2022 NorCal Wheeling, Camping, and Fuckery Thread

Congrats, man!! Glad to see progress is made on the house. Any chance you can ask the builder on the garage height clearance taller for "Tons and 40s?"

 

Thank you!



Was too busy worrying about being smart-home wired and having the power output for welding/cutting/etc.

 

Congrats on your new home, I have the same granite and cabinets colors

 

We’re headed out this morning from Sac on I-80 with @amrikchima and a 4Runner from Dublin to play in the the powder. Wish us luck in finding a spot that is no blocked. Maybe use the Fordyce trail head near Cisco.

 

Thank you sir!

What's funny is, the only time I ever felt judged was when we got to the design center to go over cabinets, granite, etc.

Here's a tattooed, hispanic male in dirty jeans and hoodie coming in to talk about home options - little did she know I was wheeling just before I got there to meet up with my wife

 

Come on Nelson, none of that matters. All they see when looking at you or other customers is money.

 

Clovis is a different story! But yeah it don't matter

Just one of those, you had to be there.

 

Whatcha guys think about a backyard.

Ours will be bare

 

Hardscape it. I hate mowing my lawn. lol

 

Budget is one big obstacle here.

Our wedding is this Oct (we never had one, it'll be big, 180+ people).

Our home down payment is in a few months.

Then, budget for filling the home with new furniture, etc.

 

Budgets usually a large factor in all those decisions. Just don't get do far in debt to make it happen.

Here's a perfect example. A really good friend of mine got married. Dennis and his wife both made decent money for the area we lived. His wife wanted to live closer to her work. That area was about twice as expensive as where we lived 20 minutes away. He bought a house there, got married and went on his honeymoon. For about 6 months after he moved in the only furniture they could afford was for the bedroom. I shit you not. The entire house was empty.

My other buddies and I slowly bought over stuff we'd find at garage sales or one of us had no further use for. Dennis had by far the nicest house out of our group of 5. The rest of us actually had way better use of our homes though. lol

 

Really appreciate that, it's something a lot of people don't consider and how they end up being "house poor" etc.

We budget really well, and live well within our means considering I'm working part-time only and go to school.

We have our down payment saved, and my part-time job money is all set aside for our wedding - not a single dollar of it is used for personal expenses.

We have money set aside for some furniture, and I've already paid for some furniture for our current order.

With that said, our small budget is based on "paying cash" as we both don't like debt.

But man, some ideas that we really like start getting into the thousands.

I already need to set aside money just to add a 230V outlet to the garage as that wasn't offered by the builder. I was able to add a dedicated 110V/30amp outlet that'll be near that other outlet for a drill press or band saw or similar.

 

You seem like a fairly handy guy so you can save a lot by DIY style for a lot of things. It takes more time and you have to sacrifice your time to make it happen but I find it pretty rewarding in the long run. As far as the 230v goes, see if you can find the electrical contractor that's wiring your house. Tell him you want 230 and a small sub panel. There's a good chance he'll do that for a pretty reasonable price since he's already pulling wire.

I'm the same way about debt. I pretty much exclude my mortgage from that equation because it's a necessary evil. If I paid cash for my house I'd still be saving and spending that money on rent building no equity. Other then that I tend to use credit but pay off my full balance monthly. I just use credit to get the rewards.

We did take out a loan for the new Corolla HB but it made sense. We put 1/2 down even though we could have paid it upfront. Toyo was doing a 1.9% finance deal. I know for a fact I can make WAY more then 1.9% with that cash in the market over the 4 years so loan it was. lol

 

Nothing a chainsaw can't fix when you get moved in!

 

Being handy and having time to spare will be my saving grace

I don't know that I'll be able to find out who they contracted for our electrical right away, but I took pics and will share with a friend to get a good opinion.

With that said, I'll share it with you and @El Taco Diablo as well -

Our developer said all homes have a dedicated hole, covered by a plastic panel over the drywall, for easy access to add a charging station for an EV.

Neither my wife and I have any interest in getting an EV.

Having said that, the superintendent suggested I utilize that spot for my 230V outlet.

The red circled item is my 110V/30A outlet.

The turquoise circled item is the "hole" with direct path to the panel on the other side of the wall -



Here's the other side -

 

Electrical isn't my strong suit and @El Taco Diablo might have more input but that seems like a strange set-up. Usually everything is pulled from inside the main electric panel. With that wire just hanging outside panel I'd be curious how it gets power.

 

I can't say that the wire pulled through is for anything that I mentioned...idk what it was for

I do know they're waiting for PG&E to provide temporary power and so an outlet or two get removed/replaced?

 

OK. That makes a lot more sense. That could be the temp power run. If that's a level 2 EV charge station that should have a 50A breaker when your house is finished. From there it's as simple as wiring in NEMA 6-50 oultet in that box. Easy. Then grab a 25' NEMA 6-50 extension cord so you can set up the welder further away. It's pretty much the same system I use but I use a my dryers outlet with an adapter since I have no other 220 in the garage and am way to lazy to run one. lol

 

@Kwikvette
@theesotericone

Ok... let me unpack this a little

The turquiose box is for a "future car charger." Most jurisdictions are requiring an outlet with provisions for a "future car charger" to be installed in the garage.

You don't have to use that for a future car charger. Typically that is a 50 Amp dedicated to that outlet. (at least that's what ours is). That could also be used, very easily, for something like a large compressor or a 220V welder. All you should have to do is install the appropriate outlet.

There is typically just wires in that box, with no actual outlet, because the builder has no way of knowing what "car charger" in the "future" would be needed, because Honda is different than Nissan is different than Tesla etc.

As far as the orange wire on the outside. That is 99.999999% the whip for either the solar disconnect, or the solar meter. Those will be installed as surface mounted boxes after stucco and paint.

 

Oops, thought I said that in my post I tagged you in.

Yes, we will not have an EV.

Yes, I want to utilize that for my welder.

I'm wondering how easy/hard it would be for an electrician and how much that could run me.