KnowYard Community

HVAC is the play in Texas specifically. It's 100+ degrees for 3 months a year. Every AC unit in the state needs regular maintenance. The demand is endless.

Reolink cameras (no subscription, local storage) paired with SimpliSafe sensors for monitoring. Best of both worlds. Camera footage stays on YOUR hard drive, not someone else's cloud.

Welcome to Texas inspection theater. My favorite is when they fail you for a windshield crack that's been there for 2 years and is nowhere near the driver's line of sight.

The $300/month savings is real. My coworker and I compared over 6 months. Her EV costs about $60/month in electricity vs my $340 in gas for similar driving.

Still waiting for prices to come down. Used EVs are getting more affordable though. Seen used Tesla Model 3s under $25K. Might be the move.

Keep a cooler in your trunk in summer. Cold water, some snacks. If you break down on a Texas highway in July, help might take 30-45 minutes. You want water available.

Early morning on weekdays is the cheat code for popular parks. I go at 7am on a Tuesday and have the whole trail to myself. Same trail on a Saturday at 10am has 200 people.

The deregulated market is the problem. Nobody wants to invest in reserve capacity because there's no profit in power plants that only run during emergencies. So we have zero buffer.

Apartment dwellers are still screwed though. No home charging means relying on public chargers which are slower, more expensive, and sometimes broken. Until apartments have chargers, EVs are a homeowner thing.

Nobody benefits. Shoplifting goes up, stores lock everything, customers leave, stores close, and the neighborhood loses access to basic retail. It's a death spiral.

Skip ADT. The equipment is overpriced, the contracts are 3 years, and the cancellation process is a nightmare. There's a reason they need door-to-door salespeople.

I met my girlfriend at a trivia night at a local brewery. Go to recurring social events where you see the same people week after week. That's how actual connections form.

Check if your TPMS can be reset before replacing the sensor. Sometimes a reset clears the light. YouTube your car model + TPMS reset. Saved me $200.

The 2021 storm should have been a wake-up call. 200+ people died. And here we are still running the same grid on hope and prayers every summer.

TPMS is the most annoying inspection failure. My car failed for the same thing. $180 to replace a sensor that does nothing I can't do with a pressure gauge in 30 seconds.

Some shops will charge less. The dealer quoted me $250, an independent tire shop did it for $120. Call around before you pay dealer prices.

The recyclers buying these no-questions-asked are the real problem. A stolen cat sells for $100-500 in scrap. Until that's regulated this won't stop.

Your pets feel it too. Hot asphalt can burn their paws. Touch it with the back of your hand — if you can't hold it for 5 seconds, it's too hot for your dog to walk on.

The distance thing is the real killer. I refuse to date anyone more than 20 minutes away. In Texas that eliminates like 80% of the population.

My concern is long road trips. I drive to other parts of the state regularly and charging adds 30-45 minutes to the trip. Not a dealbreaker but it's not nothing.

Got a used Prius for my commute. $14K and it gets 50mpg. My gas bill went from $380 to $140. Best financial decision I've made in years. I still have the truck for weekends.

If you're lucky enough to have a Gold's Gym nearby, that's still the gold standard for serious lifting. Some locations are better than others though.

Crunch Fitness is a solid middle ground. More equipment than PF, actual free weight area, $25-30/month at most locations.

The toll roads add up too. My commute is technically 10 minutes faster on the tollway but costs $8/day. That's another $160/month. I take the free road now and listen to podcasts.

SimpliSafe. No contract, $17/month monitoring, easy DIY install. Had it 3 years and it's triggered twice from actual incidents — both times the monitoring center called within 30 seconds. Would buy again.