We are looking for a mortgage lender who will talk to us like humans with unique circumstances, excellent credit, and stable income sources. We are not looking for a mortgage lender who is vague, robotic, or uncreative.

Any suggestions, recommendations, or positive experiences to share?

One of my buddies was horsing around with a megaphone this weekend – he was announcing an impromptu ski race. The police showed up and told him that he needed a “megaphone permit” in order to OWN a megaphone [perhaps he meant "use"?]. Anyway – we have been reviewing the city permit page and can’t find the requisite paperwork. Should the authorities have referenced a different regulation? Anybody have experience with this?

Is anyone out there savvy with a Garmin? This fella needs some instruction and he’s looking to hire someone to walk him through his device.

I attended a screening of Helsinki Forever, a 2008 montage of video clips taken by Finnish documentary and feature film makers over the past 100 years. It opens with this scene from the 1920s.

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Has anyone had experience granting an easement across their property for sewer installation? I may be forced to (in a situation where several close neighbors are being asked to decide whose properties the easement should go on) and am wondering if there are negative repercussions as far as property value, etc. I have read some things online about this issue, and am interested in personal experiences.

Has anyone else noticed that for the past two months Duluth city tap water doesn’t seem as cold as it used to? I mean, it’s cold, it’s just not the same level of… coldness it has been in the past. Is this a result of the Flizzard, the amazingly long streak of hot days, a combination, neither?

… and thus I am in the market for housekeeping services.  We have tried two cleaning services since moving to the area and they were [ahem] sub-par.  Can anyone refer me to a solid housekeeper?

I’m relatively new to Duluth, and I’m hoping that PDD folks will offer advice as I begin learning about fishing here in the city. What tackle shops should I visit for tips and gear? Anyone want to share the location of their favorite fishing hole?

I’m looking for a simple solution to “cloud type” photo storage.  Currently we attempt to consolidate all our photos on one computer via thumb drive and other work arounds.  My wife and I each have a smart phone, we have multiple digital cameras, and multiple computers to which photo’s end up being downloaded – so it gets to be a mess when we “organize” pictures.

It seems that it would make more sense for me to directly upload pictures to a remote site we all could access for viewing.  Editing would be constrained to one computer.  A nice option would be to have some sort of “syncing” tool similar to the iTunes and Google Drive solution suggested here by my earlier post.

My wife likes to edit photos and put together photo books while we are driving and therefore needs to be able to access the photos offline. So ideally, as photos were edited – these would also be reflected online post sync. There would not be a need to keep all photos locally – just the ones of interest. The syncing would only need to be with one computer; but uploads would be from various sources.

We’re looking for a commercial kitchen available to rent ASAP. Ideally, it would not be a shared space, but we’re open to all suggestions. Thanks, PDD community, we could really use your help on this.

Please beware of attacking otters in the Duluth area. There is at least one attacking otter on the loose at Island Lake and where there is one there has got to be more.

Anoka triathlete suffers 25 bites in otter attack in Island Lake near Duluth

Does anyone know the situation regarding drinking tap water in Duluth/Superior are the flooding? Have there been any advisories regarding contamination?

I’m relatively new to Duluth, and I’m a first-time home debtor. Where I come from we don’t have basements (or winter). I’ve been in my house for a year, and haven’t had water issues in my basement. There is a sump pit down there. (I’m not sure if “sump pit” is the correct term; it’s a manhole-like pit with one large horizontal rusty metal pipe that comes from one side and ends near the middle and several smaller clay pipes around the edge.) We do not have a sump pump. I doubt it is a simple gravity drain, because there is no location on our lot that is lower than the pit. The house passed an I&I inspection shortly before we moved in.

While I haven’t been in the habit of looking under the manhole cover regularly, the two or three times I’ve previously looked in there it was dry. With all of this rain I figured I should have a look, and… It is full of water! I’m wondering if this is a problem. Is this water going to eventually flood our basement? Is my house contributing to I&I-related problems? Is it possible that the house passed its I&I inspection when it should have failed? Why is there a pit down there if there is no pump?

The previous owners of the house did not have a pump, and I am convinced (by the vintage shag carpet in the basement, among other things) that water has not previously been an issue in the basement. But with the water gathering in the pit and more rain to come, I am concerned.

If you are able and willing to speculate what sort of system this seems to be and to suggest what, if any, course of action I need to take, please post a comment. Thanks!

I have an early appointment in the Big Cities on Friday. Have any of you made a run to St. Paul within the past week? If so — how much more time should I budget in with construction being what it is? I’m sure the drive back up late Friday afternoon will be lovely. Serenity now!

We are hedging our bets that fuel will be down to under $3.00 a gallon come July, making a summer vacation affordable. All kidding aside, we are heading to Calgary for the big rodeo. We’ve got 3 weeks for the trip out and back. Could I get some advice from those of you who have been out that way?

(1) Thoughts on the route?
(2) Suggestions for campgrounds?
(3) Significant points of interest?

We’re pulling a tent-camper and do not need hookups. We can get by with primitive camp sites. Along with my wife, our two kids [6 and 8] will be making the trip.

Have you ever had a section of ceiling fall into your guest bedroom due to water leaking around the bathroom toilet flange and into the subflooring? The Ramos family has! Last night! As the picture shows, I have already fixed the problem. Nevertheless, certain members of the household are insisting on something more.

As such, we are looking for a good, bonded, insured carpenter or handyperson to make the necessary repairs. Price is important, but honesty and dependability are more so. Does anybody have any suggestions?

This article reminded me of several posts on PDD over the years about newcomers having a difficult time establishing social circles in Duluth…

Minnesota Nice, explained

A lot of it hit close to home for me (even though I grew up & live across the border in Wisconsin, so I guess I’m not technically “Minnesota nice”), like the following:

In a nutshell, the state’s settlers from northern or central Europe — primarily Germany and Scandinavia — had a profound impact on how the social culture here developed, McKnight contends.

“The traditional culture of Norway/Sweden was for centuries based on the concept of One People, One Language, One Religion,” McKnight writes. “Swedes’ lifelong friends were chosen from among people they went to school with and their kinship group. An individual made friends slowly, but they were friends for life — in the true sense of the term ‘for life.’”

Anyone who has lived in Scandinavia, as McKnight did for years, knows that “it’s somewhat hard to get an ‘in’ there,” he said. But once the friendship is established, “all barriers to communication break down and there results a torrent of friendship, expressions of sincerity, and even personal confidences.”

The article’s part of an MPR series which you can read over here.
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I’m reposting here an open letter written to the Duluth community by Joel Kilgour, a local peace activist, and Sara Thomsen, a local musician. Basically, Duluthians are urged to stay away from the March 3 rally planned by a white supremacist group right here in the Zenith City.
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I need some advice on my circa-early-1900s plumbing. The tub plugs up about every 6 to 9 months. We snake out a good hair clog and move on with our lives. Tonight we can’t snake the clog. This happened one other time and we paid Roto Rooter a couple hundred dollars for a visit. The Roto Rooter guy tried to sell me some treatment for another couple hundred dollars that would smooth out the pipes and stop future clogs. It sounded like snake oil last time, but now I’m wondering if they can actually do something to help. So A) I’d like opinions on a good Duluth plumber to work on a clog and B) would like to know if the Roto Rooter treatment is worth $200 (or whatever it costs these days).

I just purchased a Seeburg Discotheque Jukebox from 1965 and am looking for two things.
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