Your work profession: what do/or did you?
glenda_al
4 years ago
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What are you doing (or did you do) for HVAC in your build?
Comments (14)We built in MN and moved in about 1 1/2 years ago. Two story plus full basement walkout. We have 2 Econar geothermal units, one hydronic and one forced air with 8 - 1,000 ft horizonal loops. The hydronic pumps water for the radiant floors in the garage slab, basement slab, upstairs bath, master bath, 1/2 bath and mudroom. The forced air unit is for all other areas and provides A/C in summer. Our insulation is closed cell spray foam and it's awesome. I wanted to wait to see how the humidity was in winter and it was around 25%, which is too low. So I'm looking at adding a Honeywell Truesteam humidifier that will add water directly into the ducts and is controlled automatically by the thermostat with an outdoor sensor. I did all the underside-of-the-floor mounted radiant pex tubing (and accompanying insulation) myself as well as the floor insulation under the slabs. It's critical that you have a thermal break between the concrete and the ground. I used 2" XPS (rigid pink foam board insulation) on the ground and taped all joints. I also used a reflective bubble-wrap type insulation around the perimeter walls and interior footings. No concrete touches the ground at all. You mentioned carpet in the basement. As long as your installer knows what flooring you're installing, he can change how close together he puts the pex tubing loops. For carpet the loops will be closer together to create more heat. Geothermal is very quiet. The fan is on all the time so it doesn't come on like a jet engine and shut off all the time like propane or natural gas. Quiet, steady heat. In the summer there is no condenser outside and thus it's silent. Love it....See MoreWhat did you do with your wedding ring after you got divorced?
Comments (17)My ex wore his ring to work one day- a no no for plumbers- and he thinks it fell down the drain in the back of Safeway. Whatever. I gave my band that matched his to my bro. They disliked each other so bro and I thought it would be funny. Bro used it to go to bars in San Fran. He would use it if creepy guys tried to hit on him. He lost it after putting it in the pocket of his Member's Only coat. Yes it was 1986. I kept the engagement ring and took the 1/4 stone out and some emeralds from an antique ring I purchased while married and on my 21st birthday made myself a ring to celebrate my divorce. I still wear it and my dh of 20 years does not care. I still have the setting and was told it would be worth not a lot because it was a mix of white and yellow gold. My husband was married before also. His ring cracked just after he learned she was having an affair with one of his old friends from school. We still have it. I could probably take the two, along with my gold crown I had removed and make at least a few dollars, ya think? I did keep one item and still have it. For our first anniversary I went to an antique store and purchased an Elgin 5 ruby pocketwatch guts and had it set into a gold case. It was really cool. I had engraved "for all of time" on the back. He never really appreciated it or me so I kept it when I left him. He understood. I paid $50 and had to save every dime to buy it. He gave me a little heart ring with a chip in it. I still have it too. Thought of giving it to my dd but I think I would rather sell it and buy her something else. I took watch to an appraisal show in town a few years ago. They told me it was worth about $300 and that they would buy it but really suggested I hang onto it as it would appreciate a lot. Even if I sold the case separate from the guts, the guts were pretty unique. They said it was still valuable even with the engraving. I still have it and will probably get around to selling it. Should take it in again just to see. There are not a lot of master watchmakers around these days but there are a few in town that are reputable....See MoreWhat Did You or Do You Call Your Parents?
Comments (49)Mom and dad, but when mom is not paying attention she gets maaaaaw! She doesn't care for it. I tell her she needs to listen when I call her mom, she doesn't so I keep with the name . They are grandma, and papa to their grands. My BIL's father was already called papa so this is what my dad went with too. My grandparents were grandma, and grandpa. Friends grandparents were Ooma, Nan, Gram. My parents used their in-laws first names, BIL at the start used mom and dad but it sounded so awkward that he gave up and uses their first names now. I think my mom would be hurt if her kids called anyone else mom. After all she put in the work she earned the title mom....See MoreWhat did you do with your *stuff* during your kitchen remodel?
Comments (17)I am just finishing a four month reno that affected nearly my whole first floor (and half the second) and left me with no kitchen or eating area the whole time. I have a fridge in the garage but the fridge portion was no good to me bc it’s winter and everything froze in there. I set up one end of my living room with a long folding table. I had some very lightweight thin sheets of wood cut to fit it at Home Depot and laid that down for heat protection, then put a table cloth over it that hung down to the floor. I put a dorm fridge at one end of the table, and on the table I put a toaster, microwave, and toaster oven. At the other end was the trash and recycling bins. I kept one plate, one cup, one bowl, two knives, two spoons, and two forks in the house, along with salt and pepper, a spatula, some tongs, and several disposable food storage containers that could either store leftovers or act as additional bowls if needed. All of it went in a basket under the folding table, behind the tablecloth, which gave me some sense of neatness and order. Another basket under the table held food basics - bread, pb&j, cereal. Almost every single other thing in my kitchen was packed up and put into storage. I cooked tons of stuff ahead of time and froze them in individual serving sizes and put them in the garage freezer. My best advice is to get the stuff you will not need out of your house. ALL of it - put it in storage. I put a lot in storage, but there were some misc hard to pack things (like bottles of liquor, and a large wall mirror, and a clock) that I decided I could just stick in my living room or office. I also didn’t want to put any sort of pantry food in a storage facility so anything I hadn’t used up before the reno I put in boxes and set it in other rooms. I regretted these decisions big time. I’ve spent four months tripping over that stuff or shuffling it from place to place - I should have just found a way to pack it and store the possessions and given the food to a food bank. It seems like every available surface had stuff piled on it that I should have stored. I hated that way more than not having a kitchen. And remove any excess stuff from the room you’ll be living in - pare it down to only what you need. Otherwise it will just feel cramped and overwhelming. I just found it’s super important to create some order and visual calmness in the spaces you are living in. Other advice - take everything off the walls, even in rooms adjoining the work area, otherwise it may fall during work that vibrates. Buy extra filters for your HVAC and change them frequently during the work. And absolutely do not use your garage as storage for what is normally in your house. The very best advice I saw on Houzz before my remodel was to ruthlessly purge and organize my garage ahead of time. I did it, and thank goodness I did - both the house and garage would have been sheer chaos if I hadn’t, because the garage was used to stage materials and set up saws and other tools. Even though I had completely cleared both bays, this stuff completely filled the garage at times, leaving only a narrow aisle up the middle, so thank god I didn’t try to also use it to store stuff from the house. One of the big surprises to me was the amount of money it costs to deal with the reno but is not being paid to the contractor or designer. Examples include: movers to move things in and out of storage, storage fees, post-reno deep cleaning, post-reno duct cleaning, area rug and carpet cleaning, service charges from my home security company to come and put sensors on my new windows, appliance delivery and installation fees, packing supplies, etc. It adds up. BUT it will all be worth it!! Good luck!...See MoreElmer J Fudd
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