Moving.
- Thread starter The Question
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Loktar
Pinata Whacker
Oh. Well fuck it, social distancing hasn't kept me from hanging out with my brother and our friend for cigars, liquor/beer and watch a movie.
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
DO EET!
The Question
Eternal
Even smaller town, which is less than enticing. OTOH, a hundred bucks less a month for a (granted, smallish) 3 bedroom house that has an actual kitchen in it, not to mention a finished basement it would be easy enough to furnish as a home theater or what-have-you...
Yeah, think I will. My mother and half-brother live in the same town but their own place. I have the address -- which I'm not gonna post here for obvious reasons (lol) -- but I'm going to start plugging that address into things like Grubhub and Instacart to see what kind of delivery options, if any, reach out there. The down is within short drive time to Iowa Falls, which might offer such things.
Volpone
Zombie Hunter
I'm pretty sure Ray Charles once rode a motorcycle. Surely you can drive a U-Haul from Arizona to Iowa. Pick up a hitchiker and let him/her be your eyes. I mean, don't let them drive. That would be crazy. Make them tell you faster, slower, left, right, etc. It'll be fun for everyone.
The Question
Eternal
Or just shoot bottle rockets out the passenger side window at "Smoky" until he drives off the road and crashes his late '70s model prowl car into a ditch. A flooded ditch, naturally, because that is How It Is Done.
The Question
Eternal
Update, btw: No Grubhub, no Instacart. No delivery there, apparently, except maybe... Pizza Ranch. Fuck's sake. Now I'm picturing majestic herds of undomesticated pizzas thundering across the prairie.
I can already see Loktar’s thread two weeks from now... “I have no idea how I got this Chinese virus but my brother and our friend caught it too!”
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
That seems likely. My friend works unloading trains that come in from places like Seattle and California. But who cares, Eat,drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
The Question
Eternal
On the one hand, I see your point. If you’re relatively young with a solid immune system, it’s maybe better for you to get it, and BEAT it, than to fuck your life up trying to dodge it.
On the other hand, stay away from other people if that’s your strategy. You don’t know who YOU might kill.
On the other hand, stay away from other people if that’s your strategy. You don’t know who YOU might kill.
Loktar
Pinata Whacker
Cotton panties mask for me. Only problem is its giving me a hard on.
The Question
Eternal
Fuck yes, full on Plague Doctor getup, bird-face mask, duster, straight-broad-brimmed hat and all. That's how ya do 'er.
The Question
Eternal
Well, I'm here. Initial thoughts, Cons first, then Pros:
Cons:
-Yep, I was right, this town, if you can call it that, is even smaller and has even fewer 21st century to it than Holbrook did. (I should qualify that: By 'smaller' I don't mean land area; I mean 'stuff it's got'. Holbrook was 60% dead, but it was packed into about 2 square miles. This town (which I'm not going to name) spreads out over about 5 square miles but with less shit in it, cumulatively.)
-Consequently, there are no delivery services for anything, which means that without the ability to legally drive, I'm hiking a mile or so to buy anything. So a bicycle (motorized or non-) is going to be a must.
-The house I'm renting was apparently designed by a nudist. Why do I say that? Fucking every room is carpeted -- including the kitchen, which is baffling to me. Additionally, not one of the three 'bedrooms' has its own closet.
-The basement, which I was told is 'finished', is 'finished' in the sense that big game animals can't just go wandering in and out of there at will carrying major appliances on their backs. It's not going to be usable as a home theater or as a home anything-else.
Pros:
-Space. 950-ish square feet with a ground floor bedroom, living room, full sized bathroom and full sized kitchen on the ground floor, then two more rooms upstairs -- medium room that'll be an office, smaller room that'll be a den -- beats the whimpering shit out of a >100 square foot never-renovated 1950s motel room every day of the week.
-Rent with option to buy. Not sure I actually want to spend the rest of my life in this little half-a-stoplight fucktown, but this house is more or less mine if I want it. And buying it doesn't mean keeping it. As the town grows, if the town grows, the value of the property will appreciate -- but that's going to happen pretty definitely even if the town merely remains in stasis, and if the town doesn't grow to the extent that it's less fucktangular, I can always renovate and sell the place, then move to a town worth living in.
-Workarounds. The bedroom, office, and den (those are the rooms' respective functions, to my mind) don't have closets? No problem. Free-standing closet in the bedroom, filing cabinet, desk w/ drawers, and storage shelving in the office, bookcases in the den. Carpet everywhere? Well, fine, hire a flooring guy (since I'm not mechanically inclined + can't be arsed with such shit) and have wood laminate flooring put in, room by room as the budget allows.
The place is never going to be "pimp" -- in a shithole town like this one, there's no reason to make it so. But it's a damned sight better than what I had, and I can actually make it better than it is. Conjure that'll do.
Cons:
-Yep, I was right, this town, if you can call it that, is even smaller and has even fewer 21st century to it than Holbrook did. (I should qualify that: By 'smaller' I don't mean land area; I mean 'stuff it's got'. Holbrook was 60% dead, but it was packed into about 2 square miles. This town (which I'm not going to name) spreads out over about 5 square miles but with less shit in it, cumulatively.)
-Consequently, there are no delivery services for anything, which means that without the ability to legally drive, I'm hiking a mile or so to buy anything. So a bicycle (motorized or non-) is going to be a must.
-The house I'm renting was apparently designed by a nudist. Why do I say that? Fucking every room is carpeted -- including the kitchen, which is baffling to me. Additionally, not one of the three 'bedrooms' has its own closet.
-The basement, which I was told is 'finished', is 'finished' in the sense that big game animals can't just go wandering in and out of there at will carrying major appliances on their backs. It's not going to be usable as a home theater or as a home anything-else.
Pros:
-Space. 950-ish square feet with a ground floor bedroom, living room, full sized bathroom and full sized kitchen on the ground floor, then two more rooms upstairs -- medium room that'll be an office, smaller room that'll be a den -- beats the whimpering shit out of a >100 square foot never-renovated 1950s motel room every day of the week.
-Rent with option to buy. Not sure I actually want to spend the rest of my life in this little half-a-stoplight fucktown, but this house is more or less mine if I want it. And buying it doesn't mean keeping it. As the town grows, if the town grows, the value of the property will appreciate -- but that's going to happen pretty definitely even if the town merely remains in stasis, and if the town doesn't grow to the extent that it's less fucktangular, I can always renovate and sell the place, then move to a town worth living in.
-Workarounds. The bedroom, office, and den (those are the rooms' respective functions, to my mind) don't have closets? No problem. Free-standing closet in the bedroom, filing cabinet, desk w/ drawers, and storage shelving in the office, bookcases in the den. Carpet everywhere? Well, fine, hire a flooring guy (since I'm not mechanically inclined + can't be arsed with such shit) and have wood laminate flooring put in, room by room as the budget allows.
The place is never going to be "pimp" -- in a shithole town like this one, there's no reason to make it so. But it's a damned sight better than what I had, and I can actually make it better than it is. Conjure that'll do.
Volpone
Zombie Hunter
"Son, stocks may rise and fall, utilities and transportation systems may collapse. People are no damn good, but they will always need land and they will pay through the nose to get it ..."
I cannot offer you advice on any of this (without more information and besides, you haven't asked) but I will say that there was a time when wood floors were for poor people and wall to wall carpeting was a status symbol, so pull up a corner of the rug, you may have nice flooring already in place. If not, my inclination is towards vinyl planking instead of laminate flooring. To me, laminate is basically sawdust, held together with Elmer's Glue. Get it wet and it's ruined. Vinyl planking is (googles) maybe 4x as much, but it looks as good and is basically bulletproof.
Further unsolicited advice: Rent with option to buy is, for some people, just a way to sucker extra cash out of gullible people. And as odd and not to code (in most places if it doesn't have a closet it isn't a bedroom--how much would you pay for a 0 bedroom house) as it is, you could probably negotiate a better deal. I feel like this is Tom Sawyer, looking for someone to paint his fence. Last bit--and personal opinion--is that you're really at a disadvantage on a fixer-upper if you're not a handy person. To me, the money is made because I can do my own work. Case in point: I did have to pay someone to rewire a GFI outlet in the bathroom--those ones with a TEST and RESET button so you don't fry yourself. There was some unholy piggyback/daisy-chain wiring to the bathroom lights and fan and I couldn't cypher it. I mean, I probably could've, but I'd already wasted 4-5 hours on it and probably would've blown another day or so getting it wired up. In the end I wound up paying close to $300 to have an electrician wire up a plug. Took the bastard maybe 20 minutes. Really, it was the right choice, because if my time is only worth $10 an hour, I probably still saved myself money by paying someone , but it is a bitter pill to pay someone basically $1,000 an hour when you don't have $1,000 you want to just blow.
I cannot offer you advice on any of this (without more information and besides, you haven't asked) but I will say that there was a time when wood floors were for poor people and wall to wall carpeting was a status symbol, so pull up a corner of the rug, you may have nice flooring already in place. If not, my inclination is towards vinyl planking instead of laminate flooring. To me, laminate is basically sawdust, held together with Elmer's Glue. Get it wet and it's ruined. Vinyl planking is (googles) maybe 4x as much, but it looks as good and is basically bulletproof.
Further unsolicited advice: Rent with option to buy is, for some people, just a way to sucker extra cash out of gullible people. And as odd and not to code (in most places if it doesn't have a closet it isn't a bedroom--how much would you pay for a 0 bedroom house) as it is, you could probably negotiate a better deal. I feel like this is Tom Sawyer, looking for someone to paint his fence. Last bit--and personal opinion--is that you're really at a disadvantage on a fixer-upper if you're not a handy person. To me, the money is made because I can do my own work. Case in point: I did have to pay someone to rewire a GFI outlet in the bathroom--those ones with a TEST and RESET button so you don't fry yourself. There was some unholy piggyback/daisy-chain wiring to the bathroom lights and fan and I couldn't cypher it. I mean, I probably could've, but I'd already wasted 4-5 hours on it and probably would've blown another day or so getting it wired up. In the end I wound up paying close to $300 to have an electrician wire up a plug. Took the bastard maybe 20 minutes. Really, it was the right choice, because if my time is only worth $10 an hour, I probably still saved myself money by paying someone , but it is a bitter pill to pay someone basically $1,000 an hour when you don't have $1,000 you want to just blow.
The Question
Eternal
Almost forgot one major con: Cellular coverage here is pretty fucking minimal, at least as far as cellular data goes. Phone will -- if the wind is blowing just fucking right -- pick up 3G or very rarely 4G. Most of the time it reads out as "1x." Not sure what that means other than, "You ain't browsing shit, Dude."
As far as the house thing goes: I operate on the assumption, just as a general rule, that any deal somebody offers one is a shit deal. So my calculus on this was, $500/mo for a 950 square foot 3 bedroom house versus $600/mo for a >100 square foot never-renovated motel room from the 1950s. So yeah, it's not a good deal -- but it's a better one than I had. It's not so much a matter of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good; it's more like not letting good be the enemy of good enough.
As far as the house thing goes: I operate on the assumption, just as a general rule, that any deal somebody offers one is a shit deal. So my calculus on this was, $500/mo for a 950 square foot 3 bedroom house versus $600/mo for a >100 square foot never-renovated motel room from the 1950s. So yeah, it's not a good deal -- but it's a better one than I had. It's not so much a matter of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good; it's more like not letting good be the enemy of good enough.
jack
The Legendary Troll Kingdom
That's quite a deal. I have a 900 sq ft 2 bedroom for 1295 plus utilities (an extra 250 a month) but it's lovely. washer/dryer and dishwasher. Very attractive and private. I'm right in the center of my town so I have access to everythng and it's one of the desired apartments in the area.
You got a good deal, John.
You got a good deal, John.