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Any idea what kind of contractor I should call to replace a rotting section of subfloor beneath a carpet when I need it done quickly and correctly, while I keep a toddler out of the construction zone? 
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May 30, 2021 05:54
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Sundae posted:Any idea what kind of contractor I should call to replace a rotting section of subfloor beneath a carpet when I need it done quickly and correctly, while I keep a toddler out of the construction zone? I would call carpet / flooring companies right? Or do they not work on subfloor. That is what I would start with on Google / Yelp / your area's licensed contractor lookup site, if applicable.
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May 30, 2021 06:02
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Inner Light posted:I would call carpet / flooring companies right? Or do they not work on subfloor. That is what I would start with on Google / Yelp / your area's licensed contractor lookup site, if applicable. When attempting to get damaged subfloor repaired in my master bathroom after the old shower pan started leaking, I found that carpeting and flooring companies did not want to touch that part of the project. I ended up hiring GC since I completely re-did the bathroom anyway, so he just popped in new boards after demo of the original floor. Maybe a carpenter? A small time GC might do it if he/she is not too busy (lol).
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May 30, 2021 08:07
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Sundae posted:Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks. For what it's worth they make retrofit LEDs with this socket where you snip out the ballast and connect it directly if you don't want to replace the can. I was renting and also had really good luck with these which actually run off the ballast. They warm up instantly.
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May 30, 2021 13:51
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Anonymous Zebra posted:I meant induction cooktop, but I'm an idiot who uses the wrong words... If you have gas already, and after figuring out the vent situation, only really care about upgrading the oven, you can do Dual Fuel with gas on top, and electric inside to get the best of both worlds. We have an LG induction and it is really nice.
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May 30, 2021 15:32
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Inner Light posted:If you buy from Amazon when it's shipped and sold by Amazon, there's a decent chance it's genuine, anything else and I wouldn't bet on it. This is not correct. Amazon warehouses are (or at least were) binning all product with the same SKU in the same bin. This famously happened with several classes of expensive but not quite that expensive products like refrigerator water filters. You'd buy one from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon, and get one out of the same bin that their legit stock ent into, as well as the stock shipped in from every other seller of the same SKU, many of which were hollow plastic tubes, or tubed willed with....something, but not the correct filter media. Or maybe you'd buy one from the shady place that shipped them to Amazon fulfillment and get a legit one that Amazon itself bought and put in the SKU box.
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May 30, 2021 17:12
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Motronic posted:This is not correct. Amazon warehouses are (or at least were) binning all product with the same SKU in the same bin. This famously happened with several classes of expensive but not quite that expensive products like refrigerator water filters. You'd buy one from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon, and get one out of the same bin that their legit stock ent into, as well as the stock shipped in from every other seller of the same SKU, many of which were hollow plastic tubes, or tubed willed with....something, but not the correct filter media. Or maybe you'd buy one from the shady place that shipped them to Amazon fulfillment and get a legit one that Amazon itself bought and put in the SKU box. Yeah we don't buy anything of importance from Amazon. Way too much fraud. Especially expensive electronics, medicine, and similar. The bulbs I think my mother in law got from a local light store. They aren't in my order history anywhere I can find.
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May 30, 2021 17:16
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It’s actually really frustrating shopping on Amazon these days. Like, I’d like to use it more, but it’s impossible to tell what is a decent product in a sea of knock off 4.5 star rated garbage
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May 30, 2021 18:06
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I ordered an extra Ryobi charger from Amazon which promptly started smoking. Upon closer inspection the stickers and fonts were slightly off and the gauge of the wire was even totally different from the official one I had. There was literally nowhere to report a counterfeit to Amazon, and I couldn't even get a refund from the seller since I sent the counterfeit item to Ryobi. The checkout flow looked like it was an Amazon item but the invoice afterwards showed a seller that had maybe 30 sales in the last couple years on Amazon. Pretty sure I beta-tested a new knock off that went wrong. Less Fat Luke fucked around with this message at 20:08 on May 30, 2021 |
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May 30, 2021 20:03
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If aliexpress is the storefront for alibaba I feel like Amazon is the storefront for aliexpress. I do enjoy indulging in the garbage from time to time intentionally, and you can get even more free garbage if you "register" the product. But I also charge those lithium batteries outside. For stuff I need to be real I don't shop there anymore. It's all target / best buy / lowesdepot now. Curbside pick up is the best thing to come out of the pandemic.
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May 30, 2021 20:23
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I only buy inexpensive, inert objects from Amazon these days, and only on the days I don't feel like avoiding Amazon altogether. Like books and maybe office supplies (except the nice pens might be counterfeit but at least they're just pens). Recently I wanted a second Switch Dock and the options on Amazon were no-name third party things that a few folks said had bricked their Switches (plus an allegedly official Nintendo one but sold by a new seller with zero reviews. Paid the extra money to buy a real one directly from Nintendo. Worth the peace of mind. Gonna be buying parts and poo poo from here because gently caress Amazon: 
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May 30, 2021 21:26
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pointsofdata posted:Also, does anyone have a solid wood countertop? It fits best with our design for the kitchen and we love the look, but I'm a little worried about upkeep being a pain. Lots of people online say it's "fine" but I don't know if that's motivated reasoning since they've already spent the money. Key thing I've learnt so far is to get the tap integrated into the sink. My entire (itty bitty) kitchen is butcher block and I won't have anything else. It's perfect and gorgeous and any flaws, which I don't actually see any, just endear it to me further. I hate the quartz/granite stuff everyone is using now, and the only other surface I liked was soapstone, but now after living in a house with butcher block countertops, there is zero chance I'll have anything else. Queen Victorian posted:We have a section of butcher block countertop (supported by sawhorses because our kitchen is a joke) and I actually like it a lot. Ours is the type that's basically an overgrown wooden cutting board, so it has a food-grade mineral oil finish that we clean with soap and water like a cutting board and re-oil periodically. Actually it's due for a light sanding + re-oil, I think. The one thing I dislike about it is that it's not end grain. Do you actually use your countertop as if it were a cutting board? We sprung for a hefty end-grain cutting board, but I couldn't imagine just chopping things right there on our kitchen counter.
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May 31, 2021 00:22
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Maggie Fletcher posted:Do you actually use your countertop as if it were a cutting board? We sprung for a hefty end-grain cutting board, but I couldn't imagine just chopping things right there on our kitchen counter. Usually only easy cutting stuff (like lettuce stems) with the less good knives and only when I'm feeling extra lazy. We'd probably use it more for cutting if it was proper end grain - we just don't want to be too rough on our knives. Also end grain hides knife marks a lot better. Otherwise it's nice for food prep and extremely nice for baking. Another good thing about it is that it's a soft surface compared to the likes of granite, so if you knock over a glass or something, less of a chance of it shattering on impact.
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May 31, 2021 00:33
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The house has an enclosed porch that's just storm windows with 2x6s angled slightly for water to drain. On the outside the sill is aluminum wrapped, but on the inside it's just wood. In a few spots the sill has some water rot. So first of all, is storm windows enclosing a porch "normal"? And if this is normal, what's a good way to protect the wood sill? My first instinct was to get them re-wrapped both inside and out (I'm having someone redo the soffit and fascia so I think I could get them to wrap those as well). Or is there a non-wood alternative I could replace the wood sill with?
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May 31, 2021 03:20
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Replace it with marble? This seems to be the thing to do in older houses.
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May 31, 2021 04:30
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Queen Victorian posted:I only buy inexpensive, inert objects from Amazon these days, and only on the days I don't feel like avoiding Amazon altogether. Like books and maybe office supplies (except the nice pens might be counterfeit but at least they're just pens). Recently I wanted a second Switch Dock and the options on Amazon were no-name third party things that a few folks said had bricked their Switches (plus an allegedly official Nintendo one but sold by a new seller with zero reviews. Paid the extra money to buy a real one directly from Nintendo. Worth the peace of mind. Dudette, I f'ing love McMaster. I can't figure out what to buy but they have a bunch of cool stuff. Anything you get worth mentioning? They are based in IL where I am. How did you get a written catalog??
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May 31, 2021 06:23
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First week in the house and we've been prepping the walls for paint. Lots of dings, drywall anchors, nail holes, nails that have bulged out, inconsistent painting textures and finishes, cracks and whatnot in the walls. Sanded everything down, filled with mud, sanded again and we're priming everything now. Also got up on the roof today and cleaned out the gutters. They were packed with poo poo. Doesn't look like they've been cleaned in years. Went into the crawl space as well. It's tight, army crawling on your stomach it's mandatory but nice thing is I've got new pex and abs plumbing. A few galvanized pipes down there have been decommissioned. Also realized I've got a gas line close to the kitchen so I can run a gas stove pretty easily. And lots of new Romex. A little bit if snake skin. In digging through this 1955 house, I found a shoe in the crawlspace that looks like it was from when the original foundation was poured and the poor guy just ditched it. It's an old school leather oxford with leather soles and leather laces, covered in cement. Found some .22 bullets as well. In the garage I found these on the back of a shelf. I might frame the one and keep it in the garage.   I also need a real shop vac. My mini 2 gallon one lacks suction power needed for anything serious. Verman fucked around with this message at 06:37 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 31, 2021 06:34
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Must be shoe week. We found an old leather one in the 2nd floor ceiling of all things while vacuuming out all the old cellulose insulation. Almost at the point where we can put in new insulation and walls in the 2nd floor and then actually move in.
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May 31, 2021 06:53
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Inner Light posted:Dudette, I f'ing love McMaster. I can't figure out what to buy but they have a bunch of cool stuff. Anything you get worth mentioning? They are based in IL where I am. Actually it only just came into my possession - addressed to the previous occupant of my office who I happen to be friends with. Hoping they don't need it anymore (was probably sitting in the lobby for ages - swung by the office for the first time in forever and found it)... but until then, it's my new favorite coffee table book. To folks who've never beheld one is these catalogs before, it's as thick as two phonebooks and 60% more dense. I've already looked up their selection of infrared thermometers. Husband mentioned he was going to look them up on Amazon (right after we'd discussed how Amazon is poo poo for this sort of stuff right here in this thread), so I found several in the catalog. Also a few thermal imaging thermometers - one of those would be super cool. Especially for grilling. Though I wish I had a plasma cutter so that I could order plasma cutter parts... so much cool poo poo to peruse in there. Bonus catte checking out pipe wrenches: 
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May 31, 2021 06:58
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Inner Light posted:How did you get a written catalog?? You or your employer spends 5 figures with them. Or at least plausibly look like you will.
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May 31, 2021 13:12
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Maggie Fletcher posted:My entire (itty bitty) kitchen is butcher block and I won't have anything else. It's perfect and gorgeous and any flaws, which I don't actually see any, just endear it to me further. I hate the quartz/granite stuff everyone is using now, and the only other surface I liked was soapstone, but now after living in a house with butcher block countertops, there is zero chance I'll have anything else. I'm extremely into butcher block and want it in when we redo our kitchen here soon. A couple questions:
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May 31, 2021 13:50
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Verman posted:In the garage I found these on the back of a shelf. I might frame the one and keep it in the garage. DUDE if you decide you don't want to keep this, please send me a pm. I will happily pay you to ship it to me, I love those old George Petty pinups and I've only ever seen them in books.
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May 31, 2021 15:09
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I can't get over this guy. The '50s equivalent of "send nudes"
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May 31, 2021 15:17
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Motronic posted:You or your employer spends 5 figures with them. Or at least plausibly look like you will. My old job had one of these delivered to us, not sure why cause we were an anatomic pathology lab, but it was before I appreciated how amazing it was. It did live on my shelf for a minute, though.
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May 31, 2021 15:41
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El Mero Mero posted:I'm extremely into butcher block and want it in when we redo our kitchen here soon. A couple questions: I'll be honest, my kitchen is too small for any sort of rolling out of flour, so I'd probably use the table for stuff like that, or get one of those wood blocks you put on the stove for a prep space. And I don't really use my counters as cutting boards, so they don't get a lot of food on them. And I've only been in my house for a couple months, and the PO was immaculate, so I doubt she did either. So basically, sorry but I don't know? I assume if you use it a LOT for cutting stuff, it probably would hold onto the smell over time. I doubt flour would get too stuck unless you had like super deep gouges, and if they were deep enough to get stuck you'd probably see it and clean it out. Not sure, though, and we're not huge bakers and use a cutting board for chopping vegetables. Does it make sense for me to have butcher block surfaces when I don't use them as a cutting surface? Maybe. But the look is irresistible. It brings a real warmth to the kitchen. Maybe if my kitchen were much larger I'd just have one surface, like an island, with butcher block--maybe it'd be too much in a larger kitchen. For those of you with wood fireplaces, how often do you get a sweep? I don't have one but I've rented plenty of places that did, and we used them a lot. I doubt they were swept in between tenants, and they sure were never swept while we were there.
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May 31, 2021 15:58
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Spending the weekend checking off some to-do list items, including painting, and finally getting around to posting about this: https://imgur.com/a/ckN67ow A few of the rooms in the house have these sorts of cracks in the drywall. It seems like it’s just bad taping from what I’ve looked up, but wanted to check in folks on how best to handle these. It wasn’t mentioned in the inspector report, but I also feel like some have shown up / gotten worse over the last 6 months since we’ve moved in. I’m off to go get paint for another thing I’m doing, but could get some other stuff to fix this while I’m at it. Edit: House built in 1993, I believe they did a very quick repaint of everything in flipper gray when selling, based on pictures on older listing in 2012 to now. So it’s possible they messed up something in that repaint for sale. The kitchen cabinets were hastily painted white for example, with drips evident, but we redid the kitchen before moving in anyway. Nybble fucked around with this message at 16:48 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 31, 2021 16:44
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That second pic looks like more than just bad taping but it could be the angle. Are there any cracks of concern on the outside of the house?
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May 31, 2021 17:08
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Feeling a lot better about the drywall cracks in my current and under contract house right now.
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May 31, 2021 17:42
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My house has tons of those from sitting on compacted clay. It goes up and down like a pogo stick with the weather. I paid a structural engineer way too much to tell me it's normal.
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May 31, 2021 18:05
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I wanted to make the lights on the front of the house only turn on when it was dark. Looked at all the usual security lights etc... then had a thought, has anyone made bulbs with photorecactive sensors? Yes yes they have. So spent $5 on 4 of those and now my normal light fixtures only come on a dusk and turn off at dawn!
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May 31, 2021 18:16
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BigPaddy posted:I wanted to make the lights on the front of the house only turn on when it was dark. Looked at all the usual security lights etc... then had a thought, has anyone made bulbs with photorecactive sensors? Yes yes they have. So spent $5 on 4 of those and now my normal light fixtures only come on a dusk and turn off at dawn! I had photo-sensitive fixtures at my old house and I got annoyed at them more often than not, they seemed to turn on when the fixture was only in shade instead of full on darkness. This time around I put Kasa switches on all the outside lights and scheduled them on at sunset / off at 11pm.
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May 31, 2021 18:47
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Yeah, photocells seemed not worth the effort. I've had Honeywell timer switches on the front lights for both houses, they're programmed for on at dusk/off at dawn, and take a lat/long setting to determine when that is. I set it 3 years ago, and honestly haven't thought about it since. I'll probably do some sort of motion sensor flood light for the back yard eventually, though.
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May 31, 2021 19:09
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I've got Phillips dusk-to-dawn light sensing bulbs and they have worked flawlessly for me thus far, no IoT bullshit needed.
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May 31, 2021 19:12
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Anyone here sealed up pavers with polymeric sand before? I like the idea of having the durability of poly but have seen the horror shows of the haze that can result from botched installs. It seems avoidable if your meticulous throughout the install but I’d take any tips I can get Edit: reading more into options, normal paver sand + a spray on paver sealer/joint stabilizer to finish also seems like an option that doesn’t have the risk of the poly haze. Hmmmmm hobbez fucked around with this message at 20:03 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 31, 2021 19:41
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Can I use my zestimate to get rid of PMI? 
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May 31, 2021 22:14
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TheWevel posted:Can I use my zestimate to get rid of PMI? Probably. Call and ask if they will do an automated valuation. (it's not the zestimate.) if they won't try to refi and put a estimated value of the zestimate into lime better.com. Make sure it hits 78% ltv.
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May 31, 2021 22:26
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I need a quick verification: the inspection when we bought the house suggested that we not use the fireplace until we put in a liner. The guys who did our furnace said they needed to put a liner up the chimney to get up to code. Could the furnace guys have taken care of the issue with the fireplaces chimney? Edit: some quick googling makes me think that they lined the vent specifically for the furnace, which is right next to, but does not include the chimney proper. Dang. meanolmrcloud fucked around with this message at 23:49 on May 31, 2021 |
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May 31, 2021 22:32
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I had a similar issue at the last place. The HVAC guy wouldn’t do the liner so I had to have a chimney company do that for both the fireplace and the furnace.
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May 31, 2021 22:34
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hobbez posted:Anyone here sealed up pavers with polymeric sand before? I like the idea of having the durability of poly but have seen the horror shows of the haze that can result from botched installs. I finished up my patio with poly sand. Didn't have any issues to be honest. Just followed directions as noted and swept, watered, repeated as recommended.
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Jun 1, 2021 00:43
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couldcareless posted:I finished up my patio with poly sand. Didn't have any issues to be honest. Just followed directions as noted and swept, watered, repeated as recommended. Right on. I think I’m gonna let it rip with the poly, thanks.
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Jun 1, 2021 07:30
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