New England B.S. Thread

Yep we plan on getting one for the house and one for the barn. The house one will go in the dining room where there is already a hookup for one.

 

That's my other headache - I'd have to drop a liner down my chimney for it. That's minor though. But when it comes time to do the basement that'll be a part of it.

Now to convince my wife that it makes sense to spend like 75 grand to blow out the basement

 

I hear you there, definitely need to pick and choose at times. I'll get something better down the line but that should be enough to take the chill out of the air and be fine in a sweatshirt and pants for me

 

Hell a car port would be all I need.

 

So annoyed, fridays my day off this week n I was hoping to go ski. Didn’t go last Friday cuz I was hungover after the bruins

 

I had a wood stove,
Vermont Castings Encore catalytic..Burned about 60 cords of wood through it as it was our PRIMARY heat source (electric baseboard) years of chopping, splitting, stacking, burning, sweeping...searching for free wood wherever, and always buying at least 3 cords from this guy from sturbridge area that had AMAZING wood. 16-18" hardwood. Dried, seasoned....it was incredible. He was this ancient guy...his truck would always break down...and his delivery window was always "next tuesday...to saturday...."
NOW...
Ravelli pellet stove FTW. The wood was just too much after 15+ years. If it were a novelty I would have stuck with it but as a primary heat source switching to a pellet stove was a no brainer.

 

Holy crap...
LOL Thread here..
I'm trying to find the part # for the FILL plug on a 2010 Manual transmission...and I stumble on THIS Gem
He was changing his oil...but drained the transmission, added 5.5 ADDITIONAL qts to the oil and then when he realized he'd drained the transmission he poured the fluid in the COOLANT reservoir!
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/halp.33318/

 

Add that to the list of reasons why I won’t buy a used vehicle anymore.

 

That thread brings me back, that guy was legend status with that one.

 

I've actually seen a few instances of people draining the ATF by accident. It's usually caught straight away since it's red.

 

I used to work with a guy who did that. He's one of the smartest people I've ever met and has loads of energy, but is definitely quirky.

He told me at the time (70s or 80s) he worked as a copier service tech. He took an electric motor of some sort from one of the retired copiers and hooked it up to a wheelbarrow so he had power assist to get loads of dirt up the ramp and out.

Now Makita and others make battery powered wheelbarrows. Maybe he should have patented his idea back then

 

Hah! I think a huge expense will be just digging it out. I'm sure I can take some whacks at it but it's probably ballpark 175 yards, plus gas and water lines. There's a lot of work to be done down there, unfortunately. Excavation will probably be the quickest but one of the most expensive. It does help that we're blowing out the foundation, might be easier to get some equipment in because of that.

I'd LIKE to just pitch it and buy another house, but the concept of bailing on a 2.625% mortgage, and our plot and location, does not entice me. The cost of moving to a new house will be the same as transforming our crawl space into a full basement.

 

Freezing over rainmeggedon…
https://twitter.com/nwsgray/status/1605892105779322880?s=46&t=Hi5aNq-urx7sEY812vzYsQ


When I was a kid, this would’ve been a blizzard of biblical proportions.

 

I have had my pellet stove since we bought the house in 2013 - came with an old unmarked stove that was always breaking down. Oil was close to $5/gal when we purchased so ended up pushing around 3-4 tons through the stove. Caved after the first year and purchased a Harman Accentra and it has been trouble free since buying. However, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would probably of went with a wood burning stove.

The convenience and heat output of the pellet stove is unmatched. But without having a generator, it is useless if/when power goes out. A wood stove is still usable (maybe the distribution fan doesn't push heat into the house), but you can still have radiant heat with a fire going. If you buy a cord of seasoned wood cut to fireplace size, there is not much more work involved other than the initial stacking and storage (the pellets can be placed and left in the wrapper to pick away as needed), but you still need to constantly fill the hopper and clean the ashes. About once a month I shut down the stove and do a deep cleaning on it which takes about an hour, and there are a lot of moving parts that need servicing to run trouble free.

In an ideal world I would have a generator installed, but the funds don't quite allow that at the moment.

 

I only bought one well two new ones. A Suzuki samauri (damn fuel line would freeze every winter) and the car I sold to get my Tacoma. I’ve been lucky for the most part so far b

 

Speaking of stoves. In the 70’s a friend had a shed of sorts. Copenhagen covers all over the walls. Most fridays we would stoke up a fire. Listen too stoneman at wplr in New Haven. The dj would spin an album while we passed around what we had to catch a buzz. Those were good times

 

That's where I'm at, always figured this would be a stepping stone. But, at 3% with 11 years left if I hold onto the house, I will have it paid off when I'm 42. We aren't having kids, so we don't need anything bigger. And, although my lot is only about 2/3 of an acre it is really nice for the size and my area by the river is awesome. I'm more thinking we tackle some projects to address issues and make improvements. Like a new kitchen, bathroom, probably a roof in 5 years or so, maybe finish part of the basement, stuff like that.

I have a 15-year-old Quadrafire 1200 Insert now and would love an Accentra insert. The improved efficiency features would sure be nice. I especially like the roll out option. My Quad is a bear to drag out of its hole, which I should do tomorrow to clean the convection blower. Those Harmans aren't cheap, though - looks like list on that one is $5500, never mind the roll out system that I'd like.

 

1200 sqft 1/3 acre, which is awesome where I'm at. 28 years left on ours so paid off when we turn....58, BUT for 2.625%, why pay down ahead? Hell even my savings account is making more than that today.

We can make this house do with 1 kid. We COULD with 2, but it would be tight. The full basement would give us storage, potential for home office space, extra space w/ kids, pantry space, etc. Then on top of that, yeah we'd have to do the kitchen/living room space. Blow out a wall at least. Worth it, but it'll just be expensive.

BUT.



We'd be looking at 17k just to move, plus the added cost of interest, plus this is New England - EVERY house will need work, just to a varying degree.

Add the human factor of actively liking our house footprint, location, and plot....



This kind of stuff blows, but this is infrequent down here vs further north, and unless we go down to TX, FL, etc - we ain't getting away from cold.



And TX is BAHHHHNANAS for housing costs - our house would be a mil, EASY, in Austin.

 

Where I am, 2/3 of an acre is tiny. There is a cluster of five of us who fall into that 1/2-1 acre range, but almost everyone else on my road has 5+. A guy across the street has a 1/4 mile driveway with a log house at the end and 70 acres on the side of the mountain-basically my dream spot. If they ever sell, I hope we're in a position where we can make them a generous offer on that property.

 

Once the kids finish up daycare I anticipate we will be moving. I'm bummed about losing my interest rate, but I really don't like the location of our house. The roads are just a bit too busy for me. I'd much rather be in a smaller neighborhood with the kids. I think if our physical house was in another location I'd be tempted to blow out my office into a first floor master suite, but for now it's perfect until our cash flow changes.

The only nice thing is that while houses themselves have shot up in value the delta between what we have and what we want really hasn't. When I bought this house my dream endgame was always about 250-300k more. It still is.