I appreciate this thread as it tells me I am not alone I added a 2nd floor to our 1954 house in 1986, extending the existing chimney another 10-12 feet up, using new bricks. Around 1995 we began to have problems with pieces of the new bricks coming down, (which I gather from this thread is called "spalling".) I was told it was due to water in the bricks freezing in our NE winters and expanding to break the bricks. I resealed the bricks myself in 1996 and 2002. (It got the sealant all over our vinyl siding - but that's another story.) In 2003, as the problem was worse than ever, I paid $2,400 for pros to come in and repair it "right" with staging: they replaced the top 6-7 rows, replaced broken 4-6 miscellaneous bricks below that, and resealed the whole chimney. (My original bricks from c. 1954 are all fine. The pros told me that there was a problem with the batch of bricks made in 1986 - they had seen it elsewhere. But I am dumfounded by that explanation.) I thought I was fixed, but now in 2009 I have about 5 broken bricks. It looks like this chimney is just going to be my nemesis for life.

We had a situation this year where next door neighbors were knowingly and willfully infringing on our property with noxious behavior, and while the HOA did issue violation warnings, their process moved at a snail's pace. During the slow crawl where the noxious activity continued, the neighbor was actually seeking an exemption that they thought would allow them to continue damaging our property. Unwilling to wait, we hired an attorney who swiftly brought about a remedy, to our satisfaction. Know that anyone who has entered into an HOA has the right to legally enforce its provisions in a court of law. You are not at the mercy of the HOA to take action; you and your neighbors are contractual parties with rights of your own to enforce. Just saying, in case anyone might think that the association itself holds the power to enforce.

Sure Charles I could say the same thing to you. You know APR valves aren't a real fix for an over sized residential HVAC system. So now that I've stepped to the plate due to what you said here: APR valves have been around only 17 years or so. Your trade school education was completed before that. They weren't on the menu, so to speak. Yet all you do since that point is to change the subject and do everything in your power to avoid a civil debate about it. Why? My education is certainly in question. What is holding you back Charles? Yet I am still not afraid of an APR valve debate in a new thread, even with my 'so called' inferior education as you like to commonly bully me with. (let's not think about that though) Meanwhile I'm sure Charles will twist the subject again because he's been called to discuss it and he know's I won't allow him to baffle you with ____________. He'll use excuses like oh you're a bully Ray. That's what builders do, they obviously run from things that challenge them. (or blame it on a sub contractor - easy escape hatch) It's either that or deny, deny, deny. Charles often writes checks with his mouth he can't cash.... yet he'll try to blame me and my reputation for that too. Who is the 2 buck Chuck in this wine cellar? ha, ha, ha. I still find this funny. I only wish I would have thought of it. (Weakest Link) Ha, ha, ha, ha. Real life reputation vs a forum board...... as always your mileage will vary. As a home owner you have choices. I make it so easy for you to read between the lines of what forum board instigators dish out but can't back up. They cower and run, change the subject and claim I am the bully. If you put 3 HVAC contractors in a room it's quite likely none of them will agree. You as a home owner are going to have to decipher. I don't sugar coat things. I am not a candy maker because of this people form opinions against me. (It's nothing new) I service the Katy, Texas area. ------------ If you're available to respond to an inquiry in 30 minutes, no imagination is needed to understand why. Because I am that good. How many 100's and 100's of pieces of equipment I installed over the past 14+ years of running my own HVAC company-- Roughly 8 different brands, Bosch Inverters only recently (2019)... communicating systems in 2014/ 2015 time periods all in a hot high use climate. But when I spell it out like this above it changes things doesn't it?

Many of our vacations are on cruise ships and therefore we belong to some Facebook groups for the cruise lines. The arguments about tipping on those groups is legendary. Basically it boils down to folks from non US countries, where they pay their people more than we do here, do not at all understand our tipping culture. And they get angry that they are expected to tip workers on the ship. My feeling is I wish we were more like other countries and servers' income is not based on the generosity of the paying public. But until that happens, I will happily tip. And because I was a waitress during college and am thankful everyday that I didn't have do that once I graduated, I'm a big tipper. At first the tips for counter service annoyed me. I do not think those people are paid less than minimum wage and expect tips to make up the difference? But it's been going on so long, I'm over it and I just tip. In the grand scheme of things, it's not very much money to me and maybe I'm helping one of the workers pay for college. Very infrequently we've had a surcharge added at a restaurant when using a credit card. It's slightly annoying, but I do not want to have to carry large amounts of cash all the time so I just pay it. I tell myself that my AmEx points make up for the surcharge since I haven't paid actual cash money for an airline ticket in I can't remember how long. I'm probably wrong about that, but shush, I will continue to tell myself that.