Personal Finance - Home Ownership

Public transit would help too, making it more feasible to live further from the city without having to drive everywhere all the time

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well suburbs are basically we want our big yards and big cars and big houses and there ain’t room over in europe for that–there stuff was initially built with way older old streets, not as much space.

I’m in Paris right now and certainly wouldn’t want to live with the freezer-less mini fridge, bullshit washer dryer combo unit, and tiny showers we’ve had at the air bnb we’re staying in. It’s very nice as a place to crash for a few nights, but I couldn’t do this on a long term basis.

Nobody does creature comforts like the USA.

The only area we’re lacking is the toilet. We have lots of them and even have private little rooms within our bathrooms for them, but for some reason mass adoption of integral bidet toilets is lagging.

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I’ve never used one. Would probably ruin toilet paper for me.

I think many Europeans (incl. rich inner city types) would consider it luxurious to have the washer dryer combo in apartment rather than going to a laundromat.

From my 3 years living in Germany, the fridge was much smaller than USA but grocery stores were also smaller and closer and I was living a car free lifestyle, so we just got groceries more frequently. You adjust. Millions of people including friends and neighbors are living that lifestyle and the environment tends to fit it and make the lifestyle nice.

The lack of air conditioning in the summer was a bigger issue, not just in the apartment but also at home. Not much construction over there would actually have the duct work for forced air heating or central air, there are lots of other, more efficient ways to heat apartments but mostly the lack of AC was prevalent, even in the offices of the big corporation I worked at.

Someone has been sending me $0.01 in PayPal recently (so far three different transactions last few days). I’m assuming it’s some scam, but is it something I should worry about? I took all the money out of my account, but should I take more precautions?

Ran some Google searches and didn’t find anything clear on what this does. Some say the scammer will attempt a charge back for a higher amount.

How do I block another PayPal user?

When you block someone, they’ll no longer be able to send you money, message you, or find you in the PayPal directory.

If you no longer want to receive payments or messages from another PayPal user, you can block them via the PayPal website or mobile app.

Website:

  1. Click Send & Request.
  2. Click Contacts and select the name of the person you want to block.
  3. Click Block this contact .
  4. Click Block to confirm.

If you no longer want to receive payments or messages from another PayPal user, you can block them via the PayPal website or mobile app.

To block someone on the app:

  1. Tap Payments.
  2. Tap All Contacts .
  3. Find the person you want to block and tap the 3 dots next to their name.
  4. Tap Block .
  5. Tap Block again to confirm.
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Credit card scammers test the number with a few sub $2 charges and if they go through they’ll go for a bigger score. Never used paypal tho, so no idea if the scam is the same.

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The common line right now is that people are locked into their homes with golden handcuffs because they can’t let go of their interest rate. The way it is told, the market will unfreeze when interest rates come down.

The problem with this logic is that if people are willing to pay $x monthly for a mortgage payment now and interest rates are lowered, home prices will just go up to make up the difference so that they are still paying $x monthly.

Lower interest rates only help cool the market if they are combined with lower demand (recession/unemployment).

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So my car was in the shop for about a month getting a new engine (covered under warranty, phew), as I detailed in the car ownership thread.

It’s been home for about a week and now it got trapped in the garage, as one of the garage door springs broke last night. Got someone out today to fix it - cost quite a bit, but such is life and the springs were 12 years old, so it was probably going to happen at some point.

Tonight I heard a crash and ran to the garage. The bracket that the springs are attached to above the garage door ripped out of the wall. Wall is damaged, of course. The spring assembly is now sitting on the arm that attaches the door to the overhead opener track and the rods that attach the springs to the pulleys in the corners are bent.

Of course, that means our cars are trapped again. Garage door company says they have 24/7 emergency service, but that’s not happening, as the lone guy manning the phones can’t get anyone out here. They’re going to come early tomorrow morning. Hopefully they can at least let me get a car out of the garage, as I have to take my son to high school orientation.

And hopefully I don’t have to pay any more for the fix (I’m 50/50 on whether or not they are going to say there was some problem with the wall).

Home ownership is fun. And my daughter’s laptop screen cracked a couple days ago, just in time for school.

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seems very random if the damage wasn’t from something they did.

Sold for $2.4 million in Brooklyn

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https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/343-Hoyt-St-Brooklyn-NY-11231/30572516_zpid/

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How much to fix that up? 2 million? More?

Results?

Same guy came out at 7:00 the next morning and secured the spring assembly to a sturdier part of the wall. That part of the wall is a bit thin, but whoever installed the opener (might have been the same company) added an extra wooden block on which to attach the end of the overhead track. The tech moved the bracket the springs go on to that block. I think he greased some parts, too, because it’s much quieter now (he had suggested I do it, but maybe he did as an apology).

It’s now survived two days, so fingers crossed.

EDIT: One of the bolts that fell out was bent 90 degrees because of the force.

Just be happy you weren’t in the garage when the thing gave way. Those springs can kill you super easily.

Yeah, I’m keep thinking it was very lucky nobody was there when it happened. When the one broke initially, my wife was opening the door, but she wasn’t near it.

Also fortunately, the springs didn’t actually fly off the wall when it all crashed a few hours after the springs were replaced. They stayed attached the bracket and the rods that extend the pulleys in the corner. So they just dropped about a foot, resting on the arm that connects the door to the opener track, but everything remained intact, aside from the bracket coming out of the wall.