Home Projects (upkeep/repair/mods/cool sh*t/advice/question)

[Punisher]

. They charged me $2,900 to replace the railings and posts and wrap it all in plastic.

Wrapped in plastic? It's fantastic!!

[Kraken]

. They charged me $2,900 to replace the railings and posts and wrap it all in plastic.

Wrapped in plastic? It's fantastic!!

I don't like the look of plastic porches or fences and I'm even less enthused about putting more plastic out there, but I do appreciate no maintenance. There's still wood under the shell that traps water. But it looks spiffy and I'll be safely dead before the drawbacks win out.

[Jaymon]

They are here installing my new heater/AC. Its a two day process, fortunately they can carry everything through the attic access and don't need to cut any holes.

In related news, there is an unexpected cold snap, its supposed to get below freezing tonight, good thing I scheduled this for mid April, well past the last expected cold weather.

[Default]

Put in the tankless water heater yesterday. Found out the unit I got has 1/2 inch adapters to go over whatever metric thread it has. None of the valve kits were 1/2", all were 3/4. I just love the 19 plumbing systems that are all available, while the most reliable and durable solution (copper and brass compression fittings) aren't available locally. I need one elbow to finish the job, and then I can call the electrician to install the sub panel I want.

Freed up a lot of floorspace though.

[em2nought]

Freed up a lot of floorspace though.

Makes a nice spot for the vacuum cleaner or a dehumidifier.

[Isgrimnur]

\

Sometime between the completing the work at noon and my wife using the sink at 6, the coupling popped.

[em2nought]

I guess you can't expect much for $7500?

[Blackhawk]

You used 6,948 gals?

What a jerk.

[Isgrimnur]

Nonono, that’s how many gallons ran down my driveway, down the street, and into the storm drain.

[Blackhawk]

Let's ask those innocent gals whether I should trust you.

[Isgrimnur]

We won’t talk about that .60 gal.

[Blackhawk]

Nah, no need to kink shame.

[em2nought]

If you tell the water utility it was a leak from work you just paid $7,500.00 for they might take something off your bill.

[Carpet_pissr]

If you tell the water utility it was a leak from work you just paid $7,500.00 for they might take something off your bill.

Yep. My father did the same recently.

[em2nought]

It's not really a project, but I've got my first showing in over two weeks tomorrow so I'm kind of hopeful. I've knocked $20k off the price since I first put it on the market in January. I bet I'm the one that brought in the customer with my boosted facebook marketplace ads. Wonder if I'll get a discount from "my" realtor? ROTFLMFAO

I really want to get on to the job that's waiting for me out west with those Thai Texicans.

[Daehawk]

Sounds exciting. Good luck!

[em2nought]

Sounds exciting. Good luck!

Thanks, wishing you some "good" luck too!

[Daehawk]

Sounds exciting. Good luck!

Thanks, wishing you some "good" luck too!

Thank you. Always need it.

[Default]

Added a sub panel, a 30 amp line in the laundry room, and a 40 amp in the garage. Tankless water heater is in, although I'm going to replace the brass fittings with PEX. Toying with the idea of putting in a manifold.

[Daehawk]

radiator ...manifold...you building a home or a car?

[Default]

A manifold is a device where the cold water supply and the hot water supply connect into separate chambers. Each chamber has several outlets on it, which are connected to PEX pipe. Each pair of pipes(hot and cold) goes to a different set of fixtures. The kitchen sink has hot and cold directly from the manifold. Bathroom sink, toilet and shower has hot and cold. If you have a second bathroom, that bathroom has a hot and cold pipe of it's own.
Instead of having an interconnected web of copper tubing with the resulting heat and pressure loss, every fixture is directly connected to the source. Makes maintenance easier too, because you can shut off individual rooms, instead of the whole house

[Kurth]

With a little extra time on my hands transitioning from my old job to my next one, I decided to dust off the woodworking tools and build myself something I've wanted for a while: an outdoor patio cooler.

My plan is to put this next to my grill, load it up with ice and beer, and enjoy some nice Portland-area summer weather.

It's going pretty well so far. The typical annoying mistakes I usually make, violating the age-old rule, measure twice (or three times), cut once. And I had a bear of a time getting the settings right on my pocket hole jig at first. But those issues aside, I think it's going to be a winner. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

[Kraken]

I finally got out the ladder and tore up the saplings that were growing in some of my gutters, because a man's got to do what a man's got to do.

[Daehawk]

I got stuff growing in my gutters too but I dont see a time when Ill ever be up there again.

[Daehawk]

Fuck a duck duck duck duck ducky duck duck duck duck!! I fixed it! I did! I did it! woooo! yay me!!

We have a wooden rocking chair. Well I will say I me myself and I have a family rocking chair. Its the type with the spindly little wooden spindle backing..little round wooden things that form the back. The damn thing had been repaired at least FOUR times when the entire family was still alive. Last time by a family member that was a wood worker. He made furniture or all types. But I swear he did the worst repair on it Iver seen.

If you sat in it and tried to rock the back would simple fly apart. The little wooden spindles would come out of their holes they should stay in and the top would fall off then the whole back would fall off the seat.

The only person who could sit in it was my little tiny wife and she didn't lean back. Then a few months back I ordered some gorilla wood glue and today I fixed it. Glued it all good. Man I swear Id get one spindle in its hole and 2 others were popped out lol. Took a lot of fighting . Me alone its a tough job. Chihuahua Buster cant help me with this. But I think I got it glued. We'll see come tomorrow or so.

[em2nought]

We have a wooden rocking chair. Well I will say I me myself and I have a family rocking chair. Its the type with the spindly little wooden spindle backing..little round wooden things that form the back. The damn thing had been repaired at least FOUR times when the entire family was still alive. Last time by a family member that was a wood worker. He made furniture or all types. But I swear he did the worst repair on it Iver seen.

If you sat in it and tried to rock the back would simple fly apart. The little wooden spindles would come out of their holes they should stay in and the top would fall off then the whole back would fall off the seat.

The only person who could sit in it was my little tiny wife and she didn't lean back. Then a few months back I ordered some gorilla wood glue and today I fixed it. Glued it all good. Man I swear Id get one spindle in its hole and 2 others were popped out lol. Took a lot of fighting . Me alone its a tough job. Chihuahua Buster cant help me with this. But I think I got it glued. We'll see come tomorrow or so.

Wasn't this a Mel Gibson movie?

[Daehawk]

Mel Gibson Danny DeVito The Wood You Know.

kidding

[Carpet_pissr]

Beware - this guy's videos are as amazingly mundane as they are addictive for some unknown reason to me. If you aren't ecstatic about your dishwasher's performance, please watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHP942Livy0

I found myself also watching his coffee percolator video and I don't even use one of those things! Nor would I ever! WTF man. Fuckin' Youtube.

[Carpet_pissr]

Dupe, sorry

[stessier]

This is one of my favorites of his - very cool (or should I say toasty).

[em2nought]

This is one of my favorites of his - very cool (or should I say toasty).

My sister still has my mother's toaster from the 1950s, and it does still make a really nice piece of toast.

[Daehawk]

Speaketh to me of solar lights. Those little sidewalk illuminators. I got some el cheapos on the cheap from Walmart but they are not very bright. And they tend to work when they want to.

I dont ask for much. A little lighting to line my sidewalk and some in the pet cemetery. Is white ones the staple or are colored lightings the way to go? I dont need to light up a runway for local jets but these are dim dim dim.

[em2nought]

Speaketh to me of solar lights. Those little sidewalk illuminators. I got some el cheapos on the cheap from Walmart but they are not very bright. And they tend to work when they want to.

I dont ask for much. A little lighting to line my sidewalk and some in the pet cemetery. Is white ones the staple or are colored lightings the way to go? I dont need to light up a runway for local jets but these are dim dim dim.

I think you maybe should be concentrating on correcting the stuff you need to fix in order to qualify for a new home insurance policy? Maybe there is a group in your area that does that kind of thing for disadvantaged folks? Those little solar lights never seem to last very long before the neighbors are tossing them in the trash.

Here is a place to begin looking?

Tennessee Housing Development Agency

https://thda.org/help-for-homeowners/need-home-repairs

[Carpet_pissr]

This is one of my favorites of his - very cool (or should I say toasty).

That's great. I assume with 2.3M subscribers, that specific toaster spiked in price on eBay after he posted this.

[em2nought]

This is one of my favorites of his - very cool (or should I say toasty).

That's great. I assume with 2.3M subscribers, that specific toaster spiked in price on eBay after he posted this.

My mom's old Hot Spot kettle might be getting near the end of it's life so I looked to see if they were still available. Closest thing I can find to it is $250. I'm pretty sure the last one we bought was under $20. Maybe somebody made a video about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-Water-Di ... 919&sr=8-9


Her (now my) current Hot Spot is newer than this, but I saved this exact cup which came with the actual original to use with my current one since they went cheap and stopped giving you a cup with the thing.

Original Hot Spot lasted from mid 1970 until about 2015, new pot lasted about ten years so far giving off indicators of giving up the ghost. Ha, the new model once again comes with a cup, must explain the dramatic price increase.

[Isgrimnur]

Door spring on dishwasher failed. Learned this by dropping it onto my feet.

Youtube tells me I basically have to take the whole thing out to get to it in order to replace it. And that's not counting actually figuring out the replacement parts, as there's a possibility that a mouse gnawed through some critical part.

[ImLawBoy]

We had that happen. We just used it very carefully until we eventually got a replacement dishwasher. Depending on the age, it may not be worth repairing it.

[Carpet_pissr]

We had that happen. We just used it very carefully until we eventually got a replacement dishwasher. Depending on the age, it may not be worth repairing it.

We are on that plan with our current fridge, which I have hated since the day I bought it. It's not that old, so too soon to replace outright without guilt, but I am just hoping for the day it dies completely. I think I have gone through 5 fridges, in the past 22 years or so. Have never been happy with one of them, and I switch brands every time out of spite and frustration.

I think they must be like HVAC units, the definitely don't make them like they used to, so just buy cheap and plan to replace in X years, where X is a lot sooner than it used to be and far earlier than you would hope.

[Isgrimnur]

We had that happen. We just used it very carefully until we eventually got a replacement dishwasher. Depending on the age, it may not be worth repairing it.

Certainly not worth calling a repair person.

[LordMortis]

We had that happen. We just used it very carefully until we eventually got a replacement dishwasher. Depending on the age, it may not be worth repairing it.

We are on that plan with our current fridge, which I have hated since the day I bought it. It's not that old, so too soon to replace outright without guilt, but I am just hoping for the day it dies completely. I think I have gone through 5 fridges, in the past 22 years or so. Have never been happy with one of them, and I switch brands every time out of spite and frustration.

I think they must be like HVAC units, the definitely don't make them like they used to, so just buy cheap and plan to replace in X years, where X is a lot sooner than it used to be and far earlier than you would hope.

Not a fan of contemporary appliances as I hear consistently they 5-10 years life expectancy across the board and my brain says this stuff is basically supposed to last until you remodel, which may mean forever. 5 years? For that kind of money. I just can't cope. When my last fridge died from too much flakey power in my area, I went out and got another old workhorse for basically free at a recycle charity center. It does have the double of edge of not being so much energy star complaint as electricity gets more and more expensive. I know even if my furnace doesn't last forever, it's paying for itself in how much electricity it doesn't suck down. I'm about to the point where i really need to take that in to consider for replacing my AC as well. AC is costing me over $100 in the summer months and charging it was close to $1000 last time. Next time it needs a charge, it's likely to go, even as it works as fine as it can under the circumstance.