Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with expensive

winterize my house in the green mountains

herbplarfegan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:48:18 -0800

need help winterizing house! the house is not horribly inslated, but it has a lot of windows and very very high ceilings. my aim is to insulate the windows as much as possible, and whatever else. what I'm looking for is materials, brand names, and methods. heat is from Rinnai propane heater and a wood stove.

I saw AskMe discussions on this, sorry.. but I want really to get as specific as possible. my landlord lives out of state and just says "take care of it, send receipt to comp rent" about everything, and I've always just passed this kind of stuff off to landlords.

right now the Rinnai is on 'low' and the wood stove is loaded and burning, but the Rinnai is still huffing loudly to get heat into the place (cha ching$-- bad news.)

last year I lived in a summer-house all winter, also with a Rinnai heater, and it was $300+ a month.

I live in Vermont, at a high elevation. The temperature right at this moment is 1F / -17c. I've lived in Vermont all my life-- I can take the cold; it's my wallet that has a problem with it.

To London and Edinburgh, and back!

chunking express — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:15:16 -0800

London to Edinburgh and back! Why is it so damn expensive? My wife and I want to go to Edinburgh next week. We were thinking of going in the middle of the week -- Tuesday to Thursday. Sadly I realize now that we should have bought train tickets for this trip months ago. Is there some trick to getting cheap fares back and forth? Tickets are about 100 pounds or so each now. We could fly for less, though even that seems excessive.

Buses are a long trip, and would be about 40 pounds each by the looks of things. A bus to Edinburgh doesn't sound like much fun.

Any ideas? Please Hope Me.

What is this vacation spot?

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:22:03 -0800

What and where is this ultra expensive vacation spot that I've only seen on tv and can't remember the name of? It's a series of wood huts, out in the water, with walkways between them. The huts are pretty much open air, with walls only needed for basic privacy. The water is crystal clear blue, and the sand a pale, movie scene, yellow. It's a vacation spot for the ultra rich, very secluded via price and location (I believe).

Any ideas? If so, where is it, what is it called and how much does it cost to stay there?

To Pad or Not to Pad?

Spyder's Game — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:28:19 -0800

NewCarpetInARentalFilter - We are renting our place out. If we buy the expensive padding, can it be re-used if the carpet needs to be replaced? Or will we just have to replace the expensive padding as well? Bought a new home, now we're revamping the condo where we used to live so we can rent it out. We are going to carpet with a dark-ish carpet that won't show stains as well, but any other suggestions for "rental carpet" would be greatly appreciated. Also, the condo is on the third floor, so we will probably go for thicker, more expensive padding to save the downstairs neighbors a little grief (due to the noise) if we can. If we buy expensive padding, and the carpet has to be replaced in two years, can we save the padding and just replace carpet, or is it an all-in-one type of deal. Any other suggestions would be appreciated!

Advise me regarding my expensive laptop purchase.

Meatbomb — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:09:23 -0800

I'm going to buy a really expensive laptop, and I'm scared. I would love it if some experienced MeFi computer experts held my hand a little bit. So, I have set my mind on this: Sager NP9262. All the reviews I read tell me it is the super excellentest most powerful laptop I can get, and that makes me happy.

I need to be able to edit and produce movies, use photoshop, play the newest games, etc. As I am fairly mobile, this is to be my one main machine.

Here are the things I would really like someone more experienced with computers to advise me on:

1. Heat issues. The laptop I have now was also a "newest, bestest" type machine when I bought it (Acer Aspire 1800) and it ended up being a real disappointment. It constantly overheats and shuts down - I guess the higher end graphics / processor just weren't meant for the chassis it was crammed into. The reviews for the Sager say this isn't an issue, but I intend to buy the newest bestest processor (quad 6700 2.66gHz) which is desktop hardware, and the dual SLi nVidia 8800Gtx, which is also the biggest / newest, and not even available yet. This is freaking me out, because if I get another expensive disappointing white elephant that has constant heat issues I'll be so super choked. Please reassure me this will all be OK?

2. Vista. If I want to get 4GB ram, I need 64bit Vista. I am sure I don't have to do it like this, but I want an out of the box solution, I am not proficient enough to hunt down XP 64 bit drivers, etc, etc. But I swore I wouldn't get a machine with Vista, and it still seems like the wrong thing to do... But if I do make the plunge, won't it get ongoing service packs, and just get better and better while XP gradually becomes less serviced? DX10 is only for Vista, am I just getting sucked into Microsoft hype thinking to have this OS on my super excellent new machine?

3. The dual SLi graphics cards. They are supposedly "user upgradeable", so I can get the machine now and later put the second one in myself. The current delay is due to issues creating the new SLi drivers for the nVidia 8800gtx. Am I retarded to just trust that this will all work out, and that this SLi setup will indeed become available, and that I'll be able to upgrade myself?

Sorry for the length. I hope any of you out there can offer me some useful guidance.

And if you see issues / red flags I haven't considered, I am all ears. thanks in advance.

How do I not get screwed on a used car?

geodave — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:15:02 -0800

I have a halfway-decent car that I'm looking to sell, and I'd like to buy a beater and drive it into the ground. Looking for a little advice. This is all very long and overdone, so forgive me, but here is the situation:

I own a '97 Nissan Maxima that I obtained many years ago in mint condition for $1000. It drove wonderfully for years and years, and still drives very well, but I feel like the repairs are hurting these days. Thousands have gone into it over the years to replace various things, no enormous repairs, but lots of oxygen sensors and other bits.

My most recent repair was new ac/serpentine belts, a tension rod, and a vehicle speed sensor; the mechanic charged almost $700CDN for the repair, most of it was labour. He's a good mechanic, I think (maybe I'm wrong) but there was a lot of labour on this job. He's told me repeatedly that all the bolts are frozen, usually things have to be torched off, and everything is a bitch to replace. I live in Toronto and salt is hell on cars here.

Finally, my question. I'd love a small car that fits the following criteria:

1) Great on gas, or diesel. Even though I live in Toronto I'd invariably try and make biodisel in the summer, but regular gas is fine. The stupid Maxima is like $65 to fill each time.

2) Fairly cheap repairs-wise, or simple to repair myself. I don't have many tools, but I have endless patience to learn how to fix things, and I can always rent the tools. I just don't want to get bogged down with expensive parts that are hard to find.

I keep going through classifieds and seeing $500 cars, and it doesn't take a lot of driving for $500 to be worthwhile. What brands, models, or other recommendations are out there? Should I ignore this plan and buy something newer? Is anything still made that I can fix with a handful of tools?

This is such a broad and open question, I hate to even ask it; but if anybody has some advice, helpful or not, I'd love to hear it. Tell me about your experiences buying crappy, sub-thousand-dollar cars.

Avoiding scams selling expensive items on craigslist

freshgroundpepper — Mon, 28 May 2007 17:25:04 -0800

I'm about to list a relatively expensive item on Craigslist (asking ~$700) and have been reading up on all of the different scam horror stories and what _not_ to do. I'm only going to be dealing with someone in person, and I won't accept any wire transfers, cashier checks or money orders because of the high abuse potential, but I'm not sure what this leaves as viable alternatives for what I _should_ do to receive payment. Is it OK to ask for that much cash? Is there some other alternative that I'm missing? Anything above a couple of hundred dollars seems like a lot of folding money to me. Is there some sort of unspoken maximum amount where cash is no longer viable?

Should I be asking the person for some sort of identification (driver's license?) when I make the deal? Do I need to worry about counterfeit money and get one of those pens that I see some stores use on large denomination bills that identify counterfeits?

How have other people dealt with large items that they've sold on Craigslist (or a similar forum)?

What salary should I expect as a young assistant editor for the monthly magazine of the leading organization of professional _________ engineers?

ProfLinusPauling — Sat, 26 May 2007 11:06:54 -0800

What salary should I expect as a young assistant editor for the monthly magazine of the leading organization of professional _________ engineers? Them: The magazine claims to have 32,000 professional readers across the world with significant "purchasing power." They charge $5,555 for a full page ad (though it drops if you place the same ad multiple times and obvs goes up a couple thousand if the ad is on the backpage or near the front cluttering up the reader's journey to the table of contents).

Me: I graduated college a year ago with a dual degree in History and ________ Engineering; have plenty of on-campus editorial, writing and layout experience; an English minor; and have spent the past year doing engineering work with some freelance writing in my spare time.

Based on the expensive urban location, Salary.com (which doesn't have "Assistant Editor" as an option, so I picked both "Reporter I" and "Communications Editor I"), puts me between 28k (low for "Reporter I") and as high as 75k (high for "Com Editor I").

Is 50-60k too high a hope for me to have, or just about right given that the ideal candidate for this job is a "________ engineering/print media" mutant. Also, among the engineering disciplines, this is typically one of the higher paying ones (i.e. not civil).

(Sorry, Civil E.'s! Some of my best friends are Civils: the jocks of the engineering world.)

Extreme Makeover: Nigeria Edition?

dkleinst — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:17:14 -0800

I was looking at the CNET site about the new OLPC laptops that were delivered to a village in Nigeria, and was shocked to see what appear to be McMansion-esque buildings in the background. Can anyone explain this?

Help! I desire a $700 chair. Is there any hope?

iamkimiam — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 07:44:27 -0800

Is $700 too much to spend on an office chair? Are there any alternatives to the HAG Capisco Saddle Seat chair? I know good office chairs are expensive (my $5 IKEA red school chair is no longer cutting it), but $700 for the chair I want seems outrageous. However, this is the chair I really want. I sat in it over at a chair store in SF (they want more for it than online) and I really like the saddle seat, and the fact that the back is a "plus" design. It feels really good on my back/posture, plus you can sit in the thing backwards (Major plus!)

I am a really tiny woman, so it is hard to find comfortable ergonomic chairs. This one also has a foot ring/foot plate that is really convenient (for $70 more). I also have a very small apartment, so the compact size of this chair is very appealing.

I have been thinking about this chair for months and months (every time I sit in my crappy $5 IKEA in fact).

I have not been able to find this chair used ANYWHERE. Does anybody know of a similar chair (one you can comfortably sit in backwards), or a way to rationalize/diminish the cost?

sofa, so good, so expensive

Jon Mitchell — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:08:19 -0800

Are expensively upholstered sofas worth the extra....well, expense? I'm looking to buy a new sofa to replace my ultra-cheap Ikea Klippan, and the one I'm most taken with is the Pender sofa. In its cheapest upholstery it is well within my budget of $2500 CDN at about $2000, but their salespeople, whilst helpful, was definitely trying to upsell me to their top of the line materials range at about $3700, using a material called Sensuede.

Although this is way out of my budget, it might make a sensible purchase if, as they claimed, it was 5 to 6 times more stain/wear resilient than the low grade, or if higher grade upholstery would help the sofa's resale value significantly - are either of these things likely to be the case? Or am I just helping the prove the old "a fool and his money" adage?

Does anyone have any experience with the Swopper chair?

zzztimbo — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:37:00 -0800

does anyone out there have any experience with the swopper chair? i often have lower back pain. i'm pretty sure it is because i sit in front of a computer all day. i've read some good things about the swopper chair (google it).

is it worth the $500-600 price tag?

Where can I access back issues (or copies thereof) of the expensive, limited-run Visionaire magainze?

pantufla — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 18:30:16 -0800

Where can I access back issues (or copies thereof) of the expensive, limited-run Visionaire magazine? Can you recommend any libraries that have extensive collections of fashion publications? Visionaire magazine is a very expensive, limited-run publication about fashion & art. There are some back copies available on ebay, but they cost hundreds of dollars. I'd like to read-not own-some of these issues, and I was wondering what libraries might loan out these issues, allow me to view them, or perhaps microfilm versions of them. Alternately, can you recommend any services that provide access to text versions of articles? Thanks

To root canal or not to root canal?

eatcake — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:52:23 -0800

To root canal or not to root canal? I never thought it would happen to me but here I am one emergency pulpectomy later, wondering if I should go ahead with the root canal procedure or just have the tooth extracted. Easy choice you might say, but wait...there's more. Well not really that much more. I guess my main dilema at this point is the cost of the whole thing. I go to a dental school for the work and while they have been great so far (knock on wood) it's still damn expensive!

It would end up costing close to $1000 USD to get the root canal done (drilling, scraping, bleaching, crown and all) while it would cost only $87 USD to get the tooth extracted.

The tooth mentioned is the second molar on the top right side of my beautiful beautiful mouth. I've already got my top wisdom teeth (third molars) extracted from before so what's another one right? But one tooth here and one tooth there and before you know it I have no teeth.

What do I do? Do I get myself a $1000 tooth? or an $87 memory?
Anyone have experience with this?

Expensive Camera Anxiety

Stan Chin — Fri, 27 May 2005 20:09:14 -0800

I'd like to get one of those nice Nikon d50s when they come out. The problem is, I'm completely freaked out at the notion of carrying around a thousand dollars around my neck for fear of getting mugged, or stolen. I'll be moving to Miami in a month and living in an urban area too. And the camera isn't worth it if I leave it at home. Are these fears justified? Am I just freaking out? Any tips on how to make myself less of a target? I'd like to have the camera with me on a fairly occasional basis. I'm pretty used to living in generally low-crime non-urban areas. I'll be living in South Beach, and I'll pretty much be walking to a lot of places. I've never lived in a true urban environment, always in suburbs where I had to drive where I needed to go. The thought occured to me the other day that I'm practically a mugger's bonanza: I like carrying my Apple Powerbook to cafes, sometimes I have an iPod on me, sometimes with a Palm. Add a $1k camera to that? ha! Should I really be freaking out about this? Do people in urban city areas carry around this kind of stuff?