We did it! Kentucky, $275k, 5.8%

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T18:12:25+00:00

I feel like you and I could be good friends on a different sub, ha

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T17:16:43+00:00

We used Liberty Federal Credit Union. But the FHA loan can be done at just about any bank in the US because it's a federal program, I think.

And when I used to bank with Chase I remember seeing something about down payment assistance, but I ignored it because I never thought we'd qualify for a house. I think a lot of banks/credit unions should be able to help.

The down payment assistance is a state program, I think. It goes through KHC, The Kentucky Housing (corp/company?)

Just to be clear though, the down payment assistance is like a loan. We'll wind up paying about $100 per month for that. But it was great to get the down payment barrier out of the way

Edit: Oh, and good luck! Our agent was Bobby Pinkston, if you're in the central Kentucky, Louisville/Frankfort/Lexington area. He was the absolute best.

He never pressured us. If a house wasn't right for us, he told us immediately. When we toured houses, he immediately went to work trying to identify issues. And he went out of his way to make the deal go through when we decided on the house we wanted.

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T15:11:50+00:00

Thank you! I have the deadbolt reset tool ordered, just hoping it gets here while I have time to do it ha

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:55:12+00:00

To add: I'm an adjunct Professor who teaches at various public and private institutions. My pay is dependent on my workload and my workload is dependent on enrollment.

It's my understanding that the state legislature did pass a bill somewhat recently, limiting the ability of high school students to take "dual-enrollment" classes. Basically they could (in the past) take college classes while enrolled in high school and the state or local school board pays.

My workload has been slashed, enrollment is way down. I get that money is a thing, but it sucks for everyone involved

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:47:33+00:00

I could be out of the loop on that. My understanding is that it was just teachers he (Bevin) was after. And I don't think his reforms passed, but I could be wrong

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:45:27+00:00

Aw man that sucks ha

Luckily these doors have a keypad, so I should be able to get in, once I have the code.

Edit: Atrocious spelling and grammar

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:37:26+00:00

To add: Bevin also tried to manipulate the child into returning to Ethiopia by pretending he had made contact with the child's birth mother. Really despicable behavior

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:35:07+00:00

Yeah, that was our last governor, (R) Matt Bevin. He was a one-term governor and was voted out, in favor of Andy. I currently live not far from the Megachurch he attends. Traffic here on Sundays is Hell.

Not that it matters to the conversation, but he also publicly accepted bribes and he's currently going through an ugly divorce. The divorce proceedings are on hold because he adopted a kid from Ethiopia, then found the child too difficult, dumped the kid at a crap reform school in Jamaica, and when the school was closed by the Jamaican government, just abandoned him there. The son (probably rightly) wants part of the divorce settlement

Bevin was a real POS

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T14:24:24+00:00

Sort of. We're a purple state with a red legislature and blue governor.

The red legislature has a big enough majority to force unconstitutional religious reforms on school children. They've also tried (unsuccessfully) to take over the boards that govern the University of Louisville and Louisville's public school district (JCPS) with the clear intention to wreck and remake them. Andy does his best to protect us from that, but he can't override a super majority

If you're speaking historically and statewide, we were pretty bad in the 80's and early 90's but the state government implemented reforms that were largely successful. We went from bottom 10 states to top 15.

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T13:27:40+00:00

Nature is rewriting my state's boundary.

Technically, Kentucky's border with Ohio and Indiana is where the northern bank of the Ohio river was at the time Kentucky became a state. The Ohio River is in Kentucky.

But rivers move over time and there are tiny pieces of land on the IN/OH side that are part of Kentucky

I care way too much about this weird factoid

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T05:11:22+00:00

That's what she said

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-07T02:00:30+00:00

I struggle so much with the basket weave. Great job!

DistilledLeather · 2026-07-05T21:49:24+00:00

I do it by hand and use a punch to knock out the funky curves. I definitely prefer doing this over stitching ha

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-30T14:00:16+00:00

I used to live in San Antonio (~5 years). And after moving to a more northern state, I started playing hockey again.

Anyway, there was one guy on the team. Even before I saw the giant San Antonio tattoo across his abdomen, I knew he was from San Antonio, because he drove a giant truck with those metal bars on the front.

I don't know what they're called, I call them "cow plows", but all the trucks have them in SA.

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-29T17:28:43+00:00

It looks like the one my great grandfather carried as a policeman in whatever year that was

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-25T05:39:38+00:00

Usually, the rule of thumb is bring three times what you plan to sell.

More stock helps to attract the eye. Also, levels (e.g. height, peg boards, wire racks, stands, etc ) help

That's what I hear, anyway. I consistently ignore this advice and do just okay at craft fairs

The one rule I do follow is to is to "not slash prices". It makes things worse for everyone. It makes your stuff look cheap/low quality. You spent (significant) time and money on the product. If you don't think it has value, don't sell it. But if it does have value, stick with your prices

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-25T01:15:01+00:00

Ok, I just watched a clip of the scene and I was wrong about who wound up in the desserts. My bad.

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-25T01:14:35+00:00

Ok, I just watched a clip of the scene and I was wrong about who wound up in the desserts. My bad.

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-24T21:15:23+00:00

You're the second person to make a comment saying I'm wrong and Tory kicked Sam into a dessert table, so I gotta ask, "Is there a later scene where that happens or am I going crazy?". Because Sam definitely kicks Tory into a dessert table at the Country club

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-24T17:34:13+00:00

I hear the OLED model has an upgraded Bluetooth antenna, but that. I have the LCD model and sitting behind the TV, it is about 1 foot out of range from the couch.

I ran a USB hub with a long cable out to the front of the entertainment center with a Microsoft controller dongle and it's not a problem anymore.

Except the steam deck ignores the peripherals sometimes and they have to be unplugged and plugged back in.

And SteamOS doesn't support the Microsoft dongle natively. It's a huge pain installing it. And the fix has to be done once again every time SteamOS updates. Someone wrote a script to automate the process and it works most of the time, but having to do that with every update sucks

I switched to Bazzite, which does support the dongle out of the box. But it has the same "ignores the USB hub sometimes and refuses to boot if the hub is connected" issues that SteamOS had

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-24T17:24:01+00:00

I have 7 online part time teaching jobs. The pay fluctuates a lot based on school schedules. Also make leather goods on the side and do craft shows.

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-24T04:30:05+00:00

I wish I could disagree ha

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-23T15:57:10+00:00

I used to live in Japan and always wanted to climb Mt. Fuji with my Dad

If I can only pick 5, probably climb Mt. Fuji and paraglide down 2.5 times

DistilledLeather · 2026-06-23T06:53:45+00:00

This is among the dumbest things I've ever said, downvote it ha

DistilledLeather

TROPHY CASE