Biometrix
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Posts posted by Biometrix
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1 hour ago, DBLXX said:
Keurig is shit coffee. Coke over Pepsi.
Both preferences of my wife but I'll certainly let her know that her tastes are not up to Dave's standards. Thanks for your positive post.
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So I've mentioned before that we bought a new house about three years ago now and one of the features was that it had basically been frozen in time from the 70's. The kitchen had a particularly strong "Brady Bunch" charm. Anyhow like most dumb decisions I make, I decided I could do all the work myself. I do have the skills but as I get older my motivation, enthusiasm and energy level are starting to wane. Long story short, I managed to extend this project for about 18 months. Finally though I finished it this past weekend. I will say in my defense that I built all the cabinets myself so that added quite a bit of time. Long story short...here's two pics of before and after. They don't really represent the full extent of the project. Every wall was ripped out and patched to some extent. New plumbing, new gas line where there wasn't any, all electrical updated/added etc. etc. I am pleased with the result.
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Well yeah, so the greater Towanda PA area is not exactly the culinary epicenter of PA. However that being said, now that I think about it Philly at one time was voted the fattest city in the US so perhaps PA as a whole does have pretty unhealthy cuisine. But if you do have a chance to travel outside of the coal mining, gas fracking regions of PA, there are a few good restaurants to be found.
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^^^What BlackhawkXX said...Basic set of spoons/tire irons can be had for $50-$60. Bead breaker at HF is less than $100. Basic balancer also less than $100. All that stuff can be put away/folded up/stored when you are done. The spoons/tire irons are the only thing you really need. Then I would get a balancer before a bead breaker. I've broken beads by driving a car onto the tire or using a big C-Clamp. I mean how often are you going to change tires on one bike?
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So why not just use perforated drain pipe?
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Well I think that you have to respect the talent regardless of the personal appeal. I expect this was built during the Russian Empire and was more likely the vision of an architect trying to please his clients and carpenters trying to fulfill his vision. In both cases, the motivation of being sent to a labor camp or to one's death for failure or disappointment was probably a great motivator for doing a good job.
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Came real close to pulling the trigger on the Rune back in the day but it coincided with me buying the XX, and selling my other two cruisers after realizing just how limited cruisers were and what I had been missing. They are head-turners for sure but IMO more art than fun or utility.
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Ooops posted twice by mistake
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My 2 cents is that any retaining wall that you want to last and actually "retain" without falling over in a couple years is not a DIY project. Especially one that's 5-6 feet high. Also you didn't specify how long it would need to be. There's a lot of excavation involved. You'll want the first course buried and at least 8" below that for a base. You need to leave at least 8" behind it for backfill with gravel or stone, not soil (except on the very top). You should plate compact the entire base. It may need rebar, and it may need supports that extend into the "retained" area. Should also have drainage.
Don't confuse a real retaining wall with a decorative landscaping wall. I'm no expert but I watched and talked to the landscapers who did a bunch of paver/hardscape work at my house including a 2 foot retaining wall and couldn't believe the engineering that went into just that to hold back 12 feet of earth and stones between my house foundation and the retaining wall. Couldn't estimate cost as mine was part of a bigger project but after watching them do it I know two things for sure...1.) I'm glad I hired someone and 2.) Had I done it myself it would have been done terribly wrong.
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6 hours ago, ptxyz said:
mind sharing the particulars as far as size of the house and cost of materials / installation?
here in california, cities are starting to make new construction go the other way (aka electrification). i believe berkeley now requires new construction to be all electric.
1400 sq ft single level living space. Not heating attached garage or basement "yet" (that's another 1900 sq. ft.). Combo boiler/tankless water heater is 18K to 120K BTU/H for heating and 18K to 199K BTU/H for hot water. They installed 11 baseboard radiators, 3 zones, 420 ft. of 3/4" copper, and of course the main unit w/exhaust and intake and all the doo-dads. Also took away the old 50 gallon water heater.
Already had the 500 gallon propane tank installed (buried) 2 years ago.
2-4 guys were here for a full 5 days (although one was an apprentice)...Total was about $15K.
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3 hours ago, OMG said:
Very nicely done.
I like the new crimp copper fittings but Jeeeze they are expensive.
Hard to see but it looks like there is flush valves installed at the bottom of the heater.
I assume you were instructed to de-scale the system occasionally.
Thanks. I'm pretty happy with the final result. Will be happier this winter when I can compare electric usage vs. last year. They told me that the crimping tool (big Milwaukee deal with the crimper jaws) costs near $3000 each. I suppose you have to do a lot of plumbing to make that pay off. All said and done they ran about 420 feet of 3/4" copper. They're supposed to come in once a year to do the system maintenance and he mentioned something about de-scaling but I stopped paying attention after they said they'd be doing all the maintenance. I know how to turn it on and off, shut off the gas and shut off the water to the whole system or to just the zones.
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1 hour ago, SwampNut said:
WTF?? Why all of that? Northern thing? I've never seen that much shit in a house.
Also two of your Flugel valves are cupped.
This is actually a pretty compact and simple system compared to some of my prior houses. You should see one that's plumbed for hot water or steam heat cast iron radiators. You basically need to dedicate 1/4 of your basement to those systems.
1 hour ago, JoWhee said:Nice work, however, I hope the outlet is 636 CPVC pipe, I'm not sure if it's code everywhere, but it should be.
Innoflue S636...the installer gave me a little schooling on why they use it even though it's not code here. Guess you two would be on the same page.
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51 minutes ago, blackhawkxx said:
That is the most complicated home water system I have seen. You might want to label everything so ten years down the road you will know what everything does and where it goes.
Meh...cold water comes in, hot water goes out to either heat the house or take a shower. I'll be happy if I can remember my kid's names in ten years.
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Our new to us, downsized empty nest forever home has been a work in progress for the last two years. The utilities were all electric when we bought it. Electric baseboard heat, electric water heater, electric range etc. Since we're kinda out in the boonies there was no natural gas available and I wanted to also install a gas range so I had a 500 gallon propane tank put in the ground pretty much before we even moved in. This week was the conversion to a propane fired 3-zone hot water baseboard heating system and a tank-less on-demand hot water system. I am very pleased with the workmanship, tidiness and pipe management of the contractor I chose for the job. I've basically had four guys here everyday since Monday this week with today being the final connections and testing of the system. Really didn't have any idea how much was involved but here's the new set-up in the basement. Nice little 95% efficient unit that vents with PVC right out the side of the house. The whole unit is about 18" wide and 2' high.
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They actually make a tool more specific to clamping those babies down that the square part of the clamp fits into and then the tool ratchets it down to the proper tension then releases. That's what I have and have been using as I replace all the copper in my house with Pex. They are pretty sweet.
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3 hours ago, SwampNut said:
Lol...Guilty! I made one of those. It's 40' long and stored right next to my generator. I'm pretty proud of it too.
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11 hours ago, XXitanium said:
Biometrix probably has a flat yard - all sand.
Oh god I wish! I have about 3-4 inches of top soil and then shale. Lots and lots of hard slivers of shale intermingled with other rocks. I cannot dig any holes without the assistance of a shale bar (digging bar, post hole bar whatever you want to call it). It fucking sucks!
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7 hours ago, JaBr said:
The UK regs are very clear on this, in fact, you can be prosecuted if you provide the earth from the main building, if a building is detached from the building that supplies the source of power it must have it's own earth (Ground), this is usually delivered by installing an earth spike. I don't know about US/Canada as they don't use proper plugs out there, it's weird round ones 😂
See, just another example of why we had to gain independence from your oppressive rule. I think the 12th or maybe its the 39th amendment to our constitution grants us freedom to run electrical power in any manner which may quite likely kill us in the future.
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On 7/16/2017 at 4:46 PM, DBLXX said:
The best bush is rocks.
+1. Landscape fabric + river rocks. No more mowing. Plant a bush if you have to. Any weeds either pull out easily or just spray them with Round Up or the vegetation killer of your choice. Done.
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Did you put the gas tank back on again? If not, that might be your problem.😉
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Doubtful you did any harm. I keep both our bikes on the battery tenders constantly whenever they're sitting in the garage and as John said, for months at a time over the winter. Once it's charged, the Tender should go into "maintenance" mode.
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I put in Reolink system from Amazon. Love it! It came with a 8 Channel Network Video Recorder with a 2TB drive. It's a PoE system so the cameras are powered through the network cables. I ran CAT 6 to 6 cameras that look at every door, my workshop and my driveway. The cameras are 5MP Super HD 2560x1920. I can view them through the NVR, my desktop computer or my phone. All local storage, no cloud, no monthly fees.
The NVR with four cameras was on sale for $349 and I bought two more at about $49 each. I think the regular price for the NVR with 4 cameras was about $399. Spent another $100 or so on the CAT 6 cable (I put my own RJ45 connectors on). It actually comes with the network cables but they are only about 50 ft long and some of my runs were closer to 100-120 feet.
Here's a shot of the night vision mode I just took. Except for the landscape lights out front it is pitch dark here right now. In the daytime the color and clarity is very good to excellent.
I think they have a 4K system now and they also have quite a few different cameras to choose from.
Edit: Added a daytime shot and a digital zoom of my mailbox from the driveway cam.
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This is what I know about sump pumps. You don't need them...until you do and then you'll be happy you had one. I had one in my house in NJ. It was always dry. Had cobwebs in it so never paid much attention to it. Then one winter, it snowed, then melted a little, then froze, then rained...a lot. The frozen snow formed a perfect catch basin for the rain against one of my basement windows and then basically all the rain in my back yard started draining into my basement through the window (around the frame). I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a waterfall...in my house. Sump pump was dead so I had about six inches of water in my basement before I could get another pump hooked up and running (Dad still lived nearby and had a spare).
So the point is that just because you have never had water down there doesn't mean that you will never have water down there. Shit happens. Don't disable it.
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13 hours ago, Furbird said:
Interesting. I was told that you use the same ground as the house for your outbuildings. My garage and my shop are both wired to the house ground.I'm just repeating what the electrician told me. He's putting in the sub panel and making the connection to the main panel and pounding in the new 8' ground rod. I'm just putting in the conduit and pulling the wire he specified plus the two extra that I want. He's the one who said either 1.5" or 2" conduit but it was my call. Anyhow...I went with 2".
Well that's a wrap...kitchen remodel finally done
in Handyman
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Well in that case you nailed it. My wife collects 70's Pepsi stuff and is basically addicted to the Keurig since she has been 10 years+ sober so yeah, I am admittedly a little defensive. Had you criticized my cabinet making skills then I would have better understood you both being a douche and also being wrong. 😘