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I bought the 350 dollar Harbor Freight equivalent of my Waterloo at work for use at home and I have never regretted the decision. Unless you happened to just get a really lovely one out of the factory I kinda doubt 99% of homeowners need anything fancier to be honest. The quality of even the cheapest toolboxes you can buy is head and shoulders over what you could get 10 years ago. I was chatting with a friend last night about how we kinda miss the 20 dollar all steel so thin they flexed all the time toolboxes just since they were so versatile and light and great for using as project boxes rather than for their intended purposes.
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Oct 9, 2021 21:05
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Zarin posted:*glances at thread title* Apparently the Harbor Freight ones are fine. I have a Home Depot Husky one and I like ithttps://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3823532&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=26#post511384499 . Milwaukee are also fine.
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Oct 10, 2021 09:04
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I just keep my tools in an ottoman I have under my desk in my office, the same thing I've done when I lived in an apartment.
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Oct 10, 2021 12:16
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Last thanksgiving I got drunk on wine and put up peg board across a wall in my basement and reorganized everything while listening to a Marc Rebillet and it was one of the best days of my life.
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Oct 10, 2021 13:33
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Anyone have recommendations for keyless deadbolts that aren't connected to wifi? I just want to be able to punch in some numbers to lock/unlock my door.
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Oct 10, 2021 15:19
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spf3million posted:Anyone have recommendations for keyless deadbolts that aren't connected to wifi? I just want to be able to punch in some numbers to lock/unlock my door. I've got a Yale Assure that I like.
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Oct 10, 2021 15:26
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spf3million posted:Anyone have recommendations for keyless deadbolts that aren't connected to wifi? I just want to be able to punch in some numbers to lock/unlock my door. https://www.directdoorhardware.com/kwikset-smartcode-electronic-deadbolt.htm I've used this one for about 3 years now. I've had to change the batteries twice, the second time was last week. So about a year and a half between changes. I like having a key as a backup, there are some truly keyless options out there too, for the record.
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Oct 10, 2021 15:27
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StormDrain posted:https://www.directdoorhardware.com/kwikset-smartcode-electronic-deadbolt.htm e: I kind of like the look of this Schlage option since the battery only functions to release the lock mechanism which you then turn by hand. spf3million fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Oct 10, 2021 |
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Oct 10, 2021 15:29
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I would prefer that as well. In the commercial world I always had better luck with hardware that only released locks and didn't power a whole latch. I went with the kwikset since all my other locks were that type and I didn't want to swap all of them. Also 10 digits is superior to 5.
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Oct 10, 2021 15:35
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spf3million posted:I would like to have a key as a backup option too. I have a version of that, it works well but it only lets you do 4 digit combinations. I prefer 6 but most people probably don't care.
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Oct 10, 2021 18:14
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Home ownership sure is fun. Owned the house for 5 days, probably spend $3k so far, easily. Need to go back to Home Depot today and buy a ladder. Some expected (rugs, bulbs, paint, stair treads) some unexpected (new couch). We were excited to see the previous owner left smoke alarms but ah, no, they're 30 years old AND when you remove them you get to see the old wall color!
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Oct 10, 2021 21:43
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Upgrade posted:Home ownership sure is fun. We immediately repainted the kitchen and living room, and on removing one outlet cover discovered it had been like 6 colors, including lavender. Not full on royal purple, but not a pale pastel either. (We turned green into off white, MUCH better.)
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Oct 10, 2021 22:04
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Yeah when we bought a house I made Sure we had lots of buffer zone for all the bullshit. Was my wife's first time buying and she was surprised how quick the little.bullahit added up.
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Oct 10, 2021 22:10
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Alarbus posted:We immediately repainted the kitchen and living room, and on removing one outlet cover discovered it had been like 6 colors, including lavender. Not full on royal purple, but not a pale pastel either. (We turned green into off white, MUCH better.) I don't really understand why people paint over outlit/switch covers. It's very minimal effort to remove them, and then you don't have to worry about giant drips of paint everywhere near them (nor the damage that occurs when you inevitably have to remove them)
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Oct 11, 2021 01:45
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devicenull posted:I don't really understand why people paint over outlit/switch covers. It's very minimal effort to remove them, and then you don't have to worry about giant drips of paint everywhere near them (nor the damage that occurs when you inevitably have to remove them) I mean I've seen someone paint over a breaker panel such that the paint basically glued everything shut. They probably hired painters who did not give a poo poo
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Oct 11, 2021 02:49
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When I used to work in bank branches I met all sorts of construction workers. I am not sure if I ever met a painter that wasn’t an alcoholic/drunk before he even got home.
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Oct 11, 2021 07:12
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We recently hired a painter for a job we didn’t want to tackle ourselves and I’m pretty sure we got extremely lucky. Dude took it upon himself to smooth out the plaster dings/uneven application to an extent I sure wouldn’t have bothered with. It looks great but was like 110%. Apparently he’s recently moved business from an area with much higher rates of newer construction. I this he’s going to have to get used to old houses before he goes crazy.
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Oct 11, 2021 09:01
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First thing we did before moving in was taking all switch covers and fixtures off and repainting. I hate lazy work. I also removed all the poorly patched drywall anchors because they were super obvious when looking at the wall. It felt good to start so fresh.
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Oct 11, 2021 12:28
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devicenull posted:I don't really understand why people paint over outlit/switch covers. It's very minimal effort to remove them, and then you don't have to worry about giant drips of paint everywhere near them (nor the damage that occurs when you inevitably have to remove them) Oh no, they removed them just fine, but post purple paint didn't cover all of the covered bit, presumably so someone like me would have an easy time with house archaeology? No idea where the immediate POs were on the painting scale, but they used almost entirely Benjamin Moore from the local shop, and the shop confirmed they had the colors saved to the address. No idea which kid's name was which room though. :P That's where I bought the paint for the living area, since folks in various threads here beat the drum about buying good paint.
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Oct 11, 2021 12:55
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I’m just about finished repainting my future kid’s nursery from an awful crimson fire truck red to a clean white. When I washed the walls with TSP before priming, the paint came off onto my rags like crazy. Not sure where you even find paint that cheap.
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Oct 11, 2021 16:59
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Lawnie posted:I’m just about finished repainting my future kid’s nursery from an awful crimson fire truck red to a clean white. When I washed the walls with TSP before priming, the paint came off onto my rags like crazy. Not sure where you even find paint that cheap. That isn't necessarily a paint quality problem. That's usually a paint prep problem.
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Oct 11, 2021 17:37
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Motronic posted:That isn't necessarily a paint quality problem. That's usually a paint prep problem. Interesting. Hopefully that prep problem is something I managed to avoid, then.
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Oct 11, 2021 18:20
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^^ this.. My house got repainted by a dude with a spraygun I feel like zero prep was done. It looked good for the time the house was showing then it started having issues. when I repainted the basement I was able to peel just long huge sheets of paint off of the wall. The hallway by the door has like glassy smooth paint behind it.. for some reason the paint they laid off is well.. not sticking too well.
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Oct 11, 2021 18:44
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Does anyone know if these solar heaters actually do anything? According to a handwritten seller's disclosures from P2O, it was "installed in 1978?" We're getting bids to replace the roof before going forward with solar PV, wondering if it's worth putting this thing back up after it inevitably will be taken down as part of the re-roofing. The way the PO explained it to me is that cold water comes in from the pipe on the left, up to the reservoirs where it is heated, then back down and into the gas hot water heater. Just a passive solar preheater. Obviously the shade from the tree isn't helping and I could see it at least not hurting during the summer. But in the winter I feel like maybe it would actually make it worse if the ambient temp is below the ground temp and there isn't much sun. House is in zone 9, not too worried about anything freezing. I might have a plumber come and install a bypass with appropriate valving in the basement so at least I can take it out and still have water coming to the hot water heater.  
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Oct 11, 2021 19:03
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Those parabolic reflectors are alarmingly shiny for having been installed in 1978
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Oct 11, 2021 19:08
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Gonna own paying $700 for two outlets because that’s the floor for a local electrician to even bother in this market.
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Oct 11, 2021 19:12
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Have you considered buying $100 in tools to avoid paying $700 to do a $50 job? All made up obviously since I don't know what you mean by "for two outlets". If it's swapping a device then it's $20 in tools. If it's adding a circuit, that might be reasonable.
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Oct 11, 2021 19:24
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spf3million posted:Does anyone know if these solar heaters actually do anything? According to a handwritten seller's disclosures from P2O, it was "installed in 1978?" We're getting bids to replace the roof before going forward with solar PV, wondering if it's worth putting this thing back up after it inevitably will be taken down as part of the re-roofing. I wouldn't bother replacing them. It's a lot of points of failure, it's over forty years old, and the absolute best case scenario is that it somehow heats the water going into your water heater so much that your water heater never runs. That doesn't seem like a place where you're going to pick up huge energy savings.
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Oct 11, 2021 19:31
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the idea of someone doing anything at all to your house for $100 is kind of quaint
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Oct 11, 2021 21:07
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go for a stroll posted:the idea of someone doing anything at all to your house for $100 is kind of quaint Also, that. Service call alone on the electrician who I'm getting to give me a quote on my recent electrical conduit misadventures is nearly $150, and that includes a half hour of labor. Fee gets zeroed out if I actually have them do the work, but it's not gonna be a $100 job.
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Oct 11, 2021 21:18
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IOwnCalculus posted:Also, that. Service call alone on the electrician who I'm getting to give me a quote on my recent electrical conduit misadventures is nearly $150, and that includes a half hour of labor. Fee gets zeroed out if I actually have them do the work, but it's not gonna be a $100 job. Ugh, can't wait to have to have this done myself. My 3 car garage only has 3 outlets and they're all in the worst place possible and the best outlet is taken by my sprinkler and fiber internet converter so i'm wanting to have multiple added + plug setup for if we get an EV while they're here
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Oct 11, 2021 21:26
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go for a stroll posted:the idea of someone doing anything at all to your house for $100 is kind of quaint I mean, 2 receptacles + wire + boxes is going to be less than $100 in material at consumer prices. Assuming you have the tools already, of course.
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Oct 11, 2021 21:34
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It’s adding two new outlets. I know nothing about electrical work and don’t want to learn on plaster walls.
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Oct 11, 2021 22:24
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Upgrade posted:It’s adding two new outlets. I know nothing about electrical work and don’t want to learn on plaster walls. I mean, that's already a worse than normal job in a lot of ways, but what is costs depends a lot on where and the details of the construction that can't be known without a physical inspection, and potentially not even until there are holes cut into walls. Reno electric is a whole different thing than wiring new construction (which is super easy and fast by comparison).
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Oct 11, 2021 22:45
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We have solar panels and Tesla is just not loving replying to 'here is the deed, we own the house, please give us info on our power/solar panels/add our panels to my tesla account'. I think they make a lot of money in the month or two after a house is being sold, by just not putting the solar panels under your name. I don't even know how solar works: does it just mitigate my bill by supplying energy for the house, or does it also 'give to the grid' if we're not using anything, and get us some kind of refund?
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Oct 11, 2021 22:47
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redreader posted:We have solar panels and Tesla is just not loving replying to 'here is the deed, we own the house, please give us info on our power/solar panels/add our panels to my tesla account'. I think they make a lot of money in the month or two after a house is being sold, by just not putting the solar panels under your name. This would not surprise me. Musk owned companies do all sorts of interesting accounting tricks at the end of the quarter to meet certain metrics for shareholder reasons. Tesla straight up stopped paying repair shops for 2+ months at one point to meet cash flow targets for end of quarter. Also, Tesla solar is.. not managed well, by most accounts, at least from what I've heard, so there's that
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Oct 11, 2021 22:57
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redreader posted:We have solar panels and Tesla is just not loving replying to 'here is the deed, we own the house, please give us info on our power/solar panels/add our panels to my tesla account'. I think they make a lot of money in the month or two after a house is being sold, by just not putting the solar panels under your name. I don't even know how solar works: does it just mitigate my bill by supplying energy for the house, or does it also 'give to the grid' if we're not using anything, and get us some kind of refund?  that you didn't understand this when you were in the buying process...Anyway, you typically have one of three scenarios: 1) outright ownership - you own the panels and the power they produce offset your utility purchases. Depending on your utility rules, you might bank extra power in an "account" that would offset future use. Or you might get paid for the electrons as you excess them to the grid and then turn around and have to buy back electrons when you are consuming more than your solar is producing. 2) lease - pretty much the same as above except you don't fully own the panels, you are still paying the solar company a monthly note. Usually this was a no-cost install which you pay back over X number if years. You own the rights to any power produced and these either offset current demand or can be banked for future use or can be sold to the utility, again depending your utility's rate schedule/policy. 3) power purchase agreement - the solar company owns your panels and sells you electricity for a rate typically below what the utility rate is. You have no rights to any excess sold to the grid, typically these are sized to offset some % of your typical use.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:04
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I got a rough quote of $1000 for running power up from my basement to my second story to create two new junction boxes (I think that's the proper term!) for my bidet and heated towel warmer, it seems like there are a lot of factors in electrical work that come into okay when quoting. I know absolutely fuckall about it and am happy to pay people who are knowledgeable to not allow me to electrocute myself!
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Oct 11, 2021 23:04
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Yeah, Tesla loving sucks. When I sold my house with Tesla panels (originally SolarCity) they still autobilled my account a month later and had to deal with them to get that refunded. As far as how your specific pricing works? Can't answer definitively. I've seen at least two models from Tesla, one where they literally just sell you power at a price per kWh, and the other where you lease the panels and get whatever they generate (with a minimum guaranteed by the contract). I had the latter. How/if this works out as a financial benefit to you also depends on your utility company. Mine did full net metering at the time, so if my panels were generating more than I used, the meter ran backwards. But since I also had time-of-use, both generation and consumption were split by on/off peak. A lot of months would end up where in total I had generated more energy in total than my house used, but because of ToU, I'd still have to pay some amount for on-peak (or off-peak) that wasn't fully offset by the panels. Throughout a single year any excess generation would carry forward as a direct credit, i.e. if I generated 1kWh extra in January it would just get passed as 1kWh of extra generation in February. At the end of the fiscal year the utility would turn any remaining excess into a credit towards my account, paid at wholesale rates. What was my net result? Over the span of about seven years, my "savings" was anywhere from $0 to -$1000. I had a sheet tracking this but I think I deleted it after the sale, and I'm not 100% convinced my math on it was always accurate. So no win in terms of dollars, very mild "win" in terms of maybe generating less fossil fuel emissions. If I ever do solar at my new house it will not be leased.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:10
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I’ve been unable to make the numbers work for solar panels to be worth it at all for my house. That’s living in South Texas AND having a local electric company that does full net metering, AND me using a poo poo ton of electricity. Like many have said before it seems to be a lifestyle choice. It might make sense in certain parts of California where power is crazy expensive.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:17
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