Ughhhhhhhhh.

Good news. Unit above mine finally sold and I think the guy paid way more than he should have, but it puts me up just under $100k in property value growth over just two years.

Bad news. New owner is a habitual smoker, and apparently no one in my building ever bothered to include a "no-smoking" rule to include inside units themselves. So now, all we can do is restrict it going forward, but this guy will be grandfathered in, because doing so otherwise requires unanimous consent from all owners.

Sort of OK news. I don't smell it inside my unit. But it permeates the foyer and stairs of the building, as well as apparently people above and next to him. So overall it's a nuisance.

1/22/2013 2:29:18 PM

I hate you. I'm about 40K under purchase price.

1/22/2013 3:19:14 PM

Not sure I've ever seen our by-laws, so I'm going to see if we have any sort of nuisance provision that could be creatively, or overtly enforced in this case.

1/22/2013 3:32:03 PM

To prevent him from smoking inside a property he owns???

1/22/2013 3:46:12 PM

Sure.

There's case law to support that action. Just need to find something in DC.

I'm not sure why this seems to surprise you, but you can't literally do anything you want on your property.

[Edited on January 22, 2013 at 4:08 PM. Reason : .]

1/22/2013 3:59:44 PM

We're talking about inside his residence though.

1/22/2013 4:22:27 PM

A nuisance is a nuisance is a nuisance though.

1/22/2013 4:25:41 PM

the lady who owns the condo below me smokes inside the condo and i worry she'll set the freaking building on fire! plus, there was a time where i feel like you could smell it coming up into my unit.

1/22/2013 4:53:43 PM

^^^

when the smoke leaves the confines of his residence, and enters common areas or other residences, then the "you can do what you want on/in your property" argument is moot.

1/23/2013 2:55:18 PM

There's actually good case law in other states for either trespass or nuisance for smoke/smoking odor. Still digging around for anything analogous in DC. So far all I have is barking dogs. Sort of a stretch.

Either way, this is definitely going to be addressed in a very incremental manner. Our board president is going to call him first one-on-one and see if he will be reasonable about it. I just want to be able to go to him knowing whether or not I have legal recourse as a last option if he's a dick.

1/23/2013 4:13:54 PM

Talked to the guy one-on-one and he was super deferential about it. We're also going amend our by-laws to go smoke-free as a building going forward, to include inside individual units, and he was cool with that.

1/25/2013 10:14:10 AM

renovations started today

well they started two weeks ago when i started taking down wall paper and the glue.

I pulled up all the carpet, padding and removed around 1 million staples from the floor as well.

Paid for the flooring today. went with a white oak. still have picked out the stain

Ceilings also got started today with the removing of the popcorn texture.

Im spending money like i have that shits being printed in the basement.

1/28/2013 4:26:54 PM

Renovating a house has that effect on your wallet. We took a couple month break because it was getting so depressing how much we were spending, but now we need to get started again. Already have most of the supplies for the next couple projects as well so that helps.

1/28/2013 10:03:23 PM

anyone do that progress energy energwise home program? they give you $25/yr for limiting your AC useage during the summer.

1/30/2013 4:50:56 PM

ha fuck that. I'd rather be cool and pay 25 bucks extra per year.

1/30/2013 5:53:27 PM

^^ I'll have to see if Duke has anything similar.

1/30/2013 10:21:22 PM

^^well PE claims you don't notice and that it only occurred on 8 days in 2011. it is never activated on holidays and weekends.

a device on the unit cuts out a "small" amount of power during "exceptionally high" demand during teh summer.

Just wondering what this actually amounted to. I'm at work during the day, so I'm thinking I certainly would never notice.

1/31/2013 9:17:24 AM

yeah I just looked into it. I doubt I would even notice an impact like that. I'd def do it if Duke offers something similar.

1/31/2013 9:30:44 AM

damn shingles blown off roof
damn tree hit house (only minor damage)
damn pilot light went out in hot water heater (that's going to cost a ton to get re-lit)

i dislike wind.

1/31/2013 10:05:45 AM

that sucks :/

Our neighbors had some downspouts torn off. Luckily the most I saw this morning when taking the dog out was our trash container blown over. I need to check a couple small trees in the backyard later just to make sure (since it was dark when I took the dog out).

1/31/2013 11:44:20 AM

My trashcan was missing this morning. I really should have taken it inside before I went to bed.

1/31/2013 11:56:01 AM

ha, my trashcans are probably in my neighbor's yard.

And it turns out I'm not eligible for that PE program... must not be within the project area.

1/31/2013 12:24:54 PM

Quote :

"damn pilot light went out in hot water heater (that's going to cost a ton to get re-lit) "

wat?

what kind of water heater do you have that you can't light it yourself?

1/31/2013 2:59:24 PM

oh ha that was a sarcastic post... it's the least of my worries financially but still a mild inconvenience... lit it a few minutes ago when i got home. the worst part was dragging all of the shit out of my utility room to get to it.

[Edited on January 31, 2013 at 5:00 PM. Reason : ]

1/31/2013 5:00:00 PM

Just moved back to my house after being in Australia for two years and hooked up two Nests - we'll see how it goes

1/31/2013 11:23:20 PM

Projects this weekend (if I get any free time to work on them) are probably going to revolve around either:

1) starting my DIY big artwork piece to go over our bed

or

2) trimming out the window in the guest bedroom and hanging the curtains.

2/1/2013 9:57:25 AM

^^ Can you sync the two somehow. When I decide to get a second one it would be nice if it didn't have to learn all my habits again if the first one already has months of data.

2/1/2013 11:11:45 AM

I have three separate zones, i kinda want a nest, but i kinda don't want to buy three.

also, my HVAC units are 20 years old, are there any requirements on what a nest will work with in terms of older systems?

2/1/2013 1:53:47 PM

If your HVAC is single stage I'd check to make sure there is C wire available otherwise the the NEST won't be able to draw power when the HVAC isn't running.

[Edited on February 1, 2013 at 2:23 PM. Reason : ]

2/1/2013 2:23:37 PM

i don't think they necessarily sync automatically - still figuring it all out but from what i can tell they know about the other but operate independently

2/1/2013 3:01:00 PM

which really is how it should be, depending on the layout and whether it is a 2nd floor vs 1st floor etc. The parameters are different. I have my upstairs thermostat scheduled differently than our downstairs based on our patterns of occupancy/use, and even if they were scheduled the same, they would start and stop at different times due to the different heat loads.

Now, it would be nice if they would sync initially, because the other unit would probably be a closer starting point and it may take a shorter time to "learn."

2/1/2013 3:03:49 PM

^^ Yeah, that's what it sounded like from the tech I spoke with. Although, It would be nice if unit1 could share basic information with unit2 like when I leave for work every morning.

2/1/2013 3:10:28 PM

i do assume they work together for the 'auto away' feature but i haven't seen it published anywhere as to how they work together exactly

2/1/2013 9:10:49 PM

I'm tired of my house being creaky

who would I hire to figure out what needs to be done to stiffen up the flooring? a structural engineer? contractor?

2/2/2013 1:37:36 PM

Contractor should be able to tell you what to do. Thankfully for us putting more screws in while we were putting in the wood floors was all we needed. Bedroom is squeak free. There's a bad spot in the hall outside the bedroom we need to fix when we redo that with tile.

The POS apartment we had before we bought was so bad the 13lb cat would make the floors squeak.

2/2/2013 2:41:00 PM

anyone done a kitchen remodel? we're wanting to replace the solid surface with granite, expand the length of the counter, and replace the cabinets and appliances, but keep the plumbing and electrical intact. any thoughts on a ballpark estimate?

2/3/2013 10:56:53 PM

Too many variables. What you just described could be anywhere from $10k to $25k+ depending on the type of appliances you pick, the type of granite, how big your kitchen is, what kind of cabinets you are getting etc.

Maybe someone on here who does contracting can give you some better guidelines once they get some more info from you.

Also, if you weren't already going to, I highly advise getting a backsplash while doing the remodel. A kitchen with nice, new counters and nice cabinets just looks incomplete without a backsplash to me personally. Even the simplest, neutral backsplash can make the difference between your new kitchen looking like a builder did a decent job with it and it looking like someone put some real thought into it. And, it can easily be the lowest cost line item of the whole project.

2/4/2013 8:24:56 AM

Quote :

"i do assume they work together for the 'auto away' feature but i haven't seen it published anywhere as to how they work together exactly "

Mine seem to activate auto away at the same time. I have never noticed that my upstairs is away, when I am working from home downstairs (and never go upstairs).

I leave the house around 7:30 and have the system reduce heat at 8am. Autoaway doesn't typically kick in until around 9:30ish. The smart thing is that if you have the schedule set to 72 at 5pm, it will start heating to get you to 72 by 5pm, rather than just setting to 72 by 5pm. Over time it learns how long it takes.

So a schedule helps some.

2/4/2013 1:28:01 PM

yep. which is why for now I still just use a regular programmable thermostat because they do the same thing.

[Edited on February 4, 2013 at 1:29 PM. Reason : ]

2/4/2013 1:29:09 PM

Let's briefly talk tile kitchen backsplash install.

I found the perfect tile for what I want to do to my kitchen already installed on a friend's kitchen wall, and they had significant leftover tile that they weren't using, so they gifted it to me. I have probably (still need to actually determine exact amount needed) more than enough to do the entire backsplash in my kitchen.

Exactly how difficult is this to do properly? I'm fine with doing the requisite learning before hand to teach myself, and if I pay someone, it's going to cost me around $800 in labor. There is a third, more remote option that I could entice a family friend who in a previous life in another country was a mason by trade who worked especially with tile to travel up from NC to DC for a weekend when I am out of town and do the job for significantly less. However that's not guaranteed to happen anytime in the near future.

For those of you who have put up your own before with no experience, how steep was the learning curve for cutting the tile, etc? The tiles I intend to use are 3x6, and they're solid pieces of porcelain tile, not those sheets of square glass bits. I'm only covering a ~1x6' and ~1x7' foot area, with about five electrical outlets total involved.

2/6/2013 12:49:55 PM

if you're ok with measuring and cutting the tile yourself, i'd say go for it. it's just mixing adhesive (or you can get those adhesive sheets), slapping the tile up, spacing it, and mixing / applying grout, then cleanup. really isn't that hard.

2/6/2013 1:26:35 PM

cutting is the hard part, the rest is pretty simple...back splashes are probably on the more difficult side, simply b/c it's probably alot of cutting, but if you're precise and take your time it's very doable

2/6/2013 2:28:34 PM

$800 seems like highway robbery. For simple 3x6 installation, I can't imagine paying more that $10 bucks an hour. Even at 20 bucks an hour that is 40 hours worth of installation.

If your actual coverage is only 6~10 feet, you should only have to pay about $100.

2/7/2013 2:36:58 PM

It's not hard. Measure twice, cut once. Make sure your lines are straight. Take your time.

2/7/2013 2:58:34 PM

I live in DC, so I imagine labor pay scale is higher.

Either way, that was roughly the quote I got from two separate contractors whom I actually trust because I know them from other aspects of life.

2/7/2013 3:10:28 PM

$800 does seem pretty ridiculous

2/7/2013 3:23:31 PM

also, I'm not covering a 3x6 area. the tiles are 3x6" big.

the total surface area to be covered is something like 1.5x14', give or take half a foot in length.

2/7/2013 3:45:10 PM

Anyone have experience with Geothermal heat pumps? Looking to get some advice.

2/9/2013 10:41:55 AM

Quote :

"I can't imagine paying more that $10 bucks an hour"

where do you live that people charge less than double minimum wage to do home improvement?

2/9/2013 11:26:01 PM

^that. If you don't have any experience with hiring a decent contractor just keep your trap shut.

2/10/2013 3:27:53 PM