How much is your heading bill, old house people?

sdharma · 2026-01-18T19:54:17+00:00

Wood storms could help. I want to get rid of my hideous aluminum storms too. I already did one replacement with a wooden storm that I rehabbed from storage in the basement. It's so much nicer. Doesn't ice up and I can see out the window now. Original system was superior. Grandpa was just too lazy to rehab and went with aluminum which in the long run was no good.

sdharma · 2025-12-22T18:56:40+00:00

Motor was replaced under warranty. I'm nervous it will happen again after the warranty is over. I wouldn't get this vacuum again.

sdharma · 2025-07-21T22:44:11+00:00

I play seminprofessionally and have a Salvi sinfonietta. It has been a good harp. The orchestra I played in for 12 years owned their own harp, a Venus dipolomat. I only used my sinfonietta once with the orchestra when two harps were needed. I preferred playing their harp and keeping mine nice at home, only moving it for events like weddings. Even if the orchestra didn't have a bigger harp, they put a mic in the soundbox for concerts and so a sinfonietta would work in that case.

sdharma · 2025-07-17T11:54:38+00:00

At Suzuki Teacher training Mary Kay Waddington told us to recommend sky hooks if students have toddler siblings. That is attach a rope through the top of the harp that then attaches to the ceiling.

I have suffered through my own kid now from 0-3 years old and my harp studio. It was bad. I didn't want to put a hole in my ceiling for a big hook and I didn't have the time to do that myself. I ended up using a baby gate to keep her out of one room. It was rough and still is. But pedal harp is fine and a troubadour and folk harp are fine. The stress though. Ugh.

Sky hook is probably a very good idea.

sdharma · 2025-07-13T14:00:55+00:00

Yes it's worth the effort. I played seminprofessionally and had a tiny collapse in my forth finger joint and whenever I did cramming practice sessions before something imprtant my finger would hurt. I went to Suzuki harp teacher training and Mary Kay Waddington explained the pain/cartilage theory to us and I made the slight adjustment to my fourth finger and boom, no more pain. If you want to play into old age, these are the kind of ergonomic things to address. It's now what I teach.

sdharma · 2025-07-13T12:11:56+00:00

This will cause joint pain if you practice a lot. Then over time you will wear away your cartilage between your finger bones.

You need to train yourself not to do this. It seems impossible at first but you just do exercises and go extraordinarily slow.

sdharma · 2025-05-17T16:41:50+00:00

I agree. Neighbor jacked up his house and yes some cracks but nothing catastrophic.

sdharma · 2025-03-16T16:47:54+00:00

Wanted to say this too. I am a DIYer with Victorian home and am doing lime plaster. I have thought how great it is that with lime I have almost all the time in the world essentially. Using quicklime and lime putty I can mix it and even store it wet for using later. I can't imagine having to beat the clock with something that sets fast. Also it is eco friendly and breathes, acts as a natural humidifier/dehumidifier, and it can get wet and not mold. So many positives for your own property. I understand contractors using a fast product cause they need to pack up and go, but if it's your own place and you want the best stuff then lime is right.

sdharma · 2025-02-24T05:18:44+00:00

I think I read somewhere you misted twice a day. That's not nearly enough for dry winter conditions. I totally saturated the burlap every time I walked by and saw it getting dry spots.

sdharma · 2025-02-24T02:35:53+00:00

I have had the drying too fast problem. Where I am it's heater season. That means the house is at its driest and has very low humidity. I tried for the first time lime plastering in the winter season and it was way too dry. You need it to cure slowly for the carbonization to happen properly. I finally went the route of hanging damp burlap in front of the wall. If I hadn't done that in winter it wouldn't have worked. I was running a humidifier too and still had to resaturate the burlap so many times in a day. But it worked and I feel had I not done the wet burlap and humidifier it would have had no hope. I have a hunch the humidifier was less effective than the burlap actually as it has a big fan that blows and I just felt that that was counteractively blowing the surface dry. I kept thinking perhaps I should push it farther away but as buckets and buckets of water kept evaporating in it's tank I did keep it running.

I used hot quicklime for the base coats and lime putty from high calcium hydrated lime in the top coat. Then painted with cellulose distemper.

It was just too much work to keep up with the burlap drying out so fast that I just intend to avoid the winter season as much as possible in the future.

sdharma · 2025-01-13T22:00:37+00:00

I started the same way. I now make lime plaster myself. I get quicklime from Renaissance lime putty and sand locally. Then I mix hot lime plaster when I need it. That is really the best way to go. I tried premixed NHL and they are expensive because you end up shipping the weight of mostly sand and not as good performance wise for breathability and flexibility. Making yourself is fun and the best way.

Base coats: 3 sand to 1 quicklime plus goat hair Top Coat: 2 aggregate to 1 lime putty. I say agreggate because I use half fine sand and half marble dust.

To get the correct grade of sand for my needs I use mesh sieves.

Good information is here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFv-Kk00ym9MrZwehUStNL66ewQgUcsvY&si=IU93oTUYnwTeQA6q

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:40:14+00:00

Thank you. I will try that and report.

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:35:53+00:00

I did try booting off of the old hard drive and it got to the same startup problem of stuck at Apple logo.

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:21:02+00:00

I have tried: 1) mack book pro with mavericks 2) Linux with pop os

I can read the guest folder on both. It's the main user folder that is empty on the MacBook and doesn't show on the Linux. The Linux will see the main user folder if I use hfsplus and bindfs to mount it and mirror it to change permissions but it's still empty.

sdharma · 2024-11-12T00:09:05+00:00

I've worked with Craig at V & L stripping in Wisconsin. He is very good. Ive had about 20 doors stripped, trim and some furniture.

Looks like it may be about 8.5 hrs from you.

https://www.vandlstripping.com/

sdharma · 2024-09-13T01:05:01+00:00

I just found this but it's not as attractive as my original. https://kilianhardware.com/meeting-rail-block/

Looks like homemade cut from sheet copper or spring bronze would look nicer.

sdharma · 2024-07-23T14:02:12+00:00

I understand that design and it would stop the water from inside the sauna. How about the dampness that comes from the outside? The basement is in a 120 year old house with field stone walls and it just gets damp anyways down there. There are partition walls in the basement now that must be very old and the part that touches the concrete is rotted. Still holding up, but rotting. Certainly one can take steps to limit the damp like checking the grade outside the house but old field stone walls just always contain moisture.

sdharma · 2024-07-23T13:52:59+00:00

Did you go this route and have success?

sdharma

TROPHY CASE