Minor Win thread - Life is good!

I brought home a $100 MR2

I was able to use tonight's insomnia to clean the kitchen, and then clean the garage up some more.. mostly throwing away many of the scraps of fabrication from working on the Challenge car in early October. It's at least looking like a space I could work in, again. I have been able to throw away more in the few weeks before the challenge and since than I have in the last 18 months, and it's really beginning to open up (much needed) shelf space again

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

I brought home a $100 MR2

I can't find a $100 set of usable wheels around here, let alone a $100 car that still looks like a car and not an origami boulder.

Duke said:

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

I brought home a $100 MR2

I can't find a $100 set of usable wheels around here, let alone a $100 car that still looks like a car and not an origami boulder.

 

Not to rub it in but it also came with a set of 18s included with the price.

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

Duke said:

Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:

I brought home a $100 MR2

I can't find a $100 set of usable wheels around here, let alone a $100 car that still looks like a car and not an origami boulder.

 

Not to rub it in but it also came with a set of 18s included with the price.

Went to the record store to zone out and treat myself today.

Scored an original '75 pressing of Physical Graffiti in *immaculate* condition. Looks like I bought it earlier this year and have spun it 4 or 5 times. Sounds fantastic.

I'm being offered a house to purchase by a family friend. Their mother lives in it and they're putting her in assisted living. 1200 sq foot 3-bedroom, older but well taken care of, air-conditioned, fairly new roof, fairly new vinyl siding,  one-stall garage. I have to go over tonight and talk pricing, but it sounds like they want to cut me a deal to get me in a good cheap first house and they want to keep a realtor out of the picture to keep the price down. Also sounds like it might come fully furnished.

In reply to NickD :

Allow me to repeat myself:

That is awesome news!  I hope everything works out for you.

NickD said:

I'm being offered a house to purchase by a family friend. Their mother lives in it and they're putting her in assisted living. 1200 sq foot 3-bedroom, older but well taken care of, air-conditioned, fairly new roof, fairly new vinyl siding,  one-stall garage. I have to go over tonight and talk pricing, but it sounds like they want to cut me a deal to get me in a good cheap first house and they want to keep a realtor out of the picture to keep the price down. Also sounds like it might come fully furnished.

I lived at the end of Lyndale where it dead ends before the river and AF base when I lived there in the late 80's. I'll bet that's all pretty run down with the base closing most operations down.

chandler said:

NickD said:

I'm being offered a house to purchase by a family friend. Their mother lives in it and they're putting her in assisted living. 1200 sq foot 3-bedroom, older but well taken care of, air-conditioned, fairly new roof, fairly new vinyl siding,  one-stall garage. I have to go over tonight and talk pricing, but it sounds like they want to cut me a deal to get me in a good cheap first house and they want to keep a realtor out of the picture to keep the price down. Also sounds like it might come fully furnished.

I lived at the end of Lyndale where it dead ends before the river and AF base when I lived there in the late 80's. I'll bet that's all pretty run down with the base closing most operations down.

Lyndale is pretty nice, actually. Now up on Floyd Ave towards the old Griffiss base is a rough neighborhood. But this is out on Route 69 (nice) towards Camden, about three miles out of "downtown" Rome.

In reply to Duke :

I'm going over with my father tonight to talk a deal and see what they want for the place and if it's something I can swing. But keeping realtors from getting involved should keep the price down and it sounded on the phone call like they weren't looking for top dollar if theyh sold it to me.

Great! I will always regret passing up the one "friends and family" deal house I was offered. It wasn't an amazing price, but the place had an enormous workshop out back with high ceilings (used to be a semi truck service garage) and I would have hung onto it for life. It appraised lower than the offer, but (a) the appraiser didn't add any value for the workshop, and (b) the seller was offering 100% financing. I was a dumb kid and listened to the wrong person's advice. I'm not saying definitely go for it, but consider it carefully.

In reply to NickD :

I bought my house without a realtor and it definitely helped with cost. Just be careful and make sure you know what you're doing or have a knowledgeable person guiding you through it. Still get a home inspection to be safe. 

NickD said:

I'm being offered a house to purchase by a family friend. Their mother lives in it and they're putting her in assisted living. 1200 sq foot 3-bedroom, older but well taken care of, air-conditioned, fairly new roof, fairly new vinyl siding,  one-stall garage. I have to go over tonight and talk pricing, but it sounds like they want to cut me a deal to get me in a good cheap first house and they want to keep a realtor out of the picture to keep the price down. Also sounds like it might come fully furnished.

Good for you. Hopefully it works out.

I sold my first house on my own. Actually, I moved out of the house and let my roommate live there for a couple years on hiw own. He called me one day and said he was getting married, planned to move out, and oh by the way my future SIL wants to buy your house. I called her up and we made the deal over the phone. I bought a book from Amazon "For sale by owner in California" that walked us through the whole process. It was actually fairly painless.

Cleared probably 16 square feet of floor space today by mounting/hanging our 2 bikes and a ton of 1x2s and 2x4s.

I have woken up rested two days in a row. I don't ever want to switch back to DST. My body never quite adjusts to it, I always feel like I'm playing catch up. But switch back, and boom, I'm caught up.

Drove the fully rebuilt and untested turbo Miata yesterday in our season closer autocross.   Nothing broke and the car performed about as expected.   Terrible tires prevented actual speed but it was fun and drifty.   Bonus win, a new friend co-drove the car with me and had a great time doing that.  Bonus bonus win, I'm off on Mondays so the autocross hangover isn't bad.  Slept in and enjoyed the down time.

College basketball starts tomorrow night and we've got season tickets.  Mixed feelings here about SportsBall but it's almost always a good show.  Leave your 10mm socket where it fell and come cheer on some athletes with me.

RX Mod rules rewrite rev. C is hammered out and being submitted to RXB.

March: " We should be done by June" 

I drove my 04 Lancer Ralliart wagon instead of the Miata five times in the last two months. Three wins at local events with small size classes, then followed up with a second at the state championship. 

The price is dumb, but we're going to Disney next month. I'm pretty excited. 

So, I'm buying the house. $75k as-is, fully furnished (beds, couches, appliances, everything), AC and heat pump, new roof just under 10 years ago, new windows, new vinyl siding, hooked up to city water, single-stall garage that isn't useful for wrenching but gets my Miata out of the weather. The family is on a deadline to get her moved south to North Carolina (none of them live in the area) so they just don't want the hassle of a real estate agency and everything. So I'm chucking down a large chunk of cash, my parents are covering the rest, and then the house will be paid off so I can take out a home equity loan or home line of credit to pay my parents back. 

NickD said:

So, I'm buying the house. $75k as-is, fully furnished (beds, couches, appliances, everything), AC and heat pump, new roof just under 10 years ago, new windows, new vinyl siding, hooked up to city water, single-stall garage that isn't useful for wrenching but gets my Miata out of the weather. The family is on a deadline to get her moved south to North Carolina (none of them live in the area) so they just don't want the hassle of a real estate agency and everything. So I'm chucking down a large chunk of cash, my parents are covering the rest, and then the house will be paid off so I can take out a home equity loan or home line of credit to pay my parents back. 

Awesome!  That's a great start to homeownership!  Congratulations!

Duke said:

NickD said:

So, I'm buying the house. $75k as-is, fully furnished (beds, couches, appliances, everything), AC and heat pump, new roof just under 10 years ago, new windows, new vinyl siding, hooked up to city water, single-stall garage that isn't useful for wrenching but gets my Miata out of the weather. The family is on a deadline to get her moved south to North Carolina (none of them live in the area) so they just don't want the hassle of a real estate agency and everything. So I'm chucking down a large chunk of cash, my parents are covering the rest, and then the house will be paid off so I can take out a home equity loan or home line of credit to pay my parents back. 

Awesome!  That's a great start to homeownership!  Congratulations!

 

Yeah, I'm excited. But nervous. The interior decor needs some updating, but none of the wallpaper is peeling off or any of the drywall is crumbling, so it doesn't need immediate attention. The whole deal left everyone feeling pretty good. The owning family gets their money easy, my parents get a tolerable neighbor, and I get a cheap house. Also, a pretty strong family connection with the house: the couple that owned it from '57 to now were friends with my grandparents, my father spent a lot of his childhood at the house with their sons, and in high school I mowed the lawns at the house for multiple years.

DUDE, that's awesome. I don't know real estate values around you, but I paid $70k for my first house, in 1999, with no garage. And that was a good deal then. I hope it goes great for you. Home ownership is a blessing and a curse, be ready to wonder why you did it the first time a pipe stops up or something springs a leak, but 20 years from now you'll wonder why you ever doubted yourself.