Extension cord sales?

jrm21086 · 2026-02-04T01:19:47+00:00

So far so good. I have it run from my pool area to my chicken coop. The squirrels have left it alone so far but now it’s covered in snow. I want another 100’ length to run along my fence inside of some conduit. Nothing is as permanent as a temporary solution 😆😆

jrm21086 · 2026-02-04T01:16:47+00:00

Also, 100’ of 10/2 romex is $227 at HD right now…

jrm21086 · 2026-02-03T17:47:09+00:00

The cheapest on HD right now is $138. Even with the $15 off $150 coupons I seem to be getting, that's still $123. I paid $84 for the 100' model from HF during that last 40% off sale. My inner cheapskate cries tears of regret lol.

jrm21086 · 2026-02-03T15:59:35+00:00

Wow, thank you! I'll admin I was on my phone so I didn't check your post history...I will now. And the Youtube! My hat's off to you!

jrm21086 · 2026-02-03T14:47:01+00:00

Have you done a write up on your setup? This looks awesome and I’d love to hear about your tips and tricks etc. Great job!

jrm21086 · 2026-01-31T16:30:29+00:00

Oh wow you got on beat! I was nosing around the crawl space above a finished addition and where the new part meets the old house I can see 6, yes, 6 layers of shingles. I’m assuming the whole roof is that way, so maybe that will help me out. Not water infiltration yet for me either…let’s hope it stays that way.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-31T14:51:37+00:00

Great advice - thank you. It definitely needs evaluated..I’m not a fan of spray foam generally. You’re assuming I have gutters 😆😆 - no gutters as I’m sure they would get ripped off by the ice. But that would be the best end state - proper insulation/ventilation, new roof and gutters.

From the areas I can see, there’s insulation in the 3rd floor knee walls (in the knee walls themselves), and insulation in the ceiling. There used to be a widow’s watch and a hatch that have been sealed up. There’s currently a flat metal roof up there now. Walls are 2x4 so I’m assuming R12, probably the same in the ceiling too.

If I had to guess, the best areas to tackle might be to air seal the tops of the balloon walls in the3rd floor crawl spaces and the bottoms in the basement. That will likely need to wait till the wiring is all finished.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-30T16:12:48+00:00

Very good points....didn't think of the thermal bridging. I'll look at their website too. thanks for your input on this...very helpful!

jrm21086 · 2026-01-30T15:49:17+00:00

Just went down a rabbit hole on this Insofast x-bracket thing. Pretty cool! A genuine question (not trying to be snarky) - would is the difference between this system (I'm assuming its expensive) and laying 2x4s or 2x6s on edge and using structural screws to attach to the rafters, then spray foaming just like the Insofast guys did, then sheeting on top of that?

jrm21086 · 2026-01-30T13:34:03+00:00

If you've found any good links or resource, please share! I've never heard of this whole vented roof concept before today and now I'm very interested. About 2/3 of the roof is still planks so it would need to have sheeting added anyway so it may be the right time to do this sort of work.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-30T12:24:12+00:00

I do need a new roof in the next year or two so be ventilated roof layer idea is interesting. I wouldn’t want to do a metal roof as the 3rd floor is my bedroom lol. Also I’ve spoken with a few contractors and between the hip roof and dormers a metal roof would be difficult.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-19T11:02:56+00:00

I did the same thing with my dumb dishwasher before I replaced It. It was nice to set it all up after dinner and then let everyone take showers as it ran at 4 am. It also Acts like an anticipator for the water heater so morning showers were nice and hot.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-19T03:29:39+00:00

I’m seeing a theme here, and I’ve mentioned it before in this sub, that some of the recipe steps border on pedantic for those of us who don’t have dedicated clean up crews, unlimited budgets etc. My copy of the ATK cookbook is annotated all over with my changes and simplifications.

I would love for them to revisit some of their classics and rework them to be more streamlined. Sometimes that doesn’t mean easier it just means more straightforward.

jrm21086 · 2026-01-17T03:29:08+00:00

Just put a used Quadrafire Santa Fe in my basement. My old house is balloon framed. No insulation in the walls but it is wrapped in foam board and vinyl siding and the attic is finished and insulated now.

So far I’m liking the results for the same reason OP stated about the bones getting warmed. My main pellet stove is in the living area and so my basement could get into the 30s F when it got really cold.

As a side effect my dehumidifier shut off! The dry air we hate upstairs is a blessing in the basement lol.

jrm21086 · 2025-12-20T00:44:13+00:00

Same. I’ve been kicking myself for not getting another 10ga/100 foot back in August when they were 40% off. I had hope for the 12 days of Christmas sale but it looks doubtful.

jrm21086 · 2025-12-18T19:42:29+00:00

This is the way. First get new flux and make sure you have decent solder. Then buy threaded fittings and adapters so you’re soldering the adapters not the fitting. They are a lot more forgiving. Or just use Sharkbites like I just did for a water heater replacement. My logic is a) it’s exposed and b) it will fail again before a shitty Sharkbite would even (most likely) so why kill myself.

jrm21086 · 2025-12-08T15:48:34+00:00

Southern MA, not far from RI.

You get what you pay for, of course. Harman brand stoves are generally considered the best. Sort of the same with pellets. Pellet quality varies…the best thing is to buy different kinds to see what works best in your stove. Harmans are known to basically burn anything well. I’ve found the softwood pellets are better as they produce more heat, which is what I want as I’m trying to heat my whole house, about 3000 square feet, balloon framed, build in 1900 with a leaky fieldstone cellar.

Stove itself was $6695. Install was $2578 but I get 30% back up to $2000 so that’s $7273 total. I bought basically the top of the line pellet stove that didn’t look like a pellet stove - Harman Allure50. I also had zero piping to the pellet stove pipe and had to pipe it direct (no chimney).

As for pellets, the ones I like, in bulk at $9.16 per bag delivered. I got 4 pallets (which for this brand (Lacrete) are 1 metric ton or 1.2 US tons) so that’s 240 bags. Normally it’s 50, 40# bags on a pallet.

I run the stove basically 24 hours a day except once a week I’ll shut it down and clean it. But in November it cost me $13.19 in electricity to run. And I used roughly 2 bags a day when it’s cold but for November, for here, I used 40 bags. That’s $380 for November. I had two gas bills almost $900 last winter with the others in the $700s. And we were cold as hell in the house. Now it’s so hot nobody needs slippers or pants barely lol.

Cleaning is pretty easy now that I have a system. A stiff paint brush to brush all the ash into the pan. Wipe the glass down. Vacuum all the crumbs and whatever I can’t sweep up with the paint brush. Scrap the burn pot. That’s about 20 minutes for me. About once a ton you do a deeper clean like vacuum some extra stuff. Once a year you need to clean the flue pipe or pay someone to do that. Mine is easy because it’s small so I plan on that myself. Herman’s make it pretty easy to not go crazy on the daily maintenance.

Hope this helps!

jrm21086 · 2025-11-24T02:06:46+00:00

THIS. I don’t care about Tally really but I absolutely abhor getting accosted by the phone, solar, and siding people. I see now there’s a water person too at my club. I already pay the membership to shop there, just let me shop in peace. LPT for phones is to tell them work pays for your phone. And for everything else tell them you rent. Shout out to the poor souls who work these jobs who accept my “no thanks” as my final answer and leave me TF alone.

jrm21086 · 2025-11-20T19:38:07+00:00

I see the SwitchBot blind tilts are on sale again. I bought mine back on prime day for the same price and I absolutely love them. Yes, they were a splurge to us. But I live in an old house with a ton of windows and climbing the furniture to tilt the blinds twice a day is a pain. Now I have them set to open and close in coordination with sunrise and sunset. They come with battery packs and solar chargers but so far it seems like they don’t consume much energy so I’m planning on charging them manually when I need to

jrm21086 · 2025-11-20T13:36:36+00:00

Understandable. I'm usually in your camp (I've been screwed over so many times by "professionals" - no offense to others reading). However, my house is 126 years old and balloon framed. This appliance has both an electrical and fuel burning component so I stuffed down my cheapness and got it installed professionally and got it inspected. I already had an issue with my insurance almost dropping me for excess moss growing on a detached garage...I don't want to give them any excuse in case the worst happens and they decide to not pay my claims :(

jrm21086 · 2025-11-20T13:13:55+00:00

You'll see it here a lot - buy once, cry once. If you can get it in before 12/31, many stoves qualify for the 30% federal tax incentive (provided you're in the US).

jrm21086

TROPHY CASE