Nuts, I gotta ungeek. Suggestions? (*update* No need to ungeek anymore!*)

LordRaiden

Banned
Dec 10, 2002
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Well, leave it to stupid corporate ceo's for coming up with new ways to rape you for money and politicians willing to enable them to do it. I just got told I have to make aproximately $7500 in upgrades to my house for it to be legally in compliance with new county codes going in next month. There's only one company in the entire county who is qualified to do it. So I can't just go around and find someone else who can do these compliance upgrade. (*gee, how convinent*loud profuse cursing*)

Well, I'm sort of set on this. But not entirely. I was smart enough to bank my bonus of $3000 and not touch my savings account which is aproximately $1800. (client finally paid me for some consulting work I did way back in Jan, hence the sudden load of cash. sheesh, took em long enough.) That makes it $4800 that I have available to pay for this. CC's are maxed, and I can't refinance right now. Bank won't let me. So, I guess I'm gonna have to start selling PC's. Which of these should I sell?

4 Athlon XP workstations ranging from an XP 1900 to an XP 2500. Each has 1gig of ram, 180gig of Hd space (x's 3 HD's)
3 laptops all dell inspirion 8500's, 512 megs of ram, with 2x 2.2gig and 1x 2.4 gig Intel processors. 60gigs of storage each x's 2HD's each.
2 SGI workstations, 1 O2 and 1 Octane.
1 Mac G4, 512 megs memory, MacOSX 10.2, and 80gig storage x's 2hd's.

What and which should I sell? I need to drag up about $2700. And don't say all of them. I want to keep at least 2.

Cliff notes: I'm short cash to pay for repairs to get my house up to code and I need to sell off a bunch of my computer stuff to make up for the shortfall in cash to do it and need advice on what to sell.

Edit2: Seems this whole fiasco started with the computer glitch from h*ll at the county clerks office. So I don't need to sell anything anymore. but hey, I might still unload something to help with the bills. :D
 

filmmaker

Golden Member
Oct 20, 2002
1,919
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Originally posted by: LordRaiden
Would those 2 laptops make up the $2700 shortfall?

If you found the right people.

You could get rid of the Mac if you don't use it as well. Or you could drop one of the SGI or Athlon XP stations.
 

chin311

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
4,307
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Originally posted by: LordRaiden
Would those 2 laptops make up the $2700 shortfall?

they should, if they are loaded out 8500's.

at least 1k+ a piece
 

LordRaiden

Banned
Dec 10, 2002
2,358
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Originally posted by: chin311
Originally posted by: LordRaiden
Would those 2 laptops make up the $2700 shortfall?

they should, if they are loaded out 8500's.

at least 1k+ a piece
hehe. Of course they're loaded out. You think I'm gonna skimp on a PC? Especially a laptop? :D
 

AlienCraft

Lifer
Nov 23, 2002
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Just out of curiosity, what sort of upgrades are they requiring of you to meet what codes?
You can PM me if you don't want to the thread to wander.
 

Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
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Dude, you don't need to ungeek, you need financial counselling. Would you care to remind me by what act of God you were going to purchase an Aston Martin just a couple of weeks ago? When you've got an assload of debt, and your only assets are $5000 in cash, an old Corvette, and a couple of computers?!

You really dodged a bullet in by banking that bonus!

Anyway, if I was in your shoes, I'd sell the 2 laptops since they are probably the most marketable and valuable, followed by one of the SGI boxes, but it's harder to get a good return on "specialty" hardware.
 

Armitage

Banned
Feb 23, 2001
8,086
0
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Originally posted by: AlienCraft
Just out of curiosity, what sort of upgrades are they requiring of you to meet what codes?
You can PM me if you don't want to the thread to wander.

I'll second this ... sounds very odd/strange that there is only one contractor qualified to bring it up to code!?!
Also, code changes are ussually not retroactive to existing structures until/unless you do renovations involving that part of the house.
 

LordRaiden

Banned
Dec 10, 2002
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Originally posted by: Jzero
Dude, you don't need to ungeek, you need financial counselling. Would you care to remind me by what act of God you were going to purchase an Aston Martin just a couple of weeks ago? When you've got an assload of debt, and your only assets are $5000 in cash, an old Corvette, and a couple of computers?!

You really dodged a bullet in by banking that bonus!

Anyway, if I was in your shoes, I'd sell the 2 laptops since they are probably the most marketable and valuable, followed by one of the SGI boxes, but it's harder to get a good return on "specialty" hardware.
You're right. I was being an idiot thinking I could jock out and suddenly become some big stud by buying some really whacked out high priced sports toy. Oh, I also have a house as an asset too plus a 2nd car. Problem is I still owe on both of them too. :(

As far as banking the bonus, after getting a good tongue lashing about my money usage in my geek or jock thread I decided to bank it rather than be a fool and spend it. So yes, I did dodge this bullet. :) Hey, at least I listen and learn from my mistakes. That's always a good thing.
 

Kenny

Platinum Member
Oct 12, 2002
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Get rid of two laptops and a workstation. That should bring you over $2700. Limit your computer addiction. Three laptops and four workstations? What are you doing to require so much stuff?
 

LordRaiden

Banned
Dec 10, 2002
2,358
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Originally posted by: ergeorge
Originally posted by: AlienCraft
Just out of curiosity, what sort of upgrades are they requiring of you to meet what codes?
You can PM me if you don't want to the thread to wander.

I'll second this ... sounds very odd/strange that there is only one contractor qualified to bring it up to code!?!
Also, code changes are ussually not retroactive to existing structures until/unless you do renovations involving that part of the house.
Don't ask me. That's how the announcement read to me. I got it in the mail from the city clerks office. It specifically stated that regardless of age of the building everyone had to be up to the par with the new codes by August 1st, or at least have scheduled a date with a contractor to get this upgraded.
 

Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
1
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You're right. I was being an idiot thinking I could jock out and suddenly become some big stud by buying some really whacked out high priced sports toy. Oh, I also have a house as an asset too plus a 2nd car. Problem is I still owe on both of them too. :(
I see.....
It's good to dream, though. It'd be more of a tragedy if you could afford it and didn't even think to buy it :D

As far as banking the bonus, after getting a good tongue lashing about my money usage in my geek or jock thread I decided to bank it rather than be a fool and spend it. So yes, I did dodge this bullet. :) Hey, at least I listen and learn from my mistakes. That's always a good thing.
Yeh, that's a rare and good quality, learning from mistakes.

Good luck with your house!

 

rudder

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
19,441
85
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Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
list full specs

If there is nothing about colors, paint your house bright green with purple polka dots in protest. There was a previous thread about some guy doing this when he wanted to add a stoop to the fron of his house or something. It was supposedly a historically protected house, so he painted it green and pissed off all the neighbors. Eventually they gave in and let him do the imporvements. Fight the man!
 
Jan 31, 2002
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Originally posted by: t60
Get rid of two laptops and a workstation. That should bring you over $2700. Limit your computer addiction. Three laptops and four workstations? What are you doing to require so much stuff?

***confirmed***

And I thought I was a nerd. You make me look like the Mack Daddy of Anandtech, and I run diskless workstations for my family computers.

- M4H
 

LordRaiden

Banned
Dec 10, 2002
2,358
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Originally posted by: t60
Get rid of two laptops and a workstation. That should bring you over $2700. Limit your computer addiction. Three laptops and four workstations? What are you doing to require so much stuff?
hehe. I am a tech manager and used to be a network and systems administrator, so being surrounded by lots of machines when doing things got to be a big habit of mine. :) Kind of an expensive one too. I'm so used to spreading out my work across multiple machines that only having 1 or 2 machines doesn't work for me. :(
 

Graphicd00d

Senior member
Aug 10, 2001
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Originally posted by: LordRaiden
Originally posted by: ergeorge
Originally posted by: AlienCraft
Just out of curiosity, what sort of upgrades are they requiring of you to meet what codes?
You can PM me if you don't want to the thread to wander.

I'll second this ... sounds very odd/strange that there is only one contractor qualified to bring it up to code!?!
Also, code changes are ussually not retroactive to existing structures until/unless you do renovations involving that part of the house.
Don't ask me. That's how the announcement read to me. I got it in the mail from the city clerks office. It specifically stated that regardless of age of the building everyone had to be up to the par with the new codes by August 1st, or at least have scheduled a date with a contractor to get this upgraded.

How do they know you are not up to code if they haven't been down to inspect?