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Shifty Pony posted:Carpenter ants are very big, like the size of a dime. And citronella ants are wood boring ants too, BTW
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Jun 13, 2023 03:07
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A Bad King posted:We had the type of wants that like to make their homes in electronics and power outlets. Imagine our surprise to see a colony inside our WiFi router. it's the NSA, your network has been bugged
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Jun 13, 2023 03:38
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petit choux posted:WTF is up with that? I had that happen with an exterior outlet once. Do they just crave the juice? Some ants just love electricity. At least according the HVAC tech who fixed an AC that ants had fried with their tiny bodies one time.
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Jun 13, 2023 03:47
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Sirotan posted:Can't believe I've managed to make it this far into home ownership before injuring myself during a project. I'm installing blocking in some of the kitchen wall gaps before the drywallers come tomorrow and just managed to stab a hole in the side of my thumb with my impact driver. It doesn't require an urgent care trip but will be tender for a couple days, just as I'm days away from the cabinet assembly stage, of course. I am now fully appreciating just how many tasks require two opposable thumbs... Just yesterday I noticed the blade from my multi tool was sticking out of the tool bag and I moved it so my wife wouldn't run into it on accident as in working next to the bathroom sink. Then I walked right into it and scraped my shin real bad.
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Jun 13, 2023 04:28
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petit choux posted:WTF is up with that? I had that happen with an exterior outlet once. Do they just crave the juice? They like the heat; typically why you'll find them shorting out your electronics/computers. If you have several outlets on a run, and you're running something on that circuit the wire can warm up a little.
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Jun 13, 2023 05:17
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PainterofCrap posted:They like the heat; typically why you'll find them shorting out your electronics/computers. So I take it they have no use for the electricity
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Jun 13, 2023 05:50
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They're going to have to evolve a few million more years first
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Jun 13, 2023 06:36
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PainterofCrap posted:They like the heat; typically why you'll find them shorting out your electronics/computers. It isn't just heat, some ants love electric or magnetic fields and we aren't entirely sure why.
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Jun 13, 2023 11:49
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I had a colony set up in my Milwaukee charger. Twice. Thing still works though.
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Jun 13, 2023 12:42
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nwin posted:I think I’ve got carpenter ants. As others have said, could just be black ants. We had them for a couple years, I thought they were carpenter ants, but thankfully not, no eating the house, just popping up here and there (primarily kitchen and basement (as I'm building a deck and have just torn out some siding, I see my house in the "fancy" area was built in 1999 with no house wrap or sealing of any kind  )).Anyway, I got some Advion Ant and that poo poo was ant magic. I put it in a few places where they were and within a couple weeks, it was over. Never saw them or other ants again, and that was 8 years ago. I know you said you can't get the insecticide where you live, but for the price difference, some under the table purchases may be in order. https://www.amazon.com/Syngenta-53204-Advion-30g-White/dp/B08K2PR9CF This stuff is serious, though, use proper precautions in using and keep other animals in mind in placement.
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Jun 13, 2023 13:33
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EVERYWHERE 
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Where's the right kind of place to go to find a better variety of shoe molding than your average big box store? When we moved into this place...two years ago? Christ. Two years ago, my wife's dad ripped all the shoe molding out of the bathroom so I could put down some peel and stick tile. The initial job didn't stick well in one corner where I didn't lift out the toilet, so while unemployed I finally lifted the toilet and did the tile right. The shoe matches the shoe in the rest of the house, but I can't quite find anything with the right profile and the right size, 3/8" w x11/16" h, with a simple ogee that starts ~5/16 up the trim. Her dad broke a bunch of it in the process and it didn't occur to me that it would be hard to find something that matches, so I can't really re-use the existing shoe. Here's a photo:  We've already discussed it and she's fine with me putting in a different profile of shoe, but if there's a simple way to get my hands on something that matches better, I'm interested to hear it.
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Jun 13, 2023 22:44
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Chances are you won't. You might find a similar shape as part of another moulding you could rip off using a table saw. Or get a custom run done by someone with a shaper for more than you want to pay. Basically it's a small detail few care about so those few can pay for it and the rest of us just get a simple shape.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:07
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Danhenge posted:Where's the right kind of place to go to find a better variety of shoe molding than your average big box store? Very location dependent. Local lumber yards around here have a selection that may better match what was used in some eras of homes in this area and we have a couple of specialty providers that have made/stock the right knives for all kinds of millwork that was popular for this area from the 1800s to current. If it's just simple shoe molding like that it may not be worth going any further than the local lumber yards. Which you should do anyay even for your replacement because big box store lumber and millwork is D grade garbage that will make you life more difficult while you "save" a few pennies a foot.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:20
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petit choux posted:WTF is up with that? I had that happen with an exterior outlet once. Do they just crave the juice? This happened to me. I noticed a trail of ants going across my living room hardwood floors one night and they went into my Comcast cable box. I disconnected it and put it in a bag and brought it outside. I opened it up and it looked like it was filled with sawdust and a billion ants. Even though ants don't really gross me out at all, in that quantity its a little gross. Plus all the eggs/larvae?? I vaccumed them up that night and we cleaned up the floor. I went to bed and woke up the next morning to a smell I'll never forget. I traced it to the vacuum. Not so surprisingly, vacuumed up bug guts stink when left overnight. I had to rip it apart and clean it. When I called comcast the guy on the phone was like "Oh you got ants? Yeah thats common, bring it in and we'll replace it". When I brought it in, I had it in a garbage bag and the lady went to open it. I stopped her and told her it was full of ants. She threw the box 3' in the air and shrieked. "Oh hell naw ... I'm not having none of that" and she threw it in the trash. Thats my ants and electricity story.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:21
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Oh goons. Sorry for the long absence and the missed PMs over the last couple of years. I had some rather unpleasant interactions on here and decided it was best to back away for a while (none of you house people though -- you're all great). I wanted to post an update on our Vermont build. It won the AIA Merit award for 2022 (https://www.aiavt.org/awards/22 under "Black and Light House) and just appeared in the Stowe Magazine Summer/Fall issue: https://issuu.com/stoweguideandmagazine/docs/stowemagazine_summer2023. (starting on page 192). It has been a helluva journey and now I know what "house poor" means. We were able to pull it off without incurring any debt but it drained us down to the dregs and we're in the process of trying to save up a buffer again. The last two winters have been great, house-wise. We mostly heat the entire house with the small heat pump unit on the first floor. On those brutally cold days we either augment it with a small space heater in the big living area overnight or just make a fire in the morning. When I say "brutally cold" I mean between -30F and -40F and luckily those days have been few and far between. We have it wired to add more electric heaters if we felt we needed to but I'd prefer to just use a space heater 3 days a year rather than seeing a useless lump on the wall the other 362 days of the year. Anyway, I don't mean to be longwinded but I'll watch this thread for a while and answer any questions you lovely folks have.
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Jun 14, 2023 00:11
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Congratulations! How do you circulate the air? Back when we were looking at houses in Vermont/New Hampshire decades ago, a constant worry was how to get the hot air down from the top of the house back to the bottom. Yours is very striking.
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Jun 14, 2023 01:45
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Congratulations! How do you circulate the air? Back when we were looking at houses in Vermont/New Hampshire decades ago, a constant worry was how to get the hot air down from the top of the house back to the bottom. Yours is very striking. We have a few ways to move air around -- one is a Zehnder air/heat exchanger which doesn't heat the house or anything but it moves air around and we also have two heat pumps -- one upstairs and one downstairs. During the winter, we run the heat pump on the first floor and the heat rises to the second floor and, during the summer, we run the one upstairs and the air falls. I was worried about it (we even planned having circulation fans between rooms to keep the air moving around) but we decided to wait and see how we fared during our first winter and it seems to have worked out ok. One thing that isn't mentioned too much in the article is that the walls are very very thick and the insulation is insane so it is very easy to hold the temperature once you get it to where you want it.
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Jun 14, 2023 01:56
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Danhenge posted:Where's the right kind of place to go to find a better variety of shoe molding than your average big box store? When we moved into this place...two years ago? Christ. Two years ago, my wife's dad ripped all the shoe molding out of the bathroom so I could put down some peel and stick tile. The initial job didn't stick well in one corner where I didn't lift out the toilet, so while unemployed I finally lifted the toilet and did the tile right. The shoe matches the shoe in the rest of the house, but I can't quite find anything with the right profile and the right size, 3/8" w x11/16" h, with a simple ogee that starts ~5/16 up the trim. Her dad broke a bunch of it in the process and it didn't occur to me that it would be hard to find something that matches, so I can't really re-use the existing shoe. Local ‘real’ construction lumberyard. The place whose trucks are delivering all the lumber for construction-their name is probably on the housewrap. Ask if they have a millwork division-they’ll probably have a better selection than the lumberyard part.
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Jun 14, 2023 02:13
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The species of ant that really like electricity is called the "Rasberry crazy ant".
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Jun 14, 2023 02:21
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It's really annoying how house projects metastasize. Got the roofer to come out and put in proper exhaust vent hoods for the upstairs bathrooms. The humid air is being vented outside of the attic now at least, BUT the master bath fan makes more noise due to the fan originally being installed without any consideration for actually exhausting air towards the outside so the the flex duct has to pull a 180° immediately after the fan. That's fine, I really only cared about the roof penetrations being properly installed and the scope of work didn't include touching the fans themselves beyond hooking some cheap flex duct to them. But it does add some more projects to the list. Now at some point I need to turn the master bathroom fan around. Probably reroute the duct a bit to eliminate sag, maybe use rigid duct for the longest part of the run from the second bathroom to the exit. And also the other bathroom fan needs turned around. Actually probably just replace the other bathroom fan/light entirely because it is very old.
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Jun 14, 2023 03:19
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Verman posted:I stopped her and told her it was full of ants. She threw the box 3' in the air and shrieked. "Oh hell naw ... I'm not having none of that" and she threw it in the trash. 
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Jun 14, 2023 03:25
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Shifty Pony posted:It's really annoying how house projects metastasize. If you really want to do this up quietly do a remote fan. https://shop.fantech.net/en-US/pb190--bath--fan--w--grill/p826424 Or one of many other inline vent fan options. Basically just installing ductwork and putting the fan on the attic space so you don't hear the blades spinning as much. I put in a Panasonic Whisper something in each of my bathrooms and I like them yet I really should have gone all out with the inline vent and put it on a three way switch to vent both.
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Jun 14, 2023 04:00
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Bathroom fans should be loud. It’s white noise for privacy
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Jun 14, 2023 04:53
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I considered an in-line fan but I do want a little bit of noise from the fan to cover up bathroom noises and so that we don't accidentally leave the fan on. I guess I could get a timer switch.
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Jun 14, 2023 10:08
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I got a timer switch and love it: Lutron A-T51H-WH Countdown Timer by Maestro MfrPartNo MA-T51H-WH https://a.co/d/d2WDhQy Highly recommended.
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Jun 14, 2023 12:22
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Sirotan posted:I got a timer switch and love it: I put one of those on my bathroom fan and yeah it's a fuckin game changer!
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Jun 14, 2023 12:32
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You know bathroom fans are for when you shower and not your smelly shits, right?
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Jun 14, 2023 12:49
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Mustache Ride posted:You know bathroom fans are for when you shower and not your smelly shits, right? My bathroom fan is for whatever I say, thank you very much!
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Jun 14, 2023 12:51
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It can be for two things
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Jun 14, 2023 12:51
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slave to my cravings posted:It can be for two things  This goon gets it
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Jun 14, 2023 12:53
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I know they make Bluetooth fans with speakers but they should make one that plays a continuous loop of barfing & farting sounds to really cover up those noises.
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Jun 14, 2023 13:17
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eddiewalker posted:Bathroom fans should be loud. It’s white noise for privacy Coward. It's YOUR house. Assert dominance by continuously farting your own white noise. Mustache Ride posted:You know bathroom fans are for when you shower and not your smelly shits, right? ok then mister stinky poo poo, explain why my half-bath has a fan but no shower???
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Jun 14, 2023 13:19
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DaveSauce posted:Coward. It's YOUR house. Assert dominance by continuously farting your own white noise. So the huge stacks of secret documents can breathe?
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Jun 14, 2023 13:22
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Mustache Ride posted:You know bathroom fans are for when you shower and not your smelly shits, right? Then why is there a fan in my main bathroom area where the shower is, and another one in the water closet that only has a closet and the toilet?
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Jun 14, 2023 13:49
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Mustache Ride posted:You know bathroom fans are for when you shower and not your smelly shits, right? they're called fart fans for a reason my dude
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Jun 14, 2023 14:25
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meatpimp posted:Then why is there a fan in my main bathroom area where the shower is, and another one in the water closet that only has a closet and the toilet? Well, look at Mr. "I AM TOO GOOD TO BATHE IN THE TOILET" here.  Yeah, every toilet here has a fan, weather it's got a shower, bath or not. The builders call them fart-fans. And 100% on the timers. They are fantastic. It's nice to take a shower and then leave the house for the rest of the day forgetting to turn the fan off. They are super handy. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually become code in places for power savings alone.
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Jun 14, 2023 14:28
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What’s a reasonable price for a decent set of LG front loading gas washer/dryer, probably like $1800 new? A guy I work with is trying to sell his 1 year old washer/dryer because he’s moving and his new apartment has it included. I don’t really like the guy so I’m not opposed to lowballing him. I was thinking maybe like $800, no more than $1000 … Is that about right? People on Facebook, offerup, etc are selling them for like $500-600 which is suspiciously low but on the other hand, I figure the market for used washer dryers is probably skewed towards the low end anyways. Any suggestions? E: to be clear, my existing washer/dryer work fine but would probably need replacing in the next five years so I don’t need it right now
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Jun 14, 2023 14:54
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StormDrain posted:Chances are you won't. You might find a similar shape as part of another moulding you could rip off using a table saw. Or get a custom run done by someone with a shaper for more than you want to pay. Basically it's a small detail few care about so those few can pay for it and the rest of us just get a simple shape. Motronic posted:Very location dependent. Local lumber yards around here have a selection that may better match what was used in some eras of homes in this area and we have a couple of specialty providers that have made/stock the right knives for all kinds of millwork that was popular for this area from the 1800s to current. Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Local ‘real’ construction lumberyard. The place whose trucks are delivering all the lumber for construction-their name is probably on the housewrap. Ask if they have a millwork division-they’ll probably have a better selection than the lumberyard part. Thanks y'all. These are about what I expected. I'll take a look at a couple closer places, but I imagine the setup fee for custom milling this stuff might make it less than worth it. I wish I'd set up a router table before now, the profile is simple enough and the stock would be small enough that I figure I could mill a close-enough replacement myself if I had that set up already.
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Jun 14, 2023 15:08
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Danhenge posted:Thanks y'all. These are about what I expected. I'll take a look at a couple closer places, but I imagine the setup fee for custom milling this stuff might make it less than worth it. I wish I'd set up a router table before now, the profile is simple enough and the stock would be small enough that I figure I could mill a close-enough replacement myself if I had that set up already.
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Jun 14, 2023 15:20
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UKJeff posted:What’s a reasonable price for a decent set of LG front loading gas washer/dryer, probably like $1800 new? A guy I work with is trying to sell his 1 year old washer/dryer because he’s moving and his new apartment has it included. I mean, what are the model numbers, and what do those models go for new? A year old they probably still sell them new, so google should tell you pretty quick what they go for. We just bought a pair of the DLEX4000B and WM4000HBA for about $825/ea. + tax/hoses/etc. around 6 months ago. They were on sale IIRC, normally $1,250 ea MSRP at the time.
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Jun 14, 2023 15:28
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