Ten Months Later!

by 8:30 pm. It has 159 Comments.

Can you believe it’s been ten months since I bought the house? At any rate, still working on it, slowly but surely. At any rate, still doing lots of stuff. I still don’t have curtains or everything hung in all the rooms, but the outside is coming along. Put in a bunch of new shrubs and plants out front, and expanded the beds down the side of the house so I can plant some things there, too. Hung new numbers, repainted the porch, and a bunch of little stuff. The big bald spot in the grass is because there were holes there from tree roots so I’ve been packing in dirt and tamping it down every week or so. I also intend to put some trees in the front and back yard, sooner rather than later.

I have a bunch more I want to do to the front porch, like hang shades, add some hanging pots, and get some wicker furniture, but that all costs money and takes time to find the right wicker on craigslist. Besides, no need to rush, as I’m not going anywhere. Plus, I found another bad board (this time I didn’t fall through) on the back deck, so I need to not spend money in case I need to replace the entire damned thing.

Here is a bonus picture of Steve sitting on a box on the back deck.

Cats are weirdos. Season 3 of Bosch is on the agenda tonight. What are you all up to?


We Have Ignition!

by 9:20 pm. It has 162 Comments.

Despite Adam’s attempts to jinx me, I picked up the car this afternoon and there were no problems. Pretty seamless all the way around. The Subaru broke down Wednesday, they called me and gave me the details on the repair costs and likelihood of success, Thursday morning, that afternoon I went and test drove it, put down the down payment Friday, and picked it up today. I’d spent the last couple months researching CRV’s and Lexuses, so when the CRV was available in that shapoe and with that mileage, it was a no brainer.

Mom took me down to pick it up, and afterwards I treated her to lunch at Avenue Eats in Wheeling (I think David Anderson went there once on my recommendation), and while there took some pictures for my sister which I will now share with you:

This is the first car I have ever had with bluetooth (I had to play itunes through one of those shit fm transmitters in the Subaru), and the CRV has this nice seven speaker system and sounds great, so that is a real plus. Mileage is really good and it rides well, and I don’t miss the HP the Subaru


Car Update

by 8:03 am. It has 149 Comments.

Thanks for all your input. I pulled the trigger and put a down payment so it would not be bought out from under me. Pick it up Monday or Tuesday once the financing is done and I have transferred money from my savings account. This isn’t as rushed as it seems- since the breakdown a couple months ago on the way to see ABC, I have been researching Honda CRV’s and used Lexus SUV’s, thinking a change was going to be needed soon.

My logic in the purchase was as follows:

Even though my Subaru is almost paid off (another year), I am paying 250 a month on the loan. With all the maintenance I did recently (2k worth), plus the new $1200 estimate just to get this running and with no guarantee that is the end of the problems, if you break down that $3200 into monthly payments (and who knows if that 3200 is the end), that’s like paying an additional 270 bucks a month. I’m basically paying $520 a month for an unreliable 12 year old vehicle. I can drive a new fucking Mercedes for that kind of money. So it just makes sense financially to do this.

Plus, I feel that once you get past 120k and you start having fuckery in things like the sensors and the electronics, it’s all downhill from there. So I figured cutting and running is the best best. Rolling my old loan into a new one, with the trade in value of my current vehicle, I can basically get a brand new car for slightly more than my current monthly loan with a slight increase in my monthly auto insurance but with an decline in real dollars spent when you consider all the money being sunk into maintenance recently and more than likely in the future.

Plus, the one thing that a cost can not be put on is the peace of mind. Maybe it is my training from the Army, but the luster was off my beloved Subaru because in the back of my mind I no longer trusted it. Every time I drove it, I was thinking “Is it going to break down? Can I plan a long trip?”

For the record, I lied to you- the CRV doesn’t have 20k miles, it has less than 4k. I wanted to see what all you would say if it had higher mileage than it actually did.

I never know if I am making the right decisions financially, so I love being able to sound out my reasoning on the blog with you all. Hell, maybe I am actually smarter financially than some of you and this is helpful. I’m curious to hear if you think I made the right decision (David Anderson, you’re a numbers guy).

And with that, I exit the cult of Subaru just as easily as I left the Republican cult.


OK, Hive Mind- Honda CRV Edition

by 5:23 pm. It has 188 Comments.

I am sick and tired of pumping money into the current car and we don’t even know if fixing the sensors will fix the problem, so I went and test drove a 2013 Honda CR-V EX-L with 20k miles and I liked it very much, it will not be a significantly higher loan than my already existing loan which we will roll into the new loan, and it felt really good.

Your thoughts?


It Never Fucking Stops

by 11:01 am. It has 299 Comments.

Four hours of my life by the side of the road in 90 degree heat, two containers of ice cream melted (fuck you, you judgey pricks I’m fat and they were on sale), and according to the mechanics a starter and sensors herp derp hocus pocus unintelligible mumble and an $1100.00 sacrifice to the Subaru gods. Every fucking month it is something else. Meanwhile I’m basically living in my home office because I have a wall air conditioner because I don’t want to run the house AC even though I just fixed that last month because WHY THE FUCK DID I BUY A HOUSE…

As soon as this thing is paid off I am thinking about trading it in for… something more reliable. Am I finally breaking free from the cult of Subaru?

Maybe a Honda used Lexus or Acura. They’re reliable, right?

Oh, kicker- I was supposed to be driving to see ABC tomorrow, but the parts won’t even be in until Monday. Bitch piss moan.

Also, fuck Trump.


I Like Pleasure Spiked With Pain

by 12:01 am. It has 92 Comments.

So ABC has had the travel day worthy of a John Candy movie. I was supposed to pick her up at the airport this morning at 11 am, but got a frantic phone call she had overslept and missed her plane, but she had rescheduled and would be in at 3:30. No big deal, I dealt with the hvac guy and worked and did other things.

At about oneish, I got a text that she had to reschedule and would be leaving at 6:30. No problem, I would get some Chico Fiesta (my favorite Mexican place) and be there to pick her up.

And then the fun started. Her plane was delayed an hour, and when they finally boarded, got 500 feet from the gate and had to turn around for some tests because something was wrong with the engine. That took about an hour, and they determined that the plane was tits up and they unboarded them and poured them all back into the airport bar/lounge. I had to turn around and go home because I had been grocery shopping on the way to the airport, and Chico Fiesta had a wedding rehearsal dinner and was packed and I could not eat.

At this point I realized how smart it was for them to put them all back in the bar (where she had basically been since 1 o’clock), because if I had been there I would have already been starring in a viral video on the internet of things. At any rate, the hits kept on coming with multiple new departure times that were all scratched, and she finally is airborne at 11:30 with a 1:15 landing time.

Wheeee.


How Home Ownership Changes Your Perspective

by 1:41 pm. It has 124 Comments.

The heating and cooling guy showed up, and it turns out all I need is a motor for the fan. I almost hugged him when he told me it would only be $425.00.

And it occurred to me I have never been happy before about spending $425.00 on anything, but given that the last year everything has been so much more expensive, I wanted to hug him.