The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Senor_Taylor]

septic system

sorry, does this mean public water or septic field? if its the latter definitely have someone assess the condition of the tanks and drainage. its amazing the amount of havoc water can do when its not going where its supposed to

Septic tank and fill lines, no sewer. That will be contingent in our offer, should we make one. Make sure all the hookups are still in good condition and make sure the septic tank and lines are still usable.

Also definitely get your tank and drain field checked for

1) How full it is

2) How many "people" it can hold. Regardless of how many people may be living in the house, I know you can run into problems with the house having too many rooms for the septic system and you run into issues. I guess only to really worry if you're building more rooms than the previous house had.

[JustinG]

A few years from now I want to do a mini split in the garage, but until then, how are you guys cooling your garages while out there?

With the bay door and the back pedestrian door open we get an ok cross breeze, but just curious what others may be using.

Floor Fans, Pedestal Fan, Wall Mount, Ceiling?

[ViPER1313]

I have an exhaust fan that I sit in the crawl through hole - basically the equivalent of a whole house fan. Works pretty well.

[davej]

I had picked up one of these things a couple years ago when it was on sale.
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It does well enough to take the edge off the heat and humidity in the summer, and the chill in the winter. Probably too small of a unit for the cubic feet with the high ceilings, but it does alright. I would like to put a large fan in the ceiling at some point to help with air circulation, but for now I've got a little shop fan blowing from the corner.

[ScottyB]

2 cheapy 20" box fans that sit on the floor. great for banging around and they do move some air, but it doesn't really take the edge off the heat. more to just keep the mosquitoes from finding you.

[JPolen01]

Seen this on Facebook a while ago. Pretty cool if you're in a decent climate for the summer.
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[Apoc]

how are you guys cooling your garages while out there?

I moved to the PNW.

[JustinG]

how are you guys cooling your garages while out there?

I moved to the PNW.

This option may be slightly more expensive than a couple of box fans.

[Beej]

mini split in the garage

Not to sound like a spoiled brat, but...if you're thinking of going this route anyway, you'll be happy if you do it sooner rather than later. I have one in a well insulated garage; it's so fucking civilized and an absolute game changer when you're spending hours in there.

[Apoc]

how are you guys cooling your garages while out there?

I moved to the PNW.

This option may be slightly more expensive than a couple of box fans.

Not if someone else pays for it!

[Apoc]

My wife insisted we put cherry trees in our planting strip two years ago and they have been a pain in my ass since then. We get almost no rain for three months during the summer and we're on a ridge so these things get sun ~14 hours/day. I've tried tree bags and sprinklers, but they're a pain in the ass in their own special way - mostly unwinding and winding a hose. I also looked into a sprinkler system for the whole yard, but we're talking $6000 to do it "right." By comparison, we had one installed in our Ashburn house about 10 years ago and that cost $1200.

Our trees are already looking a bit dry, so I picked up some of these root watering things. There's a vented spike you can permanently install at the tree base and you mount a five gallon bucket on top; the water slowly draining over 5-8 hours (similar to tree bags). I already like these more because I can fill one bucket at the spigot and easily pour it into the other two buckets. I carried the third bucket with the plug provided in the hole in the bucket and just crammed it on the spike, pushing the plug out. So far the seals are watertight and I left them to drain overnight, with the lids on to prevent debris. Once drained, I can just remove the buckets and store them. The directions say one bucket a week for established trees is good. I'll report back in a month or so about how they work out.

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[WRXtranceformed]

Nice, I was gonna say the downside is you have buckets in your front lawn but if you only need 5-8 hours out of them you could just put them out at night and pick them up in the morning. We are having the exact opposite problem with our trees; we have gotten so much rain over the last few months that they are actually overwatering and browning on the inside. unfortunately I don't think there's really much I can do to stop it, the Lelands seem to be growing like crazy anyway

[JPolen01]

I'm surprised that is even your property. I guess it is different than neighborhoods around here where you have to mow the strip between the sidewalk and street, but it doesn't actually belong to you.

I think the buckets are tacky, but gotta do what ya gotta do.

[Apoc]

I'm surprised that is even your property. I guess it is different than neighborhoods around here where you have to mow the strip between the sidewalk and street, but it doesn't actually belong to you.

I think the buckets are tacky, but gotta do what ya gotta do.

That parking strip belongs to the city, but property owners are responsible for planting, maintenance, etc. I think I was supposed to get a permit to put trees there, but whatever.

I pulled the buckets this morning, so they were only there from 7 pm til 7 am.

[ScottyB]

i hate sounding like "that guy" but i officially have a phantom dog shitter problem.

at first i didn't care..."oh someone forgot their baggies"...until it kept coming. this isn't little toy dog poops, i'm talking healthy child sized turd mountains, and its gone from never a problem to now piles of this stuff in like the last 10 days. about 2 feet into my grass along a 10 foot strip.

my house is right on an intersection in our subdivision that gets a lot of sidewalk traffic. i don't have surveillance to confirm who it is and i'm on good terms with my neighbors, or most people on the street who have big dogs, so i think its someone from another street who's just walking the dogs at odd hours and thinks he/she can get away with being an asshole to people they don't know and get away with it. as it turns out, in talking recently my neighbor across the street is dealing with it too. so, somebody's dog just can't make it past our street without unloading a loaf it seems.

i have to mow like every 4 days (thanks SE climate and bermuda grass) and my kid plays in the yard so this isn't just offensive, its getting in the way of me keeping the house up and unhealthy for my child and my neighbor's kids. for now i'm kicking it all into the sidewalk, because i'm not picking it up on principal.

i'm oddly divided. on one hand, i'm getting madder by the day. on the other hand, i'm a vengeful son of a bitch when it comes to people messing with what i try to keep nice, and i'm excited at the idea of devising a way to make the person responsible unhappy or uncomfortable. the HOA won't do a thing, because how could they, so i'm fixing this myself. i'm not dropping $$$ on a surveillance camera for that side of my house over some poop yet, and motion sprinklers are out due to the danger of a false alarm and soaking some poor jogger or kid since its right next to the sidewalk.

current plan: i heard this on the internet ( :lol: my search history must look so weird right now) and have to see if it works: i'm going to cook a shitload of bacon and save the grease. then, i'm going to pour the grease all over the current turd piles. apparently, the next time the dogs come back to the same spot, they'll smell the bacon and immediately devour the shits. shortly thereafter, hopefully when they get home, they'll get sick and throw the shit back up on the floor of said asshole's house. and i get to enjoy revenge-bacon.

we're doing a grocery run tonight, so let's see what 2 packs of Oscar Meyer's finest pig juices does. tune in to find out! same poopy time, same poopy channel.

[JPolen01]

I like the idea because I think revenge is usually hilarious. But how are they going to know it was you that caused this? I'd go passive aggressive with signs in the yard for a few days.

[ScottyB]

i don't care if they know it was me, i just hope they put 2 and 2 together, i.e., every time i let my dog take a dump in ScottyB's yard, my dogs come home and throw up poop onto my rug.

i thought about the signs too. something like "oh hey there neighbor, saw you forgot your baggies a couple times. here's some so you can start cleaning up" with a couple ziplocs paperclipped to the sign. not as fun though, and i have a feeling it'll last only as long as my baggie handouts do. if someone's inconsiderate enough to leave the amount of poop in my yard that they have, i doubt a bag is going to change their habits.

[Ken]

i don't care if they know it was me, i just hope they put 2 and 2 together, i.e., every time i let my dog take a dump in ScottyB's yard, my dogs come home and throw up poop onto my rug.

i thought about the signs too. something like "oh hey there neighbor, saw you forgot your baggies a couple times. here's some so you can start cleaning up" with a couple ziplocs paperclipped to the sign. not as fun though, and i have a feeling it'll last only as long as my baggie handouts do. if someone's inconsiderate enough to leave the amount of poop in my yard that they have, i doubt a bag is going to change their habits.

Totally agree that this is obnoxious as hell. I always make sure to have doggy bags on me and always try to keep my dog off people's lawns, even if she is just taking a piss.

Idk though, maybe i'm too sensitive to dogs/animals but, seems somewhat cruel to punish the dog (vomiting) for something his shithead owner is doing - the dog doesn't know any better. Just my two cents. Not to mention if the owner is paying even a split second worth of attention it's not that hard to prevent your dog from eating something.

Try the sign and state on it that you will be recording from after the sign is posted, even if you're lying, that should work. Maybe even get one of those decoy cameras to really sell the idea https://www.amazon.com/WALI-Surveillance...ke+Cameras

[ScottyB]

yeah, i truly don't want to hurt the dogs. its not their fault their owner's a douche. looking back at my original post i think i just completely forgot that and came across pretty uncaring.

dogs tend to eat poop anyway (every dog we've had has done it) so i figured it was pretty harmless. aside from the sign (which i'll try), outside of dropping some $$ or staking out and watching (which i don't have time for) i'm not sure of any other way its going to make someone stop, which is all i ask.

[Ken]

yeah, i truly don't want to hurt the dogs. its not their fault their owner's a douche. looking back at my original post i think i just completely forgot that and came across pretty uncaring.

dogs tend to eat poop anyway (every dog we've had has done it) so i figured it was pretty harmless. aside from the sign (which i'll try), outside of dropping some $$ or staking out and watching (which i don't have time for) i'm not sure of any other way its going to make someone stop, which is all i ask.

No worries, I assumed that was the case. I definitely get how annoying/upsetting that would be to deal with.

If it helps, one of the reviews on Amazon for that dummy camera specifically mentioned using this for a neighbor who kept letting their dog defecate on their lawn and it worked, lol.