. I guess I just had to get to a point to where it actually mattered to me if I wanted to see another day instead of feeling like it was pointless either way. Hopefully it sticks. But I understand ya, man; this shit isn't easy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top