![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
That's not how this works
Dec. 28th, 2021 09:59 amRight now I should be on my way to Long Beach, Washington. Right around the time I learned I have this week off, I saw something on Instagram down there that I wanted to get Garrett for Christmas, so I booked a vacation rental for tonight and the next night. Just a little getaway with an extra day so I can chill out a bit. It snowed basically all day on the 26th, though.
I leave my van parked on the street Saturday nights so I can head out for a Sunday morning walk without waking Garrett up with the garage door, so it got buried in the snow. Yesterday I cleaned it off, and between the two of us, we cleared half the driveway (which is enough for both cars to get to the garage) as well as the steps up to the front porch. And I swept the snow off our mailbox and the two on either side.
The first thing I saw when I peeked out my bedroom window this morning was snow on those mailboxes, alerting me that we got more snow overnight. If it wasn't for that, I'd have probably been at least halfway to Long Beach by now.
Normally when it snows here, it barely sticks, and if it does, it doesn't last. But the timing was just right for a lot of the snow to melt as the temperature was dropping, making everything icy. And since the temperature's not going back above freezing for two more days, there's no telling what roads will be like later today or tomorrow. It'd be nice if I can head out tomorrow since I'm paying for both nights of my stay no matter what.
I got to thinking about how if I could somehow have predicted this, I could have spent the same amount and gotten a better place, like one with a hot tub. And of course that led to me thinking what I always do, which is that I wish we had a swim spa here. If you're not familiar, it's a big hot tub that also has a current you can swim against. You can even get one with a treadmill in the bottom! That'd be so great.
What I really want is that big treadmill swim spa, along with a big deck for it and privacy planter walls. We have a nice big back yard, but it's not super private from the neighbors on either side, and if I had a swim spa, I'd want it to be private. There's a perfect spot for it all.
It would cost a LOT to do this. $60,000 at least? For some reason when you talk about a project like that, someone usually pops up to say, "Better start saving up!"
Groan.
That's just not how that works. If you want to make a big, expensive improvement to your home, you should do it via a home equity loan. Makes a lot more sense than doing basically nothing for 15 or so years and being miserable while you save up money that'll probably have to go to some emergency down the line anyway.
Trying to save up that much for a home improvement makes about as much sense as trying to save up the full amount to purchase a home. Go for it if you have the means and think you can, but it's bad advice.
I leave my van parked on the street Saturday nights so I can head out for a Sunday morning walk without waking Garrett up with the garage door, so it got buried in the snow. Yesterday I cleaned it off, and between the two of us, we cleared half the driveway (which is enough for both cars to get to the garage) as well as the steps up to the front porch. And I swept the snow off our mailbox and the two on either side.
The first thing I saw when I peeked out my bedroom window this morning was snow on those mailboxes, alerting me that we got more snow overnight. If it wasn't for that, I'd have probably been at least halfway to Long Beach by now.
Normally when it snows here, it barely sticks, and if it does, it doesn't last. But the timing was just right for a lot of the snow to melt as the temperature was dropping, making everything icy. And since the temperature's not going back above freezing for two more days, there's no telling what roads will be like later today or tomorrow. It'd be nice if I can head out tomorrow since I'm paying for both nights of my stay no matter what.
I got to thinking about how if I could somehow have predicted this, I could have spent the same amount and gotten a better place, like one with a hot tub. And of course that led to me thinking what I always do, which is that I wish we had a swim spa here. If you're not familiar, it's a big hot tub that also has a current you can swim against. You can even get one with a treadmill in the bottom! That'd be so great.
What I really want is that big treadmill swim spa, along with a big deck for it and privacy planter walls. We have a nice big back yard, but it's not super private from the neighbors on either side, and if I had a swim spa, I'd want it to be private. There's a perfect spot for it all.
It would cost a LOT to do this. $60,000 at least? For some reason when you talk about a project like that, someone usually pops up to say, "Better start saving up!"
Groan.
That's just not how that works. If you want to make a big, expensive improvement to your home, you should do it via a home equity loan. Makes a lot more sense than doing basically nothing for 15 or so years and being miserable while you save up money that'll probably have to go to some emergency down the line anyway.
Trying to save up that much for a home improvement makes about as much sense as trying to save up the full amount to purchase a home. Go for it if you have the means and think you can, but it's bad advice.
