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Home Repairs/HoneyDo List/Advice & Tips/etc.

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AKAK said:
Ah... yes indeedy....

My last three weeks... had a creaky tie rod on my car... I do a lot of that crap myself, but they're all the same age, so, I don't have a lift, and we're talking new front end and steering linkage (and I'd been putting off a muffler) So called my guy, cheaper than I thought, like $750 out the door, plus he did another weld on the exhaust... so, whatever... oh, plus $65 for an alignment at another place, and my guy dropped it there so I only had to do one pick up, dropped it off Monday, had it back Wed night... no biggie.

Except...

The kid at the alignment shop decided he'd be helpful and try to program out a CEL code I'm never fixing. So, I get it back and its all very confused, and I picked it up after hours, fuck it, drove it home reset the PCM, and that's all fine.

But... messing with that I notice a little coolant. so, fire it up, and yes, there's a hairline crack on the top of the side tank... Autozone.com, presto chango, 45 minutes later and $150 bucks with a coupon.. I have all the stuff to fix it.

This is later on Saturday, I start ripping it all apart, get the radiator back in, but not all back together as its now "too dark to find the flashlight"

Sunday morning, finish putting it back together, gonna go skiing... take it for a test drive... seems ok... park it... and dripping lots of red fluid. Alrighty, I sealed those threads, wtf is up.

So... no skiing, rip it all back apart, reseal the fittings into the radiator, fire it back up, apparently in all the fun I bent the fitting from the transmission line to the radioor enough that it seal is going to leak out the back of the fitting. Very Well, [Mark May] happens.

So, roll over to the Napa warehouse, knowing full well this is a MOPAR specific part. But, see if we can rig it up anyway. 45 minutes of that and then explaining to the guy in front of me how to reference a BMW part number to NAPA part numbers for the oil cooler thermostat that he broke that he obviously didn't read the tech release on that said, "get one of these, you're gonna break this doing your other job" - but he got one, for $100, that he could have got for $35 had he not needed it "now" - --- anyway, some weird arsed threading on mine... no go... its Sunday afternoon, I'm over it.

Monday morning, drop my wife at work, call the dealer about the part... They don't have it... don't know when they will (in an exact enough way for my taste) and its $51 once they do (and another major hassle ripping all this stuff out again), so, I say screw it, order a Transmission cooler I can pick up on the way, do that, 25% coupon, and $100 later (there was some extras in there), I pick it up, but was late, and its dark, so do it in the morning.

Morning comes, wife goes to work, take the shrink wrap off the trans cooler... and there's a different number on the actual box than was on the outer package...

Gets better (now what it really should have been won't work anyway) but I open the box, and bam, no transcooler in there. Some weird tightly shrinkwrapped paper that's kind of aluminum level heavy... but no cooler.

Call the store... they're like, well, that's weird... bring whatever you have back. So, now I have to wait for my wife to come home for lunch, she does, I go back, get the right one, come back, put it back together in between calls I had to be on... no problem.

Its about 4, job's all done, sitting at the kitchen table... and i hear a rumble... its the fucking refrigerator. Now, I've replaced the circulation fan twice, and it lasts about 18 months, but I decided last time, that the next time, was the last time (and really it was, there's something up with the electricals other than that)

So, its replacement came this morning (oh, and of course, Lowe's didn't make an appointment, at 10:30 they called me and said, "we'll be there in 20 minutes"- whatever I went back and met them, annoying but done)

Now I'm waiting for the old, "What's next"

(Before you say hot water heater, I'm gonna schedule a pre-emptive strike on that POS next week or so)
Click to expand...
PS. Water heater took a shit on Thursday morning. New one in by Friday at 4. Talk about jinxing it. :lol:

As far as I can tell it was 27 years old. Good run.
 
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My damage came out to $315 on my 26 year old Trane furnace. New cap, new control board, rebuilt inducer.

Hopefully can nurse another 3 or 4 years out of it before complete replacement.
 
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Just had a privacy fence installed to finish off the yard. All of my neighbors around me have fences, so I only needed to basically connect my house to my neighbors' fence on each side (with a small bump out on one side, appox. 37 feet total fence, gates on each side). There is a 6 inch gap between my end post and my neighbors' fence on both sides due to the stupid building code. Because of the TIG PVC that was used and how it is built, it has to end/corner at a post. Code dictates 6 inches back from all property lines. Now I have to fabricate a baffle to bracket off the gaps after the permit gets signed off on Monday.
 
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AC compressor fan decided to seize up yesterday sometime. Came home to a humid 85 degree house. I think it is just the fan motor on the fritz, so I hill-billied it with a box fan on top til the temp got down to 75 in the house, and the humidity knocked out. Got a guy coming out to look at it this morning. Unit is 10 years old, and I think a larger tonnage would actually be more efficient to cool my house. May just have the guy replace rather than repair depending on cost.

Edit: Capacitor was bad. $150 quick fix later, and running fine for now. Rest of the unit is in decent shape. I was correct about the unit being a bit undersized, but that will be a $3,500 long fix. Might have to add that as another project while remodeling the kitchen which is planned for this fall.
 
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With baby #2 on the way this June, we wanted to do some kind of accent wall for the nook that backs up to the upstairs hall closet. I didn't want to do a 2nd paint color, so I decided to do a pallet/plank wall. I used 1/2" plywood cut into strips instead of pallets for safety reasons since the crib will be right there

ZHHVZgs.jpg
 
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Not necessarily a home repair story, but home related and occurred in a room I am redoing...

Yesterday morning I heard a noise as I was getting ready to take the dog for a walk, but I didn’t think much about it with the cat and dog in the house. I came from the walk with Brutus and was changing my clothes and as I go to grab different clothes out of the closet where, I am confronted by a little fury creature on the top shelf. So, I close the closet door, go get on a hooded sweatshirt, some gloves, etc. and grab a towel to see if I can trap it. I open the windows so I can throw it outside or maybe get it to run outside. Here is where the hilarity begins. The room is torn up anyway as we are remodeling the office, so the carpet is out. I am trying to trap the little bugger in the towel and pull it out of the closet. I am not sure where it went and I am afraid it has leapt onto my back, so I am spinning around trying to find it. I finally see it hanging on the lower shelf, so I knock it onto the floor and close the closet. Now I am chasing it around the room. I grab the broom and finally whack it a couple of times. Not being sure it is dead, I grab the towel and scoop it up and shake the towel out the window. Great, it is holding on to the towel, so I grab the broom and try knocking it off the towel and it grabs on to the bristles. So, finally I shake the broom of and it goes sailing towards the yard. It spreads its body out, the damn thing was a flying squirrel and it floats to the ground. I don’t know what happened to it, a couple hours later it was gone. Damndest thing is, I can’t figure out how it got in and how it got on my shelf in the closet.

On another note....
This morning, wife takes my truck to go to work and leaves early. About 5:15 a.m. About 5:30 she comes in and says a deer ran into her. My front passenger fender, headlight, side panel and then back side door is all smashed in and the bed is scraped up…….$4650 later....

What the hell is going on here……
 
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buckeyebri said:
Not necessarily a home repair story, but home related and occurred in a room I am redoing...

Yesterday morning I heard a noise as I was getting ready to take the dog for a walk, but I didn’t think much about it with the cat and dog in the house. I came from the walk with Brutus and was changing my clothes and as I go to grab different clothes out of the closet where, I am confronted by a little fury creature on the top shelf. So, I close the closet door, go get on a hooded sweatshirt, some gloves, etc. and grab a towel to see if I can trap it. I open the windows so I can throw it outside or maybe get it to run outside. Here is where the hilarity begins. The room is torn up anyway as we are remodeling the office, so the carpet is out. I am trying to trap the little bugger in the towel and pull it out of the closet. I am not sure where it went and I am afraid it has leapt onto my back, so I am spinning around trying to find it. I finally see it hanging on the lower shelf, so I knock it onto the floor and close the closet. Now I am chasing it around the room. I grab the broom and finally whack it a couple of times. Not being sure it is dead, I grab the towel and scoop it up and shake the towel out the window. Great, it is holding on to the towel, so I grab the broom and try knocking it off the towel and it grabs on to the bristles. So, finally I shake the broom of and it goes sailing towards the yard. It spreads its body out, the damn thing was a flying squirrel and it floats to the ground. I don’t know what happened to it, a couple hours later it was gone. Damndest thing is, I can’t figure out how it got in and how it got on my shelf in the closet.

On another note....
This morning, wife takes my truck to go to work and leaves early. About 5:15 a.m. About 5:30 she comes in and says a deer ran into her. My front passenger fender, headlight, side panel and then back side door is all smashed in and the bed is scraped up…….$4650 later....

What the hell is going on here……
Click to expand...

The animal uprising has begun.
 
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Dos anyone have a recommendation or experience with HVAC name brands? We bought a house last July with the original mid-90s Trane heat pump and we're thinking of striking pre-emptively on a replacement. We have quotes on the standard names (Trane, etc), but also on a Daikin which we know nothing about. Any thoughts?
 
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BuckeyeFlorida said:
Dos anyone have a recommendation or experience with HVAC name brands? We bought a house last July with the original mid-90s Trane heat pump and we're thinking of striking pre-emptively on a replacement. We have quotes on the standard names (Trane, etc), but also on a Daikin which we know nothing about. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

We recently built. We went with American Standard with multiple zones and a big ass air filter. We've been pleased so far.
 
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BuckeyeFlorida said:
Dos anyone have a recommendation or experience with HVAC name brands? We bought a house last July with the original mid-90s Trane heat pump and we're thinking of striking pre-emptively on a replacement. We have quotes on the standard names (Trane, etc), but also on a Daikin which we know nothing about. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Not familiar with the Daikin brand. I deal mostly in commercial construction but with Trane and Lennox, you'll pay a premium for name brand. The better value is in the second tier manufacturers such as Rheem, Goodman, and York. Trane own's American Standard and sells it as value quality and while I don't have any personal experience with the units, I've heard a lot of good things. Same for Carrier's Bryant brand. Maytag has increased presence in the market and I've also heard positive recommendations for them. Points to check against your options: warranty, quietness, and make sure all units in consideration are the same SEER and Tonnage ratings.

Get at least three quotes from installers and have each offer options on the various brands they sell; this is the MOST important advice I can offer, as a construction estimator.
 
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Carrier has (well, maybe had? I've not checked lately) a five year warranty on parts. Was simple to use when the compressor went on a four year old unit last summer. Repair guy-not a carrier company- just took unit to parts counter and got new one.
 
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