This Old #%&@*$ House

Chaz wrote:

I'm deep into Ryobi, mostly because my father in law works at home depot, so he sometimes gets deals on the batteries. The tools aren't amazing, but they get the job done for non pros like me, and there's a metric ton of options.

One thing I'd say is to think about getting a set with both a drill and an impact driver. If you can only get one, get a drill, but an impact driver makes things so much easier that it's not even funny.

Also, keep an eye on Craigslist for used tools. The basic stuff is on there constantly.

I'm also pretty deep into Ryobi stuff. I managed to snag a combo deal (on clearance at HomeDepot) a couple months back for a trimmer (already had one), impact driver, and cordless drill for $75. My wife was a bit upset that I grabbed that when I wasn't really shopping for drills, but considering my old crappy one was dying and those two drills retail for about $180 without the trimmer, I couldn't really pass it up. Overall they're pretty decent drills, and they'll do whatever you need around the house.

I love ryobi look and have a nice set of it here too. They do only offer a 2 to 3 year warranty so if you pay a bit more and want lifetime warranty Ridgid, dewalt, etc on up usually offers those.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Edit: Oh! Don't get a drill/driver combo. I haven't used any, but my brother has said they are bad.

Oh, I didn't mean a single tool combo, I meant a set with two separate tools, one of each. Agreed that a single tool combo isn't nearly as good.

I would also recommend a good corded drill. They will have the power that the battery powered drills do not. I love my dewalt cordless impact driver, but also have a simple ryobi cordless drill for simpler jobs. On top of that, for things like when I was building a lamp out of an old car engine valve cover for my Pops, the corded drill worked where the cordless ones did not. On top of that, I have a hammer drill for masonry, but then that was because of the remodeling I have been doing in the basement, so not a necessity, but still nice to have.

Also recommend a drill with a cord for more power, and I have a smaller Hitachi screwgun, drill, and flashlight combo with two batteries and a charger, and, honestly, it's largely fine. I'm not doing any significant structural work, and anything where I do need to put a screw into a stud and support some real weight, well, that's what the corded drill is for. I think if I were starting over I'd consider a model line in general to go for just to keep things the same, but we bought our first house 20 years (and two days ago, just noticed) ago, and it was a fixer-upper from hell, and, from then, I have all sorts of tools that aren't cordless, including a circular saw, belt sander, finish sander, Dremel tool, jigsaw, and probably a couple others. Honestly, if you're doing stuff around the house and aren't really serious, worrying about having a good set of cordless tools is not really necessary. Just buy a couple extension cords and buy the corded version, the only thing IMO you really need cordless is something to put screws in with, and my take is get something. Just something. As nice as a fancy Dewalt is, well, I don't really need it for my reasonably basic stuff.

Having a hard time finding this through Google.

The new place has an above ground pool covered by a tarp with an inflatable donut underneath that isn’t doing its job of keeping water off. What kind of pump should I use to clear it off? It’s a lot of water at this point. My lawn guy said it’s important but didn’t give a good description of the kind of pump.

Are we talking a dedicated pump to constantly be pumping water off? Or a get the water off occasionally situation?

My knee jerk reaction is to just siphon with a primed short piece of hose.

It would be occasional but fairly consistently. We get a lot of snow over the winter so it would need to be done after every couple storms, or after any particularly big ones. The other complicating factor is that my yard is fairly heavily wooded and it gets pretty leafy.

Seems like this is what you mean? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wjcyPk...

I’ll give that a try.

hope this isn't too basic of an answer, but did he mean a sump pump? search for "sump pump pool" with maybe "above ground" thrown in and I think you'll see the kinds of pumps he was talking about.

@Blind_Evil Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I found a purpose built manual system on Amazon that would do the same thing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024NKK42...

With my years of pool maintenance experience(0 ) I'm sure an electric sump pump like cheeze_pavillion mentioned would be useful as well.

I'm not sure how they would hold up to being left outside and frozen though. My understanding(again, 0 years of experience) is allowing water to freeze in any pumps is bad.

You want a cover pump. They're smaller and lighter than a sump pump. The thing you want to be careful of is that depending on how strong the pump is, it can actually pull water from under the pump, which isn't what you want, because that drains the pool. To help prevent that, you can put a Frisbee under the pump to keep it from getting the cover sucked to the intake.

So you know, the pillow under the cover isn't meant to keep water off. Its job is to keep the ice from forming a solid cake, which then hangs off the walls and can damage the liner or walls. It's not unusual for them to get popped during the winter, they're kind of sacrificial.

As for getting water off the cover I wouldn't stress too much about it, as long as the cover is held on with something that can give way. The reason you want water off is that when the water freezes, it pulls on the cover. If the cover is held on with the cable and winch, the weight can damage the walls, or collapse them completely. To avoid that, you want to secure the cover with something that can give if there's too much weight. Lots of people tie milk jugs of water to the cover. I use big binder clips. The idea is that the worst case scenario is that the cover gets pulled into the pool, rather that damaging the walls. Historically, I've been really bad at pumping water off the cover, but I've never had ice damage the pool or liner.

ah--cover pump will be more specific than "sump pump pool," that's better. We never had a problem with a pump freezing, but as you two are both listed in South NH, Chaz will know more about that.

Thanks everyone!

It’s covered by a giant tarp with grommets and a bungee cord going through the grommets and attached to the deck on each end. Sounds like it will do the job, then.

I am going to try the filter hose trick. Ordered a 12 foot hose off Amazon. My neighbor said pumps don’t work great, according to the prior owner.

Edit: it’s my first time living in the semi-rural burbs, and I got to witness a funny phenomenon today. I live in a culdesac with two other houses, each have about an acre of land, and then there’s someone behind me from another street, who you can see through the woods in the winter. We paid someone to come blow our leaves. As soon as he was done all three neighboring houses were doing the same peer pressure I guess.

Haha! Sitting and drinking my coffee, I look outside and see the rain has stopped and then I can hear the leaf blower in the distance. Yup, might as well.

I've had that happen before. I start mowing my law and by the time I'm done I can hear one or two other mowers going in the distance.

Stengah wrote:

I've had that happen before. I start mowing my law and by the time I'm done I can hear one or two other mowers going in the distance.

It's great when the next door / across the street neighbors come out once I start mowing. At least I get to give a friendly wave / possible short conversation. I'm the guy who wants to talk to my neighbors.

Of all this issues I expected to have with new appliances, this wasn't one of them:

The two large front burners on my gas range seem to be too strong. When I turn the burners all the way down to low to simmer they continue to cook at way too high a temperature. (Liquids continue to boil for instance.) I've been moving things to the back burners to simmer but was wondering if this could be a defect or safety issue or is there anything that could be adjusted somehow or do I just have to get used to it?

This replaced a very old range so it may just be I'm cooking at too high a temperature initially? I've only cooked a couple of meals so far so I will have to experiment some more.

So, not a stove expert AT ALL, but a gas stove *must* have a pressure regulator, because supply pressure isn't fixed. And that regulator ought to be adjustable.

Now, whether the people who designed your stove agree with me or not is another issue...

Jonman wrote:

So, not a stove expert AT ALL, but a gas stove *must* have a pressure regulator, because supply pressure isn't fixed. And that regulator ought to be adjustable.

"Pressure regulator" was the phrase that did it! I just found a video for my exact model stove with the same issue. There's a screw behind the knobs to adjust the burners.

Thanks Jonman!

PaladinTom wrote:
Jonman wrote:

So, not a stove expert AT ALL, but a gas stove *must* have a pressure regulator, because supply pressure isn't fixed. And that regulator ought to be adjustable.

"Pressure regulator" was the phrase that did it! I just found a video for my exact model stove with the same issue. There's a screw behind the knobs to adjust the burners.

Thanks Jonman!

Know where you gas shutoff valve is in probably your basement before doing this; when I first got a gas stove I tried this, unscrewed too far, smelled gas, and there was . . . some panic. So, plan ahead with this stuff if you're doing it and know the path you need to get to to turn the gas off, just in case.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:
Jonman wrote:

So, not a stove expert AT ALL, but a gas stove *must* have a pressure regulator, because supply pressure isn't fixed. And that regulator ought to be adjustable.

"Pressure regulator" was the phrase that did it! I just found a video for my exact model stove with the same issue. There's a screw behind the knobs to adjust the burners.

Thanks Jonman!

Know where you gas shutoff valve is in probably your basement before doing this; when I first got a gas stove I tried this, unscrewed too far, smelled gas, and there was . . . some panic. So, plan ahead with this stuff if you're doing it and know the path you need to get to to turn the gas off, just in case.

Glad I could help! And Danimal's experience kind of feeds into what I'd do in this situation - pay a professional to fix it. I'll try and fix my own plumbing, but I pay a professional to do the electric and gas cos that sh*t'll kill you if you do it wrong.

Understood. I just had a shutoff installed behind the stove when it was installed because there was never one there before. I also know where the main shutoff is.

I'll do little gas stuff like that, hooking up a gas dryer, and a few other things, and most of my electrical work as long as it doesn't entail running to a new outlet or something. Swapping fixtures/outlets/switches, sure, but not a fan of new wiring, which is a bit fiddly. Then again, I'm willing to try almost anything house-wise; I just installed a garage door opener and put in a water softener a few years ago, so I'm pretty ambitious to try new things. Then, if I suck at them (looking at you, drywall), I just never do them again.

MMD we gotta fix or break something sometime.

Furnace was having issues a couple weeks ago. The heat exchanger was cracked and was 20 years old so got it replaced. One thing I had always noticed was gap in the ductwork but had been previously been told by an HVAC guy it wasn't a big deal despite the room getting super warm. They redid that duct part with the new furnace and it gets noticeably less warm in that room. So that was a plus. The system fan is a bit quieter which is a plus too. The furnace is a little bit louder for some reason, but not a big deal.

So other than the price there was one big issue. I noticed they had redone the drain tube for the whole home humidifier so the next day I was just examining it and upon touching the side of the humidifier the left side popped out. So I put my hand on the other side to brace it and the entire thing fell out on me. Those things are pretty heavy and the electric and water lines were not long enough for me to set it down without damaging something. Luckily I had my phone to call my wife upstairs to come help me. That sucked but the worst feeling is while my kids don't frequently play in there I could see one of them goofing around and bumping the furnace only to have that come crashing down. They fixed it right away but damn.

We are giving Christmas yard decorating a real try this year, and some of the stuff I’ve seen got me wondering.

Do people with big yards run extension cords all over the place to light the trees and stuff far from the house? We have a long driveway, 200’ or so, and light posts every 30 feet or so. We want to spiral colored lights around the posts, but I wonder if there’s a more visually appealing or easier way to do it than have 15 extension cords running up and down the side of the driveway.

If anyone has general newbie yard decor tips, they’d be appreciated.

I don't have a big yard but no power in the front so I have a 100 foot cable from my back deck run all the way to the front. I have to imagine big yards have really long cables.

You could add an outlet to your light post. Since there is already wire there.

It only took 7 months, but its done. Now to move furniture back in....

IMAGE(https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/125838016_10226246988548182_5892367146999227410_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=2&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=sb1009H_OygAX-ljNHc&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=58435e4151c27da0d4d63486d01d5321&oe=5FDF5FAF)

IMAGE(https://scontent.ffcm1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/126426887_10226246989028194_7219148598872763673_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=2&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=wU3uVpBV_H0AX-nfvBw&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-1.fna&oh=467e6601b39b4ad7b48951de84098ce7&oe=5FE29A3D)

Looks great.