Balancing the Corporate Grind, Consulting, and keeping up with Autodesk

 
Hi all, 

Again, not that I have a massive following here, but for those who check in, welcome back. It’s been a minute since my last update, and if you’ve been wondering where my tech focus has been, I’ve still been heavily active over on the Autodesk Community Forums, (at least more than here on my own blog page), dealing with the usual drafting rants, software tweaks, and the ongoing saga of modern workflows, and on my personal FB page. For those who don't know my background or want to connect professionally, you can always check out my personal  page under        Milt Fitz, LinkedIn Profile. [1]

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to balance two distinct sides of the CAD coin:
The Day Job: Trying to hold down a full-time office position has been challenging with
doing drafting work, (because we are busy), at SodexoMagic, (on the Merck Site). Still
navigating the "one size fits all" corporate IT/finance restrictions while trying to maintain
industry-standard CAD compliance remains a unique corporate headache. [1, 2]
The Side Hustle: Managing my own independent consulting business, Fitz' Digital CAD
Service L.L.C. (but not really). We specialize in 2D and 3D computer-aided drafting,
technical illustration, and keeping up with the evolving world of design standards. If you
want a more visual look at past drafting projects and 3D printing archives, be sure to drop a like on the official Fitz' Digital CAD Service Facebook Page. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Autodesk Stuff: To be honest, with the exception of the occasional glitch, I have not had
the time to go into the Autodesk Forums, or to do any work with the beta teams due to
my personal time constraints🤔 Between managing standard drawing redlines at the office, handling private consulting clients, and commenting on the forums about software updates that don't actually fix the core tool-sets, there's always plenty to rant about. [1, 2]
Stay tuned for the next proper tech breakdown. In the meantime, look up my personal profile under Milt Fitz (@Drafter1981) on Autodesk if you want to see what technical issues I've been actively troubleshooting this past year.
Take care everyone, and keep your software updated (even if Windows 11 gives you a headache).
— Drafter1981

Blog Update (With The Help of AI) October 28th 2026
(personal note, this update was created with the help of AI from Google)

It's Been Awhile Again, ("2024")

 It's Been Awhile Again, ("2024")
    Hi all just wanted to share a few things on my blog / journal page. I know my last post was back in 2023, regarding the abatement of property taxes, (as I've said before, "not that I have a lot of followers, or readers). And, "No", I have not given up on my own page but, I have been posting on other tech pages / blog, or forums. Most of my questions or rants have been,  or were "Autodesk related" so that's where I've been at for my "Tech" stuff. 

    As far as "personal items" lately, I've had to use an "Anonymous" page, or profile across several different platforms. Again, not that I have a lot of readers here but, if you are really that interested, please look up my "Facebook Page" (under FITZ Digital CAD). Additionally, I will say the topics truly are "Not Safe For Work" (NSFW) topics and you will need to be apart of the group or have an account in order to view. 

    That all being said, again, for my "Tech stuff" or questions (and rants), lately I have just been on the Autodesk Community Forums. (my personal page: Milt Fitz, @Drafter1981).  For other things (some personal & NSFW), I have been following, the "Meta" platforms, (Facebook, Instagram, or Threads). In addition, some of the other pages I've been following, are Pinterest,  Reddit,  Tumblr (yes I still have an account). Last but definitely not least "X" or "Twitter", (my personal page:Milt Fitz)

Keep in mind 99% of the topics discussed here are "Adult Themed" topics so unless you have a separate account (just like with Autodesk) you may not be able to read that content.

So, again, sorry for the hiatus and I'm hoping to get bask to sharing "Tech Information"
Take Care Everyone.

Does it pay, (Appeal or Abatement of Home Taxes)

 Serious question for all of us baby boomers. In this market, (meaning the housing market), does it pay for any of us to try to appeal or abate any of the home taxes if we've had an upgrade or if we've done some minor work to our homes?

I asked this question because, I'm in that situation where I had to make a decision to buy a new house, (upgrade), or fix up my existing home, (which is also an upgrade). In my situation, it was just easier to fix up my existing home, especially since I could take advantage of still having a low interest rate on my existing mortgage. If I were to buy a new home, it would have required me to make that decision prior to the interest rates jumping up. The other situation that was going on was, if I sold my house, in this market, (even though I know I would have got a good price for it), I don't believe I would have been able to achieve buying the new house without running into a couple of months of disarray.

Basically what it boiled down to was, if you didn't have cash, you were essentially missing out on taking advantage of the market. That all being said, in my situation it was just easier and less expensive to do the home upgrade. In addition, for me, the advantages of staying where I'm at and fixing up the house was, I was able to keep my mortgage at the rate I got back in the pandemic era.

This process, (in my situation), due to the pandemic and needing a bulk variance in order to get the work done, took approximately 2 years. In this two-year period, not only has the house and market continue to boom but, (as we all know), obviously the interest rates have doubled since the pandemic. With that in mind, even if I did nothing as far as upgrading my house the price or the assessment that's on the property would have gone up because of the market.

Under normal circumstances, the taxes would have gone up just in general. Now that I have done an upgrade to my home, this gives the county a reason to reassess my house and actually reassess it at today's market value. I am in no way not denying that I should have a reassessment, due to the upgrade, but I am a little upset because if the market was not so hot, the reassessment would not be as high as it is.

In my opinion, this is almost as if we're giving a blank check to the county or the township, for them to raise our taxes based on market value, when prior to the pandemic, the assessment and or prices of the homes would never have been this high. To those that say, "well, just appeal the taxes", keep in mind the other assessments are based on comparable sales of current real estate properties not comparable assessments of existing properties.

To explain this better this is the current situation. If three houses in the area sell for $500,000 but your house is assessed at $300,000 your taxes most likely will stay the same, Even though your house may be worth $500,000. Now, do a simple upgrade, (like I did), and my house which was assessed at $300,000 prior to the pandemic, is now worth $350,000 because of the addition. It would make sense that I would be paying taxes on a $350,000 home instead of a $300,000 home. But no, (in the voice of John Belushi), the county and the township look at the houses that have sold for $500,000 and say oh, your house must be well over 350,000 so we're going to tax you more. ☹️☹️☹️

Because of this, it really has me thinking whether or not, by upgrading our homes, is really worth it for us baby boomers? The reassessment is just enough to make me say, should I try to appeal this or should I just let it go? By the way the assessment valuation starts at $150,000. My upgrade was way less than that, (seriously less than $80,000 including the cost over runs). That all being said, just about every home that has sold in my area went easily for $50,000 to $100,000 over the asking price. It just seems as if I did a appeal and asked for a reassessment, I really would get whacked with the taxes, which would then make me have to rethink about my living situation,☹️☹️☹️.

New Equipment (Bowling Bags) 2023

Updated 1981 Sunrisers

Shorten (by 30 seconds) 1981-Sunrisers

Annoying Gap In CRV Exhaust System

 

 

2023 "Annoying Gap In the Honda CRV Exhaust System (2012 CRV), causes the exhaust to be awfully loud & squeaky, (the car sounds like a hot rod). For a "Quick Repair" I was able to use metal paper clamps & aluminum tape until I can get this to the local mechanic.