twelvepoint wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 8:54 am Also, I'm pretty sure you would know what the hell your house is made of, but here in New England that siding, if it's older, is commonly made with asbestos and generally regarded as safe unless you take a saw to it or snap pieces.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure most of this house is sheathed in old concrete asbestos tile, but I think the pile of planks I (luckily) found in the basement might be modern equivalents. It seems to be more of a white dust instead of the grey/black flakes I see in photos, but since I'm not 100% I'm very careful with it.

zircona1 wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:17 pm

My theory is that we didn't change the water filter when we were supposed to, we've had this fridge for over 2 years and never changed it once until this problem started.

no, samsung ice makers just suck.

penningtron wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 8:46 am I could use some advice: I've been patching up this area that was formerly a wooden deck (now concrete steps and porch) and am left with these gaps. The cement siding is too brittle to cut with any sort of precision (for me at least) and I don't think the pieces are quite big enough to cover the area anyway.

Options I've come up with:

• finding a bigger piece of vinyl siding and trying to cut it to this shape.
• getting thin wood strips to go around the outline of the steps.

It will all be painted a color that hasn't been determined yet. Do you have any better ideas?

Cement backer with a tile design or mosaic. Glue/cement it to the frame or use the backer screws designed for them. Should be able to get all of it at any local kinda chain or mom and pop place. Little kinda weirdo accent.

penningtron wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:25 pm

cakes wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 11:13 am The storm in Chicago flooded my basement with sewage. Not a ton, but still enough to be awful, disgusting and cost $$$$. Anyway, what appeared to be a little damage is turning into a huge house project. First, gonna make sure sewage never comes back in again. That means we gotta dig into the foundation. What? Sure, new tile floor, the old one sucked and was uncomfortable. While we're there, we got one shot to add drainage tile and really wrap up water mitigation as much as possible. With the walls opened up, let's re-imagine the space. The cost is going up higher than expected. Now, my biggest problem is finding funding. There's no turning back now, cuz there's no bad investment like waiting for the next disaster to upend your life.

The bright side is, the flooding happening Sunday. We were already demoing with a contractor on Monday and we had the plumber in this morning to come up with a plan for sewage rerouting.

Dang, sorry to hear that. Are you in that same Christiana place? (I think that was the street, I even lived on it but can't totally remember haha). Another bright side is if you're already going that far, you can maybe build out the music space of your dreams.

I sold that in 2020. Actually lived 1 block from your old apartment. I walked by it often. I live 1 mile northwest down Elston now, in Mayfair.

We've been moving the rest of our basement into our garage. All waste from demo is in our backyard. Our garden is fucked. Plus, the rain has displaced a bunch of rats, who are now digging into our yard. The trash makes for a good home. On top of it, my neighbor across the alley paid off the city arborists who were trimming around power lines to cut down his next door neighbors mullberry trees that hang over his alley driveway. So now the rats are looking for new food sources. It's a total shit show with the rats right now... I just hope they don't get into my garage and chew through all the shit in it from the basement.

motorbike guy wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 9:46 am

zircona1 wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:17 pm

My theory is that we didn't change the water filter when we were supposed to, we've had this fridge for over 2 years and never changed it once until this problem started.

no, samsung ice makers just suck.

And I called Samsung yesterday to learn that yup, our warranty was up 1 year ago and they can't cover the cost of fixing it. Wheeeee!!!

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 10:22 pm Cement backer with a tile design or mosaic. Glue/cement it to the frame or use the backer screws designed for them. Should be able to get all of it at any local kinda chain or mom and pop place. Little kinda weirdo accent.

Thanks, though I wonder if that's any easier to cut with precision than the cement fiber boards. Or maybe you had tiny tiles in mind? Will investigate.

cakes wrote: I sold that in 2020. Actually lived 1 block from your old apartment. I walked by it often. I live 1 mile northwest down Elston now, in Mayfair.

Ah, that's a little west of where I eventually ended up in East Albany Park. It's a nice area, but proximity to that river means the potential for basement water is real. The work you're going thru now sucks but at least you're doing it, and it shouldn't be an ongoing lingering threat.

Yeah, the tiny mosaic tiles are what I had in mind unless there's something that's already close to the height you need that won't require a tile saw. It's really pretty easy if you're careful. I've done a couple of bathroom and kitchen projects myself and and with decent research and care you can get a pro look. Especially in that space.

Update on my basement. We have to move out of our house for at least 2 weeks. Check this: as demo was happening, we found that the concrete slab was really just a 1inch layer of rock to hold some tile down. So, now we have to move everything--including disassembling the HVAC--out of the basement. The good news? The cost of a new slab might be eaten by the fact that the plumber doesn't need to cut into concrete.

I mean, I'm trying to remain positive. On the plus side, we might be really avoiding a much larger disaster down the pike... Imagine, the 100 year old sewer pipe bursting or climate change increasing the water table... Our basement would be effed, just a pool. At least now we'll have a real slab, waterproofed as much as possible... Oh and radon mitigation so we can avoid the possibility of lung cancer in 30 years.

Anyway, homeownership has it's challenges. Still worth it, rather than the alternative of pissing money away towards someone else's mortgage.

cakes wrote: Update on my basement. We have to move out of our house for at least 2 weeks. Check this: as demo was happening, we found that the concrete slab was really just a 1inch layer of rock to hold some tile down. So, now we have to move everything--including disassembling the HVAC--out of the basement. The good news? The cost of a new slab might be eaten by the fact that the plumber doesn't need to cut into concrete.

I mean, I'm trying to remain positive. On the plus side, we might be really avoiding a much larger disaster down the pike... Imagine, the 100 year old sewer pipe bursting or climate change increasing the water table... Our basement would be effed, just a pool. At least now we'll have a real slab, waterproofed as much as possible... Oh and radon mitigation so we can avoid the possibility of lung cancer in 30 years.

Anyway, homeownership has it's challenges. Still worth it, rather than the alternative of pissing money away towards someone else's mortgage.

Fun!

Our house had seepage when we bought it. Previous owner hid it from us, pretty sure. $20k or so to get drain tile and two sumps (one inside, one outside) installed.

The good news is...it has been bone dry ever since. Through some pretty massive storms. Every house in our hood has a manhole cover in the lawn or else a big pile of ruined carpet/boxes/furniture after a heavy rain.

zircona1 wrote: And I called Samsung yesterday to learn that yup, our warranty was up 1 year ago and they can't cover the cost of fixing it. Wheeeee!!!

Samsung is trash.

They stuck me with a shitty DLP TV that sucked, and I swore I'd never buy another one of their products.

Then I got weak and bought one of their shitty fridges. The water dispenser and ice thing were defective out of the box, and I a) cursed myself for being weak and b) returned the piece of junk after two days for a KitchenAid.

The KitchenAid was also a piece of junk that sucked and broke a lot for a year and a half. Was still under warranty...and evidently the subject of a class action suit. It had a funny flaw where they'd put a control circuit board on the top edge of a middle drawer thing that was right under the ice/water dispenser. Oops. Best Buy just gave us credit for full replacement cost, since they did not want to f with it.

We ended up getting a Cafe, which is GE's line of fancy shit. I did a bunch of research and it a) has rather little computer shit in it and b) has had few grievous complaints. It just seemed like it was less likely to suck based on the reviews etc. Also plumped for extra warranty. It's been fine after a year or two or three, however long it's been.

I do not screw around with part-time appliance stores or cheap-ass places anymore. We just go to Abt. Customer service is pretty good, and they'll basically tell you what is what. Also will match any price. We have a guy there now we like if you want his name.

I'm trying to replace the faucet in my main bathroom. It's all SUPER easy, except I can't reach the water supply connection just under the sink where the connection hits the faucet. I can feel it, but I can't get a wrench in there.

I'm gonna have pay a plumber a couple hundred dollars to loosen a simple hex fitting that I can't reach, aren't I?

EDIT: Just grabbed one of these https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Basin ... /304217758