Abu3baid

Nostalgia anyone? I think it would wear off though after 10 minutes.. the games we have are just so much better it's not even close. still cool though.

I take it back. I'll give the keyboard a chance :)

Ouch, that sucks... I won't be going to one.. ever.

Congrats Erik... I still would love to hear what your opinion is. Maybe give us insight on how it played out? Did they reach out to you first before publishing? Was it political or based on merit? What was the criteria? Did someone nominate you and have to go through a voting process or was it one journalist... it's not often we get to ask these questions, so here we are. :)

I hope she feels better soon.

This one would be awesome if it was kept without a password protection too :)

Best one I saw was "Don't Hack Me!"

Yeah, just heard this on the BBC. First time a songwriter has ever won it.. I wonder if we will see it again within our life time.

Ahhh, yes the unexpected things that can happen. Just found out that's my beautiful lawn is infested with grubs.. I didnt find out before the damage was done.... basically the roots callapased in this area and couldn't take it anymore. I already hired someone to treat the whole lawn, and fix this area and some other areas that have suffered. He is hopeful he can have it turned around before winter and then it will be back to normal next spring. Im sure it won't be the last thing to come up.

I think that's the exact point Drew is making. The people he is complaining about not paying taxes are also doing it because they didn't make enough ect. They also didn't write the tax code, just following it.

I guess I'm a strange one pretty spread out across the spectrum. I would probably vote for GJ or HRC.

I am getting some details now. The heating system is a burnham series 2, anything you can tell me about @14ledo81? I tried looking it up, but to be honest I got lost with all the technical details I was looking at :) I am getting someone to do a service maintenance on it, at least now I know what kind it is when I ask them for a quote lol

Agree. I try so hard to stay out of these discussions and I'm not getting into this one. I do want to point out the huge discrepancy in how violent acts are categorized as well. If a Muslim commits a crime of passion he is a terrorist, if someone else does it he's deranged. Let's look at it from a world view for a second, a UN convoy was bombed the other day by fighter jets (the US says it has evidence it is Russian jets) and no one blinks an eye or would even consider this an act of terrorism, not sure why. In fact, even after the UN started making calls to all the parties to stop bombing their convey the bombing continued for a couple more hours. Omar Mateen, a dirtbag wife beater alcoholic druggie.. Yeah, you guessed it, a terrorist act instead of a mentally deranged act of someone who was emotionally unstable looking to fit in. The problem I have with "Terrorism" is that not even the experts agree as to what is an act terrorism.. Other than it is one if a Muslim is envolved. Heck, I'd like to find the last time an incident involving a Muslim wasn't called a terrorist act. Thus, the statement.. Hey not all Muslims are terrorist, but most terror acts are committed by Muslims.

Thank you.. one of the most informative posts I have seen. Makes perfect sense. The house has a gas powered heating system that also acts as a boiler as there is a hot water tank that is also attached to it, along with the 6 heating zones. I am going to have someone come and just give it a tune up and make sure everything looks good for the upcoming winter. I am getting mass-save to come and give a free assessment on the overall house energy efficiency, and they can give me their numbers on the heating/AC system. I'm not sure what they can tell me about the generator, but it's relatively new and only 8KW. If I need to buy a new system anytime soon I will definitely take you up on that offer and ask as many questions as possible :) Yeah, I want to find out what's going on with them for sure.. is it possible that none of my pipes are in the outside walls? You make a good point. For me, it's a matter of being able to see what's going on in the house, since I am going to be away from it. Also, if I decide to rent it out I'd be able to keep track of how people are wasting energy I'm planning on getting wifi full time anyway because I'm putting a keyless entry that I will need to control from my iphone. The issue I run into is having the 5 or 6 zones (I can't remember) and having to have t-stat for each one and that's where it gets expensive, and I'm not sure if I would ever see the returns on such investment right? 250*5=1,250 - how long would it take me to save 1,250 on my electric/gas bill by having these smart t-stats? I don't really know the answer, but I'm going to have to try and find out asap.

I'm going to have someone take a closer look to give me advice on it. Thank you for pointing that out. Thanks Jon.. Yes, I am looking forward to it for sure! I will definitely look deeper into it.. The backup generator should technically go online as soon as the main power goes off-line, so that's one less thing for me to think about.

btw.. so as it turns out, the first action and money I will be spending on the house other than what I put down for it is.......... Changing all the door locks and installing a deadbolt on the front door to prepare for my keyless entry system within a month or so.. $300 for time and labor and I'm on my way now.. :)

Well, I am new to this so yeah I probably have my priorities mixed up :) The reason why it's important to me though is because I am only going to be at the house 1 month out of the year, so the rest of the year I need a way to be able to manage the temp. and know what it is in the house year round.. This way I can manage it on my phone as long as I have internet access. I will also probably get a company to do 24/7 monitoring, but it's good for me to have access ect especially before the winter comes. Thank You! Thank You! I was already a big fan of home depot.. now I'm not only a fan but will be a big client as well LOL Do you have any examples or advice on how I should address this? Should I ask before buying what the level of maintenance is? How do I vet it out I guess? I like that idea.. Can I ask why you were praying for your AC to break in the first year? Thank You! Yup, I will have to deal with NE weather in Mass right near the cape.. usually it is a couple degrees hotter than boston so that's a good thing :) I will most likely not winterize the house, but rather keep the heat low like 45* or so. The house has a generator set up, so if the electricity goes off it will kick in and support it for a few days or longer I believe if necessary. I am also going to have 24/7 monitoring on the house, so if there ever is a sudden change in temp conditions in the house they will take necessary action (call my parents for example). Winter in NE, what a treat we have :)

Thank You! aaah yes.. I agree.. I'm going to wait a few weeks, let it all sink in and then start asking about that massive list :) Thank You! Great advice.. Thank you so much.. First thing I'm going to do is get a free home enery audit done by Mass Save HERE The items you mentioned I'm going to really need to pay attention to.. especially the Heating/Cooling systems since they will be the ones sucking most of the energy. The drain system is actually pretty good from the little I have seen, but I plan on hiring a landscaping company year round that I hope will pay close attention to the guttering system ect. I am lucky in that I bought a house that the previous owner really took care of it, and kept up with maintenance. Really, my two concerns are the ones I mentioned above (cooling/heating) since they are the original machines. Obviously, I do have a concern for the roof, but I am planning on putting a little away every year for the next 5 - 7 years, and then hopefully just replace the whole thing if it starts to break down. Thanks again, great post! ahhh yes, this I will be careful with.. right now I'm trying to find the best deals to furnish the whole house, and as of right now my best option so far is bobs discount furniture.. I know it's not exactly repairs/upgrades.. but once the house is furnished we all know whats next, it's finding ways to improve and upgrade.. ughhh :)

I wanted to share some good news. I am finally a homeowner now. We decided to buy a house while I was vacationing and was able to give a power of attorney to my brother to do the necessary signing while I'm away. [speaking of PoA I want to point out that we found out that Santander bank will not accept PoA unless it is an indefinite one, the one I gave my brother has a time limit (3 months) and for some unknown reason they will not accept this PoA.] One of the best features of the house is the golf course that is basically less than 100 ft away. How convenient, right? The worst feature of the house is that it seems the town is counting the square footage of the finished basement for tax purposes. That sucks!! At least it's a deductible I can use. I will be going through all the ups and downs of maintaining a home while away, and I hope I can share my experience and have others benefit at some point. It will not be easy, but I'm hoping it will be worth it. First step is figuring out what security company to go with, and which smart thermo to go with! Do you guys have any pitfalls I should look out for?

Mid 20s. I probably won't be playing much golf at all this year..

I've never heard of transaction fees the buyer pays.. At least not on any credit card I have ever owned.

I'm not sure what your gettIng at, but let me be clear if I was a supporter of a cause, it is not enough for me to give people who are working at it 10m usd? For my contribution to be meaningful I'm better off keeping that money in my account and going door to door or cold calling? this argument is just falling apart John, don't you see that? Nice post.

are you seriously upset that he threw money at it? Instead of what? Like digging with a shovel? So, you want him to print out fliers for example and go staple them to poles instead of donating money that can be used to print millions of brochures or to hold community conferences, or to fly in experts ect.. Come on now.. It's not even close, of course donating money is going to push the cause a lot further than him going out and doing the work with his hands. Finally, I would never hold it against him when he decided to take that stance.. Does it really matter that he wasn't doing anything back 5 years ago? Or if he wasn't doing anything up until yesterday? Arguments like this one have me puzzled. Sorry

No you didn't....

I would rather keep shooting my 95 with my own ugly swing than 80 once with that one.