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phdhorn

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Everything posted by phdhorn

  1. The only thing that might save us from "west side burnout" is that the circulation isn't that strong so it might not funnel a lot of hot air. Predicted highs haven't changed much from their numbers earlier this week.
  2. 1. gas. Get ceramic logs. We did it this year and man that fireplace is hotter than anything wood could produce. Plus you don't have to mess with cutting wood, storing it, having Black Widows nest in it outside, etc. Best thing I ever did in home improvement. 2. Solid wood cabinets. They'll last and cheap stuff will wear out badly. Pulls are completely aesthetic. 3. Gas/think about convection burners as well. Microwave in wall is good but could be problems re-mounting replacement if not exact dimensions. 4. Not a big concern.. too much prewiring = "we shouldn't done that...." later on IMHO. 5. Steel wears better than brass. Other than that, completely aesthetic. 6. We're tossing wood and vinyl and going for staining the concrete, and area rugs. Wood eventually yellows and despite what their manufacturers claim, so does just about everything else resembling wood. Concrete keeps house much cooler in summer, easy to warm w/rugs in winter. Only caveat: little kids under 2 might be a hazard if they fall. 7. We just put in triple-paned EnergyOne Windows. Not cheap ($14K) but they do an amazing, no amazing job of keeping house warm (winter) and cool (summer). Our windows are lifetime warranty so I don't much care what the material is, but I think it's a composite vinyl. The glass is >>> important than the framing IMHO. Pella/Andersen, etc. not much bang for the buck. Addenda: 1. Low hearth in fireplace. It makes the room look and feel bigger and I never liked those "sit on a ledge" type hearths. Ours is only 1 brick high but it's nice. 2. Moulding at least 2" on bottom, it looks nice. Ceiling - meh, up to you, never thought it added much. 3. Propane - 1,000 gal tank? Are you preparing for the next Ice Age? How big is your house? We have a 250 and only fill it about 2X per year. I guess you could have that huge mother buried in the yard but man that's a lot for a house that's not a brothel. I can't imagine a scenario, unless last Feb. 12th-19th runs all winter next year, that you're going to need a tank that big. But if you want it and can afford it, no harm done. 4. Double - no, triple - planned storage space. I mean it. Really. It's far too little, trust me. 5. Likewise, make garage bigger than you'd think. I'd tack on 6' to all sides if you can spare the $. It's very easy to underestimate the dimensions for this.
  3. In case anyone's wondering, the highest achievable temp possible according to current physics calculation is 2,556,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, about what DKR is during a game on Sept. 2 or so.
  4. I appreciate the fact that we wrested the highest temp ever recorded from those lying Libyans and they had to punt their 136° hottest ever temp about 5 years ago. Take that, bitches. So... moral of the story... Death Valley can get a bit toasty in the summer?
  5. Uh, that's bullshit. They've had to call in help from state and other local resources, and did Saturday night. Yeah, they were pretty well staffed down there, but it took some calling and moving around and a lot of patchwork. and... https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-police-staffing-takes-center-stage-after-6th-street-mass-shooting/ They had a good amount of help down there as it's a priority but don't think (or spread the crap) that everything's hunky-dory and there are plenty of cops to go around. They're already straining overtime resources twice as fast as they did even a year ago. Yeah they've always had other forces spell APD down there, it's not a new thing, but the cost and amount of help has gone way up since people are back out there. And their budget cuts absolutely did dilute some of the corps (e.g. horseback officers pared a lot) that normally work down there. They're overextended and defunded - and it's costing much more to pay others to do what APD used to do themselves. Brat is absolutely correct.
  6. Did a complete house replacement over 3 years. $14K but they're like triple-quadruple paned and good for the life of the universe or whatever. And they were "on sale". But you know what? I don't have to worry about windows ever again and they do a tremendous job of blocking out temperature extremes.
  7. Be sure to put ice water in your tires.
  8. Well, if it did, it was buried within the general stench of the Mid-Atlantic coast poorz-middles, so we were well-represented. Only the rich bastards in Montgomery County had A/C. I mean A/C was for millionaires who pulled down like $40K per year. The rest of us had those awful built-in ceiling fans - they blew air in from the house to the attic, making it hotter of course. CHV = Cheverly, right (not ChCh)? Man that place was downhill when I left 3 decades ago, but wouldn't surprise me it's had a Renaissance or two since then.
  9. Yeah, growing up there, it makes sense. One of the sweatiest places in the U.S. in the summer. How in god's name did I grow up without A/C there (C.P.)?
  10. This is more or less true if the A/C doesn't run long enough. Many people think well if it's on for 5-6 minutes "only" that's good, y'know because it only works for a short time a pop. But it's not because it needs a longer run to dehumidify, and the first 1-2 minutes of any A/C activation is "catching up" (i.e. blowing out slightly warmer and more humid air as it's sat in the duct heating up and getting less dry). You should time your A/C to run a good 10-15 minute spell at least per cycle (I know most people's run a lot longer than that, which is good-up to a point). Of course it gets pretty dry in ATX by the end of June, but lower humidity = higher temp settings to feel comfortable, so even if it's not raking moisture out of Hawaiian-level humidity, it's doing a job. People also sometimes overbuy new A/C's. It's not supposed to be a 6-ton beast that turns things to ice after 10 minutes. It should need to work a bit to perform the dehumidifying and room balance temps. We'll probably buy a new one next year and our A/C guy said a 4-ton working a bit harder might be better than a 5-ton which doesn't. But we can probably get either.
  11. Probably, but don't let it get out. Well, for the better part of the last 10 years nobody has been here almost all day so it's kind of a waste to have it on 72. We turn it down to 77 in the evening after about 8 or so. It's how we roll around here. I happen to live across the street from one of the highest rated A/C guys in Austin, he came over, opened up the unit, tweaked a few things, and it started working like a dream. I'm going to pay him in a case of beer, he didn't want money. Back in the saddle again...
  12. Death Valley is looking at 125°-126° tomorrow. But it's not the heat, it's the humidity. So don't worry about it.
  13. ... and my A/C went out this afternoon. Fortunately our house has great insulation and it'll probably peak about 85° in here. We keep it at 80° anyway so not the worst thing... but tonight I'm sure I'll have just a lovely, peaceful, sweat-free sleep. Yeah, that's the ticket.
  14. I think the "logic" here is if Calis turn the state into theirs, things will be so fucking bad in every aspect inaginable that no one will mind the mere lack of energy. Bold strategy, Cotton!
  15. Yep, he sure did. They took this out of his wallet after the arrest:
  16. This is just a weird story all around as to how it's playing out. 13 people shot and the prime local coverage (TV news) was about 5-6 mins. max at first. The follow-up local stories were a little longer yesterday, about 8-10 minutes, but some of that was auxiliary stuff (tangentially-related stories). It's diminished on the local buttwipe page to barely a lead story. Part of it is that this is just reduced to an elevated bar fight between (apparently) two dildos with pistols too stupid to barely breathe, but man the facts on this thing are moving slower than a Greg Davis offense. WTF?
  17. ... so, ten full hours after the arrest, we still don't know who the suspect is? Cockfighting has more dignity than what passes as "journalism" (journalism... what a joke, lol!!!) today.
  18. Now this makes sense. They couldn't hit shit from point blank range.
  19. Unfortunately, they can't release that info because it might stereotype armed felons as dangerous and that would be harmful to them. <I'm still laughing at that quote. Kirk Bohls must now be on city beat>.
  20. ..."And you're a horrible shot!"
  21. I laughed out loud when I read this. I thought it was from The Onion.
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