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skipdogg posted:I don’t know about the rest, but I personally really dislike Nest thermostats. I much prefer EcoBees.  Meanwhile, I take a sledgehammer to any device in my condo that makes a beep I don't recognize.  I'm pretty sure I have the last dumbphone and dumb-TV in the bay area.Unrelated to the sledgehammer (I swear): I've discovered how much I hate kitchen appliance built-ins now that I'm trying to extract the microwave from all the cabinets built around it. The turntable is dying and making atrocious sounds whenever I turn it on, and now I have to get a replacement microwave that fits into a particular set of dimensions. *grumbles*
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Mar 25, 2021 03:33
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Motronic posted:Yeah, that kind of thing makes sense to me. Not hue bulbs in all the cans in a room. I know exactly one person who used the Hue bulbs as general things. He threw tons of (pre-pandemic) parties and would sync the lights to the music. It was irritating as gently caress and I'm kind of glad the pandemic stopped it.
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Mar 25, 2021 22:01
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I wonder how much of the demand for Hue lights is from new owners who are fed up with years of living in apartments that had zero lights of any sort outside of the kitchen and overcompensate. Having actual lights and light switches was one of the most amazing parts of buying a condo to me, TBH. I finally had overhead lighting and was moving up in the world!
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Mar 25, 2021 23:31
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I'm going to cover my house in those overpriced hexagonal LED panels they sell to gamers.
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Mar 26, 2021 20:48
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Can anyone refer me to a good resource for learning about speaker installations, etc, for surround sound stuff? My living room came pre-wired for 7:1 with a wall panel to the ceiling speaker panels, but I don't know anything beyond "rectangular ceiling ports with the wire connections in them" and want to learn more to eventually install stuff.
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Mar 26, 2021 22:14
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quote:Dropped toilet onto of wax seal (easier to put the seal on the toilet and guide it onto the bolts IMO) For anyone else who ever does this: follow the parenthetical. Save yourself a lot of heartache and leaky seals, because it's loving hard to get that thing down without damaging the wax. You have to lower the thing basically straight down into place on it, and toilets aren't all that light. Been there, done that to every toilet in a 4BA before. Not fun. That or have two other people - one to help you lower it, and the other to lie on the ground and help eyeball you into place. If you're doing it alone, definitely fit the seal first.
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Mar 27, 2021 02:43
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devicenull posted:Why does this thread always turn to talking about toilets? Is toilet replacement peak homeownership? We're all massive fat-rear end goons who break toilets with our rock-hard cheetoshits or something? (I have no idea.)
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Mar 27, 2021 02:52
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Motronic posted:Even better plan..... This is life-changing.
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Mar 27, 2021 03:17
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skipdogg posted:Builder grade toilets are terrible. I’m seriously considering replacing all my toilets (vortens) and my house is not even 3 years old. Somehow my kids manage to clog the drat things constantly. Which brings us to the thread's second favorite topic: Which bidet model are you going to get? 
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Mar 27, 2021 08:11
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Motronic posted:No, it's one of those actually illegal things that can get the job stopped, the contractor and homeowner fined. This. Sure, there are things that shouldn't require a permit (or require only the most basic of reviews, maybe), like how my town requires a building permit for hanging even a temporary banner or painting the exterior of your building, but for every vaguely pointless thing like that (where I assume one fucker ruined it for everyone) you have an unpermitted garage addition get turned into an unpermitted bedroom which then isn't up to electrical code and then kills your kid in a fire. Minus the fire part, that's basically only part of what was wrong with this property, as an example: https://www.zillow.com/homes/1044-Montgomery-Ave-San-Bruno,-CA,-94066_rb/15488977_zpid/ Most of the pictures are gone now that it sold (for OVER LIST), but the garage door is an external decoration only now, because that garage is an un-permitted third bedroom with un-permitted electrical and plumbing work. The driveway remodel was done without permits as well, and the back yard is ENORMOUS for this area. Why is it so enormous? Well, because there was a 1,200 sqft extension on the back of it which was... you guessed it... un-permitted. The city made the previous owner tear it down, so he turned it into a yard and put in a gazebo and an above-ground pool, plus a dog run and what appeared to be chicken coops. It was also next to an auto-body shop, right on the edge of a residential/commercial zoning divide. It listed for $799K and went for $850K in spite of all of that.
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Mar 29, 2021 22:28
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A quick shout-out to the wonderful man at Home Depot who tried to tell me that sacrificial anodes in hot water heaters are irreplaceable and I need an entire new unit. (They didn't sell any; I'm going to have to find somewhere else to get one.)
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Apr 3, 2021 18:05
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ntan1 posted:Of course, the reason FPE panels and breakers were recalled and a danger is that their breakers failed to trip. How is it that everyone knows these things turned houses into death traps, they were recalled and replaced free-of-charge (IIRC?), no insurer will touch a place that has one, and yet it still feels like 75% of old houses on the market have FPE panels anyway? Did nobody bother getting rid of the loving things?
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Apr 7, 2021 21:45
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Blindeye posted:Welp, the refrigerator broke. Probably a compressor failure. Oh well, it's not like I needed 1300 more dollars in my life. As a bay area resident, thank loving god it's not 8%. Is this your first year in the place, by any chance? I've noticed that most of my buddies who bought ended up with astronomical first-year maintenance costs once you added up all the things they wanted to change + all the things the previous owners hid / EOWL'd on them.
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Apr 15, 2021 18:24
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On the topic of DIY home improvements/repairs, I've found it way the gently caress harder to get anything done now that I have a toddler around the place. Need to rip up the carpet to see what's going on with the weird floor spot? Not unless I can get it done during a single nap time, because it's right in the main area of the living room. Drilling holes? Only while she's awake and mom's around to keep an eye on her. Painting? Sure, but leave the paint unattended for even half a second and... So on, so forth. I might as well just put a wet floor sign over that spongy floor section and leave it until she goes to college.
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May 4, 2021 02:03
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"Good news, you can refinance to 2.875% with no points! Just the basic origination fee plus third party fees!" "What's the origination fee?" "Oh, we can talk about that later when--" "What's the origination fee?" "$6790." *hangs up*
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May 7, 2021 03:02
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Residency Evil posted:Nice edit, but that’s encouraging. Where (roughly) in western Kansas? I used to live in the southwestern empty part. Clark County. quote:Just shelled out $3,700 for a closet door. Is it made of solid gold? I'm still poking around at refinancing and the origination fees are constantly hilarious to me. "NO POINTS!" seems to just mean "...but we'll charge you just as much for something else and call it an origination fee" from everyone I've talked to so far. Probably just going to stick with my 3.5% at this rate. 2.875% isn't worth >$7K in non-point closing costs for a condo.
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May 7, 2021 17:32
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Residency Evil posted:Probably somewhere in the southern suburbs, between the zoo and Cherry Hills Village or so? I guess that's what I get for not being specific on "roughly." Enjoy the flat and brown, and definitely enjoy I-70. It's been a long time, but I wonder if there is still the old billboard that reads "McDonalds, 100 miles ahead." I think that was put up just to break people's spirits.
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May 7, 2021 17:40
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tater_salad posted:I dunno what beforetimes you're discussing, maybe 3 years ago I haven't paid under 5 for a stud in a long rear end time *flexes* Neither has your mother. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 11, 2021 21:56
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Anonymous Zebra posted:Where are you guys even finding Bosch 800's? I keep trying to find one to buy and they are out of stock everywhere. I just looked it up on HomeDepot and it's in stock out here, but it's loving $2899. Jesus christ.  They list a $1500 rebate on it to bring it down to $1399, but gently caress.
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May 22, 2021 09:24
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Priority check: My (tank) water heater is 11 years old, and the previous owners never once flushed it or changed the anode. The anode is firmly rusted into place so I can't even get it out. When I flushed it on move-in, I had plenty of brown sediment for 2-3 flushes. I've had to flush it again once in the last year when more brown water came back. I called a plumber about the rusted-in anode, and his response was that sure, he could try to get it out but odds are the tank is on its last legs already. It'd cost "around $250" to get the rusted anode removed. (Bay area pricing, seems high to me but everything is high here.) I'm thinking that instead of wasting $250 on a tank that is probably already near death, just trash the thing and replace with a tankless that I take proper care of in the first place. What are your thoughts, thread?
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May 23, 2021 19:12
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Oh right, I keep forgetting I live in the bay area in the middle of a pandemic. Two quotes so far for a 50gal hot water tank + labor + CA earthquake stuff: $3200, $3700.  If it didn't involve risk of killing my daughter and/or voiding my homeowners' insurance requirement that gas-related items be professionally installed, I'd actually try to do this myself at that price.
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May 25, 2021 18:15
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$3528 later, I have hot water again.
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May 26, 2021 23:36
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Zarin posted:Makes you wonder if you should have considered the DIY option of an empty steel 55 gallon drum and some firewood, eh? I washed my hair last night with water from an electric kettle. Give me my loving hot water heater.
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May 26, 2021 23:58
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Magicaljesus posted:Out of curiosity, how much did the CA-specific add-ons contribute? That seems beyond excessive for anything less than a 50gal that also serves you premium espresso in the morning. Anti-tipping shouldn't be more than a few securely fastened straps tethered to something solid. If the home collapses from the earthquake, who cares about the water heater? 1 - 50 gal tank + power blower because of the condo's venting design. Probably California pricing involved here, given the cheapest 50gal I could find with power blower was like $1700. 2 - Replacing the gas piping because it wasn't sized to code. 3 - Replacing the rusted inlet pipe for the cold water and the rusted outlet pipe. Previous owners were some awful fucks. 4 - Putting in the leak-tray and drain for it, since it was currently leaking right into the garage 5 - Fixing the fume vent pipe, where we discovered that the power-blower was venting everything right into the ceiling without it actually connecting to the vent pipe. 6 - Replacing the not-to-code earthquake straps. 7 - 5 hours of labor at definitely California pricing 8 - +$250 permit fee No quotes from anywhere came in under $3200, so there's definitely some California going on somewhere there..
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May 27, 2021 04:07
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Pain of Mind posted:Also in the bay area, but we had a 50 gal tank (no power blower) installed 4-5 years ago and it was like $600. We did not have nearly as many bullet points though. I am assuming all of those things substantially added to the price? The base unit itself + powerblower was $1800, and that seemed comparable to online prices I saw for the same unit, so I'm guessing 4-5 yrs ago is a different era of pricing in general. But yeah, the other stuff added on $1500 plus $250 more for permits.
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May 27, 2021 18:42
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Pain of Mind posted:I guess I underestimated how much the cost of some things could change over what feels like a relatively short period of time. I have lived in my current house for over 7 years yet mentally it feels equal in length to the various apartments we lived in for 1-2 years. "How can that thing be old, we just bought it when we moved in here". Yeah, some of this poo poo got super pricey out of nowhere.  And also, one of my favorite price-tags ever from a different seller: 
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May 28, 2021 00:01
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I went to change out some dead/dying lightbulbs in my bathroom and discovered that they are GX24Q-3 sockets. For reference: I can get those bulbs (and thankfully the previous owners left behind a large stash of them too), but I'm curious why these fuckers even exist. What's the point of this type of connector, when other CFLs with standard bases already exist? Why even install this type of socket? Edit: It's just in the bathroom, too. The rest of the house is standard bulbs.
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May 29, 2021 19:45
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Qwijib0 posted:The ballast is in the fixture not the bulb, those predate miniaturization of electronic ballasts that can go in the base of a screw in, and the fixtures themselves were likely an energy efficiency requirement since bathroom lights are the most likely to be left on Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks. If my stash gets used up before I move out, I may bite the bullet and replace the sockets. For now, though, I have 10 of the bulbs in a box in the closet.
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May 29, 2021 20:41
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Any idea what kind of contractor I should call to replace a rotting section of subfloor beneath a carpet when I need it done quickly and correctly, while I keep a toddler out of the construction zone? 
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May 30, 2021 05:54
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Motronic posted:I mean....they do. Metal roofs are a thing. I lived in Panama for about two years and we had a metal roof. During the rainy season, you just couldn't talk to anyone inside until the downpour stopped because it was impossibly loud.
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Jun 6, 2021 22:27
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Maggie Fletcher posted:Material shortages strike again...the reclaimed wood table I ordered off Etsy in March is now coming mid-July (maybe) instead of now. Sigh. How does a reclaimed wood table have a material shortage? 
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Jun 10, 2021 20:02
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PageMaster posted:Is there a trade/crafts name for grouting? What would I search by ('lixensed xxx')?  Please god let it be a licensed groot.
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Jun 21, 2021 01:51
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Location is NYC and I’m not familiar with code here, I’ll have to see if I can find out. Just a quick warning, since local code and zoning varies so much from place to place: My grandparents lived out in Queens, and when they had an inspector come in to check out electrical work in their kitchen, the guy observed that they technically had part of the house built out into a semi-separate unit. They had done it because their daughter and her kids lived at home - it was a multi-generational household, so they put in a few extras so she could have some privacy and semblance of independent life. Regardless of who lived there, this was technically illegal because the area wasn't zoned for multi-family housing. SFH only, and multi-generationals had to have no separate facilities. One kitchen only, one dining room, no duplicated utilities, etc. What started as "fix the kitchen wiring" turned into "remodel everything to remove all separations in the house and rip out the appliances in the half-kitchen too." Just wanted to give fair warning if you have stuff get inspected. I don't know how your town works, but keep that in mind as a potential risk.
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Jun 21, 2021 22:57
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vs Dinosaurs posted:Insulating and weatherproofing a 800 sq ft attic is absolutely something I should do myself and not pay a couple grand for someone else to do, right? The current insulation is shallow, loosely scattered, and old. How old?
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Jun 24, 2021 22:06
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Original theory: The home inspector on my condo purchase was either blind, stupid, or paid off by the seller's agent. New theory: The home inspector on my condo purchase was blind, stupid, and paid off by the seller's agent. The poo poo he marked all ended up being quick and in some cases $0.00 repairs, while he 'missed' a problem with the stairs, a soft spot in the floor, cracks in the bathroom ceiling from incorrect type of paint in a humid environment, the water heater being rusted out and trashworthy, and that the pressurization of the entire unit is off so that opening a door anywhere in the entire place rattles all the other doors. Definitely gonna keep this guy on speed-dial for when it's my time to sell.
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Jul 13, 2021 16:32
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I install one giant circular blade and let it slice salami for me too.
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Jul 15, 2021 18:31
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quote:Soooo, electrical tape on my nuts or no? Need answers quickly. Just don't twist them first. Testicular torsion is a bitch.
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Jul 19, 2021 01:31
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Yeah, this was fun to laugh at, but it's like 3 pages long now. Let's knock it off and all go drink beer / electrocute ourselves as we each feel appropriate.
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Jul 19, 2021 04:15
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I'm looking again at refinancing since my 3.5% is so hilariously high right now compared to current rates. Better has a 2.875% that costs me $358 in points (lol) plus the standard closing costs. However, there is one spot I have some concern: In their loan disclosure, they state that they absolutely will sell off the loan, and that they absolutely will not service the loan afterward. I'm currently with Rocket Mortgage, whose online loan service panel is actually pretty danged good and convenient to work with. Even though they sold the loan off pronto, they kept all the servicing in one spot and have been easy to work with about that. Do I assume there's no real way for me to figure out who Better is going to sell my loan to, and therefore no way to tell whether I'm going to get some fucker who makes it as hard as possible to work with them? $200 per month cost reduction probably isn't worth the potential headaches of a bullshit servicer, especially when it's unlikely I'll live here in ten years.
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Jul 20, 2021 01:35
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Yeah, I expect that someone will take it and it'll be a web portal. I'm just skittish because I've had a very very bad student loan servicer in the past before I paid everything off, and they made it as hard as they possibly could to actually make a payment. It's one thing to deal with Citibank on a $2K student loan, it's another thing to deal with that on a $650K mortgage where my house can actually be repossessed. (For perspective's sake, it was 2003 and they required payment in person by check at a branch; I couldn't even mail the loving thing to them. I borrowed money from my family to pay it off in one lump just so I could stop dealing with that.)
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Jul 20, 2021 02:40
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