The Home Ownership Thread

[Piobaire]



The container experiment is still going well, though I have been getting drought stress and what appears to be nutrient deficiency. So I laid down $20 for a second irrigation controller that can do 8 starts per day for the drippers. For the nutrients apparently what the cool kids do is get a fertilizer injector for the drip system to continuously feed liquid fertilizer [since granules are dependent on top watering to release fertilizer]. The good injectors ones will set you back $250+ [and of course water-soluble or liquid fertilizer is more expensive].

I lost track...is this tomatoes in containers? Mrs. Piob had a problem doing this a couple years ago and she researched a specific nutrient was needed of they sort of atrophied on the bottom badly and were inedible. I'll ask her if you want. FWIW, she was using Grow Boxes or something. Built in irrigation and ways to fertilize I guess.

 

[Gus]

It has been a full year since our kitchen remodel. The painted white wood cabinets with nickel hardware were the right decision. I love them. The nickel looks ideal next to SS appliances. The under the counter wine fridge is a real win as well. Hight recommend getting rid of your 90's trash compactor and replacing it with one of these babies.

 

[otc]

People actually have trash compactors in their homes? I thought that was like...a magazine ad product nobody ever bought

 

[jbarwick]

things rolling a bit here at Casa RL.

Just ordered ceiling fans for living room and bedroom - will have ceiling fans installed as well as recessed lighting for the living room in the next couple weeks.
Still need to buy a washer/dryer set for the newly plumbed upstairs laundry room.

How did you decide what rooms for recessed lighting? Mrs. JB wants more light in certain rooms as our old house was lit by lamps and windows. She wants to put awful lights on our ceiling fans but I am arguing for recessed lighting even in the bedrooms. We need something more than lamps but not ugly light ceiling fan lights.

 

[Michigan Planner]



How did you decide what rooms for recessed lighting?  Mrs. JB wants more light in certain rooms as our old house was lit by lamps and windows.  She wants to put awful lights on our ceiling fans but I am arguing for recessed lighting even in the bedrooms.  We need something more than lamps but not ugly light ceiling fan lights.

If you already have ceiling fans in some of the rooms, I would advise against putting recessed lighting in above them as it can cause a horribly annoying strobe light effect if both the fan and the lights are on simultaneously.

 

[Ataturk]



I lost track...is this tomatoes in containers? Mrs. Piob had a problem doing this a couple years ago and she researched a specific nutrient was needed of they sort of atrophied on the bottom badly and were inedible. I'll ask her if you want. FWIW, she was using Grow Boxes or something. Built in irrigation and ways to fertilize I guess.

Yeah, tomatoes, and a few cucumbers and peppers.

You're describing blossom-end-rot, caused by calcium deficiency or irregular watering habits, depending on who you believe. I haven't had that problem -- I made my own potting soil according to the popular (online) 5-1-1 recipe. It's just pine bark (literally cheaper than dirt here), perlite and peat moss. Since it's a very acidic base you put in a measured amount of lime -- which happens to be mostly calcium. I actually did have exactly one tomato rot on the end, and it happened to be the first big one I had -- that was a little alarming, but not another one since.

My problem is just some yellowing of the leaves and browning on the edges. I don't know exactly what nutrient they're wanting-- the advantage of miracle gro is that it has all of them (except for calcium). It may very well be more than one. Problem is that the controlled release fertilizer releases faster than advertised -- 3 months is more like 2 months, or in my case 1.5 months. I doubt they rate it for being watered every day like I was doing before the drip system came online. If I could inject liquid fertilizer directly into the irrigation water I'd never have to worry about stuff like this.

 

[Gus]

Called Comcast /Xfinity mt cable company. Told them I wanted to downgrade service, they knocked off $30 a month and will provide the same package as before.

I ran into this 5 years ago with Direct TV. I think I had been paying something like $200 a month for all the jazzy services. I called to tell them I was changing to Comcast and they offered to reduce my bill to $75.

Any of these types of services (cable, phone, internet) you can really play them against the competition and they are happy to give you discounts to retain you as a customer.

 

[Gus]



People actually have trash compactors in their homes? I thought that was like...a magazine ad product nobody ever bought

Well, we have one. There was one in our kitchen when we moved in 11 years ago. My wife enjoyed it so much she wanted a new one when we remodeled. My installation guy said, "Trash compactors....they turn 10 lbs of garbage into 10 lbs of garbage...."

 

[thekunk07]

new fridge, new dishwasher, pool pavers, driveway, ball court all in last month. no money left.

 

[lefty]

Well, we have one. There was one in our kitchen when we moved in 11 years ago. My wife enjoyed it so much she wanted a new one when we remodeled. My installation guy said, "Trash compactors....they turn 10 lbs of garbage into 10 lbs of garbage...."

Compactor or disposal? SanFo is nuts about their disposals. I think every place I looked at had one.

My NYC place has one which apparently is a big ******* deal here. The agent said to list that as third thing after 'corner unit' and 'roof deck' when we resell.

... new ball court ...

If you build it, he will come.

lefty

 

[thekunk07]

^assuming you're still in sf, i'm out there one week out of 6. coffee time.

 

[RedLantern]



How did you decide what rooms for recessed lighting?  Mrs. JB wants more light in certain rooms as our old house was lit by lamps and windows.  She wants to put awful lights on our ceiling fans but I am arguing for recessed lighting even in the bedrooms.  We need something more than lamps but not ugly light ceiling fan lights.

Well, we don't really need much light in the bedrooms - lamps are adequate in there.
The dining room will eventually get some kind of interesting fixture.
Living room is too large a room for any one fixture, plus we really want a ceiling fan in there. (In Seattle a ceiling fan in the living and bedroom will suffice for air conditioning during the summer)

 

[otc]



Compactor or disposal? SanFo is nuts about their disposals. I think every place I looked at had one.

My NYC place has one which apparently is a big ******* deal here. The agent said to list that as third thing after 'corner unit' and 'roof deck' when we resell. 

As in an in-sink disposal? Odd, those are pretty much standard in all new construction or renovations around here. If I owned a place that didn't have one, I would probably install one within the first couple of months just because they are handy to have, easy to install, take up little space, and cost what...$150?

Does NYC have some weird rule about them?

edit: looks like NYC banned them until 1997...and a lot of buildings still ban them fearing for their pipes. Weird...I think I would prefer ground up disposal junk going down the pipes to whatever people can cram through their drain openings.

 

[lefty]

^assuming you're still in sf, i'm out there one week out of 6. coffee time.

They ran me out about 1.5 years ago. Happy in Harlem.

As in an in-sink disposal? Odd, those are pretty much standard in all new construction or renovations around here. If I owned a place that didn't have one, I would probably install one within the first couple of months just because they are handy to have, easy to install, take up little space, and cost what...$150?

Does NYC have some weird rule about them?

edit: looks like NYC banned them until 1997...and a lot of buildings still ban them fearing for their pipes. Weird...I think I would prefer ground up disposal junk going down the pipes to whatever people can cram through their drain openings.

They were banned for a number of years. The belief was the NYers would use them to dispose of cat litter, car transmissions and bodies, and **** up the city's plumbing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/nyregion/garbage-disposals-are-the-new-kitchen-amenity.html

lefty

 

[Gus]

I was referring to a compactor.

Garbage disposals in suburban CA are standard equipment. Crazy about the NYC law against them until fairly recently. I'm so accustomed to using one that it is hard to imagine life without one. Kinda like the dishwasher. I think I'd feel like I was camping without either of them.