What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

[hittman]

Pretty soon banks will have to push term out to 8/10 years for people to afford a new car. I'm a driver, I log about 30k a year on my car due to distance to work and kids functions. So I pick cars that get good mileage and then I keep them until they start falling apart or the cost of repair outweighs the value. My last car was a Malibu Maxx that I drove for 11 years and 280k miles. Now I have a Volkswagen that I'll drive until the doors fall off cause it's really the only way to get your moneys worth these days.

I don't know anyone who has one but have heard of 6 and 7 year loans on vehicles. I took a 5 year note on my wife's car since she hadn't been working and wanted to get the payment low. I ended up paying it off in 4 but wanted that extra cushion if I needed it. She had a pathfinder that we had for 11 years before that. It needed about 3500 worth of work done and blue book on it was around 1000. The dealer gave us 1500 which didn't hurt my feelings. I know it's just on paper but I was happy to unload it. The one that I kick myself over was my last company car. It was an 02 Jeep liberty and the dealer only gave us 2500 for trade in. I should have bought that from my company and parked it until my oldest was ready to drive. We ended up spending a lot more than that on a decent used car for her.

 

[Waho]

I've been taking 6 year notes for the low payments and making double payments until I get a year ahead. Helps when we get laid off randomly for shutdowns/retools/strikes to skip a few payments. I get them paid off in about 4 years, that's the goal anyway.

I know a couple folks that got 8 year loans on Cadillac and Lincoln SUV's. That'd make me nervous, but when you need an Escalade you need an Escalade I suppose.

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[Waho]

Almost done with demo now. They're a day ahead of schedule which is very encouraging. The life disruption sucks, but it's manageable so far.

 

[hittman]

I've been taking 6 year notes for the low payments and making double payments until I get a year ahead. Helps when we get laid off randomly for shutdowns/retools/strikes to skip a few payments. I get them paid off in about 4 years, that's the goal anyway.

I know a couple folks that got 8 year loans on Cadillac and Lincoln SUV's. That'd make me nervous, but when you need an Escalade you need an Escalade I suppose.

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There's no car out there that I'd be willing to take an eight year note on. Even at eight years I bet it's still a high payment. My wife test drove a used Lincoln suv before we bought her car and they still wanted a little over 40k used.

Almost done with demo now. They're a day ahead of schedule which is very encouraging. The life disruption sucks, but it's manageable so far.
View attachment 865169 View attachment 865171

Wow that was quick! If that's an indication of how the job is going to go then I'd bet they finish early.

 

[Waho]

Framed in the new wall. This is our solution to having the staircase more enclosed and in a lower traffic area. Tucked into the corner of what's going to be the dining room with two sets of french doors. We're planning to get doors with lots of glass to reclaim as much of the natural light from the bay window as possible into the new kitchen.

 

[hittman]

That looks great. They are moving along really well.

 

[rothenbj]

Wow, moving right ahead. This is exciting, watching the transformation.

 

[Waho]

Glad I can provide a little entertainment!

Project manager has the electricians coming in Monday to sort all the wiring out. Then we have to wait however long for a township Inspector to make sure it's up to code before they button up new drywall. Most times that a day or two, but knowing my luck it'll be 2 week or something, ugh.

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[rothenbj]

A little venting. Thee poker league I run on Saturday has some 50 or 60 players that play. Some only once in a while. Others that play nearly every week. We normally have two tables of players each week, it's been a few years since we went to three and on occasion we only have 8 to 10 players so only one table.

The oldest guy who's there almost every week is a spry little guy, 91 years old, who's as sharp as a button, so sharp that over the last six or seven weeks has finished first or second, this week finishing first beating me actually.

He has had a cough for the last couple months, nothing serious. Since it didn't go away, he had gone to the doc and before last Saturday's game he had gone into the hospital and they drained a bunch of liquid from his lungs. Today when he showed up, he normally show up before a lot of the players, I asked him how he was felling. He said okay but said, "I've got some bad news though, I've got forth stage cancer, two years at best but I'm okay with it". I just love this guy.

I'll hate to see him unable to continue playing and I'll miss him terribly when he's gone. However, it really tees me off that he'll become part of the smoking death stats that the ANTZ have sold for decades. He smoked for 50 years or so from his early teens. He played baseball pitching in his youth and through young adulthood. He quit smoking in his 60s and lived another 20-30 years. However, you can bet he's part of their stats as well as we all will be one of these days if we let the medical field know we were previous smokers. End rant.

 

[Waho]

Similar situation to my Dad. He smoked on and off for 20 years and hadn't smoked for 10 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. All the Doc's said "Smoking! My job here is done!"

My wife and Mom also have the issue where regardless of what they go to doctor for, the Doc's blame smoking. It's like a get out of doing your job free card.

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[Nermal]

She had a pathfinder that we had for 11 years before that. It needed about 3500 worth of work done and blue book on it was around 1000.

Wise move. Put 3500 into a 1,000 dollar car and you still have a 1,000 car - with something else waiting to go wrong.

 

[rothenbj]

Waho, the same thing with my mom who passed at 96. Those last six years resulted in numerous visits to the hospital. Actually 90-93, before she was in assisted living. Most of the visits were from falls but once was her heart when they ran a cardiac catheterization to determine, I suppose, why she was falling. That resulted in the determination that her heart was starting to shut down. Wow.

Anyway, from visit to visit it was always the same question and multiple times per visit- does she smoke or did she ever smoke. Now she did smoke at one point, I suppose as a 20 somethinger. She couldn't even remember how long but she always said she didn't like it. I'm guessing she maybe had a few. I mean she was a Rosie the Riveter during WWII and dad was in the service. She built war stuff in Oklahoma and New England during that time so I'm sure there were smokers among her crowd. Whether she hit that magic 99 cigs to become an "ever smoker"? I don't know, but I know the hospital and docs never got that info. I wouldn't let them check that box.

 

[Waho]

Nothing really worth taking photos of yet as far as the remodel. Electrical will be done today, tomorrow is HVAC and Thursday is a couple minutes of plumbing to cap off old supply/drain. Friday a guy is coming out to replace some mouse tunneled/bat poop attic insulation my wife is convinced is recent despite both the remodel guys and Orkin saying is long past.

Inspection next Tuesday, then the drywall crew will come in and it'll be worth taking some photos again.

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[Waho]

Passed 2/3 inspections, last one is today.

The pitfalls of a small city. On the upshot, there's local inspectors so we're not waiting on state inspectors. Downside is they only do inspections one day a week. I'm hoping they can at least get the drywall hung before the weekend. With the walls/ceiling opened up were losing a lot of heat and it's rather chilly in here.

The mechanical (HVAC) inspector showed up last night after I left for work. He currently lives/works in Toledo Ohio but was filling in in Detroit. Detroit is currently filling in in the Flint area, so he drew the short straw on the long drive up here. It turned out to be a small world situation, as he was friends with one of the previous owners kids in the 90's and spent a lot of time over here what with the pool and whatnot. Walked in and was immediately floored with the change, spent a lot of time reminiscing.

He also solved a mystery about the previous owners for the neighbors and us. When we looked at the house our realtor was running late and we walked around with the owners, so we knew both their names. During mortgage closing, she said she was recently divorced which was strange considering her and the presumed husband were very affectionate when we were there. Talking to the neighbors later, they said we had the wrong name for the husband. He was wearing his work nametag, so the odds of that were low. Turns out, according to the mechanical inspector, the husband had a twin bother with that name. He had lost his job and was staying with them for a while. I'm assuming, being twins, the neighbors didn't notice when the husband left and apparently she started a relationship with the twin brother.

Our very own Jerry Springer episode over here.

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[rothenbj]

That's Springer worthy for sure.

 

[Waho]

We had a slight issue with the building inspector yesterday. From the second he stepped out of his truck I had the feeling this guy was going to be a dink.

He was called to inspect the new wall that was built, but immediately got hung up on the old wall. He didn't seem concerned about wether it was actually load bearing, but about who made the call that it wasn't load bearing and are they a licensed builder/contractor? He kept spouting off code and was this guy licensed to make the load bearing determination like he was hunting to ding someone for driving without a license.

Had he have bothered to look at the building permit in his hands or the one taped to my window, he would have clearly seen our project managers name and licensing information required to get the permit in the first place.

The owner of the company showed up a bit after that to see if he could figure anything out. He jumped into the attic wearing his fancy coat and shoes and being a licensed builder himself said he had no idea what the inspector was hung up on. He said he was going to take a trip to the township office and sort it out. Not an hour later the project manager called saying everything was fine, drywall starts tomorrow. I'm assuming the owner "worked some magic" on the inspector to get him turned around that quick.

The drywall guys think they'll have it all hung today and can start tape/mud tomorrow and be done by Wednesday afternoon.

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[hittman]

I'm glad he got it worked out for you. Unfortunately building inspectors aren't the only inspectors you'll run into that have the big me, little you complex. I've run into inspectors like that in the welding industry also.

 

[Waho]

Speaking of welding inspectors, my friend that has been welding for almost 20 years just got his CWI certification about a month ago. By the sounds of it, he's already taking out stuff that inspectors did to him on the guys he's inspecting. Never ending cycle.

 

[hittman]

Speaking of welding inspectors, my friend that has been welding for almost 20 years just got his CWI certification about a month ago. By the sounds of it, he's already taking out stuff that inspectors did to him on the guys he's inspecting. Never ending cycle.

I was going to say to tell him congratulations but I don't know if he's being over tough on people. I've had my CWI certification for about ten years now but honestly don't do much with it. I do a little certification testing here and there for our customers but don't do any field work for it. It's more for customer convenience than anything. It's not a money maker for us. It's hard to believe it's been just over 20 years ago that I took the master electrician exam. I never needed to get licensed for my work. I thought about doing it on the side but didn't. I've wired basements for a few friends and done some repairs for coworkers but honestly get enough of work from 7-4:30 and don't much feel like working nights and weekends too.

 

[Waho]

He works at a shipyard where they're currently building an aircraft carrier. Previous to that he was welding up ballistic missile silos that were going into submarines. The welds require very specific tolerances, but knowing him and how he phrased it he's exacting revenge on the wrong people.

I took 2 years of commercial/residential electrician classes in high school at the local tech center in lieu of wasting my time on stuff like yearbook. I was told it was enough to get a journeymans card, but I never bothered. Like you, I mainly help friends/family out saving them money on replacing outlets/switches and hanging light fixtures.

An electrician once quoted my mother in law $200 to replace a 220v outlet for her dryer. I probably should have become an electrician charging that much for an $8 part and 10 minutes of work.

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