Posts filed under 'Repairs and Maintenance'
My house is over a hundred years old, 108 to be exact. It’s settled a bit over the years, and seems to be still settling, ever-so-slightly. I’m a bit concerned about it, but most of my house-savvy friends tell me not to worry about it, the house is 100 years old and it’s only settled this far already… Because of all this settling, though, my front door has always been a bit sticky. In the past year or so, it’s apparently settled just enough to cross over from sticky to the top of the door not closing all the way.
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There are many electrical shortcomings in my duplex. Lucky for me, I have a friend who is an electrical engineer, and likes to work on houses. Of course, I don’t want to wear out my favors with him, but he’s started helping me with a few wiring projects here and there. I’m a bit sheepish when it comes to electricity (beyond installing new light fixtures, etc.), so it works out well for me.
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About a year ago, I was sprucing up my rental unit so that it would look more attractive to prospective renters (either it worked, or I really didn’t have to, because I found renters within a week).
One of the improvements I made was replacing the old outdated square pull-chain light fixtures.
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Last year, I spent $35 on what looked to be the best invention ever: the wall-mounted hose reel. It winds up the ridiculously long hose with a hand crank. genius. This frustration-saving device would prevent countless swearing fits throughout the summer. (And it did. It’s sooooooo much easier to use than winding up a hose by hand.)
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Turns out there’s more to the story about the duplex next door — A few days after I saw the older gentlemen curiously trimming the tree branches of their daughter’s purportedly “trashed” duplex, I came home from work to see the the front yard meticulously mowed, and sporting a new addition — a for sale sign.
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…Said the very wise plumber who visited my house last week. He said that the washer water coming up the sink drains was wholly unrelated to the catastrophic dripping (gushing) out of the bathtub hot water faucet, but that these things usually tend to go in threes. “Three? Hmm, this has only been two…” I replied, and then he quickly revised his opinion to “bad things happen in twos.”
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Ever since the plumbing catastrophe that happened last week, my bathtub hot water faucet has mysteriously developed a drip. Could be coincidence, but I think that it has something to do with the pressure of things being clogged, plunged, etc. I’ve been choosing to ignore the drip, as the fixtures on the bathtub are fairly old and difficult to work with.
Apparently the bathtub faucet wasn’t content with that, because this morning, the situation changed such that I COULDN’T ignore it — the faucet WOULDN’T SHUT OFF! (at all! hot water gushing full-stream out of the faucet, even when it was turned all the way off!)
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So, to recap the last post, I was minding my own business last night, when all of a sudden, I’ve got sudsy washer water coming up through both my kitchen and bathroom drains. It overflowed in the bathroom, and then refused to go down in either sink. I plunged away at them, but only managed to change the sudsy, clean-ish water into black gook. I panicked, I worried, I envisioned people having to install a whole new plumbing system in my house, and/or dig up my front yard… I called my only male friend in the neighborhood like 40 times (no answer, of course). I called the drain guy I’ve hired in the past, bracing myself for the worst…
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So, it’s Sunday night and I’m minding my own business, doing some laundry, potting a couple of plants, tidying up the house, getting ready for the week. When all of a sudden….
Water — sudsy water — from the washing machine starts coming up in my bathroom AND kitchen sinks! my bathroom sink actually overflowed before the water started going back down!
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If you’re like me, you’d rather not trouble your contractors with endless questions about how much things will cost. Granted, I’m sure that they hear plenty of “so, just ballpark-wise, how much would it cost to…” But I know that it’s difficult to give an accurate estimate without knowing a lot of the specifics of the job, and they don’t want to throw out a number that they’ll then feel held to. I’ve found a good online tool, however,that I use for a lot of theoretical “I wonder how much it would cost to…” ideas.
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As I began embarking upon my insulation project, it quickly became apparent why there was it hadn’t been modernized with insulation — a good share of the upstairs was still utilizing the old (original to the house, built in 1900) knob-and-tube wiring — which doesn’t necessarily mix well with insulation.
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When I bought my duplex in 2003, at had a brand new roof on it — the previous owner had put it on just before selling the duplex. I can guess why the roof was previously in disrepair — there was ZERO insulation in the attic. None, zip, zilch, zero. In the year 2003!!!!! Now, while this may not be a big deal in some parts of the country, where I live the temperature frequently dips below zero in the winter, and insulation is a pretty important thing — for keeping heating bills low, as well as keeping the roof in good shape. What did the lack of insulation have to do with the condition of the roof, you might ask? ICE DAMS…
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In my very humble opinion, self-stick vinyl tile is a very, very bad idea. Yes, it’s cheap, easy to install yourself (well, relatively easy, anyway) and comes in some decent-looking designs. But for a duplex, it just doesn’t hold up.
The previous owner of my duplex installed some of the self-stick stuff in my rental unit, in the kitchen and bathroom, right before selling the house. It made the house look nicer for the sale, and he, of course, wasn’t concerned about the longevity of his improvement.
However, exactly 12 months after the installation, I got a note from my tenants, saying that some of the tile had started to “flip up.”
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Perhaps my decision to purchase a coin-operated washer is coming back to bite me. I was out of town all weekend, and came back to a note on my door, saying that the coin slot on the washing machine was jammed, and wouldn’t turn on the washing machine, or pull out. The tenants said that they put in the correct amount of money (they had just gotten a new roll of quarters from the bank, even), and weren’t trying to pull anything (i.e. putting the quarters in pantyhose to pull them back out, or a similar trick like that).
The answer, curiously, had something to do with the exchange rate…
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Tonight I finally figured out what I was taking out of my departing tenants’ security deposits. Since I live in the duplex that I also rent out, I get to know my tenants quite well, and become friendly with them. Friendly enough that I feel guilty for not refunding their security deposits 100%. But I have to remind myself that I’m running a business here.
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