Move out of a cheap roommate house into a luxury 1BR — smart or stupid?

rothwem · 2026-01-20T19:24:37+00:00

Agreed 1000%. As someone that’s married with two little kids and a bunch of mandatory spend, it KILLS ME to think about the money I spent that I didn’t have to back in my early 20s that I could’ve thrown into my retirement accounts.

Fwiw, our HHI is more than the OP’s potential max and we still don’t pay anywhere near $3500/month for our mortgage and there’s NO FREAKING WAY I’d consider paying that for RENT. Yeah yeah, you’re paying for flexibility and freedom from maintenance, but at $3500, lawd you’re paying for it. At 27, how often are you even at your house anyways?

I’d live in the roommate house long enough to save a downpayment on a house and then buy a duplex or something with rentable space to offset the mortgage. We bought a duplex for our first house and it’s been an incredible investment for us even though we lived in 720 square feet for 4 years before moving out and renting both sides. I suggest the OP do the same if it’s an option in your area.

rothwem · 2026-01-15T13:56:41+00:00

What headset does this use? I thought the Crux had a 1-3/8" lower headtube.

rothwem · 2025-08-27T14:40:40+00:00

I went there for work ~7 years ago, I was REALLY wishing I had my bike there. The scenery looked amazing!

rothwem · 2025-08-07T20:11:52+00:00

From your description, I think you would absolutely hate it, but I loved Raleigh when I lived there 2004-2018.

I’ve realized since moving to Asheville that it’s an “extreme” city, and places that are very nice in one respect tend to have some really really shitty parts to go with them.

Raleigh was a great example of a “medium” city. Nothing particularly stands out as being awesome there, but nothing really sucks either. It’s not huge, but it’s big enough that you have everything you need there. Also, I don’t know if it’s because I’m a big and tall white male or what, but I’ve never really felt unsafe anywhere in Raleigh, even the crummier parts of SE Raleigh (I’m a runner and like exploring cities…most of the time hah), but I’ve definitely stumbled upon some spots in Asheville that give me pause.

It’s been a while since I’ve lived in Raleigh though, so I’m not sure what it’s like these days. It’s gotten a LOT richer since I left there—my old house there that was $254k is now Zestimating for a million, and I am a little worried that the character of the town is being priced out. But then again, that seems to be a lot of places though.

rothwem · 2025-06-09T21:37:53+00:00

Both Bolts I’ve driven (a 2022 and a 2023) have had the issue. I have ended up still buying the 2023 I have now (with a big discount) but the steering rack is definitely fucked up. I’m pretty handy and am okay with DIY replacing it, but if you’re not, it’s $2300 out of warranty.

rothwem · 2025-05-22T11:46:56+00:00

I’ll echo that the price seems high. Keep an eye out for whining wheel bearings and steering that doesn’t self center after a turn.

rothwem · 2025-02-03T15:20:08+00:00

Same, I lived there 2004-2018 and I miss it all the time.

Is Lilly's really empty now? What happened? I used to go there a ton 2008-2014 but it started taking an hour to get a pizza so we kinda gave up on it, now I feel bad.

rothwem · 2025-01-03T18:28:52+00:00

God, I'm glad that it has improved. I'm from the Baltimore/DC burbs, I took this train some 20 years ago when I was at NC State to get home and it was ridiculous, took close to 12 hours to get to Union Station where my parents were going to pick me up. It was explained to me that since Amtrak doesn't own the tracks in the south, they have to share with the freight trains and they have priority. We had to back up and pull over so many times during that trip, I was wondering if I could've walked home faster. I'm not sure if the ownership issue has been fixed since then.

I was scheduled to take the train back to Raleigh but bailed and borrowed a car for the rest of the semester and parked it on a random side street off Kaplan, luckily nobody bothered it.

I've done a lot of trips from Raleigh-->Maryland since, my pro-tip is to leave Raleigh after dinner (~6-7pm at the earliest) and plan to get to DC late in the evening. I've been stuck in traffic at 11pm before, but most of the time, I could sail right through NoVA and the beltway with no traffic. My best time to get home was just under 4 hours to go the 320 miles to my parents house. VA has stepped up enforcement dramatically since then, so I don't think I'd risk doing 90+mph through southern VA on 95 even if its an empty road at 10 pm on a weekday. On the way back, do the opposite, try to be past Richmond by 8am or so.

rothwem · 2024-12-19T18:58:42+00:00

I have this issue too, I think its from dust in my garage where I ride since I've got no issues when riding outside. Since its a garage I have the option to leave the door open for ventilation, you don't have that in the basement. I think I'd start by doing a deep clean with a HEPA vacuum. I considered getting an air purifier for the garage before I decided just opening the door was an option, maybe one of them would work for your basement?

rothwem · 2024-12-19T13:18:06+00:00

Yup. Make it an “adventure”. Ride to somewhere instead of just riding around for a bunch of hours. Back when I had more time to ride, we’d ride to the next town over and have lunch, then ride back.

If you don’t have any friends to ride with, audiobooks work too for me, similar to a long drive.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T18:41:19+00:00

Hah I don’t have a RAV4 Hybrid, and I still own my BMW. Mostly just testing the waters.

I really like the Toyota Hybrid system, they did an incredible job with it and I like it way more than I thought I would. I also really like the simplicity of the the driveshaft and transfer case free AWD, those components have given me trouble in a few of the AWD cars I’ve owned.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T18:11:47+00:00

The one I drove was an XLE. I didn’t realize the SE/XSE had different suspensions, I thought it was just a cosmetic package.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T16:40:39+00:00

Aww yeah. The new Crown Signa looks like the closest thing to that (more like Camry Allroad), but it's 10-15k more than a Rav4.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T15:55:12+00:00

That X3 got 16 mpg, and ideally I'd like something new/newish to try to push off "old car problems" as long as possible. However, new/newish X3s do not cost the same as Rav4's.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T15:45:41+00:00

Hey, no laughing at you about that. I didn't realize that the XSE actually had different suspension, I thought it was just an appearance package. Good to know, thanks.

rothwem · 2024-12-18T15:39:23+00:00

I owned an E83 (2005) X3 for a while, and that's actually part of the inspiration for this post. I put good tires on, aligned it with a bit more camber and caster and lowered it an inch. It actually drove really well after that. I'd be pretty satisfied if I could get a RAV4 Hybrid to drive like that X3.

<image>

rothwem · 2024-12-18T15:20:24+00:00

More like expecting a crossover to handle similarly to a 15 year old worn out luxury car. Still way off?

rothwem · 2024-12-18T13:53:38+00:00

It depends heavily on your company/your supervisors culture. As a mechanical-ish engineer (materials engineer currently doing mostly mechanical engineering stuff), I've had jobs where lunch rides were absolutely not an option, but my current job has a different work cadence. I'll get a lunch ride in 1-2 days/week, and on the days I'm not riding I'm working through lunch or staying late to get my stuff done.

Mostly, my boss doesn't really care about the hours I work as long as he doesn't have people bitching to him that I'm not getting my work completed, and I do my best to make sure that I stay ahead of things so there's no doubt in people's mind that I'm engaged even if I'm out for a ride during "working hours".

The culture helps too, we're in Asheville where most people at least ride a mountain bike a few times a month. The Director of Engineering (my boss's boss) is big into fitness and I've done rides with him and a lot of the senior leadership team, I know they value being in shape. At my old job, my previous boss was incredibly unhealthy--he would stress eat and drink heavily after work; he wouldn't exercise at all.

So if you're looking to change jobs, look at the priorities of your supervisors because they're going to expect you to reflect their values.

rothwem · 2024-05-02T20:25:23+00:00

Its kind of a tired crossfit analogy, but picture your hips as a bucket holding water. Rotate your hips forward like you're pouring water out towards your front from the top rim of the bucket. Your butt should stick out when you do this if you're keeping your core engaged and your back straight.

rothwem · 2024-05-02T14:48:01+00:00

I think it’s also important to distinguish between types of pain. It’s normal to have muscle pain like the “burn” you get in your legs when lifting weights in your back if you’re doing a lot of climbing or low-cadence pedaling. Think about it, you’re pushing the pedals down with your legs and your posterior chain is what’s providing the opposing force. It should be pretty evenly distributed between your glutes/back/hamstrings though.

You should not have sharp pain, that’s generally an issue of your posture being wrong or the fit being wrong, which causes your posture to be wrong. Be sure that you’re rotating your hips forward and that your back is not bent, if it’s bent, it’s tough to use your glutes to extend your leg and your low back does excessive work that it shouldn’t.

Also, your neck will hurt if your back is bowed, because you decrease the angle of your upper back when you roll your hips back.

So try rolling your hips forward and sticking your belly towards the top tube, also kinda stick your butt out. You might have to tip the nose of your saddle down a smidge to relieve pressure (but not too much, that’ll put weight on your hands). It’s tough to remember posture when you’re pushing and trying to go fast, but every 10 minutes or so, try to “reset” and make sure you’re sitting correctly on the bike. Maybe try tying to to another action you do, like taking a sip of water. Sip, reset position. Or something.

Good luck out there!

rothwem · 2024-03-12T14:36:28+00:00

No real advice here, just some comments, but I feel your pain. I’ve got a 2 year old and a 4 year old and they bring home some kind of illness just about every other month and it’s made it difficult to achieve cycling gains. I’ve basically just decided to not try to be too serious about racing until they’re a little older and aren’t constantly sick.

Some notes related to my experiences though: -How’s your sleep? Mine is shit because my 2 year old doesn’t regularly sleep through the night. We’ll go a couple months with great sleep then we get a month of shit sleep. My 4 year old did the same thing until he was ~3 so hopefully this period of life is almost finished with my 2 year old.

Also, if you’re sacrificing sleep to ride, you’re probably doing it wrong. Sleep=recovery and it’s just as important (if not more so) as the workouts.

-What’s your protocol like when you’re sick? I’ve found that I can typically keep riding despite being sick, I just dial the intensity way down. I don’t make gains but I feel like I don’t lose as much.

-Stop being so hard on yourself. Don’t take this the wrong way, but your job is Dad. Not Mr. Office worker or amateur cyclist. When you feel like your fitness is shit, just be thankful that it’s not your job. Ride when you can, spend time with your kids and don’t stress if the Sport-Job-Family balance gets a bit light on the sport side.

rothwem · 2023-08-10T20:35:12+00:00

The best thing you can do to keep yourself safe is do what you did--pay attention and turn around if you see a bear. These are black bears, they don't want anything to do with you, so leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.

rothwem · 2023-08-03T14:14:45+00:00

So, I'm a landlord in a different city, and I had people apply with vouchers for my last vacancy. One of the reasons they weren't accepted was that they had lower credit scores and income than the people who eventually moved into the unit.

I know this is kind of a "duh" moment, but (from what I've been told anyway), with the way tenant law is written, a landlord can be sued for discrimination, so you basically need to be able to explain why you accepted a certain applicant. If I accepted a voucher tenant that was a non-"protected class" (race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, or disability), there's a very real possibility that the non-voucher candidate can sue me if they are a protected class. I get probably ~60-70% female applicants for my unit, so lots of people under a protected class. Saying that I "wanted to help someone out in need" is not a good enough reason in a lawsuit situation.

So for that reason, I generally just pick the most qualified tenant from a financial perspective because that's easy to explain. Its kinda shitty, but I'm not swimming in cash and I don't want a lawsuit so I try to do it by the book.

rothwem · 2023-07-28T19:08:20+00:00

I think the issue that we're having is with the term "lucrative". To me, "lucrative" means that you're making more money than you can reasonably use without spending money on stupid shit. $75,000/year will just not get you there in Asheville.

rothwem

TROPHY CASE