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[#] Thu Jan 14 2021 19:35:34 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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When we had 3 acres in Ohio, we tried this the first year. It just killed the grass in patches under the snow. 

I had patches of dead lawn under small clumps of cut grass too.   It is the result of your mower blades not being sharp.  Once I got more proactive about keeping the blades sharp, the problem went away immediately.



[#] Thu Jan 14 2021 22:49:07 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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That could quite possibly have been the problem. We did have the mower that was left with the house tuned up in later years, and I assume blade sharpening was part of the annual package. But after the first year, we never left leaves down in winter - so I have no control to compare it against, really.

 

Thu Jan 14 2021 14:35:34 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

When we had 3 acres in Ohio, we tried this the first year. It just killed the grass in patches under the snow. 

I had patches of dead lawn under small clumps of cut grass too.   It is the result of your mower blades not being sharp.  Once I got more proactive about keeping the blades sharp, the problem went away immediately.



 



[#] Thu Jan 14 2021 22:50:51 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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As mentioned, now I have a postage sized lot and Mexicans with lawn mowers come and cut it. It dies in the summer when it gets too hot, and in the winter when it gets too cold, and you have to reseed with seasonal grass once a year. It is always something. If I'm not battling 3 acres of grass and vegetation in Ohio... I'm trying to grow grass in the desert in Arizona.

 

Sacramento was perfect, as far as climate - it is too bad it is in California, and full of Californians.

 

Thu Jan 14 2021 17:49:07 EST from ParanoidDelusions

That could quite possibly have been the problem.

 

 



 



[#] Tue Jan 19 2021 13:27:12 UTC from Nurb432

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Re-converging.. *cough*x10*cough*   ( and ya i still use that.. go figure. that qualify as retro? :) )

Sat Jan 16 2021 16:28:20 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Home automation would be the interesting part. The protocols and standards seem to be converging so that seems like it could work pretty easily.

 



[#] Fri Jan 22 2021 14:16:14 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I'm ordering a new kitchen today. Dilapidated 30 year old cabinets and a crappy laminate countertop are being replaced with solid maple plywood cabinets and synthetic stone counters. I will be doing all of the installation myself.
Wish me luck!

[#] Fri Jan 22 2021 15:19:50 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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You seem like exactly the kind of guy to pull this off. I've got a friend in Sacramento who reminds me a lot of you, and he did the same thing a year or two back, and it turned out brilliant. 

Good luck. I know I'm getting old, because I understand how exciting a project like this is. :) 

 

Fri Jan 22 2021 09:16:14 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I'm ordering a new kitchen today. Dilapidated 30 year old cabinets and a crappy laminate countertop are being replaced with solid maple plywood cabinets and synthetic stone counters. I will be doing all of the installation myself.
Wish me luck!

 



[#] Sat Jan 23 2021 13:37:39 UTC from Nurb432

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You will be fine.

Just plan ahead, look twice before you do anything and measure 3 times. 



[#] Sat Jan 23 2021 15:49:09 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I watch a lot of videos. :) People make fun of that, but if you're the kind of person who learns by observation -- which I am -- it's a great method.
My dad taught me how to use tools and some basic stuff, but I can do things now he never would have even attempted. He calls me for plumbing work now.
:)

[#] Sat Jan 23 2021 23:42:45 UTC from Nurb432

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My dad, and grandfather, built houses for a living.  Nothing wrong with watching others to learn how something is done when it comes to 'construction and repair' type of stuff.. its how i learn, and many others.   Dont always need to learn things the hardway...

Sat Jan 23 2021 10:49:09 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I watch a lot of videos. :) People make fun of that, but if you're the kind of person who learns by observation -- which I am -- it's a great method.
My dad taught me how to use tools and some basic stuff, but I can do things now he never would have even attempted. He calls me for plumbing work now.
:)

 



[#] Sun Jan 24 2021 16:51:23 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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A lot of things, I need to watch - and do... 

Learning has become easier as I've gotten older - and I think it has to do more with being able to watch DIFFERENT people DO the thing. In the past, we had limited access to people who could show. Usually ONE person. Sometimes we thought it was US that couldn't learn a thing, when it was that the people teaching us weren't teaching in a way WE could understand. 

Now if I am learning a subject and struggling - I go find someone else teaching the same subject. If I still struggle, I try a couple other people. Usually, at the end, I've learned something I thought I was too dumb to understand. 

 

Sat Jan 23 2021 18:42:45 EST from Nurb432

My dad, and grandfather, built houses for a living.  Nothing wrong with watching others to learn how something is done when it comes to 'construction and repair' type of stuff.. its how i learn, and many others.   Dont always need to learn things the hardway...

Sat Jan 23 2021 10:49:09 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I watch a lot of videos. :) People make fun of that, but if you're the kind of person who learns by observation -- which I am -- it's a great method.
My dad taught me how to use tools and some basic stuff, but I can do things now he never would have even attempted. He calls me for plumbing work now.
:)

 



 



[#] Sun Jan 24 2021 23:51:47 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I had X-10 for years. It was tied in to the computer along with everything else. I even had it set up so that you could pick up any phone in the house and switch on/off any light in the house by dialing the right code. I retired most of it when we moved, but some of it comes back out every year when we put up the Christmas lights.

[#] Tue Jan 26 2021 01:04:57 UTC from Nurb432

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I have a couple of the RS232 plugs in a box with the other stuff i dont use. And a USB dongle thing. Not sure there is any software that will run with it now tho.I remember when i bought that it was 'good luck, here is some old software'.  I would assume they have newer IP based ones by now.

Last place i lived, every light switch was hooked up and an IR sensor when i walked in the door.   now its just a couple of bedrooms due to the switch and jack being on wrong side of the room. Ya i could rewire it, but i have the boxes, so why bother.

They also made one of the first affordable 'learning' remotes. Its in the box now too.  

 

Oh, and something i never knew until perhaps 10 years ago, but even when off they do have a minuscule current draw.  Not enough to matter with older incandescent or halogen bulbs, but LED? instant nightlight... I had some screw in bulb switches and installed them when i first swapped to LED, i thought they were all broke..  lol.

 

was a huge fan if you cant tell.. Still am really, even tho they are a bit dated.

Sun Jan 24 2021 18:51:47 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I had X-10 for years. It was tied in to the computer along with everything else. I even had it set up so that you could pick up any phone in the house and switch on/off any light in the house by dialing the right code. I retired most of it when we moved, but some of it comes back out every year when we put up the Christmas lights.

 



[#] Sun Feb 07 2021 17:34:36 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Heh. We're the same. I'll bet if we built new houses we would wire them the same way -- optimized for automatic control.

Same thing here with the current draw on LED. As previously mentioned, I still use X-10 for Christmas lights, and yes, there's enough current draw when switched off to make them light a little bit -- even when you use the "appliance" modules with the relay in them, which I find baffling. I have a three-socket floodlight on my driveway with a dark/motion sensor that behaves the same way. Both setups need to have at least one incandescent lamp installed to shunt the sensor current when the lights are switched off. Otherwise the LEDs come on dim, and CFLs (thankfully on their way out) pulse.

[#] Mon Feb 08 2021 00:10:10 UTC from Nurb432

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i have built 2 houses for myself over the years, on both of them i went in after the framing was up and ran wire * everywhere * both cat 5 and coax.  All terminating over the garage area.

Today id skip the coax. 



[#] Fri Feb 12 2021 14:15:16 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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I built a house in California that had drops to almost every room conceivable. I wanted them in the laundry room and the bathrooms too, but the contractor talked my wife out of that. 

If I were doing it today, I'd do it again. 

 

Sun Feb 07 2021 19:10:10 EST from Nurb432

i have built 2 houses for myself over the years, on both of them i went in after the framing was up and ran wire * everywhere * both cat 5 and coax.  All terminating over the garage area.

Today id skip the coax. 



 



[#] Sat Feb 13 2021 22:53:54 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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I'd hate to build a house that was perfect, thinking it was my Forever House, and then have to move out later on. That would be really disappointing.

The house I now live in was built in 1991. It astounds me that the house was not pre-wired with telephone and cable tv jacks in every room. That was common practice even in the mid 1980s. But this house had nothing, no phone, no cable, certainly no ethernet. And since it was a rental for the first 23 years of its life, every cable and phone company that came through absolutely raped it with their shoddy slap-on wiring jobs. I've talked about that here before. It took me a long time to gradually rip it all out, patch the damaged surfaces, and do proper wiring inside the walls.

If I were building new ... I would't put in any specific type of wiring.
I would put a box in each room, junction/pull boxes in the attic, and tie them together with smurf tube. That would make it easy to come in later and upgrade to Category 11 wiring or whatever becomes common in the future.

Today, the main runs I pulled between the main distribution frame and the two satellites (my office and the living room) are Category 5e cable. That will do fine for 1 Gbps, which is still a lot of bandwidth when you consider that even lowly 10 Mbps ethernet is still actually pretty usable for Internet access. Cat5e can also support 2.5 Gbps ethernet, so maybe that's a future upgrade. After that, though, I think I'd go for fiber before I bothered with category 8 cable ... that stuff is just too difficult to terminate.

[#] Sun Feb 14 2021 13:29:48 UTC from Nurb432

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But if you dont build a house with intent for it to be forever, then its 'lesser' of a house.  If the plan is temporary, might as well just get a used house then. 

 

 



[#] Tue Feb 16 2021 20:57:53 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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It was my grandmother's house that was built and bought new by them in 1955. It had been in my life my entire life. Almost my father's entire life.  

I got married, she wanted a bigger house, the economy was booming, my IT career was thriving. We finished construction in 2001. 

We learned valuable lessons. 

*sigh*

 

Sat Feb 13 2021 17:53:54 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I'd hate to build a house that was perfect, thinking it was my Forever House, and then have to move out later on. That would be really disappointing.

The house I now live in was built in 1991. It astounds me that the house was not pre-wired with telephone and cable tv jacks in every room. That was common practice even in the mid 1980s. But this house had nothing, no phone, no cable, certainly no ethernet. And since it was a rental for the first 23 years of its life, every cable and phone company that came through absolutely raped it with their shoddy slap-on wiring jobs. I've talked about that here before. It took me a long time to gradually rip it all out, patch the damaged surfaces, and do proper wiring inside the walls.

If I were building new ... I would't put in any specific type of wiring.
I would put a box in each room, junction/pull boxes in the attic, and tie them together with smurf tube. That would make it easy to come in later and upgrade to Category 11 wiring or whatever becomes common in the future.

Today, the main runs I pulled between the main distribution frame and the two satellites (my office and the living room) are Category 5e cable. That will do fine for 1 Gbps, which is still a lot of bandwidth when you consider that even lowly 10 Mbps ethernet is still actually pretty usable for Internet access. Cat5e can also support 2.5 Gbps ethernet, so maybe that's a future upgrade. After that, though, I think I'd go for fiber before I bothered with category 8 cable ... that stuff is just too difficult to terminate.

 



[#] Sun Feb 21 2021 23:55:39 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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But if you dont build a house with intent for it to be forever, then
its 'lesser' of a house.  If the plan is temporary, might as well
just get a used house then. 

Some people enjoy the house flipping life. There are those who buy houses to flip who don't live in them, but then there are people who are happy to buy a house every 5 to 10 years, live in it, improve it, and sell it for a profit. I suspect the people who bought my old house fall into that category.

I supposed it has a alot to do with what you want to spend your money on.
When I have some money I like to spend it improving my house, because I like my house. I bought it to live in. I bought it to host dinner parties with my favorite friends and family. I bought it as a home-away-from-home for my future grandchildren. 089sdfug98sdfy98dswf9oudsfdsjnfdsnf dosafnjsdaf ndsoafu sa[19~d7fysaduf08s9fuy08ads0wda9fu dsa90f asI need to drijnkj less when I bbs.

[#] Mon Feb 22 2021 19:34:56 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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I'll tell you a tip... high end homes are losers. You want whatever the "middle market" home is. The high end, the people buying those homes have enough money, and there is little enough demand and competition, that they'll wait you out on price. 

They ALREADY live in a nice home, maybe a couple of them. They know if YOUR home gets away from them, there is another one just as nice somewhere nearby, anyhow... they don't think your home is the ONLY perfect home for them. Hell, they can just buy a lot and have a custom home built that is EXACTLY what they want. 

High end homes are almost ALWAYS going to be a buyer's market. Mid and low end starter homes are where you can make money and where the demand will create urgency among buyers who realize that YOUR home is the only one that checks off that many of their criteria. Good schools, close to freeway, not too close to freeway, low crime, local amenities, nearby shopping and recreation - yada-yada-yada. They have MORE needs to meet and less money and less time to wait it out. 




Sun Feb 21 2021 18:55:39 EST from IGnatius T Foobar
But if you dont build a house with intent for it to be forever, then
its 'lesser' of a house.  If the plan is temporary, might as well
just get a used house then. 

Some people enjoy the house flipping life. There are those who buy houses to flip who don't live in them, but then there are people who are happy to buy a house every 5 to 10 years, live in it, improve it, and sell it for a profit. I suspect the people who bought my old house fall into that category.

I supposed it has a alot to do with what you want to spend your money on.
When I have some money I like to spend it improving my house, because I like my house. I bought it to live in. I bought it to host dinner parties with my favorite friends and family. I bought it as a home-away-from-home for my future grandchildren. 089sdfug98sdfy98dswf9oudsfdsjnfdsnf dosafnjsdaf ndsoafu sa[19~d7fysaduf08s9fuy08ads0wda9fu dsa90f asI need to drijnkj less when I bbs.

 



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