In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1008127
PAGE 22 of 116
Quote:You might want to ask a RE agent about that. Here in CA you're required to disclose known defects (but of course there may be unknown defects.) OTOH there's probably a way of selling a house "as is", so it might be a tossup if the porch is a "feature" or a "bug". Expert advice might be useful!
Maybe at that point, I'll at least tear down the porch since I can't afford to rebuild it or even stabilize it in any meaningful way that wouldn't potentially leave me open to legal action after selling the thing.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:You might want to ask a RE agent about that. Here in CA you're required to disclose known defects (but of course there may be unknown defects.) OTOH there's probably a way of selling a house "as is", so it might be a tossup if the porch is a "feature" or a "bug". Expert advice might be useful!
Maybe at that point, I'll at least tear down the porch since I can't afford to rebuild it or even stabilize it in any meaningful way that wouldn't potentially leave me open to legal action after selling the thing.
Yeah. I don't know if I'd trust what one of the "experts" said even if they told me it was alright.
Both family and a friend told me that I should just fix up the porch, cover everything up tight and pretend like I didn't know any better. Because, it's not as if I knew how bad the situation was when I bought it.
Not only is that pretty shady, but I just can't imagine I wouldn't possibly be held liable if something bad were to happen. I bought the house as a foreclosure/rehab with flood damage. I could just play dumb. But I don't trust my own mouth when heat comes down. I'm not a good liar. That's also putting a lot of trust in other people not to say anything either.
So I've decided my only two options are selling it as-is with the porch floor open, or tearing down the porch, filling in the hole and re-siding the house before I sell it.
For sure I will be getting the advice of an agent or two on that before I make the decision.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Jack!
Just breathe. The house is still an asset.
I know in your situation you can't see fixing it up. Though because I think, long-term, it would be completely doable, it's kind of a shame you're in such a hurry. Be that as it may ...
Houses are sold all the time as 'fixer-uppers'. Like Signy, I do think you need to talk w/ a realtor who knows the applicable laws for known (and unknown) issues.
And I agree, you need to talk with someone who can give you some starting figures, and maybe run a few options by - what would it mean if I did this ... or that. Generally though, I think if you're to going to sell a place as not immediately livable, it's not much use putting a lot of money in. People who want to fix a place up want to put their own stamp on it. Also, clean and tidy is cheap and goes a long way.
Does it have any particularly attractive features? Is it a nice style people would like? It might be worth fixing up one room to be particularly attractive - paint, elbow grease, curtains, and so on - to give people an idea how NICE it could be, to sell them on the future. I know someone who did that with a Victorian(?) with serious structural issues, and it worked! A young couple - apparently with money to burn - fell in love with the house on the strength of one room made to be really pleasant looking, and bought it for a good sum.
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I did that with a house we wanted to seel. There was nothing SERIOUSLY wrong with the house... but the previous owners did a terrible job on the bathroom, kitchen, and one bedroom. I pcked the ugliest room, whihc happened to be the bedroom, and ..
Well, imgaine rust red and mustard brown as the dominatn colors. Wlls and celing: mustard brown. Trim and doors: rust red. Carpeting: mustard brown and rust red outdoor carpet squares.
I fixed the water damage in the (plaster) crown molding, The window trim looked ... lumpy. I was afraid of what I might find under it, but I gritted my teeth and got out the paint stripper, and underneath was beautifully-detailed trim in pristine condition. I painted it white. I stripped the doors ... and underneath the painted doorknobs and plates was crystal and brass. The doors. ceiling, and trim were also painted white. The walls were a lovely sky blue. I stripped off the horrible capreting and cleaned the wood fllors and threw down an oriental-style rug, in pale blueand gold (on sale fromm Sears!) and the room became a picture of loveliness.
The dad of the family that bought it told me that that room sold the house.
Hmmm... I wonder if you could "stage" a room?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Oh, and I'm sorry to go on and on ... get some el cheapo lead-test kits, and check wherever you're going to do stripping and/or sanding. I think the age of your house puts it beyond lead paint, but it never hurts to check.
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If I put up trim, window frames and closet doors, I have two bedrooms that are re-done. I resurfaced the hardwood floors and they're beautiful. I fixed a few very large cracks in the ceiling nearly 8 years ago now and they still hold up. I re-painted the rooms using $60 a gallon Benjamin Moore Aura paint that is a matte finish that is washable with soap and water without leaving stains.
Additionally, the walls were really bad because there was, no joke, around 15 layers of paint on them. The reason I knew this is because there was a large bump on the wall in the small bedroom and when I sanded it down it looked like rings of a tree with all the different colors. Walls had some minor cracks and were far from smooth since anybody painting didn't know how or didn't give squat about preparing the walls first.
I'm a perfectionist. They were completely flat before I painted them. They still look as good as they did the day that I painted them (minus 3 holes in the wall for paintings I wish I had never hung up now since I'm fairly sure the small amount of paint I had left over isn't good anymore.
Out in the hallway, I put a hole in the wall that gives access to the relevant area you'd need to do any work on the shower from behind. This would allow the future owners to get to it without having to tear down the shower kit in there now (or a tiled shower if they really upgraded the bathroom. After doing some research, and using the Benjamin Moore Aura paint, the access panel I have there blends completely into the wall and after a year or so I have forgotten that it is even there. The paint may chip a bit now since I don't have A/C in the summer and it's probably been 7 years since I've used it, but it looks great and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than destroying the bathroom to get access.
I also extended the electric junction box at the top of the stairs to the second floor closer to the 1st floor to hang a chandalier in the center of the "box" that is formed in that stairwell beneath a high point in the attic.
I just never bothered putting trim or the closet doors back up. 
I should try digging up some of the old pics. I don't know if whatever site I hosted them on to originally post them here years back is even still around anymore, but they might still be up here.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Well... Here's some depressing old pics.
This is NOT what my porch and raised garden look like today.
Never used the raised garden after the first year, and it's just been a bed of weeds ever since. I actually tore down the conduit backing I had up there with the nets since I shredded the net on the bottom over the years with the mower and I decided I wanted to actually be able to cut the grass all around it.
The good thing about possibly sticking around long enough to tear out the old patio and put rocks down instead is that I'll have one more layer of patio pavers to build it up. That would actually give somebody clearance to mow underneath the damn thing.
Talk about bad engineering because I was too cheap to buy 10 more bricks. But to be fair, with all the dead grass around it I was originally able to mow underneath it.
Don't even get me started on what the ants did to that patio....
Or what my idiot neighbor let happen to that wooden fence in the back. At least the lawn isn't 4 damn feet high back there anymore. I'm sure he doesn't live there anymore. I don't know if the bank owns it now or what.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Here's what my kitchen looked like when I bought it.
I didn't do much to fix it, actually. Just pulled down that horrible border and painted it all white.
Here's a pic of the finished floors and walls. You'll note that none of the trim is back up, and still isn't to this day. Most of it had to be thrown out since it was original junk and painted over a dozen and a half times.
Oh... some before pics of the ceiling and after pics...
(Note, the ceiling didn't look THAT bad when I started. That's all part of the process of fixing it up the right way and the reason why there are still no cracks to this day (even more amazing still with the obvious settling the house has been going through in recent years).
For some reason, I have two layers of sheetrock on every original wall and ceiling of the house. One of them is a concrete wall as well. So those screws holding in the ceiling at the splits to keep the crack from coming back are 2 1/2" drywall screws. It's the only time I've ever had to use drywall screws that long in my life.
Bathroom shower access before/after:
Oh... and the switch for the overhead light inside this room was an addition by me. When I first bought the house, it was outside of the room (because the room had been expanded at some point and nobody bothered to put the light switch in the room where it belongs I guess. I know I have pics of the process somewhere if I can find them. 
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Gotta start getting ready to go out...
Taking a trip to the hardware store. I've got some lumber to buy and a new step to build for my front door access.
Hoping I can fix the larger step by just replacing the legs and not having to build an entire new one. It's in much better shape than the lower step was in.
I'll take pics.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey...
Maybe Wishy can bury the hatchet and post in here too?
Got a bit nostalgic looking back at those old threads and regularly talking with JO, Wishy, Frem and Rionaeire.
Anybody ever talk to Rionaeire? She was a real sweetie. I hope life is going well for her.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Jack
THANKS!! for the pix!
I thought Rionaeire had a progressive genetic eye disease and was, sad to say, going blind. Last I knew, computer work was getting really hard for her.
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That's so sad about Rionaeire. :( Hope she's coping with it.
Yeah. I was surprised all of those pics were still up there. There is more, but I didn't have time to sort through them all.
Got a lot done today, but I'm beat. Picked up all the lumber I needed for the step and got a bit of a deal by buying some pre-cut stuff. They didn't have any for the 4x4's though, and the ones I had were kind of shoddy so I bought new.
Finally got to use my miter saw my step-dad gave me when they moved. :)
Cut everything to size, then I took the time to sand all of the sides and even round off every single edge by hand. My back actually is hurting me now. I must have overused muscles I wasn't working out while at the old job or something.
It really looks great. I took some pics of the building blocks I'm working with as I was letting them bake and dry out in the sun. Might give it one more day of drying out before I primer them.
My plan is to primer each piece individually, then build the thing and throw another coat of primer on, then when it's ready I'll put the finish coat on. Between the rounded edges and three coats of quality paint, I don't imagine the ants are going to be living inside of this one anytime soon, even if the gutters don't get replaced right away. :)
I put the thing together without screwing anything down and just stood on it and even not secured it's built like a tank and doesn't wobble in the slightest.
Pretty proud of myself on this one. I'm not a woodworker, and although it's interested me as a potential hobby I've never really done anything with wood that wasn't rough cuts that would be hidden behind walls before.
It took me quite a long time to get what I got done today, but it's going to look great when it's done.
I've got pics, but I don't know when I'll get around to uploading them. I think I'm going to shut my brain off for the rest of the night and relax.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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How's your brother doing Brenda?
Sorry, I've been way too self involved recently and haven't expressed my concern about it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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The plan today...
If my boards for the steps are dry enough, I'm going to be putting the primer coat on before I put them together and before the second primer coat goes on.
And, weather permitting, I am going to also primer the columns on my front porch, the minor bits of exposed sub-facia under the shingles in front of the house where gutters *should* be, and primer this really cute piece of furniture I've had for years that has hearts etched in the side of it that I've wanted to do something with for my niece.
I'm going to have to look around and see if there is anything else I wanted to start up so I can kill a whole bunch of birds at once. Nothing comes to mind at the moment, but since this is only the first coat on the stairs I'll have another opportunity later this week.
Not sure when I'll get them up, but I'll take pics along the way.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Beautiful sunny day here today.
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Hey SIX, pix of your house make me nostalgiac for my hometown (pop 25,000) They don't look exactly alike, but close enuf that I would feel right at home there. *sigh*
Your house looks quite nice. Since you've been posting about all of the problems, I wasn't sure what to expect but your description didn't do justice to the 95% good. I really like that access panel idea, we were thinking of doing that to our own shower fixtures. How did you place it into the wall? Is it clips of some sort?
Seems like being young(er), fitter, and far more muscular than me, you're able to tackle and complete much bigger projects than I would even envision. I usually can only put in three hours of effort on days when schedule allows (when doctors appointments or other significant errands don't interfere) and then only small things like painting and cleanup and moving things around (with help). Demolition and construction? FUGGEDABOUDIT! I wish I had your energy!
BTW... your prepwork is awesome. When I painted our bedroom I got an up-close view of the walls and trim and decided the NEXT paint job would be preceded by a much MUCH better prepwork! I never really took close notice of the walls, and my so-so eyes let me not see a bunch of defects. Well, live and learn! My plans for the day: walk the dog, see the doctor, move an old bookcase out of the hallway and move over a metal shelving unit that will be set up as a "mudroom" catchall for shoes, phones, shopping bags, purses etc with hooks for umbrellas, dog leashes, hats etc. It's just a(nother) temporary setup that will make the house more functional. I hope to get rid of that bookcase and if thise setup comes close to working out it may be replaced by actual cabinetry.
Which reminds me, better call St Vicent de Paul, I have a couple of boxes of items to give away.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Just started reading Robert Clary's autobiography today. He played Louis LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes. The way he writes sounds just like Louis talking.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hey SIX, pix of your house make me nostalgiac for my hometown (pop 25,000) They don't look exactly alike, but close enuf that I would feel right at home there. *sigh*
Yeah. Smaller population around here too, although it's surrounded by suburbs everywhere and close to Chicago subs in Illinois so it's not as if there aren't a ton of people everywhere. At least it's a nice quiet block and all the neighbors are nice.
Quote:
Your house looks quite nice. Since you've been posting about all of the problems, I wasn't sure what to expect but your description didn't do justice to the 95% good. I really like that access panel idea, we were thinking of doing that to our own shower fixtures. How did you place it into the wall? Is it clips of some sort?
Thanks! The inside itself looks nice, but that doesn't really matter if it's not structurally sound. I think I've figured out potentially why the roof is doing what it is, but it's not good news and it's not a very easy fix. I've got some thinking to do here.
I bought a kit for that access panel. I'm just going off memory aided by the picture for it, but I believe that the bulk of it was just a hollow square that was placed inside of the wall after the hole was cut, with the flat end right up against the inside of the wall and the protrusion sticking out as far as the drywall on the outside of the hole. Then I would have cut away enough to get a good deal of mud inside everything, sanded it flat and painted over it. The panel itself was designed to be painted on and isn't just flat plastic that paint would easily fall off of. I'm sure I painted that somewhere else and let it dry for about a week before I put it in. Otherwise if I just used a roller over the whole thing it surely would rip paint off the first time I opened it. It was tested a few times to see if it worked good without ruining the paint job and it was fine. I had already fixed my problems before installing it and I never had another problem since though, so I've never actually used it in years. Nice for piece of mind though.
Quote:
Seems like being young(er), fitter, and far more muscular than me, you're able to tackle and complete much bigger projects than I would even envision. I usually can only put in three hours of effort on days when schedule allows (when doctors appointments or other significant errands don't interfere) and then only small things like painting and cleanup and moving things around (with help). Demolition and construction? FUGGEDABOUDIT! I wish I had your energy!
Yeah... I hear ya. There is no way I would have been able to do half of what I've done if I was still in terrible shape. It's still not as easy as it was when I first bought the house too...
My main problem is staying motivated and not being crushed. I found out two more things about my house yesterday that made me throw my hands up in disgust and almost fall back into panic mode. I'm trying not to get scared again.
The racoon is back or never left in the first place. It has been weeks since I heard it, but yesterday as I was fixing some rotted facia (a long story I don't want to get into right now), I heard it over the soffits of that porch. I went up into the attic of the porch (somehting I haven't done in more than a month, and the smell almost made me faint and fall back down the stairs. It's a dutch oven up there at easily over 100 degrees on these hot summer days and the stench was unbearable. There is SHIT EVERYWHERE! Smells like a goddamned zoo up there, and these turds are worthy of a small-to-midsize dog.
I had always assumed that at least mama racoon was going somewhere else to shit, but apparently she doesn't mind shitting where she sleeps and eats. Nasty vermin.
I'm going to figure out how to make ammonia bombs and throw them everywhere up there. That porch has to go. I'm not qualified to fix it
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
How's your brother doing Brenda?
Sorry, I've been way too self involved recently and haven't expressed my concern about it.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
As far as I know he is doing okay. He was transferred to a hospital in the city he lives in. His wife said that his left leg is getting stronger. Still not sure how long he will be in the hospital.
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Rained last night.
On the flip side this thing is giving me trouble today. Think it has about had it.
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Also off to the chiropractor I go.
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Good to hear it sounds like your brother is doing well Brenda :)
No rain today. Yay! It's been about 10 days without rain now. That's what I've literally been praying for and looks like there isn't much if any in the forecast. Just about 20% chance the next 10 days.
HUGE difference, as far as ant activity. May they all dehydrate and die.
Managed to put a second coat of primer on the existing facia and the two pillars. From the street, everything looks great now. Hell... from up close it looks pretty good too. You'd really have to have a trained eye to tell that something is amiss.
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.
I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.
Put two coats of primer on my steps today too. I still haven't built them. I may even put a third coat on after they're built to seal it all in together, then put two coats of the finish on there. That ought to seal it all in nice.
This attic is falling apart. I'm going to have to figure out something to prop that front porch overhang and build new supports, or if I'm lucky, the existing pillars are long enough to put new anchors through at a higher point.
I might have to bite the bullet and get the city involved and get some legit advice at some point. From the street everything still looks fine, but I don't know how long that's going to last. I don't know why everything seems to be falling apart at the same time so quickly.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Thanks Jack. Yeah, he seems to be doing okay.
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Wire, wire, wire. All I need is a little bit of wire to finish doing up my dad's metals in a shadow box then I can hang them up.
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If mama racoon was up there today, she didn't make a peep while I was stomping around. That's the first time I went fully up there. I was really tentative at first. I had full jeans on, but I had to do it shirtless since it's easily over 100 degrees up there. I was drenched after my 2nd shower of the day. :(
I didn't exactly know how to make an "ammonia bomb", and putting that search into Google gave a bunch of hits to websites that I didn't feel comfortable popping up. I'm probably on a damn watch list now. 
So I had a 10 pack of plastic tumblers I bought at the dollar store too. I filled them all up and put them at various places all around the porch attic. I also found two old crappy rags, soaked them, then draped them over the area I knew the racoon used to get into the house attic in an attempt to keep her from relocating in the house again.
Then I poured a bunch of it all over her shit piles. Thought twice about just whipping it out and officially marking my territory...
For now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Gorram Ants...
$20 of Lumber
Built like a tank, and smooth as hell...
This isn't actually screwed together or anything yet. I just Lincoln-Logged them together to see what it would look like and stood on them. Rock solid and didn't wobble in the slightest.
I'll have to get pics of the primered pieces, and then I'll take pics of it when I put it together, paint it, etc.
I'm super proud of this. I've never really built anything out of wood since a wood shop class in high school. Only really did rough carpentry hidden behind walls since then.
I joked with my mom today that if the house caves in and I have to sell the land as-is, I'm taking these damn steps with me when I go.
I'd actually kind of like building the larger 2nd step with the hand rail from scratch instead of just making new legs for it since it's so shitty compared to mine. Unfortunately, money is kind of an issue now and I've got better things to spend it on at the moment...
Maybe I'll see if I can't take the old one apart. If the integrity is still there like I suspect it is beyond two of the legs that have gone to the wild, maybe I can take my time and do it all the right way with the existing lumber instead of just half assing it with a paint job.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Really late start for the day for me, unfortunately. I was exhausted after working out in the 95 degree heat all day, but I couldn't seem to get any real amount of sleep for some reason. It's 20 degrees cooler for the high today and I've already squandered the morning. Oh well...
I think I'm going to put those stairs together and put the finish coat on the columns and the exposed facia today. At least get a coat of primer on the stairs or maybe even the first coat of actual paint too...
I've got to find a countersink bit. Hope I've got one in either my go-to drill bit set or one I've yet to open. I know I have one somewhere, but if neither of those sets contain one I have no clue where it is. I really need to start getting all of my tools organized now that I'm clearing out all of this space.
I'll have more pics later hopefully.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hrmmmmmm...
Hindsight being 20/20, I kind of wish I put all the pilot holes in the wood before I primered it. Oh well...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Guess I'll lug my umbrella today. Looks like it could rain.
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So...
My late start meant plans changed. I was really wiped out after working nearly 12 hours in the 95 degree heat yesterday anyhow. It was nice and only in the mid 70's today, so after the garbage men came I decided to fill the cans right back up again.
I got rid of some of the hoard in the garage. I've got to say that it's really nice to have some space on my work bench as well as quite a bit of clearance on both sides of my car when I park it. Even more space if I didn't have my stair project in front of my tool bench right now.
I did manage to assemble the stairs today, but I didn't open up any cans of paint. I've got some company coming over tomorrow and I'm going to spend a few hours cleaning house before I go to bed. I'll probably put on some more paint tomorrow afternoon after they leave. It's so nice to be so caught up on all the lawn and weed maintenance so I can focus on projects and stuff.
Picture time. :)
Here's all of my building blocks with two coats of primer:
The legs assembled (I couldn't find my countersink bit, of course....):
The only screws going into the planks you walk on are from the bottom (at least right now):
I really love the way this looks without putting screws down in from the top. It would also keep any water from building up around the screws and screw holes too. I'm just afraid that it might not be stable enough for the long term. What do you think?
I'm thinking before putting another coat of primer on or any finish paint coat that I'll try to find my countersink bit or bite the bullet and buy a new one. I could then just add a few more screws from an angle coming up from the insides of the legs to get another 1 or 2 into each leg for additional support without screwing through the top. Maybe I'll even spring for some wood filler that's sandable and really do it up right before finishing it?
I took a look at the larger step with the hand rail in the back today that I was considering just replacing the legs and sanding and repainting it. It was really shoddy work. The ends of the plank on top were cut bad, they are different sizes by anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4 inches, and they didn't even bother sanding down the bad cuts, let alone any of the corners or edges. There's also a thin layer of mildew/algae that has grown on it that would probably just gunk up any sandpaper I tried using almost immediately if I tried to save that lumber...
Not to mention that there's about a billion screws coming from the top that not only make it look shoddy, but is the source of a lot of peeled paint too. It's obvious that they didn't even bother making pilot holes first since the wood is split quite a bit.
To be honest, I'm surprised that it's still standing, even without the damage at the bottom of a few of the legs from wood rot and ants.
I'll probably go and pick up more lumber. I already have what I need for the feet. I'd just need a 12' length of 2x4's and maybe two 8' lengths of 2x6's to get it done. And a box of screws... Since I've already got the paint and primer, it might only run me another 20 bucks for the wood.
I'll have to get a picture of the piece of crap that's out there now. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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A little bit of house cleaning today and I get to see my niece.
Also going to pick up a tool that my step-dad is sending me that he bought when they were going to come over to help me with the porch initially. Awesome little mini-chainsaw type thing that I've never seen before. Slices through wood like butter. Great for any future demolition I'm going to be doing.
I've got a maple tree that seems to be slowly dying. There are two very large limbs that have no leaves at all near the bottom of the tree. I'm going to have to find a way to take care of that sooner than later. One large branch extends out toward the street. Nobody ever parks there car in front, but kids to walk back and forth to school around us. We don't have sidewalks, so they tend to walk on the street, and there isn't much through traffic or walking around here, but it is a potential problem that needs to be taken care of before somebody gets hurt.
Chainsaws and step ladders. What could go wrong?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Oh...
I found those pics of the light switch that I had to bring into the bedroom:
Honestly, I forgot how tricky that was. Kind of cool that I have a bit of a diary of the previous work I've done right on this site. :)
And that used to be what my best friend called "The Clown Room" before I fixed it up.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Out in a bit. Books to donate and the weather can't make up its mind.
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My brother has been transferred back to a rehab facility in the city I live in. He says he hopes to be out next week and home.
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Quote:Thanks for the update, Brenda. That is good to hear.
Originally posted by Brenda:
My brother has been transferred back to a rehab facility in the city I live in. He says he hopes to be out next week and home.
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Quote:Thanks for the update, Brenda. That is good to hear.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
My brother has been transferred back to a rehab facility in the city I live in. He says he hopes to be out next week and home.
We'll see kiki. He thought he'd be home this week.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
My brother has been transferred back to a rehab facility in the city I live in. He says he hopes to be out next week and home.
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Thanks for the update, Brenda. That is good to hear.
Quote:Hm. Well, time works wonders.
Originally posted by Brenda:
We'll see kiki. He thought he'd be home this week.
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SIX I'm still trying to wrap my head around the color scheme of that one room....
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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lol yeah. Pretty gross.
If the mold wasn't going to scare me off and save me from buying this house, too bad the primary color room didn't.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I can't make up my mind about those stairs. It's not just a matter of money here, but a matter of time. There's still a ton of stuff I need to be getting done with the house and it's a super time consuming process. I think I just need to take it one step at a time and get the other step finished and button up that exposed facia in the front and try to figure out of the racoon is gone so I can start cleaning up the porch attic and seal off the house attic from the porch.
That last part is pretty scary. I really don't know how I'd know if the racoon is still up there or not. I could be picking up after her and she could sneak up on me and bite me on the ass or something.
At least the ammonia didn't seem to drive her back into the house attic though. There's no mistaking when she's up there.
Oh jeez... The weather just changed again. We weren't supposed to have rain at all in the next week to 10 days. Now there's a 50% chance of thunderstorms today and 40% chance tomorrow.
Ugggg... nasty. It's also going to be in the 90's every day this week. Going to be sweating in my house even when I'm doing nothing.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
My brother has been transferred back to a rehab facility in the city I live in. He says he hopes to be out next week and home.
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Thanks for the update, Brenda. That is good to hear.
Quote:Hm. Well, time works wonders.
Originally posted by Brenda:
We'll see kiki. He thought he'd be home this week.
True enough. But it also just shows how bad his left leg was hurt.
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Had a power outage here this morning. Don't know what happened. It went out around 8:33 that's when the stove clock stopped.
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CLEANING UP AFTER A RACCOON:
Gloves.
Mask.
Shovel and plastic bags.
More shovel and more plastic bags.
Bleach and a bucket of bleach-water.
TAKE A GOOD SHOWER AFTERWARDS
I'm trying to figure out what else you need to do to protect yourself from raccoon parasites and diseases. One of those parasites is potentially brain-eating (altho you have to eat raccoon shit in order to be infected. But if you breathe in contaminated dust that might do it, too.)
With all of that heat and humidity, plus working in an attic, you have my sympathy! we've been having 90+ weather lately too, but it's not anywhere near as humid, and I still sweat my ass off just working outdoors.
Try to do your attic work in the AM.
Do you own a fan, or two or three? It might help to position a fan to cool you off while you're working up there, plus sitting in the breeze of a fan after a shower is very refreshing.
Stay hydrated! Hubby swears by Powerade Zero, but if you don't want to spend the bucks make sure to salt your food well, and drink plenty of water.
*****
BTW, I was looking at the pix of your work in detail. You're a perfectionist, I think; ou do good work! Nice electrical!
That "clown room" ... it looks like you removed the carpet to expose the hardwood floor, correct?
*****
My "near term" plans were derailed by needing to button up the holes under the (six) sinks that the plumbers created when they replaced our iron waste lines with ABS. Right now we're just using cardboard; hubby is doing all of the hard under-sink work* and I'm his trusty helper.
*I developed a strange problem, when I lie down on my back and roll my eyes "upward" - t the top iof my head - INSTANT and overwhelming nausea! I first noticed it when I was putting some shelving together and I thought it was just a one-off, I next noticed it when I was working underneath a sink. I have no idea how that developed; supposedly I could see a doctor and get the problem fixed (otolith wandered into the wrong place in my ear, or something) but I just didn't want to take the time/spend the money.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Jack, I didn't want to pound on this topic too heavily because I didn't want to be the only one and look like chicken little and get dismissed offhand. But when I called raccoons filthy and nasty, and a bunch of other negative descriptors over my posts I was referring to: their habits (shit oozy poop everywhere), their health risks (crap-ton of viruses, bacteria, and parasites carried internally, externally, and in their poop, that you don't want to get), and their nature (aggressive / unafraid).
http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/agricult/pdf/raccoons.pdf
In addition, while they aren't rodents and don't chew their way into everything, they have VERY clever hands and minds*. For example, they will work normal live-traps open and escape. (They'll also work chicken roosts open, pet doors open, and so on.) And they do find small structural weaknesses and work them open as well. So after clean-up, if you want to make sure you're excluding them, find out where they're coming in and block / nail / screw with whatever heavy-duty / strong / permanently attached thing you can get to keep them out.
* I should have included that they're also strong, persistent, and good climbers.
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Well... the since one that I have seen behaved as if she was afraid after days/weeks of banging on walls and growling through them 10 times louder than she could. Once I knew she was up in the porch attic back then and I finally built up the nerve to open that door and point that flashlight around and spotted those beady eyes staring at me, it took her a few moments to realize that I was looking directly at her and when she did she ducked out of sight.
That all means nothing though if I actively back her into a corner and/or mess with any kids she's got up there.
Trust me, I've taken everything you've both said about the racoons to heart. I'm not so far as like Howie Mandell where I go around with latex gloves on 24/7 because of germs, but I believe I have a healthy and rational fear of those microscopic monsters that live in unclean places... especially after what they've done to my jaw bones.
I just wish I was more up on my tech these days and I had a camera that I could put up there and monitor for motion 24/7, just to see what the situation is and take the guesswork out. Night or day, I would have no idea what potentially bad situation I could be walking into by going up there.
I'm glad she's been out of the house attic for weeks now, but at least when she was up there I could sort of monitor her activity because of the noises she'd make (usually sometime around sun-up and sundown, but not exactly like clockwork).
But apparently she's been living up in that porch attic for weeks without me even knowing. What little noise she does make during the day when I'd be out there having a smoke break or cooling off with ice water under the fan was incidental and I didn't hear it. I just got lucky the other day that I was working out front of the house that close for a few hours and happened to hear her stirring above the soffit in the front of the porch during hte middle of the day. Thankfully, the smell of crap isn't in the house itself, so I was unaware of the mess up there even until I had to go up there to check it out.
I took the day off. We'll see if that was a mistake or not tomorrow. Thunderstorms now. I never put the facia back up, or even got that finish coat on. But as long as we don't have torrential winds blowing the rest of the aluminum off, I'd have to say that it's probably more protected from the elements now with the caulk and two coats of primer even without aluminum up there than it was before I found out how bad that situation was.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Do you own a fan, or two or three? It might help to position a fan to cool you off while you're working up there, plus sitting in the breeze of a fan after a shower is very refreshing.
As hot as it is up there and as miserable as I'll be, I really don't like the idea of blowing around a bunch of killer bacteria particles to get into my eyes and nose and mouth. I mean, I've got a good hepa filter mask and some goggles, but I had those when I bleached the vapor barrier in my crawlspace years back and it still burned the hell out of my lungs. I think I'm going to have to deal with the heat.
Quote:
Stay hydrated! Hubby swears by Powerade Zero, but if you don't want to spend the bucks make sure to salt your food well, and drink plenty of water.
Water is free.
*****
Quote:
BTW, I was looking at the pix of your work in detail. You're a perfectionist, I think; ou do good work! Nice electrical!
Yeah. I'm a perfectionist for sure. :)
It's why I never really got into doing the work for money. I take too long to get things done. When I'd work for my friend's dad who taught me a lot of the stuff I know, he'd often tell me "This ain't the Taj Mahal".
Quote:
That "clown room" ... it looks like you removed the carpet to expose the hardwood floor, correct?
Yeah. The entire 2nd floor had beautiful hardwood floors that I refinished. I didn't even know about them when I first bought the house. I had always planned on refinishing the hardwood on the first floor that I knew about when I bought the place, but I doubt I'm going to be sticking around long enough to ever get to that. They really don't look that bad. The 2nd floor was beat to shit though, so that's why somebody decided to just cover it with carpet at some point.
*****
Quote:
My "near term" plans were derailed by needing to button up the holes under the (six) sinks that the plumbers created when they replaced our iron waste lines with ABS. Right now we're just using cardboard; hubby is doing all of the hard under-sink work* and I'm his trusty helper.
*I developed a strange problem, when I lie down on my back and roll my eyes "upward" - t the top iof my head - INSTANT and overwhelming nausea! I first noticed it when I was putting some shelving together and I thought it was just a one-off, I next noticed it when I was working underneath a sink. I have no idea how that developed; supposedly I could see a doctor and get the problem fixed (otolith wandered into the wrong place in my ear, or something) but I just didn't want to take the time/spend the money.
Jeez... I've never heard of that before. I hope it's nothing serious!
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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"hepa filter mask"
Well! I get to put some of my environmental lab work knowledge to use!
Briefly, a HEPA mask filters out very fine particles. There are other filters that chemically adsorb ammonia, others that adsorb VOC (organic solvents), or sulfuric acid vapors, and so on.
When it comes to half (or full) face masks with replaceable filter cartridges, one USED to be able to purchase individual cartridge types that you could screw one into the other in a stack, that you could then screw into your half (or full) face mask respirator, so that you could customize your cartridges for the job. Do you need HEPA + VOC like for paint spray work? Or HEPA + acid for metal plating? So, for example, you personally would have been able to stack a particulate filter on top of an ammonia filter. But sadly, the a$$holes in industry decided to outsmart the consumer, and created generic 'multipurpose' filters that may or may not meet your needs, or single-purpose filters you CAN'T stack. Pisses me off.
Moving on ...
Here are the various designations for disposable particulate filters you might run in to:
Respirator Rating Letter Class
N - Not oil resistant
R - Resistant to oil
P - Oil Proof
Respirator Rating Number Class
95 - Removes 95% of all particles that are at least 0.3 microns in diameter
99 - Removes 99% of particles that are at least 0.3 microns in diameter
100 - Removes 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns in diameter or larger. Those are the same specs as as 'HEPA' filter.
You'll see for example N95 disposable masks in hardware stores. For the work you're doing, I think they have too much leakage around (10%) and through (5%) the mask. See at the least if you can pick up an N100, which filters more of the smaller particles and is generally made with a better fit and lower leakage rate.
Or even better, see if you can get a half-mask respirator with replaceable cartridges, though those are quite a bit more expensive.
If you DO get a half-mask respirator, see if it fits well (called a 'fit test'). Take the cartridges off, put the mask on, block the cartridge openings with your hands and breathe in. You should be sucking a vacuum, with no leakage. (Formal fit tests are more rigorous: while wearing a mask with filter you have a plastic bag put over your head with the bottom open - they're not trying to suffocate you! - with a severe irritant - dioctyl phthalate - introduced into the bag. If the mask fits well, you never breathe the irritant in. If it doesn't fit well, the tester gets immediate feedback as you choke and cough.)
I also looked up ammonia.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207883/
Nonlethal, irreversible, or long-term effects occurred when damage progressed to the tracheobronchial region, manifested by reduced performance on pulmonary function tests, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, emphysema, and bronchiectasis.
Nondisabling reversible effects were manifested by irritation to the eyes, throat, and nasopharyngeal region of the respiratory tract.
**The odor of ammonia can be detected by humans at concentrations >5 ppm; the odor is highly penetrating at 50 ppm (10 min). Human volunteers exposed to ammonia showed slight irritation at 30 ppm (10 min); moderate irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, and chest at 50 ppm (10 min to 2 h);** moderate to highly intense irritation at 80 ppm (30 min to 2 h); highly intense irritation at 110 ppm (30 min to 2 h); unbearable irritation at 140 ppm (30 min to 2 h), and excessive lacrimation and irritation at 500 ppm. Reflex glottis closure, a protective response to inhaling irritant vapors, occurred at 570 ppm for 21- to 30-year-old subjects, 1,000 ppm for 60-year-old subjects, and 1,790 ppm for 86- to 90-year-old subjects.
** You want to be under 50 ppm and your indicator will be "moderate irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, and chest".
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0028.html
The IDHL (immediately dangerous to life or health) concen
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Shows what I know... I know mine were 95... not 100.
I also didn't know you needed separate cartridges for separate functions either.
I have a half mask that you snap the circular cartridges on. I haven't used it in years though. I'll test it out like you said before I do. Thanks for the tip and the info.
And I probably had 500ppm or more with the bleach for around 4 hours when I cleaned it. I was in bad shape afterward and had to miss work for a few nights. When I tried smoking a cigarette shortly afterward it felt like somebody had burned my lungs. Whenever I get really sick in the winter (about once every other year) the bronchitis that sets in usually lasts a few weeks after I'm over it. That never happened until the bleach incident.
Damn... I didn't even know Ammonia was the same type of thing. I just thought it was an unpleasant smell. I can't imagine how a racoon is going to stay up there since I emptied nearly an entire bottle into 10 plastic cups and poured some on rags and the flooring. I might have killed it in it's sleep if it didn't vacate on its own after I got out of there.
.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Also, fwiw it's not a good idea to mix bleach with ammonia, or bleach with substantial amounts of urine, or bleach with substantial amounts of poop, as that can create toxic chlorine gas and toxic chloramine gas. I did that once when I accidentally peed into a toilet I was bleaching out (I forgot it still had bleach in it). I know that windpipe and lung pain you posted about, though probably not as well as you do! I think bleach bottles do have that caution about not mixing with ammonia on them.
Now that you know what IDL (immediately dangerous to life and health), OSHA PEL (permissible exposure limit) TWA (time weighted average) maximum exposure averaged over 8 hours, and NIOSH REL (recommended exposure limit) TWA are; you could probably reasonably well look up whatever you want to look up in the NIOSH pocket guide.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/default.html
I'm not sure how the professionals clean up and sanitize after an animal infestation. That, sadly, isn't in my repertoire of knowledge to pass along.
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However, this is my personal, unexperienced plan I would try, and see how well it works out. Double glove with at least one set covering up onto the forearms / disposable Tyvek® Coverall 
(available at hardware stores and online, but as I've been told, it's as hot as wearing a plastic bag. I've been told that professionals who use them wear them on top of underwear only.) / N100 (HEPA) particulate mask / 7th Generation sanitizing wipes (funky-smelling herb-oil based anti-bacterial wipes that also do a good job cleaning) / safety goggles / heavy duty trash bags for waste / thermometer to monitor ambient temperature / perhaps a good 4 x 4 piece of plywood to move around to span the ceiling joists as a platform
Perhaps I'd start with a sprayer and a dilute deterg solution and spray down anything really dusty or friable (eg insulation, old boxes), just enough to keep the dust down. Then I'd manually // clean up (with wipes) / wipe up (with wipes) / gather up (eg insulation, old boxes) // toss out // as much stuff as I could, to reduce the physical, biological and chemical load as much as possible. After the place appears physically clean, I'd get out the trusty sprayer and fill with a standard sanitizing solution (I'd need to think about bleach v lysol v any other ..) and spray all previously contaminated surfaces with enough solution to keep the surface damp for the specified time (with bleach, it's 10 minutes).
Now, irl, any of these steps might stumble into unanticipated problems. But that would be my initial plan.
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I think I'm going to see what I can do to verify that the racoon is out, and focus now solely on closing up access to the attic to keep others out.
I'm thinking that you're right about the gear I should be wearing, but I lost a ton of water by sweating up there for the 10 whole minutes that I was putting up the ammonia and setting it out. I was shirtless at the time. I think an unforseen side effect of doing this at this time of year would be me passing out while I'm up there.
I wore one of those suits with the filter and goggles the whole time I removed the mold out of the basement. It was just as hot as it is around here right now, but that was in a basement... not an attic that reaches around 120 degrees during the day in this weather. I was also only 32 at the time.
I think I might go up with gloves and a bag with a mask on early one morning just to get the large pieces out of there, but when it comes to taking any time to really scrubbing anything I think it's going to have to wait until the fall.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Oh yeah... speaking of weather ... I see we have a 10-degree cooldown come Wednesday. I'm doing my very best to get the yardwork done (as much as I can) and the furniture moved back into our bedroom and the shower fixtures put back so we can move back into our bedroom again, before my sinus surgery next Monday. 'Cause I know for sure that I'm not supposed to bend over or lift anything heavy ... or sneeze, or blow my nose hard... for the next few days, and for sure I'm going to be sleeping like shit until the swelling goes down.
Also we ran into a bit of a snag buttoning up the under-sink holes. At the last sink, hubby moved the copper supply lines a bit, and the damn things sprang a leak! One was leaking from the connection to the sink, the other was leaking from the shut-off valve under the sink. YIKES! He managed to jiggle it back into place and stop the valve leak, the other he disconnected, but now we have another repair to make.
*****
Yeah, I hear ya SIX. Attic work, no fun! I found, from my elderly vantage point, that hydrating AHEAD of time, really helps. I drink at least a half-liter of water even before I take puppy-wuppy out for a walk, and at least another half-liter before yardwork. (I just keep re-using an old Powerade bottle.) But, yeah, fall... sounds like a MUCH better option! Working when half-passed out leads to a lot of errors.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Sunny here today. Suppose to head for a rain by Wednesday.
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Yeah, Sigs...
I don't think this house is going to be ready to sell until at least the fall anyhow. My friend kind of berated me on the phone the other day for asking how much he'd charge me to come over to help me with a teardown and said he knows I'm freaking out about things but he's still going to come over and we're going to fix the porch and make it structurally sound. He says I've just got to be patient since he's got a really busy schedule from now to the end of the month. If we can actually do that, as well as fix another more minor problem with the front porch, that will bring an end to my constant feeling of immediacy with all of this and will allow me more time to actually get some more internal rehab stuff done (the stuff that I'm comfortable doing with my skills and money on my own).
Besides, the house would likely sell much better in spring or early summer, and it's too late for that this year unless I just sell it for cash.
In the mean time, as horrendous as it smells up in that porch attic, it doesn't smell at all in the house (or even if you're sitting out in the porch itself, which I regularly do for smoke breaks since I don't smoke in the house proper). If my whole house smelled like a damn zoo because of it, I'd be in a much bigger hurry to clean it up, but really my only priority with the racoon at this point is just getting it out and making sure it can't get back in.
Honestly though, even without heat being an issue currently, I'm kind of afraid to go up there and do anything. I can't imagine that it would stay up there with that ammonia wafting through the air everywhere, but the possibility of being surprised and bitten has been enough to keep me from biting the bullet and going up there.
I wish I had a way of knowing for sure if it was out while I'm up there, and more importantly... if it took any potential litter it had with it when it left.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Found my countersink bit set. Well... part of it anyway. Got the box with two of the three bits, but missing a third bit and the do-dad you need to plug it into a drill. Talk about a needle in a haystack there...
I did find my mask though. I was wrong. They are P100 filters. Even better, I have an unopened box of filters to change out when I get around to cleaning that attic up. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Awesome! on the filters! That should make you feel a whole lot better!
Hey, I have a random question: Has anyone heard anything from JO? Last I heard he was hinting that he wouldn't be able to keep his house; was he serious? Is he OK?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Been for my yearly review and got the results today. All numbers are good. I am in perfect health for a 54year old woman.
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https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3364.htm
https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/conservation/wildlife/Pages/Raccoon.aspx
Here's some information I found on a couple of websites that's appropriate to your climate. I was surprised to see that coons den during the winter where it's cold! Here, the only time they den is when a female has and is raising her pups. And here females in dens with their litters are VERY quiet because males predate on babies. And ... like a cat, she'll often relocate her pups partway through their babyhood for the same reason.
Your legal ability to /trap and euthanize/ or /trap and relocate/ is determined by state, county, or local law, whichever is most restrictive. But I think once you either get rid of her or find she's no longer around (does your county have a pest-control service*?), you'll be able to comfortably block any openings without being nervous; and the clean-up and repairs can be securely done whenever they can be done.
*I had a rather large bee swarm on my front fence which is right at the edge of the sidewalk, and I called the county because it seemed rather dangerous, and they sent out a bee relocation team RIGHT AWAY. In fact right after I hung up the phone I went a couple blocks to ACE to get some of those stand-up yellow caution signs and caution tape - it took me maybe 15 minutes - and by the time I got back the bees were gone. So, I recount this story because sometimes the county or city had some useful services.
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Will my county/city take care of it?
That's a good question.
My grams lives in one Chicago suburb in Illinois that will immediately come over and take care of the problem (or at least she knows that's how it used to be). My friend says that's bullshit and after charging him $250 deposit on a racoon trap for a rental property he had, they nickel and dimed him to death "following up" on things until he owed a total of $500 to basically take care of the problem himself and says the worst thing I can do is let the city know.
Here in Indiana, I think they'd be generally more help than a hindrance. I would have already made the call on it long ago, but until the porch is fixed I don't want to invite anybody in here that doesn't need to be.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Probably shouldn't jinx myself, but I don't believe in that jinx crap anyhow...
I think I took care of the racoon problem.
It's overcast, muggy as crap and raining off and on today, but without that oppressive sun heat baking the roof I figured it was either today or I might have to wait until September to do it.
Instead of wasting time and money buying lumber that might have made the job easier and look better, I didn't want to do anything that would keep me from taking care of this once and for all and I improvised with what I had. Doesn't matter what it looks like up there since I've lived here 8 years and until the racoon problem I never even knew what it looked like (or the fact that there was actually nothing stopping this from becoming a problem the entire time I lived here too).
Without going into any confusing detail (I'll have pics up eventually), I fashioned some blockage out of old weatherproofed 4x4's from a since removed pool deck, and after they were in place I used some 1/4" wood scraps I had to screw into those to totally block off access to the house attic from the porch attic. Then I found a whole bunch of bricks that I had recently "unearthed" while cleaning out my garage last week and blocked off the access hole she had (that has been there since I owned the house, which is why I don't understand why this has only now become a problem).
Time will tell if this truly solves the problem, but I can't imagine a single way a racoon could get into the actual house now. I'm hoping this was all I needed to do to keep them out of the porch too.
Oh... and without getting all the gear on, I just cleaned up the crap too. I didn't bleach or anything, but I just covered my hands with some plastic bags tied off, then triple bagged some other grocery bags to fill and I'm done with it. There had to be at least 3 lbs of it that I got out of there. I tried looking everywhere that I could and didn't see anymore. I'm hoping that she didn't do it in the house attic that I have no access to without tearing down walls. But as long as she's not coming back in ever again that would eventually dry out and there shouldn't be any smell as long as the behavior doesn't continue.
Hopefully I don't die of some brain parasite. But I can assure you, as tempting as it was, I didn't eat any of the shit.
After around 3 days of getting nearly nothing done and feeling super guilty about it, I'm very happy with how the day has turned out so far. Fingers crossed. :)
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:You got me a little curious.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.
I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?
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Still finding thins in weird places.
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Still finding thins in weird places.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:You got me a little curious.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.
I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?
The only reason I knew about even thinking to try this was because my grandpa cleaned the entire basement with mixed bleach and ammonia when my uncle (mom's side, his son) and my dad (they were best friends back then) "wussed out" and wouldn't do it because they said they were getting sick. He's so stubborn (a family trait), that he endured it the entire time it took to clean the basement.
Which was immediately followed by a trip to the emergency room and the scare of his wife's and children's lives up to that point.
He spent hours in close contact with the mixture in an unventilated (or at least poorly ventilated basement)...
I was talking about putting it out in the porch attic, above a 3 season room with plenty of ventilation which was largely blocked off by walls to the house I'd be sleeping in.
And further, I stated in the quote you put here that I was willing to camp out in the garage while it did it's work.
But anyhow... I didn't do it. My mom broke down crying and saying she wished she never moved so she could come and check up on me because she didn't believe me when I said I wasn't going to do it and said she was going to lose her first born son... I guess the memory of what happened to her dad was suddenly fresh in her mind.
To answer your question though, I don't suppose I'd live very long messing around with cyanide. I never looked into it before. Never had any reason to.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Hey Jack
Thanks for the update!
Hi Brenda
So every day you find a new surprise? Is it like Christmas in summer?
How's your brother doing btw? Still making progress? To me, that's the most hopeful thing. Not to say people don't get better after going backwards for a while, but the going backwards can be hard on everyone. So to keep going forward is always a good thing, imo.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Hey Jack
Thanks for the update!
Hi Brenda
So every day you find a new surprise? Is it like Christmas in summer?
How's your brother doing btw? Still making progress? To me, that's the most hopeful thing. Not to say people don't get better after going backwards for a while, but the going backwards can be hard on everyone. So to keep going forward is always a good thing, imo.
Somethings are definitely a surprise that's for sure kiki. I wouldn't call it Christmas but they are good surprises.
As I said last week he was transferred to another rehab hospital. He posted today on FB, that he was up using a walker for the first time today. He said it was in the gym and physio. So, yes he is getting better just taking time.
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A relative smashed one shoulder totally and chipped the elbow bone on the other arm. Her shoulder had to be replaced with a metal one and the bone chips taken out of the elbow. Anyway, I did the first week or two of passive range of motion physio in the hospital. And I can say it involved extra hits on the morphine drip ahead of time, paleness, sweating, some huffing and groaning, and grit. Then the rehab moved to her using her own muscles to move her arm, and that was a whole 'nother kind of effort.
The surgeon said the only thing she probably wouldn't be able to do was reach over her head and touch her opposite ear. After a year of at-home progressive rehab she had her last follow-up visit with the surgeon, and she proudly reached over her head and touched the opposite ear. Rehab can work wonders.
I have hope for your brother.
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Ridgecrest earthquake aftershocks are moving toward dangerous faults, sparking concerns of triggered temblors
Quote:At the time, Signy pointed it out to me, so I tracked the sequence.
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/ridgecrest-earthquake-afte
rshocks-are-moving-toward-dangerous-faults-sparking-concerns/article_c223e0c5-8b52-5f7a-a7d5-2f2ddfd2a5a1.html
Ridgecrest earthquake aftershocks are moving toward dangerous faults, sparking concerns of triggered temblors
The U.S. Geological Survey says the chance of an earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater from the July 5 earthquake is 1 in 300 — “possible, but with a low probability.”
Some aftershocks have rumbled northwest of the Searles Valley earthquake, approaching the Owens Valley Fault. That fault triggered an earthquake of perhaps magnitude 7.8 or 7.9 in 1872, one of the largest in California’s modern record.
The Ridgecrest aftershocks have also headed southeast toward the Garlock fault, a lesser-known fault capable of producing an earthquake of magnitude 8 or more. The fault along the northern edge of the Mojave Desert can send shaking south and west into Bakersfield and Ventura and Los Angeles counties. “Those are places we would be more concerned,” U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Morgan Page said. “Little earthquakes are telling us where big earthquakes are more likely.”
Perhaps the most famous example of triggered earthquakes in California occurred in 1992. An April 22 magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Joshua Tree National Park began a quake sequence that migrated north in the coming months.
Then on June 28, an earthquake 63 times stronger ruptured — the magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake with an epicenter more than 25 miles northeast of Palm Springs. Three hours later, a magnitude 6.3 quake struck about 20 miles west, just a few miles away from Big Bear.
“We always worry when seismicity picks up very close to a major fault or if it’s at the end of a major fault — whether it’ll push it enough to start a major rupture,” California Institute of Technology seismologist Egill Hauksson said.
Sometimes fears of seismic triggering don’t materialize.
The Easter Sunday magnitude 7.2 quake of 2010 directed tectonic stress toward Southern California from Mexico. There was concern about a potential triggered quake on the Elsinore fault, capable of a magnitude 7 quake, which extends into Orange County and the Los Angeles area and could produce devastating damage to the region. But seismic activity eventually ended before it reached that fault, Hauksson said.
Quote:
“Every earthquake actually increases the probability of more earthquakes,” Page said. In fact, earthquake scientists actually model quakes like disease epidemics. “It’s based on the idea on how a contagion spreads to a population,” she said. “Earthquakes are like that … in general, if there are a lot of earthquakes going on, it’s more probable for a large earthquake to go on.”
While earthquakes do relieve stress to some areas around them, we become less safe after earthquakes because they “redistribute the stress and can push other faults in the area to failure,” Page said.
One big observation so far has been that there’s now a line of seemingly missing earthquakes between the northern end of the July earthquakes and the southern end of where the Owens Valley fault finished rupturing in 1872.
“That’s a kind of thing seismologists can get nervous looking at. It’s got to be filled in,” said USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who has researched the Owens Valley fault extensively. “There’s certainly room to put another earthquake.”
Both the July quakes and the 1872 Owens Valley quake lie in one of California’s great seismic zones, the Eastern California Shear Zone, which generates earthquakes as a result of the southwestern part of California sliding up northwest, toward Alaska, compared with the northeastern part of the state. (Yes, that does mean that eventually, L.A. will be right next to San Francisco a long time from now.)
The San Andreas fault g
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Kiki,
I'm sure that my brother will be okay. Now, that he is moving a little more he won't be so frustrated as he has been.
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Rain has arrived.
And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.
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Quote:Cringe. Oh no. I think I hear a story about your boss coming on. Peeks an eye open. That's too bad.
Originally posted by Brenda:
Rain has arrived.
And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.
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So... With the insane heat coming down on us later this week, I was considering re-purposing a tiny vornado fan that kicks some ass into a means of pulling out air through the single window from my attic while pulling air in through my basement at night time. It's something I had always considered doing but never got around to.
But then it occurred to me that I got an old furnace blower unit from my step dad before he moved. I was actually trying to give it away to my brother the other day when he was here because I know he had borrowed it at one point in an attempt to dry out their carpet in the basement when it flooded years ago. (If it had worked, he probably would have taken it, but they had to throw all that carpet out and they got a really nice flooring down there that's flood proof now).
I'm not sure if a blower will fit in the tiny window in the attic or not. It's also not the type of window that I could slide up and down to help it fit that way either. So it's nice that there is some DIY directions online for something like this, but I'd have to figure out a way to improvise a lot here. It wouldn't make much sense to bother with it if I'm not pulling the hottest of the house air from out of the attic every night when I'd do this (especially on nights later this week that are a low of 80 freaking degrees). It also wouldn't make sense to use a window in the basement or 1st floor to do it and pull all that hot attic air down through the house either.
I'm going to do some figuring. If I build something I'll eventually have the pics up for it too and let you know if it does what I want it to do.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I actually knew someone who did this. It involved a table to lift the blower up to the window, and an extension cord. I suppose he could have rigged some kind of cowling between the blower and the window. But yes, it's doable! :)
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Quote:Cringe. Oh no. I think I hear a story about your boss coming on. Peeks an eye open. That's too bad.
Originally posted by 1kiki:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Rain has arrived.
And also don't you hate it when people try to blame you for their mistakes.
It's about her husband but I won't bore you with the details. They just can't get their acts together is all I am saying.
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I'm glad to hear it's just non-serious stuff!
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Quote:Hmmmmm.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:To answer your question though, I don't suppose I'd live very long messing around with cyanide. I never looked into it before. Never had any reason to.
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:You got me a little curious.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.
I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
In your belief system, how many breathes of cyanide do you imagine you can endure?
Do Right, Be Right. :)
You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
But you have no interest it evaluating the effects of the cyanide you'd be creating.
Why do you think entire towns or neighborhoods are evacuated when spills of these happen? Unless your garage is in a different township. Or maybe your attic is better ventilated than THE OUTDOORS.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I'm glad to hear it's just non-serious stuff!
Ah, it is so-so stuff. He had to pay me and wrote out a cheque on his American account. He talked to me on Monday about it and then said, "You try to do a favour for someone. And you seemed like you were in a hurry on Thursday." Should also add that he dragged me to my bank to talk to them about it and I told him that they noticed the difference on the cheque.
I was waiting for his wife to get home to pay me but he was and I stress he was the one trying to rush me out of the house. He couldn't make up his mind then decided to pay me.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Hmmmmm.
You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
But you have no interest it evaluating the effects of the cyanide you'd be creating.
Why do you think entire towns or neighborhoods are evacuated when spills of these happen? Unless your garage is in a different township. Or maybe your attic is better ventilated than THE OUTDOORS.
Mixing bleach and ammonia does not create cyanide. It doesn't create mustard gas either, which is a common misconception.
It creates a toxic chlorine reaction.
This wasn't going to be a spill either. It would have been a controlled environment with a few small cups mixed.
Dangerous? Yes.
But you're mistaken about the magnitude of the danger.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
I actually knew someone who did this. It involved a table to lift the blower up to the window, and an extension cord. I suppose he could have rigged some kind of cowling between the blower and the window. But yes, it's doable! :)
I DID IT!!!!!
And it is WONDERFUL!
Constructed a table from some scrap 4"x4"'s I had from an old pool teardown that I deemed inappropriate for my new stairs, but it was perfect for this job.
When I was looking around for something I had to make the tabletop, I found an old piece of artwork that was framed that I picked up 20 years ago at a goodwill that has followed me around for years but I was getting rid of. I wasn't going to be able to get rid of it until after garbage day, so the timing couldn't have been any better. It was PERFECT for this job.
I got my heaviest thickness tarp from my garage and cut it to the size of the window. Then I took my sweet ass time making the cutout for the blower to make sure I didn't overcut and eventually wrapped it up heavy with duct tape before fitting it on the blower and then wrapping it around the interior of the window frame. I'm sure it's not airtight up to NASA specs, but it's great for what I need.
Had a few extra extension cords when my folks left, so I got the shortest heavy duty one I could find and cut it so I could make a plug for the blower. Made it short since I have an outlet right under the window and don't have to worry about extra heat from voltage drops of a long cord. :)
Most of this work I did while in a 120+ degree attic because it was easier than making a ton of trips up and down from my garage to the attic. I was covered head to toe in sweat and my clothes were soaked by the time it was done.
But then I plugged it in and the wind tunnel blew all that moisture away.
This thing is so powerful that at the slightly downward angle I had it pointed I could feel the wind gusting at me 20 feet away from the front of my house from that window.
Within 20 minutes my attic temperature dropped 40 degrees. This type of temperature drop would normally not have happened until at least 4:00AM in the morning with the windows open by themselves and no forced air flow.
It's still 80 degrees out even though the sun is down, and it's only going to get down to 75 degrees tonight and 78 degrees the next two nights. So it's not exactly going to be A/C here for the next few days, but I should be able to get the indoor temperature down to whatever the outdoor temperature gets down to by the time the sun comes up and I close the windows for the day.
This is so awesome.
I'll be starting my morning off tomorrow with a temp in the mid to high 70's on my 2nd floor and in the attic instead of the low 80's and low 90's respectively. The attic will still get super hot again, but the house will not get as hot tomorrow as it did today because it started off cooler than it did yesterday even though it will be hotter tomorrow.
Next week the temps will be getting in the 90's during the day but the mid 60's at night. I might actually need a blanket when I'm sleeping now if I've got this thing running then.
The entire house has so much airflow right now that even though it's still around 80 I don't even need a box fan on me in front of the TV now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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78 degrees on the 2nd floor as I write this.
So... I didn't quite get down to an equal temperature outside. The low last night was 74 degrees a few hours ago, but only for that hour. Right now it's around 76 degrees. It might be impossible to get it completely even without any actual cooling forces at work. You've got to figure that there are heated up areas, particularly in the shell of the house that's exposed to the sun all day long, that are just not going to have all of the airflow necessary to cool off completely in the time between sundown and sun up.
Seeing a temp in the 70's is still amazing though, given how hot it was yesterday and how it didn't drop that low last night. I do believe that the next few days will be entirely manageable without A/C, even if they aren't 100% comfortable.
I actually woke up at some point in the middle of the night and with the box fan on me I was so chilly I had to pull up my blanket!
It was 85 degrees on the second floor at around 9:30PM when I first turned it on for the whole night. By that time, since I had already run it about 20 minutes earlier, the attic was already much cooler than it normally would have gotten until around 4:00AM. I figure that compared to my average night here without the new system in place, I got an extra 4 degrees of cooling on that 2nd floor thermostat than I would have in the livable space. The attic is just as cool now, which never happens. It's unknown how much effect this will have though.
My hope is, that overall, the temperature on the 2nd floor thermostat doesn't go over 83 today with the windows closed, even though it will get to 94 outside. Fingers crossed.
...
I would have already shut it off now, but we're having a thunderstorm and the humidity is plunging a bit in the next 1 1/2 or so. Maybe I can get a little of that drier air in the house before I button it up for the day.
Next 3 days will be the real test. High of 94, Low of 79. High of 98, low of 79. High of 93, low of 73.
After that, the highs all seem to be in the 80's with the lows in the 60s. I won't count on that until it happens though.
Oh... and the house has probably never smelled so nice. I'd imagine that there were parts of the house that haven't seen much if any airflow in decades that got all that fresh cool air.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Suppose to rain today. But pretty bright right now.
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It got down to 77 before I closed the windows for the day.
Starting the process of going through and organizing all of my tools so I can take an inventory and hopefully find those missing countersink parts. Won't be painting or mowing the lawn with all the rain we've had so far.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Basement is supposed to hold around 55 degrees. Unless it is exposed, not in dirt, the ground.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
78 degrees on the 2nd floor as I write this.
So... I didn't quite get down to an equal temperature outside. The low last night was 74 degrees a few hours ago, but only for that hour. Right now it's around 76 degrees. It might be impossible to get it completely even without any actual cooling forces at work. You've got to figure that there are heated up areas, particularly in the shell of the house that's exposed to the sun all day long, that are just not going to have all of the airflow necessary to cool off completely in the time between sundown and sun up.
Seeing a temp in the 70's is still amazing though, given how hot it was yesterday and how it didn't drop that low last night. I do believe that the next few days will be entirely manageable without A/C, even if they aren't 100% comfortable.
I actually woke up at some point in the middle of the night and with the box fan on me I was so chilly I had to pull up my blanket!
It was 85 degrees on the second floor at around 9:30PM when I first turned it on for the whole night. By that time, since I had already run it about 20 minutes earlier, the attic was already much cooler than it normally would have gotten until around 4:00AM. I figure that compared to my average night here without the new system in place, I got an extra 4 degrees of cooling on that 2nd floor thermostat than I would have in the livable space. The attic is just as cool now, which never happens. It's unknown how much effect this will have though.
My hope is, that overall, the temperature on the 2nd floor thermostat doesn't go over 83 today with the windows closed, even though it will get to 94 outside. Fingers crossed.
...
I would have already shut it off now, but we're having a thunderstorm and the humidity is plunging a bit in the next 1 1/2 or so. Maybe I can get a little of that drier air in the house before I button it up for the day.
Next 3 days will be the real test. High of 94, Low of 79. High of 98, low of 79. High of 93, low of 73.
After that, the highs all seem to be in the 80's with the lows in the 60s. I won't count on that until it happens though.
Oh... and the house has probably never smelled so nice. I'd imagine that there were parts of the house that haven't seen much if any airflow in decades that got all that fresh cool air.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
That IS your A/C, I'm thinking geothermal is the term, but I might be wrong there.
If you get your attic down to mid 70's, then 2nd floor should be up to 10 degrees cooler, and 1st floor another 10 degrees cooler. That runs out of scale on the thermometer, so it's likely closer to 75, 68, 61, 55. But you suck in humidity from outside, middle of the night.
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Little tired. Emptied some more boxes.
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SIX, that's great news about the attic fan! What you've done is install a "whole house fan" which does a great job pulling cool air from the outside and venting hot air out the top! One of these days I'm going to try something similar. Yes, we have AC and solar but the attic must be about 130 F up there during the day, and for sure it heats the ceiling and just radiates heat into the house. I'm really glad you got that figured out because I read somewhere that you're going thru a heat wave about now, right?
Quote:I stumbled on that a bit too, but was too busy to figure it out. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite IIRC NaClO. (sodium, chlorine, and oxygen) Ammonia is NH3 - nitrogen, hydrogen. Cyanide is HCN - hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen. You can't make cyanide out of bleach and ammonia because cyanide contains something that neither one contains (carbon). Since there's no source of carbon with the starting ingredients, cyanide can't be created.
You are trying to create cyanide by mixing bleach and ammonia.
*****
Hubby, dear daughter and I moved most of our big stuff back into the newly-painted, re-windowed bedroom and newly-cleaned bathroom. I bought some new shower fixtures for hubby ... he's been looking for that feeling of standing in a warm rain since whenever ... and fortunately the shower head and wand turned out exactly right. We unearthed a "Purple" mattress that I bought a while back ... we have both been looking for a mattress that we can BOTH sleep on and not wake up with an aching back (not enough support) and sore shoulders and hips (too hard), and so far this mattress works for both of us.
The next thing to do is move some metal shelving from the garage to the spot in the hallway and set it up as our "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but a place to hang keys, sun hat, dog leash, umbrellas and to set down purse, grocery bags, shoes, outgoing mail etc. It'll be great to have that all in one spot.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Did a little more. Ow!
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Basement is supposed to hold around 55 degrees. Unless it is exposed, not in dirt, the ground.
It's exposed, completely. Tri-level layout. Half of the house is a 2.5 foot tall dirt crawl space with a vapor barrier. It's definately cooler down there, but after a few days with temps near 100 degrees there's no way it's 55 degrees.
Quote:
That IS your A/C, I'm thinking geothermal is the term, but I might be wrong there.
Until yesterday, that's the only thing I had. And it didn't work good because of the tri-level layout.
Quote:
If you get your attic down to mid 70's, then 2nd floor should be up to 10 degrees cooler, and 1st floor another 10 degrees cooler. That runs out of scale on the thermometer, so it's likely closer to 75, 68, 61, 55. But you suck in humidity from outside, middle of the night.
I don't think you can go by anything with a typical house layout for a tri-level layout. Especially since the previous owners did things like put up drywall and carpet in the attic space to make it "livable" and there's hardly any insulation as a result.
Thermostat is on the 2nd floor at the top of the stairs. It read 78 degrees this morning, and the attic felt the same temperature until the sun came out in the afternoon.
I don't have thermometers up anywhere except for the thermostat since I can't find the one I was using during the winter after getting rid of a lot of stuff and moving stuff around. I need to find it.
But I'd guess at around 9AM when I closed the windows up it was 80 in the attic, 78 on the 2nd floor, 72 on the first floor and 66 in the basement.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, that's great news about the attic fan! What you've done is install a "whole house fan" which does a great job pulling cool air from the outside and venting hot air out the top! One of these days I'm going to try something similar. Yes, we have AC and solar but the attic must be about 130 F up there during the day, and for sure it heats the ceiling and just radiates heat into the house. I'm really glad you got that figured out because I read somewhere that you're going thru a heat wave about now, right?
Yeah. Pretty bad heat wave for a few more days. I think the high today was only around 90 because of the thunderstorm but the heat index reached over 100 degrees. 96 tomorrow and 98 on Saturday before it cools off again.
I was really looking forward to using it again tonight, but I don't think it would make any sense really. Last night did so well getting the temps down that even after being heated all day the house is still relitevly comfortable. It's even not half bad in the attic. So until 2 hours from now, the temperature outside isn't going to even be lower than what I'm reading on the first floor currently (81 degrees), and it's only dropping to 79 for an hour or two early this morning before rising again.
Other than just moving the air around, I don't think I'd be accomplishing anything tonight other than wasting energy and possibly bringing in more humidity than is already in the house.
So that leaves me starting tomorrow morning off 4 degrees warmer than I did this morning.
Not the end of the world though. Since the attic was cooled and never got super hot today, the total rise in temp was less than it usually would have been, on top of the fact that I was able to cool it in the living space about 5 degrees more than I would have without the fan. Starting the morning off at 81 isn't bad considering it would probably have been closer to 88 to 90 degrees in the house right now and probably would have only dropped to around 86 to 87 before I had to close them in the morning.
Temps look to be around the same tomorrow night, but I probably will have the fan on at least half of the night though since I will probably end up being around 86 to 87 by the end of the day tomorrow night.
I highly recommend a whole house fan. Especially if you can afford to have a professional do it that really knows what they're doing. I really just half-assed it here with very little knowledge and spare parts I had out in my garage. It's amazing. It's probably not super cost effective though the way I've got it set up. If you had a real pro job done you could probably have the same results by only needing to have the fan do the work during the cooliest 2 or so hours in the early morning instead of leaving a 20-30 year old furnace blower motor running for 11 hours straight.
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Hubby, dear daughter and I moved most of our big stuff back into the newly-painted, re-windowed bedroom and newly-cleaned bathroom. I bought some new shower fixtures for hubby ... he's been looking for that feeling of standing in a warm rain since whenever ... and fortunately the shower head and wand turned out exactly right. We unearthed a "Purple" mattress that I bought a while back ... we have both been looking for a mattress that we can BOTH sleep on and not wake up with an aching back (not enough support) and sore shoulders and hips (too hard), and so far this mattress works for both of us.
The next thing to do is move some metal shelving from the garage to the spot in the hallway and set it up as our "mud room" - not that we have a lot of mud, but a place to hang keys, sun hat, dog leash, umbrellas and to set down purse, grocery bags, shoes, outgoing mail etc. It'll be great to have that all in one spot.
Good to hear. It's nice when you start making your house work for you.
Bet you're kicking yourself for not doing
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Yuck...
It's 82 upstairs right now... It shouldn't be going up when the sun's been down for 4 hours already.
Thought about opening up the windows now and turning it back on just to get the airflow going, since weather.com says it's only 81 outside. But it also says it feels like 90 and they're not kidding with that humidity. I just stepped outside and it's like a sauna out there.
It's actually cooler in my attic right now than it is outside at 1AM.
The lowest "feels like" temp all night is 3 degrees warmer than it is on my 2nd floor right now.
Pretty safe to say the windows are staying closed until tomorrow night. I don't think I'll be needing the blanket again for a few nights.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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So, I have a lot of experience with heat and no AC. I know I get a lot of heat gain through the roof even though I have a 'cool roof' and it's helped quite a bit (I'd say ~15F cooler). But I also get a lot of heat gain through my sun-exposed south and west walls despite being well insulated. By around 3PM in summer, most of the west interior walls gets significantly warm to the touch. The exceptions are the west walls of the bathroom, and family room, which stay very nicely cool. And that's because a coast live oak (evergreen) tree
planted itself many years ago and is now a substantial source of wall shading. So shading the walls helps.
Some people here will take a porch roller shade, but instead of hanging it around a porch or patio
they'll hang it from an exterior wall overhang, to keep the sun off the walls. When I've seen it, it looks nice to me. A coworker did that with their house and said it helped the house stay cooler.
That's one of the things I'm going to work on soon, after I get the security/screen door installed on the side door, and the gopher out of my yard (which probably came off the wild hill across the street).
When it comes to daily heat cycles, even this far inland we often get an ocean breeze starting anywhere between 3PM and 6PM, for about an hour and a half. Sometimes it's earlier, sometimes later; sometimes cooler, sometimes not as cool; sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Still, it cools the house down as long as it's breezing and the windows are open. But when it stops, the temperature inside the house can go up as much as 10F because the structure itself is really warm. And that heat radiates in from the ceiling and the walls. The other thing I've noticed, like in this last heat wave where temps were always above 95F and never below 75F, is that the structure builds heat day by day. So every day the house starts out warmer, and fails to cool down quite as well compared to the previous day.
At some point I'm going to have at least an attic fan installed, but I'm hoping to have a solar one with battery and thermostat, to avoid having to run wiring.
Many years ago, when I was the newbie kid on the block and all the old people (like in their 80's) had been here at least 4 decades before me, I asked one of them what they did in the days before AC. (I was hoping for tips on livability.) And she said with a laugh - 'we just moved slower'.
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Yep. The rear of my house in the morning is probably where a lot of that heat comes from. I've got 4 large maples in the front of the house that don't do much good for my lawn, but make mowing the front much more enjoyable on a hot day than the back where there is zero cover on the lawn or house. The neighbors across the street all have large trees in their front yards too, so once about 2PM hits there really isn't much of an issue of direct sunlight on the house.
Fortunately for me, that's what happened yesterday or it could have been worse than it is. Thunderstorms all morning and clouds into the early afternoon. By the time the sun was out in full force my attic was shielded from it. So even though the "feels like" temperature was over 100 for around 5 hours yesterday, my attic never felt that hot after being able to really cool it off the night before.
I could probably stand to do something to my windows on my rear walls that is similar to what you're talking about on the porches. My current setup (more accurately my lack therof) is not doing me any favors. 2 of the 3 windows are not covered at all and just let the sunlight straight in during the first half of the day until the sun goes overhead. The third window has a black trashbag over it because I blocked out the sunlight totally in that room for sleeping during the day. I wonder what's worse? No cover or black cover that sucks in all the light and heat with it?
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When it comes to daily heat cycles, even this far inland we often get an ocean breeze starting anywhere between 3PM and 6PM, for about an hour and a half. Sometimes it's earlier, sometimes later; sometimes cooler, sometimes not as cool; sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Still, it cools the house down as long as it's breezing and the windows are open. But when it stops, the temperature inside the house can go up as much as 10F because the structure itself is really warm. And that heat radiates in from the ceiling and the walls. The other thing I've noticed, like in this last heat wave where temps were always above 95F and never below 75F, is that the structure builds heat day by day. So every day the house starts out warmer, and fails to cool down quite as well compared to the previous day.
Yeah... if there is no breeze overnight before I put this fan in, I was dead in the water. Almost zero cooldown overnight. But even when their is a breeze, it doesn't accomplish much. There's not enough windows, and the stupid tri-level floor plan leaves almost zero crossbreeze I could never even fit a box fan properly in any of the windows either, so there really wasn't any solutions.
What you explained about the house not ever cooling down as much at night is what I tried (and probably failed) to explain before. There's not much that can be done when it gets THIS hot, but even when we're talking highs in the high 80s or low 90's and lows at night around 65 to 72, I still was never able to cool the house so it was always just kind of miserable, and the effect was cumulative. Once it did get hot inside to where it was uncomfortable, it just kind of stayed that way until we had a week or so in the low 60's at night to start cooling it down again.
Without actual A/C, the next two days aren't going to be all that great, but it would have been a lot worse if I hadn't been able to do a real good cool down the first night I installed the thing. After this heatwave is done, I imagine, this new fan is going to feel like A/C for the rest of the summer if we don't have any more serious heat waves like this. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to seeing what this thing can do when we start getting back down in the low to mid 60's at night over the next week. :)
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At some point I'm going to have at least an attic fan installed, but I'm hoping to have a solar one with battery and thermostat, to avoid having to run wir
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Oh... BTW.
82 degrees in my house this morning at 9AM. It rose to 82 from 81 somewhere around midnight last night and has held steady there since. Outside temperature did dip to 79 for a few hours, but the "feels like" temperature never got below 88 degrees and the humidity was like a thick coat of fog, so I never put the fan on.
I'd imagine the house is going to get quite warm today with the high of 98 and the heat index pushing 110. With the same lows tonight, I won't get much reprieve, but I imagine I will be using the blower to at least vent out the attic since the inside temps in the living area probably won't be much different than the outside temps.
Just two more days to go of this crap and we're golden.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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86 degrees on the 2nd floor right now. Hotter in the attic, but not as bad as it usually would be after two days in the high 90's with heat indexes well over 100. If I hadn't cooled it off two nights ago, it would be 90+ on the second floor right now.
This is pushing well into uncomfortable territory now though. Took a little nap earlier today with the fan on me and woke up sweating.
I still can't open everything up yet. 84 degrees outside with the heat index at 93. I'm going to stay up a few more hours though and get it started for a while before i sleep. It won't be as much releif as that first night, but I should be able to cool it off somewhat before the last hot day and it will probably actually be more comfortable tomorrow than it was today as a result.
Can't really do shit in this weather. I did manage to bring down most of the stuff I had in the attic that wasn't newly packed into moving boxes so I could go through it and get rid of most of it. Just never got around to sorting through it. If I'm not directly in front of the fan I'm a sweaty mess.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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If I were you SIX I'd be tempted to be in the shower for the next 24 hours, yanno, take a pool floatie as a cushion and sleep in there with the water running!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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lol yeah...
I did take two showers yesterday. After that I really stopped doing anything because I didn't want to sweat up another storm and need to take a third one.
This would have been a lot worse without that fan though. It's been about 4 or 5 years since we had temps like this, but I remember seeing that thermostat on the 2nd floor hitting 99. I'm not sure if it actually shows 3 digits even, so it could have been hotter.
The hottest the temp has gotten since I put the new fan in is 86 tonight. I put the fan on and opened a few windows on the 1st floor about a half hour ago and it's down to 85 now. We're going to see 77 for a few hours this morning, so as long as I wake up early enough to close everything up at the right time, it shouldn't be bad in the house tomorrow. I started yesterday morning at 82 degrees already since I didn't even want to open the windows. Hopefully I start this morning out a few degrees lower than that.
It'll just be 12 more hours of the heat after that and then we've got highs in the 70's and lows in the low 60's for the next three nights after that.
86 really isn't bad. It wouldn't be so miserable right now if the gorram humidity wasn't close to 90%.
UPDATE: 6 minutes after I posted that and it's 84 now.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Found my old coffee pot. It is in pretty good condition. It can be donated.
Laundry day. Later peeps.
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Got it down to 82 by 8-9AM.
84 on the 2nd floor right now. 92 outside now. 109 outside with the heat index!
Not doing anything outside today.
By 8PM it will be cooler outside than it is on the second floor and this will all be over... at least for now.
Then it's back to work tomorrow. Nothing even close to the 90's predicted in the 15 day forecast.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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85 inside on the second floor now. 94 outside. Heat index at 107.
Only 4 more hours left and it drops to 82 and I get that fan going again. They've dropped the overnight low a few degrees to only 72, and the high tomorrow is only 77 with a low the following night of 67. Going down as low as only 60 on Monday night. :)
I'm pretty sure for most of the summer this fan will be more than adequate, and A/C isn't even necessary at regular temperatures of 90 degrees or below during the day as long as it gets into the low 70's at night.
If plans change and I decide to stick around in this house for a while, I might invest in a single room A/C unit that I could use to just pull out the humidity on bad stretches like we're having right now. I'm perfectly comfortable with 85-87 degree temperatures if the humidity is reasonable.
Currently, it's not though. The ceramic tiles on my basement floor have darkened grout because of the excess humidity, and I'm damn near breaking my cigarette machine and can't get a good roll because the tobacco gets too moist in the humid summer and keeps jamming up the machine. (Both of these happen every summer).
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Top shelf in storage room reorganized. Found some things which is good.
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Summer is in full swing here in SoCal.
At my place the high for the day was 86F, which is nicely cool compared to the previous AND upcoming hot spells. In the house is roughly 84F. The previous hot spell, the highs never got below 95F, and lows never got below 75F, with ~66% humidity. Then we got a nice 4 day break, today being the last day, with highs ~85F. The predicted high tomorrow is 93F, the 5 days after that are 95F and up, then 2 days at 94F, and then 92F.
Below 90F is OK, 90ish is bearable even though I slow down a lot, but over 95F completely halts me. From 85F to 90F goes from livable to manageable, from 90F to 95F goes from manageable to merely endurable. What a difference those measly 5F steps make!
In tune with the weather, my progress has been slower than I'd like, but I'm still getting things done day by day. My pattern is to start something, run into a problem that's been dogging me for years that I didn't have the time (and energy) to get to - derail myself and finally FIX the darn thing! - and then continue on where I left off. Aside from the weather, that's another thing that keeping me from making huge amounts of progress in a short amount of time.
But I'm also hiring people to get things done, like kill the darn gopher and install a screen/ security door in the side door. So that's a boost of progress, too.
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