JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
This morning, I found a water stain at the bottom of the cabinet under the sink.
"Oh, no," I thought. "My pipes are leaking, and I'm bad at plumbing. I suppose I'll spend an hour lying on the kitchen floor with my head in a puddle, and probably it won't be fixed after that."
Then I remembered that I recently sold my house and am currently renting. So I submitted a maintenance request to my apartment complex, and a man who was both pleasant and competent showed up a couple of hours later and quickly replaced the faulty gasket while I sat in my office drinking tea, and he charged me zero dollars.
Actually looking in to it, I think what I really want is a bunch of John William Waterhouse paintings. I'll start collecting those. I just ordered a framed print of The Soul of the Rose. This store has actual painted replicas which are generally much nicer than prints, but I wanted The Soul of the Rose and they didn't have it.
I love Waterhouse. I'm a big Pre- Raphaelite fan.
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Damp report came back with about £5k worth of work that needs doing, including stripping plaster / woodwork back around every fireplace (there's 8) and redoing the timbers and plaster with a non-porous layer.
So not only not cheap but not something you can do whilst living there as it affects every bedroom.
So that'll definitely cause a mortgage retention.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Steer clear. That is probably a best case of the effort needed, you don't want to end up with a money pit
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Steer clear. That is probably a best case of the effort needed, you don't want to end up with a money pit
Buildings survey said 4k, we budgeted 8k and actual damp survey says 5k which is a happy medium.
It just means that some of the niceties that we were going to do might have to wait - putting in the en-suite / dressing room.
The only issue is having the money to pay someone to do the work if the mortgage company does decide on a rentention, but that's not worth worrying about until it happens. If I get quotes from people ready to start and can prove that to the lender then I might be able to talk them round.
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
That chest of drawers I ordered with my tax return money was delivered, and @Strikor set it up yesterday.
Alistair, our most elegant of kitties (also known as the Cuddle Gentleman) knew at once that it was designed for him:
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Anyone have any hot tips on good dishwashers for good prices?
@JebusUD are you still looking at them? I'd suggest taking a look at returned items at whatever appliance store. If you don't mind slight cosmetic issues (a little dint/scratch) you can usually score a pretty awesome appliance marked down quite heftily.
Anyone have any hot tips on good dishwashers for good prices?
@JebusUD are you still looking at them? I'd suggest taking a look at returned items at whatever appliance store. If you don't mind slight cosmetic issues (a little dint/scratch) you can usually score a pretty awesome appliance marked down quite heftily.
@JebusUD go to ApplianceSmart! This is basically all they do.
We got a fridge for about $500 off, because it had a scratch on the finish. On the side. Where no one could see it.
We went to the one in Eden Prairie, and we were super glad we did.
Scratch and dent prices on appliances are completely silly. I got my washer for $150 off because someone had bought it, used it twice, and returned it.
I remember walking into best buy once to look at their scratch and dent stuff.
It was like 10% off the MSRP and I laughed and went to sears instead.
When I worked at Best Buy for a very brief period, we could buy those scratch and dent items for like 80% off. I wish I had had more disposable income at the time, I might have made better use of it.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I remember walking into best buy once to look at their scratch and dent stuff.
It was like 10% off the MSRP and I laughed and went to sears instead.
When I worked at Best Buy for a very brief period, we could buy those scratch and dent items for like 80% off. I wish I had had more disposable income at the time, I might have made better use of it.
Yeah 80% off is what I'd expect at like home depot or sears looking at scratch and dent.
My dad bought a fridge last year, because the moving guys dropped it off at some dude's house and dropped it and the left side (that would be tucked against the wall in his house) had a huge ding/dent in it. Nothing structural or all that.
It was like a 2300 fridge.
He got it for $800.
It is a really nice fridge.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I love being able to run things in solicitors dumb faces.
Buyers solicitor was absolutely adamant that I needed to pay £400 for the sellers pack to transfer ownership through the HOA and wouldn't even entertain the idea that I had all of that information anyway and could they make do with the £100 transfer forms and introductory letter.
So I called the HOA and they haven't been managing the property long enough for the pack to be produced for my house, so the only thing I could buy was the letter and forms.
There's nothing more satisfying than sending a heavily veiled sarcastic email to a solicitor saying that you were right all along and they're a bunch of dumb dumbs.
If they'd listened to me in the first place we could've saved two weeks of faffing around!
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
The furniture manufacturer who made our exquisite bed and that chest of drawers we bought recently is called AICO. I really like almost everything they make. Someone is selling an AICO armoire on craigslist for like a tenth of what it would sell for new, and I just soooooo wish I had room for it.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Jeez, just went look at their website. That's some really nice furniture that I will never ever be able to afford ever.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I don't like everything they make (I think they do shit couches), but most of their hardwood stuff is unbelievably gorgeous. And yeah they are crazy expensive which is why I'm contenting myself at buying one piece per year with our tax return. Bella Veneto is the AICO line that my bed and chest of drawers come from. Next year: Bella Veneto Dresser.
That armoire is not Bella Veneto, but it's not like my whole house has to be the same line. And holy moses do I love their hardwood work.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
The last set of bookshelves we had in our living room I'd made, and they were fine, but we wanted to change the layout of the room and decided to go for a bookshelf wall instead. A This time around, to save on effort a bit, we went for one of the ikea hack approaches where:
1. Get an appropriate number of Billy bookshelves to fill the space.
2. Put trim between them and at top and bottom until they look like one big frame. This is relatively easy.
3. Fill in the edges. This is a big pain if your walls are not vertical or even, as ours turned out not to be. Put on baseboard to match the rest of the room, which can be a bit fiddly because the verticals of Billy bookshelves aren't flush with the shelves, so I had to do some rabbetting on the uprights to get things to come out even. (though I did remember to do that before fixing them together, thankfully). Similar with the bit on the right-hand side where some air ducts (I think?) stick out and needed to be worked around.
4. Reload with books et al.
Voila! Took about a week of solid evenings on and off for the woodworking and roughly the same for caulking to fill in gaps / paint over holes / cover up nails, etc.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
The furniture manufacturer who made our exquisite bed and that chest of drawers we bought recently is called AICO. I really like almost everything they make. Someone is selling an AICO armoire on craigslist for like a tenth of what it would sell for new, and I just soooooo wish I had room for it.
Whellllp, I showed this link to my dearest sister and she talked me into buying it. It's really what I wanted her to do, I think, it's the reason I showed it to her, heh. That price is just too good. And I do have a place for it, it just needs to be cleared out of junk.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
Agreed. I hope you hid a Trump campaign poster behind them for future generations to prove that really happened.
Dangit, I should have thought of that (or at least a treasure map or something). There's a lot of other versions of this sort of project out there; some people have put speakers in the top sections of the shelves and used the gaps between/behind the shelves to hide the wires, which seems like a good idea if you have that sort of system to put in place.
btw go to home depot and look for cable raceways so you don't have ugly cables hanging about!
Oh, that's a really good idea, thanks! -- that corner of the room didn't have a ceiling light fixture at all so I just got a swag light set and fixed it up (rather than opening up the wall and ceiling to try and run wires properly, because drywalling is _no fun_), but yeah, it could definitely be cleaner.
On a sort-of-related note, if people haven't seen the remote control wall outlets before, they are a very handy way to make a wall socket feel like a proper light switch with minimal extra effort.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Depends on what you mean by "easy." The easiest plant might be the spider plant, which pretty much thrives under abusive conditions. It likes small pots, grows well in low light, and doesn't like to be watered until the leaves start to get droopy. Plus, it spawns baby spider plants that you can give away to your friends. It does well in hanging baskets and on countertops. Only drawback is that even a well-cared-for spider plant looks basically shabby, so it's not the most attractive option.
Cacti are easy in that you practically never have to water them and only have to repot them every couple of years to refresh the soil, but it's easy to kill them by overwatering and they don't tend to grow very fast, so they're kind of unsatisfying on that front.
If you've got plenty of light in your apartment, a shefflera needs to be watered once a week, but it's highly tolerant of a wide range of water and soil conditions, and you can trim it any old how without stressing the plant much. A good option if you want something that will grow for years and turn into a monster jungle bush.
I finished my new TV/related gear shelves and shoved them in. I'd take a photo but now that it's in place and there's minimal lighting on that side of the room, it's hard to see anything. Basically, the receiver is no longer dangling out the front of a shelf propped up by a sagging cardboard box, and the PC is no longer on the floor in front of it all.
Also I packed my Wii U up because there was no point in putting it back into the system.
I'm looking for something to add a little life or personality to my apartment
Which plant is the easiest to manage?
How simple is an aquarium?
Where's a good place to buy bookshelves?
Plants: for apartments, partial shade plants tend to work best because you typically don't have just a ton of direct sunlight coming in through a window or balcony. Philodendron, aka Heartleaf, is a pretty fuss-free houseplant. You may consider ferns. Do you cook? Most herbs grow very easily on a windowsill.
Aquariums are fairly simple to operate once they've been properly set up, but you'll have to really commit to keeping them properly clean to ensure the health of your wet boys. Additionally they are an utter pain in the ass to relocate when you move.
Pretty much any of the big box stores will sell you bookshelves that are decent enough, for around the 20-30 dollar range. Look around at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and the like, and you'll find something that'll suit you. Ikea, if there's one within a reasonable distance, is a great place for furniture that looks pretty good for not all that much money.
I'm looking for something to add a little life or personality to my apartment
Which plant is the easiest to manage?
How simple is an aquarium?
Where's a good place to buy bookshelves?
Plants: for apartments, partial shade plants tend to work best because you typically don't have just a ton of direct sunlight coming in through a window or balcony. Philodendron, aka Heartleaf, is a pretty fuss-free houseplant. You may consider ferns. Do you cook? Most herbs grow very easily on a windowsill.
Aquariums are fairly simple to operate once they've been properly set up, but you'll have to really commit to keeping them properly clean to ensure the health of your wet boys. Additionally they are an utter pain in the ass to relocate when you move.
Pretty much any of the big box stores will sell you bookshelves that are decent enough, for around the 20-30 dollar range. Look around at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and the like, and you'll find something that'll suit you. Ikea, if there's one within a reasonable distance, is a great place for furniture that looks pretty good for not all that much money.
I tend to prefer herbs, tomatoes, and jalapeños. They're delicious, and they're easy to fit onto a balcony. I especially like railing planters.
Could you move the little cart? Or would you want to?
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I am just about ready to start demo-ing my bathroom so I can remodel it. I'm even finally starting to not be sick all the time like I have been the past three weeks! I am excite.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
My house no longer has extra things holding it up.
Yay
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Should I be able to hear my basement's sump pump? It's silent right now and there's a storm and water is pooling at the base of my basement porch. It's draining but very, very slowly.
Should I be able to hear my basement's sump pump? It's silent right now and there's a storm and water is pooling at the base of my basement porch. It's draining but very, very slowly.
Check it. Sometimes takes a few hours to get in there
Should I be able to hear my basement's sump pump? It's silent right now and there's a storm and water is pooling at the base of my basement porch. It's draining but very, very slowly.
Check it. Sometimes takes a few hours to get in there
Check what? The rain has stopped but I've been keeping an eye on the drain. My main concern is there's a block somewhere between the drain opening and the pump.
Posts
"Oh, no," I thought. "My pipes are leaking, and I'm bad at plumbing. I suppose I'll spend an hour lying on the kitchen floor with my head in a puddle, and probably it won't be fixed after that."
Then I remembered that I recently sold my house and am currently renting. So I submitted a maintenance request to my apartment complex, and a man who was both pleasant and competent showed up a couple of hours later and quickly replaced the faulty gasket while I sat in my office drinking tea, and he charged me zero dollars.
Renting has its advantages.
I love Waterhouse. I'm a big Pre- Raphaelite fan.
So not only not cheap but not something you can do whilst living there as it affects every bedroom.
So that'll definitely cause a mortgage retention.
Buildings survey said 4k, we budgeted 8k and actual damp survey says 5k which is a happy medium.
It just means that some of the niceties that we were going to do might have to wait - putting in the en-suite / dressing room.
The only issue is having the money to pay someone to do the work if the mortgage company does decide on a rentention, but that's not worth worrying about until it happens. If I get quotes from people ready to start and can prove that to the lender then I might be able to talk them round.
Alistair, our most elegant of kitties (also known as the Cuddle Gentleman) knew at once that it was designed for him:
Next weekend I'm asking my girlfriend to lock me up there until im done
@JebusUD are you still looking at them? I'd suggest taking a look at returned items at whatever appliance store. If you don't mind slight cosmetic issues (a little dint/scratch) you can usually score a pretty awesome appliance marked down quite heftily.
I did find several dead birds, their eggs, and a zippo with the likeness of JFK on it
@JebusUD go to ApplianceSmart! This is basically all they do.
We got a fridge for about $500 off, because it had a scratch on the finish. On the side. Where no one could see it.
We went to the one in Eden Prairie, and we were super glad we did.
It was like 10% off the MSRP and I laughed and went to sears instead.
When I worked at Best Buy for a very brief period, we could buy those scratch and dent items for like 80% off. I wish I had had more disposable income at the time, I might have made better use of it.
Yeah 80% off is what I'd expect at like home depot or sears looking at scratch and dent.
My dad bought a fridge last year, because the moving guys dropped it off at some dude's house and dropped it and the left side (that would be tucked against the wall in his house) had a huge ding/dent in it. Nothing structural or all that.
It was like a 2300 fridge.
He got it for $800.
It is a really nice fridge.
Buyers solicitor was absolutely adamant that I needed to pay £400 for the sellers pack to transfer ownership through the HOA and wouldn't even entertain the idea that I had all of that information anyway and could they make do with the £100 transfer forms and introductory letter.
So I called the HOA and they haven't been managing the property long enough for the pack to be produced for my house, so the only thing I could buy was the letter and forms.
There's nothing more satisfying than sending a heavily veiled sarcastic email to a solicitor saying that you were right all along and they're a bunch of dumb dumbs.
If they'd listened to me in the first place we could've saved two weeks of faffing around!
That armoire is not Bella Veneto, but it's not like my whole house has to be the same line. And holy moses do I love their hardwood work.
1. Get an appropriate number of Billy bookshelves to fill the space.
2. Put trim between them and at top and bottom until they look like one big frame. This is relatively easy.
3. Fill in the edges. This is a big pain if your walls are not vertical or even, as ours turned out not to be. Put on baseboard to match the rest of the room, which can be a bit fiddly because the verticals of Billy bookshelves aren't flush with the shelves, so I had to do some rabbetting on the uprights to get things to come out even. (though I did remember to do that before fixing them together, thankfully). Similar with the bit on the right-hand side where some air ducts (I think?) stick out and needed to be worked around.
4. Reload with books et al.
Voila! Took about a week of solid evenings on and off for the woodworking and roughly the same for caulking to fill in gaps / paint over holes / cover up nails, etc.
Whellllp, I showed this link to my dearest sister and she talked me into buying it. It's really what I wanted her to do, I think, it's the reason I showed it to her, heh. That price is just too good. And I do have a place for it, it just needs to be cleared out of junk.
Agreed. I hope you hid a Trump campaign poster behind them for future generations to prove that really happened.
Those shelves really are asking for a secret lair behind them.
btw go to home depot and look for cable raceways so you don't have ugly cables hanging about!
Which plant is the easiest to manage?
How simple is an aquarium?
Where's a good place to buy bookshelves?
Dangit, I should have thought of that (or at least a treasure map or something). There's a lot of other versions of this sort of project out there; some people have put speakers in the top sections of the shelves and used the gaps between/behind the shelves to hide the wires, which seems like a good idea if you have that sort of system to put in place.
Oh, that's a really good idea, thanks! -- that corner of the room didn't have a ceiling light fixture at all so I just got a swag light set and fixed it up (rather than opening up the wall and ceiling to try and run wires properly, because drywalling is _no fun_), but yeah, it could definitely be cleaner.
On a sort-of-related note, if people haven't seen the remote control wall outlets before, they are a very handy way to make a wall socket feel like a proper light switch with minimal extra effort.
Cacti are easy in that you practically never have to water them and only have to repot them every couple of years to refresh the soil, but it's easy to kill them by overwatering and they don't tend to grow very fast, so they're kind of unsatisfying on that front.
If you've got plenty of light in your apartment, a shefflera needs to be watered once a week, but it's highly tolerant of a wide range of water and soil conditions, and you can trim it any old how without stressing the plant much. A good option if you want something that will grow for years and turn into a monster jungle bush.
Audrey II
n/a
depends on how many books you have
Also I packed my Wii U up because there was no point in putting it back into the system.
Plants: for apartments, partial shade plants tend to work best because you typically don't have just a ton of direct sunlight coming in through a window or balcony. Philodendron, aka Heartleaf, is a pretty fuss-free houseplant. You may consider ferns. Do you cook? Most herbs grow very easily on a windowsill.
Aquariums are fairly simple to operate once they've been properly set up, but you'll have to really commit to keeping them properly clean to ensure the health of your wet boys. Additionally they are an utter pain in the ass to relocate when you move.
Pretty much any of the big box stores will sell you bookshelves that are decent enough, for around the 20-30 dollar range. Look around at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and the like, and you'll find something that'll suit you. Ikea, if there's one within a reasonable distance, is a great place for furniture that looks pretty good for not all that much money.
I tend to prefer herbs, tomatoes, and jalapeños. They're delicious, and they're easy to fit onto a balcony. I especially like railing planters.
There's a nice window, but I have put the little cart that my microwave rides on there.
Yay
Check it. Sometimes takes a few hours to get in there
Check what? The rain has stopped but I've been keeping an eye on the drain. My main concern is there's a block somewhere between the drain opening and the pump.
Since they usually trigger on a float reaching a certain level, just lift the float and make sure it will kick in.