^i agree

Acting as if it were a favor & not a sleight is the best way to go since you don't know the guy

6/11/2012 6:05:17 PM

Quote :

"I can't decide. Haven't really met him to get a read. He did spend a good 12 hours working his property Saturday, and think he might be a "lawn guy". Just struck me as..... odd."

lawn guy here.

I do the same kind of stuff for my next door neighbor, if i'm mowing and he hasn't got to his lawn yet. Assuming he's anything like me, I just enjoy the act of yard work, and I'll generally weed-eat part of his property adjoining mine, and edge all the way around the tree that's between our properties, etc. I don't expect anything out of it.

6/12/2012 6:05:04 PM

yep, same here

6/12/2012 9:45:40 PM

ditto. But that's because the neighbors on the driveway side never mow their fucking yard. Yet they have time for 15 fucking chickens, 3 or 4 dogs, ferrets and a couple of cats and yet never mow their fucking yard, trim bushes, pick up limbs, rake, clean their house, poop scoop or anything else. Their backyard smells like 15 chickens and 3-4 dogs shit in it all the time without ever mowing or poop scooping. The inside smells worse. Smells like a kennel on a hot day that hasn't been cleaned yet. Cat piss, dog shit, chickens, a compost pile they have in their basement, yes the chickens stay in the house when there's a storm, ferret shit everywhere.

okay not so much a woe, more rant there. sorry please go back to the woes.

6/13/2012 5:02:02 AM

^that sucks, sounds like a neighbor from hell.

I have more home ownership WOO than woe, lately. We sold our old place and moved into our new one on May 31st. Couldn't be happier, love the house, location, land, and neighborhood. Feeling truly blessed right about now.

BUT... we did have our first sour experience the other night around 2AM. The wired smoke alarms went off and it was the most God-awful, startling shrill. I hadn't yet heard these so was totally confused and discombobulated; a really terrible feeling. It sounded for about 5-10 seconds, then went off, silent for a minute or so, then sounded again for 5-10 seconds, rinse/repeat. All of the alarms are wired together, so they all go off at once. I finally got my wits about me, did a quick run through the house and saw now fire or smoke. Then I saw one smoke alarm with a flashing green light. Climbed up and held the test button and that seemed to "fix" everything. Green LED went solid and we didn't have any repeat alarms.

After extensive Googling, it seems dust and even bugs can make these things go off? Also, Kidde's website and manuals suck. I'm going to replace all the [backup] batteries this weekend. Still not resting easy though. Why does this kind of crap always happen in the middle of the night?

6/13/2012 9:12:01 AM

Heh, same thing happened to me about a year after moving into my place.
The real freak out though is when the CO detector went off b/c of a low battery.
At least you can see/feel fire if one broke out.

6/13/2012 11:04:07 AM

I'm gonna make this a short one.

Ownership woe: Mice.

Ownership win: Mouse got caught in a trap I had left out for the last 4 months before destroying everything else in my house.

Ownership woe: Cleaning up the mouse's poop under the cage.

Whatever, set the little bastard free in the woods near the office.

6/16/2012 3:26:38 PM

jimmypop u mad?

Seriously though that would piss me off, too. If the smell is that bad you may consider calling the Health Department and/or Animal Control. That has to be some sort of health hazard for the neighborhood and it's certainly not good for the animals living there or the people. Imagine the vermin that must attract

6/17/2012 10:47:41 AM

Quote :

"I'm gonna make this a short one. Ownership woe: Mice. Ownership win: Mouse got caught in a trap I had left out for the last 4 months before destroying everything else in my house. Ownership woe: Cleaning up the mouse's poop under the cage. Whatever, set the little bastard free in the woods near the office. "

Made my own kill trap that has so far gotten one mouse. I should check it this afternoon to see if I have any other customers.

6/17/2012 10:49:43 AM

Damn it, is this a termite? Please excuse the fact that it's dead and not a perfect picture.

These are swarming on my screen porch. Yay for trying to sell a house!

6/19/2012 7:26:20 PM

^i'm almost positive that is NOT a termite. I know flying termites and flying ants are often confused for one another. Here's a breakdown of the differences:



It's hard to get an idea of the scale from the photo, but it looks like a flying ant to me, or perhaps some sort of wasp.

6/19/2012 8:51:01 PM

FML, dryer broke again. Don't buy whirlpool duet dryer. I have 2 failed on me in 2 years.

6/19/2012 9:06:39 PM

Quote :

"^i'm almost positive that is NOT a termite."

I, too, am almost positive that is NOT a termite.
Because it's a wasp.

6/20/2012 1:38:15 PM

Looks like a wasp to me as well.

6/20/2012 3:31:38 PM

Here is a reference picture. My wedding ring next to the same bug.

It seems too small to be a wasp to me, but we've got a pest guy coming out today to check it out. After I've soaked down the area with raid - ant, I haven't seen any new ones. I'm hoping they were just flying ants looking for a new nest, and they were dumb enough to somehow get in the screen porch but couldn't figure out how to get out.

6/21/2012 8:39:49 AM

Either way...it's definitely not a termite.

6/21/2012 10:09:09 AM

yep, that's all I'm concerned with. Thanks!

6/21/2012 10:53:19 AM

Wake County Sucks.

95 days to approve a septic permit. 95 fucking days. Worthless shits. At least construction can finally begin.

[Edited on June 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM. Reason : .]

6/26/2012 11:07:57 AM

well damn. I was hoping that my loan company would wait a bit longer to request updated bank statements, etc., due to a bank error 2 months ago.

earlier post:

Quote :

"My dad just bought a new truck and the bank took the money out of my account. So now my parents are writing me a check to replace those funds. I'm sure my mortgage company will love this shit. I hope it doesn't screw me on my application."

well, they just requested updated documents and my next statement is too far out to wait, so I have to submit the last two statements, which include this bank fuck up. grrrrr

6/26/2012 3:03:07 PM

Quote :

"Why does this kind of crap always happen in the middle of the night?"

That shit happens to me too. Since I've moved into my house in 2009, I've had two smoke alarms go off due to low batteries. Both occurred one hour before my alarm clock went off on weekdays. Why can't that just happen at 6pm or something?

6/27/2012 9:28:37 AM

I'm in the process of picking a house to build had a question -

Does anyone have a laundry room upstairs in their house? If you do & you have a front loading washer does it make a shit lot of noise & vibration when it hits the spin cycle? I'm scared to go with an upstairs laundry room because of this possibility.

advice appreciated

6/29/2012 2:37:25 PM

We had laundry upstairs in our last house for ~5 years, and have it upstairs again in our new house that we just moved into. We have never had any real issues with noise. The older house was smaller and so we were pretty close to it. If there was a load of jeans or something with big buttons the dryer could cling and clang a bit, but it was never enough to bother us. In the new place it's quiet as a mouse because it's a bit farther away from our bedroom.

Assuming the bedrooms are upstairs, I think the benefit of not having to lug laundry up and down over and over and over again outweighs any potential gripes about noise. Just my $.02.

6/29/2012 2:42:03 PM

until something happens with the washer and your entire house floods from the top down and you're posting in this thread

6/29/2012 3:05:33 PM

^code requires all 2nd floor washer installations to have a floor pan and a drain plumbed.

6/29/2012 3:11:55 PM

if the waters pouring out faster than the drain can handle it, it's not gonna do much good...happened to a lady i knew a few years ago, almost 20k in water damage

i know its unlikely, but it's one of my irrational house fears.

speaking of, almost had a giant woe yesterday. Tray above the stove fell while I was getting the dogs food ready. I didn't realize it had turned a stove burner (electric) on and I came home after work to find that the eye had been on all day with a burner cover on it.

6/29/2012 3:20:41 PM

I prefer mine upstairs since that's where my bedroom is located.
Never had any problems, although gets a little warm when the dryer is on.

6/29/2012 5:28:54 PM

The convenience of having your W/D upstairs isn't enough for me to get over the fear of a washer malfunction. No thank you very much.

6/29/2012 6:08:53 PM

I've used various old crappy washers off CL for years and never had one start leaking and unless it was a crazy amount like previously stated, it would get caught by the overflow pan.

6/29/2012 7:15:19 PM

And also take into consideration the fact that a catestrophic washer failure/leak is going to result in a homeowners' insurance claim and thousands of dollars in repair, regardless of whether it's upstairs or down. Of course an upstairs failure will be more, but it's not like a downstairs failure is benign.

I'd suggest doing some research and look at statistics and whatnot and let that help you make a decision that you're most comfortable with. It's a subjective, personal choice. Good luck!

6/29/2012 8:04:52 PM

It should be fine as long as the floor is well made and level, just make sure when you get the house inspected the person checks out the vent and drain.

6/29/2012 10:49:48 PM

good luck carrying the washer upstair, especially the front loader. I'd rather have my laundry room in the garage.

6/30/2012 10:13:43 AM

Yeah, I made sure to buy from someone who delivered.

6/30/2012 4:51:20 PM

It's not that hard. I just helped my workout partner carry out an old washer and dryer and carry up a new set to his second floor. They are pretty light actually.

Oh, wait. This is TWW, and not The Lounge Fitness Board.

6/30/2012 10:42:20 PM

^were they front loaders? cause they're much heavier than normal ones.

6/30/2012 11:28:07 PM

The new ones were.

7/1/2012 12:07:23 AM

I brought both up to a third floor once. I think the dryer was light as fuck, but the washer, quite the opposite.

7/1/2012 12:09:11 AM

This is why they make appliance dollies.

7/1/2012 6:41:35 AM

yeah, my New Bern house has upstairs laundry. I had a front-loader in there; it shook somewhat when on the spin cycle. It wasn't unnoticeable, but I never found it to be a big deal. If you got one of the higher-end washers that has counterweights that automatically move to help it balance, it might help some more.

The area was tiled and built up like a 4-5" deep "tub", and had a drain in the bottom. Plus, the washer was in a plastic overflow tub. I think it would be super unlikely for flooding from leakage to be an issue. Carrying it upstairs was a chore, but I had the delivery guys do it. I repainted the stairwell afterwards to touch-up a few spots that they scuffed (and because I wanted to change the color anyway).

7/1/2012 10:48:43 PM

Stupid but serious question..want opinions...

I'm going to build a new house. I currently live in one story 1566 sq. ft. built in 1993. Windows are old and honestly shitty, but I do have a new roof, new ac unit. With that said - the house I'm going to build is 1920 sq feet...two stories dbl. garage.

I'm wondering how much should I expect my utilities to go up...being that all my kitchen appliances will be brand new, new much better windows & so on...I'm thinking it shouldn't be too much more a month. I'm currently averaging about $150 a month or so..at least until this heat wave hit...I'm sure it'll be higher this month.

Anyone have a place around 1900 sq. ft? how much are your utilities?

7/2/2012 10:13:23 AM

Dryers are light as fuck and washer's can easily be carried with two people...as long as the stairwell is conducive to it. Wtf is arcgreek bragging about in here?

7/2/2012 12:29:11 PM

^^It really shouldn't be that much more. Over the course of a year, we spend an average of $50 a month on electricity, $30 on water, and $23 on natural gas (high of $50 and low of like $9 but average of $23) and we are in ~2500 ft². A lot of times your usage habits will make a bigger difference in costs (temp set points, whether you use programmable thermostats, shut-off power switches etc.).

Since your newer house should be more thermally efficient I'd say you'll probably come out the same even with a larger house. The only thing that really gets affected with a larger house is heating and cooling of course and a couple hundred square feet doesn't make a big difference unless you are going from a really shaded lot to a lot with lots of east or west facing windows without shade or something.

[Edited on July 2, 2012 at 12:43 PM. Reason : ]

7/2/2012 12:43:07 PM

I went from 1000 sqr ft to 2000 and it didn't go up a ton. Maybe 25%?

7/2/2012 1:18:27 PM

not an owner, but my pedestal sink in my bathroom cracked all around the basin. Who still has pedestal sinks!?

with my landlord being in Long Beach, CA i pretty much have control of this place. Hoping she's fine with putting in a new vanity so i can finally have some more cabinet space in there.

anyone installed a new vanity? pretty easy project?

7/3/2012 9:26:22 AM

^ actually they have become very popular/desirable again - lots of people are installing new ones these days. I am not a big fan myself though.

7/3/2012 9:31:57 AM

I was upset that the house I bought had two pedestal sinks...mostly because of the lack of storage. But now I think they look great. I bought some really cool "bathroom furniture" to solve the storage problem and it's working out great.

7/3/2012 10:37:25 AM

AC unit stopped working earlier this week, but it was a $20 capacitor that i fixed myself ina day. Now the regulator on my water heater is dead, dont want to mess with gas. Have a new rinnai tankless that has been sitting in a box for 4 months, but now i need to cough up the probably $600 to get it installed.

7/5/2012 1:15:00 AM

I think pedestal sinks are good when you have a small bathroom as cabinet sinks can make a bathroom seem even smaller. I've contemplated when we redo our guest bathroom putting in a pedestal sink since the current sink in there takes up WAY too much space and you really don't need that much storage space in a guest bathroom.

7/5/2012 9:49:30 AM

We have a pedestal sink in our half bath. Like, ^ said it would just be too crowded in there with a cabinet sink.

7/5/2012 10:02:08 AM

anyone know wtf kind of bug this is??



it's small ish, a little bigger than an ant & they seem to be attracted to water because i keep finding them in my cat's water bowl

7/6/2012 7:39:15 PM

so i had some pretty good hail damage on my roof here in fayetteville...insurance will help me w/ re roofing...and it needs it anyways...can anyone give me an idea of where to reserach what kind of shingles to go for? I like the textured ones alot vs. the simple 20 year roofs.

7/6/2012 10:52:32 PM