The Home-ownership Thread

[sabills]

24 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Yeah. Screw shoveling those sidewalks.

I hurt my back doing it last week and its still stiff today, so I'll save my old broken body for the future.

[Samson's Flow]

47 minutes ago, sabills said:

This is the storm that finally did it. I'm going to buy a damn snowblower. Seems silly because my driveway is about 8x10, but I'm on a corner in the city so I have about 150-200 feet of sidewalk to deal with, too. I might wait until spring and see if I can find a deal, but this is my last winter of shovels only.

I'm still rocking the shovel only, and most of the time it is fine but during big storms like this it takes me 1hr+ to shovel out my ~30ft one car width driveway.

Then again i'm still young and dumb enough to think it's just good exercise.

41 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Yeah. Screw shoveling those sidewalks.

Shoveling the sidewalks on your property is a civic duty and something you should do every time.

Only ***** don't shovel their sidewalks.

[darksabre]

4 minutes ago, Samson's Flow said:

I'm still rocking the shovel only, and most of the time it is fine but during big storms like this it takes me 1hr+ to shovel out my ~30ft one car width driveway.

Then again i'm still young and dumb enough to think it's just good exercise.

Shoveling the sidewalks on your property is a civic duty and something you should do every time.

Only ***** don't shovel their sidewalks.

I'm not saying don't clear them. Just...don't use a shovel. Use literally anything else.

[Samson's Flow]

12 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I'm not saying don't clear them. Just...don't use a shovel. Use literally anything else.

I tried rocks and sticks but they were even less effective...

[Sabres Fan in NS]

1 hour ago, sabills said:

This is the storm that finally did it. I'm going to buy a damn snowblower. Seems silly because my driveway is about 8x10, but I'm on a corner in the city so I have about 150-200 feet of sidewalk to deal with, too. I might wait until spring and see if I can find a deal, but this is my last winter of shovels only.

Unless you plan to live in / on it I think this good post is in the wrong thread ... 

?

[sabills]

12 minutes ago, Samson's Flow said:

I'm still rocking the shovel only, and most of the time it is fine but during big storms like this it takes me 1hr+ to shovel out my ~30ft one car width driveway.

Then again i'm still young and dumb enough to think it's just good exercise.

Shoveling the sidewalks on your property is a civic duty and something you should do every time.

Only ***** don't shovel their sidewalks.

Yeah, it is good exercise, but make sure you give yourself breaks. Shoveling wet snow is one of the most heart strenuous things you can do.

And I'll cop to being bad about sidewalks a few years ago. Its not like I never did them, but I'm much more diligent now. It changed when I got a dog and had to start walking through people's un-shoveled sidewalks every day.

3 minutes ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Unless you plan to live in / on it I think this good post is in the wrong thread ... 

?

Snow removal is totally a part of home-ownership! I didn't have to shovel when I was renting.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

5 minutes ago, sabills said:

Yeah, it is good exercise, but make sure you give yourself breaks. Shoveling wet snow is one of the most heart strenuous things you can do.

And I'll cop to being bad about sidewalks a few years ago. Its not like I never did them, but I'm much more diligent now. It changed when I got a dog and had to start walking through people's un-shoveled sidewalks every day.

Snow removal is totally a part of home-ownership! I didn't have to shovel when I was renting.

I see your point ... carry on.

We invested in a snow blower 2, maybe 3, winters ago.  I am too old and sore to shovel more than just a bit of snow and I still have to do the front deck and steps by hand.  We went through about 5 snow plowers and shovelers.  All were idiots ... one guy put his shovel through our front window and still wanted to be paid.  It's skilled work, I get it, but it's not rocket science work either.

Last winter I think I used it twice.  Not once (yet) this winter.  It's like insurance.  That said, I did use it a lot the winter we got it.

Edited January 31, 2019 by New Scotland (NS)
correct letters, but wrong order ... progress?

[shrader]

We need a pest control service down here because spiders are everywhere (including that pesky black widow we had one day).  As a part of it, they put down a couple glue traps on the sides of the garage door for mice.  This morning I noticed that we finally got our first mouse.  I'm assuming the cold weather made it seek shelter, but now I get to hunt down that point of entry.  The pest service is primarily for the bugs, but since they do put down those traps for the mice, I suppose I can check with them to see if their service has any guarantees about keeping them away.

[Samson's Flow]

14 minutes ago, sabills said:

Yeah, it is good exercise, but make sure you give yourself breaks. Shoveling wet snow is one of the most heart strenuous things you can do.

And I'll cop to being bad about sidewalks a few years ago. Its not like I never did them, but I'm much more diligent now. It changed when I got a dog and had to start walking through people's un-shoveled sidewalks every day.

Snow removal is totally a part of home-ownership! I didn't have to shovel when I was renting.

Yeah it is something I have grown into, as when I was a renter I was much worse at being diligent about the sidewalks. I know we all live in a car-centric culture, but it's important to remember that some people (including the elderly) rely on walking to the corner store/bus stop/etc. to live. It's not that much extra effort to shovel a clear path so they can get to where they need to go easier.

[MattPie]

I installed some new countertops in my kitchen, what an annoying job that was. It's not bad, but the jigsaw's foot was too big so I had to do the back edge with a hacksaw. That sucked.

Also, I'm the proud owner of a new furnace. I'm sure happy about that as that money would have just gone to something fun like a couple years worth of vacations, a nice used motorcycle, or into the retirement fund.

[shrader]

1 hour ago, Samson's Flow said:

Yeah it is something I have grown into, as when I was a renter I was much worse at being diligent about the sidewalks. I know we all live in a car-centric culture, but it's important to remember that some people (including the elderly) rely on walking to the corner store/bus stop/etc. to live. It's not that much extra effort to shovel a clear path so they can get to where they need to go easier.

I’m very lucky that it only snows here once a year. I’ve got a corner lot that is fully sidewalked. So I have probably 10x as much space to shovel as anyone else. 

[ubkev]

22 hours ago, Samson's Flow said:

I'm still rocking the shovel only, and most of the time it is fine but during big storms like this it takes me 1hr+ to shovel out my ~30ft one car width driveway.

Especially after your neighbor gets done chucking all his snow on to your driveway!

[Wyldnwoody44]

So one of my zone valves quit working on my boiler, basically the microswitch didn't open the valve and the hot water didn't flow through, that left my line upstairs freezing and no heat to my bedroom and my radiant floor bathroom. But.... I didn't realize it was the zone valve. 

 

Soooo I went to flush my boiler system assuming it was an air lock causing the one zone to stop, when I closed the gait valve return to the boiler, the innards broke.... Again without me knowing, so after flushing out air, I opened the valve to let it all work again, hoping I fixed the perceived problem...... Woke up to 30 degree home, boiler that was dry and no idea what happened. 

So I spent 2 days with my contractor friends (because I am not good at this stuff) cutting out copper and troubleshooting, to then cutting holes in my kitchen ceiling and jammin space heaters in the soffet to thaw the lines. 

 

This in turn caused sawdust and wood to get into my kitchen sink, it backed up my pipes and jammed my garbage disposal, sooooo I spent said evening pulling apart my sink and snaking the lines, I then got a regurgitation all over the wood floors and had to use every towel I could find to clean it up before damage ensued. 

I finally have it all buttoned up, 3 days of stress and out a grand, I now have a new zone valve ordered and now have the upstairs loop running, but it won't turn off until I replace the parts, so my upstairs is around 80 degrees and I have to open the windows to sleep. 

 

Why the F did I buy a house?!?! 

[SwampD]

24 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

So one of my zone valves quit working on my boiler, basically the microswitch didn't open the valve and the hot water didn't flow through, that left my line upstairs freezing and no heat to my bedroom and my radiant floor bathroom. But.... I didn't realize it was the zone valve. 

 

Soooo I went to flush my boiler system assuming it was an air lock causing the one zone to stop, when I closed the gait valve return to the boiler, the innards broke.... Again without me knowing, so after flushing out air, I opened the valve to let it all work again, hoping I fixed the perceived problem...... Woke up to 30 degree home, boiler that was dry and no idea what happened. 

So I spent 2 days with my contractor friends (because I am not good at this stuff) cutting out copper and troubleshooting, to then cutting holes in my kitchen ceiling and jammin space heaters in the soffet to thaw the lines. 

 

This in turn caused sawdust and wood to get into my kitchen sink, it backed up my pipes and jammed my garbage disposal, sooooo I spent said evening pulling apart my sink and snaking the lines, I then got a regurgitation all over the wood floors and had to use every towel I could find to clean it up before damage ensued. 

I finally have it all buttoned up, 3 days of stress and out a grand, I now have a new zone valve ordered and now have the upstairs loop running, but it won't turn off until I replace the parts, so my upstairs is around 80 degrees and I have to open the windows to sleep. 

 

Why the F did I buy a house?!?! 

Can you disconnect the nonworking valve from the furnace and leave it manually open? Then the thermostat form the other zone would be the only thing controlling the circulator pump.

[Wyldnwoody44]

Just now, SwampD said:

Can you disconnect the nonworking valve from the furnace and leave it manually open? Then the thermostat form the other zone would be the only thing controlling the circulator pump.

The way my house was wired, I have 6 zones on the furnace, but it's all jumped to 2 thermostats total, one upstairs and one down, so I have it manually open now the rest of the house is OK, but the one zone will just remain open until I replace the zone valve, or at least change out the bad motor/switch. 

My boiler is 40 years old and honestly it's having a tough time keeping up with the house, I want to replace this summer and then actually run proper valves, I'm wasting a ton of energy/heat on the back parts of the house I don't use much 

[shrader]

You'll probably have to burn the whole thing down.  Fortunately, it does solve the lack of heating issue.

[Wyldnwoody44]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

You'll probably have to burn the whole thing down.  Fortunately, it does solve the lack of heating issue.

I'm gonna go office space, Milton on it all! 

[Doohicksie]

Our kitchen is done.  We hung up some art-ish canvasses from At Home and I put up a rail to hang my fry pans on.

[Doohicksie]

Probably the next room to tackle is the living room/dining room.  That's probably mostly just paint and light decorating.  Eventually we'll need some new furniture.  We got the blue sofa and chair at an estate sale for $10 for both pieces; I got them a couple Novembers back.  I wanted something in the living room at our old place after my son's dog destroyed the cushions on our old sofa.  The paisley chair came from a friend of my wife's when she moved to West Virginia and everything they took had to go in their two vehicles.  The left a lot behind.  Any way... the starting point:

The tables with the lamps were my grandparents'.  I refinished them some time ago.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Doohickie

[North Buffalo]

On ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 11:25 AM, SwampD said:

Can you disconnect the nonworking valve from the furnace and leave it manually open? Then the thermostat form the other zone would be the only thing controlling the circulator pump.

Yes

[North Buffalo]

2 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Probably the next room to tackle is the living room/dining room.  That's probably mostly just paint and light decorating.  Eventually we'll need some new furniture.  We got the blue sofa and chair at an estate sale for $10 for both pieces; I got them a couple Novembers back.  I wanted something in the living room at our old place after my son's dog destroyed the cushions on our old sofa.  The paisley chair came from a friend of my wife's when she moved to West Virginia and everything they took had to go in their two vehicles.  The left a lot behind.  Any way... the starting point:

The tables with the lamps were my grandparents'.  I refinished them some time ago.

Great work... redid the inside including  painting, stripping popcorn ceilings redoing wood floors and putting in 2 wood stoves with chimney liners a couple of years ago over 2 years.  Starting to tackle unfinished space above the garage and insulating the whole garage.  Gonna put up wall for a bathroom. Just put in wood floor 12 inch plank recaptured from basement flood.  Need to sand and poly.  Once electric and plumbing need to pull permits.  Hoping to have this done this summer.

[Doohicksie]

We bough the house almost a year ago, from an older couple.  Lots of updating to do, but most of it cosmetic.

[shrader]

I feel like we could use some decorating advice.  Maybe I should go your route and post the pictures at some point.  We've been in our house for about 4 years now, so it's pretty much where we want it to be at this point.  There's still one fairly big empty wall that we have no idea how we want to use.  The whole downstairs is open concept and this wall is pretty much the transition from our dinner table area to the lounging tv area.  We've always toyed with the idea of some sort of bar/glassware storagey thing there.  I love to torture the wife with the idea of going with a full size Pacman machine I keep seeing for sale.  I always kind of sucked at that game, but *****, my neighbors say they'd never leave if I got it and just think of all the quarters we could make.

[jsb]

2 hours ago, Doohickie said:

We bough the house almost a year ago, from an older couple.  Lots of updating to do, but most of it cosmetic.

You really have done a nice job Mr. Doo, I need some work done on my house, when are you coming to Houston?? Who came up with the ideas for the improvement, was it the wife, a friend, pay someone?? I know it wasn't you!! ??

[Scottysabres]

Awesome, didn't know this thread existed. I have questions ?