Awww! These stories are so inspirational! Me-- nothing. I think I could learn how to change a tire, but the one time I tried (on a freezing winter night) I could not get the lug nuts off . . .man at the gas station wouldn't come out in the cold, so I had to call my then boyfriend to help. (He was very muscular, but even he struggled, so . . .) I used to play the harp, but I could never get it up/down stairs myself. That's one of the reasons I stopped playing professionally, because I hated being dependent on others for help. My teacher said it would be physically impossible for me to do because of my height. (She could and she was in her 60s-- but she was much taller.) I don't know if that is true. The other day I DID learn how to rewire a lamp. But mostly DH handles things. He is in a techie professionlly, and learned how to do many home repair type things from his dad and his own experimentation. Now that we have little time, I feel like I missed the boat to learn these things since he can do them so much faster and better. BUT, then there is my mom . . .widowed when I was 13, so she had to learn a lot fast, on her own. That was no good, either! My dad did a lot, from home repair to laundry to dishes, even little things like filling her tank with gas. (My mom was a big career person.)

foam does two things. air seals and insulates. insulation with air moving through it does little to insulate. by combining the two, foam is a good product. as I believe that green is 80% conservation & 20% everything else..to me it is a green product. cellulose is ground newspaper with a fire retardant of borate. and it creates a fine 'dust' that is borate treated newspaper. I'm sure others will come along with disadvantages of foam, so I'll leave that to them. spray foam (sf) comes in either closed cell, or open cell. cc is higher R-value. oc is lesser R-value. R-7 & R-4 depending upon product. in my hot humid climate..we use open cell. we know that eventually roofs leak, so we want a product that allows the moisture to exit. you'll get biased information from salesmen/women. even mfg sites, after all they are selling product. unbiased sites offer better unbiased information. buildingscience.com energyvanguard.com both have info that address foam, insulation types and climate specific info. by googling foam..you get lots of info. just take with a grain of salt mfg info. and understand that most homeowners have experience with one job..theirs. contacting an energy rater in your area would give you access to companies & products in that area. the energy rating simplified is a blue print for efficiency of your specific home. knowing what leaks, how much it leaks & how to address it is a great thing. check with www.resnet.us for energy raters in your area. we work with both new and existing homes. and don't insulate until you air seal. things like recessed lights, attic access, penetrations in ceiling such as stove vents or bath fan vents should all be sealed prior to insulation install. if you have ductwork in the attic space, mastic seal it prior to insulation. (kinda doubt you do...but just in case.) best of luck.

Jakethewonderdog, How long before a mid efficiency furnaces chimney will be rusted out if water condensate is being released, and would that cause a carbon monoxide issue or risk? On the trickle of water coming from a high efficiency furnace it can be measured, per hour. The higher the efficiency the greater amount of acidic water, about the corrosive level of acetic acid, pH2, this is vinegar. The released HEF water fumes and vapors and how much they are can only be seen on days when mercury drops to 0 C, or 32 F. There is a lot of vapor, and the reason why the plastic venting must be far away from any meter, and why the intake air vent must be apart, by a distance greater than three feet from the gas exhaust vapor vent. In Canada the gas code, CSA B149 section 8.3.7 was being ignored and my HEF would freeze up. In Nov., 2014, I began to take the intake air from my 1200 ft. Crawl space for my 100 BTU lennox Pulse, G21Q3-100-3, and the result was warmer heat and house. I am likely the only one in CAnada to do a private HEF condensate study. I measured the condensate water and it was one gallon per hour on the freezing days. In May 2015, I put on a neurtrilizer on the condensate drip vent, saved the gray water, and now flush the toilets with it. This saves me much money paying for hauled city water, and I am now sending only safe alkaline water to my private lagoon. I tested in a Waterloo water lab the tap water, a pH of 7, the gray water, pH 7.6 plus, and the HEF condensate, acidic pH 2. The heavy HEF water was not in hydrogen but heavy in oxygen, at 16 to 18. No other element testing was done to qualify how to reuse nuertralezed HEF water, other than to flush the toilets. I would not permit animals to drink from the toilet bowl, as some dogs do. I would not water a vegetable garden with it or give the HEF water to livestock. Failure of governing bodies on home heat: No government or their agencies, to my knowledge, had confirmed any manufactuer's statements an HEF condensate was only at pH 6. Where did the HEF manufactuerers do their own and required testing? And, what was the quility of the supplied natural gas to get an HEF condensate pH test of 6? In a year from now, maybe the Mallard ducks will again nest on my lagoon, if it is no longer suspected of being acidic. I did no testing of this sewer water. The ducks were not nestings after many years of releasing acidic HEF water, now known to be pH2, into my private lagoon from Dec. 1994 to May 2015. All HEFs, in my opinion, are adding to acidic problems to where this untreated created HEf water is being discharged on surface ground, or into public drainage systems and lakes, and lagoons. This level of pH 2 also corrodes concrete and all metals, so even treatment plants are vulnerable, and sewer pipes. The unneutralized HEF condensate has been permitted, by most all levels of government, to add to pollutions in the water drainage systems and the likely cause of the oceans becoming more and more acidic, and with so many businesses, and industries, and private homes going to HEFs. In Canada that was a compulsory change with irresponsible local reviews on all models of HEFs. The HEF manufacturers have apparently lied about the HEF condensate pH only being a pH of 6, or apple juice, or slightly acidic. They did so in order to sell this lie to all environmental groups. The lawyers in these environmental groups, the paid sophists, said it will be sufficiently dilutted by bath water. Well, many lawyers are paid to lie. The truth is that it is not normal to send one gallon of pH 2 HEF Water, per hour, into any sewer system, from every home that has an HEF. These homes or businesses are not flushing pH 7 toilet water or alkaline dish water into the sewer lines in the same hourly capacity of the created toxic HEF water. Mother Earth we have failed you, again, by profit deceptions involving the plumbing, and the oil and gas industries collusions on new HEF technology. Shame on their joint conspiracy of silence. If not a state or Federal law, where is the local mandate that all HEFs are required to have a neurtrilzer on the HEF condensate, and store the created water, and flush away, safely, and just use the safe pH 7 tap water for essentials.

When I got home at 6:15 yesterday I found I'd received an email from the Honda Fit salesperson, who sent me a price quote, a PDF attachment, at 5 p.m. I had dealt with him over the phone one day earlier and sent him a long email after the call. -!- Yes, the email was based on the draft above, and modified in ways that reflected comments above. I can post it if people want. His message: "Thank you for the detailed email. Here is a price." At 6:30 I emailed back and phoned (leaving message) saying we'd be available downtown around 7:30 p.m. for the test drive he wanted us to do. I live downtown. A similar story: Yesterday I called the Suzuki retailer closest to me and spoke to a salesperson. Ten minutes at 10 a.m. Before 12 noon I sent email to the manager for him to forward to the salesperson. The same long email modified as per feedback received. The salesperson called me back at 2:30; his price was $X thousand lower than the web price. He agreed with me that this was just the "over the phone" price with a stranger so the real price would be even lower than that. After calling him again at 4 he was expecting me to confirm later whether he'd see us that same evening. I sent email at 6:30 asking if it was reasonable to expect him to pick me up and drive another mile to fetch my wife who was finishing work. In other words, if the test drive could start at my wife's workplace or at my place. That email was also sent to the manager's email address, for him to see and discuss with the salesperson. Then I called and asked him the same thing. He went to get the email and consult his manager, and got back to me. No go. At 7:30 p.m. I was at his front door showing him my drivers' license while standing a few feet inside the front door. He gestured to a chair and I said "No time, remember we're driving now to go pick up my wife." He walked over to a floor model to show me things, and I said "You'll show all this to my wife when we get her into the vehicle, right? So let's get going." We left to go pick up my wife. The manager observed from the distance and did not approach. Minutes after picking up my wife, I was driving and my cell phone rang. It was the Honda Fit salesperson getting back to me at 7:50 p.m. Can't talk now, thank you for the email, bye-bye. I drove the three of us back to the Suzuki showroom, my wife drove a second vehicle, and then we did all sit down. Since he used silence as a closing tool, my wife resisted him. --- The best way to save money is to avoid spending money. (An SX-4 at $X deprec./year, plus insurance, plus gas, plus maintenance, etc) We still have our ten year old car depreciating at $1700 per year (bought used) and have never paid for major repairs for it yet. Since last year we now belong to a car sharing service. We've used it a few times. Compare A to B: A. carsharing service, regular car rental service, taxis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carsharing) B. owning a car Conclusion: A is way better. My wife was frustrated with our current situation. Now she is happy. She was the one who said "A" is way better after we went for a walk around the duck pond in the park. At 10 p.m. I feel now I've come as far as I needed to on Tuesday, 48 hours ago. We'll go rent a Versa or a Fit for our vacations. To try it out. I'll look into inventories visible on the web. Thank you!