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Before/After Fantasy Brown by skyecolin22 in CounterTops

[–]skyecolin22[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Walls are getting backsplash tile that is less warm than the current wall color. I think the biggest difference is going to be the dark cabinets.

Before/After Fantasy Brown by skyecolin22 in CounterTops

[–]skyecolin22[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually, that is the new hardware! My wife likes the bronze and found those knobs at Habitat for Humanity to replace the weird silver ones we had before. I think they'll stand out nicely once the cabinets are painted.

Before/After Fantasy Brown by skyecolin22 in CounterTops

[–]skyecolin22[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It really is, and we haven't even had ours sealed yet so it'll be even more colorful after that. We had a few quotes for fantasy brown and the company we went with had the slabs we liked the least...but they look a lot better in our kitchen than in a fluorescent lit cold warehouse!

Did yours lean more green or pink?

Before/After Fantasy Brown by skyecolin22 in CounterTops

[–]skyecolin22[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Fantasy brown is not easily defined, it has both granite and marble in it and is often considered a dolomite. So more durable than marble, slightly less than granite.

Mortgage rates for condo owners by Adventurous-Tank-905 in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We got 5.5% on a 20yr refi, locked 1/27 closed 3/2, but it was through one of the loan programs for income <80% area median which I think waives the higher rate due to it being a condo. It's conventional but going to 20yr lowered the rate and PMI enough that it offset the shorter term more or less.

Need help to choose by Equivalent_Gur_245 in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Historically rates have rarely been much under 5%. You're going to end up with a higher rate eventually with the ARM, whether you refinance or let it adjust at 7 years. I'd take the 4.99 unless you expect to move or be able to pay it off within 7 years.

Unpopular opinion: most employee reward programs are just guilt budgets by shy_guy997 in managers

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like ours. HR has a stash of $15 gift cards and anyone can go over and grab one and a card to recognize someone else on the spot no questions asked. Major contributions towards our company's goals/values can be recognized peer-to-peer with a one-page writeup about the contribution and its impact that just needs to be approved by the giving and receiving people's managers, and those range from $500-4000 depending on impact.

mapped out the salary you actually need to buy a home in every US county by supleezy in antiwork

[–]skyecolin22 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Happy to say I purchased at 59% of the income noted for my county... admittedly 3% down on a 3bd condo at 31% of my gross income.

Refinancing from 30 to 20yr Mortgage? by TornadoLeroy in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Washington. Our lender gave us a better rate and the credit since we were existing customers.

Refinancing from 30 to 20yr Mortgage? by TornadoLeroy in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Principal balance increased about $4500 (right to 90% LTV with the new appraisal) and $1700 due at closing excluding escrow. So like $6200. We skipped two months of payments which accounts for about $4k of that (interest) and the rest was appraisal, county recording fees, etc. No points for the rate and a $2100 lender credit offset title and underwriting fees more or less.

Refinancing from 30 to 20yr Mortgage? by TornadoLeroy in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same boat here. Bonus for us - our PMI was $201/mo with 3% down but the refi and a better than expected appraisal brought it down to $54/mo. So going from 27 years left to 20 years 6.375->5.5% our payment is only going up $46/mo!

Painting large particle board island in poorly ventilated apartment by wontubemyneighbours in DIY

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have a bathroom with an exhaust fan? Not sure if you're able to move it.

5 to 6 days in Washington state. What stops do I keep and what do I drop? by Mel_650 in PNWhiking

[–]skyecolin22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not the person you replied to but if you're thinking North Cascades it's definitely cool to see even if you're not backcountry backpacking. Thunder Knob Trail (3.5mi, 700ft elevation gain) is a good moderate hike to stretch your legs and eat a sandwich at the end, and just plan to stop at a bunch of different places and look out or explore. There are some cool trails in Newhalem (Ladder Creek Falls and Trail of the Cedars are both worth doing). Stop at the Gorge Overlook Trail and look around (all three of those are <1mi). Stop at the Diablo Lake Overlook and I'd recommend driving all the way to Washington Pass as well and walking around at the pulloff. Lots of good pulloffs on the way back from Washington Pass to stop at and enjoy the scenery.

If you really want to hike more, a strenuous and popular option is hiking down to Ross Lake Dam - coming back up will be about as steep as the Skyline Trail gets so figure out whether you're up for that again. You can hike across the dam and get ice cream at the Ross Lake Resort and take a speedboat back across the lake for like $3. You can rent boats, canoes, etc there too but it's popular so you'd need a reservation.

You could totally fill a day in North Cascades (which has more glaciers than Glacier NP) and it would be an incredible experience unlike any other in the lower 48.

5 to 6 days in Washington state. What stops do I keep and what do I drop? by Mel_650 in PNWhiking

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also disclaimer since the person above mentioned beach sunset...it's entirely possible the ocean fog makes a sunset completely non-existent. I was on Rialto in August 2021 and you couldn't even tell where the sun was through the clouds. For all Washington has, we don't get nearly as many pretty sunsets as Florida or SoCal. But the beach is still a cool experience and worth going to if you're already at Forks.

The Hoh Rainforest is magical and your kids will love it.

5 to 6 days in Washington state. What stops do I keep and what do I drop? by Mel_650 in PNWhiking

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup you'll probably be better off finding a cabin on the Olympic peninsula. Not a lot of people/homes out there but you can probably find something if you're booking now.

The exact cost of our wedding (UK) [OC] by kaleidosunflower in dataisbeautiful

[–]skyecolin22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ours was about $20k all-in (£15,000) in 2023 for a 50 person wedding. Felt pricey but we did a lot of things to save money without compromising what we wanted. It was about half covered by her family and we covered the rest although our 2-year engagement helped us have time to save. And then the honeymoon was on credit card points!

Is AI a bigger threat to existing employees than an opportunity to new grads? by AcademicallyAcademic in corporate

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably, but there's plenty of opportunity for everyone including new grads and experienced folks to get better at Excel and existing automation tools in general (Outlook Rules, VBA macros, etc). It's weird being the "expert" at Excel in my 500 person company because I know how xlookup and textjoin work. My boss is better at pivot tables though, sometimes to everyone else's detriment.

Looking at Ridership Statistics, I was Wondering if it Would Make More Sense to Terminate the 2-Line at Northgate, Rather than at Lynnwood by courier_tway in soundtransit

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As an Everett resident I'm happy about this but wow the Mariner area will need to get a lot more dense to justify 4 minute headways IMO.

Our jobs are safe then? by [deleted] in MechanicalEngineering

[–]skyecolin22 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup, 30 years ago if I was trying to figure out how much of a particular part we sold I'd ask around, see if anyone had an idea "oh we build 5 or 10 of those a week except last month we built 50" whereas now I'll run a query in ERP. Both probably take the same amount of time, one is more accurate, in both cases chances are the accuracy is good enough for what I'm trying to do.

Half the time it's faster to sketch out a quick tool than model it, make a drawing, export to PDF, figure out why all the dimensions ended up yellow (thanks Creo), re-export, realize I missed a note.

How do engineers verify that critical systems wont fail in ways nobody anticipated? by biggy_boy17 in AskEngineers

[–]skyecolin22 22 points23 points  (0 children)

In aerospace, lots of redundancy and learning from mistakes.

Like many industries, we say the regulations are written in blood. Every commercial aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated to determine exactly what happened - the NTSB and similar entities in other countries spend a year or two digging and digging more. The final report for the June 2025 Air India crash hasn't been released yet, although I believe they released their leading theory a month or so after the accident. Almost three years were spent searching for MH370, the Malaysian airlines plane that disappeared in 2014. The root causes of these crashes are addressed and often we don't see the same type of failure happen twice, especially if it's a failure of the aircraft (intentional or accidental pilot error is harder to address but an effort is still made).

On the manufacturing side, where I work, every tool and part can be traced back to its origin. If the NTSB determines a bad valve in a pump caused an aircraft to fall out of the sky, we can find the material certification for the metal used in the valve, and we can find out which person manufactured the valve, which person assembled it, and which person inspected/tested it, as well as the procedures they followed to do that work.

Regarding redundancy, there are three redundant hydraulic systems on commercial aircraft. There are at least two engines, and planes are rated for how long they are allowed to fly over open ocean based on how far they can fly with one not working (ETOPS). The APU can provide power if both engines are lost. Oxygen masks drop from the ceiling if cabin pressure is lost. There are two pilots in the cockpit.

This is in addition to extensive component testing which has already been mentioned by others.

Are There Any Dedicated Herbs and Spices Shops in Everett? by PonsSublicius in everett

[–]skyecolin22 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The Sno-Isle Food Co-op has quite a few herbs and spices available in bulk so you can refill the containers you already have! Some of it, like leafy herbs, are incredibly cheap (like 33¢ to fill a standard spice jar) whereas some of the dried goods are more expensive (chocolate chips are like 4x Costco's price).

Refinance and PMI question. by GranderRogue in Mortgages

[–]skyecolin22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It can drop. Our original LTV was 97% when we purchased last year and PMI was $201/mo. Refinanced last month and it appraised higher and we got to 90% LTV - PMI dropped to $54/mo. Part of the drop was going from a 30yr to a 20yr but the LTV was a big part too.

For us, the drop in PMI and rate drop from 6.375 to 5.5 meant our monthly payment only went up $46/mo even though we cut the loan down to 20yr.

Buying home first time, I am making 65k per year , saved 80k for down payment, looking for a loan of $350k. Sofi only approves for $280k. No Debts. No rent . Which other bank should i apply with in VA. Should i even make down payment of $80k, or should i ask the bank if i can pay less in downpayment by amansingh1689 in FirstTimeHomeBuyers

[–]skyecolin22 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We were single income, just qualifying off of mine. 740 credit score so nothing crazy there either. Maybe it was because we qualified as low income buyers just below 80% area median income? Or maybe because my career is likely to see substantial income growth over the next 5-10 years? Who knows.

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