Random Thought Thread

[House Hunter's International Edition]

(Every - Single - Episode)

Agent: Here we have an amazing example of a 15th century French farmhouse, completely updated. The owners who did the remodel hired conservation consultants from the Louvre in order to ensure that the period look of the home was maintained with immaculate care. The home is registered as a tier-one historic site, so you will get some help directly from the local government as regards maintaining the grounds, which include an olive orchard that dates from the 9th century and a vineyard that produces an excellent wine sought after by the many tourists that shop in the local town. Both will bring you enough income to cover the mortgage and have some cash to spare.

Wife: It doesn't have a dishwasher. Forget it.

 

Seriously, if I was in the market for a house like that, I'd hire a damn housekeeper and not worry about freakin' dishes. If I was in that spending bracket, I can't imagine not getting someone to at least do my dishes for me.

People are weird.

 

I know, I know. But I'm telling you, when the prospective buyers are Americans that missing dishwasher is a deal-breaker. I'm watching these shows and yelling at the screen "She just showed you the paperwork from the Vatican authenticating the fresco in the living room as having been done by Leonardo da Vinci!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"

 

Or they could even—gasp—hand wash their dishes

I can assure from personal experience it is nowhere near as daunting a task as people make it out to be

Also, probably will save on water if you do it well and take a lot less time then waiting for an hour or two for a dishwasher to get a whole load done

But I'm just a simple ranchhand. I probably won't ever understand the complex nuances of upper-middle to upper class culture

 

That has to be pure reality TV drama casting. Surely there aren't many Americans like that who want to live somewhere more cultured than LA in the first place.

 

I've always been resistant to doing it by hand, even though I haven't lived with dishwashers much. Just a couple of formative years was enough to spoil me.

But this is what I think about, if I ever move up from lower-middleclass subsistence: budgeting my money in practical ways that mean just spending less time doing tedious menial work, and being more comfortable and relaxed. (I don't really understand people who live on a similar income to me but manage to burn through credit for things like extra clothes and flashy electronics that never make them happy, anyway. If you're willing to reach into money you don't have yet, there's so many practical things to spend on that can actually make life less of a pain... and god that makes me sound boring, but I swear most people just do spending wrong.)

 

I know what you mean

I just saw something a week ago on my lunch break where a couple were looking at a New Orleans Victorian home in old New Orleans and they were showed a masterpiece of craftsmanship & taste that had amazing view and nifty stain glass that doubled as a door to a private balcony, all with updated but small appliances

All for WAY below what I can get an ugly deadbeat apartment in my state

I showed my best friend the footage and asked her if she'd like to move out to New Orleans with me

 

I'd get a new wife.

 

This is interesting! I didn't know dishwashers are as ubiquitous in US homes as coffee machines seem to be.

I don't know what proportion of households here have dishwashers but if it is a majority, I doubt it's a huge one. Hardly anybody has a coffee machine. Never met anybody with a trash compactor or a double sink.

 

Nobody eats cereal any more, hot or cold.

 

Also, we don't have a freezer. If I want to eat frozen peas, I have to eat the whole packet.

 

And 'fresh coffee' is certainly an enemy product, all that 'Starbucks' & 'Clooney' & plastic shite, enemy of the people.

 

Well, this is just me, but I tend to have the philosophy "work like a dog, lounge like an emperor."

So I don't make too much, but I have all the necessities of life. So while I intentionally put money aside every paycheck to my savings and pay back all my financial obligations, all the extra money (usually only a hundred or two) I might have occasionally I blow on whatever I gives me pleasure.

Sometimes I buy a brand name dress to make myself feel pretty the rare occasions I'm not wearing dirt & workboots.

Sometimes I save up for something like an iPad or appletv. I'm not constantly upgrading gadgets though—I use it till it no longer functions, and only then will try to save up for something new.

Sometimes it's leather bound novels. Others I go out and splurge on delicious food.

Basically, exactly because I physically exhaust myself at work, I like using whatever spending money I can muster on nonessential luxuries that can give me pleasure or help me relax. It feels rewarding for all I do.

But I'm not crazy with my money. My only debt is Student Loans and car payments—all of which I'm paying above my monthly owed to get it & the interest down.

There are definitely fiscally irresponsible people; several of my friends are most definitely.

But they come from wealthy families—who buy them fancy cars & pay for their apartments & get them out of financial difficulties when they inevitably arise. They are constantly flying to New York, England, Germany, Japan, everywhere on whims. They spend $300 on a stupid game then say how they don't have money for groceries.

Definitely infuriating.

But sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between my splurges and theirs from an outside perspective—because I make choices on where my extra money goes & so 'sacrifice' other things. But I know what I have to spend, and that spending it on this item means I can't spend it on that other thing or anything else.

 

Sadly television doesn't show the "real" America.
Of course there are the rich with their big homes, multiple homes, maids, etc. And there are the extremely poor from the homeless to the almost homeless. But the majority of Americans are somewhere in between financially. Many only 1 or 2 paychecks away from ruin.
Most of us can live without a dishwasher if it means we can take a once in a lifetime trip, or pay for our kid's hockey team make a trip to the youth hockey finals.
Many of us have almost no retirement funds, not because we bought a BMW, but because we helped our kids go to college, or because we chose to work in the non-profit world without benefits.
Many have moved in with their children because medical expenses wiped out any savings we had and now they cannot keep their home.
Personally, we are now embracing experiences over inanimate objects. Also if I have to dust it, I don't want it.

 

Honestly, I don't understand the upper-middle class, or the upper class. Half of what they do makes no sense. And they don't really teach their kids anything about real-life skills, either. Their kids are sort of... blissfully ignorant.

For Example: I had to teach my 3 upper-middle class friends how to pay a check. Yes.

Here's a little bit of background. Our school orchestra decided that we were going to go on a 3 night trip to disney world. My family was able to get enough money together so I could go.

So, I got in a little group with my friends (since we didn't have chaperones we had to get into groups), was elected leader of the group, and shit happened. We decided we were going to eat at a semi-nice restaurant, and I was excited, since I don't get to do that often. We ate, and the waitress brought out checks, and the other three simultaneously started freaking the fuck out. Understandably, I was confused.

"It's just a check," I say. "You put the money in the little pocket thing and they take it. How do you not know this, you have to go out for dinner fairly often, right?"

"Yes, but Dad takes care of it!" Group Member #1 exclaims, frantic. The GMs #2 and #3 agree. I groan and rub my face, and proceed to teach them how to pay a check. And then I teach them that tipping is necessary, not just something you do to be nice.

A day or two later, we go out to eat again. They still have some trouble with everything, and I have to order for them (because they apparently still don't know how to do that), I do all the talking, I teach them about servers' wages in America, and then some argument springs up. I don't even remember what it was about, really. But I do remember how it ended.

"I have more money than you!" GM #2 roared, standing up and slamming his hands down on the table. The entire restaurant, for the most part, turns around and looks at us. The servers keep serving. This sort of thing must happen a lot in Disney World. GM #2 sits down, very red-faced. It doesn't take long for conversation to start back up again.

"I think that is the whitest thing you've ever done," I said.

"Fuck off," he replies, head in his arms.

I'm sort of glad the trip happened, though. Without my help they probably would've taken a girl to dinner for the first time and had no clue what to do. Plus, it was fun.

 

Damn you, Korean b*****d.

 

*Thai.

 

I have a chest freezer--I know they're more energy efficient than uprights, but... yikes. When it's full, or even mostly full, it's an ordeal to get anything out from near the bottom. I've tried a variety of dividers and stacking techniques and other plans, but none of them have been nearly as convenient as an upright freezer with shelves.

 

We have a French press in this house but I don't drink much coffee so I don't know what most houses have, if anything. Not coffee machines though - never seen those in a domestic kitchen, just restaurants.

 

My wife was trying to talk me into getting one of those and I couldn't imagine that we'd actually use the features. I'm not going to enter the expiration dates of all my food into a fucking refrigerator every time I go shopping. And I'm certainly not going to stand in front of the thing writing a list on it.

I just can't imagine I'd use the features in a way that would justify a purchase like that.