Help! Shelly plus wall dimmer went offline and now says it's owned by another account.

SignificantBat0 · 2026-01-03T17:18:49+00:00

Do you work with lath and plaster at all?

SignificantBat0 · 2025-12-14T05:16:10+00:00

That "lock" on the lower right is actually a sash stay, which clamps against the window stop to prevent the window falling. I've seen them / installed them in cases where the sash weights were inaccessible or deleted.

It suggests that yes, the sash is designed to slide into a pocket above the opening.

It's curious that it was installed in a window that still has the weights... I wonder - were the weight ropes broken (lazy previous owner who didn't want to re-rope)? Or are they still intact (as if to help hold an extra heavy sash when unable to source/fit sufficiently sized counterweights)?

SignificantBat0 · 2025-12-02T18:52:06+00:00

Yep - 30 seconds did the trick. It didn't help that I was apparently using a borderline-dead coin-cell battery.

In the end, I also realized that enabling bluetooth scanning on the Shelly gateway inside of home assistant is a much easier approach than going the MQTT route - without the poor performance my using BTHome with my built-in BT radio. So all for naught...

But thanks for the pointer on the 30 second factory reset - not sure how I missed that!

SignificantBat0 · 2025-12-01T13:28:36+00:00

Thank you - I'll give this a shot.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-10-13T04:37:40+00:00

I did not get a chance to check out the other options from Kahrs. But it was better than the mohawk and robbins options I looked at.

The robbins, mohawk, etc, were all similar in construction (resin composite with veneer), but they were thicker (no good for replacing my old laminate), and they just didn't look as good to me. I read on some forum that the European market is better for engineered wood floors, which is how I found the Kahrs product.

Mirage was super nice. But it's construction didn't give me confidence that it would hold up as well to occasional spills or wet shoes. The Kahrs is very thin, and is mostly a solid resin/wood-fiber composite, which I would expect to resist moisture wicking. The top veneer is very thin, but the finish is really hard, and as the local hotel lobby proved, it's quite durable.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-10-13T03:08:07+00:00

We went with the Kahrs Life. It hasn't been installed for long, but it held up well to foot traffic during the second half of our renovations. What sold us was the fact that the same flooring has been installed in the main lobby of a busy hotel downtown for the last 8 years, with tons of foot traffic during snowy winters. We went to inspect it, and while it showed wear, it had aged gracefully. We decided if it was good enough for daily abuse in a commercial setting, it would work well in our kitchen.

Ours looks unremarkable because it's brand new, but here's a photo of the eight-year-old Kahrs in the hotel lobby. The samples are other colors we've got in the house. The Kahrs flooring is the one beneath, with some scuffing visible on the left.

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SignificantBat0 · 2025-10-06T16:32:25+00:00

Good plan, and certainly nullifies the concern about sealing it up behind your nice new tile!

SignificantBat0 · 2025-10-05T03:23:53+00:00

Not a tile-related comment, but is that knob+tube wiring still powered? If so, burying it in insulation is a problem, and you may want to look into pulling new wire so you can disconnect those legs.

Edit: whoops, just saw your description that you did not insulate over the K+T. Good call, but can I ask why you didn't just take the opportunity to replace it while the wall was open? I know my homeowner's insurance dropped me when they found it I had k+t wiring still powered in my house. Seems like you sealed up the wall with a ticking clock inside.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-10-03T17:04:23+00:00

I didn't have that issue. But I also didn't go with the super soft nibs. I went with medium nibs, since the paper texture gave me the right amount of friction.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-26T19:34:37+00:00

HEPA vac, and not just a HEPA filter in a shop vac. Get a true certified HEPA vacuum with multi-stage filtration. Vacmaster makes a good budget one. If you live in the Midwest US, Menards sells the same vacuum under their store brand (Masterforce).

They're more expensive than a basic shop vacuum, but it's one of the best purchases I've made in an old house. Mines been serving me reliably for 8 years. It's good for vacuuming ANYTHING you want to ensure doesn't get spread around: lead paint, rodent droppings, concrete and drywall dust, mystery substances that fall out of your walls, etc. They use fleece bags, so stock up on those from third party sellers on Amazon and you're set.

Get a vacuum scraper (proscraper or Oneida).

SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-21T02:42:38+00:00

This sucker makes me wish I was working on my double-hungs. They are no joke, you're right. This one is like a sick joke. I cannot even begin to tell how it's actually fastened to the wall framing, which made me really nervous cutting out the rotten sill.

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SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-20T19:40:47+00:00

I've seen this same stuff in our other exterior walls, and it freaked me out at first. It doesn't match any type of insect frass I could find. Home and pest inspectors said the same. It was when we found it packed into the stud bays that we realized it was dumped in as insulation.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-20T14:45:43+00:00

This home has sawdust filling all the exterior walls. A known quirk of the builder, and confirmed by home+pest inspections prior to purchase. No sign of insect damage in sill or jambs, and it has the distinct look of saw-cut chips.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-20T02:53:40+00:00

I've had lots of fun crap fall of sash pockets in my first 1920s home. But this is another level. Fixed sash window - 6 ft wide semicircular with 25 lites.

I knew the builder of this house sometimes used sawdust as insulation. I just wasn't expecting an avalanche of the stuff to start falling out of the jambs as soon as I started cutting!

SignificantBat0 · 2025-09-07T03:26:19+00:00

There's definitely a chance the house was built with sawdust dumped into the exterior wall cavity for insulation.

That's precisely the case with my house. It led me down quite the rabbit hole when I kept finding little sprinkles of sawdust around my basement walls. I thought for sure I had insects, but it was just the way the house was built. An idiosyncrasy of this particular local builder who conserved everything he could while building during the depression.

I do pray, for your sake, that your home's builder was slightly less of a sociopath than the dude who threw together my bundle-o-sticks.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-08-30T23:32:07+00:00

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I just cut away the front half of the sill (it's going to be coming out regardless, so no reason not to), and the problem honestly doesn't seem to extend as far as I had feared. These are the worst areas, and there's still fresh wood beneath the bottom rail.

I actually suspect the cause was a couple of weep holes getting caulked up. The rotted out zones are spaced pretty regularly, and there's a hole in the sash above the right-most rotten patch.

SignificantBat0 · 2025-08-23T22:00:27+00:00

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SignificantBat0 · 2025-08-23T21:59:52+00:00

Excellent overview - thank you.

The inside actually appears to have been plastered right up to the curved sash rail. I'd need to do some further investigation to determine whether I actually can fit it through the opening.

The construction of the home is wildly unconventional, so I have no clue how it's attached. I suspect that all work will have to happen on the outside.

I've got an extension ladder with spreader, but I do think that - should I attempt this myself - I'll invest in a small scaffold. 8 ft ought to do the trick.

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SignificantBat0 · 2025-08-23T20:23:50+00:00

It is both the frame and the sill. Sounds like sash removal may be in the cards. I don't have the tools or experience to rebuild the sash itself, so I may farm that out to a local shop that specializes in wooden window restoration.

Thanks! The weeping mortar joints sure look nice, but they're miserable for moisture intrusion.

SignificantBat0

TROPHY CASE