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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Dec 11, 2016 22:27:46 GMT -5
OK, I just checked Amazon for rock salt, thinking I could save myself the trouble of going out in the cold to track it down locally and I could utilize my Prime membership to order a heavier quantity than I would want to handle in person. The 10 lb. jugs that are easy to spread are $12-20, which is double the price at Lowe's or even Walgreens. What up with that? Is Amazon jacking up the price because much of the country is under snow? The margin on that stuff tends to be razor thin, so Amazon is probably upcharging what they do on most items. Amazon's prices on most things that you can get at a grocery store are terrible, in my experience. Yeah that kinda stuff I only get off Amazon if it's a particular line of a product that seems to have been discontinued at regular stores in my area. |
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Post by Liz n Dick on Dec 15, 2016 16:59:54 GMT -5
Update from the garage/gym reno/build at stately Dick n Hisses Manor! The contractor says that we've passed the latest inspection, and after a few weeks of him and the electrician skulking around the property with no visible advancement of the project, he claims things will go quickly now. I'll believe it when I see it.
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Post by ganews on Dec 17, 2016 13:30:31 GMT -5
This morning I realized (though fortunately not by finding out the hard way) an important consequence of water-sealing a deck: all that winter rain water that beads up freezes into a bumpy ice rink of death.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Dec 17, 2016 17:25:24 GMT -5
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Post by nowimnothing on Dec 17, 2016 21:15:29 GMT -5
Well the link you have there is for recessed lighting:  so it probably won't be much help. If you cannot unscrew the metal cap (it sounds like your fan and light cords exit through there) then it probable involves either pushing up and simultaneously turning the entire glass cover or just turning the cover. These kinds of things are tricky to figure out, but once you get it, it is pretty easy. So don't go banging or trying to force it too much. That being said, sometimes the dirt and can fuse the cover to the holding ring so it is kind of hard to get started turning. So maybe a few light taps first. |
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Jan 4, 2017 12:57:28 GMT -5
They put on my new roof yesterday, and apparently ran a nail into the line that connects the outside air unit with the indoor one. Looks like that's going to be $1200 to fix. The roofer say it's not their fault, because the code is that the line should not have been that close to the wood on the roof, seeing as how the nails need to be long for Florida hurricane code. Not sure whether I can fight about that.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jan 5, 2017 10:58:44 GMT -5
They are putting drywall up today in our garage and gym! Repeat, they are putting drywall up today in our garage and gym! You know what this means? It means we can finally put all our stuff back into the garage. We've had all the garden tools and grill stuff and recycling bins and other garage detritus all over our backyard and deck since early October. I can't wait to not be looking at that stuff all the time.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,652 
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jan 5, 2017 11:52:39 GMT -5
I got an electic fireplace/tv console thing as a christmas present and miracle of miracles I think that brings the number of furniture items I actually need down to zero (I still want a nice wood storage bench for the front entrance but that's a wish not a need.) I simultaneously bought myself a new tv finally for my living room (my current one is from my apartment way back when and is too small to actually play games/read text on at couch distance.)
It really feels nice to not have anything I'm planning on spending money on in the immediate future. This must mean it's time to start saving up for the kitchen remodel.
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Post by ganews on Jan 5, 2017 15:53:10 GMT -5
I bought a nicely-sized Ikea TV stand for my new big ol' TV and put our old video game consoles in the bottom of it. It's all sitting on the upstairs hearth in front of the fireplace, framing the TV with brick and the mantle above it. Is that tacky? I think it looks OK, especially considering that the useless fireplace was just there otherwise. I also moved the recliner into the former TV corner, which nicely opens up the walk between the living room and dining room and leaves nothing blocking the bookshelves.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jan 5, 2017 20:02:50 GMT -5
I bought a nicely-sized Ikea TV stand for my new big ol' TV and put our old video game consoles in the bottom of it. It's all sitting on the upstairs hearth in front of the fireplace, framing the TV with brick and the mantle above it. Is that tacky? I think it looks OK, especially considering that the useless fireplace was just there otherwise. I also moved the recliner into the former TV corner, which nicely opens up the walk between the living room and dining room and leaves nothing blocking the bookshelves. If I could take the fireplace out of our living room, I'd do it in a heartbeat. When they're useless, fireplaces are such a pain in the ass! We did some furniture rearranging/planning over the long weekend, and came up with a gaming table location. Once the rowing machine gets moved out of the basement den, we can move the nice card table back in from the sunroom, and we'll have a permanent, comfortable place to play Dominion. I CAN'T WAIT. And I'm absurdly excited about this. It's funny how a little thing like this feels invigorating to my entire life. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jan 5, 2017 20:38:58 GMT -5
I got an electic fireplace/tv console thing as a christmas present and miracle of miracles I think that brings the number of furniture items I actually need down to zero (I still want a nice wood storage bench for the front entrance but that's a wish not a need.) I simultaneously bought myself a new tv finally for my living room (my current one is from my apartment way back when and is too small to actually play games/read text on at couch distance.) It really feels nice to not have anything I'm planning on spending money on in the immediate future. This must mean it's time to start saving up for the kitchen remodel. I know the feeling. The only furniture acquisition I have left is a Moroccan pouf ottoman for the living room. Since houses are a constant work in progress, it gives one a small sense of accomplishment to fill the space. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2017 11:07:42 GMT -5
Mrs B bumped our water heater last weekend, and ever since then the damn drainage valve leaks. I closed the valve as hard as I could without (hopefully) breaking or damaging it, installed a cap with a washer inside AND plumber's tape.
It still leaks. About 1/4 cup of water every 8 hours.
I inspected it more a day ago, and it looks like the drip is now coming from the valve stem itself.
This heater already sucks - it's a 40 gallon (or more) electric heater that seems unable to provide consistent hot water for more than five minutes at a time. We were looking into replacing this piece of garbage a month ago with a tankless heater, but discovered that we would probably need to upgrade our electrical system, which would end up costing $3-5000 and our electric bills would go up rather than us saving any money.
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Jan 9, 2017 17:25:49 GMT -5
They put on my new roof yesterday, and apparently ran a nail into the line that connects the outside air unit with the indoor one. Looks like that's going to be $1200 to fix. The roofer say it's not their fault, because the code is that the line should not have been that close to the wood on the roof, seeing as how the nails need to be long for Florida hurricane code. Not sure whether I can fight about that. The roofing company agreed to take half of the cost ($600) off of my bill. I think that's reasonable. |
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jan 11, 2017 14:30:34 GMT -5
The electrician is apparently coming to hook the garage up on Friday! That would leave us just flooring away from the interior of the new gym being functional. There is still considerable work to be done elsewhere, but I'm just looking for minimum completion required before gym occupancy can happen. Right now we have a stationary bike in the tiny spare bedroom and a rowing machine in the den; getting those out of their current spaces unlocks huge new dreams for how stately Dick n Hisses Manor can spread its wings:
-- The spare bedroom becomes our studio, housing all the stitching supplies in a series of shelves and drawers that can be installed when the space opens up. I have a too-small dresser in my bedroom that will be perfect in the stitching studio; when I move that out I can finally get an adult-sized dresser that will be capable of holding most of my clothing. At which point my life improves considerably! And all of our craft supplies will be easily accessed in the studio, improving everyone's lives considerably!
-- The downstairs den will become our game room, meaning the vintage card table (which doesn't fold up, but is an actual piece of permanent furniture) can be set up there all the time. Right now it's swinging between the sun room and the living room, requiring a great deal of moving stuff around to get it and its chairs set up. We're going through a fairly serious board game phase right now, so having a permanent place for that is going to improve our lives considerably!
-- The studio room will need the long harvest table that has been set up in the "catch-all" clutter-hell that is the semi-finished basement room, so we'll need to clear that off to get it upstairs. Suddenly that triggers the need to actually de-clutter that clutter-hell, and cleaning up that space will mean we can move in all the wine that's stored in the den right now, as well as all my overflow pantry supplies. A wine cellar and pantry that's out of the flow of regular traffic? This is going to improve our lives considerably!
What I'm saying is that we are cautiously optimistic that getting this gym off the ground is going to have long-term positive ramifications on stately Dick n Hisses Manor.
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Post by ganews on Jan 30, 2017 9:03:58 GMT -5
On Saturday we painted the downstairs bathroom. It was pretty painless, as we already had tools and tape and also a can of paint randomly given to us by my aunt (she accidentally bought a satin finish instead of matte) that was a nice light blue. We also used a trimmer/edger for the first time, and it really dis speed up the ceiling and base trim corners.
More importantly, it's giving Wifemate the home improvement bug. She wants to buy another set of shelves for a downstairs wall, meaning that the remaining crap moved out of her parents' house can be organized into something other than stacked boxes where it's been for 1.5 years. I'm skeptical of the look of the proposed shelves, but I'd be wise to go along with it while she's motivated.
I'm ready to do some more work too. The entire upstairs needs paint, and my priorities are the foyer/living room/hallway and kitchen. We're busy this coming weekend, but maybe I can make it happen after that.
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Post by ganews on Jan 31, 2017 11:16:53 GMT -5
I forgot about the other work I did last weekend. One of the year-old horizontal split-rails in the fence on the side (to Keep the Kids Off my Lawn) recently cracked through at a knot in the cold. It wasn't completely broken, so I tried inserting some screws to let it hold straight while looking natural, but that only resulted in a full break. I ended up screwing a couple thin strips of plywood I had in place like a splint. It doesn't look terrific, but it's certainly the sort of thing that only I will notice.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Feb 6, 2017 12:47:47 GMT -5
So, I had a realtor friend come by on Saturday to look through my house to see what needs to be worked on before putting it on the market. I'm shooting for an early April listing, and the list of tasks is getting to be massive. A lot of things I thought I had to repair aren't important (getting the tree removed, repaving the driveway, replacing the front cement step, which has a massive crack), but tiny things I would have ignored are important. For example, any paint cracks in the ceiling have to be covered, as chipped paint will affect a homebuyer with an FHA loan. Also, she said I should take care of the roof, for the same reason.
I asked on FB today for people to send me referrals. I have 10 phone numbers to call later today. But this'll be an estimated $15,000 out of pocket cost. On the plus side, she said my house will probably get around $280k, and I bought it for $210k, so that's a plus.
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Post by ganews on Feb 12, 2017 20:53:26 GMT -5
Very productive weekend. We bought and assembled three 4x4 cubby shelves from Ikea for the big basement room, which will go a long way toward cleaning it up. That room has effectively been the jun/storage room since we moved in. and finally there's progress on really organizing it all. When it's clean it will be big enough for my in-laws' former dinner table on one side and a foldable ping-pong table on the other.
We also got some paint swatches for living room paint and drywall repair tape for the laundry room. The laundry room in pegboard on three sides and some ugly pieced-together unpainted drywall on the door side that you don't see until you enter and turn around. Wifemate is intent on cleaning it up; I don't care a bit compared to the parts of the house people see, but whatever keeps the home improvement bug sustained is fine.
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Post by nowimnothing on Feb 21, 2017 20:07:41 GMT -5
The dryer has started making a horrendous rumbling noise. I took it all apart last weekend and could not find anything obviously wrong like a missing wheel or mangled drive belt. So it is either the motor or something threw a bearing. I got it used 11 years ago, so I figure it is probably not worth the repair cost. The washer works but it is even older and has started to rust out around the bleach tray. Might as well replace them both.
So there goes a big chunk of our tax refund that was supposed to go to pay down the credit card. Good thing I already booked our spring break trip to an indoor water park or else I would be tempted to cut that out to make up for it.
I should probably take the opportunity to redo the whole laundry room while I have the washer and dryer out of there. There goes my weekend too.
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Post by Dr. Rumak on Feb 22, 2017 9:26:09 GMT -5
So there goes a big chunk of our tax refund that was supposed to go to pay down the credit card. Good thing I already booked our spring break trip to an indoor water park or else I would be tempted to cut that out to make up for it. You might look at getting financing for the washer and dryer. I know when we got a set years ago, the place gave us 18 months with no interest. Then you still pay down the credit card, and use future money to pay off the washer and dryer (but make sure you have enough the make the minimum payments, because those deals really jack up the interest rate if you miss a payment). |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Feb 22, 2017 10:20:41 GMT -5
So there goes a big chunk of our tax refund that was supposed to go to pay down the credit card. Good thing I already booked our spring break trip to an indoor water park or else I would be tempted to cut that out to make up for it. You might look at getting financing for the washer and dryer. I know when we got a set years ago, the place gave us 18 months with no interest. Then you still pay down the credit card, and use future money to pay off the washer and dryer (but make sure you have enough the make the minimum payments, because those deals really jack up the interest rate if you miss a payment). Yeah, I was gonna suggest this too. Even though we could have bought all our appliances outright (I mean, when we bought them one at a time), we opted for the hhgregg credit card with various-lengths of 0% financing, and then I just set up automatic payments of 8 equal amounts over the next 8 months. It's good for your credit, too, honestly (as long as you pay it off in time of course). |
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Feb 24, 2017 13:37:32 GMT -5
I had tried to swap out my license plates last and the back screws were rusted on. I, of course, ended up stripping them, so I ran to the hardware store to pick up some WD-40, new screws, and a titanium drill bit in case I had to just drill the sumabitches out. By the time I got home it was dark and cold, so I sprayed the WD-40 and left it over night. Today I banged on the screws with a hammer and just cranked on them with a wrench until the screws finally gave. So, I got the old plate off and when I went to put the new screws in the threading was too thick. Apparently Toyotas have tighter threading on the back plate screws. Anyway, I'm super annoyed now. The whole thing was supposed to take a couple of minutes.
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Feb 25, 2017 6:21:32 GMT -5
The flooded basement is slowly starting to be fixed up. We have new carpet down there now. Originally it was just a regular rectangular basement, but someone built a little storage room in one corner, so while we've been waiting for carpet/plumbers/electricians etc, we knocked down that room by ourselves.
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Post by ganews on Feb 26, 2017 17:37:31 GMT -5
We bought paint for the foyer/living room/hallway and the bedroom yesterday. Next Saturday will be the big day for the former; I care less about the latter because it's dark in there and guests don't see it. Wifemate has been going wild with the drywall tape, mud, and primer in the laundry room trying to prep it for paint that only she and I will ever see (and that will get pretty scraped up anyway by virtue of the walls being 3/4 pegboard).
The basement cleaning has been going very well. Now it is lightly cluttered instead of a hoarder's dream. I'm putting some stuff like luggage on Craigslist and wondering just how long I'll be bothered before simply donating it.
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Post by ganews on Mar 4, 2017 19:27:17 GMT -5
We bought paint for the foyer/living room/hallway and the bedroom yesterday. Next Saturday will be the big day for the former; I care less about the latter because it's dark in there and guests don't see it. Wifemate has been going wild with the drywall tape, mud, and primer in the laundry room trying to prep it for paint that only she and I will ever see (and that will get pretty scraped up anyway by virtue of the walls being 3/4 pegboard). The basement cleaning has been going very well. Now it is lightly cluttered instead of a hoarder's dream. I'm putting some stuff like luggage on Craigslist and wondering just how long I'll be bothered before simply donating it. Got done painting about an hour ago. A solid day's work using just under two gallons of paint, eight hours plus an hour break for lunch, not counting the time I spent last night moving furniture. They foyer wasn't too hard; I'm comfortable on a tall ladder, it was just having it on a linoleum surface that made me a little nervous. I also sold two pieces of luggage on Craigslist this past week for a total of $95. That leaves two small things which I'd just as soon donate and one big piece of rollaway luggage that's nice but so large that I wouldn't want to take it on any trip more active than a cruise. Anyone want this thing? (Those are the new basement Ikea shelves in the background.) |
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Gumbercules
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Get out of my dreams, and into my van
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Post by Gumbercules on Mar 7, 2017 9:23:50 GMT -5
We bought paint for the foyer/living room/hallway and the bedroom yesterday. Next Saturday will be the big day for the former; I care less about the latter because it's dark in there and guests don't see it. Wifemate has been going wild with the drywall tape, mud, and primer in the laundry room trying to prep it for paint that only she and I will ever see (and that will get pretty scraped up anyway by virtue of the walls being 3/4 pegboard). The basement cleaning has been going very well. Now it is lightly cluttered instead of a hoarder's dream. I'm putting some stuff like luggage on Craigslist and wondering just how long I'll be bothered before simply donating it. Got done painting about an hour ago. A solid day's work using just under two gallons of paint, eight hours plus an hour break for lunch, not counting the time I spent last night moving furniture. They foyer wasn't too hard; I'm comfortable on a tall ladder, it was just having it on a linoleum surface that made me a little nervous. I also sold two pieces of luggage on Craigslist this past week for a total of $95. That leaves two small things which I'd just as soon donate and one big piece of rollaway luggage that's nice but so large that I wouldn't want to take it on any trip more active than a cruise. Anyone want this thing (fixed)? (Those are the new basement Ikea shelves in the background.) Hey, just a notice with that link. I think you're giving us ownership of the post with it. For example, I can change the location, delete the post, etc. Don't want it being changed on you without your knowledge (as funny as it may or may not become). Just got my roof finished yesterday. $12k altogether. Still expensive, but a lot cheaper than other vendors I got, including one through a mutual friend that was still at 15k. Waiting to hear back from a a friend's friend who's a carpenter, to repair the rotted sections of the deck and bulkhead doors. However I'm traveling for 2 weeks, and the house is supposed to be on the market when I get back, so I don't think that's going to be ready in time. |
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Post by ganews on Mar 12, 2017 13:47:15 GMT -5
Painted the bedroom yesterday, which was a walk in the park in comparison to last weekend. Now to pick out a color for the kitchen and dining room, which can be done on a single gallon - particularly if I do the rolling. Wifemate spreads the paint on thick.
We also fooled around with the jet motor for the basement garden tub. The jets aren't working, but the central rotor spins, so hopefully I can take it apart and clean it without removing it entirely (it is inside a super-inconvenient panel). It's wired in behind the wall, so I looked at how to turn the power off...and apparently my entire downstairs bathroom is wired in hard instead of to a breaker. I'll have to throw the main to deal with it, which isn't going to happen until the weather gets warm.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 12, 2017 17:40:16 GMT -5
On Thursday March 2 our water heater leaked all over the floor right as we were trying to finish packing for vacation. Thankfully I think it's just a washer on the intake pipe but we soaked it up and turned the water off and will deal with it tomorrow. It was a weird night.
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on Mar 13, 2017 9:14:08 GMT -5
I was walking through my backyard this weekend and damn is it bumpy. I mean, right now it's frozen but you could roll your ankle pretty easily even after it's thawed. The internet tells me it could be earthworms or thatch or compacted soil. I want to try to do something this spring but, man is the internet full of conflicting advice.
I think what I'm going to do is a controlled burn in the back yard and let the prairie take the land back. I'll just machete a path to the garage.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 13, 2017 10:02:46 GMT -5
We're getting new floors!
Actually, new carpet. We wanted to do hardwood or wood "tile" in a couple of the downstairs spaces, but it just wasn't in budget. Plus we're almost certain to have foundation work to do in 4-5 years, so we'd rather scrap the cash together and handle it after.
Our former cats put a hell of a beating on the current carpet, and this is an important step in my goal of replacing every soft surface in the entire house. Begone, cat smell, begone forever!
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