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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I just got a job offer in Waco, TX. Now I have to orchestrate a move from Virginia to Texas Spend some time on craigslist etc sussing out the landscape in terms of rent, amenities, etc. before you make your trip. I would spend at least 2 or 3 days in the area for apartment hunting, mostly so that you can get a better sense of the neighborhoods in which you are looking. Pets: Just move them with you. There have been threads about this in PI a lot. Here's a recent one. You can bump that probably if you have further questions. Here's another one that deals with flying them over (to Texas, even!).
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May 2, 2012 13:41
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I'm planning on flying back to Waco sometime soon to do apartment hunting, how many days should I allocate to do that?
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I just got a job offer in Waco, TX. Now I have to orchestrate a move from Virginia to Texas I'd go the petsitter route unless your pet is the most chill animal ever. Most pets will be excited as hell or nervous as gently caress in a new place, and be constantly underfoot.
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May 3, 2012 03:44
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Authentic You posted:Sanders aren't all that expensive ($60-ish + sand paper), but if it's just for the one table, I'd just make some sanding blocks. Get some square of scrap wood (like a 4in section of 2x4 and staple/tack/nail a section of sandpaper to it. Make one that's rough (120 grit, I'd say), and then one that's medium (280-320), and then a super fine one (400-600). Sand trim and stuff with loose sandpaper. The blocks really help make hand sanding of large flat surfaces easy. Once it's all smooth, stain it to match the non-damaged areas. This shouldn't cost you much. Thanks for the tip, this guy offered to fix it up for me for $40, let's see how it turns out. your plan sounds easy enough through, so that is plan b. I would need to sand it anyways if this guy messes up right? Also, I am going to ikea to get curtains tomorrow; I already have white wooden blinds. I am thinking of getting a soft pastel yellow sheer curtains with linings, or whatever sheer curtains the best. Just a cursory research, sheer and linings offer best insulation and privacy? Also might get drapes if I am under my budget. I've never gotten curtains before, is this correct thinking? Or should I skip the sheer curtains and just get nice drapes? I already have the blinds? Femur fucked around with this message at 05:29 on May 3, 2012 |
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May 3, 2012 05:24
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ConfusedUs posted:I'd go the petsitter route unless your pet is the most chill animal ever. Most pets will be excited as hell or nervous as gently caress in a new place, and be constantly underfoot. I think the plan as of now is to leave them with my parents and then have my parents come out to visit me after I'm settled in and bring the fuzzbutts with them. They're chinchillas so they'd be most unhappy in the Texas heat in June while I try to get everything set up for them. Plus my parents can bring one each as their carryon on the plane and I won't have to worry about juggling two on my own. My roommate is upset that I'm leaving earlier than planned now because the entire kitchen belongs to me. Once I'm gone there will be no more pots, pans, silverware, dishes, glasses, etc. Oh well, she'll have to get all of her own poo poo eventually.
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May 3, 2012 16:44
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Femur posted:Thanks for the tip, this guy offered to fix it up for me for $40, let's see how it turns out. your plan sounds easy enough through, so that is plan b. I would need to sand it anyways if this guy messes up right? If you want insulation you'll want heavy lined curtains. Your wood blinds are probably doing enough though. You should really be looking at curtains for aesthetic reasons.
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May 3, 2012 16:48
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Femur posted:Also, I am going to ikea to get curtains tomorrow; I already have white wooden blinds. I am thinking of getting a soft pastel yellow sheer curtains with linings, or whatever sheer curtains the best. Just a cursory research, sheer and linings offer best insulation and privacy? Also might get drapes if I am under my budget. I've never gotten curtains before, is this correct thinking? Or should I skip the sheer curtains and just get nice drapes? I already have the blinds? Are you in a position to get new blinds? I got some insulating/light blocking blinds installed a few months ago and my electric bill plummeted and I'm not being woken up by the sun every day at dawn. If you want to get insulating window treatments curtains aren't really gonna help too terribly much. My curtains are purely for aesthetic purposes.
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May 3, 2012 22:25
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Are you in a position to get new blinds? I got some insulating/light blocking blinds installed a few months ago and my electric bill plummeted and I'm not being woken up by the sun every day at dawn. If you want to get insulating window treatments curtains aren't really gonna help too terribly much. My curtains are purely for aesthetic purposes. Well I don't need it to work miracles or anything, just might as well get one that helps insulate also. My place is on the edge, and it faces away from the sun, so I don't know if I need any sun blocking blinds like that? Which blinds do you suggest through? I wasn't looking to change them, but if it helps save money on electricity bill, hell yeah; I like to live in an igloo of 70 degrees.
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May 4, 2012 04:06
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NextDayBlinds has some honeycomb shades that have a layer of mylar in the middle. poo poo gets DARK and toasty warm in the winter/keeps AC in in the summer. When I mean dark, I mean dark. Like I'll wake up and think it's still early morning or even the middle of the night but then it'll turn out to be noon. Does any one have any experience shipping cars? I got a quote for $850 to ship my car to Texas. It'll cost $200 in gas to drive there over the course of about 2 or 3 days. Does anyone who's done long haul moves have any input for car transport? Should I suck it up and drive my car the ~1100 miles or pay extra to have someone else deal with it?
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May 4, 2012 05:03
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Red_Fred posted:I'm interested to know what things should be done and will be needed when renting in Australia. Specifically Perth. I went from NZ to Sydney and it's exactly the same, I can't imagine it would be very different in Perth.
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May 4, 2012 07:23
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:NextDayBlinds has some honeycomb shades that have a layer of mylar in the middle. poo poo gets DARK and toasty warm in the winter/keeps AC in in the summer. When I mean dark, I mean dark. Like I'll wake up and think it's still early morning or even the middle of the night but then it'll turn out to be noon. You should factor in how much it would cost you in food, hotels, etc. and time you'll have to take off work, as well. Your sanity is also a consideration. Basically it's up to you. People often pay others to drive their cars long distances like this, but you'd have to find someone you can trust.
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May 4, 2012 13:56
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Butt Wizard posted:You should factor in how much it would cost you in food, hotels, etc. and time you'll have to take off work, as well. Your sanity is also a consideration. Basically it's up to you. I drove my car out from Seattle to Kansas 9 years ago in 3 days. I thought it was kinda fun actually, but then again I like to drive.
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May 4, 2012 14:39
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If you don't need it immediately, you should wait a few months, this is a busy season for them I think, and they charge you more. I had my car driven to me once, it late a few days, and there were a few scratches I didn't notice before; so yeah find someone reputable over price.
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May 4, 2012 14:45
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I did a little more research since I made that post, and I think I'm just gonna drive out there. Even if I spend $100 a night for two nights in a hotel and $30 a day on food that still comes out to less than the shipping quote. Plus I talked to a friend who had his car shipped in the fall and he said that a lot of places have fine print that says "may be delivered +/- 3 months from estimated date". gently caress that. If I don't have a car by my first day of work at my new place I'm screwed. Waco doesn't have public transport that I can see and my new job is on the outskirts of town so public transport wouldn't go there anyway. The other option is to sell my car in Virginia and buy a new one when I get to Texas, which I might also do since I was planning on getting a new car this summer anyway.
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May 4, 2012 15:22
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:The other option is to sell my car in Virginia and buy a new one when I get to Texas, which I might also do since I was planning on getting a new car this summer anyway.
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May 4, 2012 15:30
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2508084 posted:This may be your best bet since you may run into unexpected (and expensive) car issues transferring a car from one end of the country to another. I don't know if VA or TX has a smog certification requirement like California does, but iirc, bringing a car to California from a state that doesn't have smog cert is a pain in the butt. That may have changed though, its been years since I've done that.
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May 4, 2012 21:15
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psydude posted:You can run long tubes on your car for all VA cares, unless you live in NOVA. My car's registered in NOVA even though I live in southwest VA, so I have to drive it home for an emissions test every year. I tried getting an emissions test here once but every mechanic looked at me like I had five heads when I asked for one. I haven't looked up TX requirements, but I doubt they're any stricter than NOVA ones.
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May 5, 2012 15:25
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Say you have this car and a 12x12 carpet. Which of the following would be the least stupid idea? 1. Secure it to the roof using bungee cords that go through the windows and moon roof 2. Put it inside the car with some of it (probably 2-3') sticking out of the hatchback, which I guess you'd bungee cord as closed as possible. 3. Put it inside the car with some of it (again, 2-3') poking out of the front passenger side window. 4. Other (explain) 5. Borrow a truck/SUV you idiot (I do not know anyone with one so it'd be UHaul or hiring a guy off craigslist)
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May 5, 2012 19:38
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2 is workable but you need to flag it.
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May 5, 2012 19:41
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Butt Wizard posted:Say you have this car and a 12x12 carpet. Which of the following would be the least stupid idea? Go with 5, and if you can't borrow a truck get a $19 one from Home Depot.
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May 5, 2012 19:54
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:NextDayBlinds has some honeycomb shades that have a layer of mylar in the middle. poo poo gets DARK and toasty warm in the winter/keeps AC in in the summer. When I mean dark, I mean dark. Like I'll wake up and think it's still early morning or even the middle of the night but then it'll turn out to be noon. This seems to be almost a $1500 investment, so not an option at this time. If they do what you say through, why not just get solar screens? Wouldn't that be more cost effective? One more household question; and I always wonder this. How do some people get their house smelling good all the time? I mean I look around and it's not like they have those auto febreeze sprayers all around the house, which would have been my solution, but that's a pain and pretty expensive to maintain. Googling seems to turn up lots of method, not sure which is best. Anyone have any special insights? So far, I am thinking of the Reed diffuser option, it doesn't look that bad, and people say the smell is not overbearing. I am staying a pretty small 2 story condo if that makes a difference. Femur fucked around with this message at 22:35 on May 5, 2012 |
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May 5, 2012 22:31
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Honestly the best method is just to make sure you open the windows every day for about 30 minutes, say over breakfast. Have all the internal doors open too and let the air flow around a bit. I know this may sound too easy but it works. Those reed sticks in perfume stink.
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May 6, 2012 00:33
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Yeah airflow and keeping things clean in the first place is key. Also realize that you just get used to how your own place smells, and you only really notice how other peoples homes smell when you enter them because you aren't used to it.
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May 6, 2012 01:09
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An air purifier might help if you want to spend some money. I do not know how much, but some people think they work.
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May 6, 2012 15:27
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Femur posted:This seems to be almost a $1500 investment, so not an option at this time. If they do what you say through, why not just get solar screens? Wouldn't that be more cost effective? . Yeah it's pretty pricey. I did it because my old blinds were incorrectly installed pieces of poo poo and I needed all new blinds anyway. They'd come crashing down if you looked at them wrong. My place is an investment rental property so I wanted something that was effiicient, idiot proof (the kind I got don't even have strings), and will last a while. I think honeycomb shades look nicer than standard mini blinds too, but that's my opinion. I have electric heat and my electric bills this winter compared to last winter are like night and day. As for your nice smelling house question, If you have carpet we sometimes use scented carpet cleaning powder (or hell, just baking soda sometimes) that you sprinkle on the carpet then vacuum it up. If my place starts smelling a little funky a good vacuuming usually helps a lot even without any sort of scented powder. If you have a filter in your HVAC system, make sure you change that on a regular basis.
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May 6, 2012 15:58
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What should my budget for utilities be if living with 3 other gamers like myself. The 4 of us have been looking at houses to rent and some brand new ones are available for August/September. We all play Xbox and 3 of us have PS3's for Blurays. Plus 3 Gaming PC's. And don't forget the TV's and monitors. It costs about 7-8 cents per kWh and we don't play during peak hours. (We all work night shift so we game either when everyone is at work or when everyone is asleep). We live in Ontario and I have no idea what kind of numbers I should be looking at. If anyone has been in a similar situation I would appreciate some advice. Or just tell me to find a place that pays utilities for us.
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May 7, 2012 04:42
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Lando2 posted:What should my budget for utilities be if living with 3 other gamers like myself. The 4 of us have been looking at houses to rent and some brand new ones are available for August/September. We all play Xbox and 3 of us have PS3's for Blurays. Plus 3 Gaming PC's. And don't forget the TV's and monitors. I don't know how much power it used or anything but I had a roommate who had a gaming pc once. When he moved out our electric bill literally cut by a third. He ran it 24/7 though. If all of you are playing I would look for a place that pays utilities because it'll really add up.
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May 7, 2012 04:49
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Yeah turn your computers off at night - I ran a stupid Minecraft server over the Summer and the combination of the PC needing power and the increased cooling required by my AMD quad-core space heater really spiked the electrical bill. Sorry I can't quote you any numbers but turn off / UNPLUG everything you can when you're not using it to save what you can. Maybe try to get your cooperative mode on to cut the TV usage in half, etc.
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May 7, 2012 05:13
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Power can be expensive, so as suggested turn your PC's off at night or at least put them in standby. I run a 24/7 fileserver and routerbox and while the router isn't too bad as it's heavily-undervolted, the fileserver/HTPC combo is a bit thirsty from the wall. I live in Florida though so the biggest power cost is the A/C units, so the PC power cost is negligible in comparison.
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May 7, 2012 16:43
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As a devil's advocate, I lived in a house of 7 guys, all running big screen TVs, computers, gaming systems, etc. nonstop. I never payed more than $50 for my share of ALL utilities (water and cable included). It's always just been a non-issue for me. To be fair, I live in a place where energy is dirt cheap (thank you hydroelectric power).
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May 7, 2012 16:47
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Drunk Tomato posted:As a devil's advocate, I lived in a house of 7 guys, all running big screen TVs, computers, gaming systems, etc. nonstop. I never payed more than $50 for my share of ALL utilities (water and cable included). It's always just been a non-issue for me. To be fair, I live in a place where energy is dirt cheap (thank you hydroelectric power). Isn't there a thing you can put on power cables to see how much power that thing is actually using? That + some maths and you can figure out exactly how much a thing is costing you. I'm in the south too so I'm with Florida goon up there a/c is like 2/3rds of our power bill (Seriously we kept the AC off for a month and opened all the windows and it knocked the power bill down from $350 to $110). Now it's too hot. 
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May 7, 2012 17:14
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Blooshoo posted:Isn't there a thing you can put on power cables to see how much power that thing is actually using? That + some maths and you can figure out exactly how much a thing is costing you. e: I won't do the open windows thing. With the humidity here I'd have mold everywhere even in spring (along with being loving miserable  ).
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May 7, 2012 17:25
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grumperfish posted:e: I won't do the open windows thing. With the humidity here I'd have mold everywhere even in spring (along with being loving miserable Yeah, I live in Houston, I have humidity, and don't bugs fly in if you leave your door/window open? Ok, another question, I apologize for so many but this is my first real home, not a cheap apartment, and I wanted make sure I furnished it with good stuff. I have budgeted 1,200 to a mattress and headboard. And honestly, all that $1200 can go to a mattress for all I care. I am perfectly fine using those metal frames until I can afford a better headrest. I want a good mattress through. I went shopping around, and I have decided on a memory foam type of mattress. The problem is which one? I am reading now that there are cheap polyurethane memory foams that pretty much goes bad after a year or so. But the real expensive brand name ones, which I assume are the ones that last 20+ years, are out of my price range. And it's not like they tell you what type of foam they are using on Amazon. So how can you tell? What is the sweet spot? Is this good enough? Or is it a waste? and go with one of the 400-600 ones instead? As for trying it in stores, honestly, I went to the Roomstore because they have a liquidation sale, and they had a $1,100 memory foam one that felt nice, but I can't even find anything about it on their website. And there was no label or details about it in stores, and I wasn't about to drop 1k on random item. Anyways, my point was that all their memory foam beds felt the basically the same to me. Femur fucked around with this message at 04:55 on May 8, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 18:02
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Blooshoo posted:Isn't there a thing you can put on power cables to see how much power that thing is actually using? That + some maths and you can figure out exactly how much a thing is costing you. The utility conglomerate here in Maryland is switching over to a type of meter that allows you to actually get a per-outlet readout.
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May 7, 2012 18:12
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Femur posted:Yeah, I live in Houston, I have humidity, and don't bugs fly in if you leave your door/window open? This is what screen doors and window screens are for.
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May 7, 2012 22:05
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Ashcans posted:This is what screen doors and window screens are for. These don't keep out the fruit flies/gnats/smaller ants though, which are absolutely the most annoying insects to get inside.
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May 7, 2012 23:00
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After much most extensive research, I don't think it's possible to get a good memory foam mattress for under a couple of grand. Through some of the cheap ones on Amazon get great reviews, all the bad ones are the same, after prolong usage(>6 months) the thing goes bad. SO I am going to stick with a really nice spring one.. now to do research on those.
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May 8, 2012 04:55
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Have you tried Costco? They have several memory foam mattresses under $1,000. Cheap regular mattresses as well. I recommend the models with the coupons... I got $200 off when I got my mattress, and although shipping is included in the price, if you buy in store it's $100 less.
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May 8, 2012 07:22
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Femur posted:One more household question; and I always wonder this. How do some people get their house smelling good all the time? I mean I look around and it's not like they have those auto febreeze sprayers all around the house, which would have been my solution, but that's a pain and pretty expensive to maintain. Googling seems to turn up lots of method, not sure which is best. Anyone have any special insights? So far, I am thinking of the Reed diffuser option, it doesn't look that bad, and people say the smell is not overbearing. I am staying a pretty small 2 story condo if that makes a difference. Some great tips were posted in response to your question, but I didn't see this mentioned here, so I want to share it since it's worked out so well for me. It takes a little bit of work, but I've been doing it for years and it's worked wonders! If you're skeptical, just try it once and see what you think! OK, we all know how important it is to vacuum the carpet, mop the floors, and keep the counters clean if you want to keep your house smelling fresh. But one thing people don't realize is how much interior walls contribute to bad house smells! See, odors are actually little molecules and particles that are emitted from whatever it is you're smelling, and they float around in the air until they attach to something, like the inside of your nose—gross! These particles, which are usually too hard to see with the naked eye, accumulate on various surfaces. The odor particles from most of the things we don't like to smell—decaying meat and fruit, mildew, feces/flatulence (animal or otherwise)—are particularly "attracted" to certain microtextures where they can get caught in microscopic nooks and crannies, leaving behind an offensive smell long after the culprit has been removed. What has one of the best microtextures for these odor particles? You guessed it: household paint. If your walls are covered with paint, particularly if the paint was manufactured within the last fifteen years, they are TEEMING with filthy molecules just teasing you with their disgusting smells! (Strangely, bare wood doesn't seem to attract these smells—who knew that Grandma's hideous 1970s wood paneling would turn out useful?!) The most effective way to combat this is by regularly washing your walls, at least once a month. But you don't want to use soap and water. Frequent water use over a long period of time will damage the paint job and, in older houses, the wall plaster itself. Furthermore, while the most commonly sold household cleaning products do decent work at cleaning smooth surfaces such as linoleum or varnished wood, they don't really get into those microscopic crevasses. Unfortunately, the best cleaning solution isn't available in stores (yet! Does someone "smell" a business opportunity?) so you'll have to mix it yourself. Here's what you'll need (these amounts are good for an average 24′ × 24′ living room, about 1000 square feet of wall space; if you have more or less wall space to clean, you can project up or down accordingly):
I know it sounds involved and maybe even a little strange, but give it a shot, and I guarantee you'll stop thinking it's "off-the-wall" and be cheering for getting the stench "off your wall"!
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May 8, 2012 10:50
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I'm really interested in your technique, but I have light colored walls and doesn't the blood leave stains? Or is that what the chlorine is for?
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May 8, 2012 14:45
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And does it have to be fresh squeeze lemon juice?
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May 8, 2012 15:11
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