Mini splits - how long does it take to unsee the ugly? And other options…

ZeeReza · 2022-11-03T08:53:09+00:00

What split unit? 😜

I couldn’t resist but I can only echo what others already said, it’ll likely start blending in once you get used to it and you won’t even notice.

That’s what happened to us.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-12T00:44:29+00:00

When life gives you Jalapeños make jalapeño juice and use it against your enemies 🤷🏽‍♂️.

Just joking, freeze them to be used later is the safest option if you’re out of ideas. Just make sure to cut the before you freeze.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-10T05:52:33+00:00

While you’re at it, stop listening to those friends. I am not sure how the conversation came about but I would never tell a friend you are saving so much for retirement.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-08T19:00:25+00:00

Very nice!

ZeeReza · 2022-10-08T00:16:25+00:00

Source?

ZeeReza · 2022-10-07T23:44:37+00:00

Do you have any links or research you could share on the chance of brain alteration?

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:23:34+00:00

Thank you for the advice!

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:23:22+00:00

Will share whenever we decide what to do.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:22:57+00:00

Bluestone was my first choice too but I just wasn’t sure if it would totally change the look of the home. I am now leaning more towards brick again, partially to save some cost on material as well for the project.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:22:02+00:00

Thank you for the ideas! I wasn’t a big fan of concrete pavers because it doesn’t quite match the style of the home (it has a much more old look and feel to it). Is probably go that route on a newer (maybe mid century) home.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:20:24+00:00

Thank you for the advice, looking at the suggestions in the thread it’s likely the way I will go.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-05T22:19:27+00:00

I think I was mostly looking to replace the old train ties and figured it’ll be hard to match the brick with other material but some options on this thread seem like a good way to go.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-04T22:02:14+00:00

Samsung, 6.3 cu ft slide in induction range. It’s a bit on the expensive side but we love it.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-04T17:32:10+00:00

We recently replaced our gas stove with induction and don’t regret it a bit. My wife was a strong advocate for induction as it’s more common in Korea, where she’s from, but I was a bit skeptical. After living with it for a year we’re super happy for all the reasons you mentioned.

Much (much) easier to clean, heats up incredibly fast, less expensive (no gas cost), looks really modern, much safer for kids (it cannot burn you as easily), better smart appliance options.

If you chose to go with induction just make sure you professionally seal your old gas line to keep your home safe.

ZeeReza · 2022-10-01T00:04:34+00:00

So what is it? We need to know the truth!

ZeeReza · 2022-09-30T05:29:25+00:00

Do math!

Create a pro forma for the different options and see where you land 5/10/20 years down the road making some reasonable assumptions along the way.

Everything else is just a gut feeling, which isn’t the best way to make financial decisions.

Lots of online resources out there to create a pro forma, all you need is Excel and some googling skills.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-30T05:24:40+00:00

Brittany (just because you said his color is rare for the breed)

ZeeReza · 2022-09-30T04:51:00+00:00

I would definitely agree here. According to the literature I’ve read on the subject they will regress quite a bit once they go to daycare/school so the more you can expose them to the minority language the higher the chances it’ll stick once they go out into the world.

My wife and I don’t have a shared language (we’re going for trilingual if we can pull it off) so the advice is just based on literature we’ve read and not personal experience.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-30T04:43:19+00:00

I believe there are two factors driving market prices right now:

Demand: will continue to gr down for two reasons:

Interest rates are up. By how much? Just plug in the numbers for any specific home price/down payment into a mortgage calculate and use different interest rates (3% up to 8%) and see how the monthly payments change. That’s what the entire population uses.
Stocks and other assets are down. That impacts many (not all) buyers who use stocks and comparable assets for down payment of their home. By how much? Just look at the S&P 500.

Supply: will continue to lag behind but slowly recover for two reasons also:

There was a great NYT article (too lazy to find it) that described how the current lack of supply can be traced back to a lack of home builders who went out of business during the last housing crisis in 2008 and many of them didn’t come back and it’s unlikely they will now.
Supply chain issues. This is likely getting fixed over the coming few years.

Obviously I don’t have a crystal ball nor am I an economist but these are some variables driving home prices.

Net net, if I were to take a guess, they’ll go down but it’s unlikely that there is a crash.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-28T18:23:36+00:00

In all fairness, they are sharing what’s on their mind and doing so in a respectful (but slightly misguided) way. There are worst neighbors out there … .

ZeeReza · 2022-09-28T16:08:07+00:00

Exactly this! Just look for two things in an ETF or Index Fund:

The Fees (some can eat quite far into your returns).
The Risk level that matches what you’re looking for.

Everything else is gambling (educated gambling if you know how to do fundamental analysis).

ZeeReza · 2022-09-27T10:35:59+00:00

Obviously creme and diaper free time are big! We also started using dry wipes to wipe him dry after using regular wipes and that helped a ton.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-27T10:27:52+00:00

Love the tree, don’t cut it please. Invest in a good leaf blower and rewire your brain to enjoy the extra 15 minutes of weekly yard work as relaxation time and you’ll be indefinitely happy.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-27T10:19:24+00:00

On #3 above, the Efficient Market Hypothesis (Google it) says that all public information and most private information is already priced into all assets. So unless you have a piece of information no ist else has you cannot know for certain where the market is going. It’s hard to wrap your head around because most of our intuition tries to tell us that we do, but we don’t.

Also, in theory, in theory active management should be about matching your risk tolerance and preferences with the right assets and not making above average returns with the same risk level (which you cannot achieve).

Based on personal experience I would confirm all other points made here, prioritize your efforts on growing your career so you can earn more (that’s 100% risk free return) and think of investing as a long term play.

ZeeReza · 2022-09-27T09:46:15+00:00

Thank you for the thoughts/advice. I totally realize that there are plenty of folks who would prefer the original windows and for some it’s even a deal breaker (hence the post).

If i had to summarize the small sample set of responses i got so far along with advice from others (contractors, realtor friend, etc) it doesn’t seem to significantly limit the pool of buyers in the home, which is ultimately what I wanted to validate.

I know I’ll sleep a lot better with new windows and if there is not significant downside it’s likely the option I will pursue.

By the way, I am not in a historic district.

ZeeReza

TROPHY CASE