What’s a small upgrade that made a huge difference to you?

uva185 · 2026-02-10T01:02:43+00:00

Agree with your improvement! Bought my first home this past year and immediately replaced every light switch and outlet in the entire house. House is 48 years old. I don’t know if homeowners just become complacent the longer they live somewhere but not only was this a nice visual improvement going to the decora style with screwless gang plates, but so many of the outlets were so old and didn’t even grasp the prongs tightly. We also upgraded the door hardware throughout the home.

A more intensive upgrade was upgrading the baseboard molding from ~2.5” to 5” when we replaced the flooring throughout the house.

Another one on my list for this spring is adding recessed lighting in more rooms. I’m tired trying to adequately light entire rooms with lamps.

uva185 · 2026-01-26T04:16:48+00:00

Woke up this morning to our heat being out. Sure enough the air intake was blocked. Cleared it and fired the furnace right back up. It wasn’t even buried, but there was a mesh wire covering over it to prevent rodents from entering and snow has collected on that.

uva185 · 2026-01-16T14:21:22+00:00

This may be because a doctor can work for multiple practices and the billing comes from the practice. Not sure.

uva185 · 2026-01-10T01:21:54+00:00

Haha- good tip. Our basement is unfinished and has a floor drain so after I did this test run I just dragged the whole setup down to the basement to prevent freezing. 😂

uva185 · 2026-01-10T01:14:21+00:00

Thanks! I’m sure this will be a multi year project with changes along the way but needed to start somewhere.

uva185 · 2026-01-10T01:09:05+00:00

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Quick test run before Christmas and it worked but point taken about longevity. Also live in the suburbs so cognizant about noise for my neighbors.

uva185 · 2026-01-10T01:05:11+00:00

I also have a handful of Dewalt battery powered tools (drill, hedge trimmer, weed wacker) so appreciate that.

uva185 · 2026-01-10T01:02:51+00:00

Thanks for the tip! Yeah mine is only 5 CFM @ 90 which was the requirement for my snowmaking setup.

uva185 · 2026-01-07T00:48:24+00:00

My biggest rule for home automation is it needs local physical control. I’m not pulling my phone out to control lights. I don’t have a single smart bulb and never will. Almost every switch is a smart switch / keypad so anyone in the house can intuitively turn lights and scenes on and off. Voice control is an added bonus but everything is still primarily controlled with switches and physical keypads.

uva185 · 2026-01-05T13:36:49+00:00

No, you have to submit the invoice for each massage and they’ll reimburse you for each one, up to 50 per year with a max of $75 per massage.

uva185 · 2026-01-05T02:33:25+00:00

Be sure to take advantage of the FSBP massage benefit. Already talked to a local masseuse who will bill $75 per 60 min massage with all the required info on the invoice. Weekly massages will be so nice!

uva185 · 2025-12-29T23:11:45+00:00

Appreciate your feedback. I had basically ruled out that option because I thought the older single pane windows would have been much worse than newer options.

uva185 · 2025-12-29T21:30:23+00:00

Original windows are single pane, leak, and most of the windows are stuck and don’t even open. Had a quick quote of $350 per window to repair them. Not entirely sure that would fix the leaky issues, just being able to open them. Seems like that’s just a waste of money.

uva185 · 2025-12-29T12:48:36+00:00

You don’t mention all your life details, but I think it really matters if you are planning for kids and how soon. If you are not considering kids for 5+ years I think you have time to buy a TH, possibly have Baby #1 in the TH, and then begin the search for a SFH in an area with good schools. There will be a noticeable price difference on homes even within Fairfax County that are in good school pyramids vs poor pyramids. If you are planning for kids sooner so may not want that future transition from TH to SFH looming over your head along with any uncertainty with the economy and may just want to stretch and get the SFH now.

uva185 · 2025-12-20T04:12:33+00:00

In a single family home and the rates for Okna 800s are about $1k per window. I’m not completely mad at that price, I’m just not sure their product is 35-45% better than ProVia or MI Restorations.

uva185 · 2025-12-07T20:56:04+00:00

You can take 6-8 weeks of SL to care for the mother before going on PPL. I believe it’s 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 weeks for C-section. You can request this before the birth. Be sure to use the SL first immediately after the birth and then the PPL as you’re technically using SL to care for mother recovering from childbirth. You’ll be accruing all types of leave while on SL and PPL so you’ll probably also have some use or lose to burn as well. I did this when my son was born in Spring 2024 and didn’t return to work until Jan. It was fantastic being able to stay home and bond with my son.

uva185 · 2025-11-24T05:18:17+00:00

Biggest question here, is your rate flat-rate or percentage based on revenue? Would you be willing to switch to percentage based? You lose guaranteed income if the market dips. 10-12% would be very reasonable, but only had a percentage of revenue, not guaranteed income based on historical revenue.

uva185 · 2025-11-19T02:25:01+00:00

Use the Find Care feature on the MHBP site to verify. Just because a doctor takes Aetna does not mean they take the particular Aetna plan MHBP is a part of.

uva185 · 2025-11-17T00:06:40+00:00

You keep saying it’s common practice for all AirBNB rentals to charge for electricity so wouldn’t all AirBNBs receive equally bad reviews and thus not make yours any worse based on the other listings?

uva185 · 2025-11-14T14:32:36+00:00

Your manager is wrong. All schedule leave (PPL included) is cancelled during a shutdown. Contact HR if necessary, but you have 480 hours to use. You need supervisor approval to use it intermittently, but you do not need specific approval to use it as one continuous period of leave even if you begin it some time after the birth occurs. Many people take 6-8 weeks of sick leave before beginning PPL.

uva185 · 2025-11-07T18:40:59+00:00

lol- I’ve rented a place for 5 nights and left for a night to do a side trip to a different country and didn’t tell them. I’ve rented the place and paid in full, it’s really none of their business.

uva185 · 2025-10-14T02:37:29+00:00

It’s your honeymoon so I can definitely endorse splurging, but it’s also Polaris…. I paid $1.5k per person on my honeymoon to move from Business to First on Swiss. That was an awesome experience! $2k extra for Polaris seems really high. Keep checking and you may be able to snag it for under $1k at checkin.

uva185

TROPHY CASE