You may need fatter wires.

And he may need a fatter pigtail. Many ranges don't come with their own plug, and there's a chance an undersized one was wired in.

If the original electrician put #8 on a 30, then I guess that's true, but I think we should upgrade "may" at least to "most likely".

Thanks guys, should I be cooking on it at all right now though? Should I just unplug it until an electrician can come out?

One or two burners or stand alone oven should be fine. And you know the breaker is going to trip if you push it too hard.

Concur.

Well the circuit breaker is protecting the wires by tripping, so I guess technically everything is safe. But doesn't seem like a great idea to be constantly overloading the circuit.

Any advice for eliminating mosquitos in the backyard? I keep seeing a lot of ads for Mosquito Shield, which is a company that sprays some sort of chemical every couple of weeks all over your yard. Supposedly works well but I worry about the effect on other animals and plants (especially birds, I have a very active feeding station in my yard). Plus I'd imagine it's kind of pricey.

I've also seen mosquito magnets which run on propane tanks, not sure how effective they are. I live in a humid area and the mosquitos really reduce how much I use my yard.

Not sure if a feasible solution for you but i have a gold fish pond in the backyard and the gold fish eat the mosquito eggs on the water so my mosquito count is much lower.

Permethrin

You can buy the concentrate by the gallon on Ebay and mix it in a gallon garden sprayer and spray it over your yard focusing on the bushes and anywhere mosquitos like. It's probably what the professional company uses but if you buy the concentrate it's really really cheap.

It's safe enough that it's sold as spray specifically to use on your clothes and is also used in and around homes by professionals as well as sold in medication form to treat lice.

Permethrin is also highly toxic to cats and fish, and it will kill ALL the insects in your yard. It's great for use on clothes and mosquito nets and to spot spray problem areas, but I'm pretty sure it's going to turn out to be a really bad idea to have people blasting that stuff all over their yards several times a year like they are now.

We put out a couple of these things from Spartan Mosquito in our backyard a few weeks ago. So far, so good--we haven't had any mosquito problems yet and we are out there grilling most evenings. Mosquitos have been a problem for us there in the past. Maybe our town is doing a better job than usual this year of spraying, but I doubt it.

I have no affiliation or interest in the company. A friend had tried the product and recommended them to me just before I ordered them. So far he is quite happy with them as well. Apparently they are a new company and not approved to sell their product in all states yet.

It certainly doesn't kill ALL the insects despite my best efforts.

I'm willing to go nuclear when it comes to ticks and mosquitos.

If you want to do quality porch sitting just deal with the skeeters or put up screens like a good ol boy

Work is about 99% percent done. So here is the before picture. We've been here 4 years now and summers have always been traveling for weddings, trips to see my inlaws on the weekends and not much time or resources to get stuff done that we wanted

BEFORE:


AFTER:



Next up is repairing/replacing the fence

Does that tiling pattern have a name? I know it's not a Versailles, but it looks like just as much of a PITA to lay.

seems deceptively simple....just gotta do this over and over and over again.

How do you get the yellow paint off your deck?

No idea. Basically got a magazine from a company they get the pavers for and we said make it look like page 30. Wasn't home when they were installing most of the time. Told them my internet cable was buried where they would be digging the bobcat and what do they do.. slice the cable so was back in the stone age for 2 days.

With our roof done, we're starting to take quotes on remodeling the main bathroom. Once that's done we'll have to decide between selling the house or staying put long term and plowing forward with the other stuff we want to do. (Which will make our house easily the most expensive in the neighborhood - we'll never recapture the cost.)

At least it looks like they did a nice job on the patio.

Seeking Feedback on our New Home Plans

So, we're kind of stuck in our design process, which has been something of a protracted struggle. We very much like the current draft of the design, but have a few hang-ups, and we're looking for a fresh perspective. I know there's folks in this thread who think a lot about these things or even do it professionally.

Here's a link to the design, which comes in at 2800 square feet for all finished spaces. Our goal is to have a not-too-big house, though we've gotten plenty of push back on that. Frankly, we can afford more, and given that reality and our location on a big acreage in the country, it's been hard convincing our designer that we really mean it when we say that we don't want a McMansion with big bedrooms/etc. Other guiding values for us are having a lot of good outdoor spaces and good flow between the inside and outside. We also want a home that draws our family together. We're okay if we all have to hang out in the same room. We tend to have a lot of guests, including long-terms guests, which accounts for the large guest suite in the basement. The three-car garage leaves a stall for things like kayaks, a small tractor, a potential eventual hobby-shop, etc.

I feel like we asked for a cabin/lake home/vacation home and we ended up with a fairly generic ranch. Thoughts? I'm particularly intrigued to hear how folks feels about the kitchen and the master bedroom. I really want the sink on the island, but feel like that's causing problems everywhere else.

Let me have honest feedback. Thanks!

Does your designer have any professional qualifications? I see a disjointed mess of angles and haphazard spaces and roof lines that serve no purpose. I mean, if you're happy with it then go for it, but it doesn't sound like you actually are, and to my eye it doesn't look like the work of a very skilled designer.

I don't know anything about architecture or design, but I would be super interested in you elaborating on any of this. (For example, I don't know what purpose roof lines should have, and I don't know how to recognize efficiently-designed space vs. haphazard space.)

I think the cabin/lake home/vacation home can be achieved with furnishing more so than the layout. Your kitchen, table, and family room layout is almost identical to mine and the openness of it allows for people to be cooking, others to sit and the table socializing, all while having the game on the big screen with everyone having a view of the action. I think you will really like that aspect.

Thoughts:
-As far as the kitchen goes, if you like to cook, your work triangle kind of sucks. You will have to shuffle around a lot when preparing meals and based on the dimensions, it seems like it will be a few steps between each appliance which can be a pain. Perhaps move the sink under the window and put the cooktop in the island? Doesn't seem ideal per your guidelines but hard to achieve that working kitchen layout with the window where it is.
-You should really work a duel vanity into the master bath. You will certainly enjoy it and it will help with resale.
-The master closet has wasted/unusable space in the current layout. Is it possible to square up the master to get rid of the awkward angle in there? Maybe bump the wall into the master a foot or two pick up more space in the bathroom/closet?
-I like the deck but am wondering if it's worth bumping that out as well to make it more rectangular so you can add space? Have the table on one side and perhaps a wicker cushioned patio set on the other? Just trying to think of this from an entertaining guests perspective.