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DaveSauce posted:The washing machine cleaner packets do a pretty good job of clearing it up. Won't get rid of it all, but they make a huge difference. I used bleach soaked wash cloth, and alternated that with a mr clean magic eraser. The cleaner packets help with the drum buildup stank, but I found manual cleaning of the gasket to be necessary. If the gasket is really far gone, it might be worth just replacing. I've been crazy diligent about cleaning the gasket and leaving the door open with my new washer, and run the cleaning cycle once every couple of weeks and no problems yet.
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Jul 29, 2019 20:51
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Hey, I'm worried I have termites or something like that. I was just in my garage, and I noticed this clump of something that looked like sand up the wall. I was an idiot and knocked it down before I took a picture of it. When I knocked it down, I found this thing inside:  Does anybody recognize what this fucker is?
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Jul 30, 2019 21:21
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That looks like a pupae of some sort? What was the sand construction like? Was it just like a knob of sand on the wall, or was it running up from the ground? If you have termites, you'll generally be able to see where their tunnels run into the ground, the above-ground portion gets built up out of a nest or tunnel system. Other insects like wasps use sand or mud to make nests, but they're stand-alone structures stuck on a surface.
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Jul 30, 2019 21:44
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Ashcans posted:That looks like a pupae of some sort? What was the sand construction like? Was it just like a knob of sand on the wall, or was it running up from the ground? If you have termites, you'll generally be able to see where their tunnels run into the ground, the above-ground portion gets built up out of a nest or tunnel system. Other insects like wasps use sand or mud to make nests, but they're stand-alone structures stuck on a surface. It was a knob of sand on the wall that didn't have a trail to the ground, but the walls aren't drywalled. There's just corkboard walls (it's not actually corkboard but I can't think of the name of it; there are holes all over for it for you to put in hooks and nails in order to hang things off of it), so it seems like it's possible that a trail is behind that? surf rock fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jul 30, 2019 |
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Jul 30, 2019 21:49
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I'd bet money it's a mud dauber nest. They're a type of wasp that are actually pretty chill. They eat spiders and build mud nests and are not communal so if you see one that's usually it. They're not aggressive unless you directly attack them. I had literally 20 pounds of their nests in my garage that I had to clear out, but that's what happens when you buy a house with a garage that hasn't had a door on it in decades.
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Jul 30, 2019 22:04
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Well sonuvabitch. So we bought our house 3 years ago. Had a landscape designer come by yesterday for a consult for a bunch of work (mainly to rip up the garbage contractor-grade foundation cover), and he immediately demanded that we do not touch the ginkgo biloba tree the previous owners planted out front. We like it, and had no intention to touch it at all, so that's great. Only recommendation is to limb up a couple rows of branches. But then we look at it closer just to see if there's anything specific we need to address and the dude says, "Oh no!" and points out the fruit. We think maybe it's just one branch, but the more we look the more we see. For those who are unaware, there's a male and a female ginkgo tree. The males are fine, but the females produce fruit that I've read is sticky, gross, and the smell is described variously as vomit, death, and dog poo poo. This is a brand new issue... 3 years and this thing has never had fruit. We thought we were safe, but I did some research and found that apparently ginkgo trees don't produce fruit for about 20 years, which would be about now. Further reading shows that the males can spontaneously convert to females, and while it's been witnessed it's apparently not all that well studied right now. So gently caress. We'll see how bad this is once the fruit starts dropping...
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Aug 8, 2019 17:53
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Not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but I didn't have a better idea! We just purchased our first home, a 1700 sq ft condo in Chicago. So far we're pretty happy with the place, even though we're still putting work into fixing up things before we move in next Friday. The previous owners were kinda Phish-head hippies and the entire condo was painted with green baseboards and trim, and purple bathrooms and living room. It's all getting painted back to neutral colors except some accent walls. We also had the floors refinished from plain, scratched to hell red oak to sanded and walnut stained and it's looking great. Other than anxiety about hiring all these contractors that I don't know any about, it's going ok. We want to redo the bathrooms (Master has this terrible pink/mauve tile walls, and guest bath we want to rip out the old tiny tub and put in a shower stall. And the toilets are old and tiny, and that bugs me - I need a comfy seat for my SA reading time) but that will come later. And we may want to redo the kitchen (or just put in new cabinet fronts at the very least) in the not-too-distant future. The current issue is the refrigerator. In their infinite wisdom, the previous owners installed a (very nice!) Samsung French door fridge. It's just about a year old, looks great and is black stainless, matching oven, dishwasher, stove and microwave also replaced at that same time. The problem here is that they put the fridge in an alcove where it doesn't really fit. The right side of the French door hits the wall every time you open it, and it doesn't open all the way - I had to pull the entire fridge out about 3 feet to get the crisper drawer out for cleaning, and it's hard to reach into that side of the fridge without opening both sides of the fresh doors, which kinda defeats the purpose. And, the upper corner of the fridge scrapes against the wall every time it opens and closes, which makes an obnoxious noise, leaves marks on the wall, and has scraped the coating off that part of the fridge. So far my options seem to be: - Suck it up and be pissed off every time I open the fridge, and keep damaging the fridge and wall. - Suck it up and replace the fridge (it's so new and a very nice model, so I'd hate to have to take the cut. And we'd need to get a plan top/bottom door fridge to replace it with the doors opening the other direction, which is OK I guess but not as nice as the current model) - Find out if we can have contractors cut into the drywall to the side and build some breathing room - the circuit breaker is on that wall, but might not have any conduits running where the fridge is. And on the other side of that drywall is just a closet with Washer/Dryer in it. - Cut out and replace at least part of the cabinetry to move the fridge over. The Dishwasher is also right there which is a pain, so I think (if we didn't want to completely re-organize the entire kitchen, which we don't) we would need to just make more room for the fridge rather than moving it. i.e., cut off part of the counter and put in a shorter cabinet. Maybe two narrow cabinets and have one on the other side of the fridge? But I don't think there's enough room for that. Any other insight?     For fun, here is the old living room (that table is covered with Phish concert tickets, and what you can't see is that there are disco lights in the overhead lighting):  And the new floors (completed, painting is in progress now): 
EVG fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Aug 8, 2019 |
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Aug 8, 2019 21:44
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It is right next to your breaker panel. I'm guessing your only realistic option is dealing with it or a new refrigerator.
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Aug 8, 2019 22:42
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EVG posted:Fridge woes You're not going to get any "breathing room" on the right side of the fridge without knocking out and reframing the wall, which means messing with the panel regardless. Getting more room via manipulating the cabinets, and having it look right, is potentially as expensive as just buying a new fridge, since you're talking about custom cabinet work to get it to not look slapped together. I'd say, live with it, or bite the bullet and get a fridge that fits.
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Aug 8, 2019 22:49
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It's a Samsung, you'll need a new fridge soon anyway.
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Aug 8, 2019 23:03
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In order to deal with more or less exactly that problem, I had to buy a fridge that was 3" narrower than standard. It's a perfectly fine (GE) fridge, and I'm more or less happy with it, but it does feel pretty cramped in the freezer side. We wanted a french door style fridge in order to have the ice and water dispenser in it, and I regret that decision because the freezer side is awfully narrow and stuff just winds up piled up in there. The only store with a nonstandard-width fridge selection I could find was Home Depot. They had exactly one choice of french door water dispenser having 3" narrower than normal fridge, so I guess I'm just lucky it wound up not being a really lovely fridge. It was like $1k or so, maybe on sale.
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Aug 8, 2019 23:21
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Side-by-sides are the worst (IMHO). French door with bottom freezer is the Way, the Light I finally got a fridge after 7 weeks in my house, and I love it  Old busted:  New hotness: 
GoGoGadgetChris fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Aug 8, 2019 |
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Aug 8, 2019 23:23
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EVG posted:Any other insight? Is the fridge already twisted as much as possible so that the back is against the right wall and the front left hits the countertop? What part of the refrigerator is hitting the wall problematically, the hinge corner of the door or the handle? If the countertop is the only thing stopping you from twisting it a bit more, you could pay a granite place to cut about 1/4-1/2" off the edge of that countertop and polish it up. Hard to tell from the pictures how much of an overhang you have there though, or if that would give you enough wiggle room to mostly solve the problem (you will probably never be able to get the drawer completely out without shimmying the fridge out a few feet). Edit: you could also maybe flip the door on that bottom cabinet so it's less annoying to open, just use a little wood putty/wood stain pen to fill in the hole from the pull after you flip it. Hard to tell how much of a problem flipping the hinges to the other side is from the pictures too though. Looks like you might be able to leave the hinges in the door and just rotate it 180 degrees too, since the design looks the same whether the door is upside down or not. Droo fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Aug 8, 2019 |
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Aug 8, 2019 23:44
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Side-by-sides are the worst (IMHO). French door with bottom freezer is the Way, the Light What's busted is that trash can location.
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Aug 9, 2019 00:50
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StormDrain posted:What's busted is that trash can location. I can't find a good place for it!! I hate tiny under-the-sink trash cans, and the walkway into the kitchen is too small for it. I should probably put in a compactor drawer.
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Aug 9, 2019 00:52
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What's not busted is refinancing from a 4.875 down to a 3.5 and reducing my term by 9 years for an extra 40 a month.
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Aug 9, 2019 01:01
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:I can't find a good place for it!! I hate tiny under-the-sink trash cans, and the walkway into the kitchen is too small for it. I'd convert one of the base cabs to a pull out double trash cans as seen above in EVGs kitchen and get used to taking the trash out more often. Actually not the exact same as I have that one and I don't love it, I'd prefer one that has the door mounted to it so opening it is one motion but I was not aware how I would feel about it until I had it for a while. Thanks for listening to my TED Talk.
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Aug 9, 2019 01:04
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Side-by-sides are the worst (IMHO). French door with bottom freezer is the Way, the Light So many correct statements in this post EVG, I'd opt for replacing the fridge. Any other solution is going to look stupid and will probably cost way more. If the fridge is basically new then you can probably sell it for a good fraction of the original price, or if you're the type of person who likes having a garage fridge then good news!
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Aug 9, 2019 01:38
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StormDrain posted:What's not busted is refinancing from a 4.875 down to a 3.5 and reducing my term by 9 years for an extra 40 a month. I want to as well but I just bought 8 months ago and have 50-50 odds of being relocated in 5 years.
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Aug 9, 2019 02:00
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I found that the interest difference was enough that, along with the term change, it paid off for me within 2 years time. That was calculating on 3.75 as well, assuming it cost $5k. Obviously your loan terms and value aren't the same as mine, but I'd reccomend you do the deep math on it. Just overpaying my loan the same amount didn't get me close. I love my home and could see myself here forever, but I would hit the halfway paid off mark on my current loan in 19yrs. Yikes. I bought about 16 months ago is all. At the end of 5 years I'll own $25k more of my home for the added cost of $9k.
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Aug 9, 2019 02:08
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StormDrain posted:It's a Samsung, you'll need a new fridge soon anyway.
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Aug 9, 2019 13:32
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StormDrain posted:What's not busted is refinancing from a 4.875 down to a 3.5 and reducing my term by 9 years for an extra 40 a month. I'm doing the Vince McMahon reaction gif reading this post. Incredible work. You should post this in the BFC small wins thread as well. Amazing.
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Aug 9, 2019 14:34
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DaveSauce posted:
We have a black walnut tree out front and I hate it. It's the last to get leaves and first to drop them so it looks dead 8 months of the year. Drops baseball sized fruit that gives me nightmares of walkers and runners stepping on one and breaking an ankle. And I have smaller nut trees growing on the side of the house because squirrels love burying them. This year it hasn't dropped a single nut, I guess it goes in cycles. gently caress whoever planted that thing.
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Aug 9, 2019 14:42
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EVG posted:The current issue is the refrigerator. I'm not quite sure what is interfering there, but the fridge doesn't even look like it's level in those pictures. I'd start there. Also, you really want to just order this right now: https://www.rockler.com/rev-a-shelf-soft-close-bottom-mount-trash-pull-outs (or similar, pick the appropriate size, but needing two hands to get at the trash is bullshit - these kits are pull out where the cabinet door mount to them so it's one hand to open/pull out the cabinet and the cans come with it) It takes 15 minutes to install. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 14:58
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I am FINALLY able to start looking at homes to buy (the guy who was both doing my ex's refinancing to get me off that old mortgage (and get my owed money) and doing my new pre-approval was slow as gently caress, definitely not going to use him for my actual mortgage,) and there's a big trend I see in homes in my price range (which is not high, so usually means decent homes but very outdated designs and appliances), and that's a fridge right next to either a stove or a wall with the door opening the wrong way. It will either be right next to, or very close to, the stove, but the hinge-side is the stove side...or it will be against the wall and the hinge side is opposite the wall Do most people not know that single-door fridges can have the hinge swapped to the other side? Like...how do the LIVE like that? I was in an apartment once where the fridge door opened out the wrong way relative to the stove, and I swapped that poo poo day 1.
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Aug 9, 2019 18:33
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Droo posted:Is the fridge already twisted as much as possible so that the back is against the right wall and the front left hits the countertop? What part of the refrigerator is hitting the wall problematically, the hinge corner of the door or the handle? The problem is that the top right-side fridge door won't open all the way, it hits the wall, can't reach in to get at stuff on that side of the fridge, and the upper right corner of the door is rubbing on the wall. The cabinet is not in the way. 
EVG fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 20:26
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EVG posted:The problem is that the top right-side fridge door won't open all the way, it hits the wall, can't reach in to get at stuff on that side of the fridge, and the upper right corner of the door is rubbing on the wall. The cabinet is not in the way. So.....back to what I said: the fridge isn't level. Start there.
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Aug 9, 2019 20:29
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Looking at the pictures, I don't think it matters how level the fridge is, you're always going to have issues. Leveling might fix the scuffing on the top right, but I have a similar Samsung and the internal drawers will not open fully unless the door is open past ~90 degrees, and that is not possible here since the handle will hit before then. I think your only real solution is a non-french door with the hinge on the left side. edit: In general that fridge is hard to use without opening the doors past 90 degrees. The door shelves are pretty deep, which is good until they're in the way. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 20:59
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I guess it's just not clear to me from the pictures, but my assumption is that moving the fridge so the hinges are just past counter depth and having it tightly up to the counter on the left while leveled properly may afford enough room for it to work somewhat. But yeah......most french door fridges have HUGE bins on the doors that required well more than a 90 degree opening to work properly. This might at least get it to the point of the drawers on the left working properly and potentially just remove the drawers on the right.
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Aug 9, 2019 21:09
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I have a samsung fridge that looks basically just like that and if I pretend a wall is in the way, I'm still able to open the drawer about 8 inches and reach everything inside it with the right door half open - I think if he levels it and pushes the front as left as possible it will probably be fine. You can use the leveling feet in front to fix it, or you might have to slide an old rubber mat or something under the whole right half if the floor is crooked.
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Aug 9, 2019 21:57
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Droo posted:I have a samsung fridge that looks basically just like that and if I pretend a wall is in the way, I'm still able to open the drawer about 8 inches and reach everything inside it with the right door half open - I think if he levels it and pushes the front as left as possible it will probably be fine. I think you may be right! I stuck a level in it and it was insanely off. I’ll try to get it leveled with some Stein for friends, and that should at least prevent the scraping. If so I think I can live with the annoying access until we redo the kitchen... some day.
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Aug 10, 2019 16:07
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My dad's fridge was not level which caused the ice maker to put water in the wrong location, freeze, and completely break the icemaker mechanism. Fun !
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Aug 10, 2019 17:59
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Cross-posting from Fix It Fast thread... I'm trying to install some blinds. The lower level of my house is drywall over concrete block (cinder blocks?). The blinds came with 1 1/2" #8 wood screws, which won't work. I got some 3/16" Tapcons at 2 1/4". I used the supplied 5/32" bit, and the screws seem to just spin in, like the hole was too big. Obviously they're not holding super awesome. Is the bit the wrong size? Do I need to use something else?
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Aug 13, 2019 13:50
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Surely there has to be a gap between the drywall and the concrete block, at least an inch or two for furring strips? Id' probably use some sort of drywall anchor and shorter screws that would be long enough to grab the anchor, but not long enough to hit the concrete. I'm a huge fan of these for drywall, they're great for things that need a bit more grab like blinds, towel bars, etc. https://www.lowes.com/pd/TOGGLER-20-Pack-Assorted-Length-x-5-16-in-Dia-Standard-Drywall-Anchor-Screws-Included/3183871 Otherwise if you have to anchor directly to concrete, I've used these with decent success, but mostly for lighter things. They'll probably be marginal for blinds. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Gardner-Bender-100-Pack-Concrete-Anchors-Drill-Bit-Included/4638929
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Aug 13, 2019 14:59
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PitViper posted:Surely there has to be a gap between the drywall and the concrete block, at least an inch or two for furring strips? Id' probably use some sort of drywall anchor and shorter screws that would be long enough to grab the anchor, but not long enough to hit the concrete. There is a slight gap, yes, but I don't even think it's an inch (here's a photo of where I'm doing it: https://imgur.com/a/mye4GIw). The drywall anchors might work, but now I'm worried about the holes I've already drilled....they used a 5/32" bit and the Tapcons themselves are 3/16", would there be a problem using the Toggler pack? The other option seems too short, if they have a longer version that would likely work
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Aug 13, 2019 15:27
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you could just buy a bigger tapcon
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Aug 13, 2019 17:11
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Omne posted:There is a slight gap, yes, but I don't even think it's an inch (here's a photo of where I'm doing it: https://imgur.com/a/mye4GIw). I just grabbed one to measure, and you'd need an inch and a half from the outer face of the drywall for the togglers to "pop" the wings out once you tap them in. Plus obviously no hard insulation, fiberglass batts would be ok, but not any sort of foam. Otherwise a slightly bigger tapcon may work as mentioned, but that depends on how your blinds are mounted I suppose. And assuming the hole isn't too messed up, I've never tried tapcons into cinder block, only poured concrete.
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Aug 13, 2019 18:41
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PitViper posted:I just grabbed one to measure, and you'd need an inch and a half from the outer face of the drywall for the togglers to "pop" the wings out once you tap them in. Plus obviously no hard insulation, fiberglass batts would be ok, but not any sort of foam. I drilled another hole, it seems like there’s about an inch and a half between the drywall and the concrete, so I’ll try those. They’ll be useful for other stuff anyway. I’ll let y’all know how they work out. For now, I told my mom to just leave them as he, don’t pull on the chords
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Aug 14, 2019 02:41
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I didn't realize when I bought a home I'd be getting two new residences. I also live at Home Depot now.
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Aug 19, 2019 16:57
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EVG posted:I didn't realize when I bought a home I'd be getting two new residences. I also live at Home Depot now. Have you gone there 3 times in one day yet?
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Aug 19, 2019 22:06
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