Ok guys you all have alot of very usefull information however i have done everything i can find on every website i can find and all i figured out is that i have the same problem and nothing is wrong with it.... primer bulb is good.. carburetor is 100% perfectly clean.. spark plug is brand new.. fuel is brand new.. air filter is brand new.. already checked for air leaks and none.. already tried blowing in the gas tank.. there is NO diapram in this mower. and many many many other ideas... yet not one of them worked. the only thing that will keep this mower running is the constant pressing the primer bubble... i have completely torn this motor appart and put it back together and there isnt even so much as a scratch inside of it. yet for some reason it will not pull gas on its own... i have a troy bilt push mower less than 1 year old. briggs and stratton motor 6.5hp 190cc 21" blade ps i swear to god if someone else tells me to clean the carb again i will throw this lawn mower off an overpass

Since that is an OHV engine, the head gasket is suspect. IF you have to ask if rings are "hard to change", I'd believe you don't have the experience to tackle that job. There are "subtle" things that aren't obvious unless you have the experience. Most likely, the rings are fine anyway. A head gasket is a simpler task, but you still need to know how to adjust the valves on a Briggs. There are minor "quirks" there. You may be able to diagnose a blown head gasket by removing the valve cover and briefly running the engine. Often the combustion gases escaping, in the push rod area, will produce a small "cloud" as they leak out the side at the gasket surface. I think a good first step however, is to clean the area well and then observe.

in looking at your pictures of the basement... see where the band joist/foundation wall that rests on the stone/rubble walls? that is one place to air seal that is worth the time & effort to do so. there are different approaches.. less expensive in materials but more time: would be to caulk tops of joists to floor above and bottom to rubble/stone below. caulk any cracks or penetrations. install 1" or two layres of 1" dow blue board (or corning pink board). use roofing nails, button cap nails ..something with large head to hold foam sheathing in place. use construction adhesive to hold it tight to the wall. caulk edges of foam sheathing to floor at top of joist, and again at bottom of wall to stone wall. do this in all areas of band joist. more cost material..less time to install would be froth pack of closed cell insulation. this is diy. tiger foam is what we have used a few times on small jobs. http://www.tigerfoam.com/#video the site he is spraying..is what I am calling the band joist of your basement. third option..most cost would be to hire the foam sealing out. in the floors large air leakage sites would be any areas where pipes run into the house. under tubs around piping for radiators. plumbing accesses. a mixtue of methods to seal these areas would be pipe insulation around radiator pipes. cut to fit around pipe & into hole in floor. caulked to seal. under tubs..usually a large area. depending on where the tub is located..either metal flashing cut to fit over hole & around pipe. caulked into place & screwed to floor. then caulked around edges of flashing to floor. btw..the radiators you have are really attractive. don't think I've seen such nice looking ones before. of course..radiators are uncommon in this area. I know you are dealing with the ceiling issue right now. hope that goes well. whatever you decide is the fix...seal any gaps between new ceiling & walls of room before reinstalling moldings. this will eliminate any need to caulk moldings to walls & ceiling. will give some more thought to attic later. best of luck.

Great thread. I've made many mistakes over the years. When I needed drapes for 5 very tall and wide windows, I thought I would save money by making them myself. I ended up buying 30+ yards of a synthetic moire on sale at a chain fabric store, along with drapery lining, and after making up one panel, found that even with lining, the light coming through the fabric made the color brighter and kind of gaudy. The bolt is still in an upstairs closet, and I found 96" crushed voile panels online that I like very much for about $20 each. Lesson: keep it simple. A couple of years ago, I hired a local designer mainly to help me choose paint colors and advise on accessories/tweaking. In the master bedroom, I had some custom green silk drapes that I never liked that much, and she talked me into spending the money to have them interlined and a printed fabric border added, along with custom shams with the same fabric. I had already spent $2000 on the drapes, and now I spent another $1000, and I still didn't like them. I took them down, and they and the matching euro shams are in the closet in the guest room. I put up natural linen-look semi sheers from target, and I like them better. Lesson: keep it simple, and don't throw good money after bad. We weren't using our formal dining room much, and the same designer suggested moving the dining furniture into one end of our large living room, and making the old dining room into a den and the old den into a home office, which was really needed. Since I wanted to replace the old LR sofa anyway, I moved the den furniture into the living room and had a custom ($$$)sofa made for the new den. It was not a huge space, and we tried to keep the sofa scaled down. When it arrived, the fabric was gorgeous, the style just what I wanted, but the seat depth was so shallow that it was not very comfortable. I had also slipcovered the old den chairs to go with the new sofa ($$). I ended up moving the new sofa to the living room, where it was more appropriate for perching ladies than lounging TV viewers, and now none of the colors I had chosen (with help paid for by the hour) for the LR and new den would work. Plus, the newly slipcovered den chairs (on swivel rocker bases, I love them) don't work that well with the old sofa color. Fortunately, I hadn't painted yet. Lessons: Don't buy furniture without sitting on it. Choose paint colors after you are certain of your fabrics. Don't let your designer talk you into stuff you don't really need. Keep your major pieces fairly neutral. The worst was the master bath update. I had chosen tile for the walls and floor, and the tile vendor gave me a couple of names for the installation. The guy with the higher quote was very highly recommended but I went with the other guy because he said he could also do some other work I needed done. Even though I had a gut feeling I was making a mistake. He did a horrible job on the tile, broke my toilet, and disappeared. I had to buy more wall tile and pay another contractor to replace it, and I'm still stuck with a bad job on the floor. Between the cost of doing the job, redoing the job, and buying a new toilet, I could have had the better contractor do the job, and replaced the vanity and sink as well, and upgraded to a better tile. Lessons: A jack of all trades might be a master of none. Go with your gut. Ask contractors for their license numbers and CHECK IT online with your state to see if it's in effect. I've made more, but these are the recent highlights, LOL. I feel better having confessed them here.