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Working from home put me in a real ‘frog in a stove pot’ situation about how squeaky our hinges got. My ears were used to the noise until my parents commented on it while visiting and suddenly it was the only thing I could hear. 10 mins and some WD40 and everything was silent again.
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Nov 4, 2023 21:50
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Democratic Pirate posted:Working from home put me in a real ‘frog in a stove pot’ situation about how squeaky our hinges got. My ears were used to the noise until my parents commented on it while visiting and suddenly it was the only thing I could hear. 10 mins and some WD40 and everything was silent again. That's not going to last, WD40 is a poo poo lubricant. I dunk my hinge pins in grease and they pretty much never make a peep again.
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Nov 4, 2023 23:16
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Sirotan posted:A guy who says he lived in my house 40 years ago just took a photo with his family on my front porch and then asked if he could come inside the house. He described the layout and even told me something I didn't know (2nd floor was converted from an attic to living space in 1985) so I'm sure it was an innocent request but yeah nah dude sorry. This has happened twice to me in the 8 years we’ve lived here. Said no both times.
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Nov 5, 2023 07:18
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If my PO shows up not only am I letting her in but I'm locking the door behind her and making her give detailed notes of everything she knows about each room or I'm not letting her go. Motherfucker absolutely had to know about 2 leaks they hid behind new drywall before selling.
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Nov 5, 2023 11:54
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My MIL let in their prior owners for some dumb reason at like 8am on a Monday, delaying them to come help us with the kids. Our Prior Owners have been to the neighborhood to visit friends and just stared at the house. They didn't look pleased after I had someone trim some trees back, I'm not dealing with any part of that. Haven't talked to us, and I'm not letting them do anything anyway.
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Nov 5, 2023 13:39
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I did this in 2013; My family lived in this house in Switzerland from 1970-75: It took 40-years for me to get back there. Beforehand, I obtained written permission (through a childhood friend that still lives in Zurich) from the current owner to wander the property and photograph it. early 1970s   2013  The CO was not there - apparently, went on a long holiday (the grass needs cutting)
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Nov 5, 2023 15:46
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We run into our PO's since they still live in the same town and right next to the big public park we go to with our kids often, but they haven't been back since a couple of months after they moved out to pick up a package sent to their old address on accident. They gave us some of the history of the house as the original owners, but not a ton. I wouldn't care if they wanted to look around the yard but I wouldn't let them in. Our septic service guy knows the whole neighborhood and all the gossip going back to when it was built in the 80's, though, so he's given us all kinds of history. Was about to explain the pseudo-nursery of pine trees in our back yard--PO's first husband was going to try to go and sell them. Now it's an overly dense 1/2 acre of 30-40' pine trees in straight rows, but still a nice border to our yard.
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Nov 5, 2023 17:38
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PainterofCrap posted:I did this in 2013; My family lived in this house in Switzerland from 1970-75: That's a sweet house, what's the inside like? Can I come in I'd be stoked if some old owners of my house showed up, I'd hit them up for some old pictures, historical info, etc. The lady I bought it from lived here 40 years so they'd be old as gently caress though.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:17
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Sloppy posted:That's a sweet house, what's the inside like? Can I come in This happened for my folks. Their house was built in the 1880s, and they've owned it for about 35 years now. In the late 90s they were contacted by an older gentleman that had lived there in the 50s. He came over to look around and shared all the old photos and documents he had. They were pretty happy with that trade.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:33
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Muir posted:This has happened twice to me in the 8 years we’ve lived here. Said no both times.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:36
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A woman recently picked up a nursing home resident in her car from just outside the nursing home, drove her across town to my house believing the nice old lady when she told her my adress - she used to live here, moved out about 30 years ago. Luckily they have GPS on the residents now, so they were already on their way by the time I called them.
Struensee fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Nov 5, 2023 |
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Nov 5, 2023 19:13
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Our home isn’t that old and is a cookie cutter design, so the only way the old owners are getting in is if they are promising the rehabilitate the immaculate landscaping they left us that has not seen a high level of maintenance.
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Nov 5, 2023 20:16
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Different people each time? Not sure. One time they spoke to me, another time to my in-laws who were house-sitting. Our house is from 1920, so there could well be a couple of sets of people who used to live here. Neither of them were the immediate prior owners, who moved to a rental just up the block after they were foreclosed on.
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Nov 5, 2023 23:24
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My gutters fill up about 8 times a year and I got fed up with writing a $280 check every time This thing is fun as hell. It's like a crane game at the arcade but the prize is my foundation stays intact
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Nov 5, 2023 23:42
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:My gutters fill up about 8 times a year and I got fed up with writing a $280 check every time What is this fine contraption and where does one obtain it?
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Nov 6, 2023 00:05
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Sloppy posted:That's a sweet house, what's the inside like? Can I come in It is a split-level, all poured concrete & brick, with seven sub-basements; the main entry to the basement was a steel-jacketed concrete-filled blast door. Designed to be nuclear-blast-survivable. Even so, it was nice.   Was our first house with a fireplace.  Funny story: it was located on a ridge between lake Zurich and a long valley that terminated at the Pilatus mountain range.  (The range is about 60-miles away) It gave an excellent defensive enfilade to the ridge top; anyone in our yard was invisible to anyone downhill...  ...so my parents were quite alarmed to awaken one winter morning to find a rifle platoon had encamped in our yard, and set up a machine gun. My dad initially though he was under house arrest for unknown reasons. Turned out it was the bi-annual national maneuvers; my parents communicated in very halting German with the CO - who really didn't want to fraternize at all but probably was sympathetic to the freaked-out auslanders and gave a brief explanation. Mom broke out her Cory 30-cup coffee urn, and won over the troops 
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Nov 6, 2023 00:13
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Absolutely wonderful! That fireplace is gorgeous, amongst everything else in your story.
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Nov 6, 2023 00:29
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Tremors posted:What is this fine contraption and where does one obtain it? An extendable pole (so many more uses than I would've thought at first, now that I have it on hand)  And a gutter scoop tool, just-add-pole!  I got them both on Amazon. The pole was 'Docapole' brand, and the gutter tool was some generic seller. There are tons and tons of them that show up under 'ground gutter cleaner'
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Nov 6, 2023 00:51
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PainterofCrap posted:It is a split-level, all poured concrete & brick, with seven sub-basements; I heard an amusing story at a recent family wedding, apparently my cousins ended up living in Indonesia for a few years in the 70s there was a(n attempted?) coup in the late 70s/early 80s and some party in the coup parked a tank on their front lawn. Apparently there's a picture, I'll have to track it down
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Nov 6, 2023 01:24
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:An extendable pole (so many more uses than I would've thought at first, now that I have it on hand) How high up are you going? I considered one of these, but decided it would be too cumbersome at 20-24'.
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Nov 6, 2023 02:01
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:An extendable pole (so many more uses than I would've thought at first, now that I have it on hand) I've been thinking about better ways to clean my gutters too, this seems like a good solution. In the summer I walked around on my roof with a leafblower and cleaned the gutters that way, everything was dry so it worked really great. I was thinking of erecting some rigid tubes that I can hook up to the end of my leafblower so that I can take the ladder out of the equation, but two gutters are probably 20 feet up and I'm not sure if that'd be worth it I'll probably forget the whole thing and try out your suggestion, sounds a lot cheaper and better at dealing with wet leaves
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Nov 6, 2023 02:17
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Not sure how well this would work for second story gutters, but first story gutters were super easy to clean out with this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-2-1-2-in-Gutter-Cleaning-Accessory-Kit-for-RIDGID-Wet-Dry-Shop-Vacuums-VT2515/203235222 I imagine another 10+ feet of tube might make it a bit cumbersome.
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Nov 6, 2023 02:35
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Jenkl posted:How high up are you going? I considered one of these, but decided it would be too cumbersome at 20-24'. QuarkJets posted:I've been thinking about better ways to clean my gutters too, this seems like a good solution. In the summer I walked around on my roof with a leafblower and cleaned the gutters that way, everything was dry so it worked really great. I was thinking of erecting some rigid tubes that I can hook up to the end of my leafblower so that I can take the ladder out of the equation, but two gutters are probably 20 feet up and I'm not sure if that'd be worth it I really recommend it! It cleans about a 12" span of the gutter with each pull. I used it on a 2-story house with gutters located about 10, 16, and 24 feet off the ground with no issue at all.
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Nov 6, 2023 02:39
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Dr. Eldarion posted:Not sure how well this would work for second story gutters, but first story gutters were super easy to clean out with this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-2-1-2-in-Gutter-Cleaning-Accessory-Kit-for-RIDGID-Wet-Dry-Shop-Vacuums-VT2515/203235222 I should have guessed that the thing I was thinking of was already some sort of product, although this is for a shop vac rather than a leafblower. I doubt my shop vac would be able to blow out wet leaves, but my leaf blower regularly does because I bought the biggest gently caress-off one available while still being battery powered
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Nov 6, 2023 04:55
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Sick, literally what I was imagining: https://www.acehardware.com/departm...cB&gclsrc=aw.ds Looks like you get 8.3 feet of length in tubing. I don't think that's enough for me, pretty cool though. $58 seems kind of expensive for that length, I was thinking of just buying a bunch of PVC
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Nov 6, 2023 04:58
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Quick stupid question: My wife convinced my a few years ago to get a water filteration system in our house. At the time I was told the maintenance and filter change would be every two years. Just called the company that installed it and they say the filter needs replacing every six months and the parts and labor to do so are $530. This seems like I'm getting ripped off. If this is something I can do myself easily I will but I'm really not sure if that is feasible. edit: more of a rephrase, is the $500/2x a year common and expected or is this just an upsell that's not really necessary? drhankmccoyphd fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 15:41
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QuarkJets posted:I should have guessed that the thing I was thinking of was already some sort of product, although this is for a shop vac rather than a leafblower. I doubt my shop vac would be able to blow out wet leaves, but my leaf blower regularly does because I bought the biggest gently caress-off one available while still being battery powered Thankfully, our leaves were mostly dry so I just vacuumed them out and that worked great.
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Nov 6, 2023 15:49
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drhankmccoyphd posted:Quick stupid question: Need to know the system in question - some are long time, some are shorter, some you can get parts yourself, and others you can't.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:05
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unknown posted:Need to know the system in question - some are long time, some are shorter, some you can get parts yourself, and others you can't. Thanks, this is the product page if that helps https://www.watercare.com/products/specialty-solutions/one-filtration.html
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Nov 6, 2023 17:46
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drhankmccoyphd posted:Thanks, this is the product page if that helps Yes, you are getting ripped off. It was planned from the second you bought that "dealer only" filter. Much of residential water treatment business is like this. What exact water quality problem(s) was this supposed to solve? Do you have a before and after water test from an accredited lab to prove it even does those things?
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Nov 6, 2023 17:53
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aren't a lot of those dealer water filters pyramid schemes?
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Nov 6, 2023 17:54
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Motronic posted:Yes, you are getting ripped off. It was planned from the second you bought that "dealer only" filter. Much of residential water treatment business is like this. This is going back 2-3 years but my wife read something about the local water utility upping their tolerances for plastics in the water and she decided to get a filtration system. Can't find anything in my email. The only thing I did find is an email from the dealer saying they would schedule a free water test. I'll try to dig up the actual findings but I'm not hopeful. Next question: is it a bad thing to leave the system as is or should I schedule someone to uninstall it?
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Nov 6, 2023 18:02
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drhankmccoyphd posted:This is going back 2-3 years but my wife read something about the local water utility upping their tolerances for plastics in the water and she decided to get a filtration system. Can't find anything in my email. The only thing I did find is an email from the dealer saying they would schedule a free water test. I'll try to dig up the actual findings but I'm not hopeful. It's going to at best restrict water flow as is clogs and at worse release filter media into your domestic water. I would uninstall/bypass it. Use your county ag extension to get a water test and analysis for the things you or your wife is concerned with. They will tell you what you need to mitigate them, if it's even a thing you need to be worried about. If it's literally particulate matter (plastics) you can install/have someone install a sub $150 filter housing with sub $20 filters that you can change yourself in minutes. You don't need whatever that thing is.
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Nov 6, 2023 18:19
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Deviant posted:aren't a lot of those dealer water filters pyramid schemes? I don't know about watercare, but linking to a 'Become a Dealer' page in the header bar isn't exactly a good look. It definitely smells like bullshit.
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Nov 6, 2023 18:47
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edit: wrong thread
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Nov 6, 2023 19:02
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For gutters, I use the same style system as Dr. E, but even with wet leaves and muck, my shop vac is able to suck it all out. Occasionally it gets a bit clogged, but tapping the tip gets everything sucked in. The best part is that there is no clean up of leaves like I got with my blower. Strongly recommend, but higher stories might be a problem. Water systems are highly dependent on the region and source. We are on well water, with tons of iron and sulfur (plus the usual other minerals and crap). So we had to get a softener and iron set up, and did a reverse osmosis setup to the kitchen too. Worked wonders for us, because now our toilets don't have stains and our water doesn't smell like rotten eggs. My biggest uncertainty is long term. We are still on year one, which we opted for a rent to own set up. At the end of the year, we can either pay the difference and own them or continue renting indefinitely and if something goes wrong it gets replaced. With the rent option they do the yearly service/filters vs. owning I would have to pay yearly maintenance (I can do it myself I'm sure, so just cost of filters) and then in theory they have a lifespan and would have to get replaced at some point. Anyone have experience with water softeners and the like as far as reliability and reaching weeks of life? Everything seems to crap out much faster now, so I'm sort of leaning towards renting just for the whole, not having to think about it factor.
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Nov 6, 2023 19:43
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Edit: Wrong thread, ugh
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Nov 6, 2023 22:38
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Deviant posted:aren't a lot of those dealer water filters pyramid schemes? After we moved in I got some very official looking blue postcard about a water filtration thing. I'm usually pretty good at sniffing out bullshit but it was good enough I called the number on the postcard. Edit: water filtration that uses activated charcoal is (should be) super cheap. How brita charges so much for what's $100 a ton at industrial scale is a small miracle. Reverse osmosis is medium expensive tho. If you live in a swamp infested with PFAS like north Carolina it's worth it though Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 22:47
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Don't rent appliances, it is almost always an extraordinarily bad deal. Just set an automatic transfer to your savings for $15/wk or so to cover annual maintenance plus sock some away for eventual replacement.
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Nov 6, 2023 23:58
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drhankmccoyphd posted:This is going back 2-3 years but my wife read something about the local water utility upping their tolerances for plastics in the water and she decided to get a filtration system. Can't find anything in my email. The only thing I did find is an email from the dealer saying they would schedule a free water test. I'll try to dig up the actual findings but I'm not hopeful. The manual for that suggests you can bypass it pretty easily (put the valves into "bypass" mode). After that, you can pretty much forget about it from a plumbing POV. From a wife acceptance factor POV, you're probably going to want to replace it with something. I always recommend these guys. We've bought 3 systems from them (for 3 different houses), and everything's been great. It's all off the shelf parts, so you can go with a different vendor for filters if you want. Do not go with whole house RO. You'll waste tons of water. Undersink RO is pretty much the gold standard and will remove everything from your water (including PFAS). These are fairly easy to install if you've touched plumbing before. Do you really need your shitter water to be filtered? This is the comedy replacement product. It's only the cost of 1 yr of maintenance of your thing! devicenull fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 02:47
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