The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
House/Homeowner Thread: This is no longer a quick or little project
Stupid question time - is there an order of operations for having the patio / grass / fencing installed? Should I try to find one company to do all of it?
I know this won't surprise anyone, but the left two characters are upside down.
You can make a case for the leftmost character, since it is commonly displayed upside-down in celebrations. Describing the character as being upside-down in Mandarin is a homophone for that character, meaning "fortune", to "arrive". I think the middle character could also be displayed in a similar way; it means "joy".
That house is genuinely awesome, though. Like, sure, shag carpet, the raised areas around the edges of various rooms keeps you from using that area for storage or the like, and a few rooms cross the line into being "themed", but there's some interesting design choices here that I appreciate.
For some reason, that house really makes me want to capture a top-notch British spy and hold them there for information while they gradually turn my absurdly attractive female assistant against me because I'm clearly lying to her and will inevitably betray her.
Stupid question time - is there an order of operations for having the patio / grass / fencing installed? Should I try to find one company to do all of it?
Probably grass last, and shouldn't matter much between the other two. Actually, I take that back. Patio then fencing then grass.
We had a new patio put in last summer and all of the earth around the edges was completely torn up and needed new grass. Fencing work shouldn't tear up as much grass, but it can certainly tear up some. The guys who did the patio needed to take our gate off and remove a section of fencing in order to have enough room to get all of their equipment into the back yard.
So patio first since it could require modification/repair/replacement of parts of both fencing and grass. Fencing work may also damage grass but shouldn't endanger the patio at all, so it comes next. Grass at the end after other work that might damage it is done.
+4
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I know this won't surprise anyone, but the left two characters are upside down.
You can make a case for the leftmost character, since it is commonly displayed upside-down in celebrations. Describing the character as being upside-down in Mandarin is a homophone for that character, meaning "fortune", to "arrive". I think the middle character could also be displayed in a similar way; it means "joy".
All of this checks out for use in the bathroom, then.
Yeah, carpet's easy enough to remove and replace. And it's cheap enough, you could put a good amount of money in to update the older elements like doors, kitchen, etc. Biggest downside is the old school tiny closets with small rooms. But that sunken living room is really cool as well as the indoor fire pit. I'd imagine places in the northern part of the country might get more use out of it though.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Trajan45
0
MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Stupid question time - is there an order of operations for having the patio / grass / fencing installed? Should I try to find one company to do all of it?
Probably grass last, and shouldn't matter much between the other two. Actually, I take that back. Patio then fencing then grass..
It is the way.
Patio is most destructive, followed by fence and grass. And you'll want the new grass to be lined up to the new patio and fence.
Also I get to do some fun plumbing between today and the end of the week. Kinda yay!
And I figured out WTF was going on with the sink and toilet shutoff valves in the bathroom downstairs: They sweat 3/4" extensions over the 1/2" stubs. The 3/4" extensions have those shitty oval valves. So now I have to somehow get the lines drained and use a torch to boil off the water enough that I can loosen the solder. Then I can add some Sharkbite couplings and be good.
And I get to cut out the plumbing nightmare at the kitchen sink and run new stubs up through the floor. Seriously, who runs pipe stubs through an exterior wall?
This market is fucking crazy. I bought a house three years ago, opting for a big house on a tiny lot, so I had lots of room for cats and VR. Now I'm finding I enjoy the yard more than I thought, the cats spend all their time in the catio, and cleaning shit sucks. So, I want to find a couple acres somewhere, with a small but modern house (or custom build), and live out my hobby farm dreams. I pulled up Zillow for my current place and... wtf...
The other side of that, however, is that just buying the land anywhere near where I want to be winds up in the hundreds of thousands per acre. I was hoping to hide out from global warming in the PNW, but maybe I have to start looking elsewhere. I hear Vermont is nice?
+6
MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Serious/not serious, but I do have a lovely hobby farm from the 1900s or so in the Midwest. Barn is good, other buildings are OK. House is more NIMH not very secretly.
Blerg, both of my front door lights are out, and they are sconces with something they call "LED chips" for lights. I've never messed with these before, but it looks like I need to replace the light units themselves. It feels odd that both burned out at the same time, but I don't see any breakers tripped, and I can't test the electrical without removing the light from its mount anyway.
They look like these but don't use bulbs:
I guess I'll just have to pull one off the wall and test the electrical then see if I can find a replacement unit that is similar, because I really dig these.
Yeah that's definitely a thing with the hardwired LED fixtures. They can have form factors impossible with bulbs, and if they're made correctly can last well over a decade.
But when they burn out the whole fixture is trash.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Yeah that's definitely a thing with the hardwired LED fixtures. They can have form factors impossible with bulbs, and if they're made correctly can last well over a decade.
But when they burn out the whole fixture is trash.
tl;dr is heat kills LEDs, and fixtures like that often aren't designed with heat dissipation in mind.
matt has a problem on
+6
MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
We have that type on the front of our house too, though not as cool as the one above. Been going for at least five years now, has a light sensor so just turns on/of by itself.
Might be the same amount of work, but would testing the switch vs the fixture help at all or no?
0
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
edited March 2022
You can mod in a resistor on the incoming current to limit the LED current. They'll produce a LOT less heat and last a LOT LOT longer. Even the cheap LED sconces will benefit from that mod. Halving the wattage will still give you 80% of the light. Say your sconce has 8 LEDs in series running off a 5v supply that you want to tame down to 1.2v 250ma. A 15 ohm resistor might do you.
BigClive on youtube has some great videos on the subject.
Made a few jigs yesterday - two approaches to edge jointing on a table saw using melamine shelving, and a basic sled for the planer out of MDF.
Haven’t tried the sled yet (waiting for the glue to cure fully), but the other jigs were essentially just two different approaches to partially cutting a board. One lays flat on the table and pressed longways against the fence. There’s basically a shorter infeed portion that runs directly into the blade, with the outfeed section sticking out just to level with the blade to support the shortened board. The other is simply a length of board clamped to the fence vertically, and I raised the blade partially into the face so that it juuust sticks out of the surface.
I’m not completely happy with either approach, though the actual results were pretty good. The first is safer, I think, but I’m a little concerned about accuracy - it’s very easy to cut more of the area around the blade out of the jig, so the infeed side might keep getting deeper every use. The second seems more stable, but there’s not really an outfeed section, so I feel like there’s more risk of accidentally putting too much pressure on the material and slipping into the blade as the material passes through.
I’ll probably try other approaches, but these were extremely easy to make and use at least. Tonight I’m going to try using the planer sled with shims and hot glue to clean up the worst boards I’ve got.
I should probably think about a proper wood storage setup at some point, my workspace is getting a little out of hand.
OneAngryPossum on
0
zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
Stupid question time - is there an order of operations for having the patio / grass / fencing installed? Should I try to find one company to do all of it?
Probably grass last, and shouldn't matter much between the other two. Actually, I take that back. Patio then fencing then grass.
We had a new patio put in last summer and all of the earth around the edges was completely torn up and needed new grass. Fencing work shouldn't tear up as much grass, but it can certainly tear up some. The guys who did the patio needed to take our gate off and remove a section of fencing in order to have enough room to get all of their equipment into the back yard.
So patio first since it could require modification/repair/replacement of parts of both fencing and grass. Fencing work may also damage grass but shouldn't endanger the patio at all, so it comes next. Grass at the end after other work that might damage it is done.
I would have the landscaping done first. The reason is that you can more easily deal with any drainage issues this way. Also if you are doing grass seed (instead of sod), it gives it time to grow, and it’s way cheaper than sod.
0
Red Raevynbecause I only take Bubble BathsRegistered Userregular
I paid $11.26 (before tax) for an 8ft 2x4 today. Just dougie, not cedar. Jfc.
Speaking of LEDs dying from heat, one of the LED bulbs that came with my ceiling fan died about a year after I put it in. Are there any good LED bulbs that can handle being in an enclosed glass ceiling fan enclosure or should I switch to a different bulb type?
Speaking of LEDs dying from heat, one of the LED bulbs that came with my ceiling fan died about a year after I put it in. Are there any good LED bulbs that can handle being in an enclosed glass ceiling fan enclosure or should I switch to a different bulb type?
Made a few jigs yesterday - two approaches to edge jointing on a table saw using melamine shelving, and a basic sled for the planer out of MDF.
Haven’t tried the sled yet (waiting for the glue to cure fully), but the other jigs were essentially just two different approaches to partially cutting a board. One lays flat on the table and pressed longways against the fence. There’s basically a shorter infeed portion that runs directly into the blade, with the outfeed section sticking out just to level with the blade to support the shortened board. The other is simply a length of board clamped to the fence vertically, and I raised the blade partially into the face so that it juuust sticks out of the surface.
I’m not completely happy with either approach, though the actual results were pretty good. The first is safer, I think, but I’m a little concerned about accuracy - it’s very easy to cut more of the area around the blade out of the jig, so the infeed side might keep getting deeper every use. The second seems more stable, but there’s not really an outfeed section, so I feel like there’s more risk of accidentally putting too much pressure on the material and slipping into the blade as the material passes through.
I’ll probably try other approaches, but these were extremely easy to make and use at least. Tonight I’m going to try using the planer sled with shims and hot glue to clean up the worst boards I’ve got.
I should probably think about a proper wood storage setup at some point, my workspace is getting a little out of hand.
Menards sells these fold out bike racks. They go out maybe eight inches from the wall. I use two in a line to hold boards off the ground and then they fold away when not needed and you can put something against the wall when you don't need them.
Those are cool to, but aren't you supposed to store wood horizontally on its edge so it doesn't bow? Or is that something I was just told by an old timer.
Those are cool to, but aren't you supposed to store wood horizontally on its edge so it doesn't bow? Or is that something I was just told by an old timer.
It is a matter of how dry the lumber is with whether it'll move much or not. Usually it is dried flat with weight on it, whether air or in a kiln.
The project I'm working on is quartersawn sapele which should be very stable, and was stored in the garage on a bora rack. When I resawed it on my bandsaw I put the boards in my basement clamped to my workbench for a few days just in case since its my first project with sapele and if it was going to warp, resawn from the garage and then into the house would be what did it since the core might've been wet enough to misbehave. For kiln dried stuff you'll see wood do stupid stuff more often with framing lumber because they don't dry it as much. If you get white pine from a 'real lumber yard' that caters to woodworkers it will be incredibly light when dried like they do oak, ash, etc.
If you want to have fun observing this yourself, buy low grade furring strips/1x4 and find a 'heavy' one and a 'light' one and then moving them to a dry part of your house and watch how the heavy one contorts itself over time. Or cut the straps on the bundle of 2x2s at lowes and see how the ones on the corners of the bundles dried less evenly and turn into hockey sticks immediately.
Thanks for the tips, ya’ll - I’ve been reorganizing my workspace so that the table saw isn’t pointed at anything important, so storage is on my mind.
I’ve tried a couple of experiments with the edge jointing jigs and the planer sled, and I think I’ve found a setup I’m really happy with - just needed a feather board and some more appropriately sized clamps for the flat jointing jig with the infeed/outfeed sections, works like a dream now.
Planer sled plus shims plus hot glue has been pretty magical so far too. Related, I really should have picked up on using wedges instead of straight bits of scrap for supports a long time ago, it’s so much less finicky.
Simple project, but I cleaned and planed a couple of matching boards to attach to this terribly wobbly table I built - only experimented with clamping them in place so far, but I think it’s going to help a lot by forcing the legs into something closer to parallel. I’ll probably be lazy and just screw these in straight… though I’ve also been eying countersink drill bits, so I could try to be a little cleaner here if I wanted.
Thanks for the tips, ya’ll - I’ve been reorganizing my workspace so that the table saw isn’t pointed at anything important, so storage is on my mind.
I’ve tried a couple of experiments with the edge jointing jigs and the planer sled, and I think I’ve found a setup I’m really happy with - just needed a feather board and some more appropriately sized clamps for the flat jointing jig with the infeed/outfeed sections, works like a dream now.
Planer sled plus shims plus hot glue has been pretty magical so far too. Related, I really should have picked up on using wedges instead of straight bits of scrap for supports a long time ago, it’s so much less finicky.
Simple project, but I cleaned and planed a couple of matching boards to attach to this terribly wobbly table I built - only experimented with clamping them in place so far, but I think it’s going to help a lot by forcing the legs into something closer to parallel. I’ll probably be lazy and just screw these in straight… though I’ve also been eying countersink drill bits, so I could try to be a little cleaner here if I wanted.
If you want to spend a little more time than a countersink, you can get some plug cutter bits and matching counterbore bits, counterbore the screw holes, and then tap the plugs in the bore with a bit of glue and cut or pare them flush. Then the screws will be hidden by face grain wood. If you drill the plugs from scrap from the same project boards you may be able to match the grain well and make them fairly invisible.
Those are cool to, but aren't you supposed to store wood horizontally on its edge so it doesn't bow? Or is that something I was just told by an old timer.
It is a matter of how dry the lumber is with whether it'll move much or not. Usually it is dried flat with weight on it, whether air or in a kiln.
The project I'm working on is quartersawn sapele which should be very stable, and was stored in the garage on a bora rack. When I resawed it on my bandsaw I put the boards in my basement clamped to my workbench for a few days just in case since its my first project with sapele and if it was going to warp, resawn from the garage and then into the house would be what did it since the core might've been wet enough to misbehave. For kiln dried stuff you'll see wood do stupid stuff more often with framing lumber because they don't dry it as much. If you get white pine from a 'real lumber yard' that caters to woodworkers it will be incredibly light when dried like they do oak, ash, etc.
If you want to have fun observing this yourself, buy low grade furring strips/1x4 and find a 'heavy' one and a 'light' one and then moving them to a dry part of your house and watch how the heavy one contorts itself over time. Or cut the straps on the bundle of 2x2s at lowes and see how the ones on the corners of the bundles dried less evenly and turn into hockey sticks immediately.
Where I live we have a temperature range of about 130 degrees Fahrenheit and like....40-100 percent humidity so there's not a while lot I can do but I try.
Thanks for the tips, ya’ll - I’ve been reorganizing my workspace so that the table saw isn’t pointed at anything important, so storage is on my mind.
I’ve tried a couple of experiments with the edge jointing jigs and the planer sled, and I think I’ve found a setup I’m really happy with - just needed a feather board and some more appropriately sized clamps for the flat jointing jig with the infeed/outfeed sections, works like a dream now.
Planer sled plus shims plus hot glue has been pretty magical so far too. Related, I really should have picked up on using wedges instead of straight bits of scrap for supports a long time ago, it’s so much less finicky.
Simple project, but I cleaned and planed a couple of matching boards to attach to this terribly wobbly table I built - only experimented with clamping them in place so far, but I think it’s going to help a lot by forcing the legs into something closer to parallel. I’ll probably be lazy and just screw these in straight… though I’ve also been eying countersink drill bits, so I could try to be a little cleaner here if I wanted.
If you want to spend a little more time than a countersink, you can get some plug cutter bits and matching counterbore bits, counterbore the screw holes, and then tap the plugs in the bore with a bit of glue and cut or pare them flush. Then the screws will be hidden by face grain wood. If you drill the plugs from scrap from the same project boards you may be able to match the grain well and make them fairly invisible.
I know this is the home thread, but I feel like "countersink" is such a glorious spelling given the PA forum's general proclivities. Is it a sink upside down? Is it a sink that repulses water magically? Why would a wizard summon a sink? Can you po....you get the point!
The way your posts usually go I was fully expecting to scroll down and see that your hallway had lights but no floor or all of the spiders or something.
Thanks for the tips, ya’ll - I’ve been reorganizing my workspace so that the table saw isn’t pointed at anything important, so storage is on my mind.
I’ve tried a couple of experiments with the edge jointing jigs and the planer sled, and I think I’ve found a setup I’m really happy with - just needed a feather board and some more appropriately sized clamps for the flat jointing jig with the infeed/outfeed sections, works like a dream now.
Planer sled plus shims plus hot glue has been pretty magical so far too. Related, I really should have picked up on using wedges instead of straight bits of scrap for supports a long time ago, it’s so much less finicky.
Simple project, but I cleaned and planed a couple of matching boards to attach to this terribly wobbly table I built - only experimented with clamping them in place so far, but I think it’s going to help a lot by forcing the legs into something closer to parallel. I’ll probably be lazy and just screw these in straight… though I’ve also been eying countersink drill bits, so I could try to be a little cleaner here if I wanted.
If you want to spend a little more time than a countersink, you can get some plug cutter bits and matching counterbore bits, counterbore the screw holes, and then tap the plugs in the bore with a bit of glue and cut or pare them flush. Then the screws will be hidden by face grain wood. If you drill the plugs from scrap from the same project boards you may be able to match the grain well and make them fairly invisible.
I know this is the home thread, but I feel like "countersink" is such a glorious spelling given the PA forum's general proclivities. Is it a sink upside down? Is it a sink that repulses water magically? Why would a wizard summon a sink? Can you po....you get the point!
In addition to keeping your chisels sharp, always keep a drill and a drill press untapped so you can countersink your opponents' Saprolings or Thallids
+7
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
So I bought a home yesterday, a condo in Minneapolis. There’s lots to do, but one thing on my long term list is to get set up some home automation. It’s been a few years since I’ve really dug into things, so I could use some advice.
The building was built/renovated in 2005, so everything here is serviceable but it’s not set up out of the box to be automated. I’ll have to replace lots of things depending on what I actually want to do. I have a Synology NAS that I’ll run Home Assistant on as a hub. At first what I’d mostly like to get done is the thermostat and lighting.
The current thermostat I have is a very basic Honeywell. Because I travel a lot, I’d like to be able to automate things and also control it from afar. In the past, I went Nest, but I’m not sure if that’s still the right way to go.
For lighting, I’m not even sure where to start. Smart bulbs everywhere? Smart switches instead?
Ideally I’d like to be able to not have to worry about turning on a dozen lights when I get home while also not having to worry about turning them all off when I leave and wasting power.
Appreciate any help.
can you feel the struggle within?
0
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I will say that any home automation device that relies on outside internet connection to function sucks ass. All my WeMo smart plugs have been non-functional for the past 2 days because of server issues on Belkin's end. That is beyond frustrating and stupid that I can't control something that is on my local network. And when the internet goes down, forget about it.
I assume that's what Home Assistant on your NAS is for so I'd say you are already heading in the right direction. Unfortunately I don't know what devices are best for that type of setup, but I'd sure like to learn myself.
+3
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
I will say that any home automation device that relies on outside internet connection to function sucks ass. All my WeMo smart plugs have been non-functional for the past 2 days because of server issues on Belkin's end. That is beyond frustrating and stupid that I can't control something that is on my local network. And when the internet goes down, forget about it.
I assume that's what Home Assistant on your NAS is for so I'd say you are already heading in the right direction. Unfortunately I don't know what devices are best for that type of setup, but I'd sure like to learn myself.
Yeah I will avoid anything that requires a connection outside my walls to function, and yeah that’s exactly what doing things though Home Assistant should in theory avoid.
I've been using an ecobee3 thermostat since they were released in 2014, and they've never given me a problem. You can use it alone through the ecobee app which is free, but it's also able to integrate with Home Assistant, although that involves becoming a developer and downloading their API.
We have a combination of smart bulbs and switches. Things like the exterior garage lights and deck soffit lights are on switches since they're a group that will always be turned on or off together, so setting a schedule is easier and it's cheaper not having to buy all smart bulbs but you can still turn them on and off manually without a problem. We also have a few individual smart bulbs, two in lamps in the living room and over the front and back doors. Lights that are basically on the exact same schedule every day where there's almost never a need to use a physical switch.
Posts
I know this won't surprise anyone, but the left two characters are upside down.
Ha of course they are.
No handrail for the upper stairs leading to the basement.
That one bed: for anyone who's ever wanted to sleep inside a wave.
I want to show this to my wife but the bedroom pictures may get her pregnant.
You can make a case for the leftmost character, since it is commonly displayed upside-down in celebrations. Describing the character as being upside-down in Mandarin is a homophone for that character, meaning "fortune", to "arrive". I think the middle character could also be displayed in a similar way; it means "joy".
For some reason, that house really makes me want to capture a top-notch British spy and hold them there for information while they gradually turn my absurdly attractive female assistant against me because I'm clearly lying to her and will inevitably betray her.
But maybe that's just me?
Probably grass last, and shouldn't matter much between the other two. Actually, I take that back. Patio then fencing then grass.
We had a new patio put in last summer and all of the earth around the edges was completely torn up and needed new grass. Fencing work shouldn't tear up as much grass, but it can certainly tear up some. The guys who did the patio needed to take our gate off and remove a section of fencing in order to have enough room to get all of their equipment into the back yard.
So patio first since it could require modification/repair/replacement of parts of both fencing and grass. Fencing work may also damage grass but shouldn't endanger the patio at all, so it comes next. Grass at the end after other work that might damage it is done.
All of this checks out for use in the bathroom, then.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Yeah, carpet's easy enough to remove and replace. And it's cheap enough, you could put a good amount of money in to update the older elements like doors, kitchen, etc. Biggest downside is the old school tiny closets with small rooms. But that sunken living room is really cool as well as the indoor fire pit. I'd imagine places in the northern part of the country might get more use out of it though.
It is the way.
Patio is most destructive, followed by fence and grass. And you'll want the new grass to be lined up to the new patio and fence.
Also I get to do some fun plumbing between today and the end of the week. Kinda yay!
And I figured out WTF was going on with the sink and toilet shutoff valves in the bathroom downstairs: They sweat 3/4" extensions over the 1/2" stubs. The 3/4" extensions have those shitty oval valves. So now I have to somehow get the lines drained and use a torch to boil off the water enough that I can loosen the solder. Then I can add some Sharkbite couplings and be good.
And I get to cut out the plumbing nightmare at the kitchen sink and run new stubs up through the floor. Seriously, who runs pipe stubs through an exterior wall?
The other side of that, however, is that just buying the land anywhere near where I want to be winds up in the hundreds of thousands per acre. I was hoping to hide out from global warming in the PNW, but maybe I have to start looking elsewhere. I hear Vermont is nice?
They look like these but don't use bulbs:
I guess I'll just have to pull one off the wall and test the electrical then see if I can find a replacement unit that is similar, because I really dig these.
But when they burn out the whole fixture is trash.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Technology Connections just did a video on this
tl;dr is heat kills LEDs, and fixtures like that often aren't designed with heat dissipation in mind.
Might be the same amount of work, but would testing the switch vs the fixture help at all or no?
BigClive on youtube has some great videos on the subject.
Haven’t tried the sled yet (waiting for the glue to cure fully), but the other jigs were essentially just two different approaches to partially cutting a board. One lays flat on the table and pressed longways against the fence. There’s basically a shorter infeed portion that runs directly into the blade, with the outfeed section sticking out just to level with the blade to support the shortened board. The other is simply a length of board clamped to the fence vertically, and I raised the blade partially into the face so that it juuust sticks out of the surface.
I’m not completely happy with either approach, though the actual results were pretty good. The first is safer, I think, but I’m a little concerned about accuracy - it’s very easy to cut more of the area around the blade out of the jig, so the infeed side might keep getting deeper every use. The second seems more stable, but there’s not really an outfeed section, so I feel like there’s more risk of accidentally putting too much pressure on the material and slipping into the blade as the material passes through.
I’ll probably try other approaches, but these were extremely easy to make and use at least. Tonight I’m going to try using the planer sled with shims and hot glue to clean up the worst boards I’ve got.
I should probably think about a proper wood storage setup at some point, my workspace is getting a little out of hand.
I would have the landscaping done first. The reason is that you can more easily deal with any drainage issues this way. Also if you are doing grass seed (instead of sod), it gives it time to grow, and it’s way cheaper than sod.
Some LEDs are rated for "totally enclosed fixtures". That's the magic phrase. Unfortunately, finding the things is rather annoying. One trick is apparently to look for filament-style lamps, though that's still not universal. Anyway, here's the brand I picked up:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-Dimmable-ENERGY-STAR-Frosted-Glass-Filament-Vintage-Edison-LED-Light-Bulb-Bright-White-4-Pack-FG-03298/308822043
Not shown: I sweat off the abortion of plumbing coming from the wall and ran new PEX stubs up through the floor.
Flooring goes in next week.
Why would you cover up that amazing floor?
Menards sells these fold out bike racks. They go out maybe eight inches from the wall. I use two in a line to hold boards off the ground and then they fold away when not needed and you can put something against the wall when you don't need them.
https://www.menards.com/main/storage-organization/garage-outdoor-storage/bike-storage/tool-shop-reg-folding-single-bike-rack/49201/p-1555568996779-c-12651.htm?tid=-3342357483573412122&ipos=1
https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/hardware/storage-and-organization/racks/110950-bora-four-shelf-lumber-rack?item=84K4107
It is a matter of how dry the lumber is with whether it'll move much or not. Usually it is dried flat with weight on it, whether air or in a kiln.
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/air-drying-lumber/
If it is in equilibrium already it shouldn't move much, but if it is going to experience large humidity swings then you might need to worry some.
Here's an engraving of a historical French lumber yard and some further thoughts on drying wood:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/a-roubo-workbench-from-green-wood/
The project I'm working on is quartersawn sapele which should be very stable, and was stored in the garage on a bora rack. When I resawed it on my bandsaw I put the boards in my basement clamped to my workbench for a few days just in case since its my first project with sapele and if it was going to warp, resawn from the garage and then into the house would be what did it since the core might've been wet enough to misbehave. For kiln dried stuff you'll see wood do stupid stuff more often with framing lumber because they don't dry it as much. If you get white pine from a 'real lumber yard' that caters to woodworkers it will be incredibly light when dried like they do oak, ash, etc.
If you want to have fun observing this yourself, buy low grade furring strips/1x4 and find a 'heavy' one and a 'light' one and then moving them to a dry part of your house and watch how the heavy one contorts itself over time. Or cut the straps on the bundle of 2x2s at lowes and see how the ones on the corners of the bundles dried less evenly and turn into hockey sticks immediately.
I’ve tried a couple of experiments with the edge jointing jigs and the planer sled, and I think I’ve found a setup I’m really happy with - just needed a feather board and some more appropriately sized clamps for the flat jointing jig with the infeed/outfeed sections, works like a dream now.
Planer sled plus shims plus hot glue has been pretty magical so far too. Related, I really should have picked up on using wedges instead of straight bits of scrap for supports a long time ago, it’s so much less finicky.
Simple project, but I cleaned and planed a couple of matching boards to attach to this terribly wobbly table I built - only experimented with clamping them in place so far, but I think it’s going to help a lot by forcing the legs into something closer to parallel. I’ll probably be lazy and just screw these in straight… though I’ve also been eying countersink drill bits, so I could try to be a little cleaner here if I wanted.
If you want to spend a little more time than a countersink, you can get some plug cutter bits and matching counterbore bits, counterbore the screw holes, and then tap the plugs in the bore with a bit of glue and cut or pare them flush. Then the screws will be hidden by face grain wood. If you drill the plugs from scrap from the same project boards you may be able to match the grain well and make them fairly invisible.
Where I live we have a temperature range of about 130 degrees Fahrenheit and like....40-100 percent humidity so there's not a while lot I can do but I try.
I know this is the home thread, but I feel like "countersink" is such a glorious spelling given the PA forum's general proclivities. Is it a sink upside down? Is it a sink that repulses water magically? Why would a wizard summon a sink? Can you po....you get the point!
In addition to keeping your chisels sharp, always keep a drill and a drill press untapped so you can countersink your opponents' Saprolings or Thallids
The building was built/renovated in 2005, so everything here is serviceable but it’s not set up out of the box to be automated. I’ll have to replace lots of things depending on what I actually want to do. I have a Synology NAS that I’ll run Home Assistant on as a hub. At first what I’d mostly like to get done is the thermostat and lighting.
The current thermostat I have is a very basic Honeywell. Because I travel a lot, I’d like to be able to automate things and also control it from afar. In the past, I went Nest, but I’m not sure if that’s still the right way to go.
For lighting, I’m not even sure where to start. Smart bulbs everywhere? Smart switches instead?
Ideally I’d like to be able to not have to worry about turning on a dozen lights when I get home while also not having to worry about turning them all off when I leave and wasting power.
Appreciate any help.
I assume that's what Home Assistant on your NAS is for so I'd say you are already heading in the right direction. Unfortunately I don't know what devices are best for that type of setup, but I'd sure like to learn myself.
Yeah I will avoid anything that requires a connection outside my walls to function, and yeah that’s exactly what doing things though Home Assistant should in theory avoid.
We have a combination of smart bulbs and switches. Things like the exterior garage lights and deck soffit lights are on switches since they're a group that will always be turned on or off together, so setting a schedule is easier and it's cheaper not having to buy all smart bulbs but you can still turn them on and off manually without a problem. We also have a few individual smart bulbs, two in lamps in the living room and over the front and back doors. Lights that are basically on the exact same schedule every day where there's almost never a need to use a physical switch.