I am neither a cop nor a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure the "drive around with an expired license and a printed copy of the appointment" advice is going to get you in serious trouble.

I got stopped for a dead tail light once. My father was taking me and my wife out to dinner. I offered to drive on the way back, without realizing that I had somehow neglected to bring my wallet. The cop was able to 100% verify that I did, in fact, have a valid license, but he said under no circumstance could he allow me to drive the rest of the way home. Since there were other drivers in the car it wasn't the end of the world, but:

Another time my mother didn't realize her license had expired. It was when the state stopped sending out reminders in the mail and she just spaced on it. She got stopped for something minor and not only was she not allowed to drive the remaining ~2 miles home, her car was impounded. It was a huge ordeal.

I guess maybe you might get lucky and interact with the nicest cop ever, and they happen to be having a great day so they look the other way and let you drive on an expired license, but that seems super unlikely.

​

Thank you

Historical aspects notwithstanding, I have had 3 inspections done by Ken Arnold of Ahearn Inspection Services. My RE agent recommended him as the best she had ever worked with and we were very happy with the jobs he did.

(edited to add: properties were in Northampton, Easthampton, Holyoke)

Thank you

At the risk of wooshing myself, it's a line from the Simpsons.

​

Thank you

Yes, sort of. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that back in the day, Haven was the goth night at Diva's - which was the club upstairs in the building with the Sheriff's office.

Neither are there anymore. Diva's closed a few years ago and the Sheriff's office moved over to an office park near Hospital Hill.

I think Haven has bounced around to a few other clubs over the years.

​

Thank you

I was going to say that I couldn't believe Bernie's in Chicopee didn't make this list, but then I saw that the article was published in 2018.

I never cared about their famous, massive beef slabs, but I thought it was a great diner and I liked going there.

​

Thank you

The Pub! I forgot about that place. They had a good Monte Christo.

And just on the other side of the parking lot was The Sub. I always liked their calzones when I was in Amherst.

​

Thank you

>I am old enough to remember not needing to use an area code

That's still true in the 413 if you use a land line. I just tested it out. I successfully called a Hadley number from Holyoke without dialing the area code.

​

Thank you

The KMart in my town was one of the last. It held out until just before COVID. It had just begun its going-out-of-business sale when COVID started to get big, so they just called it a day. I wonder how much stuff is still in there.

​

Thank you

I don't know what your definition is, but by most people's standards, "Low to medium cost of living" is not something you will find anywhere even sort of close to Boston.

I grew up in the suburbs of Boston, and I spent part of my 20s living in the city. It was great. Now I'm in my 40s and I live in Western MA, where I own a home that would cost 4 times as much if it was in the town I grew up in. My wife's commute to work is 6 minutes.

​

Thank you

Are you renting a single-family house, an apartment in a multi-family, or a unit in a building/complex?

If you are in a SFH, it's probably on you. If you are in a multi-family house, the LL should be taking care of it, but may not realize they are supposed to depending on how experienced they are.

(Based on the fact that you say your lease doesn't specify, I am guessing you are not in a complex because they would know the laws)

​

Thank you

What are you going to do, sick the dogs on me? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths so that when they bark they shoot bees at you?

​

Thank you

>maybe they would require YOU to take the individual coverage and then they cover you husband and daughter.

No, Masshealth will not cover someone if they are eligible for coverage through a family member. I went through that a few years ago.

I was on Masshealth. My (now) wife had insurance through her job. We got married and within a surprisingly short amount of time Masshealth dropped me like a bad habit, telling me I was now ineligible due to the availability of family coverage.

Just like OP, my wife's premium went up 5X. And it's pretty weak insurance too. Lots of copays and deductibles. We went to the financial aid office at our local hospital because they advertise that they can help people find what's available, and their response was that that's just how it is. The employee said that in their office they joke about how Masshealth breaks up marriages.

​

Thank you

I manage a 3-family rental in MA. I will try to keep my long story as short as possible. I promise it is relevant.

The house I maintain is 3 stories, with each floor being its own 2-bedroom apt. Up until last year, the whole thing was heated by one ancient boiler. It supplied heat to radiators throughout the house. There was one thermostat that had to be programmed so that everyone was at the required temps.

Last November the boiler failed and a new system had to go in as quickly as possible, but while still meeting the legal requirements of MA. The boiler failed in such a way that CO was released, so every agency that could possibly get involved was involved. The fire dept., the gas co., the health dept., the city plumbing inspector, and the plumbing co. that did the work.

The solution that we came to was to install what are called direct-vent furnaces in each apt. They are about 4' wide by 2' tall and 18" deep. The ones I have are rated at 38K BTU and are sized to sufficiently supply warm air to the 5-room apartments.

However, they are, as is OP's system, just one unit in each apartment. They are in the living rooms, as those are roughly the center of the apartments. There are no additional units, vents, radiators etc. in each room. The ideal scenario is you would leave the individual room doors open during the day and let them warm up.

The tenants and the health dept. initially balked a bit at this, but after a lot of research and back and forth, it was determined that this system satisfied MA laws.

​

And so that's the point of this long post. It was my very recent experience that a properly sized and properly working central heating unit DOES meet the requirements of the Mass. health codes. This was not me interpreting the law, this was at least 3 professional agents of the local health department making a determination. They did not require that each room had its own heating source, as long as the proper temperature could be reached in each room.

(of course, this assumes the system is functional and appropriate, which may or may not be the case for OP)

​

Thank you

I stumbled on to this situation at the Big E fair a number of years ago. The Massachusetts building had a booth where you could look up your name and see if there was any unclaimed $ in your name. Turns out I had $50 in some abandoned bank account from when I was a teenager and after I filled out the forms it took a couple weeks for a check to show up. I don't know if they still do that at the fair.

Since then I have helped both my parents and my brother get varying amounts back.

The only time it was ever a trouble was when my mom tried to claim $ in her parents' names. That ended up being more trouble than it was worth due to the extra steps required for heirs.

​

Thank you

FWIW to your survey:

I have been managing a 3-family rental in western Mass for 20 years. Over the summer I had a vacancy on a 2-bedroom. I had 12 showings of which 10 applied. I had narrowed it down to 2 applicants when one of those 2 offered me more than I was asking.

I was kind of floored. I had never had that happen. After some initial hand-wringing, I gave them the apartment. It felt weird.

​

Thank you