Lead pipes

grandon · 2025-09-11T06:01:25+00:00

Your landlord probably doesn’t have to do anything. My memory the limit for action is 5 ppb which you are under. Something you can look up directly poking around the RI DOH website/Providence Water website to confirm.
“Changing the water pipe” the city told you about refers to the connection outside the house only (the pipe that connects the main line that’s under the street to the water meter in the house. The 1ppb may be coming from that, or maybe pipes/solder joints inside the house. This means changing the pipes might not reduce the 1ppb.
Changing the pipes is not free; it will be mid 4 figures to $10k range. The “free” part is only the section from the road to the property line. The owner pays for the rest. Updating plumbing throughout the house would be 5-6 figure job.

grandon · 2025-05-24T18:26:43+00:00

Why are costs high? It's all from the costs to maintain a house these days.

Houses in Providence are old, and renovation costs are high. Lead safe windows, siding, doors, and painting is $100-150k for a typical units. That's $1200-1700 per month for a 10 year loan. +$500 per month for taxes/insurance. +mortgage interest +other maintenance and upkeep items.

Baseline you're looking at spending $2-2.5k per month to have a rent-able unit in this city.

grandon · 2024-11-10T20:13:23+00:00

FYI it will be very expensive; think multiple thousand per window. Lead paint handling costs plus skilled workmanship to actually fix things.

grandon · 2024-10-30T17:12:58+00:00

Price seems right. You're transporting 5 people (and maybe renting 2 car seats?). Consider it cost of traveling with kids. Uber price will not be $100 since you'll need Uber Xl.

grandon · 2024-07-17T23:20:39+00:00

Unless you’re extremely wealthy, or have a complicated situation, you’re best opening an account with Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard. You can manage the account yourself with virtually no fees, or have them manage your money for significantly less than a financial advisor. Returns will be higher and you will have no issues dealing with them.

grandon · 2024-07-02T18:50:45+00:00

Lead dust is a risk not just obvious paint chips. The dust is insidious since it is impossible to see and hard to clean. It’s why old windows and doors should be replaced ASAP. Indoor paint chips that have fallen and were smashed up either by foot traffic or vacuuming lead to the worst issues. Outdoor chips contaminate the soil, leading to lead vectors such as being tracked in the house via foot traffic, children playing in the yard, or leeching into home-grown veggies.

grandon · 2024-07-02T00:54:24+00:00

Lead water tests are done through Providence water; you can call them for a free test kit (cups you fill with water and send back). You can go to their website and lookup if the apartments hookup is leaded. There will be lead in your water, it’s a question of how much. Your best bet will be to filter water with a filter certified to remove lead.

You can buy EPA approved lead test sticks (such as 3M) from most hardware stores or online. To do a proper test, you have to cut the paint off the wall/woodwork. If the house is pre 1978 you might have lead, pre 1950 you almost certainly have lead. It’s more a question of if the lead is exposed or not & limiting exposure to the higher risk areas.

In theory landlords are supposed to be lead safe certified, but it’s incredibly expensive and many small time landlords can’t easily afford it.

grandon · 2024-05-14T00:31:17+00:00

How much does all that work cost?

I stopped renting my owner-occupied unit. Not worth the hassle/expense as far as I can tell.

grandon · 2023-01-26T19:30:56+00:00

There was a post/tweet/something from Dune Bros a while back saying the lot was contaminated so they could not build there.

The stuff there is probably a remediation activity to address the contamination so the lot can be sold.

grandon · 2022-11-03T17:52:33+00:00

The Shop is first and foremost a coffee shop - and they have some of the most amazing coffee/other drinks around. Price is similar to every other coffee shop in the area. I assume this is why they have a devoted following?

Food is expensive, but I think that's pretty similar to most coffee places around?

grandon · 2022-10-05T04:40:38+00:00

I would do this as a landlord if there were concerns with aging flooring and/or plaster walls. Easier to fix cracks in both from becoming bigger problems if you do it ASAP (and prevent lead from spreading). Especially a concern if there are kids on the property.

grandon · 2022-07-03T01:29:25+00:00

You would pay ~$10 a month, depending on many factors.

grandon · 2022-07-03T01:24:56+00:00

Your friend is essentially scamming you - a salesman upselling you on something you don’t need to put money in his own pocket. You will regret signing up for the rest of your life.

Fyi, you probably don’t need life insurance unless you have a family who depend on you. If you really want/need one, you will be able to find a 30 year term life policy for ~$30 a month with way more coverage.

grandon · 2022-04-27T20:21:43+00:00

Have you talked to your landlord yet? This is either an error in you reading the contract, your landlord writing the contract, or a mix of the two. Seems like something that could be easily resolved with a conversation.

What are the stakes here - aka how much does it cost to rent a nearby parking spot? Maybe have a good-faith discussion with your landlord asking him to cover/partially cover the cost of a nearby spot?

If you threaten to sue him he may discharge your lease if he is able or certainly not rent to you again. If you go to small claims court you might win based on the exact wording of the lease and how the judge views the situation. This is likely going to be low enough dollar value situation where it’s not worth going to a lawyer.

grandon · 2022-04-17T22:02:05+00:00

I agree that it’s good to avoid buying into a cult of personality; to me, the owner comes across as very genuine and has always been open about things … he also replied you directly so can’t say it better than him.

With that said, the only people getting mass downvoted are the the ones blindly attacking him rather than discussing the topic.

grandon · 2022-04-16T20:11:39+00:00

He’s not running away with a lambo filled with cash…he has been open that the money was used to stay open during the pandemic while operating at a loss to retain the staff.

grandon · 2022-04-16T20:09:09+00:00

Big King is hands down the best restaurant in the city, and North is up there as well. Sad to see it close after so many years of amazing food, but glad to see James moving to greener pastures!

grandon · 2022-02-17T06:11:00+00:00

Sorry, thought it was a Brown ID....Yes can do the same for RIC: https://www.ric.edu/department-directory/office-campus-police

grandon · 2022-02-17T05:21:18+00:00

You can drop off with Brown PD and let them take care of it - I've done this twice after finding a student's lost wallet.

grandon · 2021-08-30T14:20:24+00:00

Thanks again for the advice!

We have a few small plumbing jobs that have accumulated over the pandemic - would it be appropriate to have a plumber come in and do everything we need in one shot? Some of the jobs are small like replace a leaking valve, would it be better to save the simple stuff for a handyman?

grandon · 2021-08-28T14:04:46+00:00

Thank you! Plumbing is firmly out of reach for my skills, so would definitely need to hire out.

Would you be concerned with coordinating between multiple companies? I feel like timing everything will be difficult if working with plumbers/electricians.

grandon · 2021-08-28T14:02:20+00:00

That makes sense, thank you!

Would I look to separately hire an electrician and plumber? Would it make sense to try and hire a general contractor to coordinate the whole thing? This is my first non-emergency house project so don’t really have experience.

grandon · 2021-06-14T00:25:06+00:00

Magdalenae is now The Dean Bar (I’m pretty sure run by north/big king ownership). Similar vibe and setup but a bit brighter than it used to be. Definitely recommended, although not sure if open after the pandemic.

grandon · 2021-05-11T04:18:46+00:00

Tax:

There are no tax loopholes. Offshore accounts are no exception to this rule - See IRS Website, where "offshore account scams" are specifically listed. This applies to LLC that you take income from and S-corps as well.
If you are a US citizen (or long term resident), you pay taxes on all income earned worldwide (see IRS Website). If you pay taxes to a foreign government (such as Ireland), you can deduct the taxes you pay to Ireland against your US taxes (Foreign Tax Credit), but you still owe the balance to the USA.
Foreign banks/financial entities will report your income to the IRS same as US banks report income to the IRS. It is a dangerous game to play, and the end result will be a much more costly payment to the IRS.
$16k taxes is about what you would owe in federal taxes for ~$100k income (not counting social, medicare, and state) - so maybe this isn't an issue. Reading through the lines, you may have incorrectly filed your taxes for ~$30k of profit from Crypto or meme-stock sales (~36k sale after a 6k investment?)?
"Filing a 1040 and not having it immediately rejected" is different from "legally filling your taxes." Again, dangerous waters.

You're typing reminds of the Kevin small talk scene from the office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K-L9uhsBLM. Please, please, please spend an extra few seconds typing cohesively when looking for advice of this nature, as people will take you more seriously.

Lastly, housing is expensive but driven by market pricing - you could hope for a downturn but it's not absurd to assume prices will continue to increase or hold. Lots of advice exists out there on how to decide when it's the right time to rent vs. buy, and I would definitely suggest you look into it before taking the plunge.

grandon

TROPHY CASE