poopshovel again said:
Congrats! What part?
Thank you all so much for the positive replies! I'm going to try to answer all this.
Initially moving to Avon Park, just north of Sebring. My parents live there, so my wife and I will initially move into their spare room for a month or so while we look for jobs and an apartment in Tampa. Then once we get settled into Tampa we're pretty much immediately going to look for a fixer-upper in the Safety Harbor - Dunedin - Palm Harbor area. It's pricey there but I've found some houses that needed a good paint job for good prices, and they have excellent schools. One of our biggest reasons for moving is better schools, so that's a priority. We can't really afford that area though, so finding a fixer upper is a must. I'm reasonably handy so that's the way to go.
TJL said:
Welcome to Florida!
Tampa isnt my favorite place, but if i had to live in baltimore or tampa, no question its 100% tampa. My bro lived in baltimore for a few years. If you left so much as a phone cable visible, your car window was going to get smashed. I learned about “baltimore clean” cars. NOTHING visible in the car. I drove my newish at the time nissan frontier up there to help him move. Had a alpine flip out dvd player in it. He tells me to hide everything(baltimore clean) so as he heads to his place, im street parked pulling out my radio so it wont get stolen. As my bro walk by his civic he notices the window is smashed in. Some cracky saw my sisters house key in the console and thought it was a key for the car. The house key was partially stuck in the ignition.
Then there was the shootings and drivebys meant for the neighbors that ended up leaving bullet holes in his house. Charm city! But yeah good music and good food. Not worth dying though.
Baltimore clean is a real thing. Whenever my wife and I go downtown we usually stay in nicer areas, but I'm always very strict on making sure NOTHING is showing. I've had friends get windows smashed in because they left change showing in their center console. We're fortunate that we live in a quiet neighborhood in the outskirts, but with Baltimore all you have to do is drive 3-4 blocks and you're somewhere where you can get killed.
captdownshift said:
There's a gentleman in Owings, MD (southern western shore) with a pair of Mazdas for sale. A 5 door 626 with the F2T and a BG chassis 323. Both are remarkably clean, both manual transmission. I'm willing to bet that 2500 would take BOTH of them. Take them south with you. If the 626 weren't the incredibly awesome 5 door hatch with mountains of space and also in time capsule condition, I'd suggest swapping, but it's far too clean. I'd drive them both, decide what you like more, retain it and flip the other. FL actually has a fairly active BG chassis community, and I'm always only a bonus check and bad decision away from getting another one.
I'm actually trying to get rid of my project car right now, no room or money for another one until after the move! And then it'll be an SN95 that my wife, myself, and my dad will be building for the $2020 challenge.
Welcome to FL (soon). I'm in Dunedin and have lived in the area my whole life. There are a number of GRMr's in the area. Send me a PM when you plan to be in the area and I'll show you guys around. I just got my first welder so you are welcome to practice at my shop. I'm trying my best not to create birds nests every time I weld (so far failing). I also have an SN95 engine sitting in my shop that needs a home.
Concerning Volvo's in your area, I'm on a semi-serious hunt for an XC70 to buy for a cabin we have in PA. It would be nice to have an AWD wagon there for numerous reasons. Looking for a post '04 to get away from the ones with the weak transmissions. Good used market for these near you in MD?
Powar
UltraDork
6/21/19 10:21 a.m.
captdownshift said:
There's a gentleman in Owings, MD (southern western shore) with a pair of Mazdas for sale. A 5 door 626 with the F2T and a BG chassis 323. Both are remarkably clean, both manual transmission. I'm willing to bet that 2500 would take BOTH of them. Take them south with you. If the 626 weren't the incredibly awesome 5 door hatch with mountains of space and also in time capsule condition, I'd suggest swapping, but it's far too clean. I'd drive them both, decide what you like more, retain it and flip the other. FL actually has a fairly active BG chassis community, and I'm always only a bonus check and bad decision away from getting another one.
Sorry to threadjack, but are these listed somewhere? I've been loosely watching for another BG for a while now.
And David, thanks for the intro to Permanent Makeup. They are now today's official soundtrack.
To the OP: Congrats on the upgrade! I dream of living somewhere without winter, but we're way too settled where we are to take the plunge right now.
Thanks! Ultimately my goal is to move before my birthday in October. I don't know if I'll meet that goal, but I'm working 50+ hours a week to pay off debts and try to finish fixing up our house so we can sell it and move.
From a quick facebook marketplace search in a 70 mile radius from me, there's a pretty good amount of those starting at around $3500. Southern PA is a great place to get cars cheap, you just have to watch for rust. There's a good amount of older XC90s as well, also for cheap.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Thanks for FB search. Good to know. As much as I'd like the XC90 it's too tall to fit in the garage at the cabin by about 0.5 inches.
Volvos in general are pretty common up here, and used ones are cheap, especially in Maryland. You can find challenge priced ones pretty often as well, even ones without transmission issues. If you're okay with 150K miles, you can get a lot of different Volvos about 10 years old for 3 grand pretty easily in this area. BMWs from the late 90s/early 2000s are also cheap here; I bought a 1999 740i with the M sport rims for $750 last year. It had some lights on the dash glaring at me, but it drove smoothly and I enjoyed it for a couple months before selling it to a friend that needed a car.
