What have I done ?

[Spike Morelli]

Talk about "What Did I Do?",........I go and move from Los Angeles to Boise Idaho. Now, I finally got both of my dragboats side-by-side in the garage, along with my wife's new car, ( 3-car garage ), but my Mach needs some attention. For the last 31 years that I've owned it, it has always lived outside in mild L.A. weather, where I've fixed whatever in my driveway. The problem is, I now live in an H.O.A. neighborhood, and it's rapidly getting into winter temps outside ( read that snow ). Now, I can't put it in the garage ( no space ) to do the work, the H.O.A. will gripe if I put it on jackstands in my driveway, and even if I could, it's becoming too cool outside to work. I called a few shops locally, they either refuse to work on an "old" car, or you have to make an appointment for next month........and, it's my only car. Thank God my wife works from home, so I can borrow hers until the shop takes me. Looks like I may have to own a second car just for winter, if nothing else

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[midlife]

HOA's are an abomination.  I put 5 offers on 3+ car garage houses here in Tucson, but had to pull back on all but the last one as they won't allow any businesses in the development, even consultants or accountants.  I feel for you, Spike.

 

[Don C]

HOAs really suck. You have to pay them every month for the privilege of being told what you cannot do, and what you have to do, on your own property. My wife and I will not live in one. We made that mistake once 30 years ago, fortunately it was a rather mild example of one.

 

[71ProjectJunk]

HOA's are truly an abomination. When I lived in Florida I had 3 homes where I had an HOA. On my last move in Florida, I finally had made enough money to be able to buy a house on a one acre lot where there was no HOA. You literally cannot buy a "normal" home in South Florida without an HOA, they are everywhere. Unless you spend big for a custom home on your own land, you live in an HOA. They make your life impossible, you cannot do anything without consulting them, and in at least 2 of them, the people running them were stealing money and property from others. It is crazy what happens on these HOA's. On the last one I lived in the President was a retired Brazilian police officer that was in a wheelchair. He and the VP of the association, also retired, decided to become the "security guards" of the HOA. They started paying themselves thousands of dollars a month to walk around the HOA, which they always did anyways, and look around for crime... They were finally voted out and removed but not before they stole 10's of thousands of dollars. This was during the housing crash of 2007-2008. Worse thing about the HOA's is that they will go full force against you, fining you, and putting their lawyers on you with your own money (from you HOA fees), but when things really go bad, and you get a real bad element in the community, which is what happened in 2007-2008 when a lot of people abandoned their homes and stopped paying their mortgages, and the squatters came in, they would not do anything to remove all the squatters and the crime that they brought in. I can tell you all types of horror stories about HOA's. 

 

[Idaho Chris]

I left Florida after retirement and moved to Idaho.  The flight from HOAs was one of the many reasons for the move.

Out here is far north Idaho, HOAs are almost non-existent.  The county I live in is a time machine to the past.  One stoplight in the whole county!  Not only no HOA, but no building codes and no site plan approvals.  Build what you want, where you want, on your own land.  Try not to piss off your neighbor (none of whom you can see since they're so spread out) and you can pretty much do whatever you want.

Freedom is a wonderful thing when you truly find it.

 

[Stanglover]

Talk about "What Did I Do?",........I go and move from Los Angeles to Boise Idaho. Now, I finally got both of my dragboats side-by-side in the garage, along with my wife's new car, ( 3-car garage ) Looks like I may have to own a second car just for winter, if nothing else.

Well Spike, I'm going to stick my neck out, but maybe your priorities are wrong. Drag boats in the garage while the MUSTANG stays outside!! Hmmm. 

As for your "second" car, that's pretty common in Snow Country, but don't forget your "Snow Tires" eh!

 

[Hemikiller]

Make sure you find out what they use as deicer on the roads in your area. If it's anything more than straight sand or beet juice, you don't want to even think about driving that pristine California sheetmetal around in the snow. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, it will eat that car alive.