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Elephanthead posted:It is not uncommon for the drywall to be hung by the builder and not finished in the garage since the finish is not required by code. Some DIY jocky spent a lot of time making a lot of work for you. Have you gotten some quotes to have a drywaller do the work? They are faster and better then you will be. Not surprised unfortunately. Getting quotes is next on the list, just hoping it won't be too expensive. Thanks for the advice.
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Oct 10, 2017 20:04
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EL BROMANCE posted:Because of the hurricane, it sounds like we might be able to defer our mortgage payments for a few months. Is there a downside to this beyond the terms finishing 3 months later than originally thought? We’ve not lived here long and there’s some more improvements we’d like to make, and $5k in our pocket would certainly make that easier/faster. Hey I'm late but the answer is it depends on how they defer the payments and your loan type. If your loan is current and they are just pushing out your next due date by 3 months, and you have a schedule to schedule loan, then it's a cool deal. It's basically like your mortgage doesn't exist for 3 months. If they are calculating the accrued interest for those 3 months and tacking it on to the end of the loan due at payoff then you will be paying an extra 3 months interest on your loan, only good if you really need a break from payments. If you have a daily simple interest loan and they simply push back your due date then it is a horrible idea and you will likely pay nothing but interest (no principal) for your next several payments once you begin repaying. If more than half your payments go to interest each month then you could go YEARS before paying a single cent to principal as you catch up on all the accrued interest.
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Oct 10, 2017 21:00
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Sunshine89 posted:I have a big field ant mound in my backyard, and nothing I do seems to get rid of it. They laughed at the ant spikes I placed around it. The mound is too deep for the expanding foam insecticides to reach the queen. Bombing it with Borax just killed the grass. I use this stuff: http://www.bengal.com/fire_ants_product.html It's worked on every type of ant so far. Not sure if it's available in Canada but it's worth trying to find.
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Oct 10, 2017 21:13
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Found water under my kitchen sink Sunday  I start looking at it, go to test the rings holding the pipes in place, loving P-Trap falls right off. I'm dumb so it took me a couple of hours (and a trip to Home Depot) to figure out how to get the seal to sit right. Now my loving guest toilet isn't flushing right after roots were cleared away about a month ago. gently caress me running. I'm not sure if it's the roots coming back in or just a toilet clog.  Homeownership.
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Oct 10, 2017 21:47
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Fuuuuuck, there's an animal trapped in my wall 
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Oct 21, 2017 21:09
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CloFan posted:Fuuuuuck, there's an animal trapped in my wall Trapped or moving in?
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Oct 21, 2017 21:15
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Wait for it to stop moving. And then wait for it to smell.
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Oct 21, 2017 21:20
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Any opinions on interior paint brands to buy? I know to avoid cheap stuff, but that's about all I know.
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Oct 22, 2017 01:21
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Grumpwagon posted:Any opinions on interior paint brands to buy? I know to avoid cheap stuff, but that's about all I know. We did two rooms last year with this stuff http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-interior-paint/ I dunno a ton about paint but it still looks good, I'll probably use it again next time I paint something.
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Oct 22, 2017 01:45
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Grumpwagon posted:Any opinions on interior paint brands to buy? I know to avoid cheap stuff, but that's about all I know. Personally I'm sold on Sherwin-Williams after repainting a room last spring. As the other poster said, Benjamin-Moore is also a solid bet. I know at least Sherwin-Williams will have the occasional sale or coupon which brings the cost down. Which variety you use depends on the application and expected wear. If you end up at a B&M retail store of one of the above, the sales folks should help direct you.
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Oct 22, 2017 01:54
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BEHR Premium Plus Ultra was Consumer Report's pick, with the non-ultra also recommended fairly well.
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Oct 22, 2017 09:39
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So the wife and I finally decided to start replacing the posts on our old/slightly leaning wood fence. Queue digging around the first post to see if concrete was even used Concrete was used! But it's about 2 feet in diameter around the post (which is basically a 4x4). For gently caress's sake that seems like way too much concrete for a wood fence post. We're giving up and hiring a fencing contractor to just replace the whole thing with vinyl (for about $10k apparently, for the entire back yard)
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Oct 22, 2017 10:08
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Thufir posted:We did two rooms last year with this stuff http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-interior-paint/ When we bought our house we tried the Benjamin Moore in one room and Behr in another. There was no comparison. The BM was way thicker, spread on easier, and you used less paint because you didn't have to touch up as much. I think it was only $5-10 more per gallon too. The rest of our house got painted in BM. The only lovely thing was that there is just one store in our area that sells it and it's kind of far from us. But the lady who worked there and helped us pick out our colors said we could call our order in and she would leave it on her front stoop for us to pick up because she lived near our house!
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Oct 22, 2017 15:42
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Another vote for Benjamin Moore here, we did our whole house and it looks good.
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Oct 22, 2017 16:30
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Since we're talking about paint, Sherwin-Williams is having a 40% off sale ending tomorrow. Great timing since I just bought a sectional and need to get the living room painted.
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Oct 22, 2017 16:42
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Painting question... This is a hallway between the family room and front living room. To the left is the kitchen. Right are stairs going to the second floor. I'm not planning on painting the stairwell yet, since it's a huge two floor thing and I don't have the ladders and whatnot big enough for it. I want to paint the area I'm standing in, but I don't know what to do about the transition between where I'm standing that will be painted to the landing. I know it's going to be ugly no matter what I do, but I don't think I have a choice. Do I just drop a line from the ceiling bit on the right and leave it at that? Is there a more elegant way to do it that won't look so drastic? Any other ideas about it?
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Oct 23, 2017 18:24
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Panthrax posted:Painting question... Not an expert, but I think keeping a line where you suggested isn't an awful idea. Use painters tape so it's at least a clean line. If you want to get fancy maybe tack a simple piece of trim over the line so it kinda looks like it's "supposed" to be there. Will still look a bit wierd but will keep it more finished. Edit: alternatively, just don't paint that wall at all. It looks like it's just the area around the hall entrance, right? That might draw less attention. LogisticEarth fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Oct 23, 2017 |
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Oct 23, 2017 20:49
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Panthrax posted:Painting question... This is a hallway between the family room and front living room. To the left is the kitchen. Right are stairs going to the second floor. I'm not planning on painting the stairwell yet, since it's a huge two floor thing and I don't have the ladders and whatnot big enough for it. I want to paint the area I'm standing in, but I don't know what to do about the transition between where I'm standing that will be painted to the landing. I know it's going to be ugly no matter what I do, but I don't think I have a choice. Do I just drop a line from the ceiling bit on the right and leave it at that? Is there a more elegant way to do it that won't look so drastic? Any other ideas about it? Keep that transition the same color as the stairwell. Anything else is going to be weird to look at until you get the rest of it painted.
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Oct 23, 2017 21:51
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Panthrax posted:Painting question... This is a hallway between the family room and front living room. To the left is the kitchen. Right are stairs going to the second floor. I'm not planning on painting the stairwell yet, since it's a huge two floor thing and I don't have the ladders and whatnot big enough for it. I want to paint the area I'm standing in, but I don't know what to do about the transition between where I'm standing that will be painted to the landing. I know it's going to be ugly no matter what I do, but I don't think I have a choice. Do I just drop a line from the ceiling bit on the right and leave it at that? Is there a more elegant way to do it that won't look so drastic? Any other ideas about it? If it's a one-off project, just see if you can rent the ladder from a local supply company. Even from Home Depot a 20-mumble foot ladder is going to run you $30-40. Even if you just do that one wall and not the whole stairwell, doing the whole wall won't bug you like the line will.
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Oct 23, 2017 21:53
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I'm looking into replacing our thermostats since the ones we have are non programmable and ugly. We have 2 heat/AC units with separate thermostats. One supplies the main house, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. The other supplies the addition including the main family room and kids playroom which is where we spend most time. I was debating on replacing the addition thermostat with a Nest/ecobee, since the motion sensor would detect when my wife or the kids are using the house/play area. My wife never turns off heat/ac if she's leaving so my thought was it might save some money. Anyone have good results in actually saving a decent amount to justify the initial expense? There's no incentive from my gas company to get a smart one.
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Oct 23, 2017 22:18
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howdoesishotweb posted:I'm looking into replacing our thermostats since the ones we have are non programmable and ugly. We have 2 heat/AC units with separate thermostats. One supplies the main house, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. The other supplies the addition including the main family room and kids playroom which is where we spend most time. I've got a Nest. The motion sensor stuff, I can't comment on cause my wife is a work from home mom but it's really nice to realize it's uncomfortable in the house, switch apps on my phone or iPad and set it to something comfortable. The away function works well but weirdly only seems to notice when my phone is gone, not hers. If you've got the money to toss down for it, I'd recommend it. I've literally never worked with electricity stuff and was able to set it up in about 1hr (Finding breakers, testing\confirming power loss, wiring Nest, securing, turning breakers on)
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Oct 24, 2017 14:36
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Hi thread, long time no see. I've got an easement situation on my hands. Background: it turns out there is a skinny lot between my house and my neighbor's house. I was contacted by the guy developing the lot today asking if I would grant him an easement to put a driveway on the outside of my fence for financial compensation. I told him my availability toward the end of the week and he asked if I could do anything sooner, so I'm meeting with him today in 5 hours. I've done some base research and I'm not too worried about the situation, since from what I can tell I would not be liable for injuries on it. So there's going to be some negotiation and I'm wondering what range I should be shooting for or if there's any type of typical calculation from this. I'd imagine the square footage fraction of my lot multiplied by land value of my lot (from tax records?) isn't quite realistic, since property isn't exchanging hands. It's on the outside of my fence, so I don't particularly care if he builds a driveway on it or not. On the other hand, it seems to be holding up his whole building operation (since he can't determine where anything is going until he knows what he's doing with the driveway), so I've got leverage there. I don't plan on agreeing to a number today and won't let anything happen until the paperwork is in order, so it's not super urgent. Just wondering if you guys had any thoughts or experiences in this area.
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Oct 24, 2017 15:45
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I personally have an Ecobee with a single zone furnace and the remote sensor is great because I have relatively wide variances between the thermostat and where I usually am during the day, it'll average out between them to keep me comfortable. The motion sensor also works pretty well, so if I am not adhering to the schedule it'll adjust accordingly. I am pretty predictable though, so that hasn't saved a ton of money. A plain programmable thermostat will capture a lot of the savings simply by turning it down at night, but the extra comfort and convenience of a smart thermostat really justifies the cost to me at least.
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Oct 24, 2017 15:49
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The Big Jesus posted:
Well do you want a house built there? I assume you are in a valuable area if they are doing infill housing. How much is your houses value going to be impacted by another house filling in vacant land? That is what you should ask for in compensation. What happens if I buy that house? (I am a bad neighbor). I would offer to buy the lot from him and flip the script, but I am a land hoarder.
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Oct 24, 2017 16:42
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The Big Jesus posted:Hi thread, long time no see. I've got an easement situation on my hands. You should use a real estate attorney to help you out here and make sure you are fairly compensated and that the easement is correctly written. You will want a survey done to make sure everything is just right. Once granted and pavement is poured that's it. You want to have a sign off step between them staking the cement and them pouring it. Edit: The Big Jesus posted:Can't afford/don't want to buy his land. Have no idea how to calculate how much another house being built next to mine would impact the value, but I don't expect it would be very significant. This is why you want a real estate attorney. Even though you don't care you don't want any mysteries on your title in regards to this easement. They will also be able to help you out with pricing the easement, impact to property value (likely by telling you to have it appraised), writing up an offer letter, etc. Even if you don't plan to sell the place until you die, the house is going to be there and you should get paid. The builder is a business and has exactly zero feelings in regards to you or your property. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Oct 24, 2017 |
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Oct 24, 2017 16:52
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Can't afford/don't want to buy his land. Have no idea how to calculate how much another house being built next to mine would impact the value, but I don't expect it would be very significant.
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Oct 24, 2017 16:54
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Thermostat chat: I have an EcoBee3 with remote sensors in several rooms. It is cool and fun but it is basically a toy. I don't think that it will help me save any money over the programmable thermostat that it replaced. It does help with comfort somewhat in our tri-level house though. Check with your utility company- they might offer a rebate. Ours did, and combined with a deal on clearance units, I paid something like $85 for it.
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Oct 24, 2017 17:00
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The Big Jesus posted:Have no idea how to calculate how much another house being built next to mine would impact the value, but I don't expect it would be very significant. That seems really naive to me but I also don't know what I'm talking about. I think neighbor proximity is a huge part of decision making when people are house shopping.
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Oct 24, 2017 17:26
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Yond Cassius posted:If it's a one-off project, just see if you can rent the ladder from a local supply company. Even from Home Depot a 20-mumble foot ladder is going to run you $30-40. Even if you just do that one wall and not the whole stairwell, doing the whole wall won't bug you like the line will. Thanks. And you're right, it will bother me. Picked up an extra gallon of paint because if I'm going to do 200 sqft of wall, I might as well do the rest. The Dave posted:That seems really naive to me but I also don't know what I'm talking about. I think neighbor proximity is a huge part of decision making when people are house shopping. Agreed. Plus, just because you don't care about that piece of property, someone else might. It's one thing to have a utility easement, it's another thing when a neighbor has a driveway on your land. What happens if it starts falling apart in 3 years, and the neighbor won't fix the driveway or something like that? Sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth, and finding someone to sell your house to that will accept it sounds more difficult than not.
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Oct 24, 2017 19:30
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Panthrax posted:Agreed. Plus, just because you don't care about that piece of property, someone else might. It's one thing to have a utility easement, it's another thing when a neighbor has a driveway on your land. What happens if it starts falling apart in 3 years, and the neighbor won't fix the driveway or something like that? Sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth, and finding someone to sell your house to that will accept it sounds more difficult than not. Fortunately there are people trained to deal with this exact situation! H110Hawk posted:You should use a real estate attorney
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Oct 25, 2017 01:05
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Thermostat chat: I have two Nests and I don't think they've saved me a goddamn penny over a 30 dollar thermostat because I can program a thermostat. But they do look nice and being wifi enabled is good because if I'm coming home early I can turn them on early. They will save you some money if you're not capable of programming a digital thermostat but I also think their "learning" function is largely garbage and results in settings that don't make a lot of sense for most people.
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Oct 25, 2017 02:02
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scrubs season six posted:The mini was mentioned by the landscape guy as being better able to deal with the slope than something like a bobcat. Landscaping update. I decided to wait for two reasons, one I wanted to make sure there weren't any winter drainage issues which would undoubtedly be blamed on my landscaping, and two, hoping a neighbor would get theirs landscaped and I'd be able to see how it worked. And the latter happened. It's kind of an edge case since they literally patio'd 95% of the flat part of their backyard, but what they did was make a ramp out of plywood and used it to both dump the patio substrate down (with a guy stationed in the middle to help it along with a shovel) and also to slide the patio pavers down. But I think river rock will slide down the ramp better than the poo poo you put under patios, so seems like a pretty good solution. They moved enough stuff down the ramp in a day with only a few guys to make the base of a ~3500 square foot patio, so... Anyway I'll probably contact the same company soon and try and get something set up for the spring.
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Oct 25, 2017 02:10
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QuarkJets posted:So the wife and I finally decided to start replacing the posts on our old/slightly leaning wood fence. Queue digging around the first post to see if concrete was even used Buy an electric circular saw and chop those posts flush to the ground. Then start over. Fences are easy man, a post digger, saw and level are all you need to save most of that 10g's. That's boat money brah 
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Oct 25, 2017 02:36
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tesilential posted:Buy an electric circular saw and chop those posts flush to the ground. Then start over. Fences are easy man, a post digger, saw and level are all you need to save most of that 10g's. That's boat money brah We live on an island, so about 3/4 of that is just materials. And at least half of the old posts have to be pulled out just to get a new fence down at all, or else we'll have to significantly reduce the enclosed area of our back yard. I'd just as soon pay the $3k to get the old fence removed and the new fence installed
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Oct 25, 2017 04:18
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Any way to remove an old standalone newspaper box that is easier than trying to dig the drat metal post out? Looks like it goes pretty deep. Nobody gets a paper anymore and even if they did it'd just get dumped in the driveway anyway. I could just angle grind it off I guess but I'd rather get the metal out of the ground if I can. It has holes through it, if I found some rebar or something small enough there might be a chance I could just get a car jack under it.
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Oct 25, 2017 18:25
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novamute posted:Any way to remove an old standalone newspaper box that is easier than trying to dig the drat metal post out? Looks like it goes pretty deep. Nobody gets a paper anymore and even if they did it'd just get dumped in the driveway anyway. I could just angle grind it off I guess but I'd rather get the metal out of the ground if I can. It has holes through it, if I found some rebar or something small enough there might be a chance I could just get a car jack under it. Can't you rock it back and forth and yank it out? Is this a hollow metal post or the barb wire fence post thing? Lots of water into the ground helps.
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Oct 25, 2017 19:12
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Elephanthead posted:Can't you rock it back and forth and yank it out? Is this a hollow metal post or the barb wire fence post thing? Lots of water into the ground helps. Nope, in way too deep I think. I'll probably continue having a go at it whenever we get hit by another week long stretch of rain. 
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Oct 25, 2017 19:24
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I have yanked those out even ones 5 feet deep. You need to use some force. Rock it like you need it to kill someone. (I was also younger then and had powerful yanking skills)
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Oct 25, 2017 19:39
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Lever it out with another post/board
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Oct 25, 2017 23:52
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The concrete plugs are bizarrely 2 feet in diameter. That doesn't seem like it would work so well without completely removing the boards around the post, and I guess also praying that the post isn't too rotted to hold a billion pounds of concrete
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Oct 26, 2017 06:48
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