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Slow Motion posted:I have a hot water toilet! I'm trying not to think about the smell of a dook hitting 130 degree water.... I'd be cutting a hole in the wall pronto. If you don't want to fix the drywall you could get one of those plumbing access panels and put it in place.
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Oct 6, 2020 22:28
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skipdogg posted:I'm trying not to think about the smell of a dook hitting 130 degree water The water should have plenty of time to cool off in the tank, and later the bowl, before you make hot dookie stew. Unless you need 2 courtesy flushes while you're doing the business.
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Oct 6, 2020 22:45
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B-Nasty posted:The water should have plenty of time to cool off in the tank, and later the bowl, before you make hot dookie stew. Unless you need 2 courtesy flushes while you're doing the business. Yeah it's only noticeable if you put your hand on the tank after a flush. I only checked after I was in the garage and heard a flush followed by the tankless water heater switching on. By golly the toilet tank is quite warm though after a deuce.
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Oct 6, 2020 22:49
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Fence chat: If it's just a traditional fence with posts cemented in the ground, you ought to be able to cut the posts at the ground and move the fence back 2' or whatever, dig new posts and bolt the fence to the new posts. All the labor is building the fence, you can dig 8 new post holes in an afternoon if it's rained recently. Now, if your neighbor's wife has her dead mother's rose garden backed up against that fence, or whatever, and it's not just flat bermuda grass it's a whole different story because now you're re-landscaping a big chunk of their (your) backyard Might be worth getting a document signed saying that this section is your back yard, they are liable for repairs on the fence, and after X years (3 years?) you have a no cost option to tear down the fence at your cost and build a new fence on the correct property line. That way they get to keep the fence for a while, and it's not a financial surprise for them when you move the fence, and you're not burning bridges with your neighbor on day 0 Unless the guy personally poo poo on your front porch I would not get them to pay for anything besides repairs for storm damage, you gotta deal with that guy for a really long time Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Oct 6, 2020 |
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Oct 6, 2020 22:49
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Hadlock posted:Might be worth getting a document signed saying that this section is your back yard, they are liable for repairs on the fence, and after X years (3 years?) you have a no cost option to tear down the fence at your cost and build a new fence on the correct property line. That way they get to keep the fence for a while, and it's not a financial surprise for them when you move the fence, and you're not burning bridges with your neighbor on day 0 Charge them a peppercorn rent for the land. Even better if you can agree to make a silly celebration of the matter, like the Freemasons do in Bermuda. Throw a cookout and invite the other neighbors.
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Oct 6, 2020 23:09
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Thanks for the ideas friends. I like the idea of drawing up a goofy rental/maintenance agreement, for the price of a sixpack. We're in VA, so no adverse possession issues here. I love a good scorched earth approach as much as anyone, but they're young like us so they might be there for a while. I guess we'll just leave the fence as is and refence the rest of our yard.
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Oct 7, 2020 00:06
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NomNomNom posted:Thanks for the ideas friends. I like the idea of drawing up a goofy rental/maintenance agreement, for the price of a sixpack. We're in VA, so no adverse possession issues here. Lol, I’m in it deep right now with surveys and fencing problems... consider yourself lucky that it’s not a big impact one way or the other for you. I guess the moral of my story is having a good relationship with your neighbors can prevent a lot of headaches E: Lawyer update-called the firm here in town... and am still waiting to hear back whether they can help me or whether it’s a conflict of interest that they represent the village zoning commission 
Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 00:52
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:I forget who posted it, but big thanks to whoever suggested taking a loot at my homeowner's insurance to see if my deductible made any sense.
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Oct 7, 2020 06:55
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So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters.
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Oct 7, 2020 11:47
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Some companies will offer financing options, or people take out home equity loans if they can’t afford the cash payment.
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Oct 7, 2020 12:48
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The Dave posted:Some companies will offer financing options, or people take out home equity loans if they can’t afford the cash payment. It's also the kind of expense that comes along once ever few decades. Well, unless a tree or hail etc happens, but that's why you need insurance. One of the big things we had to keep in mind when doing our rent vs own calculations was putting aside a bit extra per year to cover major repairs in the future. Over enough time poo poo like new roofs or water heaters or any other five figure repair is unavoidable.
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Oct 7, 2020 13:27
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NomNomNom posted:So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters. I paid out of pocket, buy my house is small and simple so it was only like $7K even with impact resistant shingles.
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Oct 7, 2020 13:54
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I posted my survey upthread, but my house's footprint is 1500 sq ft. It just seems like so..much..money 
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Oct 7, 2020 13:58
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Any of you guys getting quotes for new roofs, have you compared asphalt shingle vs metal? I’m genuinely curious, because the latter seems more durable and longer lasting, but I don’t know if it’s just harder to find someone to install one, or if it’s substantially more expensive and I was curious if anyone had personal experience one way or the other
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Oct 7, 2020 14:27
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Would love a metal roof, might help keep the squirrels off. I've heard they are about double cost.
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Oct 7, 2020 16:02
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Also if you have oaks it’s going to sound like a constant war zone / drive by every autumn
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Oct 7, 2020 16:45
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NomNomNom posted:So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters. This is why you hear 1% per year in maintenance for your home. Needing a new roof (outside of storm damage) is not a surprise. In fact it's quite predictable. But people continue to keep on discounting this and other very well known periodic maintenance in their calculations of what it costs to own a home. This should all be budgeted.
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Oct 7, 2020 17:44
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NomNomNom posted:So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters. There are also plenty of people who just move when things like this come up but there isn't an active problem that's going to come up in an inspection, like water intrusion. It sucks to write the check, but it is a part of owning a house. Plenty of landlords+HOAs are also bad at remembering to roll those costs into the rent.
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Oct 7, 2020 18:06
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Also larger roofing companies will have financing available if you don't have cash on hand. Not the best financial decision but it's better than letting your house rot if you didn't see it coming.
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Oct 7, 2020 18:28
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H110Hawk posted:There are also plenty of people who just move when things like this come up but there isn't an active problem that's going to come up in an inspection, like water intrusion. Yeah, this is like the people who can't afford to put brakes and tires on their car so they sell it and buy another one. It's really expensive to be poor. (so people shouldn't actively make themselves house poor - have a reasonable maintenance budget. Save.)
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Oct 7, 2020 19:38
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Had our car stolen out of our driveway last night. We actually managed to get it back with only losing 1 car seat, which is stupidly lucky. But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient?
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Oct 7, 2020 20:11
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Shyfted One posted:Had our car stolen out of our driveway last night. We actually managed to get it back with only losing 1 car seat, which is stupidly lucky. But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient? I don't have any recommendations for security cameras, but I just wanted to add to check the laws / municipality codes for cameras before installing it. Different places have different rules about what is allowed to be recorded. As an example, a court ruling out here a few years ago established that if your camera can see anything that would constitute someone else's private property (e.g., inside their garage while the door is open or in a window if their blinds aren't drawn) that it's an illegal camera. Other places may have rules about recording public sidewalks, neighbors' lawns even if not fenced (Ridgewood, NJ had that one; no recording any portion of a neighbor's property, even if not fenced) etc. Just check your local regulations first before you put one up.
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Oct 7, 2020 20:36
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NomNomNom posted:So do people just pay for a new roof out of pocket? Pray for a hail storm? I've started getting quotes and they've been eye watering: ~20k for stripping the two courses of shingles, new sheathing, reshingle, new gutters. I had Certainteed Landmark Pro shingles installed on a 3,000 square foot new construction for $13,500. That includes drip edge, ice shield, and synthetic underlayment but no tear-off or sheathing. Supposedly a 25 year warranty with a 25-50 year prorated warranty. I found the guy on nextdoor because a few local neighbors had highly recommended him and he was cheapish. I know yours is exactly half the size, but it seems not too un-reasonable considering you add in the tear off, sheathing, and gutters.
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Oct 7, 2020 20:53
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Shyfted One posted:Had our car stolen out of our driveway last night. We actually managed to get it back with only losing 1 car seat, which is stupidly lucky. But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient? Do you want a light or a camera or both? How computery are you? Please don't give Amazon/Google money for their police state data mining apparatus.
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Oct 7, 2020 21:37
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H110Hawk posted:Do you want a light or a camera or both? How computery are you? Please don't give Amazon/Google money for their police state data mining apparatus. Is there an alternative that offers the same level of interactivity that Ring/Google doorbell offers? I'm talking about features like being able to talk to the person at the door remotely, and storing video. I'm all ears if there is an alternative. Especially if it will let me store the data locally without a subscription fee. I looked into this before, but I couldn't find a comprehensive package that offered everything. Maybe things have changed since I last looked? Shyfted One posted:Had our car stolen out of our driveway last night. We actually managed to get it back with only losing 1 car seat, which is stupidly lucky. But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient?
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Oct 7, 2020 21:44
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Shyfted One posted:Had our car stolen out of our driveway last night. We actually managed to get it back with only losing 1 car seat, which is stupidly lucky. But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient? Park your car in the garage?
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Oct 7, 2020 21:49
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NomNomNom posted:Would love a metal roof, might help keep the squirrels off. I've heard they are about double cost.
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Oct 7, 2020 22:08
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MrLogan posted:Park your car in the garage? Where I’m at there are houses with a pull-in driveway but no garage so that may not always be an option.
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Oct 7, 2020 22:13
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Hawkeye posted:Where I’m at there are houses with a pull-in driveway but no garage so that may not always be an option. Probably not in his case, given he says he's putting the camera on the garage. quote:But now I definitely want to put a security light above our garage door. A Ring floodlight is really appealing, but not a fan of whatever Amazon does with the info they get from the camera. Is there a good alternative or is Ring really just that much more convenient? Could be another car in the garage, a home gym, a "bonus room" or maybe it's his personal sex dungeon.  Who knows why the car can't go in the garage, but I'm betting it's not sitting there empty while he parks on the driveway.
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Oct 7, 2020 22:17
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Sundae posted:Probably not in his case, given he says he's putting the camera on the garage. Touché!
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Oct 7, 2020 22:23
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Bioshuffle posted:Is there an alternative that offers the same level of interactivity that Ring/Google doorbell offers? I'm talking about features like being able to talk to the person at the door remotely, and storing video. I'm all ears if there is an alternative. Especially if it will let me store the data locally without a subscription fee. I looked into this before, but I couldn't find a comprehensive package that offered everything. Maybe things have changed since I last looked? Technically my lovely ip cameras have 2-way audio, video, and motion detection, the audio from monitor -> camera is super sketchy though. My synology offers recording. I simply don't care to ever talk to people through my camera. I think it's pointless, but I am also a bit of a misanthrope. They will either wait patiently for me to arrive at the door, or should have scheduled knocking on my door with my family. I've had a package stolen, a camera might have helped, might not, but 99% of my packages are sent by giant faceless corporations who I don't care if they have to send it to me three or four times. If my car got stolen I would be pissed, but not enough to buy in to the police state. It's a killer feature in desperate need of legislative oversight.
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Oct 7, 2020 22:37
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H110Hawk posted:Do you want a light or a camera or both? How computery are you? Please don't give Amazon/Google money for their police state data mining apparatus. I thought about just the light, which might be enough to deter people, but if it's not too much more money/effort to have a camera as well then I might as well go with it. Computery enough. Not the best with network stuff, but can fumble my way through a lot. I don't want to deal with setting up a whole server and storage solution for 1 camera though. Maybe now there are simple "buy this prebuilt thing and connect the camera to it" setups that are worth it. Although after saying it... If I could use this as an excuse to buy and setup a NAS maybe I would be ok going that route. And we have now cleared room to put the car in the garage, but now I'll be parking my work car in the driveway instead of on the street so I still want something to cover that. Having that stolen, especially if I have any equipment in it, would suck immensely.
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Oct 7, 2020 23:29
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Shyfted One posted:I thought about just the light, which might be enough to deter people, but if it's not too much more money/effort to have a camera as well then I might as well go with it. Computery enough. Not the best with network stuff, but can fumble my way through a lot. I don't want to deal with setting up a whole server and storage solution for 1 camera though. Maybe now there are simple "buy this prebuilt thing and connect the camera to it" setups that are worth it. A camera isn't going to deter a common car thief. They're going to be in and out in minutes. The likelihood that your particular house is going to be hit again is very low. It's super low effort to get a normal camera hooked up to a synology, but the synology itself is expensive, and the cheap cameras are sketchy and in need of firewalling from the internet at your router. None of this gets you remote access - which I see as a feature so take that for what you will. 
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Oct 7, 2020 23:37
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Just get a $30 floodlight from Home Depot and a $25 camera from Wyze if you want one. Don't give Ring your money or allow law enforcement access to your camera. A floodlight is more of a deterrent than a camera by a factor of like 5 btw.
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Oct 8, 2020 00:15
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Yeah unless you live in downtown baltimore or something the chances you're going to get hit by the local chop shop mafia again are astronomical You're better off installing "the club" You could always install those removable bollards they put at the ends of bike paths in your driveway, I guess. Hard to steal a car that can't physically roll out of your driveway. They might take it as a challenge, though  Amazon sells those solar powered led motion sensor things that you just screw into the siding for about $30 a pop, and will need a new set of rechargable AA batteries every fall. Adding extra light is probably effective, especially if you convince your neighbors on either side of you to invest in lights as well. It always stunned me that some neighborhoods turned their front porch light off most nights, that's probably the lowest effort thing you can do to minimize crime in any neighborhood, and modern LED lights cost maybe a dollar a year to run 24/7 Fake security cameras are about $10 each and equally effective at both 1) deterring crime and 2) apprehending those responsible
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Oct 8, 2020 00:22
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Hadlock posted:It always stunned me that some neighborhoods turned their front porch light off most nights, that's probably the lowest effort thing you can do to minimize crime in any neighborhood, and modern LED lights cost maybe a dollar a year to run 24/7 Funny story. I turn off our porch light randomly when we're not going anywhere, last Monday we woke up to someone sleeping on our porch. Had I left the light on, she probably wouldn't have, but who knows. She claimed she was in the process of buying our house from the owners. Mental illness and homelessness are serious issues folks.
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Oct 8, 2020 00:30
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Huh, did she bear any resemblance to Warren Buffett's wife Last winter we had some young lady sleeping rough outside the fire escape door in our old apartment building, thankfully it never gets very cold here but I was able to dig some thicker cardboard boxes out of the shared dumpster to give her some insulation from the raw concrete and provide a bit of a wind break. I never actually talked to her though. Generally the first thing I did when moving to a new rental place was clean the glass on the front porch light (dead bugs and dirt block light transmission), and then upgrade the bulb to the brightest, whitest light that would safely fit in the socket
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Oct 8, 2020 00:43
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I've got some dusk-to-dawn bulbs on my front porch and garage lights. I never have to think about turning them on/off, and it definitely feels a lot safer to have them on. A++ would recommend
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Oct 8, 2020 01:02
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Anecdotes are not data of course, but I only know three people who have had cars stolen from their driveway, and two of them have had their car stolen from their driveway twice I would not assume you're at reduced risk of future car theft on account of it's happened already
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Oct 8, 2020 01:03
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Y’all leaving your porch lights on 24x7 are contributing to light pollution, stahp Better investment imo is get a motion sensor and if you have a porch light and smart home hub, tie that into some smart bulbs. When someone walks up on your porch, motion trips the lights for a few minutes, problem solved. Less tacky than a motion security light, and tremendously useful for an automatic porch light when you get home. I like doorbell cams. If you get ring, you can opt out of the police being able to access your footage. I think Nest has a better offering and will send you a thumbnail with the notification, which is an excellent feature. They’re inexpensive and service plans aren’t that much. If you’re tectonically savvy you can roll a similar solution with smart home stuff, but off the shelf works just fine. If you’re worried about car theft, you can probably get something similar or better for vehicles: https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/abus-granit-detecto-x-plus-8077-alarm-disc-lock Sounds a very loud alarm if it’s cut or removed without unlocking it. A lowjack solution might be good too, though pricey. Shouldn’t be too hard to wire in something that would track the vehicle and alarm if it goes outside a geofenced radius. I didn’t think modern car thefts were as frequent as older models? I thought the little blinkey red light was a good deterrent, plus I thought they were more difficult to hotwire?
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Oct 8, 2020 01:44
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