North Adams? Sure. Mass MoCA is great.

Adams? Sorry, no. Claiming Greylock is lol. You have to leave Adams to get there by road. And the Cheshire reservoir is, uh, in Cheshire. As is most of the Ashuwillticook trail.

And who is underrating Great Barrington? It's absolutely packed with tourists all summer.

You shouldn't have to do anything to the basement in a new build. If you have any sort of excessive moisture there you need to start complaining to the builder. That's only a problem with old basements that weren't built to current code.

There are pros and cons but when all's said and done you probably won't make significantly more money than before. You may very well end up making less. Obviously the biggest pro is freedom to work the jobs you want, on your own schedule, and for many (including myself), that's worth what effectively amounts to a pay cut.

The cons are no paid time off, not eligible for unemployment, no employer-subsidized health insurance, no dental insurance, no employer matching 401k or other retirement program, more taxes, more paperwork, etc. Also, the sheer responsibility of it all can be exhausting. You know those days where you're just not feeling it so you slack off and read Reddit instead of working? Well, when you're self-employed you no longer get paid to do that.

Mountains, forests & small towns in Massachusetts in the Fall = The Berkshires. You probably want to shoot for mid-October for peak foliage.

Oh fuck off.

OP, ignore this clown. Many of us have traveled and lived outside of the Northeast and don't have tiny little minds like this jerk.

Everything's too shiny and new.

Western Mass at the moment. I go to Montreal more often than I go to Boston. NYC more often too.

There are some great parts of Toronto, but most of it is really sprawled out. And where they do have density it's often newer high rises with sterile streetscapes. For such a populated urban area, a lot of it feels pretty lifeless.

I'd take Montreal over Boston easy, and maybe Vancouver, but not Toronto.

Spray some bleach on it and relax. Mold is everywhere. Most of it is harmless.

Sounds like the station owner might be taking advantage of your friend's ignorance, and it was probably illegal.

https://www.mass.gov/service-details/independent-contractors edited for better link

>A man is dead after a shooting at a mall Saturday evening in Holyoke, Massachusetts, officials announced.
>
>the victim was an innocent bystander to a confrontation between the two other people

So that's pretty awful.

Here's the MA plumbing code. Water hammer requirement is on page 72.

https://www.mass.gov/regulations/248-CMR-1000-uniform-state-plumbing-code

Flatlander is used by lots of people in mountainous areas to refer to outsiders. It's common in Vermont.

You can do hot water with your heat pump too. Like the previous poster said, you really don't need oil or propane backup. If the temp gets so low the heat pump doesn't do much you can get temporary old school resistance heat through the same unit. Yeah, it's more expensive when it runs that way, but it will rarely be used. Certainly not more expensive than installing an entire second heating system.

There's really not much to do this time of year. Maybe skiing. Might be something at the Mahaiwe. There are some antique shops. You're definitely not going to find an Asian market in the Berkshires worth visiting. I'm not sure you can find one at all.

Mass MoCA is great if you want to drive an hour to the other end of the county. Otherwise maybe just plan to chill in downtown GB. Visit some shops, catch a movie or something.

That's not how casinos work anywhere. The hotel is an amenity for gambling, not the other way around.

The Rockies are of course more majestic and stunning to look at, but I think the Appalachians are a more pleasant place to hang out. It's just a completely different vibe. The former is imposing, the latter is welcoming.

Maybe get a small generator for emergency backup? I personally just wouldn't be comfortable putting a lot of money into any kind of new oil/gas/propane system for heat or hot water these days. It think they're all going to be obsolete in a decade and there are big credits and rebates available for switching now.

The way things are going, fossil fuel systems are looking like poor long term investments right now. Consider going all electric with on-site generation and storage for backup (solar + batteries).

Saturday's high was like 5F. It will be well below 30F tonight.

Getting more than 5" of insulation is worth the cost even without any rebates. That alone will save you more money than anything a heat pump accomplishes, which honestly won't be much presently. Heat pumps are about getting AC and some supplemental heat right now, and being ready for a probably-not-too-distant future where fossil fuels are prohibitively expensive.

The fact that heat pumps are already cost-competitive with gas/oil is a good indicator of where things are heading, and they're heading there fast. But we're not quite there yet.

I'd be pretty happy if western Mass could get regular rail service to Boston.

Hannaford and S&S are owned by the same parent company and have very similar inventories/prices.

Really looking forward to even more mattresses being dumped in vacant lots and on the side of the road.

It's kinda weird to just own your ignorance and not care. I feel bad when I don't know about things near me. It makes my world feel small and my experiences limited.