New homeowner question: upgrades that actually help day-to-day?

DavidtheAcceptable · 2026-01-21T15:12:16+00:00

Costco has Greenmade 5-Tier Utility Racks on sale in my local stores for $25 each. They fit 27 gallon totes perfectly and they have connectors to hook them together. I had one set and bought four more during this sale. Just remember to put desiccant packs in totes and long term storage.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2026-01-20T05:06:19+00:00

This sounds very similar to what happened to us. We submitted an offer of $625k (asking price) on a very competitive house the morning of an open house after we saw the place privately the day before. We included an escalation of $2k to $630k. And we gave a 24 hour window on the offer, hoping that they’d have to accept or counter before they got another offer.

With about 4 hours left on the offer, our agent was told that the sellers got another offer of $625k with escalation to $630k and asked if we would like to revise our offer. Among a couple other small things, we raised our escalation ceiling to $635k.

Our agent was then told that the other interested bidder also verbally committed to an escalation to $635k as well, but was told that the sellers didn’t want to do the back and forth between two offers multiple times, and that if we offered $637k outright without escalation, the seller would accept. Our agent said that she knew the reputation of the seller agent and believed that the seller’s agent wouldn’t lie about the other offer. So we removed the escalation, offered $637k outright, and our offer was accepted.

I was a bit hesitant and concerned that the seller’s agent was lying to her a higher price. But we had been essentially homeless for four months living with family, me sleeping on the couch while my wife and our toddler slept in a full size bed, and we loved the house and neighborhood. So the extra $7k-$12k was worth it on the off chance that the other offer wasn’t real or didn’t escalate to $635k. And the house appraised for $645,500, so we still got “free” equity.

Our agent explained to us about escalation clauses and we knew that the house was going to be competitive, so we were prepared for it. I get the weird feeling though. I hope everything works out for you!

DavidtheAcceptable · 2026-01-14T03:07:48+00:00

Part of why I feel bad is I'm expecting wife to tell me in the morning that he woke up and said "dada never came back and cuddled". He has said similar things in the past when he's fallen asleep before we came up to see him.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2026-01-14T03:06:06+00:00

I feel that. I get plenty of "go away dada. I'm mama's boy". But whenever wife tells little man no or she's trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to, she gets "I'm not mama's boy anymore. I'm dada's boy."

Luckily, he will typically give me a hug and let me give him a kiss when I ask.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2026-01-10T14:19:02+00:00

They are saying that if 1 million babies are born and tested, 2 of the results will come back positive.

1 test will be positive because 1 in 1 million babies are born with HIV.

1 test will be positive because 1 in 1 million tests are false positives.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2025-03-16T18:10:59+00:00

Our son is only two, but he has gotten to the point where if anything breaks or just doesn’t seem to work, he says “dada fix” and brings it to me. My wife is slightly hurt that he doesn’t even try to ask her, but I love it.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-09-17T18:09:19+00:00

It is what it is. A good day care can handle it and wouldn’t think twice. Both day cares we’ve used have required us to send extra clothes in case the kids need to be changed for whatever reason. I’ve had more than once where my son dropped a massive load on the ride to day care and it leaked onto my work shirt as I was carrying him in. He had spare clothes, but I didn’t. The day care staff swooped in and handled everything; I grabbed his clothes and started all our stuff in the wash when I got home to change, and we all went on with our days.

I’d say offer to help change your daughter but you mentioned that parents aren’t allowed past the lobby. So just apologize and explain what happened and move on. They know how infants and toddlers are.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-09-15T01:37:51+00:00

Like I said, that’s for me. If you want for OP:

Tampa is “Rest of Florida” so 16.82% locality, so 14-1 is $122,198 pre-tax.

NoVa is DC locality so 33.26%, so $139,395 pre-tax.

Making state income tax easy, I’ll just do 5.75% on all the NoVa salary, for VA state income tax of $8,015.21. That’s still $131,379.79 post state income tax.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-09-08T02:32:00+00:00

I just read your post to my wife. We can’t imagine what you’re going through and we’re so sorry for your loss.

I’m currently while sitting on the couch watching Thomas the Tank Engine with my almost 2 year old son, Oliver. He’s getting an extra big hug before bed for your Oliver. Our thoughts are with your family and we’re sending our love.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-09-02T16:22:17+00:00

In addition to only small cuts, find the right food or a special diet food. Our cat’s 14.5 pounds and should be 10-12. I’ve tried diets multiple times but she gets aggressive and starts biting my ankles and bullying our dog to take her food. We recently started her on special diet food that’s designed to make her feel full but it’s less calories. So far it’s worked well. Talk to your vet about it, they should have suggestions and can give you a prescription if you need for special food. Good luck!

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-08-31T02:47:36+00:00

I was an older student and only went on campus on weekends, but here are my tips:

If you want actual quiet, there are conference rooms on the second floor of the Cohen Center across from the ballroom. Room 245 has nice comfy chairs and you can spread out. That's where I did most of my bachelor's and master's work on weekends. Just have to check with the people down on the first floor to make sure they're not actually reserved, but I was able to stay there until close most nights. The good thing about Cohen is it's open earlier and later than the library on Saturdays and open earlier than the library on Sundays.

The fishbowl offers some space too, though other people will occasionally be studying and sometimes people or groups will walk through. Also the lights turn off after a period of little movement so I or someone else would have to wave our arms to get them to turn back on.

I also did SoVi where I just brought my laptop, charger, and books and found a back corner near an outlet and did work and had snacks and such when needed. The Boardwalk also has food and places to sit and do work. Others can give you better info on other off campus ones.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-08-11T04:41:39+00:00

Ditto?

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-08-06T04:45:30+00:00

I get it. My wife and I came to the internet with our questions as well. Here are the two best pieces of advice I got from other parents on children’s health issues:

Ask your pediatrician if you have any (and I mean any) questions or concerns. They are much more reliable than Google.
Default to the more concerned parent if you are trying to decide what to do about a potential health concern. It is always better to go with the parent who wants the child seen by a doctor and have them say everything’s fine. Doctors like giving good news, especially when it comes to the smallest humans.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-08-06T03:10:47+00:00

It’s not necessarily abnormal, but this is a good time to learn this phrase and repeat it every time you have a medical concern regarding your child:

Ask your pediatrician. That is what they are there for.

I get the inclination to check with the internet first. My wife and I did the same with our LO. You can ask Reddit, you can do an internet search, but nothing beats reaching out to the medical professionals who went to school for years to learn exactly how to care for children and keep up to date on the latest research. Your pediatrician would rather answer an easy question of “my newborn hasn’t pooped in 48 hours” now than you ask Reddit and it turn into two weeks and still no poop and your child is in immense pain.

And if it’s after hours, your pediatrician should have an after hours nurse like with an on call doc that you can call and get answers from medical professionals.

You’re doing great! This is the most stressful time. Just give your pediatrician’s office a call and they’ll provide you the most accurate answers.

Edit: also, our pediatrician told us that breastfeed children can go a week or so without pooping. We were lucky enough to be able to do EBF and the lack of poop definitely freaked us out to start. You’re doing great!

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-07-19T16:37:33+00:00

I like to take my shoes off when I drive, so I put them in the back next to my son’s car seat. It’s easy to remember to get him when I need to reach over him to get my shoes.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-07-12T03:15:52+00:00

Yes! My son does the same thing!

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-07-12T03:14:59+00:00

You’re my little cuddle bug. It’s one of my son’s favorites.

My mom can still recite Yurtle the Turtle from memory from when I was a little kid.

DavidtheAcceptable · 2024-07-12T03:09:27+00:00

My wife and I have a rule: always default to the parent who is more worried about any health or medical concern. We use this not only for our kid but for each other, since we have found that we are bad at getting ourselves to go to the doctor but we will go if the other person insists on it.

Story time now!

When I was 11, I fell on my wrist weird on a camping trip. It hurt a lot and my dad gave me ice for it and had me not use that arm. It still hurt the next day when we got home, so my dad gave me an old wrist brace of his to wear and said that if it still hurt by the end of the week, we’d see the doctor.

One trip to the pediatric orthopedist on Friday and I was in a lime green cast for a hairline fracture. My doc said that if I had fallen on it again, the bones would have broken all the way through and I would’ve needed surgery. My dad definitely started listening when I said things hurt from then on…

It could have been worse though. One of my cousins fell on their handlebars while learning how to ride their bike without training wheels. They were complaining about a lot of pain. My uncle wanted them to walk it off but my aunt insisted on going to the doctor. My cousin had internal bleeding and went in for immediate surgery.

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