Having lived in a succession of apartments and condos for the last ten years it’s been almost exactly a decade since I’ve been a homeowner. Apparently, it was just long enough to forget about some of the irritations and pitfalls associated with owning a single-family dwelling.
We moved into our new home around mid-November. As soon as the mercury dipped close to zero degree we noticed the temperature in our lower level of the house was getting all the way down into the high 40’s at night. We had an HVAC technician out to diagnose the problem and discovered the furnace was on its last leg. Heat is kind of important in Minnesota.
Since then we’ve replaced -- the furnace, the air conditioner unit, we’ve had a plumbing leak (that the previous owners appear to have tried to hide) that required us to open up the ceiling in the lower level bathroom, and the hot water heater is nearly ready to give up the ghost. Also, the clothes washer the previous owner left us was harboring a mold super-colony (it was a 2009 Samsung). We didn’t discover this until we washed our first load of clothes.
The home inspector we hired missed all of those aforementioned problems.
Now there are two ways to look at it. One would be to get extremely pissed about it and declare life to be utterly unfair. The other is to consider it an investment (albeit an unusually large and unplanned one). Since victimhood-mentality isn’t my jam I chose the latter. At least we know all of the mechanicals of the home are solid now and will be for years to come. I intend to step into 2025 on a positive note.
So far the peace and quiet of our new home have worked wonders for my writing. My muse has been on overdrive this last month, I haven't written this much and this well since I was in my thirties. To me this makes it all worthwhile.
Satisfying My Inner Nerd
Speaking of positives, my brother is in the HVAC field and bought us the Ecobee Premium smart thermostat for a house-warming gift (pun very much intended) and Christmas.
This thing is a marvel. It delights my inner nerd. The Ecobee connects to Apple’s HomeKit and uses AI to learn your routines/preferences and adjusts settings accordingly to maximize energy savings. The thing that really sets the Ecobee Premium apart from its competition is the secondary wireless sensor that you can place anywhere in the house to help balance out the hot/cold spots in your home.
I installed a second-gen Nest smart thermostat in my old home in 2012 and it saved us a boatload of money on energy costs, most months we saved 20%. I expect even more savings from the Ecobee because it’s packed with even more features. I’ll report back after a couple of months about the real savings we notice on our energy bills.
Letting the Credit Card Companies Enrich You
For years I’ve used credit cards with rewards programs like debit cards and paid off the balances at the end of each month. If you’re disciplined it’s a fairly easy way to earn significant rewards – cashback, travel points, and gift cards. A couple of days ago I decided I’m going to use my cash back at the end of each month to buy Bitcoin. I really believe that over the next ten years Bitcoin doing this consistently will be the best investment and a hedge against the Fed’s addiction to printing dollars.
Yes Bitcoin will have its ups and downs but, in the larger picture, it’ll statistically never be cheaper than it is now. I set up a dedicated wallet so I can keep track of my progress. This should be an interesting experiment and it’s a method of dollar cost averaging nearly anyone with a rewards card could do. As an added bonus it feels good to be profiting off of these huge credit card companies instead of the other way around.
Does anyone want to join me in this little experiment?
Cheese, Glorious Cheese!
We rang in 2025 with our son and lots and lots of cheese. This has been a tradition for us since 2020 and we’ve really grown to look forward to it.
A few plates, a couple glasses of phenomenal Sardinian red wine, and good company. I can't think of a better way to end the year.
Be well, make the most of this day. I wish you all a healthy, joyful, and prosperous 2025!
Growing weary of the ads and divisiveness on mainstream social media? If so, why not try Hive? Click on this link to sign-up and join our growing global community.
Want to Keep Up with My Travels? Please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
First of all my congratulations for the new year and I wish that all the goals you have set for yourself will be achieved.
It is admirable your attitude and the way you sum up the problems of your home and life. In the end, you will manage to solve them and with your health in good condition because bothering yourself causes problems to emotional and physical health.
About bitcoin I do not have much knowledge because I was born in the analog era and I am learning now about this digital world and about cryptocurrencies, but, a young computer engineer suggested me to make as a savings in bitcoin and do not touch it that that would be as part of my retirement.
As for cheese we think alike and the truth is that I like it a lot, although I have not eaten as much variety as the one you show us here.
Thanks for sharing and congratulations again. Happy weekend. Cheers and greetings.
Your comment is upvoted by Topcomment
You can support the Topcomment initiative by delegating HP
| 10 HP | 25 HP | 50 HP | 100 HP | 250 HP | 500 HP | 1000 HP |
Thank you and a happy New Year to you! You're smart for holding some Bitcoin. It won't take much to make a big difference ten years from now. I think we'll see a day when it's $1M per coin (and possibly higher).
That is so exciting!! Really happy for you and hope it carries on into 2025 :)
That Eccobee thing sounds pretty damn cool (though also kinda like a spy if it's learning your routes. Have you thought about throwing a few curveballs, getting up to use the bathroom, then going to grab a snack from the kitchen instead? You know, keep the robots on their toes type thing :D)
It sounds like you started the year in a grand way, so it's bound to continue like that!
Thank you! It's been the best present because, honestly, it's been a bit of a struggle these past few years.
It has been a lot of fun to play with! We went out last night to a concert and it recognized we left and brought the furnace down to 66F. I'll have to experiment with those curveballs. Lol. We'll see just how smart it is. : )
I really hope it continues this way. I do have a wonderful feeling about 2025. Happy New Year, my friend! I hope it brings you everything you wish for.
Maintenance issues are slowly getting to me even though it's been minor so far!
I would be angry but in the end take the same attitude as you do. At least you don't have to worry about those for a very long while!
Thoughtful house warming gift from your brother!
I love cheese, was amazed at the Dutch cheeses when in the Netherlands. Your cheese board looks amazing, what a delicious cheesy way to see in the new year!
Happy new year to you and your family, Eric!
I'm sorry to hear that! From what I remember about homeownership it always seems to be something that's breaking or in need of updates. I think ours was just a case of bad timing. The house is 28 years old and was in pristine condition but almost nothing was updated. The previous owners timed their move to Florida perfectly. Lol.
It was a very thoughtful gift! He knows me well.
The Netherlands have incredible cheeses! We took a day trip out of Amsterdam to the countryside and visited a cheese shop where they made it. It was pretty fascinating. Thank you, Lizelle, and we wish you a wonderful 2025. It would be great to meet you this year!
What a shame that the person they hired didn't detect all these drawbacks before purchasing the house.
You did very well to take it easy, otherwise I still wouldn't have achieved a different result.
What a great gift your brother gave you, I hope you enjoy all its benefits very much
A great idea to invest the rewards from using the cards in the bitcoin purchase, I think that in the long term it will be very satisfying
What a striking tradition, a cheese table would never have occurred to me, that sounds great
A big hug to the whole family dear friend @ericvancewalton
Yes, the inspector was here in the house for about four hours and it makes me wonder if he just spent that time looking at his phone! Lol.
It'll be interesting to see how the BTC wallet grows long term! It's kind of an easy way to save too.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful 2025!
Oooh, those mechanicals!! The one good thing about replacing those items, is that you're not running on someone else's funk, like the washing machine. Just because it still turns round and round doesn't mean it cleans the clothes. Now you have fresh, clean heat and air, clothes and soon to be fresh hot water, not water from a rusty old water heater. Like your attitude, step into the new year with a fresh start (and fresh clothes lol).
Your cheese boards look delicious!! Happy New Year to you and your family!
Mechanicals are the bane of the homeowners' existence. You bring up a good point! We ran about five loads of bleach in the washer before we used it but we discovered with some front-loading machines the mold grows not only on the seal but on the OUTSIDE of the drum. No bleach can get to that so you're pretty much out of luck if it gets started. It happens when people leave wet clothes in there or close the door before the tumbler dries.
Thank you and I wish you a wonderful, healthy, and prosperous 2025!
Thank goodness you chose the second option. Old problems in a house can be terrible, especially if they pop up like this, out of nowhere and in this weather. Buying bitcoin as a goal for this year seems very smart to me. There are so many rumors about the world economy, that it is better to look for “a better cushion” to invest or keep the money. I hope you will be very successful in your experiment. Hugs
I'm glad I took the high road too. It's just not worth it to get into that negative mindset, it just attracts more of the same to us! As they say, "what comes up, must go down". I think much of the world's economy is in a huge bubble right now. I'm not sure if it'll continue for a year or five years but eventually that bubble will burst and Bitcoin will be one of the few life rafts available. Sooner or later the world will realize this and will be clambering to own it. Did you have a good New Year's Eve?
A little sad, but in the family. Renewing hopes, especially in anticipation of January 10 to see what happens with the inauguration of the new president. If Maduro clings more to power, an incalculable wave of repression and immigration is foreseen. Let's hope not: that everything will be positive and the construction and awakening of our country will definitely begin. I forgot to tell you that table looks delicious. Hugs
Those pesky people that attempt to hide faults with their properties that they sell. I have had that before.
Oh man, this is the worst I've ever experienced. As I told my brother, karma is real and it will sort things out.
That's what we like about karma!
Yes Sir! It's not always swift but it's sure.
Goodness, I forgot everything I want to say when I reach the end of the post 🤤🤤 no.. I'm not a foodie, but cheese.. cheese... Okay I can't take it anymore, it's 00.30 here, No Cheese or I'll be a fat rat.
Glad to know you're doing the good "investment" so I can read more about it later. Have a wonderful 2025 🎇🎊
Haha, cheese has a way of inducing that kind of amnesia. Thanks, I'll report back on my BTC progress once a quarter. I wish you an amazing 2025! Have a good weekend.
We have some pretty great cheese shops where I work. You will have to maybe check them out one day. That's horrible about your house. I am sorry to hear that. I respect your attitude though. I don't think I could take it that well. As big of a Google fanboy as I am, I don't think I would get a Nest if I had a smart thermometer. I have heard a lot of good things about the Ecobee. It doesn't surprise me that your relative who is a professional would choose that one.
It's a fun adventure to try out all the different cheeses. There's an unbelievable variety. We tried one of the oldest Swedish cheese varieties called Hushållsost this year. It looked a little like clay and was slightly sweet. I really liked it but it was our son's least favorite. I almost went down the darker path with what's happened with the house but I'm glad I was able to snap out of it. I definitely don't want to attract any more negativity our way. The Ecobee has been a lot of fun to play around with. After seeing the newest gen Nest and Ecobee reviewed side-by-side it seems like the Nest hasn't kept pace with the latest advances.
That's good to know about the thermostats. I don't think I have the wiring to add one to our house currently, but maybe in our next house. We've found some surprises in our house too, but nothing as significant as you did. Was the washing machine one of those high efficiency ones? I haven't heard good things about those, especially the Samsung brand. We've got something funky going on with our dish washer though...
If you have an existing thermostat you can usually just swap them out for the Ecobee. We couldn't use smart thermostats in our condo because we had a central cooling tower and heat pumps. The wiring there was more like a commercial building.
Yes! It was an early HE Samsung model (2009) and it was horrible. The controls were so complex! I'm partial to the LG brand myself -- they make a wonderful washer and dryer.
How old is the dish washer?
I'm not sure the age. It is a GE. I don't have the constant power line. That's the problem. I'd need to replace batteries all the time.
Oh, I see.
Yeah, I looked into it a while ago and there is like a yellow line that provides constant power to the thermostat. If you don't have it, then they make them with batteries, but you have to keep replacing them all the time. Not a huge deal, but if they happen to go out on you while you are away on a trip and you want to crank the heat or A/C for when you get home, it's not going to work. Definitely a first world problem in the grand scheme of things!
Oh yeah, we bought this house about 2 years ago, and it was always a rental, as the owner lived in Sweden. Imagine that the sales agent didn't know that instead of plastering the brick walls on the interior, it was all covered with wooden boards. To make matters worse, the shower was a wooden box, and the water leaked all over the place. The bath was out of order, as a "rat" chewed a hole into the outlet pipe, and the icing on the cake was the stove didn't work. Oh, and the batteries for the auto gates needed urgent replacement. Just to mention a few of our headaches.
We had the sales agent contact the owner, and she agreed to pay 50% of the costs. So, we also left the other 50% up to karma. !LOL
Glad that you could sort things out, and I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of the people that hid the breakages, as it will for sure return to bite them.
I see that you guys had a happy cheesy affair.
Blessings and have a !BEER
lolztoken.com
The A-gull and B-gull weren't quite right.
Credit: reddit
@ericvancewalton, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of papilloncharity
(1/10)
Farm LOLZ tokens when you Delegate Hive or Hive Tokens.
Click to delegate: 10 - 20 - 50 - 100 HP
That sounds like a nightmare! I'm glad they agreed to pay 50% at least. It's hard to believe what some people are willing to live with. The former owners of our house lived in this house through 28 Minnesota winters with half of the house getting down into the 50's (and maybe colder) during the coldest months. Thanks and Blessings to you and yours in 2025!
It sounds like you have that cold part of the house sorted, and the thing about owning a house, is that there will always be something to fix. So, all of the best also to you and yours.
!BEER
View or trade
BEER.Hey @ericvancewalton, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @papilloncharity for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.Such beautiful positive mindset. I know all things will and is already working out for the best. Happy new year 🎊
Thank you Whitney! I appreciate it. Happy New Year!
So so many cheese it's a dream I love cheese 🧀🧀🧀
I know they add up, on our rental we needed to paint, and professionally clean the oven and heating, and we still need to re-do the bathroom and make the garden nice. But it is zero degrees Celsius, garden can wait.
What a pain! I've heard that owning rentals can be tough. Some renters just don't respect the space since they don't own it. I hope the work is minimal!
Happy New year to you and your family.
All happiness we don't get together. It takes time. Happy to know you got a wonderful environment to pursue your writing and sad to know about the status of your house. Hope you get a better solution for this at the earliest.
Happy New Year 💐 to you & family members.dear friend
View or trade
BEER.Hey @ericvancewalton, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @papilloncharity for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.#hive #posh