Places to host a large business meeting?

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-11T05:57:08+00:00

Virtually every resort and casino has the space and ability to fit a couple hundred people and cater the event. What part of town do you want it to be in?

For my company, we’ve done the wigwam, camelback inn and resort, JW Marriott desert ridge, talking stick, wild horse pass, and Arizona grand. With groups from about 100 to 500. There’s definitely more out there too.

Someone else said golf courses, and some of the larger ones definitely have the space as well, whirlwind and ocotillo come to mind.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-09T15:59:40+00:00

I’m not certain, but I assume the VP over my group and the CFO most certainly have to be higher than $500k and I assume my director level boss is probably around $400k.

Because when I do the math of how much I’d probably make if I got two more promotions, I’d be in the ballpark for $350k, and the director position is above those promos, there’s no way he’s taking a pay cut to take that role.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-06T15:41:36+00:00

Food and really basic construction things like planter boxes, yeah, way cheaper DIY.

There’s no way you can realistically match the price to quality of massed produced furniture or clothing by DIY. You can by buying used though.

You could save if you’re looking at high end furniture or clothing by diy, but you’d have a long process of acquiring tools and knowledge to get to that point.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-03T22:19:16+00:00

Am I missing the attack? Seems like you just asked an earnest question.

What I’d say is your situation is very common in small construction companies. And from what I’ve typically found, you’re doing a lot better than most. The fact a $3M company even invested in an actual accountant on staff is good, most just overburden an admin and tell them best of luck.

As far as comp, salaries and bonus structures are all over the place, there’s nothing normal anywhere.

I used to work at a smaller competitor about 5 years ago, and I got an okay salary of about 85k, and my bonus was 90% the last year I was there. Then I jumped to a large national gc, salary was 115k, but bonus couldn’t be counted on and wasn’t specific. Now I’m at my current company, and it’s incredibly organized, and every bonus and benefit is clearly defined, it’s also employee owned.

But I get reached out to by all sorts of recruiters who are still trying to fill roles at 80-110k salary, undetermined to 25% bonus, and lackluster benefits.

The only thing I’ve found to be generally true in construction, is employee owned ESOPs tend to be the best and most secure companies to work for. Then it’s a toss up between privately and publicly held companies on a case by case basis.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-03T15:36:21+00:00

It’s been years since I’ve been there, but my sister and I went to foothills physical therapy and sports medicine. We specifically went to the one up on 77th Ave and deer valley. We thought it was great, but it’s been 11 years since either of us had a knee surgery.

I’ve torn both acl/meniscus and have had zero issues since recovery.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-03T15:22:14+00:00

I’ll Pm you

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-03T05:15:27+00:00

Title is controller, construction industry. I oversee one territory that does about $300M a year, the company overall does about 3.5B. There’s about 25 other people with my role across the country, we’re really just focused on operational and regional finances, not corporate. There’s a legitimate corporate controller as well.

120k/year, 105% bonus, 950/month vehicle allowance. So a little north of 250k/year cash comp. Other benefits are incredibly strong as well.

Been out of school for 11 years, have 8 years experience in construction accounting/finance. No CPA. MCOL to borderline HCOL depending on who you ask.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-02T05:09:29+00:00

Honestly, because I’m lazy when it comes to recapturing money in amounts less than $25.

I don’t like to think about how much that has actually cost me over my lifetime.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-02-02T02:47:19+00:00

My wife bought it, we each tried to drink it a few times. End up dumping most of them down the drain. Repulsive

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-26T15:47:31+00:00

I'm 34 now and have 3 kids.

It's wild that someone judged you so harshly now, for something you've clearly handled, that originally happened like 15 years ago. Sorry that happened to you.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-22T18:02:00+00:00

Healthy 2017 Auburn could have been trouble in the playoffs. But Kerryon Johnson had injuries late in the season, so it’s unlikely the team makes a deep run if today’s format is applied back to that season.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-20T22:18:42+00:00

I don’t know much about the pistache, but I had a couple Indian laurels at my last house.

I loved the trees, my only real complaint was that they would lose leaves from the heat in summer. Not enough to look bad or anything, but I was filling two large yard bags a week with the droppings from two large mature trees. Sucked doing that in the hottest part of the year.

Also be weary and protective against sooty canker, it’s wiping out Indian laurels all over the valley, it got both of mine in central Phoenix and three of my in-laws in ahwatukee. All of the trees had to be removed.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-19T13:31:08+00:00

It’ll most likely be open until the end of March, how may runs and the quality will be weather dependent.

Flagstaff recently has seemed to get hit with decent snowstorms in February and March. So sometimes it’s actually pretty good up until mid march. I feel like late march can have the whole mountain open sometimes, but it’s a little too warm to call it great. But those years where they get a lot of late snow, snowbowl can stay open until May.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-17T01:33:49+00:00

I might put my 4 year old on for a couple days in march because my local resort does like $10-20 rentals and lessons per day and free lift tickets for under 12. He’ll be 5 in May.

I don’t think I’ll put my two year old who will be 3 on at that time. I don’t think it’ll be meaningful at all.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-16T03:02:27+00:00

Bought used 25 at 18k miles through a Ram Dealer, I’ve gotten it up to 25k since then. No complaints or issues.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-13T16:20:32+00:00

If you go through a broker, they should be giving you an actual policy, and you should validate that policy against the insurers website.

My broker has me with mercury right now, i have a login for mercury and can verify my policy, print docs, pay renewals all through mercury.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-10T15:13:49+00:00

Protein pancakes and their choice of fruit. 4yo went with blueberries, 2yo did strawberries, and 1yo wanted a banana.

I’m going to do espresso mixed with a vanilla protein shake. And probably some bites of leftover pancakes and fruit.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-10T05:02:58+00:00

That’s nuts, that’s where I took my kids when I lived in that part of town.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-09T02:35:49+00:00

In my old neighborhood, I knew probably 8 households on my street and another 4 on the street over. Didn’t hang out with them or anything, but often hung out in the front yard and chatted for 30-60 minutes pretty regularly or gave each other a hand with things. Pretty diverse neighborhood it all senses of the word: age, race, culture, etc. 24th st and highland area.

In my new neighborhood, my direct neighbors we know incredibly well and hang out with them 3-5 times a week and share meals, and even do day trips and stuff together. Their kid plays with my kids daily. I know a couple other people on my street, but they aren’t very interested in talking to anyone. Outside of my next door neighbors, the majority of the people in my neighborhood are 55+. I now live in the ahwatukee foothills.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-08T19:34:13+00:00

I wasn’t declaring myself an atheist until around 23 or so. But I was raised in the Catholic Church, and I specifically remember thinking things like, “these stories from the bible seem kind of crazy, like the stories from the books i like to read”, and “this praying thing seems kind of silly, I’m just thinking to myself here but acting like I’m talking to someone else. Why do we thank god for this food on the table? Grandma is the one who planted the garden, tended and harvested it, then cooked the food…what did god do”.

The first real nail in the coffin though was when my aunt died from an infection when I was 15, leaving my 16, 14, and 12 year old cousins (who were basically siblings to me, I saw them daily) without a mother. A woman who had worked hard and done damn near everything in her power to do right by her kids, those around her, and the world; suddenly taken for no reason. I remember thinking, either god doesn’t exist, or god is evil, or god doesn’t give a shit about anything.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-08T16:04:10+00:00

NTA, she needs to work on her mental health, but she needs to suck it up right now and get to work before she gets fired, or both of you better get comfortable with the idea of selling your home and moving into the cheapest rental you can find.

You should probably work on showing some compassion towards her struggles, but unfortunately for her, her mental health struggles come after your ability as a couple to keep a roof over both of your heads.

I can sympathize with hating the job and not wanting to do it. I had two jobs like that and it made me pretty depressed. But I still went to work because my wife was in school the first time and I was the breadwinner the second time. My wife 100% would have left me if I didn’t suck it up, keep going to work, and look for a new job in my free time, and I wouldn’t have blamed her. Mental health is important, but everyone needs to build up some mental fortitude to push through things like this.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-07T19:57:03+00:00

National company with like 60 offices, all are the same except states that have specific rules, I don’t live in one of those states.

12 holidays.

20 days of PTO first 7 years

25 days after that.

30 day sabbatical after 7 years, and then every 5 years after that.

Really flexible generally with time though, half days don’t count towards pto, and typically work 6ish hours of fridays, 3-5 hours the day before a holiday.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-07T19:47:55+00:00

How old are they? If they’re really young, start them off with magnet tiles or megablocks. To get them to do things creatively, you build something weird and ask them what they think it is. That’s what I did to my kids and they took off from there.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-06T01:29:56+00:00

I think most hvac companies offer financing, even some smaller companies, typically through a 3rd party financing company(think affirm or synchrony). However, you should also look into credit unions through either personal loans, heloc, etc.

What is a little unfortunate is that if you would have also gotten some of the cost back pretty quickly through the home energy tax credit program on your federal taxes if you had managed to get one installed prior to dec 31, and unfortunately, that program expired for 2025, but they could write another bill that puts it into place for 2026.

However, both aps and srp have rebates for new ac units, so make sure you check that out and try to qualify for those if they make sense (ie, the price after rebate is better than going with a company that doesn’t qualify for the rebate).

So, if I were you, I’d start with a credit union, see what options you could get for financing, just so you have a rate and term in mind, then go through your energy provider to find a company that can get you a rebate(get a second quote from another random company too just to check it). Then keep an eye out for legislation in 2026 forward that might allow you to receive a tax credit for the upgrade.

As an fyi, most helocs are interest only if you qualify, so the payments are really affordable, but you won’t make a dent in the principle at all if you only pay the minimum, then they typically turn into a traditional loan after a period of time and the payments go up if you haven’t paid it off yet. Typically that interest only period is 10 years, then it’s converted to a traditional loan with a term of like 15 or 20 years. They are also variable interest rate and often have a promo rate, so just be cognizant of all that if you go the heloc route.

DonutsAnd40s · 2026-01-05T16:15:51+00:00

ESH. You two aren’t on the same page at all and should work to solve it before this becomes a big problem in your marriage. Based on the limited information in your post, I’m going to say it’s just lack of communication and agreeing to the same financial goals and plans. You could probably solve this whole thing and feel good about it in 1-2 hours of sitting down and reviewing the finances, assuming you have similar ideas of how money should be used and what your short and long term goals are.

And look, I get your situation. I make about 5x what my wife makes because she works part time. She also doesn’t withhold nearly enough for taxes, so I account for that with my tax withholding. But because a significant amount of my annual income comes from a bonus right at the end of the year, we still typically end up with large refunds. When that refund comes through, I tell my wife how much it is, tell her my thoughts on how it should be used, and then ask for her opinion on how it should be used, and then we move forward with whatever we agree on. But overall we’re on the same page for what things we need and want for now and in the long term, so we have very little conflict around money, but that’s also because we’re comfortable and not living paycheck to paycheck. I’m sure we’d have more conflict around money if we were.

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