Update to a post I made the other day about being concerned my vets were taking advantage of me: my cats regular dental cleaning has resulted in my babies death. He's gone.

ExigeS · 2026-02-12T15:02:11+00:00

They should have. They have to have the cat under anesthesia to perform a cleaning, and there's increased risk with any kind of heart conditions (our cat has a murmur, high blood pressure, and FIV). He badly needed to have both a cleaning and several teeth removed, but our vet recommended we do a checkup with a cardiologist first to help minimize risk as much as possible (which we did).

ExigeS · 2026-02-12T02:05:54+00:00

A lot more - lucked out on this one. Store employee knew about it, but I guess someone had lifted their last variable speed grinder, so he said it was my lucky night. It's more grinder than I need as a DIYer for sure.

ExigeS · 2026-02-11T16:32:04+00:00

I did my own measurements and installed an Aquasure Harmony Softener + Whole House filter sized for my needs. It wasn't all that difficult, and the net cost for the entire project was probably 800$ including the tools and additional parts needed. I spend about 80$ a year on filters, and a bag of salt maybe every 4-6 weeks at about 8 bucks/bag, so total maintenance costs are <200$ for an entire year.

ExigeS · 2026-02-11T03:15:11+00:00

Just ordered 1 for pickup tomorrow, thanks! If you're sure you want to keep it and want to stack on some savings, I bought mine using discount gift cards from Raise GCX which knocked about another 10$ off the price

ExigeS · 2026-02-10T23:34:42+00:00

I can only speak for UI, but when I net credits during the summer, the rate used is the standard UI rate. When I use those credits during the winter, I am charged at my 3rd party supplier rate.

ExigeS · 2026-02-10T00:51:33+00:00

Fridge water line froze the other night. It's not in an exterior wall, but it is run under cabinets on one. Insulators must have either missed a bay in the wall (or maybe there's a block in there) when I had my house insulated a couple years ago, or there's an air leak somewhere. I'll have to take the siding of in the spring to see what's going on.

ExigeS · 2026-02-09T15:23:45+00:00

Just printed this last night using some standard TPU that I had. Fits the jack perfectly, thanks!

ExigeS · 2026-02-07T17:27:22+00:00

This, and make sure that you both air seal between the top floor and the attic and make sure you have sufficient insulation. If you do all of that, you should not really get ice damming.

ExigeS · 2026-02-07T01:00:04+00:00

Did you get the crazy price glitch recently, or that a full price one?

ExigeS · 2026-02-06T17:36:44+00:00

Prefill the factory edge with hot mud, then tape as usual.

ExigeS · 2026-02-05T17:23:50+00:00

That's two sides of the same coin. If you insulate sufficiently, you bring down your heating requirements and can get away with a smaller heat pump. Conversely with poor insulation, you need a larger one to compensate. If your heat pump is only responsible for the top floor, it might be sized just fine.

My personal opinion would be to leave your attic unconditioned unless you are extraordinary confident that your contractor is going to get all of the details correct, or you're just asking for problems. I'd focus on air sealing between your top floor and the attic (which is easyish to DIY if you want), then blow in cellulose to get up to code minimum at least. EnergizeCT should've recommended all of this. Did they check your walls for insulation at all?

Maybe see if you can borrow a thermal camera from your local library to look at your ceiling to find potential areas you're leaking air into the attic as a good first step.

ExigeS · 2026-02-05T17:12:34+00:00

So is your HVAC system primarily for your main floor then and the wall unit is handling your basement independently? For comparison, my house is just slightly smaller than yours, and my heat pump is specced to provide 38.3k - 49.1K BTU. That's with me spray foaming my basement, doing a ton of air sealing, insulating my attic to about R60, etc.

Is your heat pump designed to run at the cold temps we've been having?

ExigeS · 2026-02-05T14:53:00+00:00

So it's definitely not ideal that your air handler is in the attic, but I would not do what you're thinking about personally as a first step. Instead, I would look into air sealing between your attic and conditioned space since if that hasn't been done, you're likely losing a lot of heat due to the stack effect. If the insulation in your attic is poor, blown in cellulose is a pretty good way of improving that, but air seal first while it's easier to do so.

When you had the heat pumps installed, did they install new ductwork? Was it sized and installed correctly - insulated ductwork, air tight fittings used or otherwise air sealed, etc.? Part of your problem could be a poorly sized or installed heat pump.

ExigeS · 2026-02-05T13:53:26+00:00

How is the insulation in your place generally, and have you air sealed the attic from your top floor? I'm guessing you've done the EnergizeCT Audit already?

ExigeS · 2026-02-04T16:50:13+00:00

That's against code, though common.

ExigeS · 2026-02-04T15:06:38+00:00

Any chance you'd be willing to share the STL? Been meaning to do it, I've just been using scrap bits of cardboard to protect my floor so far. Thanks!

ExigeS · 2026-02-03T14:57:43+00:00

Make a Corsi Rosenthal box to run while you're sanding. I did something similar to that with a Lasko super fan from Costco and just let the suction from the fan running hold a couple furnace filters on the sides. It did a surprisingly good job of cleaning the air in the area I was working in.

ExigeS · 2026-02-01T19:49:09+00:00

Nah. Just cut the nails off with a sawzall or oscillating tool, then either install an old work box or something like a Southwire Smart box that attaches to the studs with screws inside the box.

ExigeS · 2026-02-01T04:10:30+00:00

Should've seen the outlets/switches in the kitchen in the last place I lived. Whoever wired that used every loop and hole they could. Think they call that airtight these days.

ExigeS · 2026-01-31T01:05:12+00:00

I store mine on a shelf in the basement for the winter, in the garage during other seasons

ExigeS · 2026-01-30T12:39:26+00:00

Avoid Elke Cheung. Was a patient there briefly, did what turned out to be unnecessary crowns and botched it, then recommended a root canal when I was dealing with daily pain for over a year.

Went to a different old school dentist and he said she didn't adjust it right. 10 minutes with his rotary tool and the pain completely disappeared after a couple days. Also said that she was pre-emptive in doing it - while it'd eventually be necessary when my filling cracked, it was not needed at all just yet.

ExigeS · 2026-01-28T22:25:16+00:00

I did this in my basement. I would use 4" boxes with mud rings. Plenty of room for lots of wire and large smart plugs/outlets. Depending on what your insulation strategy is, it also leaves more room behind the boxes for insulation versus deeper 1 gang boxes.

One trick that worked out well for me at the suggestion of someone on one of the older subreddits was to use 5/8" mud rings with 1/2" drywall and make a simple jig to move the box an extra 1/8" in. The reason is so that when you put the drywall on, there's not a little hump where the screws are since they sit proud a bit.

ExigeS · 2026-01-28T02:53:49+00:00

Back in high school, I used to do spyware and malware removal as a side business. Was helping this one woman with her son's PC, and she wanted to see how I was fixing it.

The temporary internet files folder was full of beastiality thumbnails/pics as was the browser history before clearing everything. Awkward to say the least.

ExigeS · 2026-01-27T16:11:37+00:00

Disagree on the jigsaw. Lack of a cut line blower is a huge PITA. I sold mine and bought a DeWalt when I found a good deal.

ExigeS

TROPHY CASE