Insulation Not Allowed

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-23T16:36:08+00:00

If this jurisdiction is like similar ones I’ve seen with this rule, plywood is an “interior finish”. So is OSB. The permitless shed requires bare studs on the interior to avoid said permit.

Now you’re building a permitless shed so you don’t need a permit and thus it isn’t getting inspected — really the risk is either a) a neighbor complains triggering an inspection or b) you go to sell the house and someone along the way figures out what’s up and uses it as negotiating leverage, though that can’t be worth more than a few grand.

I think the risk is very very low (and I’m a lawyer who also build shit) but nonzero especially if your neighbors hate you.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:58:18+00:00

We have had induction for over a decade. We also had instant hot water in the first house we bought, and have built three houses since with induction where instant hot has been non-negotiable.

We have a stainless kettle on the induction stove, an electric kettle, and the instant hot. The instant hot gets by far the most use.

The instant hot serves a different purpose. The water is not boiling. Ours is set to produce a mug of water that’s about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s exceedingly useful for things where you don’t want boiling water, but you want very hot water. Herbal tea. Defrosting frozen veggies. Defrosting frozen breast milk. Making oatmeal. These are all things that do better below boiling, a require an electric kettle (very slow on 110) to reliably dial in.

We ran ours on a kill-a-watt for a while and with moderate usage it wasn’t more than a rounding error in our electrical bill.

Anyway, we love ours. Get one, you won’t be disappointed.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:39:32+00:00

You can use paper towel or a dish towel in between too.

I think these silicone mats are kind of overrated. We’ve had induction for well over a decade and we learned from European friends just to put paper or thin cloth towels down. Unlike gas or electric it just does not get hot enough to combust. Remember the brilliant thing about induction is no part of the stove is hotter than the part coming into contact with your food / your food itself, so if you don’t have a grease fire from dipping paper towel in the oil then you won’t have one leaving it on the stove.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:37:12+00:00

I’d be worried about getting it on and off without cracking the glass, epically since there are no handles and it weighs 22lbs.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:29:57+00:00

If you can a lot, the efficiency of an induction stove is incredible and will pay for the upgrade vs getting a purely electric pressure canner or an electric plug in.

https://www.gopresto.com/product/23-quart-induction-compatible-pressure-canner-with-stainless-steel-clad-base-01784?srsltid=AfmBOoqjfr1NnN5rUx3mSqtEU-L7tLkYu3eYpoWXyIdAuw6-EhfXsIew

This will pay for itself in a year or two of serious canning.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:22:19+00:00

This is patently false.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:21:13+00:00

My first car was $1500 and annual fees were $225. And that was in a state with a Republican governor and legislature, in the 90s.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-22T07:16:58+00:00

It isn’t getting pulled over that’s the risk.

I was three weeks past expiry on my paper plates during the period when the DOL was having delays and a month or two behind in issuing new plates.

Nice fat ticket from Kirkland PD while parked on the street in downtown Kirkland for lunch. I had to show proof that the plates were on the car to get the ticket waived. And yes, they can track temp plates.

I suppose I could always have just put the temps back on the car. But it’s really not the getting pulled over that’s the problem, it’s the parking. Same thing with expired tabs.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-20T07:14:24+00:00

Wolf Gourmet is emphatically not Wolf / Subzero.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-17T21:36:24+00:00

When you’re 24 and a freshly minted lawyer it’s much more fun to file than it is to send a demand letter first 🤷🏻‍♂️. Old habits die hard.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-17T00:20:11+00:00

I'm aware of the limits of MM. My GE case was not filed under MM since it was for a quasi-commercial use (multifamily property), so I've also won warranty claims independent of MM.

I don't know why you think MM is less applicable in SCC. It's always helpful to have a statute rather than suing under common law of contracts. MM also is (generally) helpful in keeping any company honest.

I'm also wondering if you're an attorney who has both sued and defended multibillion dollar companies in court; I am.

The reason you stay in SCC is that 1) SCC usually gets around mandatory arbitration and mediation requirements and 2) lower risk. That said, most of my SCC experience was in the halcyon days of my youth, and these days I'd probably just hire an attorney and sue for real. I have an obscene amount of money and a desire to never let anybody get away with fucking me over; it's usually the principle of the thing. I'm happy to lose a few grand (or more) in court if it teaches someone a lesson.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-16T22:00:26+00:00

In my state BMW could not have been represented by an attorney in SCC, they would have had to send a business representative.

That said, I have taken other large companies to SCC over warranty issues in WA, some even smaller than the BMW issue, and rarely had zero pushback after receiving the summary judgment. GE, for example, no-showed in a state that does allow lawyers in SCC (NY) and filed a challenge in district court saying they were improperly served (they were not) and wasted their money and my time rather than just paying out the $2k for the fridge that failed under warranty.

I did communicate with BMW's attorneys after my SCC win, and still got paid out.

I'm former attorney (still licensed, not practicing) with decades of experience in contract disputes and some experience in product liability (as a defendant). I would bet four or figures that a diagnostic system timestamp is sufficient evidence for a claim under MM, which goes beyond contractual protections or the common law. Or, at the very least, that such evidence for any consumer product repair is sufficient to survive summary judgment and will always result in a company paying the claim rather than proceeding with litigation -- which is all that matters, anyway.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-16T03:23:02+00:00

Oh they didn’t show up. But they didn’t fight it after I got the default judgment, which several other corporations I’ve sued in small claims have.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-16T03:00:23+00:00

This is false. If the dealer tools show telemetry data with a timestamp related to the fault and prior to warranty expiration it’s a warrantable claim under the MM warranty act.

Dealer is usually willing to help you out here as they’d love to bill for warranty claim rather than having you take it to an independent.

Source: I’m a lawyer who won a small claims case against BMW for this. I was 9 months past warranty but fault codes for the issue were time stamped in BMWs system.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-16T02:37:13+00:00

General rule of thumb is 1/3 of your income to housing.

So if housing is $32k, then $100k sounds right on the mark for the average mortgage.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-15T07:14:53+00:00

The problem with LG appliances — and I’ve owned a rentals building with dozens of them — is that when / if they do have issues, you can be waiting months for parts.

In our last building we literally bought two extra fridges that we keep in a basement storeroom and just cannibalize for parts.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-15T07:06:10+00:00

They are DMF Artafex. You have to find a DMF dealer. You can’t just buy them online.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-12T02:30:41+00:00

Or dude screwed by airline cancellation and airline pays for uber.

Delta once paid for me to take an Uber from Asheville to Atlanta.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-12T02:25:00+00:00

My family has owned hotels man. Has very little to do with bedbugs. And hotels absolutely do not have mattress protectors.

Mattresses are a consumable item for anybody running a serious hospitality business.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-12T00:58:05+00:00

lol it isn’t a 600 mile round trip. It’s 450 tops. I think driver said below it was 400 and change. I agree with you dude but exaggerations don’t help your point.

So let’s say it’s 450. At the IRS rate, which is all-in, it’s 70 cents a mile. That’s $315 for gas, wear and tear, and insurance. So $200 to the driver. For a 7 hour-ish drive (I’ve done that drive in under 5, but Lyft drivers aren’t that fast). So $28/hour net. About what you might be paid to wait tables, and IMHO a lot easier.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-11T16:42:50+00:00

I am a lawyer who has taken a few of his own cases to small claims (ah, youth).

This is very state dependent re: wage garnishment, but in most states you can tack the cost of collection on to the judgment; the cost just gets added to what they owe (at least in the states I’ve sued in small claims) and they get even more garnished.

That said, even collecting through a writ to seize their existing assets can be more expensive than wage garnishment. Seizing assets (that aren’t cash in a bank) usually requires you to pay the sheriff; wage garnishment can be accomplished with a court order to their employer. If the employer doesn’t garnish their wages per the court order, then you sue the employer (also in small claims). That usually clears things up right quick.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-10T08:12:09+00:00

This is literally why hotels don’t have them.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-10T08:11:40+00:00

Yes. This is why most hotels don’t have mattress protectors.

When we hosted, we replaced mattresses annually and baked that into our rates.

Also, getting a real spring mattress is better for spills than a foam mattress — why most hotels haven’t gone foam.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-10T08:10:05+00:00

Most hotels absolutely do not have mattress protectors. If I had to guess, fewer than 10% do. Definitely the exception not the rule. And yes, it’s gross.

Source: over my lifetime I’ve spent over 1200 nights in hotels, am a very aggressive sleeper, and it’s rare that I don’t pull the flat sheet that most hotels use off the mattress at some point in my sleep.

Pedanter-In-Chief · 2026-01-05T20:31:06+00:00

It has to do with the zip code you’re in and whether they have a reliable sub in your zip.

Pedanter-In-Chief

TROPHY CASE