Got an estimate for solar recently that was $26k and included installation with flush mounting 25 panels, optimizers, and inverter for a total of ~8,400 watts. The panels are lg brand and the part of the roof these would go on has no valley with a slight pitch. Good deal or no deal?

It's about what I'd charge and I'm poor, but just barely not-poor enough to have stayed in business a while, so it's a pretty good deal.

LG is a good brand and it's good imo to go with one of the Korean companies that are big conglomerates and won't go out of business.

I have a Fisher & Paykel counter depth with water and ice that I have been very happy with. Seems to be in that wheelhouse of better than the norm, but less expensive than the super high ends. I think it was ~$2K:

Thanks. I had never heard of that brand. I'll check it out.

I hadn't either. They are Aussie/NZ, but have a decent USA#1 presence. Ended up getting a F&P range recently too.

27, did you do wood floors in the kitchen or was that there already? If you chose wood over tile, what was the logic behind your decision?

It is wood yes, and the reason is I live in a 1888 house and the floors are VERY off, to the point where any tile would eventually crack unless I had the entire floor leveled. I actually like the wood floor in the kitchen, and it also flows right into the laundry room/powder room adjacent to kitchen:



Laundry also had same problem: cracked tiles from floor. The 5 foot wide room had a 3" differential from one side to the other. The kitchen was like 5" lol.

I like the seamless transition from one room to the next. Do you have any thresholds?

We currently have thresholds at the other two openings to kitchen, but will probably eventually do same there as well.

Electrical Question 1

I've got a couple outdoor lights I'd like to set up for motion detection.

One is a floodlight mounted on the corner of the house, and lights the section of the yard between the garage and the back door. It seems pretty easy to at least try out the floodlights with sensors built into the bulb, so that's what I'm likely to do.

On both ends of that path - the garage and the back porch - there are enclosed fixtures that are currently switch operated. Do any of these motion or heat sensing bulbs work through a fixture?

The garage light currently is tied to a switch that is inside the garage. It also doesn't work (I haven't actually tried changing the bulb yet to see if that resolves this part). But it's pretty useless for things like seeing the keyhole to open the garage.

The porch light has a switch outside, so I could install a motion sensing switch (it is up a small flight of stairs) and I think solve this end without messing with the fixture at all.

Electrical Question 2

My bathroom for some reason has like 5 light switches, with dimmers. A couple of them buzz whenever turned on. My running assumption is that this is from having non-dimmable bulbs (CFLs I think) on dimmers. Is that most likely correct, or is there something else I should be checking into?

Electrical Question 3

My hallway has a switch with 3 switches. As far as I can tell, only one does anything. Is there an easy way to figure out what the others might be doing? (I've tried basically every nearby outlet and the obvious stuff...) If I can't figure out what they're doing, is there any reason I can't just remove those connections, cap the wires, and turn into a single light switch? I have to be honest that my main motivation here is to get rid of the horribly ugly 3 switch plate at the wall, since I haven't found an attractive decora-style 3 switch option. Apparently (lol?) one of them is a three-way switch, and the decora-style 3 switch thing I had bought the electrician didn't put on because of this three-way-ness. Wat.

1. Google says motion sensors don't work through glass, but I'd probably try anyway. They seem to make light socket adapters with a motion sensor too, which would mean you could stick with regular bulbs. Nice fixtures can be expensive, but they make plenty that are motion sensing, and they're easy to swap out.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Westek-1...009B/100644831

2. I know I had buzzing when I had non-dimmable lights on dimmers, but it would go away if I turned the dimmer up to full brightness. I've also had CFL bulbs buzz just because they're going bad. Unfortunately, old dimmers only work on incandescent bulbs, so even with new bulbs you might need new ~$20 LED dimmer switches to make it work.

3. I'll admit I've purposely shorted out wiring to see which breaker pops, but that probably won't tell you enough. If you look at the wiring, you should be able to tell if the switches are hooked up as 3-way switches or regular, which might narrow it down some. Any chance one of them goes to that outdoor garage light that doesn't work? I don't know what kind of cover you want, but finding a good looking cover seems far easier than swapping the box out and patching the drywall, and three switches isn't that uncommon. I don't follow that last part at all? It was a cover you bought, or a set of switches?

Stumpy,

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll chew on it a bit. I don't really want to swap out fixtures right now just because it wasn't on the roadmap, and there are matching fixtures on the garage, back porch, front porch, and front foyer (I already swapped out the matchy matchy lights in the hall and dining room).

Re #3:

My hallway lightswitch has 3 switches that flip horizontally, on one plate, arranged vertically. As far as I can tell, the only one that does anything is the middle switch, that controls all the lights in the hall. The other two seem to do nothing (though I have to admit I haven't checked if they control the garage light 100 feet away and outdoors!). The bottom switch I was told by the electrician (who was in to swap out a couple dozen other outlets and switches for more modern/less cruddy and falling apart ones) is a three way switch. The new switch I'd bought for him to install didn't have a three way switch, so he couldn't install.

It's a bit expensive, but this plus the switch suggested with it pair up, so you could have the motion sensor outside and replace the switch inside and it would work. That's just the first thing I saw, so cheaper/better versions might exist:
https://www.amazon.com/SkylinkHome-I.../dp/B0051BU562

It's not exactly the same, but normal smart home switches would let you set up a timer schedule to turn them on/off at dusk/dawn, or turn them on/off from your phone.

Yeah, I don't know your house layout, so by any chance meant is it close to your garage. It's obviously a lot of trouble to wire up three switches like that, so you'd think they do something. Is the hallway near your attic stairs/hatch?

If you decide to remove the other switches, the three way switch probably has two black wires and one red one connected to it, and you'd want to short the two blacks together in case there is a mate to that switch somewhere doing it's job.

I guess technically, if I am not the homeowner, I shouldn't even change out a standard plug with one that has USB outlets so they can charge their devices easier. And yes, this was a brother in law deal for a friend. The spare bathroom sink and toilet backs up to the living room. How a pipe broke in Austin in an interior wall is beyond me. The insurance company authorized a restoration company to repair the plumbing and replace the laminate floors.

But of course his wifey got involved and wanted the pony wall taken out before the new floors went down and wasn't covered by insurance. Said restoration contactor quoted them~ $3K. Pretty sure this was going straight to his bottom line. As mentioned, taking out the wall took me less than 3 hours and that was while BSing and drinking beer.

I thought about what you guys recommended and slept on it. Next day I thought it made perfect sense that those inside studs were dummies and were just put there to support the pony wall. Sure enough, I cut the drywall up about 6 inches and they didn't go to the ceiling. Popped them out, installed outlet box which is flush with no molding.

Just heard from my buddy and the contactor stopped by today and said everything looked fine. But he could tell he was sorta pissed his gravy train derailed. I assume the housing market/construction is so hot in Austin right now contractors can pretty much name their price and get the job.


No basements in Texas for the most part. But thanks for that link. Feels like when I found out about shark teeth for replacing leaky cut off bathroom and sink valves.


FWIW - I am semi-retired and keep myself busy doing handyman work in a small town in West Texas. Most of that is hanging a TV, putting up a new ceiling fan or installing a new microwave or dishwasher. The only thing I (read homeowner) have to pull a permit for are carports and storage sheds. It is a wink wink deal you can get by with in a small town that I would never try in Austin.

Thanks again for everyone's input. Very much appreciated!

Has anybody used a VA loan? Wouldn't the mortgage payment be super high if you put 0 down?

The rats in my garage left a note asking for tabasco to put on the green bait.

Wouldn't it depend on the size of the loan?

I have not used a VA loan, though I researched it when I bought my first house. My verdict at that time was that it's not worth it if you have the money to make a standard down payment.

cheap toothpaste can also suffice in a pinch.

At the college in my hometown, the dorms didn't allow one to hang pictures, and there was a fine for holes. It was well known, however, that the walls in the dorms were all either Colgate white or Crest blue.

Going to be waterproofing about 20' of foundation this weekend, weather permitting. Please correct me if I'm missing something:

1. dig the trench 2ft wide from the house and down to the footer
2. clean the wall and apply new cement
3. let cement cure for a day (expecting ~50's outside)
4. layer of fabric, layer of gravel and 4 inch pvc pipe angled to drain away
5. tar wall, dry, then apply rubber membrane?
6. backfill

Also, is it redundant to tar and then apply the membrane or can I skip the tar?

Confused a little. If you're waterproofing and adding a french drain, why new cement?

Usually we just apply waterproofing to existing wall in new construction, either waterproofing membrane or tar .

Then you dig trench for french drain as low as possible for gravity flow away from the foundation.

Basically the same for existing stemwall that has a water problem

It's a block foundation so figured on filling in cracks and holes as well as shoring up with that layer of cement.

0. Call Dig Safe

1. If you're going more than about tits deep you better bone up on trench safety so you don't die.

2. & 3. If you have cracked mortar joints you should be grinding them out and repointing. A parge coat will do approximately nothing structurally, and it needs to be the right mix, applied with a bonding agent, or it will just crumble and fall off in a couple years. 24 hours probably isn't enough cure time for anything you're going to do. Most membranes require at least 7 days before they can be applied.

4. You want the top and sides of your stone and the entire pipe covered by fabric to keep them from silting up. Make sure you use perforated pipe, holes facing down (yes, down). Don't use gravel, use stone, like 3/4" or 1".

5. Yes, the tar is redundant if you're doing a membrane. It's also inferior to a good (and correctly applied) membrane.

6. Compact while you backfill or you'll have a water filled ditch around your house by spring.

I don't know if id go thru that much trouble with repointing the cracks in a block wall, unless its really bad and needs to be releveled.

Membrane will fill in gaps, won't expand or crack (supposedly) for years.

The key to me is to figure the best way to keep water from sitting up against the foundation for any extended period of time.

Grading away from the foundation is often overlooked because people don't want to see the foundation and so they grade above floor level and place flower beds next to the house that basically act as sump pits for moisture to collect.