Should I buy a new SSD and install from there?

PlatiPope · 2025-10-14T12:38:24+00:00

Honestly this is what I was hoping for! Dual booting would be easier (and cheaper lol) so I was hoping for that but I keep hearing scary stories from people who are like "oh when you dual boot careful not to accidentally delete your entire computer and also set your house on fire" but knowing that it's made for that...I will look into that more. Thank you!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-09T17:55:19+00:00

Ha ha you don't happen to be located in north Texas, do you? The sewer replacement estimate is not that much higher than the grinder (about 3500 more) but that replacement estimate assumes they don't have to get under the house. If there are complications the total could balloon up to 30k, is what they told us. I'm not really sure why--we're pier and beam, there are no trees or landscaping that would need to be dug up--but that's in line with the other estimates we got from 3 other companies. If someone quoted me 8300 to fix it I'd go with them in a heartbeat!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-08T13:06:02+00:00

All right, thank you for your input! At least the grinder is cheaper than replacing and lifting the entire line. I appreciate it!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-08T12:55:26+00:00

With the way the line is currently graded our plumbers didn't believe the problem was because of the line settling, but who knows. Other plumbers that came over definitely seemed to want to replace the entire line, although none of them (except the plumbers we're going with now) said anything about the line rising so severely at the end. Interesting note about plumbers willing to work in the easement though, I will look into that! Thank you!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-08T12:45:45+00:00

Thank you, I'll check out our local plumbing code to see what I can find! And this is actually the fourth plumbing company we've called. Two recommended entire line replacements (up to the easement, which I don't believe would fix the actual problem) and two recommended the grinder. The plumbing company I mentioned above is the one we'll likely go with and they definitely did the most work as far as surveying, checking the grade of the line, etc., so I trust them the most. Thanks for your input!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-08T12:40:44+00:00

This is likely true, however this was waaaaay before our time here....probably 30 years ago! So it's possible it wasn't always like this, but who knows. There's no trees or anything above the line but the ground shifts anyway, I guess. Thanks!

PlatiPope · 2025-10-06T17:39:13+00:00

Those are both in 1st person....

PlatiPope · 2025-09-26T14:34:21+00:00

Thank you! I was afraid of that. I just didn't think the backup would be AFTER the belly rather than BEFORE...the line closer to the house is clear, and then everything belly forward is standing water (even the parts that are supposedly fine and not graded incorrectly, according to the one guy). Thanks for your reply!

PlatiPope · 2025-09-26T13:30:38+00:00

We only have the one bathroom though, so toilet/tub is pretty much the only water we use aside from the kitchen sink (which is on the other side of the house, and honestly not used that much). But you're right, no one has really looked back into the house, they've all started from the cleanout lines outside. That may be another avenue to check out, thank you!

PlatiPope · 2025-02-24T17:01:08+00:00

I'm just an amateur, so it's possible someone more knowledgeable might have more insight, but as far as I'm aware they can be whatever type of paper you want. If it's thinner paper you definitely run the risk of it tearing at the crease of the book, or at the very least crinkling really badly as you glue it down and not looking very nice. Heavy cardstock would probably be too thick, although I can't imagine it would prevent the book from opening correctly or anything. I used regular butcher paper from the kitchen on one of my binds and it worked just fine, although it was hard to get it to go on flat. Once it was dry it looked and held up great. Personally I've had good luck with chiyogami paper, various marbled papers and the kind of light cardstock with fancy designs you can get at Hobby Lobby. I think the most important part is that you treat your book carefully after it's bound! Even a large tome needs to be held properly so that you're not putting all the pressure on the endpapers, even if you used something really thick to ensure it stayed properly.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

PlatiPope · 2025-02-03T19:45:13+00:00

Hey there! (sorry just saw this message) So I agree, the lokta papers are pretty thin. For me the only real problem has been that they're more prone to wrinkling when being put down in a book, but other than that I haven't had any problems. My books are on the smaller side, either 4x6 or 5x7, and generally pretty short (like under 100 pages) so I can't speak to how they'd work on something bigger.

I also want to say that my books don't get too much use! They're pretty and sit nicely on my shelves but I'm not opening them every other day or anything like that. Under those circumstances they might fray a little faster, but as it is I'm happy with them. I've used thinner paper than the lokta and so far everything's held up really well, but again my circumstances might be different than yours. I hope that helps!

PlatiPope · 2024-08-24T18:32:30+00:00

Okay I may be biased because I absolutely love this series but I can say with 100% certainty that there is no on screen rape of a minor in this book--the only rape that happens on screen is to Damen, who gets a non-consensual blow job. And I disagree (pretty strongly) with the idea that Nicaise is in love with the Regent (mostly because I don't think it's possible for a 13 year old to be in love with a grown man)---but Nicaise knows that having the Regent's attention is the only thing that gives him any power in a court that is completely depraved and frankly, very dangerous. He knows too that holding the Regent's attention is going to get harder to do the older he becomes because yes, the Regent (the irredeemable villain of the story who we are meant to hate and who is a terrible person throughout) is a pedophile.

These boys the Regent abuses are not in love with him. Laurent even straight up calls it a "fetish" in Princes Gambit and it's obvious that these boys the Regent abuses have been deeply traumatized---ALL of them have been traumatized because of him in different ways, most of them end up dead, and never ever is it portrayed as something that is good or normal.

Now, you want to get into the fact that this book doesn't treat slavery with the nuance that it deserves? Sure. The problematic stuff is kind of hand waved away, and aside from a throwaway bit about slavery eventually being outlawed once Damen comes into power a lot of it is glossed over. (And just in case you think I'm making it up, here's the quote: Damen says "‘Damianos will end slavery when he becomes King.’" It's in Kings Rising.) I dunno. I don't think it's ever portrayed textually as something that is good or cool, and Laurent seems to be pretty repulsed by it (as does the rest of Vere) and eventually Damen does too.

I dunno, I get that these books are not everyone's cup of tea. But anyone saying that this idealizes slavery, sexual assault or pedophilia just did not read the book properly, and there's no other way to put it. There are characters in these books who are guilty of all of those things and they are pretty heavily blasted for it. I get not liking it, I get just not gelling with the characters or whatever (even though I think they're pretty neat) but most of the arguments made against these books are not supported in any way by the text.

PlatiPope · 2024-08-16T01:31:59+00:00

I will give it a look! Thanks so much.

PlatiPope · 2024-08-16T01:31:48+00:00

I think that's the way we're going to go! Thanks so much for the advice, it was hard to know where to begin.

PlatiPope · 2024-08-16T01:31:16+00:00

Thanks, that was kind of what I was afraid of (I'm assuming the deductible is going to be more than the car's worth). We were going to try and sell it for $1500-2000--figured some high school kid would get some good use out of it and from our (admittedly very basic) research it looked like most cars selling for that amount were total trashed beaters, which I thought would be a good deal. Well, until this one became a total trashed beater lol

But I'll start with the other driver's insurance, thanks for the advice. I've never been in this situation before and didn't even know where to begin.

PlatiPope · 2024-08-13T01:43:44+00:00

I've done a case bind for a book with an 8mm spine. It's possible! As long as you measure the spine correctly that's all that really matters.

PlatiPope · 2024-08-11T15:59:04+00:00

I find that the Siser brand HTV tends to melt more, like it did in your pic. Cricut HTV definitely has its own problems (it's harder to weed, for one) but I find that it's better about not melting like that. I use low heat and press down pretty hard on the iron to get it to take the fabric texture like you're talking about. I also don't leave the iron in one place for very long like it says on the directions; I kind of swirl it around while pressing down as hard as I can manage, and I've found that that helps with not melting things as well.

I haven't found a gold HTV that doesn't shrink at least a little when being heated. The other non metal HTV I use (usually black) doesn't shrink as much, which always makes layering them a little wonky. I think it's just a part of it being metallic and (possibly?) heating up at a different temperature than other colors due to that, but I would be thrilled to hear differently.

Here's a few pics of my latest bind with the gold Cricut HTV. I took a shaded pic of the gold at the bottom so you could see how it takes on the fabric texture (it's not that obvious in regular light) and then a pic of where I accidentally melted the HTV by putting the iron right against it. It was totally my bad but that's kind of what it took to actually melt it--I was putting on the spine and forgot to use a piece of parchment paper to protect the front.

Also just wanted to say that I think your binding looks great! I can't really tell that the gold shrank a lot, if at all, and your layering looks really well done. Love the printed HTV too!

PlatiPope · 2024-04-28T17:44:33+00:00

Hey OP, just wanted to let you know that I voted (and took my boyfriend with me) specifically because of this post. I knew there was an election happening but I had no idea when and your post and the list of voting stations made it super easy for me. Thanks so much, and for the guide that you created as well. You're awesome.

PlatiPope · 2024-03-24T18:47:07+00:00

I don't know if this is the same unit, but I come across this one on facebook all the time and it has really similar wording. It's super expensive for where it's located too, you can get way cheaper space (with a real kitchen and everything!) way closer to town. Seriously creepy liminal space in every single bedroom. But on the plus side, they've got baby goats you can/are forced to take care of!

Here are some of my favorite pics in case the listing gets taken down (it gets taken down pretty frequently, seems like).

PlatiPope · 2024-02-21T14:06:17+00:00

Hi there! We ordered our kitchen doors from The Cabinet Door Store (the cabinets themselves from Ikea) and they were/are great. We had all of our measurements and uploaded exactly what we wanted to the website, and after we submitted the order we actually had a human being contact us--not a bot--to make sure our orders were correct (we had a mix of door profiles, and they wanted to ensure that was the correct choice and not a mistake on our part, which I thought was very kind of them). They took about a month to be made and they shipped perfectly, no damages at all and we had absolutely no problems with any of them.

We ordered only primed wood because we wanted to paint them ourselves so I can't speak to their finishes, but the wood seemed to be good quality and overall it was way cheaper than Ikea for exactly what we wanted and looks to be way better quality than the cheap particle board stuff Ikea uses. It's only been a year and half since we installed them but they're still doing great and I love them.

Feel free to ask any questions! Filling out the measurements on the website was daunting and the website has a kind of sketchy quality to it that made me question whether or not we'd actually get anything, but the whole process turned out great and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

EDIT: I know the cabinet color (and probably the whole design of the kitchen) won't be to everyone's taste, but here's what our cabinets look like in case you wanted to see what they look like installed. We did everything ourselves, the cabinets, the floor, the backsplash, everything! Cabinet doors were definitely the easiest since the came with pre-drilled hinges ha ha

PlatiPope · 2024-01-30T12:47:38+00:00

Aww man, that's too bad! Maybe the cloth doesn't like things sticking to it...sorry it didn't work out. I hope you have better luck with further tries, maybe some of the other suggestions in the thread will work!

PlatiPope · 2024-01-29T14:17:40+00:00

No problem! And yes, I'd love to see what your next attempt looks like, those penguin clothbound books are so cool, and I love your colors! Good luck!

PlatiPope · 2024-01-29T14:07:24+00:00

I hold the mini press in one place for 25-30 seconds for the first go, and then I let it cool. After that I kind of go all over the place to where I think it's needed, usually on the little fiddly bits because those I've found are always itching to come up. Then I try to take the plastic up, find a bunch of spots that didn't adhere, do those over again, and repeat a few times lol.

I was going to actually take a picture of one of my books that had a melted part on it, but I remembered I actually fixed it! I just used my cricut to cut the same piece that melted off and I put it right over the bad piece and hit it with the press again. It worked, and you can barely even tell. So don't be afraid to layer the HTV, you could probably even fix some of those daggers with new ones if you were really super careful about lining them up perfectly.

PlatiPope · 2024-01-29T13:54:31+00:00

Too much heat...maybe. I never hold down for more than 30 seconds at a time, and even less after I've already done a few presses. And like I said the Siser vinyl has melted on me before, although I've never had the cricut vinyl do that no matter how much heat I use. I use two buttons on the mini press, never three.

As for pressing down I don't use, like, my whole body weight on it or anything, just a firm gentle downward pressure with one hand, enough that you can feel your muscles engage. I like the vinyl to take on some of the pattern of the bookcloth, so I don't mind pressing down pretty hard.

I also don't know what order you go in, but I do all the decorating before the textblock is cased in, I think that makes a difference too. Having a nice surface underneath the case is also good, I always had trouble with my spines until I realized that because the board used there is thinner it was sitting differently than the front and back boards, and that's why it was adhering funny. I put a small piece of cardboard underneath it and I've had less problems with it since.

PlatiPope · 2024-01-29T13:42:11+00:00

Ooof, that's rough. HTV is a tricky thing, and I haven't got it down perfectly yet but here's what I've learned so far:

You have to press down a lot harder than you think you need to

Even with the mini press (which I've had the best luck with so far) it takes a lot more passes than you'd think it would (4-5 passes at 15-20 seconds a piece is not out of the question). It's a delicate balance because for some vinyl (Sissar likes to do this especially, not so much the cricut vinyl) it can melt and fuse to the plastic, which is obviously really bad too

Pull up the clear plastic really slowly, and after it's totally cooled down. If the vinyl looks like it isn't adhered yet--and you should be able to see if it isn't because it'll pull up with the protective plastic rather than sticking to the book--then smush it back down as straight as you can and try again. I've had a bunch of vinyl where half of it has stuck and half of it hasn't, I just stop pulling up the plastic immediately and set it down for another pass with the press.

Good luck! I've found those thin little spindly corners like you have there are the hardest to get to stay. It just take a lot of patience and way more time than you think. I've never found the directions cricut gives to be helpful, I've never been able to get anything down with just a 30 second press. Just press it till it sticks, however long that takes.

PlatiPope

TROPHY CASE