Quote :

"Anyone have any suggestions on how to check/fix a water heater? It seems I can only manage lukewarm in my house nowadays. I know nothing on this topic so any advice would be great."

i'm going to assume electric since it's much more common for them to have heating issues. you've got a problem with an element or a thermostat. both parts easily tested for correct voltage and ohm readings with a basic multi meter. lower ones fail more commonly. if you get a quick burst of normal water then it goes cool, you can probably bet lower. if it's just lukewarm and then goes cooler, likely upper.

12/29/2010 2:58:21 PM

In addition to the elements or thermostats it could be a bad dip tube. they are about 5 bucks all you need is a pipe cutter and a "shark-bite" coupling for another 5.

Also try the reset button on the top thermostat assembly. I swear that's what got mine back and running normal.

12/29/2010 4:34:50 PM

I have a similar issue. The water will be hot for a few minutes then trails off to being lukewarm. I replaced the water heater a few months ago and it was fine for the first month or so. I can normally get a shower in before the temp starts dropping but Ive noticed I can't take a shower as long as I used to. It's electric. I'll try resetting it today and see what happens.

12/31/2010 9:39:33 AM

if you're getting any amount of hot water, the reset button being tripped isn't the issue.

12/31/2010 2:19:56 PM

I yea figured that's what it was. I'm thinking one of the elements is bad. But it never hurts to reboot something.

12/31/2010 7:19:24 PM

My smoke detector is driving me nuts. It started chirping so I replaced the battery. It was fine for a few days, then starts chirping again. I've tried using a different battery, resetting it, testing it. I even ripped it off the ceiling to test it disconnected from the power line and it works fine so I know the battery is making a connection. Ideas?

1/3/2011 10:18:05 AM

[Edited on January 3, 2011 at 4:52 PM. Reason : .]

1/3/2011 4:51:33 PM

^^Where is it located? Is it close to any full bathrooms? If so, it might be getting exposed to a lot of humidity of someone opens the bathroom door shortly after taking a hot shower. That can do some funky things to electronics sometimes.

1/5/2011 9:34:10 AM

any idea on estimated cost to fix some water damaged dry wall ceiling?

a condo im trying to sell from 1600 miles away is straight up falling apart.

1/5/2011 1:51:24 PM

Where is the security system sensor for a sliding glass door?

Mine keeps indicating the door is open regardless of whether it is or not.

1/5/2011 2:03:46 PM

depends on the amount of damage, really and if there's any underlying damage, as well.

1/5/2011 2:04:33 PM

from the impression i got it's just like, a few square feet of discoloration in the unit below mine's ceiling.

it sucks ass to not just be able to go look at it.

the lady is old balls too, no digital camera, no cell phone or email.

1/5/2011 2:26:08 PM

Quote :

"Where is it located? Is it close to any full bathrooms? If so, it might be getting exposed to a lot of humidity of someone opens the bathroom door shortly after taking a hot shower. That can do some funky things to electronics sometimes."

Nah, that's not it. I had the same issue with another one. I think it's just a flaky pos.

1/5/2011 3:31:36 PM

^^Well, it all is dependent on the amount of damage to the dry wall, if there's still no ongoing leak.

I had to replace a 3x3' square in my den. Cut it out, put up new piece of sheetrock, mudded it and then painted it.

I'm going to assume the ceiling is finished in that popcorn texture crap? If so, that's going to be a pain to match up.

Overall, I would say it wouldn't cost that much.

[Edited on January 6, 2011 at 8:48 AM. Reason : ^]

1/6/2011 8:48:04 AM

Yeah it shouldn't be too bad.

On a related note, we made sure to buy a house with smooth ceilings when we bought this past year. The house I grew up in had the stupid popcorn ceiling and I didn't think much of it until I started getting more into design and home improvements and looking at houses to buy and after looking at some of the houses with a smooth ceiling I realized how much nicer it looked.

Did contractors start doing the popcorn ceiling in houses years ago just out of laziness or what?

1/6/2011 9:02:24 AM

it's a smooth ceiling..

contractor went out this morning, just spoke with him. $450 for the entire job.

i am very satisfied with this. from fartin around on the internet i really could not find any solid idea for a ball park guess... couple hundred to a couple thousand.

as soon as he starts the work i'm accepting my company's buyout (relocated) and running away from that property.

1/6/2011 9:11:11 AM

Quote :

"Did contractors start doing the popcorn ceiling in houses years ago just out of laziness or what?"

Largest benefit to popcorn texturing is it minimizes the appearance of seams in the drywall. Well-done drywall will allow you to paint the ceiling with no (significant) visible abnormalities.

In mine, when we re-did ours, we scraped all the popcorn off and used a different method. It involves taking slightly watered down sheetrock mud and plopping it at random along the ceiling. Going back with a straight-edge trowel and pulling lightly over it to smooth out.

It creates nice random patterns and designs. Just paint over with color of choice. Nice alternative to popcorn and does a good job of hiding imperfections in the sheetrock.

1/6/2011 11:12:49 AM

Smooth ceilings ftw.

1/6/2011 11:51:12 AM

my aunt is thinking about refinancing her mortgage. The problem is the appraisal came back a few grands less than what she owes. Is there any other option for her, beside making up the difference with cash, in order to refinance?

1/6/2011 6:07:28 PM

Quote :

"Where is the security system sensor for a sliding glass door? Mine keeps indicating the door is open regardless of whether it is or not. "

it's either a wireless box that is stuck to the side of the sliding door that is considered the middle when the door is closed OR there is a sensor drilled into the frame about the size of a large pencil eraser that meets up with another magnet attached to the sliding door.

if it's not detecting it, try placing a strong magnet and seeing if the error message goes away, if not, get it replaced or find the part online and replace it yourself.

1/6/2011 10:21:34 PM

^ thanks, i found a small hole drilled into the frame/door near the bottom track.

the tiny magnet had fallen off the door into the track.

1/7/2011 1:32:08 PM

Quote :

"But it never hurts to reboot something."

true, but it's pretty pointless in this case and not even possible to do unless the button has been tripped. i think you're not understanding its function. its purpose is to prevent overheating (anything over 170 degrees typically), and that's the only thing that will cause it to trip. if you want to "reboot" the heater, you'd be better off switching the circuit breaker in your panel box off/on. even that's extremely unlikely to remedy anything since you are getting some hot water.

1/8/2011 9:41:50 PM

home ownership woes? you got that right... especially if you plan to sell after 2012

http://www.gop.gov/blog/10/04/08/obamacare-flatlines-obamacare-taxes-home

Quote :

"Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income. In February 2010, 5.02 million homes were sold, according to the National Association of Realtors. On any given day, the sale of a house, townhome, condominium, co-op, or income from a rental property can push middle-income families over the $250,000 threshold and slam them with a new tax they can’t afford. This new ObamaCare tax is the first time the government will apply a 3.8 percent tax on unearned income. This new tax on home sales and unearned income and other Medicare taxes raise taxes more than $210 billion to pay for ObamaCare. The National Association of Realtors called this new Medicare tax on unearned income “destructive” and “ill-advised” and warned it would hurt job creation. "

and for you non business majors....

Quote :

"Definitions of unearned income on the Web: •personal income that you did not earn (e.g., dividends or interest or rent income) •(accounting) income received but not yet earned (usually considered a current liability on a company's balance sheet) wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn •Unearned income refers to income that is not a wage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unearned_income •Income that is not a wage, such as interest, dividends or realized capital gains from investments, rent from land or property ownership, and any other income that does not derive from work en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unearned_income •Income received in advance of the time at which it is earned, such as prepaid rent. http://www.duke.edu/~charvey/Classes/wpg/bfglosu.htm •Income other than that received as wages, salary, or profit from self-employment. Examples of unearned income are Social Security, unemployment insurance payments, child support, etc. http://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx •Payment received in advance for undelivered products or uncompleted service is unearned income and a current liability on business ledgers. Individual taxpayers must report all income not directly resulting from one's profession, business, or occupation as unearned income. http://www.guidemywealth.com/Glossary-MtoZ.htm"

[Edited on January 26, 2011 at 10:08 PM. Reason : hjghjg]

1/26/2011 10:00:54 PM

Yeah, except there's this little thing called the home-sale exclusion. First 250k single/500k married of gain can be excluded from taxes, including this one (assuming you've actually been living in it for a certain amount of time). I don't think many people are going to be making enough bank for this to hurt them.

It is rather annoying for other reasons though.

1/26/2011 10:08:47 PM

while that is true today, i am not sure how true that will be starting in 2013

and to be fair the quote doesn't specify if that stays the same or if it's going to go away

this was news to me and i only found out about it because of an email forward (lulz right)

1/26/2011 10:24:11 PM

Lol, email chains...bane of the feeble minded. You can google this pretty easily. There is no reason to suspect they'll get rid of the gain exclusion [i]yet[i/]. If they get to that point, i'd be more worried they'll go after my interest deduction than extra tax from selling my house (mainly bc i dont plan to sell it until i retire).

[Edited on January 27, 2011 at 7:22 AM. Reason : .]

1/27/2011 7:19:22 AM

Quote :

"Yeah, except there's this little thing called the home-sale exclusion. First 250k single/500k married of gain can be excluded from taxes,"

So I have to get married to sell my house for over 250K?? Great reason to pop the question...

1/27/2011 7:37:19 AM

Reread your quote. It says "gain"

1/27/2011 9:42:13 AM

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp

1/27/2011 9:45:22 AM

Quote :

"Reread your quote. It says "gain""

I guessed that...just wanted to make sure since I'm far from being an expert in these categories. I was also lazy and would rather someone answer it in this thread rather than go look for the answer myself.

Thank you sir.

1/27/2011 10:12:36 AM

^ thanks for posting that

im glad my house cost less than $150k

1/27/2011 10:15:12 AM

^I'm confused, but I don't see $150K listed anywhere in his article. Why is that price relevant?

1/27/2011 10:53:49 AM

Yeah, I don't get it either.

1/27/2011 10:57:02 AM

she's just bragging about how much her house cost.

1/27/2011 11:14:23 AM

well for houston it is a normal price

but i am glad that i will not possibly be able to sell my house and have to pay 3.8% tax

1/27/2011 8:25:08 PM

I don't think too many people on here will have to worry about that right now . Pretty sure what David0603 was clarifying above was that you needed a capital gain of over $250k for a single person to get hit with the tax, not the house value. Meaning even if you lived in a $500k house, you would have to have $250k in equity in the house (over half paid off) at time of selling before the tax affected you.

1/28/2011 9:00:35 AM

^ is that really a "gain"? I thought a gain would be if you paid $250 for it but sold it for $350. $100?

Sounds like you are saying if I paid cash for that $250 and then sold it for $350 that I would pay 3.8% on $350?

I may be reading your comment wrong

1/28/2011 9:33:58 AM

yea, I think it's the profit you gain from selling your house (the difference in price when you sell it)

1/28/2011 9:40:19 AM

Single person buys 500k house. They live in it 5 years then sell the house for 750k. They owe no tax.

Single person sells the same house for 800k...they owe capital gain taxes on the 50k, and this new Medicare tax BS.

1/28/2011 9:47:23 AM

^I apologize, you are correct. I stated it wrong before.

However, after looking it up, you are also allowed to account for other stuff when you are calculating capital gains on the sale of the house. The clearest thing I found was:

* Purchase price
* + Purchase costs (title & escrow fees, real estate agent commissions, etc.)
* + Improvements (replacing the roof, new furnace, etc.)
* + Selling costs (title & escrow fees, real estate agent commissions, etc.)
* - Accumulated depreciation (for example, if you ever took the office in the home deduction)
* = Cost Basis

Selling Price - Cost Basis = Capital Gains.

Meaning your house would have to appreciate a good bit more than $250k even to worry about it, which wouldn't affect most people in here for a long time...(though I still agree it is a BS tax). The fact that you could deduct your real estate agent commissions itself would be a huge help. In the example of someone selling the house for 750k, they would most likely be able to deduct almost $40,000 for real estate fees before even considering stuff when they purchased the house or major improvements put into it over the time they lived there. I'd guess a house bought at $500,000 would probably have to sell for close to $825,000-$850,000 before they would have to claim a capital gain of over $250,000 (and that is for a single person). If the person is married, the house bought at $500,000 would have to sell for over $1.1-1.2M at least.

Please correct me if I am interpreting this wrong.

TLDR Summary: with the market the way it is now, as stupid as this is, it probably won't affect most if any of us for a long time (who knows, might be gone by the time it would).

[Edited on January 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM. Reason : ]

1/28/2011 10:37:24 AM

lol, if my house appreciated more than $250k in a few years, I would gladly pay the tax.

1/28/2011 10:49:12 AM

Haha. Here's to that.

1/28/2011 10:57:50 AM

^, ^^ I don't think I could ever say I would gladly pay a tax.

[Edited on January 28, 2011 at 10:58 AM. Reason : .]

1/28/2011 10:58:20 AM

Yeah, I'd hate to win the lottery or something b/c I'd have to pay taxes on all that money.

1/28/2011 11:49:07 AM

re-read, comprehend, then post.

I said gladly pay a tax.

1/28/2011 12:05:21 PM

So, you wouldn't gladly pay a tax on free money?

1/28/2011 12:09:29 PM

I would like to keep all of the free money, so no, I would not gladly pay a tax on free money.
I will begrudgingly pay a tax on free money that they have no right to.

1/28/2011 12:59:19 PM

Somehow I think if I was receiving over 250/500K of free money I wouldn't be too concerned about paying 3.8% of the overflow.

1/28/2011 1:09:20 PM

nothing is ever free. Say that my house appreciated 250k in the next two years. I certainly wouldn't be because its value went up. The reason would most likely be inflation if I were to speculate. So, it costs more, but isn't worth more. Now I'm getting taxed on this increase though everything has gone up in price.

1/28/2011 1:24:33 PM

First off, you're house isn't going to appreciate by 250K in two years. Even if it does, you don't have to pay taxes on it until the govt does a reaccessment. And even if that happens, you can appeal it. I did and won. Furthermore, I specifically said "free money"

1/28/2011 3:17:36 PM