I agree with @Bracken_Joy. There is a big difference between a 3% down payment and a 5% down payment in my experience (bought houses in 2015 and 2019, most recently) but there is not a big difference between 5% and 10%, as far as how much PMI you pay and what kinds of terms you can get.
After I lost all my money in the housing crash, I swore I would never buy at 5% down again… but I have done it twice because life is life, and so far (knocks wood) these decisions have paid off handsomely. Good luck!
I got access to a paid Consumer Reports account, that help me sort and filter beyond their general recommendations, then I had Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe’s in other tabs for pricing and availability and a spreadsheet open so I didn’t have to remember it all.
And yes, simpler is better, we even skipped getting an external ice thing for our fridge and I don’t really miss it.
Some libraries have subscriptions to the online Consumer Reports. Ours just got it- almost all libraries have it in a database you can access, but the online subscription is more user-friendly.
Why do all the neighborhood cats come and visit our back door? When we had snow, tracks indicate that they aren’t visiting the neighbours. It’s delightful but stresses out our cat. Do they want to play? Host meetings? Are they animaguses checking up on us?
My experience has been that if I have a cat, soon I know every cat in the neighborhood. A cat who is looking for food is smart to target houses that have cats, because those people are the ones most likely to have cat food on hand. Neighbor kitty has no qualms about coming in our pet door and helping herself to Lil Bug’s food when Lil Bug is napping. More than once I’ve come home and found her in the family room.
My only advice would be to compare by price point and feature and reviews rather than brand or model. So, if you can spend $300-$500 (or whatever) just look at the specs and reviews of things that fall within that range. This sounds obvious, I realize, but the reason I say it is bc people often buy technology by brand with the thinking that “Kenmore is good!” and so then they buy the cheapest Kenmore on the market, which is likely overpriced for what it is, and just as poor in quality as a lower cost no name brand.
The appliances in my apartment are all “name brand” but they are the cheapest models so they’re not that great. They probably could have spend the same money for a brand with less cache and gotten better appliances. It’s the same as when people say macs are “better quality” than pcs. And then you find out they’re comparing a $2,000 MacBook to a $400 PC and concluding it’s an OEM or make issue instead of a budget issue. So that’s my advice, I never recommend a specific brand unless I’ve purchased the lowest level item (like my tv) and found it to be quality. I’d also ask about warranties/returns too, obviously.
Probably obvious, and equally probably not an issue if your kitchen/laundry area is fairly standard, but measure first. The way my kitchen is set up, when I was replacing my fridge there was exactly one model in the style that I wanted (counter depth with a freezer on the bottom) that would fit in the available space without me having to pull out and move my cabinets which made the research I’d done prior to that pretty useless.
Also be aware that refrigerators are measured at the top for width, but bow out slightly at the middle, right at counter height. If a refrigerator would fit PERFECTLY in your space, it’s probably a tiny bit too big, even if you remove your baseboard
I need to crowdsource the best carrier/crate/whatever to transport 2 cats during our move, which will be a 16-ish hour drive. I don’t want to use their regular carriers because a) they like to be together and I think this would help their stress levels and b) no sort of litter box whatsoever can fit in either of their carriers. This is an issue as we’ll have a rental car that we do not want to return drenched in pee.
I feel like wire might be safer, but they will hurt their little kitty teeth if they chew on it, which they will. Plus, all of these are tall rather than long. I need long.
I’m almost wondering if what I actually need is a TNR trap? Those are long and not tall.
Anyway, I am likely going to check Buy Nothing first. But I feel like it’s pretty unlikely that someone would have something like this.
I’ve been really happy with the fridge we got a few years ago. Can’t see any stickers on it with the specific model, but it was a Whirlpool. Top fridge, I think 30” wide. No water dispenser. Does have an ice maker but it’s not hooked up. We got it at Lowe’s for around $1100 I think? I really like it because all of the shelves are split shelves and they adjust in height every 2” with metal shelf brackets so it’s really easy to customize the layout and clean.
Our washer and dryer are 15 years old with zero issues other than periodic maintenance flush cycles, which all washers need (1 cycle hot with bleach only, then hot with vinegar, then hot with nothing to remove detergent buildup that bacteria can grow on. Maytag Legacy. Top load washer with the same mechanical dials that washers have had for ages and a basic gas dryer, also with simple dial controls. They were base models back in 2006, around $400 each IIRC.
I haven’t bought a house since 2006 
.