'Sup, holmes...
That greeting would probably have gotten weird looks even when it was temporally relevant. Now that we’re likely 30 years past its expiration date, I’m sure it lands all the harder. Anytwat, some updates in the realm of Highcastle. I’m trying to recall the significant events since the last update in January.
We had our spring HVAC checkup and our aging downstairs York unit needed a freon recharge, with a warning that it might not last the entire summer. Given our desire to pay off the new upstairs Carrier unit first (installed May 2024), we decided to try and ride it out for at least one more summer. It lasted about a month before blowing the new capacitor (installed by Bryce from Atlas AC during the spring checkup, which ended up costing us $600). He mentioned that the sealant treatment (for which we paid 3K last summer) might have gummed up the system and led to the new capacitor’s rapid failure. Giving consideration to the incremental charges adding up and in light of tariff nonsense running amok (regardless if real in any given case, we’ve already seen what some companies do to capitalize on manufactured scarcity or ‘third party’ cost increases), we decided it was time to replace the downstairs unit as well before the cost might increase even further.
We essentially got the same system as upstairs, just the 5 ton model. It’s specs are slightly updated due to new federal regulations about freon. It’s some newer version (read, more expensive) that I gather is more energy efficient. All told, the butcher’s bill ended up approaching 16K. We paid the additional 2k for 10 yr parts/labor. Maybe a gamble that anything significant will go wrong in ten years, but if it does, we don’t have to pay for it. Carrier is a more reputable brand than York, and it’s considered one of the top three HVAC manufacturers from a quality/performance standpoint. So there’s that. But, certainly 16K we didn’t want to add to our consumer debt after paying off the house in December 2024.
That was the single biggest house related expenditure by far, but not the only one. Within a few days of the HVAC purchase, the microwave decided to die (again), almost two years to the day from purchase. We had bought the same model Panasonic because we didn’t want to buy a trim kit (which can be as expensive as the microwave itself), but after having them fail essentially at the two year mark twice in a row, we decided to try and find a more reliable model. We ended up going with a Frigidaire and its trim kit from Home Depot. The military discount helped with the trim kit, but not appliances because of course it doesn’t. There went another $750+ in a puff of oily, vaguely meat scented smoke.
Are we done? Of course not. In an attempt to mitigate the back door mud trails being left by Roci, Skittles, and Nynaeve, I went ahead and ‘splurged’ on two pallets of sod so I could skip the part where we wait on new seed to come in incompletely in the heavily shaded areas of our backyard. $900 gone in a puff of whispy grass and fading dreams of electronic gear. Tack on another $1400 for flood and car insurance, and our bank account is fighting a failing battle to stay afloat. I reviewed the highest charges to our credit card dating back to December, and these were the biggest.
In fairness, there were some discretionary expenses in there that weren’t strictly (or at all) necessary, including the Rush 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, and the Conqueror’s Challenge (Middle Earth). Not to mention over $400 for thumb drives as part of Scanocalypse 2025, and my recent $632 purchase of a DeWalt table saw. In my defense, the tool and sod purchases are part of keeping the home functioning and livable. The table saw was a purchase I envisioned as for the post HVAC payoff time frame, but recent developments with crumbling infrastructure (gutter fascia and garage door jamb disintegration) motivated me to save nine with a stitch in time. I haven’t gone to the trouble to get real estimates from contractors on fixing these issues, but my experience is that they’ll generally charge 3x or more what it would cost me to fix.
A particularly stark example is a contractor that came out to repair damage made by Atlas AC last year. It was some drywall damage from the installer falling and hitting the wall at the bottom of the attic ladder. He also had overstressed the attic ladder hinge and the framing had begun to show cracks. The contractor applied some mud, texture, and paint to the wall. He drilled wood screws all around and through the rectangle of the attic ladder frame into the main house framing.
He had bought some new matched paint for the wall damage and already had the drywall mud on hand. I’m guessing maybe ~ $20 in supplies? I’m not sure what a quart of paint costs at Home Depot. Any guess as to the cost? I’m betting you under estimate, like I would have. $1300. For $20 in supplies and ‘four hours"‘ of labor, because he applied the mud and then sat in his truck for an hour while it dried before applying texture, after which he sat in his truck for another hour while waiting for it to dry before applying the paint. All that to say, whenever possible, I’m making my own repairs and maintenance checks whenever possible and avoiding something that could fail catastrophically. This is mainly electrical or plumbing work that involves gas supply.
Hilariously (or not), he didn’t actually correct or remedy the hinge issue, which is the weak point. I learned afterwards that screws aren’t typically used here because they lack shear strength compared to the framing nails that are used (and were already adequately in place). I didn’t realize this until after he was gone. I’ve decided to fix the issue myself.
On the creative front, it’s still been a slow incremental roll towards visual and musical disciplines. I performed “The Spirit of Radio” for my winter performance piece, and it was mostly okay, but I Rushed (pun intended) the main riff a few times. Shaun was still charitable (as per usual, I honestly don’t think he can be arsed to care, it’s a paycheck), acknowledging the rough spots that need work. I learned a valuable lesson about setting up my Logic project and the utility of CC commands to make patch/scene switches on my AxeFx so I can concentrate on the performance. It also has further instilled my desire to play live single takes for my performance videos. This probably deserves its own separate post. I’ll leave off here as this has already stretched on (as per SOP) beyond my own interest.