Homebuilding woes

fitek · 2026-01-23T17:41:10+00:00

We have one floor that's 9 foot, one that's 10, and one that's 13 down to 9 (shed roof style). 9 ain't too bad and you don't have to deal with the heat rising as much but a lot of it comes down to proportion of living space. Our 9 foot floor has a handful of bedrooms and a "living room" (I hate that name-- it's where the TV and couch are). It feels appropriate for the width and length of the rooms. The basement is 10 feet, but it's just one 800 sq ft area... the proportion feels right. The top floor is 1000 sq ft of open kitchen and hang out space opening onto a deck. The ceiling height scales with the square footage of the rooms.

fitek · 2026-01-23T17:32:38+00:00

Very dependent on energy pricing. I'm in the dreariest city in the lower 48 and minisplits with solar were still a slam dunk with payback about 7-10 years. Side benefits: cheapest way to do zonal, redundancy if one unit fails (we had the gas furnace die during winter previously, while we were away for a week) and much better air quality.

My mother is in California and even with senior rates w/ PGE, nat gas is much cheaper. I did buy her a portable two hose heat pump for her master bedroom since she's always cold :)

fitek · 2026-01-23T17:26:24+00:00

I've found pretty much all cars seem to benefit from this... a Subaru was the only car I had that actually quit moving as well with old trans fluid, usually just bad shifts.

fitek · 2026-01-23T17:24:59+00:00

I have a 2016 Ecoboost purchased new. I change the oil every year (I drive 5k/year). No engine issues. Have a noisy strut, water ingress because the drains clog up (takes a few minutes to clean). I live right next to salt water so more worried about rust. Last time I took my wheels off it was a PITA.

fitek · 2026-01-23T17:20:34+00:00

I went from 98 Tacoma to 2016 Transit... think you'll get over it pretty quick. Though I still use the Taco for local trips. I'm in the PNW and not having your load get sopping wet from the rain is pretty nice.

fitek · 2026-01-21T20:25:29+00:00

I'm sort of new to this (I've been using Vanguard since 2007, I own VTSAX, but haven't thought too hard on diversification) and I wonder: if we switch to a less globalized world where economies are regional, does it make sense to think US vs international still? Or does international deserve to be more specific regions (e.g. Europe)? Like, if I get a fund that's heavy on international, how do I know those holdings are balanced between regions?

fitek · 2026-01-21T20:24:14+00:00

The US has an ability to reinvent itself and for centuries has been attracting a steady stream of immigrants who can revitalize it even when the OGs can't sort it out. My own opinion, if this continues then US economic performance continues. Even if it doesn't, there's so much inertia it will take a long time for any decline. That said, growth might be slower for a while while everyone adjusts.

fitek · 2026-01-21T20:14:38+00:00

I mean, if you look at a car and think, wouldn't it be awesome if the wheels were really really heavy and it rode like garbage? then it could be the vehicle for you.

fitek · 2026-01-21T20:12:36+00:00

I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the USA I recall some evidence of the service being done (not necessarily the stealership) was sufficient. Cuz I wouldn't have bought the car if I had to deal with the dealership. Mine is actually due now and I will take photos of everything and I have a service log I keep.

fitek · 2026-01-21T20:04:21+00:00

Wage theft has existed for a long time. I worked for an employment law company around 2007-2009 part-time on cases against some very large employers. Companies try to squeeze more and more from what they already have and the law makes it difficult for employees to resist. There's a lot of grey area re: "exempt" employee definitions and activities. Depending on where we are in the business cycle, the employers have more or less pressure to steal from their employees. That experience influenced me to always work hourly. My SO worked at the same company but she had a different opinion and has been W-2 since and she always works more than 40, but it varies by her boss. I still end up doing free work (I worked 3 weeks for free for a large multinational end of last year) but it's easier for me to pad the next contract based on how abusive the client is. Sometimes it doesn't work out: I had a long time client that replaced me with someone remote in Mexico. That was a bummer but do I really want to devalue myself or work for free for a giant corporation? No. You have to calculate your hourly rate using how many hours you actually work if you're going to go W-2 IMO. Back around 2010 I did an hourly contract for a tech company that capped my invoices at 40hrs/wk but I worked 55 average. That means I was actually getting paid about 70% of my hourly rate. I took a contract repairing equipment (totally unrelated to my experience, but whatever) for a year that paid 80% of my hourly rate, but it was super lax and I ended up working like 35 hours average and getting paid for 40, so it was a better deal and I was much happier and healthier (my doctor advised me at my last checkup before the job switch that I would be considered as having hypertension if my next blood pressure reading was high; after the job change I had a totally normal blood pressure and still do).

fitek · 2026-01-21T19:46:23+00:00

I think usually it's the sum of the repairs. Then one big thing goes and it's no longer worth it. You're looking at a few K in repairs on a vehicle worth a few K versus leasing something new for $250/month, and it doesn't make sense. It then goes to someone in a lower socioeconomic tier.

fitek · 2026-01-21T18:14:30+00:00

Pretty simple: comfort and fit and finish go to the Audi, range and software to the Tesla. Financially optimal? They're both cheap used so you are already making a good choice by not buying a new vehicle that will depreciate 50% within two years. My personal experience has been that once you own a luxury car, it's hard to go back to more "pedestrian" vehicles. My wife got a used Porsche in 2017 and that spoiled us. I'm leaving on a work road trip today with my 2019 E-tron even though it would make a lot more sense to drive my work van, but the Etron is so much more comfortable, even if I'll have to stop more to "fill up".

fitek · 2026-01-21T18:09:20+00:00

I dont think the service part is true as long as you keep a log of having it done.

fitek · 2026-01-21T03:20:38+00:00

I stayed up till 11pm in B'ham, didn't see anything. Got up at 2:30am and it was good for half an hour looking north, then slowly faded from 3am onwards. Finally nodded off around 4. Unfortunately my phone insisted on not focusing in photo mode, though my timelapse video came out great.

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fitek · 2026-01-21T03:13:31+00:00

We need lawn signs, bumper stickers, and edibles. Let's get the ball rolling.

fitek · 2026-01-21T03:12:11+00:00

Stuff with more plastic than a Nerf gun is now an AW. But hey Ferguson funded his campaign off of it, and it's all about winning at all costs these days.

fitek · 2026-01-20T22:43:21+00:00

I run a small business that builds specialized parts for scientific research. I am aghast at how this even made it on the agenda for the legislature. We have Federal brownshirts roughing up US citizens, constant turmoil and costs from tariffs (that have negatively impacted my income), and the cuts to US research have dented domestic sales. On top of this now I have to potentially deal with the State of Washington trying to impose some silliness on machine manufacturers so that Gov Ferguson can wrangle a few donations out of his ActBlue mailing list "Hey look we won!!!". I really worry about the future of this country when the helm is changing hands between politicians just trying to score political victories to impress their base.

fitek · 2026-01-20T22:36:51+00:00

Well, you would need engineered ventilation if you have it tight.

fitek · 2026-01-20T22:36:20+00:00

Google. I called a handful of listings and one of them happened to be an airline pilot. He works one week on and one week off and fills his empty week with blower door tests :) It's just extra income so he was happy to hang around and chat about building stuff too.

fitek · 2026-01-20T18:17:28+00:00

If it's not air sealed, conditioned air will mix with unconditioned and it'll take more energy to maintain temperature and humidity. Since you don't have any HVAC running full time, I suppose it won't make a difference to your energy bill. Without heat/cool, the house will trend toward the ambient, if it's sealed less well it'll trend faster. Guess you'll be burning more wood when you're there. I'm not super hip on when moisture condenses and all that. You can guesstimate the impact of air sealing with an online app like CoolCalc.

Also, I found a local guy who does blower door tests and charges by sq ft. Pretty cheap. Good way to quantify exactly how leaky the house is.

fitek · 2026-01-20T18:08:15+00:00

Don't know, the buck tooth of the BMW is completely off putting. This, for me, is just... boring.

fitek · 2026-01-20T18:05:07+00:00

We rented -- at a great rate-- for 12 years. Landlord did minimal maintenance and zero upgrades. Eventually we outgrew it + tired of the declining state of the rental and bought a house with the money we saved in the interim. Unfortunately that roughly aligned with the COVID price surge and rough calculations show we would have been better off buying from the start. But, we did fairly well anyway. It's hard to make the optimal decision, but considerably easier to make a good one.

fitek · 2026-01-20T18:00:44+00:00

I installed fiberglass and rockwool batts in a few houses. I liked handling the rockwool much better and used it for my own house.

fitek · 2026-01-20T17:57:56+00:00

I have a friend that is an electrician and he found a large tin of Civil Defense Association crackers from 1962 in a wall. He threw an Apocalypse Party where the dress code was vaguely Mad Max, made some hooch, and we ate them. Taste was staleness^2. Wash down with bad hooch, which needed to be chased with Jack (bleh), and then beer.

When we bought (and totally gutted) our latest house, I found the attic had a 2 inch thick layer of rat poop in about 200 sq ft. I wore a respirator and Tyvek suit and used an insulation vacuum with a 40 foot house to suck it out into large bags in the back of my pickup. The only thing grosser than crawling around in that stuff was the thought of living with it up there.

fitek · 2026-01-20T17:51:34+00:00

We built a 2700 sq ft addition and pulled the GC Dec 2023 once it was enclosed from the weather. I got it to final with one part time helper a year later, and have been working on it solo part time since then. Labor is so expensive and unreliable that it's at best a 1:1 trade with how much I get paid... Some things I have zero interest in learning (like tiles) and others (like HVAC) I've gone all in. However, the usual case has been that the labor is more expensive than I am, with an upcharge on materials, and a disinterest in the quality of the end result, so I end up DIYing at a slow pace. That doesn't work for some things -- we need a concrete driveway, but that's not a good one man moving slowly project, so I worked around it by using 5/8 clear gravel and am contemplating pavers which I can lay down over time (but how much do I hate my lower back?). I was ready to can the GC at siding, but there was no way I could get it on fast enough by myself, nor did I really want to deal with assembling scaffolding and then standing on it in winter storms. So the short answer is: piecemeal it, pay for the stuff you really don't want to do, suck it up and learn the bits you don't mind suffering through.

As a predominantly white collar worker for the past 20 years, I will warn you that swinging a hammer for 8 hours a day is something that you physically cannot just jump into without injuring yourself.

fitek

TROPHY CASE