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God do I loathe dealing with contractors. I hired a company to do some painting including the front door. I sent them pics of the front door that showed that the previous paint had heavy brush strokes. I said it had to be sanded smooth. I offered to sand it myself if necessary as prep. They said they'd handle it. Today I see the first coat and of course the guy sanded it just enough to give the paint grip. So the brush strokes show through. I emailed the painter directly rather than go to the company reps, but I just want someone who does the job they are hired for. This, and the difficulty of booking people, is why I DIY so much.
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Jun 21, 2023 03:20
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We complained about this in the walkthrough, but Gary didn't touch any of the child locks he was supposed to remove from all the doors, drawers, and cabinets. It's so annoyingly time-consuming to get rid of these goddamn things.
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Jun 21, 2023 03:54
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I have been looking at geothermal heat pumps so I guess I just don't have that PO mindset yet
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Jun 21, 2023 04:05
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Hadlock posted:In texas, particularly the dry summer months, they spray new sidewalks and concrete roads with white stuff, it apparently is this, or some variant, "white pigmented, wax-based concrete curing compound". Presumably it helps keep the moisture in so that the cement cures properly (full moisture) when it's 104F air temp and 120F ground temp for 16 hrs a day. I'm just guessing though. Main features seem to be 1) reduces shrinkage; retains moisture to reduce “plastic shrinkage cracks”; 2) Improves durability; proper curing will increase the long life of concrete I’m not an expert on concrete but I do specify it in vehicular and pedestrian applications all over the country, including Texas, and while it’s accurate that the kind of curing compound you linked is used in municipal roadway and civil infrastructure construction, it seems extremely unlikely someone would use that on 100 SF of concrete at someone’s small home project in (I think) the Bay Area.
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Jun 21, 2023 06:56
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Oh wild, after some additional e-stalking in this very thread it appears I drove right past his house taking my wife on a roundabout Starbucks run on Father's Day  I agree, there's a 90% chance they don't use that stuff there although 10% possible during heat waves in late July/August
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Jun 21, 2023 07:44
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runawayturtles posted:We complained about this in the walkthrough, but Gary didn't touch any of the child locks he was supposed to remove from all the doors, drawers, and cabinets. It's so annoyingly time-consuming to get rid of these goddamn things. My Gary took out half of them. As in, half of every single child lock, leaving the catches for the latch still attached to the cabinet opening. That part has a very sharp edge that will scratch the poo poo out of you, making the cabinets even less safe than they would be if nothing were installed. Thankfully they are screwed in and not glued so I'll be able to go around with a cordless drill and quickly take them off, if I ever get around to it.
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Jun 21, 2023 12:21
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runawayturtles posted:We complained about this in the walkthrough, but Gary didn't touch any of the child locks he was supposed to remove from all the doors, drawers, and cabinets. Did you do it in writing? And did they agree to it? Because a lot of those, especially the drawer/cabinet types, are screwed in, so in most places they're considered part of the sale. So they could get in trouble for removing them, but also unless they agree to it they don't owe it to you. runawayturtles posted:It's so annoyingly time-consuming to get rid of these goddamn things. Probably why they didn't remove them lmao They're even worse to install, so if you plan on ever having kids any time soon I wouldn't touch them. Sometimes you can bypass/disable them. edit: My Gary wasn't all that bad, really. They did leave a decent child gate at the top of the stairs. We thought they had just left behind the mount/hinges for the gate, but eventually we found the gate in the attic, which was one less thing we had to do for child proofing. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Jun 21, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 12:22
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What is Gary and PO?
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Jun 21, 2023 14:09
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blue squares posted:What is Gary and PO? PO is Previous Owner Gary Is PO personified
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Jun 21, 2023 14:26
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devicenull posted:I don't quite understand what a house trap is supposed to do. All your fixtures already have traps on them, so why not remove it? Sorry to reply to this days later- in my case, I have a basement drain. So the trap there is doing the same thing it's doing on the other fixtures- preventing sewer gas/smell from coming back up through the drain.
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Jun 21, 2023 14:28
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blue squares posted:What is Gary and PO? PO = previous owner/prior owner of the house Gary is the name of the prior owner of a posters house (Motronic maybe?), that half assed a bunch of repairs and did things in questionable ways. So now anytime anyone comes across a repair or something the prior owner did that isn't proper, we blame "Gary".
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Jun 21, 2023 15:14
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skipdogg posted:PO = previous owner/prior owner of the house Yeah, it was Motronic. Also given Motronic's penchant for Ron Swanson avs, I can never hear "Gary" and not think of Gary Gurgich from Parks and Rec who is kind of perfect because you know he'd be the platonic ideal of the PO.
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Jun 21, 2023 15:55
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skipdogg posted:PO = previous owner/prior owner of the house We all become Gary.
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Jun 21, 2023 16:11
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stealie72 posted:We all become Gary. Personally I at least developed the skill to document/note stuff I do because all to often past me would gently caress over future me. Now it's like "Oh you want to save that extra bolt or piece? Put it in a labeled zip lock." Oh you're taking this apart for the first time? Write notes or take pics/video of the process."
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Jun 21, 2023 16:38
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blue squares posted:What is Gary and PO? 
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Jun 21, 2023 16:41
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that's racist
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Jun 21, 2023 16:42
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The Dave posted:Personally I at least developed the skill to document/note stuff I do because all to often past me would gently caress over future me. Now it's like "Oh you want to save that extra bolt or piece? Put it in a labeled zip lock." Oh you're taking this apart for the first time? Write notes or take pics/video of the process." I once wrote a note to the next owner on a piece of facing under a soffit explaining that I left a gap for drainage because the old piece rotted by trapping water, and not because I measured wrong.
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Jun 21, 2023 16:48
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DaveSauce posted:Did you do it in writing? And did they agree to it? Nah, we just told him on every visit, including the walkthrough. He said he'd get rid of them between the walkthrough and closing, but surprise, it was too difficult. These are adhesive ones that have been stuck there for multiple years. The internet recommends pulling dental floss behind them, which is what we're doing, but it's not remotely as easy as that sounds. I mean, they're pretty nice locks, I definitely understand not wanting to waste them if we had or were going to have kids, but we were pretty clear that we're not.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:11
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QuarkJets posted:I have been looking at geothermal heat pumps so I guess I just don't have that PO mindset yet Installing a ground source heat pump is my wet dream and everyone I know is probably sick of me talking about it.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:22
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runawayturtles posted:Nah, we just told him on every visit, including the walkthrough. He said he'd get rid of them between the walkthrough and closing, but surprise, it was too difficult. These are adhesive ones that have been stuck there for multiple years. The internet recommends pulling dental floss behind them, which is what we're doing, but it's not remotely as easy as that sounds. Sticking crap to doors or cabinet doors with adhesive sucks. PO stuck several dumb plastic spring loaded curtain holders on the bottom of a big window assembly in the living room. Took off the holders and a painter touched up where it left behind, but I’d need to repaint the whole window/door if I didn’t want it to be noticeable anymore. I didn’t remember to ask them to remove the clips before the sale, but even if I did they would’ve simply ripped them down and the paint would still be damaged. Just one of those inevitable touch up costs when you move in I guess, unless you don’t care how things look.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:22
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I housesat once for a family I tutored for., and they had glued up pictures of the pope inside of all of their kitchen cabinets. It was super weird to be going for some Raisin Bran and then suddenly bam! Surprise pope! I wonder if they switched out the pictures when the pope changed.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:29
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runawayturtles posted:Nah, we just told him on every visit, including the walkthrough. He said he'd get rid of them between the walkthrough and closing, but surprise, it was too difficult. These are adhesive ones that have been stuck there for multiple years. The internet recommends pulling dental floss behind them, which is what we're doing, but it's not remotely as easy as that sounds. Try heating them up first with a hair dryer or something before using dental floss, but it’s still a huge pain.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:42
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A heat gun is your friend for getting foam adhesive off. A hair dryer on high temperature low speed isn't as good but it will work. As for any residual glue, here's one hell of a trick for getting it off without resorting to strong solvents: https://youtu.be/yO-7WVbl3uc
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Jun 21, 2023 17:43
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Foam adhesive melts away from saliva, but not saliva that has been exposed to air. Try kissing the adhesive off. #lifehax
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Jun 21, 2023 17:52
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Anza Borrego posted:I’m not an expert on concrete but I do specify it in vehicular and pedestrian applications all over the country, including Texas, and while it’s accurate that the kind of curing compound you linked is used in municipal roadway and civil infrastructure construction, it seems extremely unlikely someone would use that on 100 SF of concrete at someone’s small home project in (I think) the Bay Area. Looks like curing compound sprayed concrete to me? I guess I'm not sure why I care or why anyone else does. In my experience if it's a good crew they buy it by the drum and just have a sprayer on hand. It costs very little, improves quality, and even if it doesn't improve the quality it looks like it does and again, by the barrel, is cheap insurance.
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Jun 21, 2023 17:55
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nwin posted:Try heating them up first with a hair dryer or something before using dental floss, but it’s still a huge pain. Yeah, I've read some horror stories about the heat damaging the wood though...
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Jun 21, 2023 18:30
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Inner Light posted:, unless you don’t care how things look. My superpower
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Jun 21, 2023 20:00
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spf3million posted:4 quotes are in: how do you do copper trenchless? like how does the rigid pipe get into the hole in the ground
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Jun 22, 2023 00:48
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You use soft copper and yank it through right along the path of the old main: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RWjofBAWhg
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Jun 22, 2023 00:58
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DELETE CASCADE posted:how do you do copper trenchless? like how does the rigid pipe get into the hole in the ground Use a water drill.
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Jun 22, 2023 02:02
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DELETE CASCADE posted:how do you do copper trenchless? like how does the rigid pipe get into the hole in the ground very carefully 
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Jun 22, 2023 02:13
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moana posted:I housesat once for a family I tutored for., and they had glued up pictures of the pope inside of all of their kitchen cabinets. It was super weird to be going for some Raisin Bran and then suddenly bam! Surprise pope! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1TprkI_xJM
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Jun 22, 2023 03:55
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An accidentally bumped knife on the counter finally put an end to our long dying batch-feed disposal. I've always found the batch-feed disposal horrifying so I'm curious about replacing it with a normal one. I assume our Gary had it installed because they didn't have a convenient switch to hook a continuous feed disposal up to. I don't want to do a full remodel of that area of the house, so I'm curious if it's feasible to just hook up a switch under the sink? Is this question too specific to the layout of that area of the house? Is it just not worth the hassle of trying to coordinate between an electrician and a plumber for this? RIP batchy and the Shun paring knife you took with you.
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Jun 22, 2023 04:52
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Our gas furnace broke, couldn't be repaired. Would have been nice if it had lasted until we could get district heating in a couple of years. Thank God for the HELOC that's paying for all of this. Shits going to take years to pay back. At least there's not much left that can break anymore.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:25
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What did I just listen to?Struensee posted:At least there's not much left that can break anymore.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:28
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bergeoisie posted:An accidentally bumped knife on the counter finally put an end to our long dying batch-feed disposal. I think an air switch garbage disposal could be the solution if I'm not misunderstanding the problem.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:32
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moana posted:Are you trying to anger the gods or what? I do see a kindred spirit in Sisyphus
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Jun 22, 2023 05:48
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Vim Fuego posted:I think an air switch garbage disposal could be the solution if I'm not misunderstanding the problem. Yeah. That's an option. I would have to drill through the granite counter top though and I assume that's hard.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:57
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Have you considered just a strainer? I grew up with a disposal and for a while I wondered how anyone lived without one. Then I lived without one for a while, and it's totally fine. Great even.
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Jun 22, 2023 13:10
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QuarkJets posted:I have been looking at geothermal heat pumps so I guess I just don't have that PO mindset yet I have one, the PO installed it and luckily hired someone very competent to do it. That installer has been, until recently, doing most of the installs within a couple hours drive. My only wish is it had a 2-stage fan, but beyond that it's been great. The energy costs have been comparable to other energy sources in my area, but that has more to do with the lack of insulation and poor construction techniques. I'm remedying things as I find them and sealing things up, and just living with poo poo like a poorly insulated cathedral ceiling. My main concern was the 100% reliance on grid electricity, so now I have a large wood stove that can heat the whole house.
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Jun 22, 2023 13:23
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