Starting over in Cleveland, OH

I have no idea why this Shaker Heights home is in the low $200k in this neighborhood of high $300k houses.  I could probably find out why.  One of my oldest and closest friends literally lives next door to this house.  

In reply to John Welsh :

That first house is 3 bedroom 2 bath. A little on the small side but it's nicely done. Fortunately I have a year minimum before we buy, so I have plenty of time to research and save my money. Hopefully the stock market will continue to be good to me and I won't have to drop multiple thousands on a blown motor again!  In two years I should have some raises as well, considering I'm starting at the bottom. So fingers crossed. That house for $150 is pretty much the perfect price. 
 

john, my wife and I owe you a beer or three. Once covid is done we'll all say cheers 

John Welsh said:

In reply to infinitenexus :

Don't get discouraged about the housing.  I gave just a quick look but here is a house in Fairview Park (west side suburb)

$154k 3 bed 2 bath w/ basement.  Small at only 1,000 sq ft without counting the basement.  I question if it is really 2 bath but hey...  This is  a quaint, Westide suburb neighborhood.  Taxes and all this will probably cost you $1k house payment per month.  

Street view, the house before the red car: 

The major downside is this is 12 miles and 19 minutes from downtown or 19 miles and 30 minutes to Cleveland Heights

In general, I would say this house is over priced but like I mentioned I only gave a quick look.  The moral being that $1k per month should buy you something.  

My apartment was right around the corner from there, and the high school is very close, like "get woke up by marching band practice" close 

infinitenexus said:

In reply to John Welsh :

john, my wife and I owe you a beer or three. Once covid is done we'll all say cheers 

As the weather improves, set your GPS to the oldest continuous working lighthouse on the Great Lakes, Marblehead Lighthouse , about 1.5 hour drive, west from from you.  That will put you in my general area.

Don't expect your pregnant wife to climb the steps inside but it's "outside only" during Covid.  Still pretty grounds.  Look North and West and see the Lake Erie Islands.  Look South and see Cedar Point, our World Class Amusement Park with more roller coasters than any other park.  

On your way to Marblehead, you'll pass near our local dairy (Ohio's oldest dairy) that serves ice cream right out front of their ice cream factory.  Rather than a beer, I'll buy you a cone (or cup.)  Toft Dairy

I've walked the steps and it's a sight to see, very cool view.

Honestly, if you're looking to move up quickly in IT, you'll get a bigger pay bump by switching companies. You'll have to weigh that against the experience and certifications your company is giving you, but in general jumping ship will net you the biggest raise, especially when you're starting out.

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

I'll second this.  I was offered a huge raise to move to a new company 23 years ago.  Didn't even apply for a job there.  Only thing was they wanted me to cut my hair.  Turned it down cause my hair is mine.  That company is out of biz now.  They should have let more long hairs work there imho.

That Shaker Heights house looks like a steal. That house around here in PA would tack on another $100k to the pricetag. 

I had forgotten how much I hate apartments!  We had some baby stuff delivered this morning and another tenant stole it and left the box next to the trash. The property manager said they're installing cameras but I might get a P.O. Box for packages, especially since we'll have stuff coming for my wife's baby shower. 

Also another benefit to working in IT is I have access to all the old junk computers, so once they're deemed useless they're free game!  I've wanted to build a computer for 20 years, I've just never done it. Now I was able to collect a bunch of (outdated) components and build a pretty solid computer, and all for free. For me, that's pretty exciting. 

I know someone very well that's looking for a good two monitor directport video card.  Also I back in the day I loved old server stuff.  Nothing like having a dual cpu server mobo as your home computer.

dj06482 (Forum Supporter) said:

Honestly, if you're looking to move up quickly in IT, you'll get a bigger pay bump by switching companies. You'll have to weigh that against the experience and certifications your company is giving you, but in general jumping ship will net you the biggest raise, especially when you're starting out.

100% agree as someone who's been in that field for over three decades now. I've had one exception where I got a bunch of promotions over the course of five years and substantial pay increases to go with them, but in most places the way to promotions and raises requires finding a new job.

That said, @infinitenexus I would try to keep the first job 2-3 years if you can make that work. Despite everybody and their canines wringing their hands and paws about not being able to find IT people, it's really hard to get entry level jobs. Once you have those 2-3 years of experience, it becomes much easier.

In reply to BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) :

That's my current line of thought. I do really enjoy working here and I know I'll learn a lot. After roughly the time period you mentioned, 2-3 years, when I have enough knowledge and experience to maybe start looking into junior sysadmin jobs (or whatever) I'll start looking around 

So happy birthday to my wife today!  To celebrate, our cat Pickles managed to pull open an access panel for plumbing and of course, being a cat, squirmed straight through the hole in the floor down into the crawl space. The 130 year old crawlspace to a huge apartment building. 

not sure why the stupid photo uploaded twisted the photo sideways. It keeps doing that. But it's about a 2.5-3 foot drop down there, so we can't reach her. Maintenance has been trying to get to her since 8am. She's alive, but she's a cat in a strange place, which means she's running from anyone trying to get near her. They're trying to corner her now I believe. It's really got me stressed. I've had this cat for 10 years, since she was about 3 weeks old. If they aren't able to get to her we'll have to try a trap and some stinky cat food, and check the trap regularly 

Stampie (FS) said:

I know someone very well that's looking for a good two monitor directport video card.  Also I back in the day I loved old server stuff.  Nothing like having a dual cpu server mobo as your home computer.

Do you mean DisplayPort?

Place some food at the opening. Cats can jump 3 ft.  Hunger is a good incentive for the cat to get itself out. 

I left Sprint after about 3 years to do the EXACT same job at AT&T for $20k more.  Had I stayed at Sprint with typical 5-8% raises it would been a decade to jump $20k (this was 21 years ago.)

Another big increase about 3 years later jumping from AT&T to Nextel to launch Boost Mobile. 

So, as said, the jump is the way to see real wage increases. 

Nice happy update. We got our cat back!  She's safe and sound. We set a trap down there and some food and some maintenance people were crawling around trying to grab her and ultimately she just got scared of them and ran back to the opening in our apartment and jumped up there and squirmed and pulled herself up. She lost some fur but she's okay, and we had them screw that panel shut. 

Checked out the westside market today. We did our best to keep some distance from others due to covid. Scored some awesome loaves of bread and a tiny miniature cheesecake for the wife. I think we're going to drive around and explore the west side of Cleveland today. 
 

I think I mentioned earlier, but I built a decent PC from the discard pile at work. I just grabbed a slightly better CPU Friday at work. Still not great, but better. The GPU in there is pretty awful but I scored a 1080 ti from eBay for $50. My wife's best friend's husband has an old computer that I might fix up for them. I really love working with computers. 
 

I've been thinking. With the computers at work destined for the garbage, I could probably build 3-4 halfway decent workstations. 8GB ram, i3 processors, 500GB hard drive, possibly dual monitor capability. I would like to do that and donate them to families or schools that needed them. I'll have to research a little more about this, but either way I think I'm going to go forwards with it 

infinitenexus said:

Stampie (FS) said:

I know someone very well that's looking for a good two monitor directport video card.  Also I back in the day I loved old server stuff.  Nothing like having a dual cpu server mobo as your home computer.

Do you mean DisplayPort?

I did but ended up finding one local.  Just waiting on my new to me mobo to build it.

Well, we've been here for a month and we're happy.  Cleveland isn't perfect but it's much better than where we were in Florida, and better than Baltimore.  And we got a couple inches of snow yesterday, which was beautiful!  Job is going great and I've been saving a bunch of money.  My wife has been scouring FB marketplace and we essentially have everything we need for our baby now - and as of tomorrow, we're 20 weeks pregnant!  Little Avi is measuring roughly 2 weeks ahead, which is great.  Big babies are healthy babies.  Overall we're really happy that we moved here.  Now we're slowly trying to learn the outer suburbs, as we'll definitely have to move to the 'burbs in order to buy a house that is both affordable and in a good school zone.  Moving to Cleveland even lowered our car insurance!

Now here's some proper GRM news:  My wife wants to have access to her car so she feels safe, with her being pregnant and all.  I wake up fairly early for work and currently she wakes up and takes me to work then goes home and back to sleep, and then picks me up in the afternoon.  We both agreed that if I had something, it would help with her sleep schedule and be less of a hassle.  Or maybe that's just an excuse for me to get something, I dunno.  But the other day I was scrolling through FB marketplace looking at potential inexpensive cars, and I come across a white Porsche 944 for $4700.  The Wife asks what it was so I told her, a Porsche 944, a fantastic 1980s icon that you can buy dirt cheap and it's reliable, but the maintenance can be high since it's a Porsche.  Without hesitation, her response was:

"I like it.  You should get one.  You always mention how much you miss your old Porsche."

I'm almost done paying off an old loan (my last one) that runs about $200/month, and I figure $200/month should cover gas, maintenance, and insurance for an old 944 (not including timing belt/water pump of course).  So in a couple months I think I'll start searching for one!  Pretty exciting considering I've wanted one since I first sat in one at age 19.  Just gotta wait for the right deal on the right car - one with solid mechanicals, no rust, and I don't really care about the color as long as it's not that dark brown.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Plaid interior.  That's a must.

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

If you're referring to the black seats with the plaid/checkered/houndstooth centers, that is absolutely a must.  If it doesn't have them I'll find them somewhere!

The nice thing about 944s is that, unless it's had bodywork done, they don't rust.

I have a friend out in Vermilion (hour-ish west) who has one or two and always seems to know where they are, we might be able to get you a lead.

Thanks Pete!  I made a note of that.  The galvanized body is a big plus here in Cleveland, as are the 15" wheels - both for cheaper tires as well as the bumpy roads.  My aim is to start seriously looking in about 2 months, although if I find a perfect deal earlier I'll jump on it.  Until then I'll be learning all I can about them, from here, rennlist, and pelicanparts.