Home Improvement

maple_shaft

11:56

Like I said - the main stack is fine. It's just the flange that needs replacing. The really poor decision here was what they did to the structure in installing that toilet. I mean - look at that joist! They cut 6" off of it making it a 2x4. Could you imagine that giving way while you're sitting on the john??? — The Evil Greebo 7 mins ago

@TheEvilGreebo I lol'ed

Tester101

12:36

0

Q: How can I ask for a "revote" on an answer?

I found an old question and felt none of the answers hit a particular point of view. The exact details don't matter much *. But like most old questions, this one gets few views, and my (perhaps) "better" answer won't get much activity or upvotes. Is there an accepted way to ask the community t...

discussion

My opinion is the right one, give me teh repz!

BMitch

woah, I completely missed that he was one of the answers there, there should be a badge for inappropriate rep whoring.

lsiunsuex

13:00

complete remodeling fail this weekend :(

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex :(

lsiunsuex

went to go wire the lights in the spare bedroom - killed the breaker, put the light switches in first - unpacked the pot lights, put them into the ceiling; went into the attic to wire them up - no wire. couldn't find it in the basement and the weather was so shitty out i didnt feel like venturing out to the garage to find it

so i guess atleast i got the switches in and the holes drilled to run the wire - but couldnt find the wire haha

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex lol

I only managed to deal with a minor plumbing emergency this weekend....

lsiunsuex

what happened

wax eagle

went to see how far my hose would stretch into the yard to find a suitable location for a bonfire...starting pulling the hose, and as soon as it was taught it sheared the hose bib right off the pipe....

thankfully I'm very familiar with where the main water shutoff for the house was, and I already has a 3/4" cpvc ball valve on hand so we only were out of water for ~1 hr...

lsiunsuex

13:07

shitty

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex yep, and naturally it's on a day where we're having people over in a few hours and with a sink full of dirty dishes and dinner not started :(

but everything turned out ok.

maple_shaft

@lsiunsuex It is okay to call an electrician when you have no clue whats happening...

:)

I just did recently

wax eagle

y'all all braced up for the apocalypse?

maple_shaft

He got zapped good because the previous owner of the home instead of wiring a three way switch, used a two way and wired the traveler to the ground

lsiunsuex

that was apart of my fail this weekend - if the wife says she wants to go out for halloween, don't try to talk her out of it. talked her out of it, told some people lets have a pizza party - got to the super market to buy stuff - she starts crying - call everyone back and say we're going out - no pizza party - by that time it was 3 pm and i had to get some sleep if i was gonna be out all night

Tester101

13:11

@waxeagle This is why you always install a shutoff in the house, for hose bibs. If something happens, you don't have to shut off the whole house.

Actually, a shutoff for each fixture is a good idea.

maple_shaft

@waxeagle I fully intend to not get home at all tonight

wax eagle

@Tester101 yeah, I was going to install one earlier in the year for the bib (it's been on my list since we moved in). There's one there now :).

maple_shaft

stuck in traffic

wax eagle

@maple_shaft ick.

lsiunsuex

@maple_shaft must have missed type - i couldn't find my spool of new electrical wire to wire the new lights - not an existing line to tap into

BMitch

13:12

spam?

0

A: How to smooth out carpet underneath my furniture?

You really have to move the furniture on that area where the carpet is swelling. Then smooth the carpet around. Before placing your furniture, just put some paper under each leg of a chair, for example, and on every corner of your furniture so the carpet won't swell again. That's why it's importa...

wax eagle

@BMitch I'm not 100 sure, but it looks like it

Tester101

@waxeagle Isn't it nice when the house chooses which list item to do next.

wax eagle

it's pretty coherent for spam

lsiunsuex

@BMitch yeah, sounds like marketing

BMitch

the link doesn't make much sense

wax eagle

13:13

@Tester101 definitely :(

@BMitch yeah no,

BMitch

I'll be a nice mod and just edit that out

Tester101

@BMitch If you buy high quality furniture, your carpet will last forever. Everybody knows that.

wax eagle

@Tester101 yeah, because if you bought high quality furniture you don't have kids

lsiunsuex

cover everything in plastic!

speaking of, had a bit to much red wine friday night and spilled almost half a glass on the couch - almost had a heart attack - whatever protectant came on our furniture worked awesome.

BMitch

I think this is why parents move after the kids leave home. It's not downsizing, the first house was just a disposable child raising facility.

3

lsiunsuex

13:20

@BMitch now that my uncles kids are older (13 and 11) he just had a carpenter go through the house and redo all the wood trim, new countertops, paint, carpets, etc... now that the kids are older and not destroying stuff - cheaper than moving haha

BMitch

@lsiunsuex I recall being relatively destructive when I was a teenager

wax eagle

@BMitch I was thinking the same thing. teens aren't any less destructive than toddlers/younger school aged kids. It's just that the are more likely to put a bat (or other sports equipment) through the wall than gnaw on the trim

lsiunsuex

i think thats why he did it - their pretty well behaved - just the years of playing with toy cars and stuff on the floors took their toll on the trim and carpets. as teens, yeah, wall damage can still happen but not as often

or he just wanted to do it cause it looked like shit... he apparently also dropped $1400 on 2 hand blown italian glass LED pendants to go over his kitchen island so...

lsiunsuex

13:52

thenextweb.com/gadgets/2012/10/29/… $60 / light bulb is a bit extreme no ?

i understand life time of the light bulb and energy savings need to be accounted for, but wtf.

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex I think $8 is a lot for 3 bulbs...

lsiunsuex

15:41

so, i think i wanna frame a wall in on either side of the oven

obviously on the outside i can do vinyl siding and build it like a real exterior wall

what would you do on the inside of the wall?

(for privacy and block some wind from the winter so i can use the oven year round)

the space is open on 2 sides, the other side being where i'm taking the photo from

wax eagle

how hot does the outer layer of bricks get?

lsiunsuex

i suppose i could use concrete board on the inside, tile it and build a countertop as a prep area

not hot at all - i insulted the top of the oven well and in the dead of summer when i took a measurement with my infrared thermo gun, the brick was only a few degrees warmer

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex nice

lsiunsuex

really quite happy with it :) in recent times, i've been building a fire really hot - my gun only goes up to 600 degrees and recent measurements were over 600 at the front of the oven, which tells me the back is upwards of 800-900 (past fires showed the front around 300 degrees and the back over 600)

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex I have a feeling that if I showed this to my wife she would demand I build one. I would not have a problem with this demand (other than lack of knowhow)

I'd have to find a good wood source though

lsiunsuex

15:52

i dont want to say it was easy, but i never laid a brick before i did this

go look at my blog post on DIY - i did a pretty good writeup

Chris Cudmore

How do I prepare for a hurricane?

lsiunsuex

candles, toilet paper and beer

Chris Cudmore

I took down all the patio furniture, and anything that might blow around. What else should I do?

I'm not in hurricane country. We last had one 65 years ago.

lsiunsuex

gizmodo.com/5955606/… dont do those things

Chris Cudmore

Yeah. Leaning against a window that's bowing with pressure sounds really smart to me.

Although, the forecast is now predicting a sharp right turn at Altoona. It might miss me.

wax eagle

15:59

blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/rants-in-my-pants-julie-miner/…

that has a lot of good sensible things for parents with kids

lsiunsuex

fill the car with gas, make sure you have some batteries and candles incase the batteries run out - canned food and bottled water - past that... like u said, check for loose stuff outside the house that can turn into a projectile if winds pick up

all else fails, eat the young first, you can make new ones when the storm passes

and cash - go take out some cash - when the internets are down, CC machines usually dont work anymore

wax eagle

if you have a generator make sure you've got extra fuel for it...

lsiunsuex

when buffalo had that storm a few years ago - cash ruled at local gas stations where phone lines were down

Chris Cudmore

Yeah, I'm good for cash. I've got about 10 cases of bottled water. Candles are ready. Propane tank for the grill is full. Wine Rack- full. 24 500 ml beer. Full tank of gas.

lsiunsuex

and if the wind is really picking up, i'll unplug expensive equipment in the house - tv's, computers - surge protectors fail - if your really gonna miss it - unplug it until its safe

some genius cut a power line last year in the middle of the summer and i brought down the whole damn network in fear of a surge when it came back

think i'll make pizza dough tonight just in case...

ooooo shizzle - buffalo is right in the path now google.org/crisismap/sandy-2012

wax eagle

16:24

@lsiunsuex unless that thing takes an awful southward hook, I'm well out of the path :)

lsiunsuex

16:50

the president is on tv talking about the storm

Karl Katzke

17:01

I don't care about the damned storm on the east coast -- it's COLD in TEXAS. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Damnyankees, sending your cold air down here.

lsiunsuex

been trying to convince the wife to move to vegas - love it there

florida is to humid

Karl Katzke

Vegas is too dry for me personally

I remember traveling there for my grandparents' anniversary ... plane landed in Houston and vented fresh air in and my skin unshriveled.

lsiunsuex

as i always say to my parents who both came here on a boat from italy - of all the cities on the east coast you settle in, you choose buffalo of all places

Karl Katzke

heh. My great-grandparents chose Chicago. Which is a great place to be from

lsiunsuex

going to chicago this friday pending the weather

9 hour drive from buffalo (ish)

wax eagle

17:17

@lsiunsuex fun, we've got about a 9 hour drive to chicago as well...we'll be doing that in a bit less than 2 months

Aaron

17:46

woooo doggie

Putting up the storm barriers in georgetown:

Reports are coming in that much of Atlantic City is underwater and that this could be worse than the Ash Wednesday storm of 1962

urban renewal, hurricane-style

lsiunsuex

an insurance claim for a new roof on my garage would be cool

Karl Katzke

Yeah, the Jersey Shore is finally getting what it had coming to it after the TV show.

5

Aaron

18:21

►

in other news, the mail came today

lsiunsuex

18:52

qz.com/21002/… does it hurt a company for the stock exchange to be closed?

Karl Katzke

Depends on if the company had something leveraged that was supposed to go tick tick tock on that day

lsiunsuex

19:09

kinda crazy that their allowed to close - its almost like the world doesn't exist on the days its closed

think about it this way - yes, stocks trade because companies make decisions, sales go up or down, political reasons, product announcements, etc...

but stocks also trade because of people's oppinions - my decision to buy apple today (for example) may be based on my mood, current financial status, the way the winds blowing, whatever

to close for a day (or even a couple hours) may cause me to think about my decision to buy that stock for better or worse - i may buy more after some more thought, or i may buy less

Karl Katzke

Yes, but you're an individual. The market is supposed to provide a quorum of individual opinions such that one individual opinion doesn't matter.

wax eagle

@KarlKatzke it operates on general sentiment not individual sentiment

Karl Katzke

Yeah, that's what i was trying to say.

lsiunsuex

right, but a bunch of individuals create a general sentiment

wax eagle

@lsiunsuex exactly

Karl Katzke

19:15

It's probably good though that it's shut down because there's a lot of uncertainty about what Sandy will do to the economy of New Jersey and the upper midwest.

wax eagle

@KarlKatzke right, better to let it pan out and let people trade knowing a bit more about what's going on instead of just reactionary trading

Karl Katzke

Yeah. The problem with the earlier statement about individual choice is that generally the general sentiment balances out panic and/or reactionary behaviour in an individual. Or at least that's the way it's supposed to work.

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