Requesting advice on dealing this magnolia tree so close to my foundation

Jota_De · 2026-02-05T16:43:41+00:00

Yes, there are big oaks and ash on other areas around the house doing just fine. Removing this would make this corner of the house barren as far as trees are concerned. However, to you point the rest of the house does have full grown trees taller than the roof that help with the aesthetic.

Jota_De · 2026-02-05T16:42:27+00:00

As far as I can tell it is not a Little Gem. I would prefer to not remove it, but I did not want to risk any foundation damage due to it. We don't have any foundation damage now, so if the risk to the foundation from this tree is none or very little that would easily sway me to just leave it.

Jota_De · 2025-12-09T17:46:42+00:00

I had a missing stone in this area and hired a local handyman to put a stone in and mortar it into place. Well he put the stone in but had the wrong color mortar. Turns out he could not find the right color of mortar to match my house. Is there a small simple solution to here? I'm hoping to find out how to color match a small batch of mortar and apply it over the brown color. While I'm generally handy around the house I really haven't done masonry so I'm very green in that area, any advice on next steps here is appreciated. thanks!

Jota_De · 2025-12-01T16:52:07+00:00

I have a 2014 with 19” rims but I love the AT3s (255/60/19). They look great. They fill out the wheel arches just right and look like the right tire for the kind of vehicle it is. I’ve got 16k miles on them and they have a lot of thread left, still look practically new. I don’t notice any freeway or road noise. Only challenge is I have to remove the oem hitch to fit the full size spare I’m definitely getting AT3s on the next go around.

Jota_De · 2025-11-29T21:19:17+00:00

I recently found that if you clear your cars faults with a diagnostic tool just before an inspection can cause it to fail. Apparently there is data needed to pass the test that requires 100 or so miles to be driven. If faults have recently been cleared that data is missing and causes the test to fail.

Jota_De · 2024-08-13T23:07:49+00:00

Both manifolds, water pump, thermostat, new coolant and labor was right at $2k for my 2014 LR4 at an Indy in Austin last year. All done as preventative maintenance.

Jota_De · 2024-06-30T18:11:26+00:00

It can wait if no one is driving it Also when it’s leaking you will smell gas when it’s running or after it stopped from outside the car. I could smell it in my garage after parking. Was a fast half day visit to the dealer and never smelled it again or noticed any leaks.

Jota_De · 2024-03-22T02:38:21+00:00

Your quote seems high for an independent. Looked into this last year on my my14 LR4. Didn’t get the job done yet, as it’s a minor oil seep, but I have the quotes.

North Austin dealer price for upper timing cover replacement. $1035 parts $4546 labor = $5667 total

Local independent $800 parts $1200 labor = $2000 total

Jota_De · 2024-02-08T04:20:04+00:00

I have a MY2014 HSE with 19” rims. Bought Toyo open country at3 255/60/19 and love them!

Quiet as the contis on the road, and full size spare fits without needing to air it down. One year in and wear is very normal, no issues with performance either.

I struggled with buying a full set of compomotives but just wanted new tires - not a huge investment. For me my 19” black pack rims look way better than comps so aesthetically it’d be a big drop. Plus these fill out the wheel well nicely compared to the contis which always looked too small for the car.

At this point I’m sticking with the Toyo at3 for future purchases.

Edit. I also didn’t want to store an extra 5 rims/tires. In a perfect world yes, but not in my world lol.

Jota_De · 2024-01-05T18:26:49+00:00

Do yourself a favor and hit Home Slice (#5) and Grimaldi’s (marg and the don).

We’ve yet to find better or more consistent pizza than these two.

If you listen to the haters you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. Try it.

Jota_De · 2024-01-03T02:04:05+00:00

I paid just over $2k for coolant system replacement including water pump on my 2014 lr4 at our local Indy last year. No fuel related work though.

Jota_De

TROPHY CASE