What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

[rothenbj]

Yeah, cedar's around $17. If you want a real gotcha, if you go to a 20' board the price jumps to over $51. Now, the price jumps drastically for cedar going from 16' to 20' which is understandable since it obviously takes larger trees to get the longer boards. 20 years ago the 20 footers were stocked but not anymore. However, that doesn't explain why 4' of fabricated board jumps that much.

I may just go the opposite direction on the back deck. It was built for a hot tub which I turned off at least ten years ago, not even sure if I could get it up and running anymore. I may just put PT board decking on, replace boards on the other two where needed and be done with it. The only time I use it anymore is to feed the fish in the pond I built off of it.

 

[hittman]

I got home yesterday and the last order of trim boards was sitting in my driveway so I went out and finished put up the last few. There's an area over my shed in the back that I'm going to ask the painters to put trim boards on since I didn't feel comfortable getting up there. It's nice to finally be done and we have almost decided on paint colors so I'll call the painters soon.

 

[rothenbj]

Well my attention is getting diverted every day. I've got one possibly expensive project that hit me when this past weekend I heard weird gurgling in the bathtub while I was in there. The only thing running was the dishwasher so I knew something was up. Advance a couple days and I went to the basement to take some stuff I had in the garage back to my shop. I found water all over the floor and a table in my shop and water falling from the pipe from the bathroom toilet. The plumber just left and he directed me to the septic system people which is where I suspected I was headed.

Yesterday, to eliminate possibilities, I went up on the roof to run a snake down the big vent pipe in the back of the house, just in case. The new gutters went up late fall after the leaves had fallen so I wasn't expecting what I saw. My new gutters already have a good inch or so of crap that must have accumulated from the spring. I had installed some fairly cheap HD gutter guard panels years ago and they did a decent job but they were lost in the project. I wanted to find a replacement but it was low on the list until my trip to the roof. Now it's moved up the list. I'm thinking of going with an easyon gutter guard that Costco sells. The reviews seem good and there are a lot of Youtube direction videos on them. They'll be harder to install but they're aluminum and micro mesh which should hold up better. Life in home ownership is such fun.

In the meantime, we've had an outbreak of brain cancer around here. It started with the woman's 38 year old nephew about two years ago. He's two operations, two Chemo trips and what looks like a 2-5 year stage 3 situation. He's had bad seizures and apparently a stroke. Her sister is a piece of work so she's taken it upon herself to assume the role of mother. She hit me with wanting to get power of attorney to slow his mother up from making bad decisions for him that will be good decisions for her. I personally want to stay out of that witches line of fire but don't want him to get screwed since he has a wife and three fairly young kids that have to grow up in this mess.

Then in the last two weeks my only surviving uncle's 50 year old grandson had brain surgery for a lemon sized tumor that is cancerous and stage four. My cousin and his wife are wrecked over this.

The hits keep coming.

 

[hittman]

I thought I had a lot going on right now. Not compared to you. I'm glad to not have those problems.

My dad is back in the hospital and they are going to do a heart scope test for blockage tomorrow.

 

[The Rebel]

Hey Roth, if you haven't heard or checked these out yet, they work great. I used them on all my gutters a couple of years ago and I've been extremely happy with the results. Real easy to install and rarely ever get clogged. Wet leaves dry up and blow away and smaller dirt particles fall to the bottom and get washed away. Might be a simpler solution for you.

Rain Filter Gutter Filtration for 5 in. K-Style Gutters (8 4-foot Pieces)-50TMG015 - The Home Depot

 

[hittman]

My wife called me a little bit ago and said that our AC unit quit working. She called two places and the soonest someone could come out is tomorrow so I called another place and they are going to try to make it out later today. From what my wife told me, it sounds like either the fan motor or capacitor has gone bad. It'd probably be a good idea to replace both. I could probably fix it myself but wouldn't know where to get the parts and its overdue to be checked out anyway.

 

[rothenbj]

See, isn't home ownership wonderful. It keeps you working even if you're retired and twice as muchnif you aren't. Septic tank is cleaned out, it was functioning fine so the problem is a blockage. The people I had out yesterday are going to be out in the next half hour to try to figure that out. As Roseanne Roseannadanna always said, it's always something.

Rebel, I was interested in them but I got discouraged by reports of little trees growing in them after a while and having to go up and deal with that. I know they appear to be one of the easiest approaches. I might do a mixed bag. The ones from Costco for the back and the type like yours for the front where it's lower. I prefer to do the two story stuff once and done. Still debating though. I know trees grow around me quickly. I have three right off my deck and two off my drive (one of my concerns about this drain issue) that just gre up and I cut down about 10 decent sized ones that planted themselves along the house that were interfering with the siding work I had done.

 

[rothenbj]

Gawd it's easy to spend money. Looks like a quick $2-2.5k gone between the septic cleaning, drain cleaning and fixing a pipe that is part of the cause of the issue. At least we're up and running or should I say down and flushing again.

 

[The Rebel]

Yeah Roth, I have a lot of trees around me but none that are very close to the house. So plenty of sunshine keeps the gutters dry so nothing grows. Problem is in the fall when the leaves let loose and land on my roof. I'd have to clean out my gutters three or four times so that's when I put in the foam guards. Might be a different story with as much shade as you have. Good growing conditions when it never really dries out.

 

[hittman]

Still no AC here. I went and checked it myself and found some burnt and loose wires so I fixed those and checked the capacitor. I'm pretty sure it's bad. I called the service company and they said that they are still coming.

 

[hittman]

The capacitor was bad. He changed it but the motor wouldn't start at first. It's running now but he's coming back with a motor in the morning.

 

[hittman]

I cancelled the service call since it was running all day and went and bought a new motor and capacitor myself. I just finished putting them in. They charged me $99 for diagnosing it and I bought the motor and capacitor from a customer that I deal with at work for a discounted price of $81 for both. I ended up saving about $400 compared to what they were going to charge.

 

[rothenbj]

Good job Hitt, there are certain advantages in being in your line of work. If I can find specific videos on youtube or elsewhere, I can follow steps, but it's just mimicking. I'm seriously thinking about digging the bad pipe out to see what I'm dealing with (and avoid the cost of having it done. My only fear is hitting the pipe and causing it to break worse. I've got till Monday to think this one out.

I got sucked into trying to fix the mess that the gf's nephew is in. He's got a broken English Asian wife and three kids from 10/11 to 3. Right now they have no money coming in. /he applied for SSDI back in February '16 and the latest is stated as going to some judge for, I guess, final approval. That status was Jun '16 and the SS office said it can take up to 24 months which would mean another year. He has some form of disability insurance thru Hartford which was discontinued this month because they think he discontinued trying to get SSDI. They're also asking for $35k back as overpayments from the last three years, basically most of what they paid since the brain cancer hit. Needless to say, this is a mess. I'm hoping I can straighten Hartford out and get his payments started again as he waits for SSDI to be approved.

I also have to get back to SS on Monday. I found two programs they have that supposedly speeds up special cases. Actually three, one is for people that are considered terminal. He probably only has 5 years (minus the two or so that have passed) but there has been no official proclamation fro the Dr. Today was the first day I interacted with him since the diagnosis and it's obvious he's not ever going to be a functioning worker again. Phase 3, two operations, two chemo rounds, multiple seizures and I'm guessing a stroke thrown in for good measure have got them getting a motorized wheelchair for him. He also has very little memory and they had to provide him with a list of security answers so he can authorize me to talk to them. One of the other paths lets you input the conditions by answering a series of questions which are run through a determination program that will printout the likelihood of getting approved. Something needs to happen and fast.

 

[hittman]

Good luck with SS Roth. I know people that have waited years to get it.

As far as the pipe goes, how much extra would it cost if you hit it and broke it? It might be worth taking a look if you feel like doing it. I really needed to repair the AC myself since I'm getting ready to hire someone to paint my house. I need every penny I can save.

 

[rothenbj]

Yeah, the cost of braking the pipe is not my concern, He marked where to shovel with a flag. The cost I'm concerned with is breaking it and not having access to the septic system again. That being said, I think I can figure it out without endangering anything. My thought is start by digging small till I ascertain the pipe's actual location. Even if it's two feet down, I should be able to use my trusty Army shovel to get close and a garden shovel to work to the pipe.

 

[hittman]

How big is the pipe? Hopefully it's easy to find.

 

[rothenbj]

I believe it's 4 inch PVC although, looking a it through the scope, the two pipes looked side by side. I'm guessing it's something like the a Wye fitting or, maybea long turn Tee Wye fitting shown in these pictures. I'm pretty sure I'm going to open it up tomorrow, carefully. The one thought that I had was the FIOS line runs past that section also, but I believe they ran it to the other side of the pipe. It will be a lot less expensive if it's exposed and I have "haggling room"

Drain And Sewer Pipe Fittings Home Owners Networkhome Network Picture to Pin on Pinterest

 

[hittman]

Good luck. We ran into a weird thing yesterday at work. There's a deep plastic sink with a built in drain that was leaking. One of the guys went to get a new pipe and fittings only to find out that the molded threads on the bottom don't fit any standard drain fittings.

 

[rothenbj]

Yeah, that type thing sucks. There were doors at my mom's house that I couldn't replace the doorknob and couldn't get the parts that were broken. I would have had to drill a bigger hole in the door to fit any of the current doorknobs so I elected to leave it for the new owners. They were in construction so I figured hey's have the tools that I'd have had to buy, plus if I screwed it up then the entire door could have become an issue.

So how is your sink issue going to be resolved?

 

[hittman]

I don't know. I suggested that either they use a hole saw and cut an opening big enough for a regular sink drain or call a plumbing company and let them figure it out. I guess worst case scenario they could replace the whole sink.

I have a pear tree that keeps growing up to the house and had to go out with a step ladder and a pole saw to trim it back. I wish we would have planted that tree another ten feet out.