Rantingjay

[Dianalorena 1,153]

40 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

We are out of junk-food here at the POTS office, looming crisis man.

oh no. Sending you some chamoy and that candy that you mentioned you liked but  I forgot the name 

so yeah, just chamoy. and Miguelitos maybe. 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

On the topic of houses, the house my mother is buying was dumping all of its grey water (sink, washing machine, etc) into the sump and then pumping it outside the house onto the street (or letting it seep under).   You are supposed to pump your sump into the yard/street here, but it is supposed to just be ground water you are pumping out.  Ewwww. 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

14 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

thank you so much for your time and knowledge  it's super helpful, I'm clueless. 

Once we finally start looking for a place I want to do things right, and save up as much as we can. That's why we're not going to buy right away but stay in his small apartment first (great area, and the money isn't too bad) so we can make a good, educated decision. I definitely didn't know that you need a work permit to do things yourself! in Mexico you can pretty much do whatever you want to a house without getting in trouble, except if there are laws regarding height (for instance in Cozumel, you can't build up to a certain level to preserve the aesthetic) every city and country has different regulations. It's scary how in Mexico City they basically don't adhere to earthquake regulations (which can be expensive of course, buildings require special hydraulic systems, for instance, to absorb shock) and that has proven to be fatal. 

 

The U.S I know it's overall more expensive than Mexico, but I'm hoping it compensates with higher pays? I know it's not guaranteed, but with one people usually make here there's no way we could afford those prices. Rents are going way up though, and buying is almost out of the question at least in desirable areas (I mean of course) the cheap places are outside the metropolitan area, the Mexico City state (Estado de México) which has the highest femicide rate in the country,  even more than Juarez. So yeah I'm paying more for now, that's fine!

 

 

Building things to some sort of safety code is more expensive, but it saves money in the long run.  The amount of money that Mexico City pays to reconstruct and on lost income must be a lot.  Not to mention, the loss of life.  

 

Every part of the country is different.  I have friends my age, 30ish, who still need roommates despite having professional careers, because they live in New York City.  On the other hand, pretty much everyone in our cohort is able to buy a house in this part of the country.  At our age, you could expect a couple to be making a minimum of $70,000 a year before taxes (the de-facto minimum wage here for fast food and child care workers is $11/hour, so that is presuming moving up on the job ladder a tad).  That's for people who are blue-collar workers, teachers, secretaries, etc.  Those salaries vary super widely depending on where you live.   Let's say with that income you could technically afford a house with a mortgage that costs about $200k.  A fixer-upper might cost $20-50k, a good condition older 3 bed $90-150k, etc.  So, affordable enough.  That doesn't account for car payments or the like.

[SAT 9,609]

The most frustrating day of the year

 

Like the kind of day that CDH has...

[TBoneTX 45,260]

1 hour ago, Dianalorena said:

oh no. Sending you some chamoy and that candy that you mentioned you liked but  I forgot the name 

so yeah, just chamoy. and Miguelitos maybe. 

Nugs, see D2 ma'am.

Afternoon/evenin', Commie- and other babes with very sparingly applied +1 inventories!

[Ontarkie 14,218]

10 hours ago, Asia said:

Cute dogs!

 

And thank you for the Christmas card + bonus! I LOVE it!

Thanks, they are pretty great dogs. Puppy is now 5 months old. the Weasels are a pain in the butt, they think they own Jack's bed. I have 3 big beds like that but they want that one. 

 

Your welcome, the Tornado loves yours she knew right away it was from you. 

 

6 hours ago, SAT said:

 

This is animal abuse! 

Those poor hounds should be runnin' round the swamp out back! 

 

It was dark and cold out then. They came in for a break. 

 

2 hours ago, NikLR said:

cute picture of him Niki

 

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

Fotos of knitted chicken-sweaters now, D ma'am!

Congrats on your moving experience, si Eh ma'am.

Congrats on your fast-moving experience, si Eh ma'am.

Especially not the drivers in the left lane, but that's year-round, Bro D man.

Self-plagiarism and repetitive redundancy, see see see man!  Reported!!!

They don't need sweaters

 

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

WE think that you need to concentrate more on selling pre-owned toilet seats, rather than knit chicken-sweaters or upgrade dog-beds, D ma'am.  Bad D ma'am!  Bad, BAD D ma'am!

I know I know I'm slacking

[NikLR 13,227]

Ty! His xmas pjs 

[Russ&Caro 1,549]

2 hours ago, Dianalorena said:

 we're not going to buy right away but stay in his small apartment first (great area, and the money isn't too bad) so we can make a good, educated decision.

This sounds likes mine and La Colombiana's situation 2.5 years ago. We had an economical apt in a cool section of town, and then after saving for a year we took the plunge and bought a house in another neighborhood. It was the first time either of us had bought a house, and as such, it gave us certain financing advantages where we only had to put 2% down. Some states and localities have non-profit home buyer organizations to help low to middle income people afford a house. Definitely check out if there's anything like that wherever you end up settling. Work on your credit rating. It's even more important than savings, although the two are related. Good luck!

[Dianalorena 1,153]

4 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Some people buy "casa warranties," see D2 ma'am -- a flat fee/year + something like a flat $Many (such as $2x2x2x2x2x2-2-2) per service call for repairs, etc.  Say that one's stove quits working; call the warranty co., find out which repair outfit will be coming out (and approx. when), have the repairman diagnose the problem, he fixes the issue, pay him the $Many for the service call, see man.

 

If the appliance is beyond repair, the repairman will report it to the warranty co., which will fund all or (more typically) part of a replacement, see man.  This happened to us when our warshdishing machine croaked, see man; the co. wanted to replace it with a builder-grade basic model, and we had to argue to get them to fund more of the price of a decent machine, fight we with they man.

 

Fighting for replacement is one drawback; another is that the repairmen will almost always try to up-sell one for another service, grrr but can't blame them man.  For example, they come to fix a faulty water-heater valve, then try to sell a flush of the tank, see man.  Agreeing to this would be cost atop the $Many for the service call, see man.

 

We have talked to a couple of real estate agents who've said that they always recommend that casas over a certain age have a casa warranty, si man.  This bit us on the culo 2 years ago when the rental casa's A/C system croaked, all out-of-pocket uffffffffffffff man.  A warranty would have funded a lot/most/perhaps all of this, sigh man.

 

Edited to add, add we man:  But upgrades like new flooring, paint, etc. aren't covered under casa warranties, no man.

Yeah I've heard of those. did you manage to get the model you wanted?

Haha yeah that sounds typical. I'm always curious as to people getting their cars fixed and then just basically saying ''oh we found all of this'' and people paying a ton of money.

That makes sense, older houses typically have things failing so repairs will most definitely be required at some point, or just to maintain. well you didn't know then, how much did you guys have to pay to fix the A/C system?

I figured upgrades weren't including. Wow owning a house is expensive, I can't wait  

[Dianalorena 1,153]

1 hour ago, Russ&Caro said:

This sounds likes mine and La Colombiana's situation 2.5 years ago. We had an economical apt in a cool section of town, and then after saving for a year we took the plunge and bought a house in another neighborhood. It was the first time either of us had bought a house, and as such, it gave us certain financing advantages where we only had to put 2% down. Some states and localities have non-profit home buyer organizations to help low to middle income people afford a house. Definitely check out if there's anything like that wherever you end up settling. Work on your credit rating. It's even more important than savings, although the two are related. Good luck!

Thanks for the insight! Totally, that's part of the reason why we want to save up and wait, I will be starting from 0 (frustrating since I have a pretty decent credit score here in Mexico, sigh) and I know that takes a while to get to a nice number. The apartment is TINY (bachelor pad, kinda but it makes sense he doesn't need more) so I'm open to renting somewhere else for a little while, but the area where he lives is super expensive and very, very close to what might end up being my job if all goes well, so I know sacrifices have to be made in order to afford something better in the future. Especially since I won't have a car right away. That's going to be really hard for me, adjusting to having to drive everywhere, I've never owned a car and even though I know how to drive, it scares me in the U.S! 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

1 hour ago, Dianalorena said:

That's going to be really hard for me, adjusting to having to drive everywhere, I've never owned a car and even though I know how to drive, it scares me in the U.S! 

 

I don't remember where I saw this, but I think the vehicle safety standards are higher in the US?  Here is an article about it:  https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/11/20/502346360/crash-test-dummies-show-the-difference-between-cars-in-mexico-and-u-s

 

The weird thing that comforts me is that cars are safer than ever and probably with more and more self-driving cars that fatality rate will drop even lower.  Imagine the number of lives that will be saved if let's say drunk drivers had self driving cars.

 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Speaking of scared to drive - the Dane got home and had to turn right around because he got a call that a restaurant in bigger town had a broken pipe.  I have a 20% total purchase coupon I need to use at Target (and will take like 2 carts of groceries and random stuff we need), so I thought about going in there tonight.  I asked him how the roads were and he tells me that they're fine, he was driving 50 home.   50?  Like 10 below the speed limit?  Nopedy nope nope nope.  That would be like me going 35-40.  

[cdneh 3,112]

5 hours ago, SAT said:

The most frustrating day of the year

 

Like the kind of day that CDH has...

Sorry to hear that. Not bad here today, but we were away out all day   Honestly, I thought it was later than it is. 730 and I am dead tired. The Husband, on the other hand, is all fired up. He's got fencing quotes and has a list about 15 items long of things to DO.  I think getting him the heck out of here, and away from his Mother will be a real tonic.

[Dianalorena 1,153]

1 hour ago, N-o-l-a said:

Speaking of scared to drive - the Dane got home and had to turn right around because he got a call that a restaurant in bigger town had a broken pipe.  I have a 20% total purchase coupon I need to use at Target (and will take like 2 carts of groceries and random stuff we need), so I thought about going in there tonight.  I asked him how the roads were and he tells me that they're fine, he was driving 50 home.   50?  Like 10 below the speed limit?  Nopedy nope nope nope.  That would be like me going 35-40.  

I would be a granny. But, I know that driving too slow can also cause accidents. I'm just not a confident driver since I haven't had a lot of experience, especially not in big cities. I will have to practice and get over myself, but I'm a bit worried still. Also the thought of being stopped and then talking to the police and what if I get nervous and that's how Diana gets deported *paranoia* 

[SAT 9,609]

2 hours ago, N-o-l-a said:

 

I don't remember where I saw this, but I think the vehicle safety standards are higher in the US?  Here is an article about it:

 

 

 

So good are our standards, that the rich Chinamen in China all come here to buy cars (Which are all available in China, in different configurations), and ship them back to mainland....

It's degrading if you're a rich fook in China, and drive a car that is manufactured for intended sale in China......

 

Airbags? what are airbags? 

ABS? what is ABS?

Door crossbeams? What are door crossbeams? 

5 WHAT per hour bumpers?? 

emission? what mean emission? 

etc....