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my dryer is in the garage, and its top surface has been the home to a random assortment of allen wrenches I started sorting something like nine months ago but never found a good place to put away, and, the gardening gloves that don't belong anywhere as far as I'm concerned, that's where they belong now.
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Jul 1, 2020 02:59
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What are some red flags I should look out for when hiring a painting contractor to paint the vaulted living room? I can do most of the rooms, but I'm not going to paint the 2 story vaulted ceilings myself. I don't know the first God drat thing about painting walls and I am terrified I'll get ripped off by someone who does a super lovely job. Surely there must be a better metric than yelp and Google reviews?
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Jul 1, 2020 04:35
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If the done reek of alcohol they aren't real painters.
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Jul 1, 2020 05:18
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Motronic posted:If the done reek of alcohol they aren't real painters. This is so true. When I worked in bank branches you could always smell the painters coming before they got up to the window. And then they would drive away.
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Jul 1, 2020 05:26
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Motronic posted:If the done reek of alcohol they aren't real painters. A friend of ours told us about how a house she was renovating needed a stucco job for the exterior, and is recommended a guy. Dude shows up reeking of vodka with nothing but a bucket and a bundle of birch twigs and proceeds to do the best stucco job she’s ever seen.
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Jul 1, 2020 05:37
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Motronic posted:If the done reek of alcohol they aren't real painters. For example, if a painter falls off a ladder inside my home, can they sue me for damages? Am I liable? I've never done this before so I am trying to cover my basics before I start getting quotes. I imagine I can get them to recaulk the windows too while they're up there.
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Jul 1, 2020 13:47
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Bioshuffle posted:For example, if a painter falls off a ladder inside my home, can they sue me for damages? Am I liable? I've never done this before so I am trying to cover my basics before I start getting quotes. I imagine I can get them to recaulk the windows too while they're up there. So this is general contractor stuff. You need to ask for their business insurance. Your municipality may even have a required contractor registration where they check they they have appropriate liability insurance. If so, make sure they are registered as a contractor in your muni. Check their web site/call them and ask. e: standard required coverage around here is $1M Some also require a performance bond of some amount. Motronic fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jul 1, 2020 |
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Jul 1, 2020 16:06
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Also check out your homeowners insurance. It probably covers some amount of liability for hired people in your home. To directly answer your question: tort law is a mess and "it depends" potentially on your state as well.
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Jul 1, 2020 16:36
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devicenull posted:Yea, the more time it's been since that guy left... the more problems we come up with about things that he told us. He was trying to sell us vinyl siding + 8 windows for our 1500sqft house for $47k. FWIW, second company that came out gave us a quote for $29k with no high pressure bullshit. They also told us the first company has had the police called on their sales people before for not leaving. We also found out from a neighbor the sales guy from the first company was pissing in the bushes in the front of our house.
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Jul 1, 2020 20:27
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My condo has a (badly labeled/organized) switch & distribution box in a closet to run coax and cat5e to every room. I've been hunting for the actual master connection point for the cat5 for a goddamned week now and I can't find it. 
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Jul 2, 2020 06:07
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Queen Victorian posted:We actually had a good experience going to our local appliance dealer. We bought our house the year of the one bad SpeedQueen (2018) and asked for a 2017 or earlier model, of which they had no more (saleslady said people were calling them about buying demo units and refurbs and everything). We ended up with a Maytag Commercial Technology machine (basically a laundromat beast in a residential package), which is tied with SpeedQueen for being dumbest/ugliest/least efficient and therefore the best. Maytag developed it to compete with SpeedQueen and in 2018 beat them to the “deep water” cycles loophole (we have literally never used the HE-compliant normal cycle). Then again, I keep reading conflicting reviews about how "they don't make em like they used to"- which makes me wonder if I should just go with LG- Basically, I am going insane.
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Jul 2, 2020 14:29
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Bioshuffle posted:After hours and hours of research, I am leaning towards the SpeedQueen, but I keep reading about the high water use. Just how much water are we talking here? I'm assuming it's a negligible difference? I don't need my washer to connect to Wifi, I just want it to wash clothes and do it well. https://speedqueen.com/products/home-products/top-load-washers/tc5/ Negligible as compared to what? From what I've read of Speed Queen they included an 'ECO' cycle option on all their washing machines to get around HE requirements, but that that cycle is completely ineffective and pointless. You'll end up using one of the definitely not eco cycles all the time and use a ton of water. Anecdotally I have read that traditional washing machines with agitators use 40-45 gallons per load, with high efficiency around 15-25. I know a couple years back when I was living with family my mom replaced her old Whirlpool washing machine with a new LG (top load) HE washer. It had impellers and used so little water compared to our old washer that I wasn't initially convinced it would really get things clean. It does a great job and I don't think I could bring myself to buy a non-high efficiency model whenever I need to replace the set that just came with my house. I guess it was the Wirecutter writeup on them that convinced me to never buy one: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/speed-queen-review/
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Jul 2, 2020 14:58
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Washer chat: I bought this washer 2-3 years ago and have had 0 problems with it. Its been very reliable and performs well so far - Maytag MHW5500FW . I got the matching dryer as well and have also had 0 problems with it. The plumber I had install both said that the Maytags have been reliable in his opinion. Also someone was asking about air purifiers earlier. Based on a ton of reading I came across, like: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/5/7/21247602/gas-stove-cooking-indoor-air-pollution-health-risks https://www.vox.com/2020/1/8/21051869/indoor-air-pollution-student-achievement I went out and bought 2 bigger Winix air purifiers from Costco, one for our dining room, one for our upstairs area, and a smaller one from Amazon for our bedroom. My initial thought behind buying them was to help with my wife's allergies. They've helped slightly but not as much as I had hoped for. I dont know that I notice a huge improvement in air quality, I guess my air feels fine? Its probably all placebo effect. Where they have definitely helped though is in cutting down on dust. I'll probably buy a few more for our TV room and guest bedroom eventually.
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Jul 2, 2020 15:20
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Sundae posted:My condo has a (badly labeled/organized) switch & distribution box in a closet to run coax and cat5e to every room. I've been hunting for the actual master connection point for the cat5 for a goddamned week now and I can't find it. Take a pic of the switch/distro box? I'm not exactly sure what you're describing but you may have a patch panel that is not a switch. Something like this might help you: https://smile.amazon.com/Multifunctional-Ethernet-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B07PJN1PNT
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Jul 2, 2020 16:01
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CloFan posted:Take a pic of the switch/distro box? I'm not exactly sure what you're describing but you may have a patch panel that is not a switch. Something like this might help you: https://smile.amazon.com/Multifunctional-Ethernet-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B07PJN1PNT I'll post up some photos tomorrow. Pretty sure it's a switch based on the manual from Honeywell's site, but always nice to have more eyes on it.  In other news, I just found out that the previous owners didn't disclose an impending (but not yet filed) lawsuit by the HOA against the developers for construction defects, which will either be handled by the lawsuit or by a $50K per unit special assessment. I have copies of dated letters now from the HOA showing that they informed the previous owner prior to my disclosure request, and apparently the owner is shown as being in attendance for the all-residents meeting to discuss it. I've asked the HOA if they can provide a list of what the known defects are so that I can get a feel for what it is, but I'm betting a lot of major structural things, because $50K per unit is like $13M in repair bills. Even in the bay area, that's gotta be something fairly big.  Do never buy.  (I actually really like the unit and most of my issues with it are pretty minor, standard things so far, but come on I just loving moved in.)
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Jul 3, 2020 05:41
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Sundae posted:impending (but not yet filed) lawsuit by the HOA against the developers for construction defects, which will either be handled by the lawsuit or by a $50K per unit special assessment. but I'm betting a lot of major structural things, because $50K per unit is like $13M in repair bills. Even in the bay area, We got disclosures on an SB800 building we were looking at in February, PM me and I can maybe send you some documents to give you an idea of what it might look like SB800 the building has a limited amount of time to file the lawsuit, so they file it so they can get the money, it's basically standard operating procedure to sue the construction company X time after the building is built. If they don't file any lawsuit, the builder carries no liability at all for the life of the building after that lawsuit due date. Or something. I'm not a lawyer. Anyways the building we looked at, it was a bunch of petty bullshit, like flashing (waterproofing) for window sills, and some water got behind the stonework at street level and the adhesive failed and the stone had to be replaced, the window washer people crane mount was a foot too far to the left, and the crane they bought for the building was the budget model not the deluxe model, and they used a brushed door handle when they should have used chrome for the exterior door on the maintenance part of the roof. Weird, petty poo poo, but the building would probably fall apart without it in 30 years. I think they were asking for, yeah about $12 millon, a bunch of it grossly overpriced, I think they wanted $6,000 to swap the door handle even though it's a standard-esque $800 yale door handle... mostly labor I guess, I dunno. I don't blame them for dragging their feet on filing the sb800 late; once there's an SB800 on the books, it's nearly impossible to sell until the litigation is fully resolved, which, talking to realtors, takes ~2 years on average? New Republic will loan on sb800 buildings but only for buyers with 20% cash down, no less, good luck finding a buyer. The SB800 building we looked at sat on the market in a prime location for 6 weeks before selling, pre-covid
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Jul 3, 2020 12:34
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I have a rat living out in my garden around a raised flower bed and large wooden deck, is this something I should be worried about or just let it be? We eat outside a lot and have a 1 year old baby that likes to throw food so it's no mystery why he showed up.
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Jul 5, 2020 12:36
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The diseases they carry are no joke.
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Jul 5, 2020 12:57
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Andy Dufresne posted:I have a rat living out in my garden around a raised flower bed and large wooden deck, is this something I should be worried about or just let it be? You should get rid of the rat. If you can see one there's probably a lot more.
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Jul 5, 2020 15:43
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Yeah, and rats are pretty smart about finding ways inside your house, so when the weather gets bad, that may happen (or it may already be happening). If it's a lady rat, you may end up with babies too. Aside from diseases, they can be pretty destructive to your home (they will chew through all kinds of stuff, and if they get into walls, that can include wires). I had a single rat get into my house and set up camp in the basement\crawlspace, had two different highly rated pest control people come out to set traps, seal him in, etc. and it still took almost a year before he was killed (he even triggered a snap trap - I heard him, it was terrible - but he managed to escape and didn't die till almost a month later). He was found outside (so despite all our efforts, there was still some egress point), so likely it was the bait boxes out there that did him in finally. I'd highly recommend using that. The bait is secured in a box that larger animals can't get into, so you don't have to worry about your pets, and I've never had an issue with squirrels getting into them. Plus if you do it now while the rat seems to be living outside, you don't have to worry about it dying in the walls and stinking up the place (I got lucky in that regard). So yeah, I guess I'm still traumatized by my experience (even though ultimately the damage wasn't too bad - but knowing there was a rat down there; and we later set up a cam and found out he would come upstairs as soon as we went to bed *shudder*; was just so unsettling because of the what ifs). But I would still recommend getting a handle on it.
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Jul 5, 2020 15:44
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Thanks, I will get a trap and bait box at home depot this afternoon. I'm actually selling this house so I'll be gone in a month but trying to do the right thing for the next family.
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Jul 5, 2020 15:48
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Cat ownership finally has its perks! My big orange murdere man caught like 5 mice before they gave up on our house for good. He still sits by the fireplace and floor vents and whines for more mousies sometimes.
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Jul 5, 2020 17:35
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marjorie posted:Yeah, and rats are pretty smart about finding ways inside your house, so when the weather gets bad, that may happen (or it may already be happening). If it's a lady rat, you may end up with babies too. Aside from diseases, they can be pretty destructive to your home (they will chew through all kinds of stuff, and if they get into walls, that can include wires). Ehh... be wary of using poison outside. This can end up killing birds of prey if they eat a rat that's consumed the poison. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2013/poisons-used-kill-rodents-have-safer
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Jul 6, 2020 02:38
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devicenull posted:Ehh... be wary of using poison outside. This can end up killing birds of prey if they eat a rat that's consumed the poison. This is a good read. It's interesting because I had a similar experience to the woman whose dog was poisoned - I asked about secondary poisoning when they put it out because my dog is a big mole hunter and generally has a high prey drive, and was assured that they use the kind that poses the least risk. Looking it up, they weren't lying, the kind they use is from one of the companies that complied with the updated guidelines and was developed to be less toxic, but the risk isn't eliminated. The tough part is that I didn't see an alternative that would've worked in my situation. As I mentioned, we put out a ton of traps (we knew some of his paths of travel and arranged things to really guide him to the traps; some traps we left the whole time, others were rearranged to catch him by surprise, I even set up a gauntlet with multiple types of traps at a doorway I knew he used and that fucker carefully moved the traps without triggering them to pass by) for almost an entire year and nothing worked (even when he did get caught in one he got out). Maybe I just had a really smart one, but I don't know what else I could've done. Mice, on the other hand, are dumb as hell and I've had no trouble handling them between traps and my dog. marjorie fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 03:21
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Glue traps work pretty well if you can find it in yourself to smash a terrified creature struggling to escape with its life. The first time that was really tough for me. But living with a rodent infestation was bad enough that all of those moral qualms melted away pretty quickly and I began to thirst for vermin blood.
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Jul 6, 2020 04:11
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therobit posted:Glue traps work pretty well if you can find it in yourself to smash a terrified creature struggling to escape with its life. The first time that was really tough for me. But living with a rodent infestation was bad enough that all of those moral qualms melted away pretty quickly and I began to thirst for vermin blood. Yeah, those were involved in The Gauntlet. I lined the doorway with glue traps, and put old school snap traps in front and those newer jaw-like ones in back. I think the problem was that I'd used the glue traps early on when I didn't really know what I was doing, and put it in a corner with other stuff around that gave him the leverage to get himself out of it (I think he only got a foot stuck). So from then on, he knew to avoid them. But again, maybe this was just some super genius, and normal traps would work for your typical rat problem.
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Jul 6, 2020 04:25
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I really think it would be tough for me to murder a glued down rat. As it turns out the person buying my house is an ER vet with a terrier and a cat so maybe I'll let her deal with the rats.
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Jul 6, 2020 04:36
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The rats own the house now, sorry
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Jul 6, 2020 04:56
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Oh, I forgot to mention, I also borrowed my friend's cat (who had an esteemed record of killing rats, rabbits, squirrels, and birds) and let him live down there for a couple days. No luck. But if your rat(s) are primarily outside and you have a longer time period, I bet a cat would work. Edit: I promise I'll shut up about the drat rat now.
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Jul 6, 2020 05:37
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Caring for rodents is a rookie home owner mistake. I haven't even had an infestation while I've lived here but after continually cleaning up all the literal poo poo left behind from old ones, I am ready to take a hammer to any of the little shits I ever see. With that said prevention is much more useful than bloodlust, and cutting back the tree branches and bushes as soon as I moved in has kept me from having to deal with any new intrusions.
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Jul 6, 2020 05:38
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My uncle informs me that there is "rat shot" you can buy for your shotgun Andy Dufresne posted:I really think it would be tough for me to murder a glued down rat. As it turns out the person buying my house is an ER vet with a terrier and a cat so maybe I'll let her deal with the rats. At a couple places I lived at we had bug problems, typically no rodent problems (that I knew of) My cats would periodically barf up a bunch of stuff. Like, 2-3x a week. Vet just said "yep cats do that". Finally realized my next door neighbor that our bathrooms shared a wall with, was an industrial user of cockroach bait to offset her.... cleanliness habits. It wasn't until one cat barfed up a half eaten bug that I put two and two together. We bombed the entire quad-plex, twice, about a week apart, and that mostly solved the problem, cats started barfing a whole lot less Moved to a newer building with significantly less need for anti pest stuff, cat barfed 2-3 time right after we moved in, probably due to stress, has not barfed once since. TL;DR there are unintended, is minor environmental effects of using poison More tangential story, we have Parrots here in the bay area, wild ones, and they've been having weird neurological problems lately that can mostly be attributed to the poision used in rat poison. My pet (no pun intended) theory is that the tourism department has been poisoning the seagulls/pigeons over by pier 39/waterfront and ended up cross-poisoning the parrots too. It is really weird how few seagulls are in the bay area given how much trash there is.
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Jul 6, 2020 06:22
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Any recommendations on tankless hot water heaters? I told myself that when this hot water heater died, I'd go tankless and add a water softener, and one full drip pan of water later, here we are!
Proud Christian Mom fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 14:23
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No idea about tankless water heater, but I recommend getting a water softener with a Clack valve. Odds are the vendor will advertise they use them.
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Jul 6, 2020 14:27
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Make sure if you're considering tankless that you have an adequate amount of gas available. They take a ton of gas flow to operate compared to a traditional tank. There are electric ones but the top end electric models can only raise the temperature of the water up 45 degrees. So if your water gets around freezing in the winter, I hope you enjoy lukewarm showers. The gas models can raise temps up to like 65 degrees or so. Gas tankless heaters also require different venting in some situations because of the need for increased combustion air and exhaust gases. It's very dependent on your home and the tankless unit but it's very important. I've seen a lot of posts online where people get their tankless unit installed and it won't work because they thought they could just hook it up to their old tanked heaters exhaust.
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Jul 6, 2020 15:37
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We currently pay about 7k/year in property taxes (mainly school taxes). Our entire county is the the middle of going through an appraisal, and our property value went up about 3.3x. The millage rate for our county is still TBD, but from talking to our neighbors, their appraisals only increased by 2-2.5x or so. I've filed an appeal, and now have the option of scheduling a hearing. My question is: would it be worth bringing an attorney in to this, or is this something that I can handle myself?
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Jul 7, 2020 17:34
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Proud Christian Mom posted:Any recommendations on tankless hot water heaters? I told myself that when this hot water heater died, I'd go tankless and add a water softener, and one full drip pan of water later, here we are! I put in a Noritz eztr40 a few months ago. I'm generally very satisfied - no problems with multiple people showering or multiple appliances. The gas line is 1/2 inch standard rather than the older models that wanted 3/4 inch and required re-piping your whole gas line from the street. My only complaint is that the heater won't turn on if there is only a minimal draw. It's noticeable in the farthest shower in the house that you can't get lukewarm water. Cold, Hot, and Very Hot are the only options. It was about $3,800 all in with removal of the old tank, plumbing and gas work to mount the new one, and a little carpentry to re-do the exhaust (could have used the old exhaust just fine but I moved the location to the garage to free up more closet space in the house).
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Jul 7, 2020 19:23
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Residency Evil posted:We currently pay about 7k/year in property taxes (mainly school taxes). Our entire county is the the middle of going through an appraisal, and our property value went up about 3.3x. The millage rate for our county is still TBD, but from talking to our neighbors, their appraisals only increased by 2-2.5x or so. I've filed an appeal, and now have the option of scheduling a hearing. My question is: would it be worth bringing an attorney in to this, or is this something that I can handle myself? What specifically are you challenging? Tax rates are fixed, so do you think the appraisal is incorrect? If it is, you should be able to get your own appraisal to use to appeal what they appraised it at. If your only complaint is that "my neighbors pay less and it's not fair", that's not going to get you very far.
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Jul 7, 2020 20:42
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Residency Evil posted:We currently pay about 7k/year in property taxes (mainly school taxes). Our entire county is the the middle of going through an appraisal, and our property value went up about 3.3x. The millage rate for our county is still TBD, but from talking to our neighbors, their appraisals only increased by 2-2.5x or so. I've filed an appeal, and now have the option of scheduling a hearing. My question is: would it be worth bringing an attorney in to this, or is this something that I can handle myself? A lawyer who specializes in appraisal appeals will know the best way to argue against the appraisal. You might be able to find one that works for a fee based on how much they end up saving you (I was given the option of a flat fee or a % of what they saved me).
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Jul 7, 2020 22:33
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B-Nasty posted:What specifically are you challenging? Tax rates are fixed, so do you think the appraisal is incorrect? If it is, you should be able to get your own appraisal to use to appeal what they appraised it at. If your only complaint is that "my neighbors pay less and it's not fair", that's not going to get you very far. The appraisal number, yes. As for the basis, whatever it is, it's more of a basis than the drive-by contractors used to appraise the homes at the new value in the first place. Having my appraisal go up 3.5x versus 2.5x for my neighbors seems kind of arbitrary. I at least want them to show their work. Jose Valasquez posted:A lawyer who specializes in appraisal appeals will know the best way to argue against the appraisal. You might be able to find one that works for a fee based on how much they end up saving you (I was given the option of a flat fee or a % of what they saved me). Yeah, I've been given the names of a few. Did you find it worth it? Presumably they got an independent appraisal. Did the ultimate value end up being significantly different? Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Jul 7, 2020 |
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Jul 7, 2020 23:00
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Fan on the compressor for the central air is intermittently turning off and then the unit makes some fun new noises. It's about 15 yrs old. Our servicing company is saying it probably needs to be replaced, but wasn't sure if we could just get away with replacing the fan on the current unit, if that's all that's going on. They're quoting $11-$15.5k to replace both the condenser and the blower/furnace with a Carrier system. We have gas, and it's a one zone, single stage system. Seems pricey, but have never dealt with this before and wasn't sure what a reasonable quote for this kind of stuff is. We also got a quote to replace the gas tank water heater since it's also 15 yrs old and they're saying $2.5k for a 50 gal tank or $4k for a tankless system. Thinking probably just replacing with another tank since I'm not sure we'll be here for > 10 years and when the kids grow up and everyone needs hot water in the morning the tankless might not be sufficient.
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Jul 8, 2020 00:41
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