I have never loved and hated something so much as . . .

[Dan H]

. . . my garage door. About a month ago it made a horrendous grinding noise and wouldn't go up or down. I opened it up to inspect and the (plastic?!?) drive gear had shredded itself. Replacement kit on Amazon, 25 bucks.

Replaced the gear in it a couple weekends ago, didn't work. Would just alternate back and forth about six inches.

Thankfully we converted our attached garage into a bedroom and had a spare one that I'd given to my father -in-law.

Which had been left out in the rain. FML.

Took both of them apart and cleaned things up, tried to make a Franken-opener.

No dice.

Long story short, I bit the bullet tonight and bought a new system. On the bright side I have plenty of spare parts so long as circuit boards don't go bad.

[Indy]

Yeah those plastic gears shred and the kill the motor. It really sucks. I bit the bullet and bought an opener with only 1 moving part. I love it. It makes almost no noise (but the door on the other hand is pretty loud).

[Mori Chu]

Could be worse. You could live in the SF Bay Area and, despite having two decent tech industry incomes, be completely unable to afford even a modest house.

[Superbone]

Yeah, I replaced my garage door opener 4 or 5 years ago. I'm not particularly handy but I did it myself and it took me a good 3 days to complete the job. It was a good exercise for my kids and I. I've got one of those nice quiet Whisper Drives now.

[Superbone]

Could be worse. You could live in the SF Bay Area and, despite having two decent tech industry incomes, be completely unable to afford even a modest house.

I feel for you, man. I'm planning on moving from Temecula to closer to my job in San Diego next summer. Prices are ridiculous although not nearly as bad as the Bay Area. I'm wondering if I'll be able to find something affordable. Even the rental prices are sky high.

[Mori Chu]

My rent is currently $3300/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment.

[Superbone]

My rent is currently $3300/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment.

Oh, boy. My mortgage is $1775 for a 2700 sq ft, 2-story house. Plus, I've got two dogs, one of them full size so I pretty much need a house. Ugh, maybe my commute will continue.

[Dan H]

My rent is currently $3300/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment.

Yeah, might want to look at moving options. Any chance you can go virtual? I did at my office and it's nice to know I can literally live anywhere that has high-speed Internet.

[Indy]

My rent is currently $3300/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment.

I was in Redwood City recently and decided to check the market. 900 sq ft shacks we're going for 600k.

[Dan H]

My rent is currently $3300/mo for a 2-bedroom apartment.

I was in Redwood City recently and decided to check the market. 900 sq ft shacks we're going for 600k.

Yeah, but the taxes are cheap enough you can make it up in other ways.

One of my buddies in Flagstaff relo'd from LA in the late 90's. They had a two bedroom bungalow and they ended up buying a 3,000 square foot two story in a really nice housing edition for cash with what they sold the Cali house for.

[Nodack]

My house is worth just over half of what I spent on it. Bought it for 280, spent 60 fixing it up and now it's worth about 180. Yeah!

[Indy]

Let me guess. You bought in 2007.

[Nodack]

Yep. My crystal ball was broken that year.

[Superbone]

Yep. My crystal ball was broken that year.

That's alright. As long as you don't plan on moving anytime soon, it'll recover in time.

[Nodack]

I'm not too worried about it. We refinanced with the HARP program and we love our location and backyard. Not thrilled with the inside.

[Indy]

That's great though. Location and lot are the things you can't change. You can spend elbow grease and 5-10k a year and have the home of your dreams in a few years.

[Nodack]

True. We are backed up to the freeway and most people would cringe at that, but It's been my favorite thing about the house. Behind my house is a wall. Behind that is a water retention green belt at a lower elevation that almost nobody ever goes except landscapers that trim all the trees and bushes. Behind that is a big wall. Behind that is a medium sized canal. Behind that is a huge wall of dirt about 30 feet tall. Behind that is the freeway. We barely hear the freeway at all and there is nobody behind us. Most houses have another house backed up to it with neighbors staring down into your backyard. Only my one side neighbor can see my backyard from his second story window, but we planted two big bushes that cover their view into our juccuzi and most of our back yard. I can't tell you how much that is worth to me. It's really nice having a desert landscape behind the house that nobody ever goes instead of another house.

[Indy]

From the way you describe it it sounds like you back up to the 60 in Mesa.

Yeah, I love that there is only 1 house out of the 6 around the back of my house that can see you into it, and 75% of their view is blocked by trees. Everyone else around us is a single story.

[Nodack]

That sounds great. You can't beat privacy. Without it you really don't feel as comfortable in your backyard.

I am backed up to the 60 in Mesa.

[Dan H]

Let me guess. You bought in 2007.

Was a great year for real estate here. Weird how things go from region to region I guess. We bought our house in '07 and it's nearly doubled in value since. Of course I did a buttload of work to it, but I would lose my mind if it was going down like you hear about toward the coasts.