What home repairs are you working on?

You might consider a jackhammer if the two layers were poured separately.

It is all one pour. We are still considering a jack hammer.

I used one after trying to bust mortar off an established concrete pad with a sledge. The jackhammer went through it like butter. With one pour, those chunks may come off with divots, but that just takes a layer of surfacer to set right.

Get the jack hammer. Also, they are fun.

Just a pro tip reminder. For the past couple of weeks our upstairs A/C unit, only a year old, has been cutting out in the afternoon/evenings. No breakers tripped, thermostat was unhelpful in determining cause. Recently serviced no less. It would eventually turn back on of its own accord in the middle of the night.

Turns out the float switch was going off because the drain line, despite being purged during the service, was clogging and the sheer amount of condensate flowing down the line during these brutally hot and humid Texas summers was enough to back up the entire line. You'd think these newer units would have a light, a chime, or send a specific signal to the thermostat to tell poor homeowners this, but after another service call now I know to check the little float cup in my attic unit and I get the joys of trying to clear the drain of the sink the condensate flows in to because it seems to be a house drain issue, not an A/C drain line clog.

So don't neglect these things lest you like impromptu campouts down stairs because the upstairs more closely resembles the amazon basin. Pour some white vinegar down the drain line every few months to kill off the slime that tends to grow in the line.

I'm about 65% through my back yard on the invisible fence. The edger I got is the perfect tool for this. I have some big trees so roots were hard to work around. What I ended up doing was using the edger at an angle. That allowed me to get under the dirt more and bury the wire. Good trick if you need it.

I'm having a door replaced. This is an exterior door that has no deadbolt. It definitely needs replacing. Luckily I've got a good Handyman that can do that. I am useless with proper tools.

jason10mm wrote: Just a pro tip reminder. For the past couple of weeks our upstairs A/C unit, only a year old, has been cutting out in the afternoon/evenings. No breakers tripped, thermostat was unhelpful in determining cause. Recently serviced no less. It would eventually turn back on of its own accord in the middle of the night.

Turns out the float switch was going off because the drain line, despite being purged during the service, was clogging and the sheer amount of condensate flowing down the line during these brutally hot and humid Texas summers was enough to back up the entire line. You'd think these newer units would have a light, a chime, or send a specific signal to the thermostat to tell poor homeowners this, but after another service call now I know to check the little float cup in my attic unit and I get the joys of trying to clear the drain of the sink the condensate flows in to because it seems to be a house drain issue, not an A/C drain line clog.

So don't neglect these things lest you like impromptu campouts down stairs because the upstairs more closely resembles the amazon basin. Pour some white vinegar down the drain line every few months to kill off the slime that tends to grow in the line.

I had an outdoor AC unit act strangely, then stop completely. When I pulled the front off the thermostat I could touch the power wire to the external unit wire with a paper clip and turn it on. But when I did, I noticed the screw that held down the power wire was springy. I tightened all the screws and half an hour later the unit reset and kicked back on.

Cheapest fix ever, a lucky break. Worth a check before you call the HVAC guy.

stormseeker75 wrote: I'm having a door replaced. This is an exterior door that has no deadbolt. It definitely needs replacing. Luckily I've got a good Handyman that can do that. I am useless with proper tools.

Our house was built in like 1968 and hasn't been updated, so we took out a HELOC the size of our savings that we will pay off at $400 a month, and are replacing things. I grew up in a low income home, so I would just let everything crumble slowly if it were up to me because I'm terrified we'll run out of money and lose our home and I'll have to sell my body to the night to survive and pay for street drugs. But those anxieties aside, we are preparing our basement so we can rent it out to college students at some point, and also keep any boomerang children out of our consciousness because we are tired of parenting after 25 years of worrying and identity erasure. I am sort of channeling my wife there. So the upstairs is getting plumbed for a washer and dryer, our mud room will become a library/family room, and two external doors are being replaced. Those doors are crazy expensive. It involves some replacement of the door frames and they are fancy doors with windows.

I sometimes wonder what it is like to buy things without having to worry about the price, but the fact is I have a buttload more money now than I did 20 years ago (and by "buttload" I mean $10k in the bank and no student loans) and I have found that you quickly adjust to your new income and start complaining all over again about some other Macguffin that will magically lead you to a better life, free from worry and annoying people.



In unrelated news we got a super good deal on group therapy for two of our kids. Our daughter really likes it and our other son is willing to try it out.

Good point on the money adjustment. Story of my life.

The “hedonic treadmill.” Your brain recalibrates your new situation back to your default mental thermostat, then you continue your same patterns. It’s why you have doctors and pro athletes who are living paycheck to paycheck. Their default behavior is to spend all their money, so why stop now?

Adjusting your default set point is very difficult, but things that have a high degree of working are altruism (donating time, not money), strong relationships (friends/family), and life experiences like foreign travel.

Man, I thought this was just me! The sense of relief I feel knowing this is basically a human condition is very comforting.

I’ve been remodeling our tiny master bathroom (aka my wife’s bathroom) after work every day and weekend for the past month. I work for a contractor as my regular job so I’ve basically been putting in 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week, for 3 weeks straight. I have never been so exhausted and brain dead. But I did get to the point where everything is done except two walls of the shower (a shower we never use anyway), so she can move back in to her bathroom and I can take a break and get some breathing room. That was last week and it is so hard to bring myself to just finish tiling those two walls, instead of watching TV or doing hobby stuff. But I need it done and not hanging over my head. Hopefully by next weekend.

I am tearing down the rotting fence along our back property line. The previous neighbors propped it up using these metal post/stake things that have been pounded into the ground. I'm wondering if there's a tool for removing them that doesn't consist of a shovel and my back.





I'm taking it down because otherwise they have a guy who will do it for $450, of which I would pay half. That's about $90 an hour or $172k a year, assuming you worked eight hour days and never took a vacation.

The fence they are installing is pretty nice, faux-wood vinyl simtech or something like that. We agreed to pay 1/2 of the cost of a generic fence and help with the demolition.

I rented a t post puller. Using a six foot extension tube I was able to remove four posts before I pulled the device apart. Now I’m listening to classic rock while they fix it at the rental shop.

I successfully replaced the igniter in my oven, and tightened a loose doorknob.