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dlatin

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by dlatin

  1. I agree, we are just at the very end of the remodel and I am pretty over cash going out the door. Need to get it rented and cash coming in. Funny how little stuff like this can be difficult, yet I just dropped $16k on a concrete driveway! It’s just such a tiny window and the quote kinda shocked me.
  2. This is on a house we are remodeling and renting. This is a back window that likely will have blinds or drapes closed all the time so I was hoping to just replace the glass vs. the whole double pane section. It is pretty small so $350 seemed like a lot. They don’t want to replace the single pane because it will get moisture between the panes pretty quickly they said. I’m tempted to give it a try.
  3. I need to replace a single glass pane on window. Size is about 31” wide and maybe 25” tall. Had a company come out and the quote they sent back was $350. That seems crazy. Anyone have experience with this? I looked on YouTube, perhaps I can do it myself?
  4. My BIL who has a place next door is looking at this. We’re on a lake and he has 3 lots. I have trouble getting my head around 5k for an electric mower but I guess this thread suggests they are good.
  5. Some really great advice and suggestions here so I’m not sure this is needed but I wanted to share our success story. Son diagnosed with severe ADHD in kindergarten. We were at a private school where all the kids in his class were a year older and at that age, developmentally the difference was enormous (we never even thought about holding him back for that advantage). The Dr. said he would not be able to function without drugs. Wife did a ton of research and we decided to try to find food sensitivities/triggers. We cut everything for a week except raw fruits and vegetables and slowly added foods back 1 at a time. We found anything artificial was a huge trigger, particularly artificial colors and preservatives. Gluten as well. We found we could tell within minutes when he ate something he was not supposed to eat. He would wet himself, get very emotional, act wildly. At the same time there happened to be an acupuncturist from Costa Rica staying with my sister so we signed him up for 10 treatments. I didn’t believe any of that stuff but I figured why not. After just a few treatments, along with the very strict diet the change was striking. We moved schools and kept this up through 5th grade. Very strict diet, virtually no cheating, healthy clean eating. He’s excelled, never been on drugs and he’s going to be a senior next year and he’s absolutely crushing it in school. We moved out onto a lake 7 years ago and didn’t keep it up but he’s found ways to cope as he’s gotten older. One additional upside is because he ate so clean for all those early years, he is in great physical shape from not eating all the crap kids eat. He doesn’t have the physique of any kid I’ve seen. TLDR: diet can have a big role in behavior, it’s extremely difficult to maintain (no cheating) but we found it, along with acupuncture, he’s been able to achieve things I nor the medical community thought was possible. Good luck! I know how difficult and emotional this all can be.
  6. Love this [emoji3590] throwback to what started the shag [emoji3590] #PSIG4EVA
  7. This. After changing about 6 ballast in my kitchen under counter lights I swapped them all out. Between the ballasts and the lights burning out, I’m so happy to have all that nonsense behind me.
  8. Yeah, we are going to let it dry out a few months. I think TWP is what my boathouse was stained with. I like the color a lot, was maybe hoping for a bit not waterproofing.
  9. We just added a large deck to a property that we will need to stain once it dries out. We recently added a new boathouse that was stained but used the recommendation of the builder and recently re-stained a back deck at our house using a stain the guy suggested. I'm not sure how I feel about either of the stains used. Anyone have a recommendation for a really good long life stain?
  10. While we are reminiscing about last summer…here are a few from our trip sailing STJ last year and a couple on our lake. I’m ready for summer!
  11. I say prime location being across from a lake but it is east texas so perhaps not so when it comes to property management. I will definitely look into this though. I acknowledge we need to do a bunch more leg work before we go live to learn about this all but surly is often a great place to start :). How would you go about getting rental history from a prospective tenant?
  12. That's a really good point about short term vs. long term related to how long we may deal with a bad renter we need to consider. The location is pretty prime. There's actually an air bnb next door and across the street (lake side). That would require we would need to furnish it, be responsible for water/electricity, trash and yard maintenance, bookings fees, etc. This is something we have been thinking about.
  13. Yeah - the property sat unoccupied for a couple of years and was a disaster. Pretty much a complete remodel on the inside except ripping all sheetrock out. Question: when weeding out tenants, do you just not approve their application? Can you just do that for any reason, except race/religion/etc...? No mortgage, I know taxes and insurance. I think the hard part will be pricing it. The location is prime, awesome view of the lake with a small boat ramp (not private but not really used) directly across the street. We were thinking going on the high end to perhaps weed out some tenants. Since we live a few doors down I was planning on getting a property manager, hoping my wife can handle those needs.
  14. I hope to have my first rental ready soon, so I’m really interested in what others that have experience can share. We stumbled upon an amazing deal for a lakeview house about 8 doors down. I was considering airBnb but was thinking long term would be easier. I’m starting from scratch with no idea what I’m doing.
  15. Hopefully you don’t mind If jump in here too. Bought a house I’m renovating and will rent. I need to swap out the hot water heater. Was really wanting to go tankless but it’s not an option so I have to go old school. Id like to go economical but the reviews I see are scary. Anyone also want to recommend something?
  16. Very interesting thread. I never wanted kids but after 3 years of marriage we had our first and it was life changing that can’t really be explained or truly understood until you have kids. He was so good we decided to have another shortly after. #2 was not as easy and we decided to stop at 2. I agree with just about all that’s been said above with just one important addition. I owe a lot of how great being parent is to how amazing my wife is. She is an amazing mother and just an amazing person. Having a non-crazy wife is huge. She helps me be a much better dad. Also, it’s important to know if you are controlling, a neat freak, etc because if so, if either party is, it can be a real challenge. I’m going through the teen years now and it’s pretty scary, you worry so much about them, about their future. You try to help teach from all your mistakes but the reality is that’s the only way to learn, by making mistakes so that’s challenging to know. You just have to have faith that you raised them well and all will be ok. And even if you did, there still will likely challenges. There’s nothing more heart breaking than your child in pain, physically or emotionally and that is a guarantee to happen. I am convinced my life wouldn’t be as fulfilled sans kids. However I’m sure I would be on a sailboat in the Caribbean right now if we were childless.
  17. I just watched this and was going to share as well. Really great piece. It all makes a bit more sense.
  18. This is a good read if you hadn’t seen it. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/us/politics/durham-sussmann-trump-russia.html?referringSource=articleShare
  19. Just took these a few minutes ago. Went down to the dock to replace a stereo receiver and caught this…
  20. Smoked a 14.3 lb prime brisket and a 9 pound pork shoulder for NYE dinner. Both turned out amazing. The flat was so perfect I ended up serving everyone sliced flat then chopped the point up for leftover deliciousness. I’ve been smoking meats for about 10 years and rarely did brisket but I embraced the brisket in 2021 with some nudging from my BIL and am so happy I did. I never felt I could find ribs or pulled pork as good as my own anywhere but never felt that way about brisket. I now think mine is as good as I can find and makes the time and effort worth it.
  21. I’m jealous, I was just looking back at pics from our sailing trip around St. John this past summer. I was really looking forward to sailing both US and British waters but COVID kept us in the US. STJ is my favorite island so spending 10 nights just off those beaches was pretty awesome. I enjoyed sailing the mono we rented when we did the BVIs (46’ Jeanneau). It was so easy to sail. I found the cat harder, largely due to the setup and lack of clutches. It was crazy comfortable though. My goal is to retire onto a boat in the Caribbean in a few years and my wife wants it to be a cat. I wish I could get more sailing time. I am lucky enough to live on a lake so I get lots of powerboat time.
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