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Mr. Crow posted:I live in the boonies / a weird vortex area so weather is all over the place is there a fancy pants weather station out there that'll accurately display my local weather / rain chances etc? Weather.gov will give you forecast for your zip code Buying a personal weather station will not improve your local forecasting unless you buy a $30 million Doppler radar and install it on top of a tall building, and hire someone to interpret the results for you
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Jun 12, 2022 20:14
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Arsenic Lupin posted:See above re cooking with cast iron I've been cooking on glasstop ovens ever since sometime in the 90s when my mom replaced her old awesome pink ceramic coil top oven with a glasstop. Since then I've been stuck in several rentals with them and now have ne in my own kitchen. Never had a problem with cast iron scratching it. My current main frying pan is an enamel outside coated cast iron pan and my main pasta pot has a copper bottom. Both work fine and have no damage from years of abuse on the stove top. I've never personally broken a glasstop but I've had friends that managed it, you have to drop something really heavy to do it. I have some very heavy cast iron dutch ovens that I place on the glass cooktop no problem and not particularly gently, but I'm not slamming them either. I have accidentally dropped a nearly full 4 quart saucepan full of water on it and was happy it didn't break. There may be some cheapass ghetto glasstop cooker that might have those problems but the bog standard GE/ Frigidare/ Whirlpool ovens will be fine. Let's talk scratches- Scratches can happen but especially with the newer model ovens its a lot harder to do than you'd expect. I regularly slide pots and pans from one burner to another while cooking without bothering to lift them at all and I haven't added any scratches to my current oven. This is notable because I hate my current oven and it's slated to be replaced as soon as I can afford it, so I have not been even remotely worrying myself about preventing further damage to it. I just took a look closely at the current glass surface and it's scuffed up above the two main burners in the front and has about 3 scratches around the edge of the main burner. It looks like the PO took steel wool to it to clean at some point which hosed it up and made the burners look cloudy. This is how most people mess up or scratch their glasstops I've found, by not cleaning them properly. There are special cleaners at the store just for cleaning glasstops, but I usually just use some down dish soap and a sponge. The only thing that's hard to clean is if you get a lot of food splatter on the burner and it cooks down on the glass, which the store cleaner is great for without damaging the surface. Don't use steel wool or abrasive cleaners, and also don't treat the glasstop like it's a cutting board.
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Jun 12, 2022 20:39
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I need appliance thoughts. The stove that came with our house has a wildly unreliable oven thermostat. It isn't predictably wrong; you can't just say "add 20 degrees". There is apparently only one appliance repairman in the area, and he isn't returning calls. I am not going to try to repair an electrical appliance starting from zero knowledge/experience. I'm starting to research new stoves as a backup. I feel like you're maybe overthinking this? Which in all honesty is a major hobby of mine so I don't say that in a judgmental way. You can't have gas or induction because of your house setup, coil tops are on the way out, so that leaves glass/ceramic tops. That's your option. HOWEVER it's not a bad option! I've worked in appliance repair for 15 years and I wouldn't buy any other kind of stove. Cast iron works fine, as does aluminum and copper. (Aluminum and copper won't work on induction smoothtops, but work fine on the radiant ones.) They're tougher than you think; I don't know how you and your household works in the kitchen but truly you have to really try to break this poo poo. My dearly departed uncle, who cooked professionally for years and who I would describe as a kitchen chaos elemental, never managed to break the glass top at his house even after years of hard use, with mostly cast iron pots and pans. It can get scratches over time but so can anything else? Even gas hobs with cast iron grates will get marked up with enough use. You just have to clean it with non-abrasive materials, and wipe up food spills on, like, the same day that you make them. That's it. Use a specifically made glass top cleaner to polish it up every month or two for extra bonus points.
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Jun 12, 2022 21:35
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Glass tops are a pain to keep clean but since they’re the only option you left yourself I’d spend the effort on training yourself not to give a poo poo about scratches. Mine only picked up a few after 3 years of using cast iron without being overly careful, and I think most were from using a razor scraper.
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Jun 12, 2022 21:55
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Asking here because LOL getting an hvac company to come out for anything other than a dead AC right now: I've been trying to put a smart thermostat with remote sensors on our upstairs zone for a while now (It's balanced horribly and the thermostat is in the hottest room of the floor) but every time I install the thermostat, everything works except for the compressor stage. It's a dual transformer setup (radiant heat/AC), current thermostat is a schedulable honeywell with a c-wire. But aside from the dual transformer stuff, it's all pretty straight forward. But any new device won't turn on the compressor. Air handler runs fine, even when I flip y and g. Ecobee told me it was a float switch, but as soon as I go back to the old thermostat it works regardless of water level in the drain pan. Any suggestions for troubleshooting this? My attempts at Googling it have been fruitless.
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Jun 12, 2022 22:53
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Anything key to look for when getting a ventilation fan installed in a bathroom? Now that we've scrubbed all the mould off the roof...
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Jun 12, 2022 23:04
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I need appliance thoughts. The stove that came with our house has a wildly unreliable oven thermostat. It isn't predictably wrong; you can't just say "add 20 degrees". There is apparently only one appliance repairman in the area, and he isn't returning calls. I am not going to try to repair an electrical appliance starting from zero knowledge/experience. I'm starting to research new stoves as a backup. Adding my voice to the choir that you can definitely use cast iron on a glass top without scratching it to hell. I was always worried about this too, but after renting for years and using almost exclusively cast iron (some aluminum and stainless) they both work perfectly well and don't scratch the glass. I'm pretty clumsy and although I've never dropped anything really heavy or from a great height onto one, I can't set things down that gently sometimes and it's always been fine. Yes you can break the tops, but it's harder than you're imagining. If your cast iron has a bunch of crap glazed onto the outside like mine does, you can put a wire brush onto an angle grinder or just about any electric drill/screwdriver and clean it up if you're really worried, but it's probably not necessary. If it's just a smooth seasoning on the outside, it'll be perfectly fine. What glass cleaners are you guys using on yours? I can never get them to lift that stuff that gets cooked on after just one heating (usually spills from that session of cooking).
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Jun 12, 2022 23:11
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Citizen Z posted:Asking here because LOL getting an hvac company to come out for anything other than a dead AC right now: Any chance you’re following the wiring guide for a heat pump instead of the wiring for your system? Doing the opposite is how I got this issue with an ecobee. BonerGhost posted:What glass cleaners are you guys using on yours? I can never get them to lift that stuff that gets cooked on after just one heating (usually spills from that session of cooking). They won’t. You have to use a razor.
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Jun 12, 2022 23:12
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Speaking of appliances, I have huge analysis paralysis with dishwashers right now. Consumer reports recommends Bosch, but any of the ones in the 500 or 800 series aren’t available, and Bosch is basically the only thing CR recommends. User reviews are all over the place. Lots of people say the layout for the Bosch dishwasher sucks and you can’t easily fit plates and pans in the bottom rack (or as many as you would with other dishwashers). The i look at other brands like Samsung and kitchen aid and LG and whirlpool…bottom line is you can always find someone complaining about every single unit out there. I don’t expect much different from this thread…but I’m wondering if there’s any other big recommendations out there. I’ve heard they all suck at drying plastic and also not to expect anything to last more than 10 years. I’ll spend up to $1200 for one but if it’s not going to last, I don’t think I’m missing out on anything by buying something cheaper like $600-800.
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Jun 12, 2022 23:19
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Tiny Timbs posted:Any chance you’re following the wiring guide for a heat pump instead of the wiring for your system? Doing the opposite is how I got this issue with an ecobee. Don't think so. The heat pump uses terminals I haven't had. Reading a bit more, I do suddenly wonder if Rh and RC (or R and RC in my case) are somehow reversed on my thermostat. My heat is radiant, so you can't tell if it's on without going all the way to the basement to check the relays.
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Jun 12, 2022 23:30
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Induction is not an option, because we have many expensive-to-replace old pots that don't pass the magnet test. We also cook a lot with cast iron, which will scratch the top. So I've read that with induction you can just stick a paper towel between the glass and your pan to prevent scratches and everything will still work just fine. I don't have an induction range yet so I can't confirm this but I know they also sell induction mats which function the same way. Could be a solution for you if you're ok with buying some new cookware.
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Jun 13, 2022 01:19
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nwin posted:Speaking of appliances, I have huge analysis paralysis with dishwashers right now. Hey man, I recently got a Bosch 300, it is awesome and I have no regrets. I don’t have kids / not running it every day so maybe I don’t miss the 500 / 800 features as much as others would. Highly recommend. I got a professional install which was super smooth and worth it for like $150 too, guys were very pro and leveled everything out, drilled in back of my cabinets for a cozier drain line setup. I would’ve spent a whole day completely loving it up.
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Jun 13, 2022 02:16
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Tiny Timbs posted:They won’t. You have to use a razor. Ok phew, I thought I was some kind of extra gross goon or something.
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Jun 13, 2022 02:17
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nwin posted:Speaking of appliances, I have huge analysis paralysis with dishwashers right now. I bought the cheapest ge brand lowes sells for way under 300 bucks and it cleans fantastic. My plan was to get a Bosch but who knows when that will be an option again. It is literally a trash can with a pump heater and some sprinkler heads.
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Jun 13, 2022 03:10
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Thank you so much, stove folks. I feel better now. Radiant smoothtop it is! Induction is not an option because we own 40+ years of cookware, much of which isn't induction-compatible. For instance, old All-Clad, old copper, and old aluminum stockpots. If I were starting out in life, this wouldn't be a problem; however, with my batterie de cuisine complete (there has to be a less pretentious way to put this, sorry all), it would be a major nuisance.
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Jun 13, 2022 03:29
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Verman posted:I took the cast iron tub we found to the recycling center today. I also brought a few random pieces of metal, and I found the original (steel) screen door in a bunch of vines on the edge of our property. We pulled the old cast iron tub from our house and moved it to the curb but before we could even write a "free but very, very heavy" sign someone pulled up asking if they could have it! It was way too heavy for me to want to recycle it ourselves.
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Jun 13, 2022 04:56
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Hadlock posted:Weather.gov will give you forecast for your zip code I live in a valley in a conflux of ranges and the weather stations near me are on the other side of a mountain range and has completely different wind and rain patterns so, no, it wont. Also there are a couple giant rear end lakes nearby that also affect the weather patterns. For example it thinks the wind is blowing NE right now and where I am its blowing WNW. Look at this poo poo  Thanks for being a smartass though!
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Jun 13, 2022 05:07
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So.... what's the procedure for when the house next door starts falling apart and damaging your own house in the process? Went to sit on the porch today and found this:   Fascia board and gutter fell off their porch and hosed up our downspout on its way down. As for the cause, it seems that there was some sort of altercation that jostled the (probably very rotten) porch enough for the poorly affixed fascia board to fall off - there's also significant damage elsewhere on the porch and a broken window. Explains why the cops were over there last night, anyhow... The fix on our end shouldn't be difficult or expensive, but since it was caused by falling debris from next door, is this something for which we'd file a claim against the other owner's insurance like when someone hits your parked car or do we talk to ours first either way? We have a pretty high deductible that this repair wouldn't hit. Also, house next door is a rental owned by Faceless Property Investor #69420. The tenants who caused/triggered the cascade of damage moved in like less than a month ago. All in all, more bullshit on our bullshit pile we really don't need right now.
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Jun 13, 2022 07:12
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         Whew. When I said I'd do the demo, I didn't realize what I was signing up for. Feel much calmer now that there's a new roof on. Maybe I get to have weekends again.
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Jun 13, 2022 10:26
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Mr. Crow posted:I live in a valley in a conflux of ranges and the weather stations near me are on the other side of a mountain range and has completely different wind and rain patterns so, no, it wont. Also there are a couple giant rear end lakes nearby that also affect the weather patterns. For example it thinks the wind is blowing NE right now and where I am its blowing WNW. So the issue is that while a weather station can give you accurate reports of what is happening in your specific location, it does nothing to assist you in generating a forecast. This is because forecasts are modeled and then interpreted across County Warning Areas by local NWS forecasters. The microclimate you live in probably isn't large enough to warrant a focused forecast.
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Jun 13, 2022 12:09
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Mr. Crow posted:I live in the boonies / a weird vortex area so weather is all over the place is there a fancy pants weather station out there that'll accurately display my local weather / rain chances etc? Having had fancy weather stations no, it won't do much to tell you what the weather will be, just how it is and how it was. I live a few miles from one great lake, about 40 miles from a second, and see weather funneled in between them, unless one is frozen, then it's different than if both is frozen etc. Weather.gov is usually right in broad strokes, but tends to get the severity or duration wrong.
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Jun 13, 2022 12:42
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You could try to call the local NWS office and see if they have any recommendations. Bet they’d be stoked to hear a citizen actually interested in what they do, they’re very under appreciated.
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Jun 13, 2022 13:52
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Thank you so much, stove folks. I feel better now. Radiant smoothtop it is! You can get a ferrous steel disc to put on the induction burner beneath your non-ferromagnetic pots that will heat up and transfer heat. It’s not perfect but it works with every single material you can make a pot out of.
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Jun 13, 2022 14:42
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Getting our drive and pathways repaved because it's a mix of cracked paving slabs, concrete, flagstones and random bricks. - While doing so, may as well get the drains inspected and see if they need work: Find the PO's gatepost was installed directly over the drain, subsided into it and left a nice big hole, so we'll add that to the bill of work. -Since trenches are being dug may as well check if the water hookup is lead... it is. So add replacing that to the bill of work. Love home ownership. At least we had the foresight to check all this before getting the driveway paved.
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Jun 13, 2022 14:55
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Lawnie posted:You can get a ferrous steel disc to put on the induction burner beneath your non-ferromagnetic pots that will heat up and transfer heat. It’s not perfect but it works with every single material you can make a pot out of. Friends have induction which they've come to love and have a couple of these for cookware that doesn't work natively with the stovetop; easy to use and a good middle ground assuming the power and other requirements don't present other monumental barriers to entry.
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Jun 13, 2022 15:00
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Inner Light posted:You could try to call the local NWS office and see if they have any recommendations. Bet they’d be stoked to hear a citizen actually interested in what they do, they’re very under appreciated. This is a good idea I might just do this. Thanks for this and the other earnest responses. I guess I was asking if a company had put out AI models or something that could work in concert with what the weather station was reporting and general local weather to come up with a more personalized forecast or something but it sounds like not.
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Jun 13, 2022 15:01
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Mr. Crow posted:This is a good idea I might just do this. Thanks for this and the other earnest responses. I guess I was asking if a company had put out AI models or something that could work in concert with what the weather station was reporting and general local weather to come up with a more personalized forecast or something but it sounds like not. Nah, weather forecast models are traditionally run by agencies of nation-states (like the NWS in the US) because of the computing power required. In the last several years that compute power has obviously been democratized, but new models that can utilize those capabilities are still in development and/or haven't learned enough to be as good as or better than the GFS, ECMWF, etc. This topic has now reignited my desire for a personal weather station mounted to my detached garage (where I have power and WiFi because I am a tremendous nerd). Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jun 13, 2022 |
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Jun 13, 2022 15:06
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Have I ever mentioned how much I love home ownership? It's super great!    
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Jun 13, 2022 17:47
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I believe that tree is supposed to be in the "up" position, common mistake. also that sucks!
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Jun 13, 2022 17:56
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Looks like neighbor is buying you a new garage! e: or not who knows how this poo poo actually plays out in real world insurances. and it'll be months till it's straightened out probably. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Jun 13, 2022 |
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Jun 13, 2022 18:38
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So, water came in again this weekend. The good news is none came through the upstairs wall, only a little through the window which is probably because it isn’t sealed yet. The bad news is it came through the downstairs ceiling. The good news is that is probably because of a hole left by our mason (which is bad). While the wall and ceiling in that room are hosed, they were already hosed and need to be redone, and the lime plaster is in good shape so it’s really just the paint. The better news is we finally got a competent roofer who removed our downspout, cleared a foot and a half clog, and opened up the downspout entry. So… progress?
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Jun 13, 2022 18:41
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boys, girls. I have to post this somewhere. Just got a knock on the door.. I'm getting a patio!!!! After over a year of having a hole in my yard where the PO deck that just kind of sat on the ground lived.. and a second tier of too small to do anything deck sat on. Its happening. To recap 1. Contractor last year I met with in march hosed me. Like disappeared with my deposit, gave me excuse after excuse, he'd be there next week Pinky Swear, Okay no it was windy, and rained sometime in the month so maybe the next week, no oh.. I was sick, I can't find labor etc. I finally said.. here's date.. if you're not here you're fired. By mid-agust I had to sue my co-workers cousin money came to me 1 day prior to court day in November (small claims was that backed up) 2. Call another person over in october who came highly recommended. Yeah sure I'll make sure you're the first on my list, sucks that happened to you. You'll be #2 as I have one other person who wants a driveway next year. Call this guy in feb "hey, just wanted to make sure we're all set for spring/early summer next year" guy: "sure are, #2 on my list, call me in feb/march I'll make sure to stop by with color charts and finalize everything, and make sure we're still alive. Tater: Calls in feb.. no answer after multiple attempts. 3. Called many contractors. 1 showed up and gave me a gently caress you build a deck price, 1 kept pushing back their start date "due to weather concrete folks haven't started we'll call you in late 4. Someone actually showed, gave me a good estimate and was communicative but we had rainy spring so they didn't want their skidsteer to destroy lawn. They were going to show up last week but their grandfather passed and ti's a family business.. BUT TODAY.. TODAY THEY ARE HERE
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Jun 13, 2022 18:58
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Oh, hell, Tremors, that sucks. Glad nobody (including the red car) was hurt.
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Jun 13, 2022 19:39
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I bought a new riding mower and it's pretty good except it's too wide to fit through the gate that separates my yard from the strip of lawn that butts up against the road. So now I have to make the gate wider. The gatepost was getting a bit loose anyway. I probably should have considered this before buying the mower. EDIT: I'm guessing the easiest thing to do is to just get an entirely new gate (or a set of double gates) to replace the current one. How much do those cost usually? Throatwarbler fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jun 13, 2022 |
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Jun 13, 2022 20:10
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Wood or metal, how wide, how tall, manual or power open How long is a piece of string A halfway decent fencing guy should be able to throw together a wooden double door gate in a couple hours with $300 worth of materials from the hardware store If you want a 20' wide steel gate made out of steel fence post with a solar powered hydraulic clicker opener, probably starts at $2500 and goes up from there
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Jun 13, 2022 21:02
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We had to upgrade a 4ft wide 6ft tall white vinyl privacy gate to a 5ft wide maybe a year ago and it was around $450. Mind you it took a good 6-8 months to get the gate.
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Jun 13, 2022 21:26
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Three roofers told me there could not be a clog in my downspout There was a clog Three roofers told me there was nothing narrowing the opening to the downspout, restricting water flow There was stuff narrowing the opening, restricting the water flow
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Jun 13, 2022 22:33
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Furnace blower motor was 22 years old and died last week—First thing that required work in a year of homeownership. Ordered a new one and pulled out the blower to replace it... and holy crap, everything was disgusting. Just vile caked dust all throughout the furnace. The motor was covered in pure black grime—no wonder it died.  Powerwashed it (a hose wasn't enough to get rid of the really caked-on grime), installed a new motor, and put it all back together:    And it runs super smoothly now! Down $300 for the new motor, but I'm glad it forced me to open this thing up—I can't believe we've been breathing that poo poo for a year. If I ever buy again, I'm going to hire someone to take the furnace apart and clean it before I move in.
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Jun 13, 2022 22:59
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We recently moved and had that done to our HVAC and our allergies all but disappeared in about two days. Previous occupants had several dogs and it was suuuuper gross what he washed off that thing. Good investment
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Jun 13, 2022 23:12
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Huh I should probably do that too, previous owner had cats. How much does it usually cost? I also think we should install another thermostat? The current one is on the ground floor and can't tell that the 2nd floor is significantly hotter.
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Jun 13, 2022 23:42
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