Home Improvement

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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It seems like my house (and my immediate neighbors) has a very tenuous connection to the power grid. I live a bit south of Raleigh, NC, and we're getting the outer edge of Matthew today (lots of rain with a little wind). We lost power around 10:30 this morning. EVERYONE else around us has power. There are 8 or so other houses in roughly our same block that are also without power, so I'm assuming we're all fed from the same line.

Is there any way to compel the electric company (Duke Energy Progress) to add some fucking redundancy to our little grid? It's so fucking ridiculous that we lose power any time there's even a small windstorm. It's just salt in the fucking wounds to see everyone else around us with all their lights on, watching TV, etc.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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Yeah, I figured I'd try the CPAP approach first. It's obviously not as extreme as an iron lung (lol?), but no power means no CPAP and essentially no sleep for me.

I've never lived in a place where I've lost power this frequently or gone this long between loss of power and power being restored. Add to that that I've replaced two blown capacitors on my heat pump condenser in the last 12 months (presumably caused by power surges) and this house's electric situation just seems properly fucked.
 

Zapatta

Krugman's Fax Machine
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Last big remodel I did before I quit doing houses we did Ardex inside and out on most of the first floor, outside was stamped, inside was polished. You can get insanely fancy with it if so inclined. They have some really nice Terrazzo mixes.

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Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Update on kitchen. Counter is in and plumbing is complete. As much as I like the look of the faucet, I think I'm going to return it and put in something else. It doesn't pull out far enough in relation to the size of the sink.. A sample of the backsplash mosaic is in the pic below. They will deliver next week, so I'll probably do the backsplash next weekend. Custom blinds are on order for the window and I'll be putting in a new screen this week. Then it's just final electric work and final inspections from the city. All in all, it came out better than expected. Now it's time to plan a less exciting project: turning my office into the baby's room.

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Zapatta

Krugman's Fax Machine
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Looks great, pic 1 is exactly why I put under cab lights. Can lights in ceilings make hard shadows. I am told they make LED under cabs now.
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
<Nazi Janitors>
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Yeah, I bought some under cabinet lights at Ikea this weekend. When my electrician comes, I'm going to discuss powering options. Even if I don't have them on the switch, Ikea has a wireless remote switch you can pretty much put wherever.
 
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Zapatta

Krugman's Fax Machine
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Electrician can probably sneak a low profile button switch under there. It'll be like a bank manager robbery button set up
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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I would, but I recently started requiring my girlfriend clap for me every time I come home so that would probably cause some issues.
 

Mrs. Gravy

Quite Saucy
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I just ordered a replacement element for my range and bookmarked the best that I found, instructions. I really hope that it is just the element (easy fix) and not the control board (this would be a new task for me). Fingers crossed.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Ordered 750ft2 in 2.25 hardwood and picked up 120 ft2 in tile.

Between hardi and the mortar i have 1.50ft2 in tile before i touch it, sucks.
 
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Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Backsplash is up and I'm grouting tonight. Will post some pics later. I have my electrician coming in Thursday to finish up and Friday for final inspections. This was quite the learning experience. From concept to completion, it took me 99 days(assuming inspections pass without issue on Friday).
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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I am immmmmmpressed. How'd you cut those little glass mosaic fuckers

Got about 25 sq ft of tile down tonight, i fuckin love 12x24 tiles.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
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I really like the look of that nice apron sink, man, but I'm always afraid it'll get dinged up and look like crap in a couple of years. Keep us posted.
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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I am immmmmmpressed. How'd you cut those little glass mosaic fuckers
For the corners and end pieces, I used a wet saw I rented from Home Depot. For the cuts for outlets, etc, I just used little glass tile snippers. They leave a rough edge, but it's covered by the outlet covers.

I ended up only grouting about 3/5th of it last night before I ran out of grout. Instead of mixing the second bag, I'm just going to finish tonight. I hope that doesn't cause any issues. Here's a couple shots so far. The second shot gives a nice look of how the grouted tile looks vs ungrouted. So far, so good.

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