What home repairs are you working on?

This weekend I'm replacing a light switch. I've done this a few times before and it is pretty easy. But any time I do anything remotely electrical in nature I get very nervous. That is probably not a bad thing.

hotseatgames wrote: This weekend I'm replacing a light switch. I've done this a few times before and it is pretty easy. But any time I do anything remotely electrical in nature I get very nervous. That is probably not a bad thing.

Relax. What's the worst that could happen?

Find the circuit it's on and plug a radio into one of its outlets. If the radio ain't playin' you're safe. If it suddenly turns on, hands off!

I could have used a little more Sag dad approach in my life, my spouse does all the home improvement stuff and I get huge "not doing it right" anxiety.

While not a self repair, we are now staring at the prospect of replacing both our ac systems. We did the cadillac AC quote from one of the best companies. Seer 16 single stage units 21K. Get a 2 speed unit for the upstairs for quiet night operation, 26K. Variable speed whisper quiet Seer 21+ units? Over 30K!!

I would cry if my tears wouldn't evaporate right off my face for being in 90+ degree heat with no AC

Then again, in muggy hot Texas A/C is LIFE and is a few extra grand for 10 years of no worry cold air really a problem? I think Friedmann Friese could make an AWESOME a/c ductwork game

Yeah, if you can swing it, there are very few things in TX that are more worth doing right...

Yeah, but I don't think I know anyone with a 2 stage a/c, much variable speed. I read that they are wonderful for comfort and are supposed to last longer than 1 stage, but they are relatively new so who really knows? The warranty wasn't bumped up to 12 or 15 years and that is telling. Plus I'm sure those motors nd circuit boards won't be nearly as easy to source 15 years from now.

But imagine a house in Texas that just stays cool and dry without the rush of a/c every 40 minutes.....

I have been painting my one-stall garage. I optimistically thought that I could get it done in one weekend, but the weather has become uncooperative. After a month of high temps in the 90s and no rain, we got some rain last Sunday and again today. So I got the first coat done last Saturday, and then a second coat on a side on three different weeknights this last week. I could have finished the job this morning, but the 40% chance of rain made me cautious. With 20/20 hindsight, I could have finished it this morning and even had a decent amount of time to dry before the rain started around 1:00 PM. Rain again tomorrow morning, but I should be able to finish the last wall in the early afternoon.

The work went slower than expected because of the amount of ladder climbing involved, plus I dislocated my knee on Tuesday. The only other time I ever dislocated my knee was while painting my house in 2012, so I think it's a hazard of working on a ladder. Maybe I will rent scaffolding when I repaint the house next summer.

I have an electrical problem, probably a short circuit. Sometimes when my A/C kicks in, an entire circuit temporarily shuts down, affecting 2 outlets in my living room and 2 light fixtures in my basement. The breaker in the fuse box doesn't trip (they never trip for some reason), and flipping it on and off doesn't matter. Later, either minutes or hours, the circuit suddenly comes back to life. I can tell when it happens because my sweeper robot makes a loud beep. It's plugged into one of the living room outlets. The other living room outlet is hooked up to my dvd player and sound bar for my big screen. Both of the basement light fixtures are in my game room, so no inviting friends over for games until I get this fixed.

Electrical and plumbing are two areas where I am quick to call in a pro. Unfortunately, there aren't enough electricians these days, so I will need to call a couple more on Monday to see if I can at least get a call back.

I have a few LED bulbs that blink seemingly at random. One in our pantry, some in a fan. It's possibly a ghost or transdimensional entity trying to score Motley Crue tickets via morse code but I'm going with bad wiring somewhere so we have an electrician coming out to look over everything. I have a few electrical projects to get done but like you, electricity and gas are two things I don't f with. Been lucky with plumbing so far, knock on wood.

When I woke up this morning, I checked the hourly forecast for rain. 4% chance for 8 am and 9 am, then 16% chance for 10 am and 38% chance for 11 am. Worse after that. So I figured that if I started at 6:30 AM, I should be fine, especially since the lack of wind probably meant those were pretty stable forecast numbers.

Not really. By 7:10, it was misting, and by 7:50, raining. I got most of the trim work done, so most of what is left is easy roller work. Unfortunately, rain is a threat until 8 PM tonight, plus more rain on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be sunny, but this is a west-facing wall, so that's not a reasonable evening project. At this time of year, sunset is like 9:30 PM. Thursday is supposed to be partly cloudy, so that might be my first good shot at finishing this job. Should have been a two-day job, but has gotten stretched out over 12 days due to weather.

Shellhead wrote: I have an electrical problem, probably a short circuit. Sometimes when my A/C kicks in, an entire circuit temporarily shuts down, affecting 2 outlets in my living room and 2 light fixtures in my basement. The breaker in the fuse box doesn't trip (they never trip for some reason),

Two questions to satisfy my own curiosity:

1) Is your A/C a window unit plugged into the wall?
2) Is your breaker panel a Federal Pacific (Stab-Lok)?

Disgustipater wrote:

Shellhead wrote: I have an electrical problem, probably a short circuit. Sometimes when my A/C kicks in, an entire circuit temporarily shuts down, affecting 2 outlets in my living room and 2 light fixtures in my basement. The breaker in the fuse box doesn't trip (they never trip for some reason),

Two questions to satisfy my own curiosity:

1) Is your A/C a window unit plugged into the wall?
2) Is your breaker panel a Federal Pacific (Stab-Lok)?

1) Central air. I have a window unit on the second floor, but have only used it twice so far this year, since nobody is currently using the upstairs bedroom.
2) Cutler-Hammer.

Both my theories are out. That behavior does sound super weird.

I finished painting the garage today, despite the morning rain. Thinking that the rest of the day was a loss, I went to the gym. By the time I left the gym, it was sunny and hot. After a quick lunch, I got back to the painting and finished around noon. The paint had an hour to dry before receiving direct sunlight, and there was not a single drop of rain for the rest of the afternoon. All that remains is pulling down the tape.

Disgustipater wrote: Both my theories are out. That behavior does sound super weird.

This was never a problem until I got my big screen tv. The tv is directly plugged into an outlet that is never affected by this short circuit problem, but my sound bar and dvd player are plugged into a surge protector that is plugged into one of the outlets affected by the short circuiting. The affected light fixtures are in the area of my basement that is right below the living room.