In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 17 of 116
Out for a walk in a bit. Not sure if I need my umbrella or not.
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Moving. What a chore! I can't think of any handy good way to do it.
But I think you need boxes for the stuff you have to unpack first which are things you use every day: boxed food you eat often like cereal; 1 set of everday pots, pans, dishes, silverware, dish terg and sponges; a change of clothes, bathroom supplies, a few towels and washclothes, and one set of linens. And some things automatically sort themselves like clothes in a closet and clothes in a dresser.
OTOH you may or may not have a linen closet/ pantry/ built-in bookshelves/ desk/ in your new/ old place, so it makes no sense to me to be carefully organizing everything by one set of organization. Just put it all in boxes and sort it when you get there according to the rooms, closets and storage spaces in the new place. One family I know used the extra clothes and linens to pack the fragile stuff. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Wow, that's a big job SIX. We're doing similar work on our house, but due to age and debility much of it is going to conractors. In fact, we just has three very large single pane windows replaced ... actually one of those was a sliding glass door converted to a window. It made a huge difference in the comfort of the house and the heat load on the A/C. Hubby has the idea that we're going to renovate he bathrooms ourselves. Boy, I dunno. I have just enough energy to do the three things I have to do every day (walk the dog for a half hour, yardwork for an hour and cooking for two hours plus whatever errands I have to run and finances I need to take care of) and then I have maybe another hour in me, and then I'm done. I guess because I'm limited by energy and my knees I kinda peck away at things, but big jobs .... ?
Now, hubby likes to do big jobs in one fell swwop. Difference in work style... gets us bolloxed up sometimes.
Are you sure you know where the water is coming in? It might be coming in from more than one place ... windows and roof, for example. It would be a shame to do all of that repair and then have it get all wet again with the next thunderstorm! What kind of flooring? Carpeting or something else? (Thats another thing we had done: repalce carpeting with flooring that we had bought ages ago for the project)
But I look forward to the pictures though! Please be sure to take "before" and "in process" and "after" pictures. We've had a lot of things done and are tackling the big post-retirement cleanup (pecking away at it!) and I've always forgotten to take "before" pictures, so it's hard to get an overall view of the progress. It's hard sometimes to see where you've gotten unless you can see where you've been.
Cheering you on, SIX! Let's hope no nosy neighbor calls the city inspector on you!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
My neighbors are cool. I'm not worried about them. Code enforcement drives around fairly regularly though, and I don't know the new guy. Used to talk to the old guy all the time, but he retired around 5 years ago.
My windows are probably going to be an issue. That's why, unfortunately, I'm doing things a bit counter-intuitively by fixing the floor first. I figure if I get a visit, I at least want the floor to be secure and it will just look like a window replacement job.
I know exactly where the water is coming in from. There's no problem with the roof. It's the single pane crap aluminum windows. Especially in the front of the house. That's one thing I won't be posting is the before pics of how it's set up right now, because as far as I know, mine is the only house in the country with this "feature" and there's no reason for me to be posting things like that online. Let's just say that the front of the porch facing the street is ugly as hell and wasn't constructed professionally and if I were to spend 15 minutes washing the front of it again I'd have 30 gallons of water on the inside.
I'm haven't put much thought into what the flooring will be in the end. My only concern at this point is gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows in there and sealing the room up from the elements. Once I start, I have to do it all fairly quickly. But when those things are finished I can do the rest of the job at my leisure.
My step-dad is supposed to come in with my mom to help next month. The first time I've seen them since we moved.
We're having a bit of a
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"gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows" So - down to the studs. Did that w/ the interior of most of the house a few years back - 2 paid people working but I did maybe a quarter of the job evenings and weekends. Do you have any basic construction knowledge, like materials to use or code requirements? Anyway, make sure the floor joists are good then, if they've been exposed to a lot of water they may be rotten.
I don't understand why the move has to be a big secret. It's not like your Grandma, brother or father can actually * DO * anything to stop the whole fiasco. And they're going to find out at some point anyway.
But I agree that it sucks for your mom's health. Is * SHE * ok with it all? Or has she been Shanghaied? Are you in good and free (frequent, unmonitored, uncensored) communication with her? She must have her own email/ phone, right?
ETA - also check for rot in the window framing and wall studs.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Moving. What a chore! I can't think of any handy good way to do it.
But I think you need boxes for the stuff you have to unpack first which are things you use every day: boxed food you eat often like cereal; 1 set of everday pots, pans, dishes, silverware, dish terg and sponges; a change of clothes, bathroom supplies, a few towels and washclothes, and one set of linens. And some things automatically sort themselves like clothes in a closet and clothes in a dresser.
OTOH you may or may not have a linen closet/ pantry/ built-in bookshelves/ desk/ in your new/ old place, so it makes no sense to me to be carefully organizing everything by one set of organization. Just put it all in boxes and sort it when you get there according to the rooms, closets and storage spaces in the new place. One family I know used the extra clothes and linens to pack the fragile stuff. :)
Practically zero storage space where I am but lots where I am going. So things will have to wait until I move. I will do what I can before next Saturday then everything will have to wait until then. No choice. Can't take anything over to the new place before because of things happening there.
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Apparently an attempted armed robbery went down at the local strip mall I was at today. Lady who runs the local hamburger place in the mall with her husband was around the area when it happened. She saw cops with their guns drawn. Another person who was watching the proceedings told her that one of the 2 suspects was armed.
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Well that's exciting / nerve-wracking depending on your pov!
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
"gutting what needs to be gutted, replacing whatever needs to be replaced structurally, and getting new good windows" So - down to the studs. Did that w/ the interior of most of the house a few years back - 2 paid people working but I did maybe a quarter of the job evenings and weekends. Do you have any basic construction knowledge, like materials to use or code requirements? Anyway, make sure the floor joists are good then, if they've been exposed to a lot of water they may be rotten.
I don't understand why the move has to be a big secret. It's not like your Grandma, brother or father can actually * DO * anything to stop the whole fiasco. And they're going to find out at some point anyway.
But I agree that it sucks for your mom's health. Is * SHE * ok with it all? Or has she been Shanghaied? Are you in good and free (frequent, unmonitored, uncensored) communication with her? She must have her own email/ phone, right?
ETA - also check for rot in the window framing and wall studs.
I'm more of a remodel guy and light handyman. I have some basic structural knowledge, but I really need my Step-Dad's help with that stuff, otherwise I'm going to be turning to YouTube for more than I really feel comfortable with. I've also never done windows before either, which could be a bit of a problem when I'm trying to do this on the downlow and I'm going to be installing 7 large windows that are going to need framing in a hurry.
Fortnuately, the electric is good. I was half expecting to find a bunch of romex cables, but it's all conduit. I do plan on re-situating some of that, but it will hardly be any work at all. I had to install all new electric in the basement after I gutted it.
As far as my mom is concerned, she seems great with it. She's not being shanghaied. Honestly, I've never seen a more loving relationship than what they have. They'd literally die for each other, and I have no doubt about that. It's the type of relationship where I think after one of them goes the other will be soon to follow from heartbreak.
But they're both so damned impulsive. They lost a lot of money when they had to do a fire sale on their old house, our cottage we had since my childhood and their business when they decided less than 2 years ago they were moving to Arizona and bought the house long before anything else got sold. I have no doubts they're going to take another huge hit on this as well.
I don't trust his kids, especially when it comes to my mom if something were to happen to him. He's in great shape for his age, but he's no spring chicken.
My feelings are just kind of hurt here about this whole thing, and if the humidity was no longer an issue, they could just move to Indiana and keep the low taxes and they'd have plenty of family close by... like their granddaughter that they haven't seen in a year and a half.
I'm trying to keep from saying anything that's going to keep us from talking to each other another 10 years. We have a history of that, and I thought we were long past something like that happening again.
I just need the warm weather to come back tomorrow so I can get some work done and keep my mind off of it. It was in the 30's with the windchill today here and I've spent most of the day bundled up and vedging out with these thoughts in my head.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Moving.
One personal trick (now called life hacks) I recall was what you could call cat burglary.
After the largest or most orderly stuff was boxed or stacked, I would always keep behind sleeping bags, large comforters, Beach blankets. I would toss odds and ends into the sleeping bags, then grasp it by the neck and haul it. Comforters and blankets are lesser versions, but by that time the odds and ends were smaller and fewer, but gathering the 4 corners together and tying them together like a hobo sack still worked great. Pillowcases haul the silverware and some knickknacks.
Not sure what is available to Brenda - vehicles, vans, trucks, trailers, several sturdy men, etc. Or what kind of stuff - furniture, huge furniture, assembly furniture, mattresses, etc.
If sturdy men are available, then having some dollies, carts, roller trucks can help, hauling 4-5 boxes at once instead of wearing your guys out shuffling around with only one box at a time. Those can be borrowed, or rented from appliance shops (often closed and carts unused on weekends).
For dressers, I would just carry out the drawers as if they were boxes, not bothering to transfer them to boxes in between.
When quick turnaround was needed, I would rent one of those storage lockers for a month or a week, and move the most time consuming or hardest stuff into the locker, then after moving day reverse the process. If you have a friend with a garage, that would make due. If the garage floor is not clean, a layer of cardboard to stack the boxes on top of works, or else I used discarded pallets. I think once I used pallets, with a tarp cover, and left it outdoors, when I had tape sealed the boxes. Or I put each box inside a large garbage bag.
I would stack or stage most of the stuff next to the door, or largest entryway (like patio door, removing both sides), or other Line of Demarcation. Less time wandering through the whole space on moving day, just a step or 2 inside the door, and back out with more boxes.
Night before moving day, mattress on the floor, only final necessities are not yet packed - like what you would have for a motel night. Bed disassembled at least the day before.
Oh, and use every piece of luggage stuffed with items, packed with linens and blankets for fragiles. Cheap luggage and seabags can be found at Goodwill, etc. Thrown out luggage doesn't need to be pretty for long-term possession, just holds together for a few days - and with roller wheels on the luggage, even better.
You could ask friends to borrow their luggage, as well. How many of your friends are not on vacation the next week?
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Well that's exciting / nerve-wracking depending on your pov!
Nerve wracking as I would like to do more but can't.
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Nice. I've been doing some spring cleaning and I found one of two large CD books I had years ago and thought I had thrown out after I got rid of all of my burned CD's and DVDs in the whole house purge that was instigated after a binge watching session of hoarders. Hopefully I can find the other one.
I'm going to put the movies I buy at Goodwill in there and put the cases in my attic.
Half price day at Goodwill again today. I might put a little more down on DVDs now that I'm pretty sure I want to start doing this. They had a lot of good ones last half price day, but I was extremely picky since I was still on the fence about this.
Hopefully I can find some more pairs of Levis and a few more good shirts too. Since half of my days at work are going to be while customers are in the store, I don't think they're going to extend the same courtesy to the night shift about wearing clothes with holes in them. This job is extremely rough on clothing.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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No clothes today :(
Great movie haul for $18 though.
American Psycho
The Boondock Saints
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dark Knight
The Fast and the Furious
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Mummy (Brendan Fraser)
National Lampoon's Van Wilder
Nothing But Trouble
Super Troopers (New, still shrink wrapped)
Thank You For Smoking
Underworld
Vanilla Sky
Also got a copy of Burn After Reading on BluRay (Great movie). I'll have to keep an eye out for those. The only other BluRay they had was Paranormal Activity 3 and I wouldn't even spend a buck for that on BluRay.
They had two copies of each of the Lord of the Rings movies on the list, and the ones I got were without blemish. They only had one copy of The Fellowship of the Ring though, and it was scratched to hell. No all day binge watching session of TLoTR until I can get my hands on that one. :)
I'm going to have to start making a list and taking it with me when I go. Especially when sequels become involved, I could see how it would be easy for somebody to buy multiple copies of movies they already own.
They had quite a few other good movies there, but most of them were in pretty bad shape. I'm tempering what I buy by being extremely picky when it comes to the condition of the discs.
I was a little disappointed to see that "Her" didn't have the disc in it. I've heard a lot of good things about that movie and haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Jack, you have ENERGY!
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Out for a walk in the sun in a bit. Got to get away from this onion smell in here. Cooking upstairs.
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Quote:Is your store not a 24 hour store? You used to work nights, when the store was always closed?
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nice. I've been doing some spring cleaning and I found one of two large CD books I had years ago and thought I had thrown out after I got rid of all of my burned CD's and DVDs in the whole house purge that was instigated after a binge watching session of hoarders. Hopefully I can find the other one.
I'm going to put the movies I buy at Goodwill in there and put the cases in my attic.
Half price day at Goodwill again today. I might put a little more down on DVDs now that I'm pretty sure I want to start doing this. They had a lot of good ones last half price day, but I was extremely picky since I was still on the fence about this.
Hopefully I can find some more pairs of Levis and a few more good shirts too. Since half of my days at work are going to be while customers are in the store, I don't think they're going to extend the same courtesy to the night shift about wearing clothes with holes in them. This job is extremely rough on clothing.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Have you already seen Cabin in the Woods and Thank You For Smoking?
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
No clothes today :(
Great movie haul for $18 though.
American Psycho
The Boondock Saints
The Cabin in the Woods
The Dark Knight
The Fast and the Furious
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters II
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Mummy (Brendan Fraser)
National Lampoon's Van Wilder
Nothing But Trouble
Super Troopers (New, still shrink wrapped)
Thank You For Smoking
Underworld
Vanilla Sky
Also got a copy of Burn After Reading on BluRay (Great movie). I'll have to keep an eye out for those. The only other BluRay they had was Paranormal Activity 3 and I wouldn't even spend a buck for that on BluRay.
They had two copies of each of the Lord of the Rings movies on the list, and the ones I got were without blemish. They only had one copy of The Fellowship of the Ring though, and it was scratched to hell. No all day binge watching session of TLoTR until I can get my hands on that one. :)
I'm going to have to start making a list and taking it with me when I go. Especially when sequels become involved, I could see how it would be easy for somebody to buy multiple copies of movies they already own.
They had quite a few other good movies there, but most of them were in pretty bad shape. I'm tempering what I buy by being extremely picky when it comes to the condition of the discs.
I was a little disappointed to see that "Her" didn't have the disc in it. I've heard a lot of good things about that movie and haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I also recommend having both a list of what you have, in which format, and a list of what are your top most wanted.
Have you seen The Bodyguard? Seeing it on TV, I just realized that in the film, Whitney was introduced to I Will Always Love You (her biggest hit) from the jukebox playing John Doe's version, where she critiqued and belittled it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Is your store not a 24 hour store? You used to work nights, when the store was always closed?
It's not a 24 hour store. Opens in the morning a few hours after we are done, and it closes right around the time I get there (I always show up about 1/2 hour early, get my coffee and punch in early with the manager's approval).
We still have overnights, for now. Been hearing since February that the change was to happen sometime next month, but nobody knows anything for sure. They've rescheduled a lot of the vendor trucks on days, so it is happening. Just a matter of when.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Have you already seen Cabin in the Woods and Thank You For Smoking?
Yeah. I actually just introduced my old man and my brother to Cabin in the Woods a few weeks ago... my second viewing. Love that movie.
I saw thank you for smoking around the time it came out and I liked it. Huge difference in the overall political landscape in America just that short time ago. Wouldn't mind watching it again now, and at just a buck for a flawless copy I figured why not.
Quote:
I also recommend having both a list of what you have, in which format, and a list of what are your top most wanted.
Yeah. Probably not a bad idea. For instance, the two LOTR movies I have are the Widescreen version with a Bonus DVD. I'll bet there were probably 12 versions of them. The Ghostbusters movies were in a two pack that came with a cool little sketch book. Van Wilder is the "Unrated" version.
I'm not looking at getting multiple versions of any movies, save maybe a few that might warrant it. Titles like Brazil with it's alternate endings come to mind. I can't imagine any reason why I'd need two separate versions of Van Wilder, unless of course the "Unrated" version is so over the top that I don't enjoy it like I did the original movie... which is possible.
Right now, the only movies that are MUST haves on my list are Galaxy Quest, Idiocracy and Office Space. I lucked out and found Office Space on my first visit and it was my first purchase. Still haven't found the other two yet.
There probably were about 30 more there yesterday that I wouldn't mind having in my collection. Some of them were pretty high up on the list in my mind, but they were pretty beat up. The rest of them I didn't even bother looking at since I already had a huge stack. No need to rush this or anything. I'm sure that unwanted DVDs are all over the place these days.
Quote:
Have you seen The Bodyguard? Seeing it on TV, I just realized that in the film, Whitney was introduced to I Will Always Love You (her biggest hit) from the jukebox playing John Doe's version, where she critiqued and belittled it.
Yeah. I was probably like 11 years old when I watched it, and it didn't impress me at that age. Is it any good? I've never seen it with adult eyes.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Man... Been up for hours now and couldn't sleep. I've got so much to do in the next two days while we're in the 70's, but I'm still bundled up and vegging out since it's still in the damn 40's right now.
I had to break down and put my furnace on again yesterday, and it was on for a long time. I could actually see my breath.
Adding a lawn mowing and spraying for weeds to my current to-do list today. Thought I wouldn't be doing that for a few weeks, but even though we keep dipping back into the cold there's been enough rain and warm days that the lawn's already looking shaggy and I need to get ahead of the weeds before they get crazy like they did last year.
Gotta fix the "flap" on the side of the mower too. I broke it a few summers ago and I'm tired of wasting my roll of aluminum tape to seal it every other time I mow the lawn. I think I'm going to just drill a few pilot holes and wrap some electrical wire around two short screws that wouldn't interfere with the blade. Maybe 4 if two isn't enough.
So ghetto, but I'm not buying a new lawnmower just because that stupid flap broke off. I never bag the clippings anyhow, so I don't need it. Might be a bit harder to clean out without access, but unless I can come up with a better solution, this is it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Nice. :)
I used bolts instead of screws and it worked perfect. Made two holes in the metal frame of the lawnmower on both sides of the flap with plenty of clearance for the mower blade by using a small drill bit for a pilot hole, then stepping it up twice with larger bits until I had holes just the right size for the bolts I was going to use.
Got two short bolts, in combination with 2 washers and nuts each and made them super tight. Hardly any of the bolts are in the inside, and about 1/3" sticking out above the outside nuts. Wrapped one end of a scrap wire up tight on one side, fit the flap in where it should go, brought the wire across to the other side and used some needle nose pliers to tighten it up to the point that it won't move.
Stepped back and marveled at my genius. 
Mowed the whole lawn without incident. I'll be monitoring during a few more mowings to make sure it's not loosening up at all because of the vibration of the blade/motor and bouncing all over my crappy lawn, but I think I can consider this problem finally solved. :)
Next was the car...
Oil was reading at just about "E" on the dipstick. Though you can wait 5 minutes and never see a drop when it's parked, the cardboard I had under it in the garage all winter was soaked in spots. I look to have lost about a quart of oil since somewhere around July last year when I did the work on fixing it. Hard to say if anything is leaking from the seal I fixed without tearing half the car apart again, but my car always had a leak since day one... Unless it gets worse I'll assume that this problem was fixed as well and just remember to put a 1/4 of a quart in every 2 or so months from here on out.
I won't be parking on the old man's driveway as long as I own that car, but 1 quart lost over 9 months is a damn sight better than having to put 1 1/2 quarts in every time I did a 40 mile round trip.
Tweaked the downshift cable quite a bit and gave it a spin on the expressway. My acceleration problem all but gone now too. Before this tweak, there was a very noticeable "bump" that happened when putting my foot on the break and switching from Reverse to Drive and back, but it's baby smooth now. Still isn't perfect on the road, but after how bad it had gotten last summer it's hardly noticeable anymore.
Going to ride with it like this for the next week while I'm working and see how it goes. I might make another tweak or two here or there after that and see what happens, but I don't think I'll have to buy the new wire kit.
I think I'm going to screw off for the rest of the day. I can always spray for weeds tomorrow. :)
Oh... and it's funny how the brain works....
I got the idea for the "flap fix assembly" on my lawn mower from the design of the accelerator and downshift cables. In order to tighten or loosen them, you first need to loosen a nut on one side of it and tighten it up on the other side (bringing the tube the wire sits in closer or further apart from the pulley).
I just had both of those things on my mind this morning and my brain put them both together I guess.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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If you clean the bottom of your engine, you can later Jack up the car, scoot under the engine to see where oil is coming from.
I don't understand why you need a flap on your discharge slot. When I was a kid, mowers never had a flap.
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Nothing to do with lawn mowers, cars, or moving (hi Brenda!) ...
so I was running some errands today, and I like to check out the plants. The trees started leafing out about 3 weeks ago, more or less depending on species and situation. Some looked terribly drought-damaged, with large bare limbs sticking up out of deformed leafy crowns. (And many of them were on private-home lots, so I assume they were getting some supplemental water.) I was curious if those bare limbs were well and truly dead, or just damaged. It looks like most of them were just damaged, though they look funny because they have a few leaves at the tips and a lot of bare space below. If we don't get super-hot-dry-windy weather in the next 6 weeks or so, I think the trees can recover completely.
But some of the trees look dead, like a large jacaranda (Brazil native) on somebody's front lawn, and some of the liquidambar on the far side of a commercial parking lot. That's too bad about the liquidambar because they were large trees and made nice shady parking spaces in summer! But while liquidambar are native NA trees, they prefer moist areas. So planting them in SoCal - not a good choice!
jacaranda in bloom
liquidambar are tall pyramidal deciduous trees ...
... prized for their fall color which ranges from some brilliant gold through orange, cherry red, and into deep maroon
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
If you clean the bottom of your engine, you can later Jack up the car, scoot under the engine to see where oil is coming from.
I'd have to jack up the car to clean the bottom of my engine. :)
I might go ahead and try a bottle of your STP and see what happens. The leak is super small to only lose about a quart in 9 months.
Quote:
I don't understand why you need a flap on your discharge slot. When I was a kid, mowers never had a flap.
Every mower I've ever seen has one. Not sure if you're not understanding my meaning or not. When this thing would come off it would shoot clippings everywhere into the wind and when I'm covered in sweat it was kind of like being tarred and feathered.
EDIT:
Here's a picture of what I mean. It's the flap that goes over the discharge chute attachment that I never use. The whole flap broke off, and I had been taping it up every other week with aluminum tape that would eventually break and I'd have a mess blowing all over me.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Jack - at that rate o loss I don't think you have a leak, I think some is going past the piston rings and being burned. If you go to a heavier multi-weight oil - 10W40 or 10W50 if you can find it, you might take care of the problem.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Hey Jack - at that rate o loss I don't think you have a leak, I think some is going past the piston rings and being burned. If you go to a heavier multi-weight oil - 10W40 or 10W50 if you can find it, you might take care of the problem.
It's possible there might be some burnoff, but I have cardboard down in my garage for a reason and after 9 months it looked to have quite a bit on it. I just threw it out today and put new cardboard down.
I've been using 10w40 ever since I had the massive leak. It was less than half the price of the 10w30 Pennzoil where I work.
I went through over 7 boxes of 12 quarts in about 5 months before I replaced the seal. I only had 8 quarts left of the 8th box.
I've only lost 1 quart in 9 months, comparatively speaking.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Which sounds FANTASTIC! to me!
My poor car - it's a 95 Toyota which are supposed to be brick solid, but it had a blown head gasket, so, more than the average wear and tear - goes thru about a quart every 2 months. But I know the what and how.
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Quote:I highly recommend you add STP Oil Treatment. 6ix is still going to not listen.
Originally posted by rue:
Which sounds FANTASTIC! to me!
My poor car - it's a 95 Toyota which are supposed to be brick solid, but it had a blown head gasket, so, more than the average wear and tear - goes thru about a quart every 2 months. But I know the what and how.
I like buying oil at $1/qt when On Sale. At Farm & Fleet, which is somewhat of a competitor of Menard's, Home Depot, or the old type of Lumber/hardware stores.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:I highly recommend you add STP Oil Treatment. 6ix is still going to not listen.
Originally posted by rue:
Which sounds FANTASTIC! to me!
My poor car - it's a 95 Toyota which are supposed to be brick solid, but it had a blown head gasket, so, more than the average wear and tear - goes thru about a quart every 2 months. But I know the what and how.
I like buying oil at $1/qt when On Sale. At Farm & Fleet, which is somewhat of a competitor of Menard's, Home Depot, or the old type of Lumber/hardware stores.
I just said a few posts up now that the leak is minimal that I'm going to give it a shot. I'll let you know what happens.
Anything I read about those oil treatments, even from the makers of the treatments themselves, said that it wouldn't have worked with the severe leak that I had before I fixed it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:My mistake.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:I highly recommend you add STP Oil Treatment. 6ix is still going to not listen.
Originally posted by rue:
Which sounds FANTASTIC! to me!
My poor car - it's a 95 Toyota which are supposed to be brick solid, but it had a blown head gasket, so, more than the average wear and tear - goes thru about a quart every 2 months. But I know the what and how.
I like buying oil at $1/qt when On Sale. At Farm & Fleet, which is somewhat of a competitor of Menard's, Home Depot, or the old type of Lumber/hardware stores.
I just said a few posts up now that the leak is minimal that I'm going to give it a shot. I'll let you know what happens.
Anything I read about those oil treatments, even from the makers of the treatments themselves, said that it wouldn't have worked with the severe leak that I had before I fixed it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Stress, stress, stress. Worry, worry, worry.
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Hi BRENDA!
Whazzup?
Anything specific that you're worried about?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hi BRENDA!
Whazzup?
Anything specific that you're worried about?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Hey Sig,
Nothing too specific. Just this move and trying to get some extra help and all.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
I don't understand why you need a flap on your discharge slot. When I was a kid, mowers never had a flap.
Every mower I've ever seen has one. Not sure if you're not understanding my meaning or not. When this thing would come off it would shoot clippings everywhere into the wind and when I'm covered in sweat it was kind of like being tarred and feathered.
EDIT:
Here's a picture of what I mean. It's the flap that goes over the discharge chute attachment that I never use. The whole flap broke off, and I had been taping it up every other week with aluminum tape that would eventually break and I'd have a mess blowing all over me.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
6ix, go buy the part, would you please?
Genuine MTD 987-02516A Hinged Mulch Plug Fits Bolens Craftsman Huskee Troy Bilt
$14.21
Free shipping
Arrives by Friday, May 3
www.walmart.com/ip/Genuine-MTD-987-02516A-Hinged-Mulch-Plug-Fits-Bolen
s-Craftsman-Huskee-Troy-Bilt/844025261
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Looks like rain today.
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Quote:6ix, go buy the part, would you please?
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
I don't understand why you need a flap on your discharge slot. When I was a kid, mowers never had a flap.
Every mower I've ever seen has one. Not sure if you're not understanding my meaning or not. When this thing would come off it would shoot clippings everywhere into the wind and when I'm covered in sweat it was kind of like being tarred and feathered.
EDIT:
Here's a picture of what I mean. It's the flap that goes over the discharge chute attachment that I never use. The whole flap broke off, and I had been taping it up every other week with aluminum tape that would eventually break and I'd have a mess blowing all over me.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Genuine MTD 987-02516A Hinged Mulch Plug Fits Bolens Craftsman Huskee Troy Bilt
$14.21
Free shipping
Arrives by Friday, May 3
www.walmart.com/ip/Genuine-MTD-987-02516A-Hinged-Mulch-Plug-Fits-Bolen
s-Craftsman-Huskee-Troy-Bilt/844025261
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
I may be wrong here, and correct me if I am, but I don't believe I've mentioned what make my lawnmower is since back around the time I got it, which would have been about 7 to 8 years ago now. I do remember going into detail here about how great a mower it was for the price back then, years before I became a raving drunk lunatic here, but I don't recall making mention of it once since I sobered up.
But there's the link for the exact cap that I would need for my lawn mower.
Can't lie. That's a pretty creepy post there, Second.
Kudos, I suppose, for the chilling level of a rare appearance by you in the garden and rain thread. Instead of getting paranoid and buying an alarm system for my house, I'm just going say that I'm flattered that you find me so interesting that you read through enough of my old posts to know what lawnmower I owned.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Sunny now and sunny tomorrow. Also should be dry for my move which will be nice.
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Quote:6ix wrote eight years back on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:46 PM
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I may be wrong here, and correct me if I am, but I don't believe I've mentioned what make my lawnmower is since back around the time I got it, which would have been about 7 to 8 years ago now. I do remember going into detail here about how great a mower it was for the price back then, years before I became a raving drunk lunatic here, but I don't recall making mention of it once since I sobered up.
But there's the link for the exact cap that I would need for my lawn mower.
Can't lie. That's a pretty creepy post there, Second.
Kudos, I suppose, for the chilling level of a rare appearance by you in the garden and rain thread. Instead of getting paranoid and buying an alarm system for my house, I'm just going say that I'm flattered that you find me so interesting that you read through enough of my old posts to know what lawnmower I owned.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
(start at the bottom of a long-long post)
www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=2&tid=49651&mid=871809#87
1809
I've got a Troy-Bilt self propelled mower/mulcher that has a Briggs and Stratton engine in it. That thing will clean out your yard and you wouldn't even know that you didn't bag it. My lawn is HUGE and neighbors tell me they can't believe I don't use a rider. Sure, it takes me about 75 minutes to mow the lawn, but I'm just listening to my mp3 player in my own little world and time flies.
To the untrained eye, everyone else thinks I'm pushing the damned thing, but it really does about 95% of the work itself. The 5% of the "work" I have to do with it is the 5% or more of the areas your oversized thug of a rider can't reach and you'd have to use a regular push mower anyways. Seriously, this thing kicks ass, vaporizes grass, and you can dance in circles with it.
It's one of the most impressive machines I've ever owned.
Let me know if you want the link to it.
Besides, a little walking is good exercise :)
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Yup. There it is.
I prefer the free solution. 8 years later and I've never used the chute once.
My fix allows for a new one, if I ever change my mind. I didn't break anything or diminish the integrity of the housing. Just two 1/4" holes is all. It's not as if I'm looking to sell it anytime soon, and after doing all that work fixing my car, I'll probably be able to keep that mower running forever.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Almost one last time before I have to sign off due to this move. I hate people!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Almost one last time before I have to sign off due to this move. I hate people!
We're not all bad, Brenda.
But I hear ya.
Good luck in the new place. So happy for you.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Almost one last time before I have to sign off due to this move. I hate people!
We're not all bad, Brenda.
But I hear ya.
Good luck in the new place. So happy for you.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I know. It was just that the lady that I work for and her husband stopped by last night to try and see what they WILL NOT help me with.
10 minutes of them ^&&*&^&*&^&*&&&******* around. I told her that I would be at work, so I could clear my head. Then when I get back I will do some more repacking tonight.
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Quote:Will you still be here after the move? Do you use the Library computer?
Originally posted by Brenda:
Almost one last time before I have to sign off due to this move. I hate people!
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Forecast for here Saturday is snow.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Will you still be here after the move? Do you use the Library computer?
Originally posted by Brenda:
Almost one last time before I have to sign off due to this move. I hate people!
Yes, I will be able to use my local library after the move until I get set up again. I will log on to let everyone know how things went.
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I have my fingers crossed that all goes well. Bon chance!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I have my fingers crossed that all goes well. Bon chance!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Merci Sig. I can use all the good wishes I can get. I am so twitchy right now I don't know what to do with myself. Not sure how much sleep I will get tonight. Going to try and do a few more things before I try to sleep.
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Stupid ass cellphone has an ad on it that keeps pinging and telling me it is there. Too lazy to clear it out. I will.
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Waiting, waiting, waiting for moving help to arrive and for my idiot landlady to get husband or whoever to move the crap from around the door for the movers. Stupid ass woman.
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I'm moved and for a minute coming to you from my local library.
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Hooray!!! BRENDA! One big step forward!!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Take a breath, Brenda.
This is a happy day. Moving sucks big time. Everything's going to be fine.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:I'm glad for you.
Originally posted by BRENDA:
I'm moved and for a minute coming to you from my local library.
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I agree with SIX - moving is a pain!! I hope you're settling in comfortably BRENDA.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Hey SIX, how's the reno going?
More importantly, how are things with the folks? I don't understand this move that they're making, it DOES seem pretty implusive and maybe not the greatest decision ever. I hope things turn out alright for both of them ... especially your mom, since it sounds like she might be isolated from any family support she would enjoy in IN. If I were in your shoes I'd be hurt. But it seems to me that you realize that you can't control their decisions, and it sounds like you're aware enuf not to make her possible isolation worse by lashing out and freezing them out so I think you're doing everything you can. If it makes any difference, I feel for you. You have my virtual sympathy.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Well, I finally got the big back bedroom walls painted. I can only devote a few hours every other day before I have to run off and shop, or walk the dog, or take someone to the doctor, or do yardwork, or cook, or something. Plus, I had to seal the walls first. But the walls look great, it's the softest off-gray I could find; very relaxing. The trim will be bright white and the ceiling a soft white with a hint of green. It will look cool in hot weather. Now I have to get curtain rods and drapes.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey SIX, how's the reno going?
More importantly, how are things with the folks? I don't understand this move that they're making, it DOES seem pretty implusive and maybe not the greatest decision ever. I hope things turn out alright for both of them ... especially your mom, since it sounds like she might be isolated from any family support she would enjoy in IN. If I were in your shoes I'd be hurt. But it seems to me that you realize that you can't control their decisions, and it sounds like you're aware enuf not to make her possible isolation worse by lashing out and freezing them out so I think you're doing everything you can. If it makes any difference, I feel for you. You have my virtual sympathy.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
The situation on both fronts isn't good, which is largely why I haven't posted anything about either of them. :(
The job has turned out to be more than I would be able to do myself. I have to make a choice now of getting professional help involved, or tearing down the porch. There was decades of structural damage beneath the walls and floor. I've been able to get under there and see that it stops 5 to 7 feet before the house, so I'm not really concerned that the only thing holding up the walls are the sheetrock in the home proper, but the terrible job these weekend warriors did on this addition back in the days where you didn't need to pull permits for such work is appalling. It's amazing to me that from the street you still can't see any evidence that something is amiss.
They really did a good job hiding the shoddy work too. I went for years not knowing what lied beneath and it wasn't until the floor started crumbling beneath it that I even had a clue.
I've been stressing heavily about this, but I'm formulating a plan right now. I've been thinking more and more about moving down by my brother to take some of the burden off my old man and to give him the peace of knowing that he's got family close by when he's no longer with us. This is way too much house for one person. There are houses within walking distance of my brother that are really nice 2 bed/1bath places with lawns that would take 15 minutes to mow instead of nearly 2 hours. They're reasonably priced, and if I could get double what I paid for my current place by putting $30-$40k into this place, I could still make money on it aside from living rent free for the last 8 years. Doubling what I bought it for isn't unreasonable either. It would still put the asking price around $13k less than what the previous owners had paid in 2006.
I love it down by where he lives. There isn't much surrounding the area, but the town does have a population over 15,000 people and it's not too far from Peoria. Plenty to do, and they've got great internet down there too.
I'm trying to look at the positives here. This porch scenario might be the catalyst to start the next chapter of my life. I've felt this house has been an albatross around my neck for years, and now it's finally coming to a head.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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What's the haps at the McJob?
How far does your niece live now? How far from Peoria? Are you talking Normal?
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Quote:
Hey SIX, how's the reno going?
More importantly, how are things with the folks? I don't understand this move that they're making, it DOES seem pretty implusive and maybe not the greatest decision ever. I hope things turn out alright for both of them ... especially your mom, since it sounds like she might be isolated from any family support she would enjoy in IN. If I were in your shoes I'd be hurt. But it seems to me that you realize that you can't control their decisions, and it sounds like you're aware enuf not to make her possible isolation worse by lashing out and freezing them out so I think you're doing everything you can. If it makes any difference, I feel for you. You have my virtual sympathy. SIGNY
The situation on both fronts isn't good, which is largely why I haven't posted anything about either of them. :(
The job has turned out to be more than I would be able to do myself. I have to make a choice now of getting professional help involved, or tearing down the porch. There was decades of structural damage beneath the walls and floor. I've been able to get under there and see that it stops 5 to 7 feet before the house, so I'm not really concerned that the only thing holding up the walls are the sheetrock in the home proper, but the terrible job these weekend warriors did on this addition back in the days where you didn't need to pull permits for such work is appalling. It's amazing to me that from the street you still can't see any evidence that something is amiss.
They really did a good job hiding the shoddy work too. I went for years not knowing what lied beneath and it wasn't until the floor started crumbling beneath it that I even had a clue.
I've been stressing heavily about this, but I'm formulating a plan right now. I've been thinking more and more about moving down by my brother to take some of the burden off my old man and to give him the peace of knowing that he's got family close by when he's no longer with us. This is way too much house for one person. There are houses within walking distance of my brother that are really nice 2 bed/1bath places with lawns that would take 15 minutes to mow instead of nearly 2 hours. They're reasonably priced, and if I could get double what I paid for my current place by putting $30-$40k into this place, I could still make money on it aside from living rent free for the last 8 years. Doubling what I bought it for isn't unreasonable either. It would still put the asking price around $13k less than what the previous owners had paid in 2006.
I love it down by where he lives. There isn't much surrounding the area, but the town does have a population over 15,000 people and it's not too far from Peoria. Plenty to do, and they've got great internet down there too.
I'm trying to look at the positives here. This porch scenario might be the catalyst to start the next chapter of my life. I've felt this house has been an albatross around my neck for years, and now it's finally coming to a head. -SIX
I can't really offer any pearls of wisdom, but I do have a few opinions.
In another thread, you posted about "painting yourself into a corner". Let me point out that a house is a refuge, and investment, AND an anchor. In your case, your house was what kept you from being HOMELESS. I KNOW homeless people and, trust me, you don't want to be one. Don't ever think that having a home was ever a mistake; Consider your other options at the time: rent? homelessness? Have no regrets: It was absolutely the right thing for you at the time.
It may even be the right thing for you into the future ... it's the magnitude of repairs combined with familial desertion that's throwing you for a loop. You won't be able to cure the desertion by your mom and FIL. No matter where you move .., unless you move to FL ... you will still be far away from them. And IF you move, you will no longer need t
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hooray!!! BRENDA! One big step forward!!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Yup, movers were late though. So took longer than I anticipated.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Take a breath, Brenda.
This is a happy day. Moving sucks big time. Everything's going to be fine.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Still deep breathing even after a week. Believe it or not.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:I'm glad for you.
Originally posted by BRENDA:
I'm moved and for a minute coming to you from my local library.
Thanks JSF.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I agree with SIX - moving is a pain!! I hope you're settling in comfortably BRENDA.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
I'm settling Sig.
Almost have a living room. Just a few more boxes to clear out. Then I can get a couch and a small kitchen table. Course as with any move I am still looking for things I bought before the move. *L*
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Cable, internet people coming tomorrow morning and I should be back on tomorrow night. If all goes well.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:I can't really offer any pearls of wisdom, but I do have a few opinions.
Hey SIX, how's the reno going?
More importantly, how are things with the folks? I don't understand this move that they're making, it DOES seem pretty implusive and maybe not the greatest decision ever. I hope things turn out alright for both of them ... especially your mom, since it sounds like she might be isolated from any family support she would enjoy in IN. If I were in your shoes I'd be hurt. But it seems to me that you realize that you can't control their decisions, and it sounds like you're aware enuf not to make her possible isolation worse by lashing out and freezing them out so I think you're doing everything you can. If it makes any difference, I feel for you. You have my virtual sympathy. SIGNY
The situation on both fronts isn't good, which is largely why I haven't posted anything about either of them. :(
The job has turned out to be more than I would be able to do myself. I have to make a choice now of getting professional help involved, or tearing down the porch. There was decades of structural damage beneath the walls and floor. I've been able to get under there and see that it stops 5 to 7 feet before the house, so I'm not really concerned that the only thing holding up the walls are the sheetrock in the home proper, but the terrible job these weekend warriors did on this addition back in the days where you didn't need to pull permits for such work is appalling. It's amazing to me that from the street you still can't see any evidence that something is amiss.
They really did a good job hiding the shoddy work too. I went for years not knowing what lied beneath and it wasn't until the floor started crumbling beneath it that I even had a clue.
I've been stressing heavily about this, but I'm formulating a plan right now. I've been thinking more and more about moving down by my brother to take some of the burden off my old man and to give him the peace of knowing that he's got family close by when he's no longer with us. This is way too much house for one person. There are houses within walking distance of my brother that are really nice 2 bed/1bath places with lawns that would take 15 minutes to mow instead of nearly 2 hours. They're reasonably priced, and if I could get double what I paid for my current place by putting $30-$40k into this place, I could still make money on it aside from living rent free for the last 8 years. Doubling what I bought it for isn't unreasonable either. It would still put the asking price around $13k less than what the previous owners had paid in 2006.
I love it down by where he lives. There isn't much surrounding the area, but the town does have a population over 15,000 people and it's not too far from Peoria. Plenty to do, and they've got great internet down there too.
I'm trying to look at the positives here. This porch scenario might be the catalyst to start the next chapter of my life. I've felt this house has been an albatross around my neck for years, and now it's finally coming to a head. -SIX
In another thread, you posted about "painting yourself into a corner". Let me point out that a house is a refuge, and investment, AND an anchor. In your case, your house was what kept you from being HOMELESS. I KNOW homeless people and, trust me, you don't want to be one. Don't ever think that having a home was ever a mistake; Consider your other options at the time: rent? homelessness? Have no regrets: It was absolutely the right thing for you at the time.
It may even be the right thing for you into the future ... it's the magnitude of repairs combined with familial desertion that's throwing you for a loop. You won't be able to cure the desertion by your mom and FIL. No matter where you move .., unless you move to FL ... you will still be far away from them. And IFNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Why have I not heard Brenda mention anything about luxuries such as HEAT, or HOT WATER?
Originally posted by BRENDA:
Cable, internet people coming tomorrow morning and I should be back on tomorrow night. If all goes well.
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I'm already beginning the process of finding people to take whatever furniture they want. I'm not looking to take much with me whenever I'm ready to go. Some of the stuff I have is really nice, but I never bought any of it. As long as I have a couch, a bed and a few dressers, I'm good. I don't need all of this clutter, and the next house I'm buying is going to be tiny compared to this one. As for the rest of my stuff? Except for all of my tools and electronics, if I haven't used it in 2 years, it's going to good will or the trash. I hate moving, and I'm not carting a bunch of crap to another house.
The porch is history. I had been talking myself into believing the last few weeks that I could save it, but I got to tear it down. It's out of level, the "support" structures make no sense and stuff that I would think was load bearing isn't even touching the ground. I'm liable to kill myself if I try to do this on my own, and there's no guaranty that I could even if I tried.
I'm definately not going to pay somebody to do it, since I'd never recoup that money without doing a ton of other work to the house. The money I'd spend getting the necessary structural repair work done, or building a new one from scratch would be far better spent putting a good furnace in there and finishing the upstairs and basement and some light touchups on the first floor.
I think if I do a tear down and fill in the hole, re-side the side of the house that will expose, and pull up the patio pavers the ants destroyed and put down a nice bed of river rock there instead, I could probably get away with $20,000 in repairs/upgrades and expect to see around $80,000 for the house (since it won't have an updated kitchen or bathroom).
I'll lose a little bit on that if it works out that way, but can't forget the 8 years of basically free living. I should be able to move where I want and get a finished and dry 2 bed/1 bathroom house with a small lot for 3/4 of that price and live right down the street from my brother.
We'll probably go see a movie at the local 2 screen theater every week. 5 bucks a show, even on weekends, and 8 bucks if you want pop and popcorn with it.
I've got a busy summer ahead of me...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Yard Sale.
Get rid of a bunch of stuff, it gets hauled away for you, you get some money. You could take pics of stuff too big or heavy to take to the yard.
Make a pitcher of lemonade, relax outside under some shade, take everybody's money.
Adding a 2nd bathroom can add a pile of value. Sounds like your basement has room. Shower, toilet, sink from discount or Restore can be very cheap, or even just toilet, sink, cabinets. Or even convert one of your closets, or under stair areas.
Leave the heat issue to next owners - let them make the decision they want instead of being stuck with your decision. They might want a certain type of heat, and/or A/C, High Efficiency, Solar Panels, etc. They might get Tax Incentives or allow the Government to buy them a new system.
Same with any remodel - whatever you choose won't be liked or appreciated by somebody, narrowing your market.
You still working?
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SIX, you're forgetting one big thing ... job??? Do you have a job to go to? Because it all sounds real sweet and nice where you're moving to, but it's not going to work out unless you're gainfully employed. Seems almost as impulsive as your mom and step dad.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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All I'd need is any near minimum wage job out there if I can buy a house that's water tight and won't fall apart with cash. Some of my step-mom's family live down there too. That's how my dad found out about the housing for my brother. My step cousin runs a landscaping business. I'm sure I could get some work from him too.
No yard sale, I'm afraid. Spent 3 days having one at my parents house and only sold 1/5th of the stuff they had and had to dump the rest anyhow. Only made about $450. People buying furniture that was thousands of dollars for IKEA prices. I'd rather people I liked get the stuff for free.
Quote:
Adding a 2nd bathroom can add a pile of value. Sounds like your basement has room. Shower, toilet, sink from discount or Restore can be very cheap, or even just toilet, sink, cabinets. Or even convert one of your closets, or under stair areas.
Leave the heat issue to next owners - let them make the decision they want instead of being stuck with your decision. They might want a certain type of heat, and/or A/C, High Efficiency, Solar Panels, etc. They might get Tax Incentives or allow the Government to buy them a new system.
Same with any remodel - whatever you choose won't be liked or appreciated by somebody, narrowing your market.
You still working?
There's a toilet in the basement. The standing shower unit was busted, but the basin remains and there's plumbing that works... it would just go everywhere without any walls. I could find a cheap vanity and put it in there and call it a half-bath with the potential for a full bath. No ceiling and the room was never finished.
The bottom half of all of the walls in the basement are still gone after I got rid of all the mold. My friend knows a lot about plumbing and he says he'll advise me on getting the sump system properly backed up so I can finally put the insulation, walls and trim back up without worrying that it would just flood again. I'd probably want to do something about the bare floor in the back "bedroom" down there. The living area sometimes takes on a minor amount of water during huge flood seasons like we recently had with the two weeks straight of rain that left my back yard looking like a marsh, so no carpet. The rest of the basement living space has nice ceramic tile that looks as good as the day I moved in. Maybe just put some cheap vinyl in the last room and call it a day.
Finishing the second floor would only require putting trim up everywhere, and putting doors on the closets. I wouldn't bother putting any money into the bathroom except for re-caulking everything that was caulked. I had already ripped up the carpeting and repaired and refinished the hardwood floors, and repaired the walls and ceilings and repainted everything.
First floor could use some minor wall repairs and a quick coat of paint. Kitchen is outdated, but I'm not going to sink any money into that. Cheap tile floor looks like hell though. I might buy some bargain basement cheap tile replacements and put new stuff down. Also need a banister going from the first to second floor. Not having one of those is probably a big contributor to when I nearly broke my back about 4 years ago. I've heard it's against code not to have one and I'd probably have to sell the house as-is if I didn't put one in before selling.
I need gutters too. Never got around to doing them.
Yeah. I'm still working. Overnight shift hasn't changed yet, as far as I know. I'll know more on Tuesday.
If they won't work with me with the same schedule, I'm going to offer to work weekends. I can't imagine that many people would do that, so I can't see why they'd turn that down. I'll need my free time more than ever now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Just keep in mind that if the economy slows down, or we suffer a giant crash, landscaping jobs will be the first to go as people try to save money. Also, don't ASSUME that you can get a job with your step-cousin, you better ASK. And you better be sure of the answer you get, and that it isn't wobbly.
However, if a job is assured and your daily expenses would be about the same here or there, then job or no job would have the same impact here or there. in other words, jobless at your new place would be the same as jobless at your current place, and all you would need to do is be able to pay taxes to stay "homed".
So after that, it's just a question of preerving your wealth; you want to make sure you don't LOSE any money selling your current house versus buying a new one.
Look at Zillow.com or redfin.com, or trulia.com or other alternate sites
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/100215/5-best-alternativ
es-zillow-trulia.asp
for "comps" (comparable sq footage/ number of beds/baths/ lot size) to get an idea what the prices are, if you haven't already. I don't look at asking prices, instead, I look at "recently sold". Just be aware that some sites (like zillow) dont't update as frequently as they should so some homes that come on the market may not show up for few weeks, also some homes sold or taken off the market. Also look at properties sold due to repossession: they really drag the price down.
The market is already sinking in "hot" areas (SF, Hamptons, Portland, Seattle etc) so ...
I agree about yard sales. I've had or helped with a couple of really successful ones (sold all our worldly possessions before moving cross country) but mostly they have been disappointing and not worth the effort. My most successful yard sale at had a bucket of machbooks, and when people tried to jerk me down from $0.25 for a $10 item I'd say "Pay the asking price and grab some matches" and it woked. The other successful one I helped run for ome friends, they just tok their stuff to an empty gas station lot at the corner pf two busy streets and sold nearly everything. So maybe there's something in there. call if "moving sale" and people will know there will be large items and you ight get better traffic.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Just keep in mind that if the economy slows down, or we suffer a giant crash, landscaping jobs will be the first to go as people try to save money. Also, don't ASSUME that you can get a job with your step-cousin, you better ASK. And you better be sure of the answer you get, and that it isn't wobbly.
However, if a job is assured and your daily expenses would be about the same here or there, then job or no job would have the same impact here or there. in other words, jobless at your new place would be the same as jobless at your current place, and all you would need to do is be able to pay taxes to stay "homed".
It's more than landscaping. It's mowing lawns and all other sorts of things. I haven't spoken to him in years, but he's a pretty handy guy like me. You're right. Shouldn't make assumptions about anything.
This place isn't exactly in the boonies though. There is a walmart, mcdonalds and other fast food joints. I assume there's at least one big box home depot type store around there. There aren't many decent jobs out there for 40 year old white males without college degrees in 2019, but there's always a shitty part time wage out there with the high turnoever rates of those jobs.
There is a difference between "suburbs" of Peoria vs. suburbs of Chicago though, even NWI suburbs. They are smaller, for sure. But that's part of the draw. It's also why the houses are more affordable out there. Some of the houses listed in that area that are far out of my reach top off around nearly $300k there. If they were in or around some of the Chicago suburbs I grew up in, they'd be closer to a million bucks.
There's no way around the taxes issue. Some light research on listed homes yesterday on the local assessor's office proved my theory right. Nearly any home that I move in will be somewhat to considerably more property taxes than I'm paying right now. After a low income tax break I get here, my yearly taxes are actually under $1,000. Taxes there would likely be anywhere from $600 to $800 more than I'm paying now, for a much smaller house and yard. Not a deal breaker by any means. It's still less than I thought I was going to pay in this house before I fought them. It's just something I'll have to add to my cost of living.
I've only seen one house in my desired price range that I really, really liked so far, but realized that it was 30 minutes away from my brother, defeating half of my purpose of moving. Not that I'm in any position yet to consider moving, but nothing so far popping up is what I'd be looking for. I definitely don't want to rush anything and want to make sure that I'd be happy with this one, since it's likely the house I'm going to die in this time.
Houses listed in my range right now require moderate to a large amount of work. I can deal with moderate. I don't want to take on another full rehab though, even if the land is dry. The problem with them, really, is that they're all larger homes too. I have no need for a $40,000 to $60,000 3-4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that needs a ton of work. I'm hoping to find a smaller 2 bed/1 bathroom house that is a lot closer to "move in" quality in that price range when I'm ready. My old man has looked out there from time to time and says that if they're not up there now, they will be.
My brother is going to be keeping an eye out now too, but I told him not to get his hopes up that this will happen any time soon. Emotionally, I want to leave tomorrow, but I know that I have a lot of work to do unless I want to lose a ton of equity. I'm not going to waste any money making this place my definition of "Perfect", but I do have a lot of things I could sink money into that were left unfinished that I shouldn't have any problems recouping on the back end. If I don't even attempt to make the basement
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Basement shower. Basin is there, but water would go all over? just get one of those shower curtains, makes a full circle, or leave one side a shower curtain that stays in place, overlapping, and then all the water just flows into the basin.
Walls are easy. Get the 2x4s at Home Depot that are discards, or whatever the term is for the cheap stuff. None of these are load bearing, so no big deal. If you want a vent, run it to join with your clothes dryer output. Doesnt need to be fancy, a 2nd bsath, or half bath, or 3/4 bath really makes a difference in the pricing, compared to 1 bath. Let new owners chose whatever remodeling they want to do with it. When you have a home with more than one shower, you cn remodel the other bath without a major inconvenience.
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It's just the base of one of those shower kits. There's bare studs behind it and bare joists on top of it. I could rig up a circular curtain, but it would be pretty ghetto.
Turns out I've got bigger problems. I noticed a big hole in the dirt by the house yesterday, and today I did some digging and investigating. It seems the ants have caused more havoc and there's been a lot of shifting of the ground in front of the house too. The storm drain pipe no longer is attached to the house. The shower I never use in the basement is expelled this way, as well as the laundry, the kitchen sink upstairs and the sump pump that is always working. (No sewage/toilets. The shower, sink and toilet upstairs as well as the toilet in the basement are expelled from the back of the house and there's no evidence there is any problems there).
The storm drain still has a grade down toward the street and doesn't seem to be backed up. When the pump runs, the water fills to the top of the hole, and is constantly draining through the pipe, but a lot of the water just goes into the soil around the pipe and stays right at the foundation. The pipe from the house is higher than the pipe in the sewer, and I checked a bunch of walls in the house and they all seem level. Checked the foundation inside and what I could see from the digging outside and it seems to still have all of its integrity. I don't believe the foundation of the house is sinking, because the pipe going out is higher than the detached storm drain by about 1/2". I have no clue how to fix this problem, even temporarily. I can't find anything online about it either.
I have no idea how long this has been going on. Could be for a very long time since my pump is always going off.
I'm kind of freaking out right now. I may just have to sell this house to anybody for any price before it all falls apart on me. I'm out of my depth here.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Back on line.
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6ix needs Flex-Seal. $20 at Walmart.
Wrap a rubber collar around the gap, spanning the separation, give a little play for future shifting. Seal it all with Felx-Seal. Test and fill it back in.
There used to be repair collars, like metal. But it seems everybody uses the rubber ones now. If your pipe size is small enough, you can just use the giant hose clamps - think I've seen 8" diameter repair rubber collars, and the hose clamps that go with them. See that stuff at home depot all the time. Once installed, the repair joints knda self-seal, from the gunk inside. Not going to stop it from separating in the future, but neither did your metal/concrete/whatever original, either.
Since you have a gap, that makes it really easy to install the repair collar.
To somewhat stress test it, fill both sinks in the kitchen, and the sump well just to a level right below the trigger. Then unstop both sinks, run down and hand trip the sump pump switch (or have a big bucket of water handy). If the ground stays dry, you are good.
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The gap is only around 1/8" It didn't really separate lengthwise all that much and it's just lower where the pipe goes out to the street than it is from the house. It looks clean, so I assume it was joined somehow, but I didn't find any remnants of whatever joined it while I was down there. I would probably have to cut part of the pipe to make it bigger to get a collar on there. Any idea how I could cut an iron pipe in a two foot deep, constantly wet and muddy hole?
I filled the hole back in yesterday after I miserably failed trying to rig up something temporary to join them. I figure that since there is still grade and a good deal of water still manages to make it out regardless, I didn't want that exposed to prying eyes while I'm having all these other problems that I'm going to have to get the city involved.
It's easy enough to dig back up. The clean out is my marker.... assuming that the mud doesn't get washed away immediately and I'm left with another hole in a week.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:For the collar, you might make your own if you don't want to cut a bought one. Take a metal shears to an old tire, they even have steel belting in them - maybe even run some bolts through the overlap (at the top). Then Flex-Seal the top overlap flap, plus the house side and Street side.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The gap is only around 1/8" It didn't really separate lengthwise all that much and it's just lower where the pipe goes out to the street than it is from the house. It looks clean, so I assume it was joined somehow, but I didn't find any remnants of whatever joined it while I was down there. I would probably have to cut part of the pipe to make it bigger to get a collar on there. Any idea how I could cut an iron pipe in a two foot deep, constantly wet and muddy hole?
I filled the hole back in yesterday after I miserably failed trying to rig up something temporary to join them. I figure that since there is still grade and a good deal of water still manages to make it out regardless, I didn't want that exposed to prying eyes while I'm having all these other problems that I'm going to have to get the city involved.
It's easy enough to dig back up. The clean out is my marker.... assuming that the mud doesn't get washed away immediately and I'm left with another hole in a week.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
For alignment, you didn't say how much play was in the street wide pipe. With all that flooding action, it may have settled and got packed down. Also, how much pipe sticking out of the house? If you are able to lift/hoist the end of the street side pipe, then wedge some bricks under it. With already settled &packed dirt, that can hold it up quite a while, without water washout all the time. Even surface bricks need vehicle weight to settle down much. Otherwise, some angle iron, triple strapped to the top of Street side pipe (leave a spacer for the collar), could then rest upon the house pipe, to keep the slope aligned.
Actually, that Flex-Seal is supposed to be quite durable. For the water-seal, maybe just duct tape the gap, providing a surface and form for the Flex-Seal to adhere to while it dries. But before you let all the dirt get dried and packed, see how much play there is in lifting that Street side pipe.
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There's just about zero play in the street pipe. It's packed down good. There are heavy decorative stone units that divide the lawn from the dirt on the side of the house for landscaping. I'm sure that weight isn't helping matters there.
I might be able to remove more dirt when I finally decide to do something about it, but whatever I do is likely to draw a lot of attention. My house is really far from the curb from your average house, but it's not going to look like I'm just doing gardening when my arms are disappearing down to my shoulder along the side of the house.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Your wheelbarrow or yard wagon full of gardening tools should hide you. Grab one for cheap at a yard sale.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
There's just about zero play in the street pipe. It's packed down good. There are heavy decorative stone units that divide the lawn from the dirt on the side of the house for landscaping. I'm sure that weight isn't helping matters there.
I might be able to remove more dirt when I finally decide to do something about it, but whatever I do is likely to draw a lot of attention. My house is really far from the curb from your average house, but it's not going to look like I'm just doing gardening when my arms are disappearing down to my shoulder along the side of the house.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Maybe those stone untis did the damage. After getting the pipe action done, on each side of the pipe, place and stack a few layers of brick. Put 6-12" or more of topsoil back on top. This should allow the brick to support the weight of the surface stones instead of the pipe.
If you haven't moved the stone unit directly above the pipe yet, then do the pipe stuff first, mark clearly where the pipe is (maybe eyeball a spot on the sidewalk and chqlkmark it), and then a week or 2 later go to the stone and move it to shore up bricks under it, or just leave it alone. If you didn't install those stones, then it took this long to create the problem, and will take that long for the problem to repeat.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Your wheelbarrow or yard wagon full of gardening tools should hide you. Grab one for cheap at a yard sale.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
There's just about zero play in the street pipe. It's packed down good. There are heavy decorative stone units that divide the lawn from the dirt on the side of the house for landscaping. I'm sure that weight isn't helping matters there.
I might be able to remove more dirt when I finally decide to do something about it, but whatever I do is likely to draw a lot of attention. My house is really far from the curb from your average house, but it's not going to look like I'm just doing gardening when my arms are disappearing down to my shoulder along the side of the house.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Maybe those stone untis did the damage. After getting the pipe action done, on each side of the pipe, place and stack a few layers of brick. Put 6-12" or more of topsoil back on top. This should allow the brick to support the weight of the surface stones instead of the pipe.
If you haven't moved the stone unit directly above the pipe yet, then do the pipe stuff first, mark clearly where the pipe is (maybe eyeball a spot on the sidewalk and chqlkmark it), and then a week or 2 later go to the stone and move it to shore up bricks under it, or just leave it alone. If you didn't install those stones, then it took this long to create the problem, and will take that long for the problem to repeat.
Wheelbarrow is a good idea. I've got one. Should do the trick. I'm not the bright shiny center of the universe, but when I'm doing something like this you just get that paranoid feeling that all eyes are on you.
By "stone units", I mean things that are way too heavy for me to lift. They're decorative dividers that slither like a snake. I never measured one of them, but I can't believe they're less than 10' long and would probably take 3 or 4 people to move them. They're not natural, they're fabricated. I've never seen anything like them before, so I don't know what else you'd call them except for landscape dividers.
I don't think they did the damage themselves, but the ground has shifted after years of not having gutters, and all of the recent ant activity. Probably made it even worse once the pipe broke and all that additional water was alongside the house all the time.
That's why I'm happy to see that the pipe coming from the house (about 4") is higher than the pipe going out to the street. Because of that, and taking the level on what I believe to be load bearing walls in the house checks out, I don't think the house has shifted at all. However, the concrete slab under the shed at the end of the porch is cracked in half. It always was, but now there is about an inch in between and it's obvious to the naked eye that it's way out of level. That is supporting most of the weight of the roof for the porch right now. Checking the headers for level, there is a bad dip toward the slab now. That's why I said that has to go.
This shifting of the slab also moved the small gated metal fence to the point you can't really close it anymore. I never liked it and always wanted to replace that one day, so not too bummed about that, but at the far end it's also messing with the siding on the garage because of the shift.
These ants are like the plague. I don't know what to do about them. Even if I gave up trying and paid big bucks for pros to come out, my idiot neighbor has been infested with them for years and I can't believe that his garage that hasn't been sided since I've lived here is even still standing. My next door neighbors that I like have had them in their house. I warned them to start putting stuff down and showed them the massive ant hills in between our houses that he thought were from gophers (I thought that too before
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The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I don't get why you haven't done gutters. I called around, checked prices, had a guy bring his crew at his convenience, put seamless gutters on both sides of my house, 4 levels of roof eaves, connected them all, sloped them all, with downspouts, for about $350 cash. While I watched. I didn't really even need it on one side, which was lined with the driveway the whole way, but still worth the little cost.
Give your nearest cheap guy a month to pick his day, for the cheapest price.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
I've been using Amdro Ant Block, mainly. It's a marvelous product. Putting it down around the perimeter of my house kept them out almost immediately. Above the concrete slab where I had seen no less than 4 constant lines of ants coming to and from the house in front, the very next day the activity was halted completely and thousands of ants lie dead around the stuff.
Just last week, I also added a few gallons of the spray killer for the perimeter of houses to the mix. As far as I know now, there is no ant activity in the house or even the porch. Since the porch is exposed almost entirely now, I don't see any evidence of live ants there.
That's not the problem though. They're EVERYWHERE. My idiot neighbor told me years ago when I first noticed evidence of problems that he couldn't afford to pay the Orkin man who wanted thousands of dollars to put several subterranian treatments all around his house. He said his entire back yard was like a sponge to walk on. This year, I've noticed that the entire path around those winding stone pavers in front of my house is spongy and has risen. Over the last two years they've destroyed the paver patio on the back (again, something I thought was ugly as hell and always wanted to tear up and replace with other pavers or just gravel or river rock anyhow, but nothing I'm going to sink money into until I know the ants are gone).
While mowing last week I also noticed spots easily 100 ft from the house that seem infested too. These are in spots where there used to be trees that were cut down prior to my moving in.
Activity on the pavers seems to be down so far this spring with the vast amounts of poison and the early start I've gotten, but then again, as you know, it's still dipping down to some quite seasonably cold temps at night this far north and that may have more to do with it than the poison.
Quote:
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I haven't. This week while I'm working I'm going to spend a few hours every day making my house spotlessly clean. I plan on calling the city the first week I'm off and hoping that some of the guys I worked with when I first bought the house are still in the building department. I'm hoping they can give me some insight and some good advice/news. I really don't know what my options are at all at this point, and since I generally expect the worst in all things, I may be making this all much worse in my mind than it actually is. I haven't been able to get my friend or his dad to check this place out yet and give me any ideas. I can't exactly be mad about that since except for 2 phone calls in the last 4-5 years I shut all of my old friends out of my life while I was drinking and haven't tried repairing those relationships to this day. He's got his own rental property that his tennants let fall to shit that he and his old man have been trying to get back up to code before a deadline the city gave him next month. I offered to help him next week when I'm off work, but with what I'm dealing with I doubt I'll be able to get them to at least scope it out before I get the city involved.
Jacking everything up might actually be a solution, if I'm allowed to have my own crew and I can get my friend and his dad to help out after it's jacked up. However I doubt I'd be willi
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
The ant stuff from Home Depot always worked fine for me, it seemed. Almost forgot that I had those issues, until you posted this. I also head about some trick, to put a line of something across their trail, which they then can't find how to cross. Maybe it was salt, or lime, or talc powder, lemon juice, can't recall.
I've been using Amdro Ant Block, mainly. It's a marvelous product. Putting it down around the perimeter of my house kept them out almost immediately. Above the concrete slab where I had seen no less than 4 constant lines of ants coming to and from the house in front, the very next day the activity was halted completely and thousands of ants lie dead around the stuff.
Just last week, I also added a few gallons of the spray killer for the perimeter of houses to the mix. As far as I know now, there is no ant activity in the house or even the porch. Since the porch is exposed almost entirely now, I don't see any evidence of live ants there.
That's not the problem though. They're EVERYWHERE. My idiot neighbor told me years ago when I first noticed evidence of problems that he couldn't afford to pay the Orkin man who wanted thousands of dollars to put several subterranian treatments all around his house. He said his entire back yard was like a sponge to walk on. This year, I've noticed that the entire path around those winding stone pavers in front of my house is spongy and has risen. Over the last two years they've destroyed the paver patio on the back (again, something I thought was ugly as hell and always wanted to tear up and replace with other pavers or just gravel or river rock anyhow, but nothing I'm going to sink money into until I know the ants are gone).
While mowing last week I also noticed spots easily 100 ft from the house that seem infested too. These are in spots where there used to be trees that were cut down prior to my moving in.
Activity on the pavers seems to be down so far this spring with the vast amounts of poison and the early start I've gotten, but then again, as you know, it's still dipping down to some quite seasonably cold temps at night this far north and that may have more to do with it than the poison.Quote:
Have you looked into mud-jacking? It hydraulically raises concrete slabs or other pavement or structures.
Not sure how much it costs, but supposedly much much cheaper than paying for a new slab of concrete, so it might be worth it to you to check. Not for you to do, but have somebody do it for you.
I haven't. This week while I'm working I'm going to spend a few hours every day making my house spotlessly clean. I plan on calling the city the first week I'm off and hoping that some of the guys I worked with when I first bought the house are still in the building department. I'm hoping they can give me some insight and some good advice/news. I really don't know what my options are at all at this point, and since I generally expect the worst in all things, I may be making this all much worse in my mind than it actually is. I haven't been able to get my friend or his dad to check this place out yet and give me any ideas. I can't exactly be mad about that since except for 2 phone calls in the last 4-5 years I shut all of my old friends out of my life while I was drinking and haven't tried repairing those relationships to this day. He's got his own rental property that his tennants let fall to shit that he and his old man have been trying to get back up to code before a deadline the city gave him next month. I offered to help him next week when I'm off work, but with what I'm dealing with I doubt I'll be able to get them to at least scope it out before I get the city involved.
Jacking everything up might actually be a solution, if I'm allowed to have my own crew and I can get my friend and his dad to help out after it's jackeNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I don't think you understand mud-jacking. It would level everything for you, without digging or whatever.
I don't honestly know what mud-jacking is. My porch is attached to the house, with a huge 15'x15' hole that's around 3 1/2 feet deep that extends the crawl space of the house proper (although the original foundation wall was thankfully left in there, so it probably doesn't benefit directly from the sump pump like the crawl does). At the end of the porch, it is attached to a shed that is around 6'x15' that is on a busted concrete slab that has cracked and shifted considerably.
Though I've checked for level all over the house and it passes, there is a considerable downward grade from the roof of the porch all the way to the end of the shed. If I were to guess, about 90% of the weight of the entire unit is resting on that slab right now. I have to do something one way or another soon, because all signs point to the doubled up 2"x12" headers on the front and back are actually tied into the house and if the thing falls it's taking a big ass chunk of my house with it.
Quote:
Put that ant stuff we here you see them. You don't have leftovers?
I've been doing that for 3 summers now. I kill one ant hill popping up from under those pavers and 5 more pop up to replace it. It's like a demented game of wack-a-mole that you're destined to lose.
I used all I had left over from last year and another $12 bottle I bought last week already. Going to pick up more this week.
Quote:
That gutter price was for the whole deal, including whatever taxes might have been applied (I did work a discount for no receipt, cash). My house is only 40 ft long, including porch, so that is 80ft, with 4 different levels, including everything to connect them to each other, and downspouts. I did call everybody in the book, and I think had quotes around $1500. My eaves are about 15 ft up as well. Crew was about 3-4 other guys with the boss. I wanted to get them to do my other house, but my schedule didn't work out.
Yeah.... there's the difference. I need about 2/3rds as much aluminum gutter for my garage alone as you do for your house. With the porch and shed included, my guess is I'd need around 70 feet for both the front and the back, which is another 140 feet total. Two downspouts for the garage, and 5 for the house, given the way it's built.
Like I said, I don't remember the exact quote I had for the aluminum off hand, and it was a few years back so it's probably higher now, but if memory serves it was around $700. May have been $800. Whatever the exact measurements were, I compared that to smaller width, segmented gutter trash at Menards and they came in roughly 50% cheaper than buying that shit that I'd have to tie together every 10 or 12 feet or so.
Also, like I said before... WAY TOO MUCH freakin' house for one person. Let's just say I was a lot more ambitious when I was 32 years old and I still hadn't all but ruled out the idea that I might get married and have kids one day. No point in crying about bad decisions now. My next house will be 1/3rd the house and lawn that I have now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Job update...
Night shift is gone on the 22nd of June. Not sure what that means for everybody else, let alone my future there. I've heard that they're offering severance to night shift employees who don't come to days. That only amounts to 2 weeks pay for how long I've been there, so that's nothing. Because of the severance offer, I inquired with Number 2 about the possibility of unemployment and he said that the company has never fought it before and that even people who were fired for stealing got it.
I'm no dummy though, and with the massive changes throughout the company recently that means nothing today. It's also possible that in the fine print of the severance package that you're signing away your ability to get any unemployment as well. I wouldn't make any decisions on anything until I have all of the details.
I'm not going to like this new system no matter what happens, but my schedule means more to me right now with the house problems than it ever did before. I think my days of working 6 and being off 8 are done for, but I'm mulling over the idea of offering them weekends instead. It seems the new schedule is going to be "block scheduling" where every part and full time employee will work the exact same days and time every single week so nobody has to be in charge of scheduling anymore. I think I at least have a shot at getting this since I doubt very much the list of people offering to work every weekend is very long.
If I don't like the terms, there is always the third option of a 3 month leave of absence, unpaid. That would give me time to work on the house, while taking out a home equity line of credit for the repairs that need to be done. Also it would give me plenty of time to help my friend out with his problems and get his help with mine. I could also likely re-establish a working relationship with his dad who hasn't retired and get some work on the side in the mean time.
If I'm working part time still at this job, I may even work for free for him if we can barter for his own help with my house project.
I'm hoping that a summer of repairs is fruitful and I'm in a better position to reassess everything and make a more informed decision. I'd not like to burn my bridges with this company because there's a good likelihood that I could get a request for transfer approved if I were to move down by my brother. It wouldn't exactly be walking distance from where I'd be living, but neither is the place I'm working at now.
For better or worse, my life just got a whole lot more interesting overnight.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
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Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
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Hey BRENDA, welcome back! I hope the new place is everything you want it to be! I'm with JSF ... don't hurry with the unpacking. Take your time and don't tweak anything worse than it already is.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Wow, SIX, you're dealing with a lot more than I can imagine, house-wise. But FWIW my uninformed opinion is that the porch hasn't collapsed yet, so unlikely to do so in the near future. My equally uninformed advice: Take your time, don't panic. I would start by connecting the pipes up first, since water around your foundation will only make things worse by carrying away the sand/dirt from around your porch. Erosion ... a powerful force for damage!
As far as the job is concerned, I'm glad that you're not burning your bridges. The homeless guy that I knew who found a job and a place to stay in Idaho? He's back again in LA, homeless and jobless because he refused to fill out a timesheet detailing his work that some byatch in the front office wanted him to fill out. I know that jobs are filled with all kinds of aggravations, but it's like they say: The only thing worse than working is not working. So try to make it work out, keep your job until you find another, and don't hang your entire future on to your house sale because I have some questions about some aspects of your house (not structural ones, you're already looking into that) which I will bring up at some later date when you're not facing so many issues.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
It's not really being in a hurry JSF but I was stagnant for so long that I now am able to do things. I am working on slowing down now that I have things a little bit more organized.
I am at the back of the building on the 10th floor. So, yeah I can see. There is an elevator that I use. No way am I tromping up and down 10 flights of stairs. There is a laundry room and right now heat is no problem with all the natural light I get in here. So, I know it will be fine come winter.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey BRENDA, welcome back! I hope the new place is everything you want it to be! I'm with JSF ... don't hurry with the unpacking. Take your time and don't tweak anything worse than it already is.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Hey SIG. Yup, I'm back. I am working on slowing down now. Problem is that I am looking for things that have been boxed up for so many years. Someone I play mah jong with came over yesterday and between the two of us, we got the main storage space sorted out. Found my dad's medals for his WWII service that when I have time I can make a presentation out of and hang them on a wall.
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Gotta make a quick call and cancel this idiot cellphone I had gotten for emergencies. I hate the things. Then some other stuff to do and off to work.
Later peeps.
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I read your previous post, I'm so happy that you have space for your things and natural light; I feel that much of your winter blues came from lack of light. BRENDA, I'm so happy for you! I hope that you'll like the new place a whole lot!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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"Later Peeps"?
Somebody seems rather chipper these days.
Good on you, Brenda. Glad you could finally get that miserable cave and miserable landlady out of your life for good. Your place sounds a lot like my brother's. If it's anything like his, and you're on the side that his is, you may need to have the A/C on more than you'd care to during the summer, but the reverse good news is that you won't need to use as much heat during the winter. The one little oddity of his place that I don't have an explanation for.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I read your previous post, I'm so happy that you have space for your things and natural light; I feel that much of your winter blues came from lack of light. BRENDA, I'm so happy for you! I hope that you'll like the new place a whole lot!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
It is good. I know that A LOT of my winter blues came from lack of light. I already like it SIG.
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
It is good SIG. And I know A LOT of my winter blues came from little natural light in that place.
I already like this new place.
I think most of my twitchiness has gone but I am still settling in. Gonna take time but I got that now.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
"Later Peeps"?
Somebody seems rather chipper these days.
Good on you, Brenda. Glad you could finally get that miserable cave and miserable landlady out of your life for good. Your place sounds a lot like my brother's. If it's anything like his, and you're on the side that his is, you may need to have the A/C on more than you'd care to during the summer, but the reverse good news is that you won't need to use as much heat during the winter. The one little oddity of his place that I don't have an explanation for.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Yup, been a long time since I have felt this happy in the place I am living. Oh, I'm sure I will have to turn on a fan this summer. But that's okay. I have a balcony that once I get a small chair I sit out on and watch the world go by.
The reason I won't is because as I stated I am on the 10th floor and we all know that heat rises.
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Quote:From the basement to the 10th floor - that's moving up in the world. Sounds like No nasty sidewalks to deal with, and no snow or ice for your first 5 minutes out your door, and none to do laundry.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
It's not really being in a hurry JSF but I was stagnant for so long that I now am able to do things. I am working on slowing down now that I have things a little bit more organized.
I am at the back of the building on the 10th floor. So, yeah I can see. There is an elevator that I use. No way am I tromping up and down 10 flights of stairs. There is a laundry room and right now heat is no problem with all the natural light I get in here. So, I know it will be fine come winter.
Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe try taking one flight of stairs at least, on a regular basis. They should be in good repair in your skyscraper, and this will help you keep in shape, limbered, and not fall into a habit many do and skip the stairs entirely. First flight on the way up, last flight the way down. Getting the blood circulating should keep your mood improved as well.
Your balcony should get a decent breeze at 110 feet above the road. Next you'll be getting all tanned from snoozing there. Which direction is it facing? How far is visibility?
Hope it all works well.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:From the basement to the 10th floor - that's moving up in the world. Sounds like No nasty sidewalks to deal with, and no snow or ice for your first 5 minutes out your door, and none to do laundry.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
It's not really being in a hurry JSF but I was stagnant for so long that I now am able to do things. I am working on slowing down now that I have things a little bit more organized.
I am at the back of the building on the 10th floor. So, yeah I can see. There is an elevator that I use. No way am I tromping up and down 10 flights of stairs. There is a laundry room and right now heat is no problem with all the natural light I get in here. So, I know it will be fine come winter.
Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe try taking one flight of stairs at least, on a regular basis. They should be in good repair in your skyscraper, and this will help you keep in shape, limbered, and not fall into a habit many do and skip the stairs entirely. First flight on the way up, last flight the way down. Getting the blood circulating should keep your mood improved as well.
Your balcony should get a decent breeze at 110 feet above the road. Next you'll be getting all tanned from snoozing there. Which direction is it facing? How far is visibility?
Hope it all works well.
You are right the sidewalks will be fine around where I am. If we get snow this winter I will need my cane for getting to work as those sidewalks will be bad.
You might have a point about some of the stairs. I'll have a think on it.
I'm sure it will. I am facing East as I get sun all day now that it is Spring and as long as it isn't raining. Since I am now in apartment building which is in the main shopping district, I can see all the other apartments and shops. Though from my balcony I should be able to see the Fraser river.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
"Later Peeps"?
Somebody seems rather chipper these days.
Good on you, Brenda. Glad you could finally get that miserable cave and miserable landlady out of your life for good. Your place sounds a lot like my brother's. If it's anything like his, and you're on the side that his is, you may need to have the A/C on more than you'd care to during the summer, but the reverse good news is that you won't need to use as much heat during the winter. The one little oddity of his place that I don't have an explanation for.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Yup, been a long time since I have felt this happy in the place I am living. Oh, I'm sure I will have to turn on a fan this summer. But that's okay. I have a balcony that once I get a small chair I sit out on and watch the world go by.
The reason I won't is because as I stated I am on the 10th floor and we all know that heat rises.
That's great! Really been pulling for you and it's nice to see a happy ending for once.
If you feel it's safe to do, I like JSF's suggestion about taking the stairs... but only if it's safe. It'll maintain those muscles that you wouldn't otherwise be working out by regular walking. It's one thing to make the choice to not take the stairs, but another thing entirely to allow yourself to get to the point where you no longer have a choice at all.
Speaking of working out... I'm going to have to start myself. In fact, after I came home from work today I did my first bench press sets in about 15 or so years. I do a ton of pulling at work and actually avoid the pushing of the real heavy pallets as often as possible because I have a majority of my strength in my shoulders and legs and back these days, so it's a lot easier. Back when I was power lifting in my 20's I focused too much on my chest if anything, like most people do, and I was able to lift 375 lbs. Man... Past me would bitch slap current me. I did 1 set of 12 reps, 1 of 10 and 1 of 8 and I was done. Only 125lbs. So sad... Going to have to fix that now.
The job is all but over for me. This new guy is a by the book bitch and he told my manager that I would not be allowed to work weekends. Only full timers will have set schedules, and part timers will have to work whatever days they give you, and whatever hours they give you. This means I wouldn't even be getting the 8-10 hour shifts I've been working and I'd likely be getting only 4-5 hour shifts. It's not even worth the gas money and the wear on my car for that.
If he's going to be a by-the-book bitch about it, he's going to lose the hardest working employee he has in his store.
Managed to dodge him again today. I was actually hoping he'd catch me after I punched out and I could do a little walk by him like on Office Space and head right out the front door. If I can manage to dodge him for 3 more days, then he'll see what the place looks like when I'm not there for 3 weeks straight.
I figure every day that I don't see him until the night shift is gone is another day I don't say something I might regret.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:I would hope you at least take 2 stairs down, if you're going to avoid up. But at least 1 up per day would be better. Not with groceries or when hurried, but make a habit of it.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:From the basement to the 10th floor - that's moving up in the world. Sounds like No nasty sidewalks to deal with, and no snow or ice for your first 5 minutes out your door, and none to do laundry.
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:Why would you be in any hurry now? Take your time, relax. Enjoy the new place.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Gotta be careful with moving boxes around here and unpacking. Succeeded in irritating both branches of my sciatic nerve over last weekend. Woke up Tuesday morning with pain in my right leg but the left was worse. Pain from my left ankle to my hip.
Do you have a view? Stairs? Laundry room? Heat?
It's not really being in a hurry JSF but I was stagnant for so long that I now am able to do things. I am working on slowing down now that I have things a little bit more organized.
I am at the back of the building on the 10th floor. So, yeah I can see. There is an elevator that I use. No way am I tromping up and down 10 flights of stairs. There is a laundry room and right now heat is no problem with all the natural light I get in here. So, I know it will be fine come winter.
Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe try taking one flight of stairs at least, on a regular basis. They should be in good repair in your skyscraper, and this will help you keep in shape, limbered, and not fall into a habit many do and skip the stairs entirely. First flight on the way up, last flight the way down. Getting the blood circulating should keep your mood improved as well.
Your balcony should get a decent breeze at 110 feet above the road. Next you'll be getting all tanned from snoozing there. Which direction is it facing? How far is visibility?
Hope it all works well.
You are right the sidewalks will be fine around where I am. If we get snow this winter I will need my cane for getting to work as those sidewalks will be bad.
You might have a point about some of the stairs. I'll have a think on it.
I'm sure it will. I am facing East as I get sun all day now that it is Spring and as long as it isn't raining. Since I am now in apartment building which is in the main shopping district, I can see all the other apartments and shops. Though from my balcony I should be able to see the Fraser river.
Facing East means you'll be largely in the shade side during the hottest part of the day in summer.
My sneaky side would be getting some binoculars (Army Surplus store) to watch which stores have the longest lines, biggest crowds to know where the best sales are.
Your new place sounds great. Send a box of chocolates to the people who helped you get in there.
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