"What about the motherfuckin' BIRDS?!?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Toshi's thread
- Thread starter Toshi
- Start date
In other news, after this ride around the neighborhood I tried to replace my Ergon grips as pictured with Rev Grips. Those are more of a pain in the ass to install than Cushcore! I gave up for now. Will try again tonight versus putting the Ergons back on.
Xcel is trying to switch everyone in CO to time of use pricing by default by 2024. To truly evaluate whether this is good would require integration of daily use x hourly rate, noting variable PV panel output…
TOU rates:
Rates if one opts out of TOU:
Output of 11.34 of my 13.94 total kW PV array on a consistent-sun day, if I remember those numbers right:
Shoulder is defined as 1-3 PM weekdays, peak as 3-7 PM weekdays. So only 30 of 168 hours are shoulder or peak, and with my solar panels' output as above the meter would be running backwards from spring through fall from 1 PM until maybe 5 PM?
Probably wouldn't make a huge difference ultimately either way, even with our old-school non-intelligent EVSE for the minivan that doesn't allow for avoiding peak hours.
TOU rates:
Rates if one opts out of TOU:
Output of 11.34 of my 13.94 total kW PV array on a consistent-sun day, if I remember those numbers right:
Shoulder is defined as 1-3 PM weekdays, peak as 3-7 PM weekdays. So only 30 of 168 hours are shoulder or peak, and with my solar panels' output as above the meter would be running backwards from spring through fall from 1 PM until maybe 5 PM?
Probably wouldn't make a huge difference ultimately either way, even with our old-school non-intelligent EVSE for the minivan that doesn't allow for avoiding peak hours.
Your minivan doesn't have a way to set charging hours? I have a dumb EVSE that came with the leaf, but it also has a way to set charging times in the car itself. I have mine set to only charge 11-5 at night, as those are "off hours" per COS utilities, IIRC.
Yeah I think one can set that on the in car screen. For now haven’t messed with that.
Got a second swallow mitigation quote.
$16,684.00, price of boom lift rental separate from this. This vendor recommended the metal flashing so as to cover future bats as well as the current birds.
As this is just the price, apparently, I'm going forward with dude 2. He'll stop by early August to check on the status of the chicks and will do the job on a Wednesday-Thursday stretch (maybe heading into Friday if it runs over).
I emailed Vacasa to suggest that we push photos and all that off until after this job is done in August…
$16,684.00, price of boom lift rental separate from this. This vendor recommended the metal flashing so as to cover future bats as well as the current birds.
As this is just the price, apparently, I'm going forward with dude 2. He'll stop by early August to check on the status of the chicks and will do the job on a Wednesday-Thursday stretch (maybe heading into Friday if it runs over).
I emailed Vacasa to suggest that we push photos and all that off until after this job is done in August…
I think someone is robin the good doctor. It would certainly be put me into a fowl mood.
I hope he doesn't egret this home purchase.
Bandwidth via CenturyLink nominal 60 Mbps DSL at the swallow-house, on and not on the VPN. I think that's actually fast enough for teleradiology! I'll certainly test its performance with my issued-by-work box before buying another one outright, of course, but that'd sure be nice.
Remind me to avoid stucco like the plague in the future. Clarified with bird dude 2 that the quote doesn’t include cleaning the windows (no big deal to add) and the rest of the stucco siding (big deal, labor intensive scrubbing since it’s fragile).
It’ll be $3.5k more. And the boom lift rental for the week will be $1,300.
:derp:
Oh well, it’s just money
It’ll be $3.5k more. And the boom lift rental for the week will be $1,300.
:derp:
Oh well, it’s just money
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Never thought hard concrete on flexible wood would be fragile.
Probably not an issue for your climate, but it can cause condensation and mildew issues around here and is to be avoided at all costs.
Probably not an issue for your climate, but it can cause condensation and mildew issues around here and is to be avoided at all costs.
Just get it right on all the odd numbered houses.
Time to start watching mortgage rates again. 6-8 weeks from now will be in a position to go from the less than ideal 3.000% primary mortgage at conforming limit + 6.5% (!) variable rate HELOC to cover the balance to 90%, to a single jumbo conventional (80% LTV) loan.
These are the numbers today on Costco Finance for 79.9% LTV against estimated house value of $800k, ZIP 80478, good credit, second house. I was hoping for 3.000% flat. PennyMac may be my first call when I'm ready to spring based off of past pricing experience.
Numbers time! via
What if I prepay that $30k to the primary loan after the HELOC is paid off in each case?
Conclusion here: 3.375% doesn't cut it!
Redoing numbers with 3.250%, 3.125%, and 3.000% flat to see if the breakeven point is around there:
As one final exercise, I'll see how much more I could get ahead by not prepaying first on the 2.24% HELOC (assuming it stays low and at that rate) but instead prepaying from the start on a 3.000% jumbo refi.
Wow. So if I don't prepay on the primary mortgage after paying off the HELOC it's clearly worse to take the 0.375% bump in rate.
What if I prepay that $30k to the primary loan after the HELOC is paid off in each case?
So with these prepayments we're talking $158,859.42 total interest for keeping the bad interest rate HELOC and paying down the regular mortgage after that, or $171,389.99 total interest for paying down to 80% LTV and refinancing at 3.375%.
Conclusion here: 3.375% doesn't cut it!
Redoing numbers with 3.250%, 3.125%, and 3.000% flat to see if the breakeven point is around there:
3.125% is therefore the breakeven point.
As one final exercise, I'll see how much more I could get ahead by not prepaying first on the 2.24% HELOC (assuming it stays low and at that rate) but instead prepaying from the start on a 3.000% jumbo refi.
This method would save a pittance in interest ultimately over the HELOC-first strategy. I would not prefer it, though, as it'd keep a balance on the HELOC for a long time. The HELOC balance is making my credit utilization look bad already so I want to ditch it.
Cliffs Notes from that wall o' numbers:
1) Makes sense to _not_ refi and just prepay on the current bad-rate HELOC on the Tabernash house unless I can land a 3.000% or at worst a 3.125% rate.
2) Compounding interest makes for big numbers.
1) Makes sense to _not_ refi and just prepay on the current bad-rate HELOC on the Tabernash house unless I can land a 3.000% or at worst a 3.125% rate.
2) Compounding interest makes for big numbers.
The mountain house gets hot! Even with many of the windows being clad with double cellular shades (and clearly no heat use!) it's 79 degrees upstairs. Temps stayed pretty high through sunset so the open window has had limited effect thus far.
I emailed a local HVAC outfit to get a quote on a mini split system. If it's reasonable I'll do that sooner rather than later, but this will happen sometime, as it's not getting any cooler. This would be one compressor, 6 heads as I envision it: 4 in the bedrooms upstairs, 1 in the loft that has a bed and eventually will be remodeled into a master suite, and 1 on the main floor in the dining room area.
I emailed a local HVAC outfit to get a quote on a mini split system. If it's reasonable I'll do that sooner rather than later, but this will happen sometime, as it's not getting any cooler. This would be one compressor, 6 heads as I envision it: 4 in the bedrooms upstairs, 1 in the loft that has a bed and eventually will be remodeled into a master suite, and 1 on the main floor in the dining room area.
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TIL that GM's Quadrasteer offerings included not only the Sierra/Silverado pickups, as I'd known about since I'm a nerd and such things are cool, but also the 2500 Suburban/Yukon XL! Model years 2002-2005 and that's all she wrote.
I should totally get a Quadrasteer Yukon XL because that's just straight up awesome.
HVAC contractor is coming by Wednesday to provide an estimate for a mini split setup. With the forthcoming sweet, sweet 2.24% Denver-house-HELOC money coming I'll be very tempted to bite the bullet if he's at all reasonable on the quote. 79 Freedoms upstairs after leaving windows open for a cross breeze across the floor all day, which is really too toasty.
We also polled the kiddos whether they want to come up here at the end of July (working around call weekend and traveling to Seattle in August), and the vote was 2-1 to stay in Denver instead.
Therefore we won't be up here again until after the swallow fiasco is resolved ~Aug 20, potentially after the decks are redone (will pester contractor for a date for the work tomorrow), and potentially after a mini split system is installed. We'll lock up this and that and leave the interior in a state for Vacasa's initial clean/installation of their linens/photo/3-D walkthrough work before we depart tomorrow.
For next summer I think we'll only come up here if we have 3 or 4 day weekends carved out around it, both to maximize weekend rental availability and to minimize the driving:here time ratio. So maybe coming up once per month.
I hope this place rents like gangbusters!
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Would that make it harder or easier to back up into tricky spots? (With a trailer)
TIL that GM's Quadrasteer offerings included not only the Sierra/Silverado pickups, as I'd known about since I'm a nerd and such things are cool, but also the 2500 Suburban/Yukon XL! Model years 2002-2005 and that's all she wrote.
I should totally get a Quadrasteer Yukon XL because that's just straight up awesome.
Should just provide a tighter turning radius and move the pivot point the rear axle farther forward. So with a trailer just less steering input required but still similarly complex.
The center of rotation of a turning vehicle is the intersection of all the lines drawn through the axles.
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Kept the (screened) window open all night in our bedroom tonight. Outside temp 52F now. Thermostat set at 55, irrelevant. Room still at 75!
And I’m up as the birds are up at this hour, little chicks chirping for bugs from their mamas and more melodious birds in the distance calling out their songs.
Window now closed. Hopefully I can snooze some more.
And I’m up as the birds are up at this hour, little chicks chirping for bugs from their mamas and more melodious birds in the distance calling out their songs.
Window now closed. Hopefully I can snooze some more.
