My Most Expensive Mistake, to date; the Smithton house

Hi neighbor! 

So couple of thoughts on your heating issues. 1) is the draft control for the boiler working properly?  2) baseboard water heaters really suck at dispersing heat, if your not apposed to them the old cast iron radiators are great. 3) I can't remember if you said if the boiler wood burner could also burn coal but if so then anthrisite coal is available locally in various sizes and 1 load can easily burn for 8hrs. Just make sure it's not bit coal as that stuff burns colder and is dirty as can be.

RevRico said:

 this needs to go, the wallpaper. I need to figure out what to do about it because I'm sick of hearing about it.

Painting over it would look like E36 M3. I'm NOT putting up new, berkeley wall paper. Pull it down and paint? Some kind of nice looking flooring?

I'm open to suggestion.

 

After that though. She'd like to change the color of the tile. It's ugly, and I agree.

As far as the wallpaper goes, if you really want it to go away you have a few options - paneling over it, sheetrock over it, or scrape it all off and spackle/prime/paint. You can paint over wallpaper but at best it will look horrible.

Yes, I ripped paneling off the walls in my house to find ugly wallpaper.

To effectively remove wallpaper you need a scoring tool, a scraper, and adhesive removal solution. Lowes has a kit with all three. The scoring tool pokes holes in the wallpaper, spray the solution on to loosen up the adhesive, go to town with the scraper.

As you may imagine it makes an enormous mess. Each time I've done this I had a different experience- a few peeled right off and were pretty easy, others didn't and it took forever to get off the wall because the paper would rather rip into tiny fragments than unpeel.

As others have said, do not paint tile.

OneSickGNX said:

Hi neighbor! 

So couple of thoughts on your heating issues. 1) is the draft control for the boiler working properly?  2) baseboard water heaters really suck at dispersing heat, if your not apposed to them the old cast iron radiators are great. 3) I can't remember if you said if the boiler wood burner could also burn coal but if so then anthrisite coal is available locally in various sizes and 1 load can easily burn for 8hrs. Just make sure it's not bit coal as that stuff burns colder and is dirty as can be.

For a 30 year old boiler, is in good shape and setup properly according to the dude that installed it. But we're good with the pellet stove now.

The oil tank is almost empty, which for the moment is good. I'm going to burn it off even further then move the tank out of the way so I can insulate the water lines and maybe wrap them with heat tape. Then the part I don't want to do, is fill the tank back up so in case I do need it again it's not all rusty and full of water. I just can't justify dropping almost a grand for what amounts to nothing. Not when I need $1300 with of septic tank risers, insulation, electrical work, and roof work done. By if I let it sit empty, condensation will kill the oil that's left and maybe the tank, leaving me a massive future bill.

If $10k could just fall into my lap...

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In other news, first mow of the year today. Need a battery for my tractor and to unberkeley the most ridiculous pto controls I've ever seen so that the blades will actually shut off. Had to use the excursion to jump start the tractor because it was wanting to spin the blades up too and my battery charger can't handle that much load.

Did the first garden till too. 

Two or three more passes and it should be good. I still want to get the guy with the big tractor tiller, or find a garden tractor with a tiller that isn't $3k, to make the garden a little bigger and do the spot where the pool is going to go. 

In reply to RevRico :

How much to rent a serious tiller?

In reply to John Welsh :

I pay $60 to have tilled ground redone, $120 for new spots to be made. Guy with a 20hp John Deere diesel and a 4ft tiller. Considering that means I don't need to buy a brake controller, rent a trailer with the machine, and tow it anywhere, I call it a fair price. 

Last local price on renting I saw was $80 for the day, for a rear tine smaller than the one I have. Or way too much to get a tractor with a 3 point tiller and a trailer.

I've wanted my own proper tractor for about 10 years. Sounds like we're replacing the wife's daily in the next couple years with something new, so maybe after the car payments are over I can spring for it. I need a backhoe in my life.

RevRico said:

In reply to John Welsh :

I pay $60 to have tilled ground redone, $120 for new spots to be made. Guy with a 20hp John Deere diesel and a 4ft tiller. Considering that means I don't need to buy a brake controller, rent a trailer with the machine, and tow it anywhere, I call it a fair price. 

Last local price on renting I saw was $80 for the day, for a rear tine smaller than the one I have. Or way too much to get a tractor with a 3 point tiller and a trailer.

I've wanted my own proper tractor for about 10 years. Sounds like we're replacing the wife's daily in the next couple years with something new, so maybe after the car payments are over I can spring for it. I need a backhoe in my life.

When we moved down here and I had to pay someone the equivalent of a monthly payment on a tractor to mow down my "fields" it quickly made up my mind to get a tractor.   3 years later Im not sure how I ever lived without it.   Sadly no backhoe attachment because I couldnt justify the cost for the few projects I need one for.  I do plan to rent a mini excavator when I get to those projects.   But a 6 ft mowing deck makes short work of 11 acres, a box blade to maintain the gravel drive (and create a new one when I had the shop built) and a post hole digger that I picked up cheap and used for when I eventually fence in some of this property for goats.  Thankfully Kubotas were 0% financing when I went shopping and as noted its still half as cheap as paying somone to do it.   I really wanted to go with an old used tractor at first but my wife reminded my of my mini tractor at the last house which I spent more time repairing than using and I decided to go the pain free route.  

Fine, if the garage door openers all want to be broken, I'll start looking at carriage doors. Can't fit cars in the garages anyway, and funny thing about a fully framed carriage door, NO GAPS FOR berkeleyING SNAKES TO GET IN THE GODDAMN HOUSE. 

Ready to sell everything and to be homeless in Hawaii or tell the wife to suck it up, layer up, and go to Alaska, where there are no snakes. 

I've come across more this year already than I have combined since we moved in. And before anyone starts, if they actually ate the berkeleying mice, I wouldn't have a mouse problem. 

On a positive note, Blackstone griddle is incoming, as is a shiny new cub cadet mower. So that's at least one less headache I'll need to deal with for a while.

In reply to RevRico :

Maybe need to grab one of those ~$150 Heritage 22lr revolvers and some snake shot?

In reply to AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) :

I keep a 357 loaded with alternating snake shot and hollow points on the tractor. Snake shot is only good until  they're about 4 feet long, after that, well I've been shopping .45/410 judges. 

Ricochet is Real problem in the garage, so I don't shoot them there, but by the time I find a shovel they're usually missing. Doesn't make me comfortable at all, but I've foamed all the gaps between the garage and the house so hopefully that keeps them out. 

I thought I mulched a snake the other day mowing, turned out to be a chunk of deck belt that got loose.

In reply to RevRico :

Yikes. That's one thing I don't want to deal with. Can't wait to get some property outside of town one day, preferably wooded, but I don't like snakes. 

The pear tree is coming back. I need to learn how to control it this time, if it produces. 

I got another mower. Doesn't berkeleying work either at the moment, but it came with a tiller that is about the same speed as the one I predator swapped. I'll keep it if it can break new ground, I'll sell it otherwise most likely. 

To be fair, it's starving for fuel currently. Might till faster when it can stay fueled. It's the International 1A with one extension. I wish it had both extensions so I could till both directions.

 started 72 seeds in this tray on saint Patrick's day. Just put the 22 plants that sprouted in the dirt.

Overall started 160 seeds this year, had 70 plants.

These in the tray were left over from last year, the other 90 were new this year for a friend, she got under 50 plants. 

Don't know what the deal is, did everything I normally do, just absolute E36 M3 sprouting. I guess on the plus side I have tons of extra space in the garden.

Rebuilt the carb, and switched the tractor from 3/8 to 1/4 inch fueling, and it seems happier. Not shutting off constantly. Float was definitely bad, gaskets were suspect. 

I have new blades coming on Monday. I'll pick the best 3 of the 5 to keep as a spare set, sharpen them up good and maybe alternate them every year. 

The whole block appeared to be smoking when I wa done. Internal oil levels are good, despite the wrong oil being in it. But the outside of the block and everything is filthy. I've never cleaned a motor before, but I'm thinking maybe my steam cleaner and simple green should work. Or just let it keep burning off.

Tilled everything that needed tilled with the old ariens rear tine. The predator swap really helps, it even broke new ground.

Which leaves me in a weird spot with the tiller for the cub. The deck subframe that needs to come off to run the pto belt is a royal pain to get on and off because it's a little bent. Swap takes 2 sets of hands and about an hour. With that hour I could already be done with the standalone rear tine. At the same time I have no clue what it's worth, and if I somehow came into another one of these I could just have dedicated task tractors. 

I'm still looking for an extension for it too, so that it tills wider than the tractor instead of 2/3 of the tractor. 

RevRico said:

 started 72 seeds in this tray on saint Patrick's day. Just put the 22 plants that sprouted in the dirt.

Overall started 160 seeds this year, had 70 plants.

These in the tray were left over from last year, the other 90 were new this year for a friend, she got under 50 plants. 

Don't know what the deal is, did everything I normally do, just absolute E36 M3 sprouting. I guess on the plus side I have tons of extra space in the garden.

We have a small collection of peppers and tomatoes in containers. The peppers are started from seeds. We've been doing this for a few years.

This year we used a warming pad to help the peppers germinate. Made a big difference. 

In reply to RandolphCarter :

I think what hurt my germination this year was that the oil boiler wasn't running and keeping the grow tent warm. The LEDs I use don't generate enough heat. 

I'm looking at another folding table for next year that I'll take a hole saw to so I can just drop cups into the table. Then I'll just stick a small heater in there. 

My garden looks like E36 M3. Tomatillo are going crazy, but nothing else is really growing, especially compared to John across the street. Oh well. 

 the watermelon are at least starting. Hopefully they'll get bigger than baseball sized this year. 

Downstairs bathroom fan has been replaced and upgraded slightly. Doubled the CFM, maybe that'll cut down on the steam build up. 

The E36 M3birds in the falling down house across the street are moving out and getting divorced. We're essentially passing a hat around the neighborhood to buy the house and tear it down. 

Old Cub is running like a dream now too. Still a strange cutting pattern, but the more I look at it, it looks like the tires more than the blades are causing the lines. I'll just keep adjusting my mowing until it looks alright. 

E36 M3birds aren't gone yet. Again, useless police won't take them in or do anything, so again, we're stuck with them until the next fight.

The weeds have overtaken my garden with a vengeance. Lesson learned, don't use the cheapest fabric you can find. I'm not running a garden next year I've decided. At harvest, after I mulch and till everything into the dirt, I'm going to tarp the whole thing and leave it covered. Hopefully next years summer sun bearing down on black plastic will kill everything and I can have a weed free garden. 

The carrots were deceiving. Huge stalks, way longer than they should have been in the ground, and they're the size of my pinky. 

Rain is killing us down here. I'm emptying both dehumidifier at least twice a day, and that's only in the basement. When we replace the AC, in addition to one with a heat pump I think I'm going to spring for a dehumidifier system too. 

At least the griddle is being awesome. 

The wife and son started the peppers from seeds this year. We used a warming pad for the first time this year and got much better germination.

Only have a few jalapeños so far. No peppers yet on the other plants.

Tomato plants we bought at a nursery and they're mostly dead.

Cilantro, dill, mint, and basil are all going great.

We have everything in half barrel planters so the bunnies don't eat it all.

If you actually want to harvest the pears keep the tree relatively short and bushy, so you can actually reach them.

When we bought our current house we had 3 MONSTER pear trees at the back of the property. They produced like crazy but I couldn't reach any of them. So they just fell off and I had these huge pears completely covering the back half of the lot. The bugs also got to the real bad. This year I started pruning the tall branches one at a time, with the drought and heat we've been having in texas I didn't want to lop them all off at once and kill the trees. My arborist told me it'd take a few years and to do it slowly but I could probably get them back to a reasonable height and the tree would be better for it since pear trees like to break when they get to tall and a super tall tree isn't great in drought.

I also found a bug spray which is safe to spray up to 1 day before harvest. I spray It 3 times a year. 

They also have fruit and nut tree fertilizer stakes you put around the tree that my pear and peach trees seem to be happy about.

When they start fruiting I cull about half of the fruit. I didn't get a harvest this year because of the crazy drought, but the pruning seems to have kept the trees relatively happy through these last few months with 100 degree days and almost no rainfall.

So loctite on carb screws, good idea or terrible idea?

Tractor was getting weird. Only wanted to run on half choke, then full choke. I berkeleyed with it today and the primary jet adjustment fixed it. Which makes me think it got loose somehow. Unless humidity is berkeleying with it.

Bought a new 800 series Bosch dishwasher today. Stupid house must have known I had a little money. Should be installed next week, mice got into the kitchenaid that came with the house.

So umm turns out you need to manually defrost 1950s technology more than once a year. I had to get the steamer to get to the control knob. It's emptying. 

got two of these as well, 200 way max Pyle waterproof speakers, and a 200 watt Bluetooth Pyle amp meant for a boat. Not the best sound, but it's outdoor music again. 

Opti said:

If you actually want to harvest the pears keep the tree relatively short and bushy, so you can actually reach them.

We found something like this at a local store - 
https://www.amazon.com/Home-X-Harvester-Cushion-Bruising-included/dp/B07B5DH32C

Ours was already pole mounted, but I bet it would work even better with en extendable pole like you use with pool equipment or paint rollers.

Bought the dishwasher August 29. Got installed September 15ish. Installer left it with an error code said "leave it unplugged for 15 minutes, plug it back in, hit the reset button, should be fine" two days later when they finally returned a call. Didn't work. Several more days went by and I was complaining to a friend about it, plugged it in, and it worked. Finally got a call back for the installer to come check it out, they'll be here October 10. 

Had it not started working on its own I would be berkeleying livid. I'm still going to make them pull it out, clean and inspect the switch, and possibly replace it. 

I don't like it. It doesn't dry for E36 M3, even on extra dry mode. The bottom rack is designed terribly and only holds half what the kitchenaid it replaced held. The "utensils" thing it came with doesn't actually fit with any utensils in it, and the silverware tray doesn't come out easily. For all I've heard about how great Bosch is, I'm very disappointed and now stuck with this thing until it dies. 

On the other hand, I got a text from Fasted58 a couple weeks back, and now have a chest freezer.

So huge thanks for that, it has made things much easier to sort through. Just moving stock making stuff, and big bagged stuff like meat pies, frozen fruit, chicken nuggets over to this one really helped the big freezer out. 

Got the septic cleaned out too. Dude that came to do it broke one of my tank lids, so I had to make new ones, because buying plastic risers is stupidly expensive.

So I made two New lids, with risers built in. Cut the bottom out of 5 gallon buckets with my jig saw, which gives them a nice hole to stick their stirring thing and hoses down, and gives me enough height that I shouldn't have to dig this up ever again. I even offset the hole for the main tank so can still reach the feed line or whatever from the house in case it gets clogged. It takes 6 buckets to get safely above grade, btw. The top buckets currently have E36 M3ty lids because of course the Gammo screw out lids were sold out while I was at Lowes. 

All these newer dishwashers dry like s*** probably to meet their Energy star rating.

Agent98 said:

All these newer dishwashers dry like s*** probably to meet their Energy star rating.

Wife and I got a new whirlpool dishwasher. Has three racks and a nice utensil basket 

Dishes are still dripping wet at the end of the cycle. We usually run it in the morning before we go to the gym. Then when it's done we open it and pull all the racks out when we leave for work. Dishes air dry by the time we're back.

Kids are off at college now so we're stuck putting everything away.

Dishwasher was swapped today and tested working when installer left. Woohoo?

For posterity sake, today I decided to change the wax ring on the upstairs toilet, it's been stinking and the wax ring has been sitting by the basement steps for a month. That meant I  replaced the rotted sanded plywood panels under the upstairs toilet with pressure treated plywood. Left the hardwood looking stuff that was questionable in place on the bottom. I then realized the plastic flange was at a 45 degree angle to the floor. The cast iron original flange is berkeleyed, but I got a plastic insert with rubber baffles to seal against the cast. 

4 hours, 2 trips to Lowes, trip to Ace, and about $150 later, and the wax ring is replaced and the toilet doesn't currently stink. 

Home ownership sucks, but it's cheaper than renting.