The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[JF_Gophers]

INteresting. We're not a google house since we've standardized on iPhones. But something to consider in the future perhaps.

Do you have a lot of IoT?

Just a few. Smart TVs, Bose SoundTouch, Ecobee, and security stuff. I won't let things like appliances connect.

Everything else is Phones, PCs or Games.

 

[Swansong]

I thought of running cat6 wire throughout my house, but instead I went with an Asus Wifi mesh system and have had no problems. It was pretty expensive, but regularly we're running 2 video conference calls simultaneously without issue, and that's most of our heavy traffic.

 

[JF_Gophers]

I thought of running cat6 wire throughout my house, but instead I went with an Asus Wifi mesh system and have had no problems. It was pretty expensive, but regularly we're running 2 video conference calls simultaneously without issue, and that's most of our heavy traffic.

I think our cat6 wiring was about $135 each. Plus had to pay for other hardware, like the wall box and switch. So not too bad. We only did 5 lines this time.

I'd recommend that you run 2 lines to the room/plate you use most. If anyone ever decides to do it. That way you can dedicate 1 to your TV, and have 1 for anything else you need to connect there.

 

[Swansong]

I think our cat6 wiring was about $135 each. Plus had to pay for other hardware, like the wall box and switch. So not too bad. We only did 5 lines this time.

I'd recommend that you run 2 lines to the room/plate you use most. If anyone ever decides to do it. That way you can dedicate 1 to your TV, and have 1 for anything else you need to connect there.

Yeah, what I need to do is get a small switch for the main hub, which is in my living room. The mesh hub only has one hardwire output, which I plugged my TV into, but I'd like to hard wire my XBox as well.

Not a big deal as I don't really play many games that require a faster connection. I'm mainly impressed that I have excellent wifi all over my nearly-100 year old house that's mainly plaster walls/slats (and thus, effectively a faraday cage).

 

[dxmnkd316]

I think our cat6 wiring was about $135 each. Plus had to pay for other hardware, like the wall box and switch. So not too bad. We only did 5 lines this time.

I'd recommend that you run 2 lines to the room/plate you use most. If anyone ever decides to do it. That way you can dedicate 1 to your TV, and have 1 for anything else you need to connect there.

This is probably the right choice.

I've always said our forever home is going to have overside conduit runs to every room so if we ever need to pull wires in the future it's easier. I know that's a borderline insane expense, but if we ever want to add, it will pay itself back 10-fold.

The way we did it in our current house is just to run paintable flat conduit tucked up along the wall-ceiling intersection. Monoprice used to sell it but quit years ago. ANyways, ran a single wire to my office direct from the modem. Since almost all of the office equipment is in my office I just have an 8-port unmanaged switch which will eventually handle nearly all of the wires. Hue, security, printer, raspberry pi HASS, my computer, etc. We ran a single line through that conduit then out to the living room since there's a beam that runs the entire lenght of the house and nicely hides it. We just have an old router acting as a switch in the entertainment center. Wired up the appleTV, receiver, TV, Playstation, raspberry pi gaming console, etc. But I think I might swap out that router for an 8-port switch.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Neighbors went and had the landscaper move the end of their swale to the street instead of my driveway. We hadn’t talked about this

 

[JF_Gophers]

Neighbors went and had the landscaper move the end of their swale to the street instead of my driveway. We hadn’t talked about this

Is it like most landscaping where the HOA doesn't intervene even if they do something that crosses property without asking? Or because it's a swale it's different.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Is it like most landscaping where the HOA doesn't intervene even if they do something that crosses property without asking? Or because it's a swale it's different.

The city had allowed it as they deemed my property to be less harmed overall with the seals so they said they had no obligation to force “improvement”

perhaps they realized If I slip and fall in the spring that my health insurance would have sued their homeowners

 

[walrus]

The city had allowed it as they deemed my property to be less harmed overall with the seals so they said they had no obligation to force “improvement”

perhaps they realized If I slip and fall in the spring that my health insurance would have sued their homeowners

I'd guess they knew if push comes to shove they can't change the flow of water onto your property

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

This was posted in Australia subreddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

[dxmnkd316]

That should immediately burst into flames

 

[RaceBoarder]

Im about to head into Winter #2 in my current apartment. This was the first place I've lived at with baseboard heating.

Things I learned last year in this area:

- The insulation in my exterior walls is kind of spotty. Like it's good for 90% of the wall and then there will be a small 18" section where it's like nothing in there.
- With the baseboard heaters I have the ability to have one room be a foundry while the one next to it feels like a meat locker.
- The switches/controls are somewhat inconsistent. Like I will have the same setting and I will have random days where it seems to have gone up and/or down a notch or two. But then it will just go back to what was "normal".
- This is a money pit as far as my electric bill goes. I pay 3-4x for heat compared to what I pay for running the A/C full time June-Aug. It's 5-6x compared to May/September when I run nothing.

Overall I'm thinking that running my fan(s) over the winter will help a ton in evening all this variance out. It's not that it's cold enough to cause concern, but it is noticeable in the AM when you just roll out of bed or in the evening when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.

 

[burd]

Im about to head into Winter #2 in my current apartment. This was the first place I've lived at with baseboard heating.

Things I learned last year in this area:

- The insulation in my exterior walls is kind of spotty. Like it's good for 90% of the wall and then there will be a small 18" section where it's like nothing in there.
- With the baseboard heaters I have the ability to have one room be a foundry while the one next to it feels like a meat locker.
- The switches/controls are somewhat inconsistent. Like I will have the same setting and I will have random days where it seems to have gone up and/or down a notch or two. But then it will just go back to what was "normal".
- This is a money pit as far as my electric bill goes. I pay 3-4x for heat compared to what I pay for running the A/C full time June-Aug. It's 5-6x compared to May/September when I run nothing.

Overall I'm thinking that running my fan(s) over the winter will help a ton in evening all this variance out. It's not that it's cold enough to cause concern, but it is noticeable in the AM when you just roll out of bed or in the evening when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.

You're Chi, right, Race?

 

[RaceBoarder]

You're Chi, right, Race?

Southwest Suburbs (Joliet area). Basically on the border between farmland and continuous urban suburbs.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Im about to head into Winter #2 in my current apartment. This was the first place I've lived at with baseboard heating.

Things I learned last year in this area:

- The insulation in my exterior walls is kind of spotty. Like it's good for 90% of the wall and then there will be a small 18" section where it's like nothing in there.
- With the baseboard heaters I have the ability to have one room be a foundry while the one next to it feels like a meat locker.
- The switches/controls are somewhat inconsistent. Like I will have the same setting and I will have random days where it seems to have gone up and/or down a notch or two. But then it will just go back to what was "normal".
- This is a money pit as far as my electric bill goes. I pay 3-4x for heat compared to what I pay for running the A/C full time June-Aug. It's 5-6x compared to May/September when I run nothing.

Overall I'm thinking that running my fan(s) over the winter will help a ton in evening all this variance out. It's not that it's cold enough to cause concern, but it is noticeable in the AM when you just roll out of bed or in the evening when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.

Piggybacking this, I bought an extra set of Ecobee sensors earlier this week since they were on sale. This will basically mean I have sensors in every room. I've been learning a LOT about our house and how to save cash. Our cooling bills this summer only went up about $5-$8/month (5%) because we were using the A/C so much less.

We're able to target temps by room instead of just in the hallway. Ran a box fan in the basement pointed up the stairs most of the summer to push colder air upstairs more efficiently. You can actually see the response of the house by the minute doing that. Fans are incredible for getting colder (free!) air circulated better.

Looking at the #s, the cooling degree days went up by 4.0%, our electrical usage dropped by 7.6% (even though we had two people working from home now as opposed to last year it was just me). That must have saved us an asston in the end. The ecobee (mostly the data) paid for itself within a single summer. Probably could have done this cheaper using a Home Assistant RPi and some cheapo temperature sensors. But whatever.

Will be interesting to see how this behaves for the winter. Won't be able to use the fans, but I'm thinking just closing the doors to our offices and using small space heaters instead of heating up the entire house will be the way to go.

 

[St. Clown]

My wife just showed me three candle wicks, but no wax. She then says to me, “I might’ve done a bad thing.” I asked for elaboration, and she tells me that the wicks just came from the dishwasher.

Why? What? Just…why? We’ve had the thing maybe 3 weeks at this point, bought a decent Bosch. And now she’s trying to kill it. She’s an appliance huntress. That’s what she is. She’s out to kill them all.

 

[walrus]

My wife just showed me three candle wicks, but no wax. She then says to me, “I might’ve done a bad thing.” I asked for elaboration, and she tells me that the wicks just came from the dishwasher.

Why? What? Just…why? We’ve had the thing maybe 3 weeks at this point, bought a decent Bosch. And now she’s trying to kill it. She’s an appliance huntress. That’s what she is. She’s out to kill them all.

I think Roto Rooter is in your future also

 

[unofan]

My wife just showed me three candle wicks, but no wax. She then says to me, “I might’ve done a bad thing.” I asked for elaboration, and she tells me that the wicks just came from the dishwasher.

Why? What? Just…why? We’ve had the thing maybe 3 weeks at this point, bought a decent Bosch. And now she’s trying to kill it. She’s an appliance huntress. That’s what she is. She’s out to kill them all.

So there are many questions, but first and foremost, why were candles in the dishwasher in the first place?

 

[St. Clown]

So there are many questions, but first and foremost, why were candles in the dishwasher in the first place?

I asked that same question. It took a long time to get to that answer.

“They were dirty. When I was a kid, Mom would wash the birthday candles by soaking them in warm water. So I thought the dishwasher would be warm water during its run. I didn’t think that through.”

Clearly.

 

[JF_Gophers]

These are the stories couples tell for years to come. Congrats on getting one of your first generational stories.