Now that I'm employed, of course things are coming up, going down and breaking. I mean, sure, better now than a month ago, but I can't catch a break.
First off, our fridge is toast. After de-icing it twice, I figure the heating coil is dead. And then, speaking of ice, the ice maker stopped working. It turns out that this KitchenAid model, along with Whirlpool and other related brand models, have a fatal flaw in the bottom of the door hinge, where the wires eventually crack and break, killing the ice maker and eventually the controls. I tried to put some wire lever nuts in there, but there's almost no room to work there. So F-it, I'm done trying to bandaid the thing. Annoyed that the thing didn't even make it to nine years, and that I only bought it so the handles matched the other appliances that came with the house. Ordered a basic-ass LG to replace it. Our washer and dryer are LG, 15 years and counting, with only a leaky valve replacement that I was able to fix myself.
Now that Simon is 16, it's time to get him licensed. I knew the insurance would be bad, but didn't realize it would be double what we pay bad. That more than reverses the recent rate recovery we got here in Florida. It's going to be about $2,800 annually. We want to get him a cheap used car, and it looks like we can score an old Nissan Leaf for under $5k, which would only be $100/half to insure. And he won't be able to go very far in it either. At one point, I figured that I'd get a new car and give him mine, a 2021, but I don't want car payments anymore. We have EV's in Florida, so no rusting, no real maintenance, and they should last a very long time.
We've been putting off carpet replacement for a few years, but it looks so bad that I'm starting to hate my own house. "Builder basic" doesn't even begin to describe the crap that Pulte used. It looked bad after five years, and now we're at nine. I guess we'll probably start with my office and the front room, and if we like the service from the chosen vendor, we'll use them to do upstairs. That's not gonna be cheap. We have some rugs that are in pretty sad shape, too, but those are hopefully cheap fixes.
Owning stuff is expensive, but I suppose it's better than renting or leasing stuff. Well, cars are always a losing proposition, and I have to try hard to resist new cars. I get a lot of joy from driving, but not all of the time. And I'm a gadget nerd, and they're basically big gadgets. At least I'm not a car status guy.
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