Minor Win thread - Life is good!

The middlest kid got her learner's permit yesterday and I took her for her first instruction last night.  We used the parking lot of the former Sears store at the Mall for about an hour's worth of clutch practice and she's taking to it pretty well.  As a bonus win, right as we were getting started the mall security guy rolled up on us to see what was up.  When I told him that we were doing manual transmission instruction, he got a big ole grin, said a bunch of encouraging words to my daughter, told us to have fun, and left us alone for the duration.  Good to know there are reasonable people to be found!

Thanks! We're already pre approved on plan B, but it's new construction and there's delays due to city rules and the way the community is being built. So while we're waiting for one of our preferred (or any) lots to become available, we're still looking at existing stuff. 

The new place is a PUD, with the neighbors being VERY close and it's HOA which I can deal with but don't prefer. And it has a garage. 1900+ 4x2.5, 2 car  

The place we offered on is 50 years old and needing a fair bit. No garage, but a big car port and a decent amount of concrete already. And we'd own the lot, and it's bigger, and cheaper by 50k (asking) but probably needs the difference in flooring and paint and things. Also 20 mile more commute. 
2400', .2 acre, 5x2, car port.

The place stinks like cats, but I can fix it.

Plan C is keep eyes out for another existing since we have 1-2 months before we have to commit to the new construction. The community can only sell a certain amount of spots per month and April is already spoken for. Because of the way it's laid out, we may be as much as 3 months before a lot that allows our floor plan to be built becomes available since they're building/selling on two sides of the street. 

It's Blue!

No, not a gender reveal or pregnancy test, but a combustion leak test on my Grand Cherokee.

Disappointing that I no longer have an excuse to go car shopping, but also nice that I don't have to decide between fixing it or buying something else. 

I'll rerun the test with the engine cold, since the coolant level seemed to be going down slowly, but steadily. It's hard to tell how fast since some weeks the jeep goes 20 miles, and other weeks it goes 200. 
Edit: not necessarily a win any more, going to need to add to rants. 

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Made an offer on a place tonight. We have plans B and C if it doesn't go our way. I see no path that doesn't get us out of renting by the end of year.  So stoked. 

Offer accepted. On to inspection. This is scary. 

barefootcyborg5000 said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Made an offer on a place tonight. We have plans B and C if it doesn't go our way. I see no path that doesn't get us out of renting by the end of year.  So stoked. 

Offer accepted. On to inspection. This is scary. 

I was nervous enough that my balls didn't unshriveled until we lived in our house for over a year. It didn't help that we bought our house about 3 weeks before the market crashed in 2008. However the minor win in this is that we still live there and still love the house and it's now worth three times what we bought it for

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

Echoing Dusterbd here.  This is the single best thing you can do financially for your family.  Hell yes it's scary, use the fear to motivate and focus! (Ok, LOL)  Seriously, I bought ours a year before we got married in the middle of what was a pretty significant downturn.  I'd been living with my parents putting any OT / annual raises and so on in the bank and living a fairly monk like existence for a guy in my late 20's.  It took 4 years or so but I had a solid down payment when we found the right place.

I remember having something like $800 bucks left in my account after we closed and prayed I'd get my 40 hours in each week so I could make the mortgage payments.  It all worked out, we're still here and coming up on 33 years in mid April and it was the best thing we ever did financially.  You've got this, congratulations!

In reply to 11GTCS :

Thanks. And to Dusterbd13. I'm confident it's the best possible move. I don't want to toss numbers out, but it's looking like we'll be just $300 more/month than we're paying now, but we'll double our bedroom count, double our footage, and have a not tiny lot. I could wish for a garage, but I have access to a shop if I really need it. 
Inspection Monday morning, and we'll go from there. I have options for ride-sharing the modest 27 minute commute. 
It's going to be a busy few next years, fixing the place and finishing school, and getting my side gig going. I'm excited. 

Running out of room for trophy plaques. 
 

Woo!  The challenge car moved under its own power for the first time!  It was back and forth in the shop to move it away from the wall, so like a total of maybe 10 feet back and forth.  But it moved nonetheless!

I've been mailing it in longer than I care to think, and long enough to sometimes feel like I'm surplus around here. So when I walked in yesterday and apprentice boy and boss man were two hours in and  struggling to square up a crashed boring mill, and I solved it in ten seconds, it felt really good. 
Even though I say that at this point I really don't care, it's still nice to feel relevant. 

Finally got around to refreshing the suspension on the family 5. KYB dampers all around, all new mounts and hardware too. And LCAs w/ bjs. It's like a new car, didn't cost too bad, and I finished in reasonable time because I had a lift and air. Not bad. 

I have been bad at keeping the kids SAAB rehab thread updated, but here is the short version of the last week or so.  Son drove said car home on Saturday, was not perfect but totally drivable.  Get home kid says he thinks its not boosting like it should, dad says leave it for now until we get it idling and running like it should.  Kid ignores dad, jumps on Google to see how to set the base boost and proceeds to blow the HG on Sunday afternoon.  The car ran for 24 hours or so but is now in a bunch of pieces again, though should be back together this week.

My "old" CRV needed tires, brakes, a few minor fixes (bad door seal, rattle from under the dash) at 36k miles. I was about to start taking care of it and I said well what will a new one cost? New one in the driveway today, lower payment (by like $20), nicer features, no required maintenance. I don't like having care payments but I love not having to worry about anything with SWMBO's car and it is way under our budget so why take on worry you don't have to?

barefootcyborg5000 said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Made an offer on a place tonight. We have plans B and C if it doesn't go our way. I see no path that doesn't get us out of renting by the end of year.  So stoked. 

Offer accepted. On to inspection. This is scary. 

Inspection made me aware of more issues than I feel like we need to get into at this point in our life. Going to pull our offer and go see another place tomorrow. This one has one less bedroom, but has a garage and a nice big shed AND carport. So we'll see. The fallback plan is still a good option for our needs. So we move forward. 

I guess that everyone else her already knows about them, but I just got a Mityvac. It makes oil changes so freaking easy! And is a well-made piece of tool for $120. Sucked up the entire 9 quarts from my Mercedes in about 10 minutes. It's always nice to find the right tool for the job, when one's been waisting time and effort doing things the slow-and-dirty way.

97%? That's gonna be awesome

The challenge car is officially capable of smokey burnout.  It's not a lot of burnout.  But it runs and -surprise- it has a limited slip.

barefootcyborg5000 said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Made an offer on a place tonight. We have plans B and C if it doesn't go our way. I see no path that doesn't get us out of renting by the end of year.  So stoked. 

Offer accepted. On to inspection. This is scary. 

Inspection made me aware of more issues than I feel like we need to get into at this point in our life. Going to pull our offer and go see another place tomorrow. This one has one less bedroom, but has a garage and a nice big shed AND carport. So we'll see. The fallback plan is still a good option for our needs. So we move forward. 

Man, this market is crazy. New option listed yesterday. Already has seven competing offers. I'm glad we have a fallback plan, but I'm not going to give up looking until we hit that deadline. It's just discouraging. I don't like shopping the bottom of the market. 

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I am not familiar, but it sounds like I need to get familiar promptly.

Still have to jack it to get the filter, though?

Duke said:

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I am not familiar, but it sounds like I need to get familiar promptly.

Still have to Jack it to get the filter, though?

 

Many modern cars have the filter on top of the motor, so on our Mercedes and Subaru, filter change is super easy.  But to me the purchase seems a good one even on older machinery. Cheaper ones can be had from Harbor freight and such, but for 40 bucks more, the Mityvac seems worth it for higher quality. Heck, if you had to open the motor up shortly after an oil change, you could pump the oil out, then back in after you do your work.

Me and bro rebuilt the front forks of the hellspawn's dirt squirt.

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

One critique I've heard of doing it that way is that with the little bits you miss, you don't get all the sludge at the bottom. Dunno validity

In reply to RevRico :

We're excited about the eclipse too. We're *just* on the edge of it. Going to make a drive to be within full totality. That's going to be worth it.

In under 40 minutes I was able to change the oil, change the air filter, change the serpentine belt, and change the wipers on the Mazda 5.  Nothing like a road trip to force that maintenance to get done!

Spent the last week at work playing with a robot arm and 3D printing stuff. Basically what a 13 year old would imagine engineering to be and its great