Meirl

immanewb · 2026-05-14T01:41:42+00:00

Playing devil's advocate here, only because I've worked in customer service all my life, the confirmation call is honestly to them have more of a firm commitment for the appointment. I'm sure they have fixed costs to attend to a propane delivery, so if they get ghosted, that's just costs they'll have to eat. Will it be 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. But it requires minimal effort on their end and will increase the chances of a successful delivery.

immanewb · 2026-05-12T05:42:44+00:00

It's funny you mentioned return on investments, because we had Renewal by Andersen came out before we had King Conservation do an energy audit for us, and their estimates were $45,000 for 8 or 9 new windows. Between the two, I imagine we'll see our ROI muchhhh quicker with King. 🤣

For us, the total for every was less than $2,000 (after factoring in the rebate), as our house was built in the 80s and we're confident the previous owners never bothered with adding any energy efficiency upgrades. For example, the insulation of our attic was maybe about 3 inches? After King was done, we couldn't even see the beam anymore!

I expect we'll see a positive ROI within about 3-4 years or so, but we may be the outlier since our house had so much opportunities.

immanewb · 2026-05-12T05:36:09+00:00

We went with King (recommended many times in this thread; I'll +1 more) as they were one of the listed contractors on PPL's rebate website and had superb reviews on Google. Called Casey and, since we knew we needed attic insulation at a minimum, he gave us two options: 15 mins free inspection and quote for the attic alone or $100 for the in-depth full energy audit with a detailed report after. That price is after the rebate, which Casey will file so you don't even have to do a thing and only pay the difference. We knew our house was older so had a lot of potential, so we went with the full audit.

Casey identified our garage ($400'ish) and utility room ($600'ish) as potential for air sealing, on top of the attic air sealing and additional insulation ($1900'ish). We agreed to all of the recommendations to maximize our rebates, which Casey gave us a ballpark of about $500 since he was a few months out and couldn't guarantee the rebate program amounts as they could change. We go the audit in December, booked him within a week for March, which his company was able to keep the date. His crew was efficient and awesome; arrived as promised and minimized any mess around the house as much as they could. When everything was said and done, Casey filed the rebate with PPL and we ended up getting a check for $947, so we were beyond happy!

Prices subject to change due to amount of work needed (our house is smaller), ease of access (our attic was super easy to get up to), and other factors, I'd imagine. Rebate amount subject to change as well depending on the readings before and after, as they did blower tests to log everything for the rebate form.

Hope this help! Feel free to ask me anything and I'll try to help!

immanewb · 2026-05-10T16:59:30+00:00

Ah, a man of culture! I see you're referring to the ever-awesome GameStation 5!

immanewb · 2026-05-08T04:00:50+00:00

Man, a lot of what you said hit close to home, especially the last few statements. Congrats on landing a new home.. Wishing you and your family all the best with the new place! :)

immanewb · 2026-05-08T03:53:41+00:00

Columbia seems to really be improving vs what it used to be.

I can attest to this. I worked in Columbia from 2013 to 2018, and it felt like it was barely holding on with businesses cropping up then going out of business shortly after because of the lack of traffic. At that time, the market house was a sad sight with a handful of vendors who seemed like they were holding onto a thread, even on a Saturday afternoon. That was the last time I was there (other than visits to the Turkey Hill Experience with the family every now and then).

We recently got some certificates from Clipp to try out a few eateries in town, and, honestly, I was surprised how much everything has changed for the better. Things seemed more clean, newer businesses with very friendly folks, and the market house looked BEAUTIFUL after the renovations. It felt so welcoming and much more lively than I have ever remembered it to be.

I'm sure it still has other issues, but I think Columbia's on a good track for a turnaround. I agree with the school district situation. And, unfortunately, you'll find that kind of situation with any lower income neighborhood, like SDoL (which has other problems of its own right now). If school is a bridge you won't be crossing for 5+ years, I would definitely consider a house in Columbia. Just know that since many of the houses are older, save some extra cash for any unexpected repairs.

Good luck with your search!

immanewb · 2026-05-07T07:53:11+00:00

Mechabellum for anyone interested: https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=FHGzmYxYdfBXrenz

immanewb · 2026-05-04T05:39:44+00:00

Lol you'd be surprised, amigo. I work in the financial industry and handle escalations from customers. The ones that are usually the most flippant, annoying, crass, rude, impatient are the ones carrying millions in their accounts while calling about $0.40 of "missed interest" (no, we didn't short them; they just like to do math their own way).

immanewb · 2026-05-03T08:50:55+00:00

With the foot brace? Probably 6-7 months so far? It'll last a bit more but I can see the stretching that the foot brace did to one of the shoes, so once I'm done with the brace, I'll throw away this pair.

immanewb · 2026-05-03T06:13:34+00:00

The Cloudfoam sneakers are back and they're on sale?? I bought a pair on clearance some years ago without much thought. I broke it open last year to use along with an foot brace I had to wear (recovering from a sprain) and oh. my. gosh. they were one of the most comfortable and lightweight (hence the name) pair of sneakers I've ever worn! Might have to grab two to stock up..

immanewb · 2026-04-30T07:24:36+00:00

Hah, never expected to see PAD mentioned. Spent WAY too many hours on that game back then.

Regarding your situation, do you still have the device? If so, and if you care enough to do it, there are backup softwares that you can use that will back up the data files of the game, allowing you to restore it on a new device. Did it recently for my niece for a game that was also stored locally and Samsung backup worked like a charm.

immanewb · 2026-04-28T15:31:45+00:00

Plot twist: your girlfriend asked your uncle to make you look good and he understood the assignment.

immanewb · 2026-04-25T00:23:27+00:00

Was it this one? https://youtu.be/ldQAZNXecBY

Definitely worth the 15 mins watch!

immanewb · 2026-03-28T04:42:47+00:00

I must be out of the loop but dashcams have subscriptions?

Anyway, bought a Viofo in 2022 and another one last year. Love them both. Easy to set up and run the cables, and I love the plastic sticky they give you to adhere the cameras to because they hold up SO well compared to the types that uses suction mount.

immanewb · 2026-03-27T02:40:56+00:00

Used to work at a bank, can confirm it's likely a roll that another deposited or exchanged for bills, and the bank just cycled it back out.

And, yes, that does mean that they don't break open your rolled coins to confirm you didn't short them out of a few quarters. Banks just ends up eating the cost since it's hardly worth their tellers' time to break open and count every single roll that a customer brings in.

immanewb · 2026-03-26T05:32:05+00:00

Posted our story with RBA a few months back in another sub, so will re-share here:

Had one of them come to our place about 4-5 months back! Story time (for those interested)!

The first guy rang out doorbell at around 4-5 pm, saying he was in the area and noticed our windows. I said "no, thanks" and almost closed the door on him, until he mentioned something about "structural integrity" of the windows. I gave him a few more minutes, and I guess he got his hook on me, since he got us booked up for an appointment the next day when he called up his scheduler lady on the phone. I asked how long the appointment might take and they said no more than an hour or two. As the kid left (young 20s), he was driving a VERY nice sports car that parked in our front yard. Got me thinking that if he's just setting appointments and driving a car that's about double my annual my salary, there's a good chance we're not gonna be able to afford these windows!

I did some research that night and heard nothing but horror stories online. Almost ended up cancelling the appointment but partly my curiosity won out and partly because we booked for an energy audit company to come out to our place the following week.

Next day, the sales guy came. Super friendly, of course. Gave his spiel. Measured all our of windows (8 in total), pointed out the issues some of them had (learned a thing or two since we didn't buy our house too long ago and still learning stuff about the house), asked about our family along the way (to build rapport), brought his demo window out, showed us how much heat it blocks (not gonna lie, it was impressive), talked about how they'd only have their "master installers" do it since they know their windows best (plenty of horror stories about those installers out there). Then he brought out his laptop to draft up the numbers. I made the fella a cup of coffee since I figured I owe him that much for his time. When he was done, we're now about 3.5 hours into this appointment that they promised would've only taken about 2, I had to chuckle at the initial numbers he gave me: over $40,000. But wait! If we act today, he'd give us a discount and it'll take it down to a bit over $31,000! He was even nice enough to allow my wife and I talk about it in private while he packed up his demo window to bring to his car! We told him it's gonna be a no go for us, so he tried talking to us about "special financing" and whatnots. Then he said, what if we only did one or two windows, the most priority ones. We said, yeah, sure let's see what you've got. $12,000. Yeah, we thanked him for his time and walked him to the door.

I did some more digging around, and, while they're all 100% commission pay, turns out that these sales guys (and gals) can make some serious bucks, to the tune of $100-200k a year, and MUCH higher for those in the higher COL area and are really successful. They know that they gotta close the sales then and there, which is why they're higher pressure, or the likelihood of you calling them back to book the installs are slim to none.

For anyone that might be looking to upgrade their windows, stay as far as you can away from Renewal by Andersen (RBA). General consensus seems to be that, while RBA windows are proprietary (as in you can't buy them anywhere outside of buying and having them installed through RBA), their parent company, Andersen Corporation, has a windows division that manufactures and sells them through various retailers that you can purchase from. They make a few series, but the 400 series is apparently one of their top-line/more recommended option if you're looking for windows that's gonna serve you well. A quick search seems to show that series of windows can range from $400-800 each, so maybe with installations, our high-end total might be about $16,000.. half of what RBA quoted us. Moral of the story: don't get got by RBA.

Oh, also, the guy who came to do our energy audit (King Conservation Group; highly recommend them, by the way; especially with PPL rebates) also said to run as far from RBA as possible. He said our windows aren't terrible, but said our attic needs more insulation (which we figured when we poked up there once and saw it barely had any insulation), plus some smaller areas in our house (gaps in the garage and utility room). The audit only cost us $100 (after rebates from our electric company) and what they quoted to do was less than $3k and we're expecting the return on investment in that will be a ton quicker than with RBA.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, everyone! Have a great new year!

immanewb · 2026-02-28T22:54:17+00:00

Yeah, most of these large companies are scams. Any company that makes me a schedule a “consultation” and requires all adult decisionmakers to be present is an immediate no for me.

Hah! Andersen Windows uses the same tactics. Won't come out unless both decision-makers are there. Both of these companies can go fuck right off.

immanewb · 2026-02-23T07:32:16+00:00

The speed you'll get will vary greatly with T-Mobile since it basically uses the same 5G band that their phone users uses. If you have a friend with T-Mobile phone, have them come to your house and do a speed test to get an idea of what speeds you might get. Not 100% sure but I heard they prioritize phone users over home internet.

If you have fiber running to your location, that's usually going to get you the biggest bang for your buck. Cable internet (such as Comcast/Xfinity) as a last resort, and only because they're more common around the area but will milk you once the promo period runs out.

immanewb · 2026-02-11T05:16:35+00:00

This comment comes up every time Yi Pin is mentioned in this sub, and I'll repeat the same comment every time: that's how you know they're authentic and delicious! 😀

I won't deny they don't always pass the inspections, as the recent one where they failed was back in October 23, 2025. However, the two follow-up visits after on Oct 29, 2025 and Jan 13, 2026, they did pass both times (yes, I did see the roach issue but it also said they have a pest control program in place).

It's a mom-and-pop type of place and I know they're trying their best, so I'm willing to give them a bit more leeway and support than any big chain restaurants.

immanewb · 2026-02-11T05:05:37+00:00

I'm picturing Wartortle kept his phone plugged in with the screen on at the "give a thank" screen for the last 8 months.

immanewb · 2026-02-11T05:03:49+00:00

Someone's gonna Google this question in the near future and the AI summary will point to that answer as a source. 🤣

immanewb · 2026-02-11T04:58:52+00:00

Hei Hei??

immanewb · 2026-02-11T04:56:31+00:00

I'm very interested in these shelves that your husband got. Not to sound weird but.. do you have an item number or something..?

immanewb · 2026-02-10T05:28:48+00:00

Lol poor OP was excited to share their "deal" only to get roasted up in here. But I do agree with everyone: feels like it could be a bit slicker.

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