1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

I didn’t pay for it. Lol

 

I don’t know if that makes it any better!!! Haha

 

This one is being funded via taxpayer money since its offered through a Massachusetts Career Center.

 

I'm still seeing smaller properties popup near the main ATL airport going under 100k. Some of them may be in undesirable neighborhoods, or may be tear-downs so you're basically buying the property, and you're in the flight line of the airport so maybe noisy (I grew up on-base or near bases my first 15 years, doesn't bother me). But it's still possible in ATL.

At the rate people are flooding into this city the last 3-5 years, that's literally as long as most people would need to sit on a bad property before the neighborhood turns to desirable in most cases. Right now, there are still some lots in Lakewood, and just south of there, which you can still snatch up. Lakewood is a 10 minute commute to the city w/o using the interstate, via multiple paths.

But yeah, if you just wanted a lot and drop an RV or tiny home on it, or a pre-built modular, of which there are dozens of options, super easy to get into it under $100k.

 

haha. I lurk here constantly. This forum is great for learning and I am really a noob when it comes to wrenching so I sit back and read, read, read.

 

When I was going to Georgia Tech back in the mid 90s, I would've liked to live in Marietta and work for Lockheed. Prices were very attractive at that time. I can only imagine what they are nowadays.

 

You wouldn't recognize it now. Midtown's city blocks just across the interstate from GT campus has gone from flat to high-rises over the last 15 years. The last 7-8 years has been absurd. Not long after I moved up here, we were based in Midtown between 10th and 8th (2005). We had to move in 2018. Beyond being too congested, rent climbing thru the roof on the space, the construction was too much to tolerate.

 

Hotel or city water pressure always takes me by surprise every time. I can tell at my house if someone is using hot or cold water just by the water pressure.

That shower head damn near pushed me out the shower. Lol

 

They obviously don't have the CA GPM limiters. Go to a hotel and you can get misted in the shower.

 

Why does Cali just suck on most aspects of life that shouldn’t?

 

Agreed. What the fuck is wrong with all yall over yonder?

This is the big man making your state

 

Race with NY to somewhere I don't want to say?

 

Lol we’ll leave that to the imagination and continue conversation about hotels

 

Speaking of hotels, I told my wife the other day an adjustable wrench, needle nose pliers and a 4-way screw driver might be a good idea for our next stay.

 

Junkyard teardown of a non vvti 2uz. Pretty interesting if you have 35 minutes to kill.

https://youtu.be/cRlcN6vRHhg

 

What's your water setup at home, as far as incoming pressure to spigot pressure? Only asking b/c I've replaced two diff't WPR valves in homes over the years because they needed repack, and helped neighbor diagnose his pipe knocking to a fully failed WPR. A lot of hotels use Speakman brand shower heads, which are some of the highest pressure heads you can find, even the ones claiming "low GPM". Their products Black magic feckery.

I've said it here before, I'll probably say it again ... since rona 'sploded, several pairs of our friends made their exodus from CA and NY, many landing to TN and GA. Though one of ours did a weird lateral this month, moving from NYC to upstate, almost across the street from the couple who found 66 bottles of prohibition whiskey during renovation, then up and decided last month to move to Calistoga just north of the Bay.

CA and NY money is a lot of what's been driving up housing prices up here in the ATL. People moving, buying homes sight-unseen, cash, because it's 3x the house at 1/2 the cost. We've also seen a blatantly obvious uptick in TX plates ever since TX's reproductive controversy started. Most common out of states I'm seeing in the city right now are NY, CA, TX, FL, and the usuals of AL and TN. It's usually the CA and FL tags I see creeping through clearly scouting homes in my n'hood. Lots of rental cars here have FL tags for whatever reason though.

 

Quite a move going from CA to the south. Granted Atlanta metro is not the same as rural areas.

 

Lesson of the story I guess is don't let your truck sit idle for a long time.

 

Huh. I would've never expected the actual cause of that.

But to his point at the very end, same thing I stress: Always test compression and leakdown test on a used engine before you think about installing. Same thing I brought up with @kirbotc and @TBinky ... Half hour of investment to save you hours (and dollars) of pain later. It's shocking how many places selling used engines don't bother to check - probably for plausible deniability later, which is shady af.

 

There are quite a few places I wouldn't mind living in GA, outside of the metro ATL area, and it's not just limited to Macon, Savannah, or Augusta depending what I was looking for. There's quite a few appealing cities in this state. I never thought I'd be a "proud Georgian" (much less a "Georgian", period) but it's a good little state overall. I can't complain. Maybe it's just grown on me, I've officially never lived in any state this long, continuously.

About the only place I wouldn't move these days is anywhere within the 1st 15-20 miles north of the I-285 perimeter. Traffic from Buckhead northward is outrageous. People bitch and complain about how bad it is to get through downtown, they've obviously never been on 400, 75 or 85 at the 285 cross, nor anywhere north. Not that things are much better around Stockbridge on the south side, starting around exit 195 on I-75 and letting up at the I-675 fork, but ... ugh. North of the city is a nightmare.

I honestly think Tennessee is where it's at right now, though. Maybe just a 'grass is greener' situation, but eastern TN is amazing, Chattanooga and its surrounding area is beautiful, and I'm pretty fond of Knoxville too.

 

The move where he threw the socket at the ground and caught it was pretty epic. Real men use a dishwasher though.

 

So did they finally get rid of the 'professional' beggars hanging out in Midtown? Campus cops at GT used to talk about one in particular within the GT/Midtown area that would beg during the day and drive away in his 10 year old Mercedes at the end of the day.

Hopefully, the Varsity is still there selling burgers. Can't picture that place getting torn down.

Solution...move to Buckhead. Got 2.5 mil laying around?

 

Our mall has a Kia and a Mustang inside near the Auntie Anne’s and Forever 21 for people to see while shopping.
The mall in Buckhead had a Bentyaga inside near the Fendi and Gucci stores. Just for perspective.

 

We are full.

Seriously though, the word is out. We are being invaded. The house next to us sold for $190k in January. Someone flipped it and sold it last month to a couple from CA for $460k.

 

We talking suburb or more country? I can't picture Calis having to drive more than 5 miles for their morning latte or trip to their spinning class.

 

Lots to unpack here with these two comments

RE: Beggars. Here's the deal.

There were three I knew of in the Midtown/Westside area who were 'pro' with it. There was one just north of Grant Park also, who lived in Cabbagetown, who'd sit on the I-20 ramp at Boulevard with his dog panhandling a few hours a day, using the dog as bait. Then he'd walk back to his 3/2 house on Gaskill St SE (I believe).

For the "legit" pandhandling and homelessness in general, IMO, it was almost under control in '05, main reason we moved shop a block from the Carter Library to Midtown. The anti-panhandling legislation passed, it that would've been a significant nail in the coffin, but Katrina hit a few weeks before it passed, redirecting a flood of homeless up here, many on the street because they needed psych help or meds. It's the odd thing about Atlanta, any time something undesirable happens elsewhere, we tend to catch some of the fallout ... like hen AL and TX passing their recent reproductive laws, huge influx of women moved here from both states.

Katrina was a setback, but ATL had resources available to help pad it. Until 18-24 months later, the big recession start. Everything tanked. Social services started getting cut due to lack of funding, at the same time people were losing their jobs and homes. Tons more people landed on the street and in jail. Crime spiked. Our workplace in midtown got hit (smash and grab) 2 different times between 2008-2013. A lot of it bled into Buckhead, which had their residents furious. Not long after, Mayor Reed came in, boosted up the police and supported APD's community engagement, over the course of his admin crime tapered (maybe more due to the economy than his policies).

Covid really put us back in pre-2005 numbers though, absolutely killed us on the homeless/panhandler front. Med-high density apartment/townhome construction in the intown SE and SW corridors have led to several abandoned properties that served as encampments being demolished and replaced w/apartments. Lots of businesses which would've acted as eyes/ears/deterrents were forced to close doors, so their doorsteps became overnight campout spots. As of today, we probably have over 1,000-2,000 people living in tents around the interior of the city, just under the overpasses, and you'll see it at every major interchange. It's nuts.

RE: Buckhead... Let's just say a lot has probably changed since you were here, and it's a laughable shithole now, in my view.

Every time people tell me they want to "go visit Buckhead" or "move here to live in Buckhead", I quietly chuckle to myself. Don't get me wrong, there are some places you can still live and have it be like it was 30-40 years ago like Mt. Paran, but you're still living with a bunch of old white people who think they're better than everyone else, and it's a 7-figure entry fee. But the idea that Buckhead is somehow the Beverly Hills of Atlanta is the biggest bullshit farce ever. It's remained this weird blend of old-whitey, suburban Ken/Barbie (think entitled "Karen") types, and ghetto-fabulous for at least the last decade and a half, if not more.

Buckhead, originally being full old blue-hairs and old rich white dudes, giving off its perception of money & fame as if it were the "Hollywood" of Atlanta, is what brought about that weird mix. When I started commuting here for work at the turn of the century ('01-'02), the mall referenced, either Phipps Plaza and Lenox Mall or both, were the place younger kids with no means whatsoever would land on Friday and Saturday nights, in their rented luxury sports cars and nicest clothes, flossing, trying to pick up chicks, and/or make some quick money from a stick-up job, selling illicit stuff, etc. Funny enough, the "Karens", "Kens", and "Chads" were there for the exact same reason those kids were. When the two surged into Buckhead, these two groups who are absolutely intolerant of one another, crime and violence followed. Shit. Show.

I have no sympathy to offer. Buckhead created its own problems due to the image it projected, which drew moths to the flame, moths which then laid eggs and ate their fancy attire. I'm not rich, suburban, or probably even white enough in their mind to live up there. I'm probably far too tolerant of mingling with a variety of humans for their taste. But as of the last few years, just like Brookhaven, they're threatening to break away. It would be a huge blow to in-town, removing a huge chunk of the tax base used to fund public schools etc. and all because they're pissed about crime, crime that arrived because of the image some of them chose to attract a younger crowd.

The reality is, if you want concentrated money, you'll find more in Inman Park than Buckhead. The people welding it just don't flaunt it, many aren't over 70yrs old, won't have blue hair, and will tolerate just about everyone as long as you're friendly. And much to Buckhead's chagrin, the best restaurants you'll find always have been and still are south of Buckhead and east of downtown, mostly, going back at least 10-15 years now. Unless you like paying 3x as much for food that's not quite as good.

I'm sure every city similar history or stories once you get to know it or stay there, fairly engaged, for long enough.

 

Yup. Same is happening for us. We couldn't even beg someone to buy our house in '11 for less than what we bought it. Today, it's worth more than 3x what we listed for in '11. It's absurd the quantity of people with money moving here now. Hopefully you won't be pissed if we move up there, even though we'll probably end up in Chattanooga or therabouts, which @abcinv was also talking about.

That's just it - things have shifted. They're realizing now, they can move over here to GA and TN, get a shitload of land for the money, and have enough money leftover to open their own Starbucks. And now there's 100 different spin classes you can attend online from the comfort of your living room, that shit is no longer an obstacle.

 

Fuck yeah. Next time I have my intake off, if I have time, I'm gonna split it in half and throw it in there. May do the valve covers too. I need to find some dishwasher safe engine degreaser.

 

Simple Green would work. They make some that's aluminum safe.

 

Yup ^^ it's the purple colored "HD" flavor. The green stuff will compromise aluminum. I typically use the HD in my ultrasonic baths when cleaning small parts. But I'd test how much it bubbles with a spray of water.