Alright story time... Finished laying down 2.5 pallets of sod/grass yesterday. Horrible idea. Don’t ever do this. Landscaping lady on nextdoor was advertising 2 pallets of Bermuda Tif Tuf (supposed to be much more drought and shade tolerant than regular Bermuda) on nextdoor for $150/pallet. I saw her bump her post a week later so I knew she was desperate to get rid of it. I went to check out the grass yesterday and it was as predicted, yellow and brown after sitting for so long. I offered her $75 per pallet and I needed delivery to my house. She didn’t hesitate. She had two guys drop it off on the side walk in front of my house. Turns out it was 2.5 pallets total. Total weight per pallet was 3200 lbs, total weight of 8000 lbs or 4 tons. I’m not good at asking for help so I planned on doing this by myself but I knew I made a mistake when they said 4 tons. So I moved it to the backyard where it was going and then later I moved it to its final location in the back. I moved 4 tons of Earth twice. When the sod arrived I noticed something I missed earlier, it was not in squares but large rectangles, each weighing 60 lbs with an extra thick cut. At first I thought this would make it easier because less trips. WRONG asshole! Prepare for pain. I think I started aching after lifting the first two rectangles. Adding insult to injury they are building two new houses across the street from me and wouldn’t you know they were laying down sod yesterday as well. 4 guys, smaller squares, set up an assembly line, reminded me of the 7 dwarfs because they were whistling while they worked, genuinely seemed to be having a good time. Contrast that with me, by myself, dying. Clearly I should’ve offered them money to knock it out but I was so proud of my $150 for 2.5 pallets deal I didn’t want to add anything else to the cost. Fast forward a few hours and I notice the sun is starting to set at 5 pm. Worked most of the day and I was still only about 1/2 way done: It got dark fast over that. I had a tough time determining if I was putting the sod down with grass facing up because it was so paltry to begin with and of course because it was dark. Finally finished late into the night laying the sod but then I needed to water it. Unfortunately I laid the sod on the sprinklers. So I had to find them in the dark, mainly by listening and then tear holes into the sod. What a nightmare. So many bad decisions. My big fear is the grass doesn’t survive (it didn’t look too hot to begin) and I have to haul it back to the front again out to the trash. Not a square inch of my body that is not aching right now.
Sounds like you need to find your neighborhood Home Depot and drive around their parking lot for a couple minutes looking for help...
Not sure if there is a home Christmas decoration thread but this is our first year in our new house. I’d like to really step up our Christmas display each year to eventually be like the Griswolds. Any recommendations on where to start. Plus I like the techy programming stuff. Tell me what you got.
I just mentioned to my wife about going big. She wants to keep it classy. I don’t think we are thinking the same thing.
Speaking of, I hung up my xmas lights on the roof this past weekend (won't turn on til later), but was nice doing hanging them in 60 degree weather versus 30 degree weather.
Speaking of Christmas - has anyone used a service to decorate the outside? There is no chance I hang lights on our roof especially around the peaks, and honestly, I don't really want to buy new lights either - so was thinking about one of these places where you rent the lights, pay them, they set it up, then they come back and take it down?
As I said in the post there are a lot of things I should’ve done differently, #1 being hire the seven dwarfs across the street to do it for me.
This is a great topic. Anyone who doesn’t go all out Clark Griswold-style for Christmas can get fucked. First things first you need to show some fanciness with a smart control for your outdoor setup. Get you an outdoor smart outlet similar to: Have a big Clark Griswold moment on thanksgiving night where you simply say “Alexa turn on Christmas lights”. Border your roofline with lights. I prefer color bulbs and have these: They’re very bright and distinctive. Do NOT get that pos spotlight that shines xmas lights on your house. Vomit. Pickup a waving Santa: Looks great at night. A nice touch in the front yard for the driveway or especially a walkway to your front door are light up candy canes: Next is inflatable. I have a medium size snowman: I’m currently looking to add a helicopter santa: Good luck and post some pics!
Our last house had a huge cathedral ceiling and I would always jam a > 10-12ft tree in the door. We now have a smaller living room and the vaulted ceiling may be 12 ft but the angles on the sides will make it tricky for a huge tree. That’s why I’m excited to do more of the outside stuff at this house. We have the outdoor remotes for the inflatables already. Bought a pumpkin for Halloween. It was my daughters job everyday to turn on and off. She loved it. Thanks for the reply.
Lifx bulbs 40 bucks at best buy https://slickdeals.net/f/10753883-lifx-a19-led-light-bulb-multicolor-best-buy-40
we're about to buy a house in a completely different market. it's kinda nerve wracking dealing with a totally different set of rules that what you know in the home buying process.
Yeah, right now I use a couple wemo switches for a few lamps - would be nice to upgrade them all to LIFX bulbs
The LIFX seem to have mixed reviews online. They're the TMB consensus pick for smart bulbs? In the market and going to grab a couple to try out.
according to amazon i believe i just bought the last one at this price. hopefully with this one bulb i'm able to sell my wife on the benefits of smart lighting
they're the official light bulb of the lechnerd household, and I don't think any other poster's household has an official light bulb so our consensus is purely aggie-based for what that's worth you can have them flash blue when your domino's pizza arrives, so that's something. No word on papa john's yet
There are really only two ways to go about smart bulbs, Phillips Hue and Lifx. Phillips Hue don’t have nearly the range of colors nor the intensity (there are numerous YouTube videos documenting the difference and showing the two bulbs side by side, Lifx is markedly better). Additionally the Hue requires a hub. I hate hubs. They’re the new wires. Lifx is clean, it’s just the bulb. Lifx’s biggest problem is reliability of WiFi signal. Look at the negative reviews on Amazon and nearly all of them are in relation to the bulbs losing connectivity. Problem is most of these people are still using the router from their cable company which was not designed to handle more than a handful of WiFi devices in the house. Upgrade your router to a netgear beast and this is simply not a problem: Here are some more in depth posts I’ve made in the past:
My brother-in-law and all the guys on his street rent a cherry picker every year and spend a Saturday drinking and hanging up xmas lights on all their houses. A+ adulting imo.
Appraisal came in under my sale price Inspection turned up a lot of issues, which I anticipated Buyer agreed to take home as is but reduced price down to the appraisal. I just accepted. Still should clear about $75k, cap gains free
This one seems to have good reviews: My outdoor outlets are in rain protected areas with waterproof boxes buried in the walls or the outlets are nestled under soffits so I use a combination of a regular smart plug and in the case of the front yard I connect that to a power strip with timer for all the yard decorations that is suitable for outdoors: Be careful if you are using a smart plug connecting to a power strip and then to all your decorations. Not all work well with that relay setup. I’ve gone through a couple and had best experience with with TP-Link mini:
Really love that kitchen. I’m gonna remodel mine down the road here and I’d like to do something similar. Layout is nice. You can tell somebody spent money knocking down walls in that baby. Love a good ranch style home.