We are about to hire my first virtual assistant, and I’ll admit I’m both excited and a little nervous.

I’ve owned my agency for years, but this is the first time I’m bringing on a dedicated VA. I know the goal is to buy back my time, but I’m curious how that actually played out.

Looking back, where did your first VA end up providing the most value?

What were the first tasks you handed off?

Who did they end up helping the most—you, project management, customer service, production, accounting, or someone else?

And were there any mistakes you made that you’d avoid if you were doing it again?

I’m hoping this becomes one of those “I should have done this years ago” decisions, but I’d love to learn from those of you who’ve already been through it.

I’ve been a functional specifications analyst for many years, so I’m very comfortable with SQL, database design, and mapping business workflows.

Our team is already using Monday.com, and it’s costing us about $2,500 a year. I’m in it every day CRUD’ing clients and projects, managing workboards, tracking time, and storing project assets.

I’ve been experimenting with vibe coding and have had surprisingly good results. My process is to break everything into small components and write detailed Markdown specs, just like I would if I were working with third-party developers. I have Claude keep pushing me with clarifying questions until there aren’t any unanswered requirements left, then I update all of the MD files before writing code.

The projects I’ve built so far haven’t been trivial. One ended up with around 40 tables, 14 CRUD interfaces, 10 reports, and a public-facing data summary page.

So here’s what I’m trying to understand:
What makes building a near-Monday.com replacement so much harder than it seems? Other than context/token limitations, what am I missing?
Using GitHub, Supabase, and Vercel, it feels like we could build exactly what our team needs, leave out the features we never use, and own the entire system.

For those of you who’ve built internal business
applications, what are the things that come back to bite you six months later? Permissions? Automations? Notifications? Audit trails? Concurrency? Mobile support? I’d love to hear what you wish you’d planned for before you started.

We have a raised double shotgun house with about 7 feet of (unfinished) clearance underneath.

Over the past few years, the back door has been getting harder and harder to open and close. Now there’s also a fairly significant crack developing in the plaster wall right next to the door.

I’m looking for someone experienced with raising and leveling older New Orleans homes. I suspect one or more piers may need some shims to bring things back into balance.

Has anyone had this type of work done? Any recommendations for someone reputable? (and wont try to upsell to a major job)

My TPMS warning started acting weird a few months ago. At first it would come on occasionally, then go away. Now it’s on all the time.

Tire pressures are good, and from what I’ve read it sounds like one of the TPMS sensor batteries may be dying. The vehicle is about 5 years old.

For those of you who have dealt with this:

Was it actually a bad sensor, or something else?
Did you replace just the failed sensor or all four?
OEM or aftermarket sensors?
Any brands you’d recommend or avoid?
What did the repair end up costing?

Just trying to figure out whether this is a simple “replace one sensor and move on” situation or if others have found that the remaining sensors start failing shortly afterward.

UPDATE : show is set for 9:45. Seen the drones set up myself

Heads up if you’re looking for something interesting to see tonight.

A drone light show is scheduled near Woldenberg Park on the New Orleans riverfront between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. tonight (Friday, June 5). The show itself is expected to last about 12 minutes.

If you’re already planning to be downtown, on the riverfront, or in the French Quarter this evening, it might be worth taking a stroll toward the river and looking up around 9:30ish

Source: U.S. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans Marine Safety Information Bulletin.

I’ve only owned my TJ for about a year, so I’m still learning its quirks.

We had a week of heavy rain here in South Louisiana. The Jeep was fully covered, soft top up, and windows installed. As I write this, I’m embarrassed to admit the front windows may have actually been rolled down… but it was covered.

The Jeep wasn’t driven during that time. When I uncovered it, I found standing water on the front floorboards and some in the rear as well.

I discovered the floor drain plugs were still installed, so I pulled them and drained everything out.

My questions:

1. Where is the water most likely getting into the cabin?
2. For those of you in warm climates who don’t deal with snow and don’t go mudding, is there any downside to just leaving the floor drain plugs out permanently?

This TJ is strictly a street vehicle. Thanks for any advice, and feel free to tell me if the rolled-down windows explain everything and I should just accept my shame.

Update. It was covered with a Quadratec soft cover

Release timeline so far:

• Book 1 — October 2020
• Book 2 — January 2021
• Book 3 — March 2021
• Book 4 — June 2021
• Book 5 — February 2022
• Book 6 — June 2023
• Book 7 — November 2024
• Book 8 — May 2026

The pattern ... Early books came out insanely fast, but the gaps have steadily grown:

3 months → 2 months → 3 months → 8 months → 16 months → 17 months → 18 months

If that trend continues, Book 9 probably lands somewhere around Fall 2027… maybe late 2027 or early 2028.

my soon to be 10th grader is at a challenging high school. chemistry is known to be a challenge. can you suggest a summer jump start program?

The old opener that came with the house is on the Fritz. anyone got someone they know can service or replace?

sitting on my porch with friends singing songs to guitar and piano at 7:30..... how do you feel abou the "powers that be" cutting the day short?

bring a poncho and some shoes to get muddy!!!