New home and a new car!

Cruiser

Infiniti fan for life
Premium
Location
Katy, TX
Car
2007 FX35 AWD
I have come to consider iS as one of my personal community that I belong to. Thus, some intimate things that I would normally only share to family members, and close friends, I also felt comfortable sharing it with the :iS: community too. The same way I cherish and feel excited about when some of the good 'ole members here had some memorable personal events and the same way I feel sad at times when less fortunate news from another member comes along the way.

Since relocating out of NY about a year ago, my small family with myself, my wife and an only son had comfortably settled down in Houston. Our relocation to Houston, TX is part of a plan to alleviate our stressful lifestyle in NY. My wife had really been very sick (at the time) and the I personally had an onerous work and routine working in Manhattan where I average between 12 to sometimes 16 hours work a day. We all just attribute it to the "normal crazy" pace of the extremely demanding work I was part of at the luxurious and historic Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Towers. As for my wife, after undergoing 4 surgeries; 3 in NY and 1 here in TX, she is finally out of the water and was given a clean report card by her doctor. My son is doing exceptionally well in his studies and was admitted to the Gifted and Talented program just last year. As for me, I still do what I enjoy doing, working in the Hospitality Industry and still working in a large hotel with 1,200 rooms. So far, life has been kinder to us here in TX.

So fast forward, about 5 or 6 months ago, we have embarked a journey of building our new home from scratch to our personal specifications. The house is nothing fancy or not that enormous to most people standards but for somebody moving out of NY where space is considered a luxury; A 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 baths, 3 car garage with a game room, media room, formal dining and study is huge for us especially the size of my family of only 3.

I picked up my new house key about a week ago and yesterday, also picked up the keys to my new "school bus", a brand new red Nissan Pathfinder Platinum heavy loaded with all options including, 20" wheels, Navi with live traffic, Sat radio, all around cameras and parking nannies, heated and cooled seats, factory remote start, 2nd row passenger DVD entertainment, etc. All good stuff that one can find in a fully loaded JX35 except the moon roof. The dealership gave me a $2k off sticker rebate.

I am sharing just a few quick pics for now. I will post more pictures of the car and some photos of the house probably by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Right, now, I have been less active in iS. I am still very busy with unpacking and organizing, furniture deliveries and last minute builder's finer quality touch ups. My OCD to perfection must have driven my builder nuts. But hey, it is not like I am picking up a pair of shoes that I can live with a few pre-existing creases here and there. There has been some frustrations along the way. Some work delays that carries to a collective days wasted with no work done for about 3 weeks. It was a painful process. I often find myself arm wrestling with the builder and at one point threatening to walk away from the deal. Well, it is now complete. So far, life is good.

///10017[/ATTACH]
///10019[/ATTACH]
///10018[/ATTACH]
 
Great to hear everything has worked out and most importantly your wife is doing much better. Your stress level must have been redlining before and it sounds like you have found all the right answers to enjoy life with your family.
Nice house and I do like the Pathfinders.
 
Congrats on everything! Glad to hear your wife is doing better, the house is gorgeous and you have a nice stable there. You just need to fill that third garage bay! Keep us posted. Very happy for you!
 
House looks gorgeous and a score for the pathfinder. Great to hear things are moving along as planned. hmmm 3 car garage , what's next? a project track car? :tongue:
 
the house, the cars and all the other 'stuff' is cool, but your family's health is whats really important. Happy to hear your bride is doing better. thanks for sharing
 
Great to hear everything has worked out and most importantly your wife is doing much better. Your stress level must have been redlining before and it sounds like you have found all the right answers to enjoy life with your family.
Nice house and I do like the Pathfinders.

Thank you Wayne. You are absolutely right. I like the convenience of NY and since I am quite sensitive to heat, so TX was not really on my mind back then. It was a week long vacation visiting some family members here in TX about 2 years ago that made me entertain the idea of relocating. The wife's deteriorating health firmly made me jump the idea into a plan and eventually the action. Having to work less hours now and my son over achieving are great bonuses. We got to go out now more often. I took my son to fishing trips or sometimes just drive about 2 hours out and stay in a quite nice resort hotel over the weekend are nice treats we never get to enjoy while we were in NY.

As for the ride. I have been window shopping for the JX, MDX and the redesigned Pathfinder Platinum for quite a bit. I like the performance and power of the MDX and its new multi LED headlights design plus the nicer more subtle grille than its previous flashy polarizing predecessor. I don't like the MDX's interior though - looks cheap IMO. It just lacks the better refinements of the JX and the Pathfinder Platinum interiors. With most of my money tied down to the house building, I have to narrow down my options of either getting a CPO JX35 with low mileage within $43k range at most or a brand new fully loaded Pathfinder. Me and the wife walked into a Nissan showroom just thinking of making a closer look at the Pathfinder. I ended up test driving one and taking the car home the same day. LOL

---------- Post added at 08:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 AM ----------

Congrats on everything! Glad to hear your wife is doing better, the house is gorgeous and you have a nice stable there. You just need to fill that third garage bay! Keep us posted. Very happy for you!

Thanks. That empty 3rd spot is kind of making my feet all itchy to utilize. :wink:

---------- Post added at 08:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 AM ----------

hmmm 3 car garage , what's next? a project track car? :tongue:

LOL. More like maybe a Q50 when it's time to hand down my FX to my son when he starts driving maybe next year. I'd cross that bridge when I'm there.

---------- Post added at 08:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 AM ----------

the house, the cars and all the other 'stuff' is cool, but your family's health is whats really important. Happy to hear your bride is doing better. thanks for sharing

Thank you payyourtoll. You are absolutely right. Getting my wife back to health is the most important success I would say. Can't even begin to imagine doing things on my own. She is now back at being feisty of my clumsiness so she is definitely back healthy again.

Nice handle by the way.
 
Last edited:
Congratulations Ruben! Glad to hear the house is done, and even happier for you that your wife is in good health. Time for a iS housewarming party! Lol
 
Love the house. Can't wait to see pictures of the inside. That is a 3 car garage!?

How do you like the pathfinder?

Thank you. One of them is a tandem port.

Pros of the pathfinder:

The pathfinder drives like a lady. Suspension is limousine comfy very soft that it gently bounces off on road imperfections compared to the teeth jarring FX. The cabin is very quite. With all these negative discussions about CVT, I was mildly surprised the car has decent power and picks up speed well - not FX quick but steady bump up that sometimes I did not even notice that I was already doing over 60mph. Steering is aided with full computerized electronic assisted mechanism that it does not rob power off the wheels when making turns thereby saving gas. I like the around view cameras very much and the hazard detection sonars. The Navigation is way so much better than my 07 FX and linked to Satellite feeding at real time road legal speed limits on the display. It is already smart phone enabled that it picks up phone numbers from your mobile device and gets you to pull your phone's music play lists. Higher ground clearance is great for sustained long distance driving. I think it is a perfect car for road trips and to haul the family with the extra 3rd row seating that has better leg room than its competitors of its class. It does not look mini-vanish. The stock built in tow hitch is really nice.

Cons:

With the suspension so soft and steering so light, I feel that I am more like playing a video game than driving. There is no driver and vehicle soul bonding like the FX - if you know what I mean. The FX feels so tight and gives you what you asks for in an instant. You want instant power - yes sir, you'd have it! Making turns does not feel as exciting as the FX. I have not tried the car on steady uphill driving, so this is still suspect. At the end of the day, the pathfinder is directly meeting a specific need family related activities not to satisfy the sometimes need for excitement - danger feel one expects while spirited driving an FX.

Overall, it is a very solid platform and one's personal review can be relative to your personal needs and the wide gap between the very wide trim level options of the pathfinder. I would not give the same marks as I did if I would be given the other pathfinder trim variants: S, SL, SV.

---------- Post added at 09:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 AM ----------

Congratulations Ruben! Glad to hear the house is done, and even happier for you that your wife is in good health. Time for a iS housewarming party! Lol

Thanks Kim. Once all the pieces are in place. I will give you a holler.
 
Last edited:
Congrats Ruben!!! and glad to hear that your son is excelling and wife is doing well!

That 3 car garage is going to be sweet, maybe enough space to fit a car lift? :smile (2):
 
Back
Top