Home Buyin/Maintenance Thread - Where most of us are 30ish but act 47. Oh, and fuck home inspectors

Had a technical drawing class in high school and we spent time on handwriting. It's definitely an art form.

 

one of my EE professors had immaculate handwriting even when writing on a chalkboard. annoying as fuck though because he would erase letters if they were just a bit off.

 

I also have that brand. 14 years old and it still works great

 

house i rent has this. been here a year and i've had no issues. only wish is that the house had a hot water recirculator.

 

I also need a circulator. Takes forever to get hot water in kitchen. Ours is installed on outer wall by our bathroom. My sink is on outer wall and it's instantly hot, my wife's on opposite side of bathroom and takes a while, and when I'm in shower hers seems to stay colder

Also my wife is psychopath that turns temp up to 135 sometimes and I will get in the shower and melt my skin off

 

we've had it set to 125 for the last year or so, ever since my kid set the hot water to max in the shower when my head was turned.

 

I'm shocked
I've never met an anal retentive engineer

 

he also gave us a guide at the start of the semester on how we were to turn in homework. Location and orientation of staple, what the name block should look like, how to format answers to each question including callouts for answer and intermediate work, etc. He didn't even grade the homework. I never followed that dumb guide.

He also got pissed at me that I didn't use his method for solving a certain type of equation. I had no idea wtf I was supposed to do so I learned a much simpler way on YouTube from a professor in India.

Very smart guy but just an absolute psycho.

 

Closed anyway.

 

Just opened a face time from the Mrs. to a swarm of termites on the back corner of the house. Damage to the exterior right where the house meets the deck. Woof.

 

I can’t handle that kind of humiliation, so no, I stand by my decision that I will not be a part of this letter writing malarkey.

 

Dammit

God speed

 

Even more humiliating to lose to a letter writer imo.

 

Had inspection this morning and no big issues. Feeling like this has been too easy a process and I'm running straight toward a blow up but hoping it's just a reward for being patient.

Been looking at comps in the Venice/MDR area and I'm the cheapest sale for SFH with 1750ft, garage, and 3 bedrooms since July 2019. Somehow that's giving me anxiety, ha

Fingers crossed the smooth sailing continues

 

Anyone used one of these guys for finding air leaks in ducts/windows/etc? I've always heard of flir cameras that are a few hundred bucks, but I was wondering if this would be enough to just point me in the direction of a leak.

 

Most likely no unless it’s really over the top bad

these aren’t very accurate- could always buy and return if it doesn’t work

 

That will work for you. Got one as an anniversary present for work and you’d have thought my house could contract Rona for about 6 months.

 

In my experience mine worked best in the summer and winter. Could easily pick up outside air.

 

Thanks fellas. It's ok if it isn't accurate... I'm just looking for something that will get me in the ballpark of a leak in an older house

 

We sold our old and closed on our new house ~3 weeks ago. Just got two separate checks for a total of 5k from the old mortgage for “payoff overages” and “escrow overages.”

No clue what these are for, but I’ll gladly cash them.

 

I feel like there has to be some sort of smart faucet that you just program in your preferred temperature scheme. Start at one temp, increase a bit, then cool down for final and rinse and wake up. I will buy this thing.

 

That seems extremely overly complicated tbh.

 

Turned our AC on for the first time this year. Furnace is leaking water from somewhere. Took the filter out of the bottom, and it’s wet in a corner of it.

Any suggestions on what to look for before we get a repair man out?

 

Could be your condensation drain line is clogged from the evaporator coils causing it to back up.

 

Yep
Start simple
Could be your drain line is clogged, could be your filters were dirty enough to slow the airflow down so much it increased condensation

Shop vac out the condensation drain lines and put in fresh filters and call me in the morning

 

I'd suggest you avoid buying something like it then. In the meantime I just forwarded the description to my architect and he says they've done something similar before. I'd guess it isn't terrible complicated as there are many systems that let you pick your water temperature digitally. Our car recognises who is getting in and adjusts the seat, tilt, mirror, climate control, and radio station. Combine the two and Booya. Smart shower.

 

My brother majored in construction science (red headed step child of the engineering degrees) and he still writes like that even in birthday cards and shit

 

There are absolutely digital water temp controllers for showers and I can see the practical use for it. For each faucet seems extreme.

 

I would only call it the step child cuz it’s in the college of engineering. Very practical and useful degree though.

 

He’s doing quite well for himself. Major prepared him well

 

First big step was the front room. Had to remove all the old popcorn ceiling, paint the whole room. Put down the flooring today. Baseboards back tomorrow. Still so much more to do but now feel more confident that I can do it.

How it started


How it's going

 

My buyers are bringing the same inspector used to buy the house to do the walkthrough for closing. Same guy who said the sprinklers were broken with a picture of them in the off position and who said our pool heater cover was inoperable because he didn't know how to remove the panel. Kill me now

 

ask if you can be there.

 

I plan to unless forbidden by my realtor and/or wife. I'd love to be able to tell them in person how I plan to spend their earnest money if they make any more demands

 

I pressure washed the deck and back side of the house. Picked up 6 bags of potting soil for the lasses of the house and bought a stihl battery operated whacker. Just mowed the lawn and polished off 4 cold ones. I think and nap is in order for this afternoon.

Whacker review incoming tomorrow. It’s hotter than fuck here and will be 70 tomorrow. Thanks.

 

A lot of yard work done today

before


After

 

Talk to me about dehumidifiers. House never gets below 55% during the summer, even at night. We set the AC to 78 during the day and 70 at night with the recirculating fan on 24/7. Humidity will be pushing 65-70% by the time the night temp setting kicks in on the AC.

Is my only real option to get a couple of those little ones and put 1 on each floor?

 

We have one and run it downstairs in one room. Helps significantly. In fact thanks for the reminder, only run it through the summer and it’s about that time.

 

So I just weed whacked for 30-45 minutes and I will say the stihl is impressive. Battery life is ten times better than my black and decker, although not talking bad about that, lasted me 7-8 years and I didn’t need the stihl. That said, thing is awesome. Will be purchasing the chain saw this summer.

Any pressure washer recs?

 

My 3hp Karcher burned in my shed fire last year. It was a great pressure washer. Best $350 spent at Costco.
Farmers insurance approved this one. $$$. My boys, 13 and 9, love it and I don’t need a weight belt to put it in the back of my truck.
Kranzle 98K1122TST 1400 PSI 2.0 GPM 110V 15A Electric Commercial Pressure Washer

 

I need to buy a new over the range microwave in the new place but won't move in for another week. I'm not sure if it's externally vented. Anyone know if recirculating venting is anywhere as close to effective? Wasn't sure if it was even waiting to check.

 

You're running your fan 24/7? One good way to drop humidity levels is to stop doing that.

 

Never knew that. Technically it's 24/7 while we're home. I don't run it while we're at work.

The HVAC guy recommended I do it to pull the cooler air from the basement and redistribute it throughout the whole house since my upstairs gets unbearably hot during the summer, while the basement always stays considerably cooler than the rest of the house

 

Wait to check. Recirc is pretty lousy. Imagine if your bath fan just stirred up the smells and pumped them back into the room......

 

I don't have a basement but in general if your compressor is not running and coil cold your going to be introducing some level of moisture with having the fan running. Without having a ton of information I would turn your fan to auto and buy a dedicated dehumidifier. I have an old leaky house here in North Carolina and in the summer my dehumidifier will pull like 6 gallons of water a day.

 

Is there an official kitchen appliance brand of TMB? We looked at kitchen-aid and they seemed nice and pretty budget friendly.

 

thread seemed to universally like Bosch best for dishwashers until a.tramp posted pics of his magic fisher paykel

 

Seems like that is going to be appliance-specific. The only thing I know of that is near universal is to stay the fuck away from Samsung

 

ALTHOUGH you could sign up for the consumer reports digital sub for $10, post everything for every appliance ITT, and we may debate the merits from there