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It's the beginning of February....at one point do we start thinking about getting the lawn/flower beds/mulch ready? Right now all the grass is basically yellow (I live in the mid-south) and the beds are nasty
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Feb 2, 2017 16:49
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Does anyone have a recommendation for an undercabinet range hood? Searching for range hood reviews seems to be just completely full of auto-generated shill sites. Basically I want to replace my undercabinet microwave (with it's completely useless recirculating vent) with a ducted range hood which will go up into the cabinet and then straight out the wall. I'm looking for something with some serious power that can flow a lot of air/smoke. I believe the space is 30" wide.
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Feb 6, 2017 17:30
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The NJ state energy improvement process is pretty awesome... We're getting a $10,000 0% interest loan, and a $4000 rebate for: * Replacing our 27 year old air conditioning * Replacing our 13 year old furnace * Getting air sealing + 11 inches of blown in insulation in the attic Would definitely suggest it to anyone else: http://www.njcleanenergy.com/hp
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Feb 9, 2017 01:23
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Elysium posted:Does anyone have a recommendation for an undercabinet range hood? Searching for range hood reviews seems to be just completely full of auto-generated shill sites. Basically I want to replace my undercabinet microwave (with it's completely useless recirculating vent) with a ducted range hood which will go up into the cabinet and then straight out the wall. i've built condos with both Broan and Bosch hoods and they both make models that are slim or can slide out of sight, pretty nice. You can also go for Miele but they cost a lot more. can also go for a flush mount undercabinet like this: https://www.amazon.com/Broan-PM250-...net+Range+Hoods (but check your code as sometimes you need the hood fan to cover the entire space of the burner on the stove)
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Feb 11, 2017 21:41
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I had an uncomfortable weekend in Vermont. I checked my oil tank gauge on Friday and it was at a quarter tank left. Maybe? Usually I catch it at a third or so before calling in for a refuel. So I call in for a refuel and they tell me they will me on Monday. I think surely quarter tank is plenty enough. Then the entire weekend I stress out based on the plunger. If I read from the top, I'm fine. If I read from the bottom I'm almost empty. It's winter and a big storm was forecast for Monday so I was concerned that if it was bad enough, they couldn't make it. They made it and of course it only need 230 out of 275 gallons. It's my responsibility to check my gauge but I'm wondering if there's a more proactive solution, like replacing it with a digital reader that wouldn't necessarily be more accurate but could be programmed to chime or beep if it thinks it reaches a certain level?
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Feb 14, 2017 11:46
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Cheesus posted:I had an uncomfortable weekend in Vermont. Typically they only fill the tank like 80% or so (or around 220 gallons), so you were pretty drat close to empty. Does your oil company do automatic refill? I have that set up with my service, they do basic calculations about how much I should use based on furnace type and the size/age of the home. Usually just comes down to monthly deliveries for my home. Easiest solution is to just set a calendar reminder and check it weekly or something. The most accurate way to gauge a tank is usually to stick it (with a literal measuring stick). I'm sure they sell digital meters that cost a shitload but just make a note to check it every few days.
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Feb 14, 2017 13:32
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Well, if you're ever super nervous about how low it is again, just remember that you can dump a few gallons of kerosene or diesel in there if you really need to to get you through a weekend or bad storm and the oil boys can't come deliver (at least not without some huge "emergency" fee.) Also what's up fellow VTer? How much snow did you get? I'm in Burlington and got nearly a foot. Shoveled three times on Sunday and then again Monday morning before work. I want to get a snow blower for next winter but my fiance is against it because we have a small driveway and she enjoys shoveling...she says as she only helped with the first two shovels on Sunday, and not the later ones that had more snow, and she never shoveled the end of thew driveway where the sidewalk and road plows shove the SUPER wet and heavy snow in the driveway that takes twice as long to get rid of as the regular snow in the 20' driveway itself.)
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Feb 14, 2017 17:35
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DrBouvenstein posted:Well, if you're ever super nervous about how low it is again, just remember that you can dump a few gallons of kerosene or diesel in there if you really need to to get you through a weekend or bad storm and the oil boys can't come deliver (at least not without some huge "emergency" fee.) "I like shoveling" was my reaction to buying a house for like the two weeks we owned it before we actually got dumped on. Just get a little one, save yourself the trouble.
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Feb 14, 2017 19:05
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Heh. I didn't mention that I did fill up with 5 gallons of diesel on Sunday because I was that paranoid (thanks LogisticEarth for the information confirming about filling the tank only 80%). We got around 5 inches on Sunday that I cleared up in the afternoon. For some reason when I looked out on the deck on Monday morning, my blearly eyes only saw a dusting. Looking again with less bleary eyes, there was 8 inches to take care of. I bought a snow blower 2 years ago. I'm not sure that the price ($1600, Cub Cadet high rated from Consumer Reports) will ever offset the cost of paying someone to plow ($100 a year?). However, I'd have to wait for plows and move vehicles and wouldn't be able to create paths not on the drive way (to the shed for trash, to the side of the house for the oil tank, etc.). As a bonus it gives me one of the few opportunities of exercise during the winter months. If it only snows an inch or two, I shovel/push to the side. We have a gravel driveway so it seems like I'm pulling up less with 3+ inches than less. We have a 130 ft driveway and a 30ft deck. It took me about an hour for Monday's 8 inches.
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Feb 14, 2017 19:30
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Some of the siding on my house is peeling off. I'd send my husband to go fix it except we don't own a 20ft ladder and I'm assuming it would be cheaper to have a handy man pop it back in place. Still waiting on a quote though since the guy I called got delayed last night.
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Feb 14, 2017 20:43
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I do love only having 25' of sidewalk to clear of snow. Y'all yokels in the burbs don't know what you're missing.
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Feb 15, 2017 00:49
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minivanmegafun posted:I do love only having 25' of sidewalk to clear of snow. Y'all yokels in the burbs don't know what you're missing. Do you mean the actual sidewalk, or just your walkways? I think it's absurd some cities make people shovel the sidewalks just because it happens to be in front of their house. You invariably end up with lovely people who won't shovel, people who can't shovel because their old or disabled, and patches of sidewalk that are in front of a property that's not owned by anyone/abandoned.
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Feb 15, 2017 16:13
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DrBouvenstein posted:Do you mean the actual sidewalk, or just your walkways? Actual sidewalk. DrBouvenstein posted:I think it's absurd some cities make people shovel the sidewalks just because it happens to be in front of their house. You invariably end up with lovely people who won't shovel, people who can't shovel because their old or disabled, and patches of sidewalk that are in front of a property that's not owned by anyone/abandoned. It's absurd in that I'd rather the city did it itself, but the resources for that would be rather high. I'm fortunate enough to live in a city with stiff fines for not shoveling, a really easy web form for filing a complaint, and live on a street full of people who walk everywhere and file said complaints.
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Feb 15, 2017 16:32
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the neighbor across the street at our house owns a giant tractor with a snowblower attachment and does the block (6-8 houses depending on how far down he goes) every time it snows. it's great because my driveway is like 50' long.
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Feb 15, 2017 16:51
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DrBouvenstein posted:Do you mean the actual sidewalk, or just your walkways? Just do it how Seattle does and don't put sidewalks in front of 30-40% of the houses.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:18
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Just do it how Seattle does and don't put sidewalks in front of 30-40% of the houses. Don't... don't do this. Do you read StrongTowns? https://www.strongtowns.org/
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Feb 15, 2017 18:43
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Don't... don't do this. Do you read StrongTowns? Strong Towns is doubleplusgood. I say this as an urban planner who's desperately working to get more people in my profession to think along Strong Towns lines, or even learn that the organization exists. Everyone's favorite (or least favorite, depending) early retirement blogger actually just published a great post about how doing Strong Towns types of things is good for both personal finance and municipal finance: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/02/10/the-happy-city/
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Feb 15, 2017 19:16
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Don't... don't do this. Do you read StrongTowns? It's mostly a joke. No sane person person would develop a new neighborhood like this. Seattle doesn't have sidewalks in neighborhoods that were incorporated after a certain date. You can see them disappear around 85th Ave N if you're on foot. Then there are side streets that were added later and sidewalks weren't feasible because there isn't enough space (that's my situation). It has a weird effect in the dynamic of the neighborhood because it introduces a barrier for pedestrians since there isn't a dedicated lane for them. So if someone is casually walking down my street and I don't recognize them and they're not walking a dog or something, it looks off. Property crime is also really high in Seattle so I'm paranoid about everything.
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Feb 15, 2017 20:16
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My old house had a sidewalk that went up a weird hill where if you walked up it you would get stuck where the sidewalk stopped because the next property had never been subdivided and forced to install a sidewalk. The hill also was moving away from the street so the top of the sidewalk kind stopped at a jump down point. Anyway I found it amusing to build a sidewalk to nowhere. I guess they hope to someday force a sidewalk there even though there is no ground to build it on.
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Feb 15, 2017 21:38
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Boston makes everyone shovel out their sidewalks and its a total nightmare. One of the city council members wanted to exempt old and disabled people, but didn't include any provision on what happens to those sidewalks then - I assume they just stay unshoveled and everyone is hosed trying to use them? It hasn't happened yet. By regulation you're supposed to shovel out a 42" wide path so it can handle all mobility devices, but whenever we have a heavy snowfall the ploughs will drive snow up onto the curb so far you can't manage that, and there are a bunch of places where the actual sidewalk isn't 42" anyway.  This system also leads to no-man's lands where everyone disagrees over who shovels. There was a bridge where the walkway was left blocked because the DOT and city couldn't agree whose job it was, and there is a bustop outside a local community center that is never cleared because the city/transit/community center all maintain that it's the others job to clear it.
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Feb 15, 2017 21:48
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Just do it how Seattle does and don't put sidewalks in front of 30-40% of the houses. Nashville only has like 30% sidewalk coverage, it's terrible. Also no requirement for builders to put in sidewalks for single family homes.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:37
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$6000 to replacement windows! Wooo!
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Feb 16, 2017 20:05
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devmd01 posted:$6000 to replacement windows! Wooo! Whereabouts? How many windows? What kind are the replacements? This is my field so this interests me 
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Feb 16, 2017 20:43
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Yeah when the wind comes off the lake behind our house it just howls through the lovely windows that were put in when the house was built so I was considering having new ones put in but I don't know anything about it, I would like to hear about the size and scope of your project.
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Feb 16, 2017 20:54
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devmd01 posted:$6000 to replacement windows! Wooo! Any energy efficiency rebates around you? Here they will pay you a decent chunk to go from single to double pane windows.
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Feb 16, 2017 21:06
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Our house was built in '05 with pretty low standards. Convince me not to 1) replace the vinyl siding with concrete fiber in a better color, 2) redo all the windows with triple pane glass and 3) replace the roof with a metal roof + solar panels? It's a fine location but it's not where I want to be living in 5 years, I should save these projects for the house I want to stay in, right?
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Feb 16, 2017 21:42
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Our house was built in '05 with pretty low standards. Convince me not to 1) replace the vinyl siding with concrete fiber in a better color, 2) redo all the windows with triple pane glass and 3) replace the roof with a metal roof + solar panels? It's a fine location but it's not where I want to be living in 5 years, I should save these projects for the house I want to stay in, right? This all sounds like an awful idea for a place you will be selling in 5 years. Unless anything is deteriorating rapidly or has current faults I would just let it be as is, if it is failing/failed, you might be under warranty on some of that stuff.
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Feb 16, 2017 21:50
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:replace the vinyl siding with concrete fiber in a better color This brought a question to mind: what's the most durable exterior finish available and practical for a single family residential structure? I currently have a slate roof that I recently had restored and am very pleased with it. Right now the siding on our place is aluminum, and was installed...At least 20, maybe 30 years ago or more. It looks like it's in great condition, if a bit faded. Is there something better? I see stucco a lot but it seems like it's a pain to patch and keep clean. I'm in PA so it's a temperate climate with an average amount of rain. Not necessarily looking to replace it since it's working fine right now, but wanted to think ahead.
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Feb 16, 2017 21:57
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I bought a new construction townhouse about 6 months ago - asked lots of questions about the quality of the sound proofing in the shared wall (we're the end unit of four houses) and the builder assured us, provided all their building diagrams and got me in touch with the architect. I asked if the buildings were framed independently as four separate structures or more like condos where it's one large building divided up. They assured me that the houses were built independently and even showed me the one unit which hadn't been drywalled yet so I could see what was in the walls. I've lived in lots of different townhouses all over the city and never really had any issues before. Flash forward 3 months to us occupying the house and our neighbors next door and two doors down move in. Immediately we are hearing the poo poo out of each other, conversations are coming through the wall, if we play music at a moderate volume the neighbors two doors down hear it in their living room. If I play it loud, they hear it in their master bedroom on the 3rd floor. In the house between us, it's 3/4 as loud as it is in my house. I can rattle the plates in their cabinets and don't even have a subwoofer. All of us are cool and considerate of each other, but we're pissed as gently caress we can hear each other so clearly that we know who is in what room of each house at all times. In our master bedrooms, we can all hear each other loving clear as day. One odd thing is that we're able to hear more through the front wall of the house than the shared party wall. If I put my ear up to the front wall it sounds like a telephone conversation from next door. All the houses are under warranty and the builder lives in the area, so the complaining begins. The builder is a total jackass and takes no responsibility. Comes over multiple times to do "sound tests" where he and his goons make noise and listen to it through the walls. The only purpose this has is for him to downplay concerns and make us feel crazy. When I brought up the sound coming from the front of the house, he explained that the front wall of all four houses was built as one unit, so may be leaking sound that way. This was contrary to what he told us before going under contract when they told us that the houses were built and framed independently (got that in writing). 3 more months of complaining back and forth and they finally agree to help remediate the sound issue. Their proposal is that we buy 4 panels of QuietRock drywall and they will install them for us on the shared wall in our living room, move the electrical boxes, sand the drywall and install the trim. We'd have to clean, paint everything and hang the TV on the wall. Don't think this is a great deal and doesn't seem like it's going to be super effective. Wondering what kind of recourse we have here, if any, and what the hell we can even do to make the situation better. People have suggested hat channel and another layer of drywall, but this is tough/impossible with the configuration of the house, the way the stairs are set up and how narrow the house is. I really want to avoid paying for this as much as possible because the house was expensive and they should have done a better job. The builder is pretty well known and he doesn't seem to give a poo poo about his reputation. I don't know of a way where we could just sell the house without getting financially destroyed, and what kind of obligation we'd have to disclose all this poo poo to a potential buyer scares me.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:14
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LogisticEarth posted:This brought a question to mind: what's the most durable exterior finish available and practical for a single family residential structure? I currently have a slate roof that I recently had restored and am very pleased with it. Right now the siding on our place is aluminum, and was installed...At least 20, maybe 30 years ago or more. It looks like it's in great condition, if a bit faded. Is there something better? I see stucco a lot but it seems like it's a pain to patch and keep clean. It's arguably this concrete fiber stuff, brick,, true concrete or stone. You're actually getting to around the age of needing to replace aluminum siding, it only lasts half as long as vinyl siding. Which stinks because my vinyl siding is going to be around for a long, long time it sounds like. I don't think you can even really repaint vinyl siding. Oh well, I guess we'll move.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:15
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BusinessWallet posted:Noisy neighbors. Goondolences. I don't know what kind of remedy you have.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:18
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Goondolences. I don't know what kind of remedy you have. The thing is, I wish they were noisy so I could bitch at them but they're not loud. Everyone is reasonable and respectful. But I can hear their goddamn footsteps and conversations like they're in my house.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:20
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I have a a friend in the same boat. He is so annoyed with the shared wall noise that he and his wife are considering moving into our friends' Airbnb while they find somewhere else to buy. Avoiding shared walls is the entire point of buying as far as I'm concerned.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:30
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Avoiding shared walls is the entire point of buying as far as I'm concerned. Yeah as the wind shreds through our cheaply built house, I'm still glad it's not the sweet, polite girls upstairs when we lived in an apartment who would get SO drunk on weekends and then play basketball in combat boots at 3 AM.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:33
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BusinessWallet posted:Wondering what kind of recourse we have here, if any, and what the hell we can even do to make the situation better. People have suggested hat channel and another layer of drywall, but this is tough/impossible with the configuration of the house, the way the stairs are set up and how narrow the house is. I really want to avoid paying for this as much as possible because the house was expensive and they should have done a better job. The builder is pretty well known and he doesn't seem to give a poo poo about his reputation. I don't know of a way where we could just sell the house without getting financially destroyed, and what kind of obligation we'd have to disclose all this poo poo to a potential buyer scares me. Does the drywall go all the way up above the ceiling, or is the space inside the ceiling basically open to the other units? As loud as you describe it, this is my first guess. Sound can get into your ceiling cavity through light fixtures and vent openings and just float over into the other units. The fix for this is messy but easy - tear down enough drywall to properly do the job, and patch it all back up. Are the vents/ducts on the walls between the units? The sound will get into the cavity between the units and pretty freely permeate. I doubt this is the case because it wouldn't be so loud 2 doors down if this was the problem though. The way you describe it, I doubt that just layering on a second or third layer of drywall will help. If you can hear high-pitched noise clearly in the other units then it isn't going through the drywall - there are open spaces somewhere.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:36
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HEY NONG MAN posted:I have a a friend in the same boat. He is so annoyed with the shared wall noise that he and his wife are considering moving into our friends' Airbnb while they find somewhere else to buy. It's a lovely part of living in the city, everything here is a townhouse.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:36
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Droo posted:Does the drywall go all the way up above the ceiling, or is the space inside the ceiling basically open to the other units? As loud as you describe it, this is my first guess. Sound can get into your ceiling cavity through light fixtures and vent openings and just float over into the other units. The fix for this is messy but easy - tear down enough drywall to properly do the job, and patch it all back up. Here's the wall assembly for the party wall from the builder:  1. 5/8" drywall 2. 2x4 framing 3. R11 unfaced batt insulation 4. N/A 5. 5/8" Fire rated Densglass, similar to drywall. 6. Air Gap, another absorbing quality. The drywall does go up above the ceiling. There are no shared ceiling joists, there's an air gap between each house and the space inside the ceiling on each floor is specific to each unit. The sound doesn't seem to come from the floor or the ceiling, just straight through the wall. There are no vents or ducts on my wall, they're all in the floor. The return for the house next door is in their wall, however. We don't hear as much high pitched as we do mids and lows, but occasionally if something is loud enough, we do hear it all.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:42
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BusinessWallet posted:The drywall does go up above the ceiling. There are no shared ceiling joists, there's an air gap between each house and the space inside the ceiling on each floor is specific to each unit. The sound doesn't seem to come from the floor or the ceiling, just straight through the wall. Maybe the same theory, but in the space below the floor? Are you able to pop out a floor vent and see what kind of structure exists under the floor between your unit and your neighbor? The return in the wall could be causing your problems too, because who knows how much damage they did to the layers of drywall and insulation between the units when they put the duct work in for it - but you describe it as being so loud that it seems like even 1 complete layer of drywall would do a better job of blocking sound that what you are experiencing.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:57
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BusinessWallet posted:I bought a new construction townhouse about 6 months ago - asked lots of questions about the quality of the sound proofing in the shared wall (we're the end unit of four houses) and the builder assured us, provided all their building diagrams and got me in touch with the architect. I asked if the buildings were framed independently as four separate structures or more like condos where it's one large building divided up. They assured me that the houses were built independently and even showed me the one unit which hadn't been drywalled yet so I could see what was in the walls. I've lived in lots of different townhouses all over the city and never really had any issues before. A relative used to do construction defect lawsuit defense. Everyone is super shady because they are done and paid. She hated every second of it. I wouldn't accept any responsibility for this (as in, paint, etc), but get everyone together with a single lawyer for a free consult with a clear list of promises (especially written ones), complaints, and acceptable remedies. Hope they settle.
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Feb 16, 2017 22:58
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Droo posted:Maybe the same theory, but in the space below the floor? Are you able to pop out a floor vent and see what kind of structure exists under the floor between your unit and your neighbor? The floor is built the same way. I can actually see the assembly in the basement in the part that is unfinished. I'd agree with you on the drywall/insulation damage thing with the ductwork insulation, but the issue is just as bad in the bedrooms where there's nothing but insulation in the walls.
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Feb 16, 2017 23:02
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