And people say I’m mad using the boiler’s built-in timer rather than getting a thermostat…
(Well, that and plugging a thermostat into my boiler would likely confuse the poor thing to death)
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Yeah, I saw that. Insanity.
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I figured it was the same bug. It’s just that @Lee_Ars was an early adopter. 
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Hah!
I regret my Nest purchase. It was made under duress, because my gen1 ecobee died in the middle of the afternoon last year and it was in the low 30s and I needed a t-stat I could quickly install myself and I didn’t want a dumb one. A replacement ecobee would have mean doing some wiring that I didn’t understand, so Nest it was.
Lasted less than a year before it started turning off. Now I’m back to the ecobee (I did the wiring, and it wasn’t that hard) and I’m much happier.
My furnace is so old and slow that I don’t think a smart thermostat would help. It’s a gravity fed monster, and I love it, but it’s not the most efficient thing out there. And my air conditioning is window units. That being said, my bills are lower than they were with my 90% efficient furnace and modern air conditioner.
Maybe next spring I’ll be calling the asbestos to come get all the duct work and replacing it with better insulated more modern stuff. Actually likely not better insulated, because asbestos does do a good job at that, but at least it will be shit I’m not scared to bump into.
It’s 30 below, and part of my roof flew off this week.
sigh
I’m getting too old to crawl around on my roof. Especially in a kilt.
Nobody wants to see that.
I asked.
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You should still film it, YBF pays £200 per amusing clip…
Got a call from the city today, they were willing to extend a low/no-interest repair loan so I could get the furnace replaced and some other repairs made.
But no title, no loan.
And incidentally, management didn’t give me the bill this month either.
Our new (well, as of 18 months ago) house has many things going for it, but the garden is unlit and we’ve no garden lights. We didn’t want a big security light and solar lights won’t work due to the facing of the garden. The answer appeared to be weatherproof LED strip light, as the garden is long and narrow.
I found some nice mains voltage dimmable RGB lighting (as I needed some 35M/115 feet), but it has the downside that the design puts about 6" of wire between the PSU and the plug and slightly less between the PSU and the start of the light strip. That’s not a big deal, I’ve done lots of wiring work before, put the outside connector in a weatherproof box and it’s done. Nothing I’ve not done before, just not with LEDs.
This time, not so much - I clearly got something crossed as when I powered it up the PSU exploded.Time to find where the multimeter went and see if I can work out where the problem lies. Worst case, the whole thing goes into a weatherproof enclosure.
we’re finally upgrading our basement half bathroom. The previous owner did a particularly half-assed job, using cheap fixtures and totally not caring about even trying to actually mitre the corners on trim among other offenses.
Among other things we pulled the old vanity today to replace it with a narrow one from Ikea… And found out they had covered up an ugly patch attempt/hole in the wall. Probably from the original vanity. So now we get to patch that…
Speaking of half-assed jobs, I did a particularly crappy job of taking care of the back fence where Scrappy was getting through and exploring the other yard.
The pickets are on the other side, and a couple have come off into the other yard, but the folks behind me, possibly renters, have made no attempt to reattach them. I can see the boards laying in the yard, so there is an absence of effort over there. I bought a few pickets and just nailed them up on my side - they stick out like sore thumbs not just because they’re unweathered, but also because they sit up least an inch higher than the rest. It probably didn’t help that I was in a foul mood when I did it, so I didn’t give a damn.
I’m going to have to consider replacing most or all of the fence this summer anyway, because other spots are also in questionable shape. Last year on the neighborhood social networking site, there was much discussion about who “owns” the fence - the people on the picket side or the people on the rail side. I’m on pretty good terms with my next door neighbors, so I shouldn’t run into access issues there. I am considering, however, just building my back fence right next to the existing one - if they want to fix it or dig it up later, let it be their problem. Time shall tell, as there are always other projects competing for time and budget.
Ownership should be covered in the paperwork, i’d think.
My neighborhood is such that technically fences between buildings are covered by the HOA. Good luck getting them fixed unless they fall down, though.
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But if the fences were the responsibility of the homeowners, you can bet your sweet bippy that the instant something was amiss with them, some busybody from the HOA would be all over it.
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Generally, if you can’t see something from the street, the HOA doesn’t care.
Fences aren’t required, so they’re not really documented anywhere. Fences are kind of an old west style grey area - if you put it up, it’s you’re responsibility to maintain it. The only parts you know are your problem are the spans between your house and the property line.
Why is it that the colder you feel while you’re out and about, the more likely it is that the timing switch on the central heating is going to fail and not put the heating on at all?
My side neighbour’s yard is higher than my yard by about 8 inches all along the back. There is a metal wall holding it back, then a chain link fence on my side, going down to my grade. According to the property marker, this is all on their property. She is an older Italian lady and used to have a big tomato garden, so she also has painted plywood barriers all along the inside of the chain link as well to keep out critters. The garden is long gone, but the plywood remains and she will NOT take it down, no matter what.
That’s fine. That’s not the problem.
The problem is that some troublesome Manitoba Maples have been growing up between the chain link and the plywood. For years, I tried to keep it at bay because I was the only one who could see it. I’d saw at it between the chain link, trying to fight it. A couple of years ago, we went away for 3 weeks and when we came back, it had really taken off. I just couldn’t be bothered anymore and gave up. Now, it’s 20 feet high and the roots are buckling the foundation of the edging. I cleverly threaded the tree through the chain link as well, so it should start to tear that out in a year or so.
I’m just waiting for her or one of her daughters (probably one of her daughters since she doesn’t speak a word of English despite having lived here for 50 years) to ask me when I’m going to do something about my trees.
My plan is to put up a big 10’ long shed so I don’t have to look at it.
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Ugh. We’ve been asked when we’re going to cut “our” tree that overhangs the garden behind ours.
This despite the tree being 6’ inside #97’s garden, and not ours. But how dare we not trim it?
Kill it with fire.
Some interesting home improvement ideas.
http://boredomtherapy.com/simple-home-improvements
I like the outlets in the drawers, and the outlets hidden behind false drawers.
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